![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
A year and two ago when I considered mobo/CPU/RAM upgrades, I figured I'd go with the 2500K. It's always been close to or at my price point. I recently discovered that the FX-8150 can be had for $190. That's sweet! I can't say the benchmarks declare it equal to the 2500K but I'd say that now it's fairly priced considering how much the 2500K costs and the performance differences.
Gigabyte has been my go-to brand for motherboards for quite a few years now. I've built several friends and family members computers over those years and always gave them Gigabyte boards. I have zero complaints or bad stories about them. Because of that, I put the GA-990FXA-UD3 in my wish list by default. But the review here is a huge let-down! Should I ignore the review? The ASUS Crosshair looks outstanding but it's $100 more than what I normally get. Should I be looking at the Sabertooth line? Even those stretch my money slightly. I remember long ago that downloading drivers from ASUS was a drag due to the slow speed. I mean, just browsing the site back then was super slow. Has this changed? Also, the last ASUS boards I used were more sensitive to hardware and drivers. It has been refreshing that the Gigabyte boards are reliable. $124 after MIR is a great price for the GA-990FXA-UD3. Is it too good?
What are my needs? I'd like to have the 990FX chipset since I assume that's the fastest compatible one for the FX-8150. I'd like to have two PCI X16 2.0 slots but I only use one video card right now. I want USB 3.0. I want RAID 0 and SATA 3. My requirements aren't real steep. I overclock sometimes but I've never been able to get it stable for longer than a month or two. Oh, I use a Corsair A50. I can't tell if it would fit on the Sabertooth.
All that said, should I ignore the bad review of the GA-990FXA-UD3 or switch armies and give ASUS another shot after all these years?
EDIT: There is one glitch related to my current board that's really my own fault. I upgraded the firmware for my drives recently when the Gigabyte site urged not to unless I had problems. I wasn't having problems but I am always drawn to the latest version of any kind of software or driver update. I shouldn't have done it. When my computer starts up from a cold boot, it won't detect the RAID group. It basically won't detect the device at all. The only option I have at the black and white screen is to push Enter. When I do, the system reboots and everything works normally. This happens 100% of the time from cold boots. I can put the computer to sleep or reboot it and it is fine. It's like the RAID controller boots up slower than the rest of the computer now. Anyway, I felt like I had to disclose that since I earlier said I had zero issues with any Gigabyte boards.
Gigabyte has been my go-to brand for motherboards for quite a few years now. I've built several friends and family members computers over those years and always gave them Gigabyte boards. I have zero complaints or bad stories about them. Because of that, I put the GA-990FXA-UD3 in my wish list by default. But the review here is a huge let-down! Should I ignore the review? The ASUS Crosshair looks outstanding but it's $100 more than what I normally get. Should I be looking at the Sabertooth line? Even those stretch my money slightly. I remember long ago that downloading drivers from ASUS was a drag due to the slow speed. I mean, just browsing the site back then was super slow. Has this changed? Also, the last ASUS boards I used were more sensitive to hardware and drivers. It has been refreshing that the Gigabyte boards are reliable. $124 after MIR is a great price for the GA-990FXA-UD3. Is it too good?
What are my needs? I'd like to have the 990FX chipset since I assume that's the fastest compatible one for the FX-8150. I'd like to have two PCI X16 2.0 slots but I only use one video card right now. I want USB 3.0. I want RAID 0 and SATA 3. My requirements aren't real steep. I overclock sometimes but I've never been able to get it stable for longer than a month or two. Oh, I use a Corsair A50. I can't tell if it would fit on the Sabertooth.
All that said, should I ignore the bad review of the GA-990FXA-UD3 or switch armies and give ASUS another shot after all these years?
EDIT: There is one glitch related to my current board that's really my own fault. I upgraded the firmware for my drives recently when the Gigabyte site urged not to unless I had problems. I wasn't having problems but I am always drawn to the latest version of any kind of software or driver update. I shouldn't have done it. When my computer starts up from a cold boot, it won't detect the RAID group. It basically won't detect the device at all. The only option I have at the black and white screen is to push Enter. When I do, the system reboots and everything works normally. This happens 100% of the time from cold boots. I can put the computer to sleep or reboot it and it is fine. It's like the RAID controller boots up slower than the rest of the computer now. Anyway, I felt like I had to disclose that since I earlier said I had zero issues with any Gigabyte boards.
Last edited:
For example, the Core i5 2500K is only $160.
![Zarathustra[H]](https://cdn.hardforum.com/data/avatars/m/9/9298.jpg?1714700655){kind=avatar}