Oh, dear! The system is not working right. I was testing out some overclocking, and it's no longer working. I was trying to overclock the system. Did I push it too fast? I unlocked my triple core and enabled the 4th core. Could the core that was disabled by the manufacturer be causing my problems? Possibly!
Back in 2011 I bought this motherboard new. My motherboard used an 880 series chipset, I could have chosen a motherboard with the 890 series chipset. So now in late 2014 both of these chipsets are no longer used- but the 880/890 are the last to have the floppy support that I insist on having in Stimpy! So on with the research at Overclock.net and other places. I definitely wanted AM3+ processor support, not just the AM3 that my current board supports.
This time, I decided to forgo the built in video on the motherboard. The Hybrid Crossfire performance couldn't live up to its hype! I did want to stick with the Gigabyte family. So it was down to a top end 890FX chipset, either the GA-890FXA-UD5 or the GA-890FXA-UD7. After some research on the Owners Club thread at OCN (Overclock.net) I ruled out the 'king of the hill' UD7. It's a larger, extended length board that probably won't fit in my case. And the BIOS support is lacking, it was quickly apparent that some OCN members were not happy with it.
So the search began on eBay for a GA-890FXA-UD5 Rev 3.1 board with the black AM3+ socket.
Back in 2011 I bought this motherboard new. My motherboard used an 880 series chipset, I could have chosen a motherboard with the 890 series chipset. So now in late 2014 both of these chipsets are no longer used- but the 880/890 are the last to have the floppy support that I insist on having in Stimpy! So on with the research at Overclock.net and other places. I definitely wanted AM3+ processor support, not just the AM3 that my current board supports.
This time, I decided to forgo the built in video on the motherboard. The Hybrid Crossfire performance couldn't live up to its hype! I did want to stick with the Gigabyte family. So it was down to a top end 890FX chipset, either the GA-890FXA-UD5 or the GA-890FXA-UD7. After some research on the Owners Club thread at OCN (Overclock.net) I ruled out the 'king of the hill' UD7. It's a larger, extended length board that probably won't fit in my case. And the BIOS support is lacking, it was quickly apparent that some OCN members were not happy with it.
So the search began on eBay for a GA-890FXA-UD5 Rev 3.1 board with the black AM3+ socket.
So now in January 2015 my prize arrived! Same DDR3 memory, same SATA2 and SATA3 ports. Floppy connector is now moved next to the power and IDE connectors. There's a bonus LPT Parallel port connector next to the COM Serial port. And improved cooling on the VRMs and south bridge chipset, you might notice a heat pipe connecting the heatsinks.
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Gone were the VGA/DVI/HDMI ports (3 ports, but only 2 could be used at the same time: VGA and HDMI or DVI), but now in its place are 2 eSATA ports, with USB power! Not just one 1394a Firewire port but a second mini-Firewire port as well. Even a second gigabit Ethernet port! And a copper/coaxial SPDIF port joins the optical port.
Not much room left to add anything else! To add even more to the cool bling factor are the illuminated power/reset/CMOS clear switches. Perfect for those times where you're working inside the case and you don't want to reach around to find the power switch. 
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Now instead of moving a jumper on the motherboard to reset or clear the CMOS, just pop off the protective plastic cover and press the switch.
I decided to take the purple heatsinks off of the old motherboard and cover up/dress up the new one. I also transferred my north bridge cooling fan to this motherboard as well. The passive cooling can use the assistance. |
