ASUS M5A99X EVO compared to M5A97 EVO

JimmyD

United States67 Posts

July 28 2011 04:31 GMT

Alright, well, I'm upgrading to an AM3+ build soon, and I was wondering which board would be better. Here's the final build I plan to do with one of these boards:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 5850
HSF: Thermaltake SpinQ
RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 1333MHz 8GB
HDD: Seagate 7200RPM 500GB SATA 6.0Gbps
PSU: NZXT Hale90 650W 80+ Gold rating
Case: BitFenix Survivor

I'm torn between the two because of the price difference, with few things being different.
I plan on upgrading over time (getting a Bulldozer CPU, different GPUs, etc.).

What do you guys think?

Links to two motherboards:
M5A97 EVO
M5A99X EVO

Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

July 28 2011 04:42 GMT

You already have the Phenom II X6 1100T and everything else above?

I don't see a compelling reason for the M5A99X EVO since it looks like the main selling point over the M5A97 EVO is SLI support. Though actually, I'd just get the normal M5A97 unless you need the FireWire or whatever else is on the M5A97 EVO, or are looking to push some pretty high overclocks.

JimmyD

United States67 Posts

July 28 2011 05:08 GMT

Well, I'm getting the EVO for the fact of USB 3.0. And no, I only have the GPU, HSF and Case so far, ordered the RAM, and getting PSU soon. The only reason I'm not waiting for Bulldozer is the extra 100$ for the CPU I wanted in the opening Bulldozer line. (FX-8100)

Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

July 28 2011 07:36 GMT

Normal M5A97 has two USB3 ports in the back, but I guess you were talking about front panel USB3 headers. Anyway, if you're really getting the 8 core and overclocking that, the EVO is probably worth the extra then, regardless of other features.

Not to be patronizing, but I just want to check to make sure you really have urgent need of all those cores, for the Phenom II X6 and then the FX-8100, because you'll be sacrificing a lot of money and getting worse single-threaded and gaming performance compared to an i5-2500k.

About the power supply, I guess the plan is for future Crossfire or SLI? Are you picking the Hale90 for performance or for the white color? I ask because internally the Sentey Golden Steel Power 650W is exactly the same, and it's selling for $113, which is generally less than the NZXT Hale90 650W:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817322009

It's the same Super Flower Golden Green platform also in the Kingwin Lazer Gold and Rosewil Lightning.

JimmyD

United States67 Posts

July 28 2011 12:30 GMT

Well, I'm probably staying stock speeds for a while, probably only going turbo on my 1100T, and the CPU upgrade will probably be much later down the road, probably with Enhanced Bulldozer instead of opening Bulldozer.

I plan on doing CPU folding with the cores, and stopping the current bottleneck I have on my GPU with the Phenom X4 9750.

The reason I'm getting the PSU is because I'm trading a Q8400 I'm getting from a friend for that PSU and a 30GB SSD from another friend.

JimmyD

United States67 Posts

July 28 2011 15:25 GMT

Update: Well, friend backed out of the trade, as he's using the PSU now because his old one died. So I'm now going to be getting the HX650, which fits all my needs. Still undecided on the motherboard though! I might just get the 990X because of the nicer looking I/O shield...

Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

July 28 2011 17:08 GMT

HX650 is typically overpriced a bit if you buy at retail, but I guess the main competitors: Antec TruePower New 650W and XFX XXX Edition 650W are hard to find these days (all three are by Seasonic, with the TPN having the more modern design). It's not in the same league as the HX750 and HX850.

If you want a modular 650W unit, the Golden Green units described earlier are going to be better. The Corsair AX650 and Seasonic X-650/660 are better as well, but they're probably significantly more expensive.

I suspect the TX650M may be better as well, but it's a new unit with pricing maybe higher than it should be. There's no review yet.

Were there any reports that the next Bulldozer architecture or revision would also be on AM3+? What we do know is that Ivy Bridge will still be on LGA 1155, and there probably should be a six-core Ivy Bridge processor on that socket.

JimmyD

United States67 Posts

July 28 2011 18:04 GMT

Well, it's either get it at 110$ at NewEgg, with 10$ rebate, or CompUSA for 124$ and 20$ rebate...

I think #2 is better, since I get the PSU in my hands right away.

Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

July 28 2011 18:26 GMT

I'm kind of confused what's available at CompUSA. Most items including the HX650 say "Online Only." For that matter, the XFX XXX 650W is indeed available (online only), for cheaper at $90 - $20 MIR, and the superior Thermaltake Toughpower XT 775W (similarly online only) is $100 - $30 MIR.

As for things actually listed as in store locations, maybe the OCZ ModXStream Pro (not nearly as good but not bad) would be the best. It seems like the locations are full of the crap units, as would be expected.

JimmyD

United States67 Posts

July 28 2011 18:59 GMT

#10

I don't know, I've found a few decent things at CompUSA. But yeah, I honestly think the HX650 would be best, because of the 4+4 pin ATX/EPS, which is really long, good for my case.

Please or register to reply.

ASUS M5A99X EVO compared to M5A97 EVO

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming