Along with my own upgrades, I also upgraded my wife's system, beleive it or not she was still running an old Pentium 4/AGP 4x based system. Needless to say, horrible performance by today's standards, even for simple web use. She simply never wanted to upgrade, this year, I did not give her a choice.
Basically, I was looking for an inexpensive build that would still provide her system with more power than it would ever need. My basic requirements were it had to be AM3 with 125Watt CPU support, PCIe X16, full ATX form factor, SATA II, DDR3 1600 support with 4 DIMMS, and on-board audio and video as backup in-case stand alone cards fail.
I finally ended up settling on the Biostar TA790GXB3 T-Series Motherboard. Now I have never really been a fan of Biostar, not due to any quality concerns, just the fact I never used any of their boards in my own builds. However I decided it was time to give them a shot. They are a well established company that has been around for a long time and are pretty well known for their quality "budget" boards. So far, I am very satisfied with the performance of the TA790GXB3.
Simply put, I knew that Crossfire would never be needed, and that 125 Watt CPU support would be more than enough to meet the demands it would be put to. This board came with on-board Realtek ALC662 audio as well as on-board ATI Radeon HD 3300 DX10 video in case her stand-alone cards ever failed. This way she can still use her system while a replacement it ordered.
CPU used:
It also had full support for the processor I wanted to run in the system as well as core unlocking and overclocking ability. That processor being the AMD Phenom II X2 550 "Callisto" Black Edition. A CPU I was using for well over a year, unlocked to 4 cores and overclocked to 3.8Ghz, stable the entire time. So I wanted a board I knew I could do that on. For her needs however, I did not unlock the other 2 cores, I have left it running as an X2 and simply overclocked to 3.6GHz since there is no need to go any higher, it is just nice to know I can if the need should arise.
Video card used:
The most "demanding" game that she plays is the Sims 3. So when I purchased the XFX Radeon 6950 for my much higher end gaming needs, I gave her the HIS Radeon HD 4870 IceQ4+ Turbo 1Gb 256-bit GDDR5 card I was running. Needless to say, like the processor, a massive step up from the AGP ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB she was running. The 4870 was top of the line for the 4000 series of cards, and is still more than capable of playing any games on the market today at 1080p and maximum settings with stable framerates. It simply lacks DX11 support as well as next generation architecture and tessellation advancements obviously. For the Sims 3 however, it's not even a challenge. For as long as it lasts, this card will more than meet her graphics needs without even breaking a sweat.
Memory used:
I used the same RAM on this board as I do on mine. A-Data DDR3 1600G Gaming Series. She is currently running 4GB. The memory overclocks to 1600 no problem and is prefectly stable on this board.
Operating system used:
She was running XP Pro 32. With this new build however, I upgraded her to 7 Ultimate 32. This is also why she is running 4GB and not 8GB. I did not want her to have to deal with some of the compatibility issues of 64-bit that seems to be common with some of the software she runs on a regular basis. It's running wonderfully.
Other specifications:
For the price, the Biostar TA790GXB3 seems to be a fantastic board. As long as you do not plan on Crossfire or running an X6 processor, it should have no problems meeting your budget build needs. It's great for low-end to moderate gaming, and even perhaps some high end gaming as well running a single GPU and a nice fast quad core with DDR3 1600. For what it is being used for here, it's an incredible value, especially since I managed to pick it up open box on Newegg. Great board from Biostar!
Biostar Link: http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=428
Newegg Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138163
For a quick look at the board and what I got in my "open box" package, check out this video. Again, was still fighting a nasty cold when I recorded this, so please forgive me is I sound a bit out of it.
I also meant to say "upgradable to the X4" in the video, not "X6". Like I said, nasty cold, not the best time to try and make a video. haha
Basically, I was looking for an inexpensive build that would still provide her system with more power than it would ever need. My basic requirements were it had to be AM3 with 125Watt CPU support, PCIe X16, full ATX form factor, SATA II, DDR3 1600 support with 4 DIMMS, and on-board audio and video as backup in-case stand alone cards fail.
I finally ended up settling on the Biostar TA790GXB3 T-Series Motherboard. Now I have never really been a fan of Biostar, not due to any quality concerns, just the fact I never used any of their boards in my own builds. However I decided it was time to give them a shot. They are a well established company that has been around for a long time and are pretty well known for their quality "budget" boards. So far, I am very satisfied with the performance of the TA790GXB3.
Simply put, I knew that Crossfire would never be needed, and that 125 Watt CPU support would be more than enough to meet the demands it would be put to. This board came with on-board Realtek ALC662 audio as well as on-board ATI Radeon HD 3300 DX10 video in case her stand-alone cards ever failed. This way she can still use her system while a replacement it ordered.
CPU used:
It also had full support for the processor I wanted to run in the system as well as core unlocking and overclocking ability. That processor being the AMD Phenom II X2 550 "Callisto" Black Edition. A CPU I was using for well over a year, unlocked to 4 cores and overclocked to 3.8Ghz, stable the entire time. So I wanted a board I knew I could do that on. For her needs however, I did not unlock the other 2 cores, I have left it running as an X2 and simply overclocked to 3.6GHz since there is no need to go any higher, it is just nice to know I can if the need should arise.
Video card used:
The most "demanding" game that she plays is the Sims 3. So when I purchased the XFX Radeon 6950 for my much higher end gaming needs, I gave her the HIS Radeon HD 4870 IceQ4+ Turbo 1Gb 256-bit GDDR5 card I was running. Needless to say, like the processor, a massive step up from the AGP ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB she was running. The 4870 was top of the line for the 4000 series of cards, and is still more than capable of playing any games on the market today at 1080p and maximum settings with stable framerates. It simply lacks DX11 support as well as next generation architecture and tessellation advancements obviously. For the Sims 3 however, it's not even a challenge. For as long as it lasts, this card will more than meet her graphics needs without even breaking a sweat.
Memory used:
I used the same RAM on this board as I do on mine. A-Data DDR3 1600G Gaming Series. She is currently running 4GB. The memory overclocks to 1600 no problem and is prefectly stable on this board.
Operating system used:
She was running XP Pro 32. With this new build however, I upgraded her to 7 Ultimate 32. This is also why she is running 4GB and not 8GB. I did not want her to have to deal with some of the compatibility issues of 64-bit that seems to be common with some of the software she runs on a regular basis. It's running wonderfully.
Other specifications:
- Supported Socket AM3 processors AMD Phenom II X4 / Phenom II X3 / Phenom II X2 / Athlon II processor
- AMD 125W processor support
- AMD 790GX Chipset with ATI Radeon HD 3300 Graphics
- Dual-Channel DDR3 -1600(OC)/1333/1066/800
- ATI Hybrid Graphics Support
- Integrated DVI interface with HDCP Support 1080P HD Video Experience
- AMD OverDrive Utility Support
- AMD OverDrive™ with ACC feature (Advanced Clock Calibration) supported
For the price, the Biostar TA790GXB3 seems to be a fantastic board. As long as you do not plan on Crossfire or running an X6 processor, it should have no problems meeting your budget build needs. It's great for low-end to moderate gaming, and even perhaps some high end gaming as well running a single GPU and a nice fast quad core with DDR3 1600. For what it is being used for here, it's an incredible value, especially since I managed to pick it up open box on Newegg. Great board from Biostar!
Biostar Link: http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=428
Newegg Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138163
For a quick look at the board and what I got in my "open box" package, check out this video. Again, was still fighting a nasty cold when I recorded this, so please forgive me is I sound a bit out of it.
I also meant to say "upgradable to the X4" in the video, not "X6". Like I said, nasty cold, not the best time to try and make a video. haha
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