With the recent release of AMD’s new Ryzen CPUs, gamers are looking for the best motherboards to pair with them. This article will highlight some of the different motherboard options and what you should be considering when purchasing one.
The Am3+ motherboard is a type of motherboard that is designed for gaming. This article will list the best Amd Am3+ motherboards for gaming in 2016. Read more in detail here: am3+ motherboard.
The majority of the gaming community focuses only on Intel motherboards, disregarding AMD am3+ motherboards. AMD processors such as the fx 8350 or fx 6300 are excellent budget gaming CPUs that can also be overclocked like Intel Core i5 and i7 unlocked processors. Yes, AMD Ryzen CPUs are unquestionably superior than AM3 processors, however the lowest Ryzen processor now available is the Ryzen 5 1400, which costs $170. So, for a cheap gamer, those CPUs are certainly not the best option.
Am3 CPUs need am3 socket motherboards, which are available at a variety of price points. Depending on your budget, you may choose one that meets your needs. There are motherboards that include just a few SATA and USB connections and a single PCI-E x 16 slot for graphics cards, as well as motherboards that support several graphics cards and offer a variety of ports and functions.
I’ll start with the cheapest best motherboard and give you a summary of it so you can choose one that suits your requirements.
GA-78LMT Gigabyte Am3+
Price on Amazon.com
The GA-78LMT is a very simple motherboard for am3 CPUs that has been somewhat unlocked to allow for memory and processor overclocking. This motherboard features 4xDIMM slots that can handle up to 32GB of memory and can support overclocked ddr3 memories at 1333+Mhz. Despite the fact that both motherboards priced almost the same, the Intel Lga 1150 H81m-P33 did not have this functionality.
It has a total of 6 SATA ports and 4 USB 3.0 ports, all of which can transfer data at up to 5Gb/s. It also includes display ports for 1xHDMI, 1xDVI, and 1xVGA, which is a nice addition. This motherboard is best for gaming PCs with a price range of $300 to $500, and it works best with the Fx 6300 processor.
The greatest part about this motherboard is that you may construct your PC even cleaner thanks to the various placements of SATA ports. If any of these ports have grommets closer to them, you may attach your hard drives or SSDs to them. However, given the motherboard’s age, the USB 3.0 front panel header underneath the PCI slot is a fantastic addition.
You’ll need two PCI slots for sound and wifi cards, one PCIx1 and the other a standard full-length PCI slot. Both may be used for a variety of reasons. But keep in mind that it’s only suitable for processors like the fx 4300 or fx 6300, not anything higher, since you won’t be able to utilize the full capability of your CPU.
Features:-
- AM3+ Socket
- North Bridge AMD 760G and South Bridge SB710 chipsets
- Dual Channel, 4x 240pin DDR3-1333+(O.C.)/1066 DIMM Slots, Max Capacity of 32GB
- 1x PCI-Express 2.0 x16 Slot, 1x PCI-Express 2.0 x1 Slot, 1x PCI-Express 2.0 x1 Slot, 1x PCI-Express 2.0 x1 Slot
- AM3+ CPU socket AMD AM3+, AMD AM3 Phenom II, and AMD Athlon II processors are all supported.
- 1 x Realtek GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) for the LAN
M5A97 LE R2.0 AM3+ ASUS
Price on Amazon.com
For the money, this is the finest AM3 motherboard. It offers a lot of excellent features, such as support for Quad-GPU CrossFireX and a lot of PCI slots. Its memory may be expanded up to 32GB, and the memory can be overclocked to 2133MHz. Because this motherboard uses a 970 chipset, it can be overclocked, making it ideal for basic overclocking.
On this motherboard, you may utilize fx 6300, fx 8320, or fx 8350 CPUs and overclock them to 4.2GHz with a cheap custom cooler. However, if you want to overclock them beyond 4.5GHz, you’ll need a better air cooler with a large heatsink, or perhaps a liquid cooler. However, since the motherboard is so inexpensive, you can’t expect anybody to use liquid cooling on it unless they can’t afford to replace the motherboard yet want faster clock rates.
It also includes a number of USB and SATA connections, allowing it to be upgraded in the future. The UEFI BIOS software, which is straightforward and quick to setup, is the greatest feature of ASUS motherboards. You can use it in the bios to quickly overclock your CPU and RAM.
When we look at the cooling choices, we see that there are four total fan headers. One is for the CPU, while the other three are for the chassis fans, which may also be used to cool radiators. However, I was unable to locate the display output connectors on this motherboard. Unfortunately, there are no DVI, HDMI, VGA, or DP ports, forcing you to purchase a separate graphics card. However, since it is inexpensive and has all of the other features, you may anticipate one or two items to be missing.
Features:-
- Processors in the AMD AM3+ FX/Phenom II/Athlon II/Sempron 100 Series
- AM3+ 32 nm CPU support
- DDR3 2133(O.C.)/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz ECC, Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory, 4 x DIMM, Max. 32GB
- HyperTransport 3.0 System Bus: Up to 4.8 GT/s
- AMD Quad-GPU CrossFireXTM Technology is supported.
- 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (blue), 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode, black), 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1, 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1, 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1
- Internal I/O ports: 3 x USB 2.0 connections, for a total of 6 USB ports. 6 × SATA 6Gb/s connections, 2.0 ports
GAMING MSI 970 Am3+
Price on Amazon.com
This motherboard includes several extra features, such as Audio boost 2.0, which improves the audio quality and delivers real audio, in addition to 32GB of RAM support and CrossfireX compatibility. It comes with Killer E2200 Ethernet Game networking, which enhances online gaming and minimizes latency.
The mobo has a really nice design, with a black PCB and red MSI logo accents. The motherboard has a number of useful extra functions for overclocking the CPU and RAM. It has greater overclocking headroom than the previous one and is aimed at the fx 8000 series CPUs. For a $600 gaming setup, the Fx 8150, Fx 8320E, and Fx 8370E are some excellent processors to utilize with this board.
However, with processors like the FX 8350 or FX 8370, you need at the very least purchase a 990FX chipset motherboard to fully use the processor’s capabilities. Clearly, this $100 motherboard is designed for a budget gamer looking for a decent 1080p experience with a single GPU and a fx 8000 CPU. If you want to perform CrossFireX, I would say no since the FX 8000 series isn’t strong enough to handle crossfire.
Looking at the cooling choices, we see one CPU 4 pin connector on the top and a 3 pin system fan header on the left side. Above the SATA ports and the PCIx1 slot, there is a single 4-pin fan header. At the bottom is the final sys fan 3 pin header. As a result, we have just the right number of headers to keep the case cool.
The SATA ports are six in total and are connected to the PCB at a 90-degree angle for simpler connection. If you don’t have a large case, routing the wires correctly may be difficult, but with a decent case, you won’t notice any cable bend.
Features:-
- Socket AM3+ (CPU)
- 4x DDR3-2133(OC)/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866/1866
- 2x PCI-Express 2.0 x16 Slots (one runs at x8), 2x PCI-Express 2.0 x1 Slots, 2x PCI-Express 2.0 x1 Slots, 2x PCI Slots
- 6x SATA3 ports on SATA
- 4 USB 3.0 ports (2 on the back, 2 on the header), 14 USB 2.0 ports (8 rear, 6 via headers), 1x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port, 1x Optical S/PDIF-Out, 1x RJ45 LAN Port, and Audio I/O Jacks
Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 R5 AM3+
Price on Amazon.com
This motherboard features the 990Fx Chipset that I mentioned before, which is utilized for overclocking CPUs like the Fx 8320, Fx 8350, and Fx 8370 to their maximum capacity. Because the TDP of Fx processors is lower than that of Fx 9000 series processors, it will easily handle your workload. However, the motherboard supports the fx 9000 series and is compatible with the fx 9590, AMD’s highest-end CPU in the AM3 series.
This motherboard is the first on the list to enable both CrossfireX and SLI. You may boost overall game performance by combining two Nvidia or AMD graphics cards. Using a fx 9590 with two graphics cards like as AMD Rx 480 will give you some serious 1440p and 4K performance. However, since Ryzen CPUs are about to be released, I don’t suggest this one to enthusiasts because it will restrict upgrading options.
Aside from these features, the motherboard lacks on-board power and reset buttons, as well as overclocking and a bios switch. However, a 990FX chipset for less than $100 is hard to come by.
However, at a little higher price than 970 chipset boards, you will be able to utilize high-end processors like as the fx 9590 and have many USB and Sata connections.
Features:-
- 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connections with support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, and JBOD, 2 x eSATA 6Gb/s connectors RAID 0 and RAID 1 are supported.
- 2 x PCI Express x16 slots (operating at x16), 1 x PCI Express x4 slots, 2 x PCI Express x1 slots, and 1 x PCI slots
- Memory: Up to 32 GB of system memory is supported by four 1.5V DDR3 DIMM slots.
- AM3+/AM3/AMD Athlon II CPU AMD 990FX/AMD SB950 chipsets
- Realtek ALC1150 codec for audio
990FX ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z AM3+
Price on Amazon.com
The motherboard, like the previous one, features a 990Fx chipset, which is ideal for overclocking. It’s ideal for creating a high-end gaming system, and it works well with processors like the Fx 9570 or 9590, which use a lot of power yet provide excellent performance.
The motherboard is designed for aesthetics rather than performance, since AMD Ryzen CPUs and DDR4 platforms will be available soon, much like Intel. This motherboard features a total of 8 SATA 3 ports, allowing a construct to expand its storage capacity. There is a USB 3.0 front header port just below the 24 pin power connection, unlike the previous ones, which had the port at the bottom, making it unsuitable for a clean build.
The motherboard supports quad-GPU SLI, with three-way AMD CrossfireX or three-way Nvidia SLI options. So, for constructing a high-end gaming PC, this one is pretty awesome. However, since the fx 9590 and other 9000 series CPUs use a lot of power, combining them with numerous GPUs will need you to purchase a 1000+ watt gold-rated power supply, which will raise the overall cost of your system. As a result, it’s unsuitable for those on a tight budget.
At the top right, you’ll find the power, reset, and bios switches, which make troubleshooting a breeze. I was specifically looking for it and came across this motherboard, which I believe is worthy of inclusion in this list. The existence of many USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, however, is a really crazy feature that no one will be able to utilize all of them.
However, there is one disadvantage. Up to 32GB of RAM may be overclocked to 2400MHz on this motherboard. Aside from the clocks, it’s quite identical to the previous ones. But, at the end of the day, who on such an outdated platform is going to need that much memory?
Features:-
- Processors in the AMD AM3+ FX/Phenom II/Athlon II/Sempron 100 Series
- DDR3 2400(O.C.)/2133(O.C.)/2000(O.C.)/1800(O.C.)/1600/1333/1066 MHz 4 x DIMM, Max. 32GB Unbuffered Memory, ECC Memory, Non-ECC Memory
- NVIDIA® Quad-GPU SLI Technology is supported.
- NVIDIA® 3-Way SLI Technology is supported.
- AMD’s 3-Way CrossFireX technology is supported.
- 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode), 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 (dual x16 or x16/x8/x8), 3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (dual x16 or x16/x8/x8)
- Internal Ports: 8 x SATA 6Gb/s connections, 1 x USB 3.0 connectors, plus 2 USB 2.0 ports 3.0 port, two CPU fan connections, and two USB ports Additional 4 USB ports are supported via the 2.0 connections. 2.0 jacks
