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Overclocking

Overclocking the Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5 was a letdown after the overclocks I've been achieving with Penryn based cores, however I was able to obtain some decent results.

First, I wanted to see the maximum speed I could run the processor at.

By raising Vcore to 1.5V, I was able to run the Phenom 9900 at 2.9GHz - less than the 3.0GHz I was able to obtain on the Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe motherboard during our Phenom 9900 review, but not too far behind. For both overclocking venutres, I used our effective Noctua NH-U 12 cooler.

Next, I wanted to see the maximum "FSB" (really, HyperTransport) speed I could run the board and chipset at. I was able to achieve 235MHz stably, and 245 would get to the Windows desktop, but was too unstable to use. Again, I used 1.5V for testing.

These days, AMD motherboard overclocking potential seems to be limited by three things:

• maximum usable HyperTransport speed
• maximum memory speed
• AMD process technology limiting clock speeds

Until AMD shifts to 45nm with the upcoming Deneb core I doubt we will see significantly better overclocking without extreme measures such as liquid nitrogen.

Power Consumption

As the other motherboard results presented in this review used an AMD X2 5000+ the power consumption figures are not comparable with the Phenom 9900, however here are the results we obtained for the Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5 in the course of this review:

The 12.5x235 overclock test gave the same results as the 14.5x200 test.

Conclusion

There is a great deal to like about the Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5: you can run CrossFire on two PCIe 2.0 16x slots and still have plenty of expansion capability left; it overclocks decently;  the enthusiast centric M.I.T. screen is easier to find in the BIOS; and there are eight BIOS configuration save areas.

But there are a few drawback as well. One of the memory slots - possibly two - will be blocked if you use oversize coolers. And the current 65nm Phenom limits its overclocking capabilities and memory bandwidth - I am sure the board is capable of more. The package is also a bit light on SATA cables - but that's nitpicking.

Basically, the Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5 is a good board for both business and gaming use - the benchmark results clearly showed that. Selling at approximately $200, it is a good value, and lets you overclock power hungry Phenoms without a great risk of frying VRM's.