which motherboard?

[biohazard]

both of these boards are on the QVL for the ripjaw series ram i bought; ripjaw 1600 cas 7 (Model F3-12800CL7D-4GBRH ), and that is my main concern. but trying to decide if the more expensive motherboard is preferable for any other reason then the fact that it will color coordinate with the ram. i will be overclocking the cpu and bus speeds, but wont be overclocking the ram, nor using more then one video card right away.

ASUS M4A89TD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890FX

Crosshair IV Formula AM3 AMD 890FX

[GSKILL TECH]

For now, based on what you have stated, the M4A89TD is sufficient. But obviously the Crosshair IV is a great motherboard that is fun to use.

When buying a car, do you get navigation, leather, all the full features even if you don't absolutely need them? =)

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[biohazard]

yea i understand the crosshair can run 3 video cards at 16x/16x/8x , and has better audio apparently....but i was hoping to find out if one of them might utilize my ram better then the other. if not, then i cant justify spending $50+ on the crosshair, and will more than likely buy the M4.

[GSKILL TECH]

Nope, the RAM will operate just fine with the M4. In fact, our engineering department found it better at overclocking since the Crosshair IV has some BIOS bugs.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[biohazard]

that is what i was looking for, thankyou. now my next step is to find out what asus' deal is with this M4, because they have two versions. ostensibly the newer version is just adding usb3, but they are running off completely different bios...also the last time i checked their website, they removed the non usb3 version from their page. (not exactly sure what people are going to do for updates that already bought the non usb3 version)..and looks like they have completely withdrawn support for it entirely, as of three days ago? yet it's still available to buy....(and is more expensive then the version with usb3? heh). really would like to know what is going on there.

http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=fLIjRELzxMxkH2UQ

3 days ago you could use the drop down menu to download updates for the non usb3 version, now it's been completely deleted from their site. either that or i'm missing something which could be true. that is on asus though, not you all, just thought someone else might have caught that too.

[biohazard]

wow, i guess someone is reading these forums. newegg just dropped the price on the non usb3 verion of the M4 from the time i made that last post. unfortunately asus.com didnt re-instate the board onto its web page though, would like to know what users of that board are supposed to do for updates. i guess the driver updates will be compatible but they use different bios, still dont get that.