Next Generation Hardware (long term plans)?

[Hondaman]

Recently my Gigabyte GA970A-UD3 died (after about 5 years of use), with random lockups and reboots. Switching to a different PSU fixed this for about two weeks, then the lockups and reboots started happening again (AMD 8150 CPU, 16 GB RAM, Radeon 6770 completely passive-cooled video card, it's a nice machine).

I put in a second GA970A-UD3 that I got from eBay a year ago. It was new in box, but also dead (I did not even get the single beep to indicate successful boot). Then I put in a GA970A-UD3P, and got random lockups within 12 hours of use. It's dead. Today I put in my second (and last) GA970A-UD3P, and I hope it will last a long time. (I never thought I would need four ALL-POLY boards, but I did. It seems that "UD3" stands for "Ultra Dead", not "Ultra Durable".)

The 970A-UD3 and the 970A-UD3P have the same north bridge and south bridge. But I just now got a notice that Windows has detected a change in hardware, so I might have to buy another Win 7 license (EDIT: I activated Windows several times before the dead hardware died. MS probably noticed this. I used Microsoft's online / toll-free phone call and activated a few minutes ago by typing eight 6-digit numbers, but be aware -- Microsoft might make activation more difficult for all of us in the future.)

Newegg still has the Gigabyte 970A-UD3P for sale, but there are many bad reviews about the latest board revision. Should I buy the MSI version of this board from Newegg's eBay store, for $70? The MSI has the same north and south bridge chips, a PCI-E x16 slot and good RAM capacity. Would it be more reliable than the Gigabyte?

Should I get a later generation of board, with a warranty, and buy a different CPU, new RAM and a Win7 license? How far can I go before desktop boards stop having Windows 7 drivers (I don't want to move to Windows 10)?

I need to run Excel/Office 2003 for a financial spreadsheet. I have done this with the Codeweavers emulator under Mandriva 2010.2, so I'm sure I can run Office 2003 under emulation in the future.

Should I stick with my current generation of hardware (AMD 970 north bridge, 950 south bridge), move to a later generation of hardware (with Windows 7) or move to new hardware in the future (Linux with Windows emulation)?

[jiroy]

Re: Next Generation Hardware (long term plans)?

Maybe it's not related to your concerns , but i really don't know for how far will we escape the Windows 10 forcing and monopoly . Yesterday , i received a customer with one brand new Lenovo 110-ACL15 . Shipped without windows so we have to buy a system and a license ..., and to my surprise , the only drivers allowed are for win10 .. I'm already tired of fixing and forcing older systems , really tired . It's all boxed now , not much to do .

[mockingbird]

Re: Next Generation Hardware (long term plans)?

Should I get a later generation of board, with a warranty, and buy a different CPU, new RAM and a Win7 license? How far can I go before desktop boards stop having Windows 7 drivers (I don't want to move to Windows 10)?

A couple of years ago, MSI was probably better than Gigabyte. But if you take a close look at all the budget current-gen boards today, they all seem to be coming from the same fab.

Who knows why MSI was better than Gigabyte... Maybe they had a better solder alloy, or maybe their re-flow process was more finely tuned.

As for Windows 7, you pretty much don't have to worry about Windows 7 support as long as you stay away from Kaby Lake and Ryzen. They may provide drivers for them, but then again, they may not.

As far as XP goes, you can comfortably go all the way up to the x67 chipset and Sandy Bridge, and perhaps even x77 and Ivy Bridge.

If you're going to keep spending money on a faulty product, why not upgrade to something else entirely?

[Vishera]

Re: Next Generation Hardware (long term plans)?

If I were in the market for an AM3+ motherboard right now, I would take a look at the Asus 970 Pro Gaming/Aura (costs less than $100 new). 7+1 phase digital VRM and (according to Asus, anyway) better-quality capacitors. The consensus among professional reviewers and Newegg users is that it's a very good board.

MSI and the 970 chipset is not a great combination. Cheaply made and failure prone.