Gigabyte ATX Socket AM3+ AMD 970 Chipset 2000MHz DDR3 SATA III 6Gbps Ready AMD 9 Series FX Motherboards GA-970A-D3P

I am a PC technician by career, so I have a lot of experience with various motherboards and system equipment. This is by far my favorite motherboard for low/mid builds, and I will use it faithfully in my builds until it becomes outdated. I initially ordered this Gigabyte motherboard to use in my personal PC build along with the FX-4300 and Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 ti, and I have been continuously pleased with this reliable and easy-to-use product. The motherboard has operated seamlessly through several hardware changes, two OS reloads, and a complete system transfer to a new PC case.Hardware:This motherboard is extremely durable and doesn't bend easily. I have swapped out several different GPUs, RAM sticks, and CPUs, and even moved the motherboard to a new PC case, and there isn't a hint of wear or tear on the motherboard. The ports on the motherboard are fairly standard, with 2 USB 3.0 ports, 4 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, DVI, and VGA. I haven't experienced any issues with ports becoming loose or unresponsive.BIOS:the BIOS of this motherboard is very intuitive and easy to navigate. The BIOS accurately displays the temp of the CPU, and there are a multitude of useful features that will come in handy for overclockers and control enthusiasts.Software:The chipset installed seamlessly from the CD and I haven't experienced compatibility issues in regards to USB devices or internal hardware. Plug-and-play compliant devices are able to properly retrieve drivers, with the exception of using an Xbox 360 Controller through a USB 3.0 port. I have not had an opportunity to test other controllers, but the Xbox 360 Controller will not work through the USB 3.0 ports on this motherboard.Utilities:This motherboard has tons of useful features, especially if you're interested in overclocking or maintaining control over temperatures or clock speeds. There are health utilities in the BIOS which are useful for keeping track of hardware health (I haven't had any components fail, so I don't know how accurate these readings are), and even cautionary utilities that will alert you if the CPU or other components are getting too hot. When using programs such as HWMonitor or Speedfan, there are 3 unlabeled temperatures pertaining to motherboard components that always display as too warm or hot. I have not been able to find any information about these 3components, so the readings are either false or irrelevant. These unknown temps are not necessarily cause for concern, but it's worth mentioning anyways.BREAKDOWNPros: Intuitive BIOS, useful utilities, and durable design.Cons: Potential USB 3.0 device identification issues, unlabeled temperatures in 3rd-party sensor programs.I have been pleasantly surprised with this motherboard, and would recommend it for almost any build. It worksflawlessly for my personal gaming/media build, and its low cost and ease-of-use make it a reasonable choice for gamers, enthusiasts, seasoned builders, and even those who are new at building PCs. You'll be hard pressed to find a better motherboard in this price range.

Everyone can read product specs on their own so I'm not going ramble on and on with tech details. And if you're concerned at all with a few negative comments you may see scattered on Amazon, also check the reviews on Tiger and Newegg which tend to have more tech savvy reviews. You'll find plenty of good reviews there.Okay, my comments on this board. This mobo has a very solid feel to it. A quick visual inspection shows the quality you'd expect from Gigabyte. I bought it to pair with the AMD3+ FX-6100 processor and 8Gb of Corsair memory. Also, I installed Ubuntu 12.10 which I'm surprised to say I love. Enough tech.It was absolutely the easiest board I've ever installed. It's well marked and everything in my opinion is in an easily accessed place. The cpu/heatsink mount works smoothly and makes a really snug fit without feeling like you're going to snap something off. It was great having an old faithful IDE header so I could use my two favorite optical drives I've been using for years. It was also good to know there's connections for so many device types, should I need them. And yes, it's true, the SATA is 2, not 3. And I do not care. Seriously, if SATA2 is a deal breaker for you, it's pretty unlikely you'll be shopping this mobo in the first place. AND if you do a little reading and research you'll know that almost nothing on the market right now fully utilizes the ability of a SATA2 hard drive, much less a SATA3 so you folks that act so indignant about this board only having SATA2 should take a deep breath, have a cup of tea, and stop terrifying the people who are reading reviews.One reviewer referred to this mobo as "old". It's not. It's for folks like myself who need to move up from what they're using but still need support for some legacy devices. It's still in production and a good seller.One reviewer referred to it as "pricey". Pricey??? It's about $55 after the rebate. You can hardly buy two sticks of memory for that.If you're a gamer then you probably don't need this board. I don't know for sure because I am not a gamer.If you want a fast, solid, quality board that supports a variety of old and new devices at a bargain price, this is it.One last thing. Moving to the computer I built with this board from my old dual core is astonishing. Opening, saving, closing, editing any file of any size seems instantaneous. It's nothing but stars for me.

Esta placa ofrece una sólida plataforma para sistemas basados en AMD, con soporte para procesadores AM3+ y una variedad de características importantes como cuatro ranuras DDR3, audio de alta definición, y conectividad USB 3.0 y SATA 6Gb/s para una rápida transferencia de datos. Su diseño ATX y la calidad de construcción de Gigabyte la hacen una opción confiable para construir un PC gaming o de alto rendimiento.

Very good product. I am happy with it.

a placa esta funcionando direitinho, só não tem tanto rendimento quanto a outra da asus que eu tinha.

Después de un problema reciente con ASUS, decidí probar Gigabyte y no quedo nada decepcionado:-En vez del BIOS anticuado, trae tecnología UEFI que hace más rápido el arranque. Verán que es muy diferente al AMIBIOS o al American....-Trae control integrado de hasta 4 ventiladores.-Es la revisión Revisión 2 y trae la última versión de firmware.-El chipset 970 da mejor rendimiento con mi tarjeta gráfica Radeon RX460.-Los disipadores pasivos mantienen a buena temperatura el chipset de la MoBo.-Incluye monitor de temperatura/voltaje/rendimiento para windows 10 64bist.-No he tenido problemas hasta la fecha.Muy satisfecho con Gigabyte.

[My Integrity Declaration: I am not affiliated with Gigabyte or Amazon and I have not and will not receive any compensation, in any form, for writing this review]As a Certified Computer Service Technician, I have always liked working on Gigabyte motherboards/mainboards. Stable, rounded edges, Dual BIOS (for backing up and restoring the chips on the board and their 'startup' information), and their upwards-facing drive connectors (sideways can sometimes get cramped after the board is put inside a computer case). I always recommend their boards as one of my 'top three' when people ask me for brand recommendations.This board was to replace an MSI mainboard that was having issues 'leaking' (flux/sweat/moisture) multiple times, so instead of replacing it a third time from the manufacturer (MSI) I went to this Gigabyte mainboard (MSI did have good Support, replacing it without issue - I have used many MSI Graphic Gards (GPUs, Graphical Processing Units) in the past and have no real preference for Videocard manufacturer/assembler (I am also not affiliated with MSI and have not and will not receive anything from them in compensation for mentioning them here)).I am using an AMD FX-8350 on this board, as of the time of this writing, and when it arrived I ran some Benchmarks as 'Burn-In Tests' (to make sure everything worked on arrival) in Windows (8.1 on a Dual-Boot system with Windows 10) and there were no issues. Speeds of a system/motherboard are mainly dictated in a system by the CPU (Central Processing Unit, the 'main brains' of the computer) and not the board itself, but all the slots and ports utilized arrived in fine working order (I am using all six SATA drive connectors, two as ‘hot plug’ (where you can remove a drive without turning off the system)). I am using 4 out of the six USB ports (there are up to 12 USB connections possible, if you include the internal connectors, which would usually be accessible to the front of a PC case – I have not tested them all as of the time of this writing).Due to the lower price point of this motherboard (Under $100 at the time I purchased it), there are a few limitations to keep in mind (as opposed to a more expensive mainboard):For example, this board supports Crossfire, which is AMD/ATI’s Dual-Graphic Card mode (two GPUs at one time, working together) but it operates the second GPU at a slower speed (x4 PCI Express speed, as opposed to the main slot operating at x16 or x8 PCI-E speed) – however, note that there is not a large Real-World™ performance decrease in using two cards at x16 and x4 – while there is slightly less performance ‘headroom’ or ‘top speed’ than using two cards at x16x16 or x16x8, most games and videocards today will not see a huge decrease (but one may be present in some games).In most games, running two GPUs at x16x4 will produce no loss in FPS (Frames Per Second); but in some very high GPU-intensive games, there may be a difference of up to 25% performance limitation (according to Tests and Reviews found online at Technical Websites – for a theoretical example, a potential difference of 120fps down to 90fps). Even though there have been games with no loss of FPS at all, because of this possible limitation, it is recommended that this board is directed more towards single-GPU users, where the PCI-Express slot runs at a full x16 speed. This x4 second slot speed would be one of the reasons this board would have lost a ‘star’, but due to the price point of this product, it is understandable that this limitation is present.Another limitation of this motherboard (due to keeping costs down) is the usage of a 970 series chipset (the ‘traffic cops’ that direct the information and data around the board). As a comparison, a slightly-higher 990 series chipset would have the board offering more USB ports, more Drive ports, higher PCI-E slot speeds (as mentioned in the previous paragraph) and more fan connections and LED lights and other extras. That is what is expected in a more expensive mainboard and as expected, the price would also be higher. Due to these limitations/cost-cutting choices of this board – but in light of the cost of this board – a star was not removed from the above Rating, as these limitations would be expected at this price point.7.1 Audio (8-channel) is still present at this price point however (the front connectors, as well as the back connectors must be utilized for 7.1 sound). Also present is standard high-speed SATA drive connections and support for up to 32GB of system RAM (Random Access Memory, the ‘desk space’ it uses to ‘think with’) - at a higher price, a board would support more (eg. 64GB or 128GB), but most home users at the time of this writing (including myself) will likely have/use up to 16GB of RAM – most games as of the time of this writing will even run with 4GB of RAM and ‘recommend’ (for more smooth running and to fully load high-resolution textures, areas, etc) 8GB of RAM (this amount 'that games want' slowly increases over time..).Currently, I personally am using all four available slots with 16GB Memory in Dual Channel mode (where the slots each have their own ‘set of lanes’ for data to travel through (this helps with ‘bottlenecks’ of data but does not make a large difference in Real-World™ usage, increasing performance in games, for example, by only 2-5% or so)).Last but not least, this board also supports some ‘older/aging’ technologies - great if they are needed - such as PCI slots and PS/2 keyboard and mouse connectors.Overall, this motherboard is as-advertised and is working great. No complaints at all, here. No stars taken off, as the minor inherent limitations present were expected at the price it was sold at (eg. less USB ports, etc). Purchase with comfort [some knowledge on how to connect/assemble this computer part in a system is recommended, if you do not have a ‘computer guru friend’ to ask]. ~T