Apparently, AMD Bulldozer CPUs will be known as "FX" for short.

ASUS and MSI are showing their 9xx chipset (the Bulldozer chipset) AM3+ FX (Bulldozer) motherboards. Apparently, these AM3+ motherboards will also run Phenom II and older CPUs. As usual, AMD stuff works together over generations thereby saving some cash for the cost conscious -- some Phenom II 8xx AM3 chipset motherboards will run Bulldozer as well with a BIOS update (we all know Intel usually requires a new MB for a new CPU type).

ASUS 900 Series Motherboards

MSI 990FX Motherboard

I like that the high end ASUS has more SATA ports than has been the norm -- mostly SATA 6.0Gb. Optical drives use up an SATA port now, and I have lots of hard drives to plug into them. On the other hand, I'm usually too cheap to buy a highest end 990FX type board. I'll have to see what is being offered at what price the day I place the order.


In other news, the new AMD Fusion CPU/GPU (quad-core Athlon CPU with an entry-level, 400 shader gamer GPU on the CPU chip) were benchmarked and actually get good 3DMark scores. Something to look for in a gaming notebook, dirt cheap desktop, or Home Theater PC.

June is "billed" as AMD month, and, so far, the "leaks" indicate "its on".

Prior to Phenom/AM2, didnt AMD get ripped for constantly changing Socket Layouts as well, why they praised Intel for staying with LGA775.




No bottlenecks between GPU and CPU being on the same Die....





I might end up splurging for the best mobo i can get my hands on....

I cant decide between the MSI or the ASUS right now, I'd have to see the competition and prices.

ECS Black Series A990FXM motherboard for AMD Bulldozer:

ECS AMD Bulldozer Motherboard

that Black and Grey Scheme is b-e-a-utiful

ECS = low end junk. Their Quality Control station is over the PACKAGING Dept, not the PRODUCTION Dept.
You could get one that lasts for years, or DOA when you push the power button. Their worst issue IMO was their BIOS, as it was not flexible at all. Usually NO options that you could change other than date/time, and on/off.

are they better than FoxxCon??

ECS is the one mobo manufacturer I would stay away from. Pure junk.

I'm an ASUS and Gigabyte fan, personally. That's mainly because I think they "follow up" on BIOS updates and high performance tweaks -- so the MB will not "go out of date" as fast as some others. For example, ASUS recent BIOS allows several ASUS 8xx chipset motherboards to become A3+ and run the Bulldozer.

I do like the subdued color schemes being shown as a change from the brighter colors lately.

Here's Gigabyte's 990FX -- 6 PCIe 16x slots. Supports AMD Crossfire 4x and Nvidia SLI 4x (that's four GPUs, potentially, they say). Has extra power plug to supply GPUs via PCIe (as well as the now normal GPU power connectors).

Gigabyte 990FX AM3+ for AMD Bulldozer

Between AMD and E3, im gonna be all over the place...

ps, Im actually packing now for my Flight to LA. I was invited to Goto E3 with a group from Microsoft.
I've already been told anything I see or report on belongs to MS. yada yada yada.. basically an Email/Verbal NDA.

Hopefully AMD is at E3.