Maybe you have misunderstood something, or you have read something writen by someone who has mixed the slow USB2 performance to stability. I think these kind of false rumors are a reason why the Uli is so popular and SB450 is "avoided" so much. From what I have read SB450 is very very stable. All the reviews I have read about Gruper, Stingray and Manta reference design boards have been very positive about the stability. Still there are only very few boards out there that abide these reference desings, because the poor USB2 performance is highlighted (somewhat justifiably) and it is a big turn off for people (and therefore manufacturers). I think PI-A9RX480 is probably the only board that is based on the reference desing of Ati. The other performance motherboard DFI RX200 is not based on reference design. It is based on DFIs own design, although it uses the same chipsets as the reference design._MarcoM_ wrote:I think i'll go for Xpress 3200+uli, for what i heard is more stable than the SB450...
Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 motherboard is one of the best overclockers motherboards ever made. And it uses SB450. For a non-crossfire motherboard, it would be pretty hard to justify it's extremely expensive price, if it weren't extremely stable even under the harshest conditions.
Don't confuse reliability with stability and compability. Even the new AMD64 can be extremely stable and reliable with limited specific components. And these days there are so much more components bringing complex stuff to the equations. The problem with current motherboards/chipsets is that they have problems with different combinations of equipment, but they might still be rock solid and 100% stable and reliable, if you use specific components. Imo they should be stable with whatever components you put inside them. That's why I am not satisfied.TooNice wrote:Well, I fondly remember my Asus BX motherboard. It was one of the best along with Abit's offering at the time. And it still worked after 7 years, until I retired to a friend who only needed a PC for Word. I don't think she's still using it, but by the time, its probably been 8 years.
If you generalize the typical buyers of Intel and AMD, it could be said that Intel is more of a safe choise for "wussies". For the past few years AMD has been the nr.1 extreme overclocking platform. I know that Intel has some overclocking as well (I said this so TomZ doens't have to feel like pointing it out
), but it is undeniable that this has been AMDs turf. Just go to xtremesystem.org and look how much bigger and more active the AMD board is compared to Intel.AMD is also more dominant in custom configured computers, where as Intels huge market share is based on the sales of prebuild safe and tested, guaranteed to work computers by manufacturers like Dell and HP. These computer are stable for the same reasons that Apple is. I bet, that if Dell were to start manufacturing AMD based computers, they would be equal to Intel in stability and reliability, because Dell would pick up from the specific components that make it happen. The strong appearence in budget, custom build computer section and overclocking genres are bound to skew the statistics.
Having said all of this. I am not satisfied with the status how hard it can be to get you AMD rig to work currently. It can be a real pain, which it shouln't be.
Long post and much off topic. I feel that the the issues that A8R-MVP has and the potential issues with this A8R32-MVP are the fault of poorly implemented bios from Asus. Not an issue of bad chipset design.
