The AMD FX processors support all the industry standard instruction sets like SSSE3, SSE3, SSE4.1 + SSE4.2, including some newly proposed AMD 128/256 bit instruction sets (SSE5 and AVX). I bought the AMD FX-8350 processor with my motherboard and was impressed with the "low budget" CPU performance; most of my gaming needs just required extreme GPU performance. With this processor slightly overclocked to 5Ghz, it suited my needs just fine. Also, using the money I saved on the core system components I was able to get three graphics cards instead of one as well as three 4k monitors.
Intel's Core i7 processors typically outperform AMD processors in integer performance by 10-15%. When it comes down to the floating point performance, AMD processors outperform Intel processors by 25-33%. Theoretically speaking, applications that have a higher demand for integer calculations perform better with Intel processors, while applications that have more floating point calculations perform better with AMD processors. Video games in general have higher demands for floating point calculations, which is probably why the Xbox 360/One, PlayStation 3/4, and the Nintendo Wii game system didn't ship with Intel processors.
In contrast, Intel processors have become more energy efficient then ever before. Intel's big plan is to get to Exa-Scale computing in 2018. Exa-Scale computing would be a thousand times faster than Peta-Scale; the ability to operate beyond a Peta-Flop. The Peta-Flop is one quadrillion floating point operations per second and they recently unveiled a 2 Tera-Flop CPU with 80 cores (22nm) that uses more or less the same wattage as my current CPU. So, we shall see what happens in the upcoming years.
My biggest issues with the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 motherboard is all the problems with the "Hybrid" UEFI BIOS and RAID subsystem. It was hell getting Windows installed on my 4TB hard drive. Then getting a functional RAID 5 configuration with 4 x 2TB hard drives was even more aggravating and it was something I knew very well. I wasted weeks of my life when I should have just bought a different motherboard instead. But I am stubborn and refuse to believe that there isn't a problem I can't wrap my brain around. Moreover, it's both a blessing and a curse that I am highly technical, well educated, and I have been immersed in computer hardware/software technology since the early 90's.
It all started the moment I opened the box and assembled all the components. Upon first boot, the system speaker rang with a constant beep that did not stop. This was because I had the power to the water cooler and fan hooked up to backwards; the system was warning me of a fan failure. After that little mix up I jumped right in to the Windows installation. Like with most system installations I've done in the past, I set the SATA mode to AHCI then continue to installing the operating system; this will not work.
The Windows installer told me to "kick rocks" and wouldn't create a GPT partition scheme using the full capacity of the drive. I furthered my attempts by manually setting the CD/DVD boot option to EFI and Windows still refused to install. Furthermore, the RAID 5 volume wasn't being recognized by the Windows installer. I knew it couldn't be the software and it had to be the hardware. I tried every possible drive combination, port, and mode in the BIOS and still nothing worked. I could boot and install Windows using the legacy MBR partition scheme, but I could only use half the drives capacity and my 4 drive RAID 5 volume was not being found even after loading the OEM drivers.
So, I tried using add-in cards to see if this resolved my RAID 5 dilemma. I bought a LSI SAS controller online and tried to bypass the integrated SB950 all together still to no avail; even tried using a AHCI add-in card I had laying around and that didn't work either. At this point I was ready to throw in the towel and scrap the motherboard completely. I called LSI's technical support and asked why this brand new card I purchased was not working. They told me the controller is not compatible with every system and that my system was not on their compatibility list. Pissed off, I returned the card and got my money back. Eventually, just gave up on the RAID configuration till after I got Windows installed with a GPT partition scheme
My experience with Hackintoshes over the years exposed me to this open source EFI boot loader called Clover EFI. Typically, you have to be running Mac OS X to install the boot loader to the drive and it is a fairly complex setup. Most people just use the fake EFI boot loader called Chameleon to get their Hackintosh up and running. I had a 2GB flash drive laying around with Clover already installed on it and figured I would give it a shot. This got me halfway there and I was able to install Fedora Linux to the hard drive using the full capacity of the drive. Linux did detect each individual drive connected to the controller, just not the RAID array. I also noticed that the Clover EFI boot loader wouldn't detect a CD/DVD disc unless that port was set to IDE mode.
I experimented with the drive order and came up with this arrangement:
SATA 0: RAID DRIVE 0 <-------- This port might work without the RAID array
SATA 1: RAID DRIVE 1
SATA 2: RAID DRIVE 2
SATA 3: RAID DRIVE 3
SATA 4: WINDOWS DRIVE (4TB) <-------- It would seem this is the magic port
SATA 5: PIONEER BLU-RAY BURNER <-------- The installer can't find the install media after booting unless it is on SATA port 4/5 and in IDE mode.
To get the stock UEFI/GPT setup to install a functional bootstrap I used two USB flash drives. One drive has to be large enough to copy the Windows installation from the DVD (8GB).
The second drive needs to have Clover EFI installed to boot your system in a true UEFI state. This drive doesn't have to be very big; the Clover EFI installation is under 20MB.
I used Cvad's BootDiskUtility to create the bootable Clover EFI flash drive, and Rufus to create the UEFI Windows 8.1 installer. I was having trouble loading DVD's in EFI mode and I had attempted to install Windows 8 several times from the DVD. The USB installation method copies the files over in a third of the time compared to the DVD install method; both methods should work.
Both programs are simple and straight forward.
Insert the first flash drive, select it in the drop down menu, and click format. Done!
(Note: Clover EFI is still in development and for some unknown reason my USB mouse doesn't work in UEFI 64; not a big issue because my keyboard worked just fine)
Originally, I created a partition scheme that was MBR and targeted BIOS/UEFI computers; that didn't work on my first attempt.
The flash drive needs to be a GPT partition scheme for UEFI computers formatted in FAT32.
You will also need the Windows setup disc backed up to your the hard drive for Rufus to create your flash drive.
IMGBURN is my preferred program for burning and saving disc ISO images. As long as the disc is in ISO or DD format that should work just fine
Once you have your flash drives created you can begin the setup process with a few modifications to the BIOS.
Now, boot up the machine with both flash drives plugged in and immediately press DEL at the post screen.
First, go to the "Advanced BIOS Features" menu and clone these settings. (Make sure the boot devices are in that order)
Next, you'll need to change the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" order.
"USB-HDD0" is the Clover EFI flash drive. Notice that my hard drive is on IDE Channel 0.
In the "Integrated Peripherals" menu all your controller cards need to be in IDE mode and then disable the Marvell eSATA controller completely. Press "F10" to save the changes while leaving the flash drives plugged in. Once your computer starts it will boot the Clover EFI flash drive (first in the boot order). If you are using a DVD to install Windows, make sure the DVD is in the drive prior to the system restart. Your optical drive won't boot in EFI mode and is not visible to Clover EFI if it is not in IDE mode; which is probably why "On Chip SATA Port4/5 Type" is set to IDE by default.
Since the flash drive has priority over the DVD drive in the boot process it should load like this showing a option to "Boot UEFI optical from CDROM". This is the only functional option.
If you created the Windows setup on a secondary flash drive, this is option you need to select. Only "UEFI" and "Legacy" options boot from this loader on this system; all the "EFI" boot options fail. Booting the UEFI Windows setup allows the install to complete successful.
Remember that Windows can only be installed with a GPT partition scheme and it is better to avoid changing the default partition layout. To wipe the drive of any formatting you will need to enter the command terminal within the Windows setup by pressing "SHIFT + F10".
Run "DiskPart" in the terminal and use it to clean the partition of formatting. Here are some basic commands:
list disk = shows all connect drives
select disk 0 = chooses the drive for formatting
clean = wipes the drive of all formatting
convert gpt = initializes the disk as a GPT formatted drive
After exiting DiskPart, you should be able to select the full free space available and it should be listed in the locations list. Click next and allow the Windows setup to do it's thing. Leave the Clover EFI flash drive plugged in and after Windows finishes the setup the computer will restart. You should now have a bootable UEFI Windows with a GPT partition scheme.
Once Clover EFI loads for a second time you can verify the installed UEFI boot by selecting "Boot UEFI internal from EFI" If all goes well, Windows will boot and you'll be able to install the hardware drivers.
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