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Good motherboard for AMD FX 8350

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cctaylor88

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Joined
Jan 21, 2013
I'm planning on doing a little upgrading to my computer as I have a bit of extra cash laying around. The good people on these forums have convinced my that purchasing an SSD is well worth the money so I will go ahead and purchase an SSD for sure. But, I am also considering buying a new CPU and motherboard with hopes of overclocking in mind...
For some reason I am really looking at the AMD FX 8350 CPU as I would like to stick with an AMD processor, and I notice it comes out of the box at 4.0GHz which is very nice. What are your thoughts on the CPU? Also I have noticed some listing for the chip that say 4.0(4.2 Turbo) what exactly is the whole 4.2 turbo about...
If I decided on this chip (AMD FX 8350) I would absolutely like to do some over clocking and that is why I think I will be needing a new motherboard as well, a motherboard that will allow for easy over clocking (for instance the mobo I have now...people are saying it doesn't have "direct vrm cooling" etc.

So to break this down, I am thinking of purchasing a new CPU/Motherboard that will allow for easy upgrading..what are your thoughts on the 8350 and what would you recommend as a CPU/mobo combination?
Also, would you recommend buying the CM Hyper 212 for this processor as I'd like to do some OC'ing or something else? Stock?

Thanks so much!

Current Setup is below:
Ram: g.Skill Ripjaws 8gb
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2
Motherboard: ASUS M4A87TD/USB3
Power: 600W OCZ
Case: MidTower
GPU: NVIDIA GTX 460
 
Hi cctaylor88,
First thing I should say is the FX8350 is a power hungry heat monger. :mad:
If you are going to OC at all stay away from the lowend boards. I would suggest an ASUS Sabretooth 990FX or even the M5A 99FXpro depending on how high you want to go. The Sabretooth and crosshair boards have more power available. The hyper 212 is a very good cooler I have one on my 965 and it keeps the temps down very well. I'm sure it would do fine if you didn't want to OC too far but you wouldn't get the big numbers out of it.
Mostly it boils down to how far you want to push the CPU. This is a go big or stay home kind of chip. :comp:
 
About as good as it gets...

...cctaylor88, I don't think you could have gotten a response from two more knowledgable FX-83xx users than getting a response from "Johan45" and "ssjwizard". A little background about why I make such a statement.

I believe but am not going back thru earlier posts to determine for sure but he can correct me if I am wrong. "Johan45" started his overclock of the FX-8350 with a mid-tier Asus motherboard and NOW shows this in his signature >> CPU : AMD FX 8350 >> Mobo : ASUS Sabretooth 990FX R2.0 >> Cooler : Thermaltake 2.0 Extreme Water and he can likely hold a very stable overclock of his FX-8350 at 4.5Ghz to maybe 4.8Ghz depending on how lucky his cpu is in terms of voltage needed to overclock.

"ssjwizard" has had the FX-8120 and now at least one FX-8320 and he has authored a very good thread in the AMD CPU section with a title that reads something like >> My FX-8120 vs FX-8320. I understand that "ssjwizard" has now an Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 series motherboard for his FX-8320, so he too has changed motherboards to a top tier board.

I copied this from "ssjwizrds" signature. Note: in his signature they actually do LINK to other very nice build-ups of the rigs themselves. I suggest you look at "ssjwizards" build links. Very fine.
Green Gorilla, CM 690-II nVidia, FX 8120, SLI 460's, liquid cooled
Liquid Fusion, CM 690-II, A8+6670 Dual GFX, liquid cooled
Extreme evaporative water loop
450mm^3 water cooled beast - Incomplete

See anything that is most visible about the four setups? WC aKa Water-Cooled. BIG water cooling in fact. See this as well >> CM 690-II? Not just any old computer case either.

The truth is that "Johan45" was not "stretching" the truth at all when he said the 8 core FX processors run HOT and need a good top tier motherboard to really push the overclock. ALL FX processors run HOT, just the 8 cores by having 8 cores, run really HOT and take a lot of power to run and that power must come thru the cpu VRM circuit of the motherboard. I think it was said to Go Big or Stay at Home and that is so true when thinking to push an FX-8350 hard in overclocking.

With a cheap, poorly ventilated computer case and a CM 212 type cpu cooler, I would suspect that 4.2Ghz fully prime 95 blend stable for two hours would be doable on a top tier motherboard. Maybe but certainly not a sure thing, you might get 4.4Ghz P95 Blend stable if there is very good case cooling going on to remove the hot air from within the computer case as the cpu air-cooler removes the heat from the processor.

You could go with a better air-type cpu cooler and ensure that there is 'awesome' air-flow thru the case and a top tier mobo and maybe run 4.4Ghz P95 Blend mode stable. I think that is a realistic view of the situation. No sugar-coating. There is always the possibility that you might get very lucky and have come to you a "primo" cpu like I think I did and do a little better, but we are not advising for such remote possibility, but for what are the more likely real world situations.

I enjoy my FX-8350. I have the parts and pieces to run it at 4.6Ghz daily and 4.8Ghz when I do video editting and rendering. It is a monster when used for that type of real work. I would say I do not game. I do play with overclocking and render my own home videos for upload. I enjoy being able to play in the bios of my CHV Asus mobo and now playing with an FX-6300 on the Asrock Fatal1ty 990FX mobo with the same WCooling I have used on my CHV and FX-8350. I am in my mind moving down to run the top of the line Fatal1ty 990FX mobo but am liking it well and it seems to do very well also. Key I think is to get a good mobo for good results. Not just any mobo but something along the lines of those listed in "ssjwizards" links in a post above.

As the now deceased Paul Harvey used to say > "Now you know the rest of the story".
RGone...
 
Thanks for the kind words Rgone almost brought a tear to my eye. :grouphug:
Ha just kidding. I did decide to upgrade, they had the Sabretooth on sale at canadacomputers for $170 couldn't resist. :clap:
Besides the M5A pairs up nicely with my 965 and brings it into the DDR3 era.
The only downfall has been I have TWO computers to tinker with now and I thought mama was grouchy with me when I was only playing with one. :chair:
Ya the 4.5GHZ wasn't bad but the Vcore it needs to get to 4.8 is a different story. :mad:
Still playing and trying to cut some of the power back a bit.

The OP has an Antec 300 for a case so airflow shouldn't be too bad and if he mounted a second fan on the cooler, I think he'd be OK. But 4.5 would would be his limit IMHO. After that the volts really start to rise. At least for me they did.
 
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