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Sabertooth 990fx GEN3/R2.0

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Zebodog

Member
Joined
May 3, 2013
Location
Ontario, Canada
I moved from a Gigabyte GA990fxa-ud3 to a Sabertooth 990fx Gen 3 to avoid throttling problems with the gigabyte board. Other than throttling at load, the Gigabyte was a good board but there was no end in sight to the problem so I decided to solve the problem myself.

The Gen 3 has turned out to be nothing better than a complete nightmare. The first board I returned as defective only to get a second board with the same issues. The board will lock completely and not POST; it would behave almost as if there was no power supply attached to it. This occurred about six times on each board and each time I would need to completely strip down the board and remove all accessories including the CMOS battery to get it to POST again. Sometimes it would be a week between incidents other times it would be an hour. Letting the PC enter sleep mode was a surefire way of inducing this "behaviour."

After finally having enough I decided to forgo another GEN 3 and went with a standard R2.0. No problems at all. This board has been rock solid and exactly what i expected to get for my hard earned money. So I don't get PCI-E 3.0? I doubt my SLI setup would saturate the X16 2.0 lanes anyway so it's rather moot.

I'm not sure what was going on with the GEN 3 and if it only happened with 1 board I would chalk it to a crap happens moment but the exact same issue with 2 boards? That seems like too much of a coincidence especially given how they plug these boards as TUF with military standard components. I'm sure there are a bunch of people with GEN3 boards that are happy but I know I'm not the only one who had problems with the GEN3; the computer store had a number of returns aside from mine.

A word of caution to those considering purchasing the GEN3 version of the Sabertooth 990FX. Unless you absolutely need PCI-E 3.0, stick with the standard R2.0. The board kicks booty.

/rant off
 
That's a bummer IO hope ASUS han't shot themselves in the foot with this one. I'm with ya on the R2. Mine has been great.
 
I just installed my R2.0 yesterday and I'm already in love with the thing! Glad to hear you finally got a working board. Frankly I've noticed a general downward trend in ASUS mobos as of the past several months, and already I only make build lists for people that include ASRocks or Gigabytes, no more ASUS. Only reason I bought my sabertooth is amazon warehouse deals offered a great deal on it and I was in a pinch.
 
The only one I've seen that didn't have too many problems was the GD80 and I've only seen one!
The others are a royal pain there's a few in the forum here if you're interested, check them out. I can understand at the initial launch MOBO co.s underestimating the FX but this far along there realy is no excuse
 
I am just about to decide that all the mobo companies under-estimated the demands of the FX processor for power consumption and then for the heat output. There was one set of problems with the Bulldozer processor and then another set again when AMD released the FX-8350 with a default speed of 4.0ghz which was a pretty hefty overclock for an FX-8150 Bulldozer. Suddenly an FX processor was pulling nearly the power thru the VRMs that the previous FX's pulled when overclocked.

Oh before I forget to say it; I also keep up with Intel boards even if not using one nor plan to any time soon since I like to "play" with the AMD and clock it. You have to spend too much for the high-dollar intel clockable BCLK boards. Dont' wander RGone. I don't hear too much about problems from any brand of board with Intel cpus. Most manufacturers seem to *get it* with Intel processors. Likely because they just do not draw as much current from the VRM circuit. At least you do not have to buy about the best motherboard offered by each company for the Intel like you do for an AMD and FX that you intend to push the PEE out of. And if really wanting to see all you can see from your AMD FX thing, you better get some good water. These mini-loops need not apply after about 4.6Ghz on Vishera.

I hate to hear that about the PCIe 3 on the Gen3 Sabertootth, that had been one of the more solid go to boards for high current drawing FX processors and did not cost what the Crosshair board did. To use PCIe 3 they should not have had to do much but tighten the signaling specs and not rebuild the whole board into dis-array like Zebodog seems to have run into. A distinct shame if the experience of Zebodog is very far reaching.

I actually believe the review sites did the public no real favors when the original FX processors were released with the rather too high clocks that were shown. H*ll just about every review site received the Asus CHV "and" the FX-8150 in the review package. The best mobo for FX procssors and the best processor at the time. That was the beginning of problems with public expectations and only in a few cases has that been remedied.

Now the AMD Cpu Forum section is almost exclusively flooded with entry level boards and some type of FX processor wanting an overclock. We have one user there now that is not responding but he was zonked from the outset with nO fans in the case, just a fan on the cpu cooler and it OEM. Shett far man, that is a recipe for heartache and headache.

And now that we are seeing some MSI boards and Giga has released the REV 3.0 boards, the what to do with this POS is turned all upside down again. IF and that is a (IMO) type IF, I was Giga I would no longer support the huge power demand of the FX at the entry level of the UD3 AMD boards. If you wanted to play around with the jumpy VRMs of something like a 970 UD3 Rev 1.1, then you could get a board for about $100 Usd and push an FX processor pretty darn good. Difficult and time consuming but doable. Now after the UD3 mosfet thing it appears that Giga has no real intention of letting the newer UD3 Rev 3.0 putting out all the power needed to push an 8 core FX processor. They have two more upper level boards that can be bought for that "need". Go big or stay at home seems the marketing strategy but it is a strategy that is n0t revealed to the consumer. You only need to read the long "official" UD3 threads though to know that a bios fix that was rumored is not here after nearly 2.5mos. I doubt such bios will come. Get a UD7 should be the mantra if you need to really push an FX 6 or 8 core and with a Giga board.

For us that have overclocked for years, we do a lot of study before a purchase. We have seen the trends. Heck the extra $60 Usd was worth it to me to go CHV to BEGIN WITH and not have to fight and buy the second time to get into the big money overclock, but that sort of knowledge is just over the heads of about 90% of the DIY buying public.Or so it seems based on the boards trying to do FX overclocks that are visible to us in the AMD sections.
RGone...
 
^^^^^ :thup:

You've hit the proverbial nail on the head.

Of course 95% of the people who purchase a high end FX processor will probably never encounter any issues. I initially purchased the Gigabyte 990fxa-ud3 because of the 8+2 VRM and the reasonable price. I was probably one of the first to receive the version3 because at the time there was no discussion about throttling on the forums; a problem Gigabyte introduced with the BIOS changes in version 3. It would seem that Gigabyte themselves knew at that point that an 8+2 VRM wasn't sufficient if you were going to push a top end FX past stock speeds. In all other aspects it was a terrific board and could easily be again if Gigabyte were to release a minor BIOS update but they seem to be deciding not to go down that road. I wonder if they know something about this board that we don't? If I were a betting man I'd say the VRM can't handle it.

So, does AMD need to reclassify or re-name their top tier FX processors? As it stands now every John Q. Public is going to think that every single AM3+ board will successfully run the 8350 whereas the reality of the situation is that only a small handful are truly qualified to properly run the top end FX's.

This Sabertooth 990fx R2.0 is truly a magnificent board. I was going to go with the CHV especially after my ordeal with the first two GEN 3 boards, but it was difficult to justify the extra $40; I just can't see where the CHV would excel past the R2.0. I truly hope that my experiences were isolated and that Asus hasn't fubar'd the Sabertooth.
 
Humm, ive been fairly inactive of late and seeing some of the negative posts as it relates to the Rev 3.0 UD3s makes me a bit sad. I used 4 different UD3s from Rev 1.0 - 1.2 and all were very capable and solid boards. Unless they changed the design of the VRM circuit it is absolutely capable of pushing an FX past 5Ghz stable, but if the BIOS isnt supporting that, well so much ado.

That said the Sabertooth R2.0 is an exceptional board. I almost held out for the Gen3 R2.0 but didnt see the need other than bragging rights. Glad you found a board that is getting you the results you were after.


Its better to not post links with page numbers, alot of us use non standard page length. However, good job mentioning the post # as I was able to navigate to the post you were referring to.
 
Np I'll remember that for the future. I'm no pagemaster, just like computers.
 
Goddamn, I wish mobos were easy like most components.

GPU? 7950 for the money, 780 for the performance.

PSU? Seasonic, Superflower, or Sirtec

RAM? Just buy 8GBs of it

Mobo? :shrug:
 
The ASRock 990FX Extreme 9 looks like a decent board, albeit a bit difficult to find in Canada. NewEgg.ca has it retailing for $179 with the CHV at $239 and the Sabertooth 990fx R2 at $189 it's priced competitively. Then GEN3 Sabertooth was demanding a $15 premium over the standard R2.0 so that just increases the gap if going for that version.

It's a shame that ASRock didn't get PCI-E 3.0 in the package. Now, in most cases, we don;t even come close to saturating the PCI-E 2.0 lanes but marketing being what it is people are going to want the latest and greatest.

I'll admit that in all the years that I've been building my own PC's, I've never looked at ASRock as a serious contender; I've been mostly an ASUS or Gigabyte loyalist but this new board will make me take a second look at ASRock as a serious player in the top tier FX processor market.
 
http://www.pureoverclock.com/Review-detail/asrock-990fx-extreme-9-motherboard-review/
ASRock 990FX Extreme 9 Motherboard Review

I have been waiting for a decent and un-hyped review of this board and finally found one. The bios is d*mned familiar since it looks a lot like the Fatal1ty 990FX Pro and my CHV. Not sure which it mimics the most. But it appears the items are there for stopping the throttling.
RGone...

Interesting read RGone, that is a pretty board and would fit my color scheme in my small build, I had been contemplating maybe a Sabertooth for that reason though have been reluctant to buy more new gear as I seem to have a bit of a surplus moving has opened my eyes to this ..... ehhh ummmm issue ...... :shock:

Its tempting to give it a try but with all my gear except my torrent box and this laptop already packed it will have to wait till I get settled ...... maybe.
 
The Sabretooth R2 is a good solid board bassnut. I've really put this one to the test and it keeps coming back for more.
 
Interesting read RGone, that is a pretty board and would fit my color scheme in my small build, I had been contemplating maybe a Sabertooth for that reason though have been reluctant to buy more new gear as I seem to have a bit of a surplus moving has opened my eyes to this ..... ehhh ummmm issue ...... :shock:

Its tempting to give it a try but with all my gear except my torrent box and this laptop already packed it will have to wait till I get settled ...... maybe.

Bah, the sign of a real computer geek is stacks of old motherboards, video cards and CPU's in a closet somewhere in their home. I must have at least 10 old motherboards, an equal amount of video cards and enough CPU's to use as chips at my next poker game.

There is no such thing as too much hardware.:D

If you go for the Sabertooth get the R2.0 not the GEN3/R2.0 - the only thing you'll be missing is PCI-E 3.0 and $15-$20 depending on where you buy from.
 
I just don't really get it. AMD is showing that they plan to release two new interim FX processors that are going to come with faster default speeds and thus the dang things will just overwhelm most of those boards out there now. I saw tons of users with problems with the FX-8350 when it came default clocked to 4.0Ghz and drawing awesome amounts of power at its "stock" speed.

I know the 990FX chipset boards were built more ruggedly than the cheaper 970 chipset motherboards. All you had to do was to read the majority of the brands specs. I guess 970 cheap chipset brought cheap other parts on the board and few VRM phases. But the users just flocked to those cheap 970 boards. AND they paid when trying to overclock everyone of them but the REV 1.1 Giga UD3 and now Giga seems to have fixed that deal for 'em.

The guys that know will steer clear of the headaches but woe to the newbly DIYer.
RGone...
 
Agreed, I blew a 970 board myself last week just trying to do a small voltage OC to my FX-6300, can't imagine how it is for an FX-8350 :sly:
 
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