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Asus M5A97 R2.0 for an FX8350 ?

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poco242

Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2013
Location
Great White North, MN
I know this is no top of the line MB. It is more middle of the road. ASUS says it will support an FX 8350. Currently I have that MB with a P2 965 I am having fun overclocking, but I want to put the FX in. I am not into gaming that much but do a lot of HD video editing, so I think the 8 core would make that go faster. Any thoughts?

Oh and I will play with overclocking the FX, but not too extreme.
 
I had my 4170 in my m5a97 r 2.0 and that was a disaster, the 8350 can only be worse in it.
so I vote no.
I could make 4.5 with that combo so the performance was just horrid, the board is an awsome 955-965 board and one of the best combos i own.
 
How long ago was that? They do have new drivers for it. Not sure if that would help.
I have my 965 at 4.2ghz stable so far. It does seem to work very well with that processor. Maybe I will just stick with it and do an FX build later with a Crosshair or Sabertooth. I do love that 965 :)

Your 965 rig is prettty close to mine. Down to the 7770 GPU.
 
not long ago at all, you may be overdoing it with the ram, 1600-1800 is about as fast as it needs to be.
I run 1600 ram at 1700 with a 3.8 clock 24/7 and the rig is just awesome.
I also bench it a little, if you go over to the ovecloctagon I have a go with it every month.
 
That is just what the ram is rated to. I have it at 1432 when I run it at 4.2.

Thanks for the advise. You saved me a lot of frustration. I will keep this one as it is and work at getting it to 4.4 ghz if possible :) 4.3 is kicking my a$$ right now.
 
I know this is no top of the line MB. It is more middle of the road. ASUS says it will support an FX 8350. Currently I have that MB with a P2 965 I am having fun overclocking, but I want to put the FX in. I am not into gaming that much but do a lot of HD video editing, so I think the 8 core would make that go faster. Any thoughts?

Oh and I will play with overclocking the FX, but not too extreme.
Poco242, I cannot count the times people have come on this forum trying to run a Fx 8xxx on a low end motherboard and have had nothing but issues. The Fx 8xxx is a totally different animal then the 9xx phenoms. I had my 955 on a M5A99X Evo motherboard and it ran like a champ on it, had it to 4.3 stable on H2O and as high as 4600+. My 8350 was a totally different story, I could do 4.4 stable but that was it, the Vrm section on the M5A99X Evo is only 6+2 power phases and it just isn't stout enough to supply enough voltage to run all 8 cores above 4.4 stable. The M5A99X Evo is a much better board then the M5A97 R2.0 which only has 4+2 power phases. You would be lucky if it ran well at stock settings, forget about overclocking it on that board.

From following your work on the 965 I see already you have the bug. If you really plan on getting an 8XXX do it right the first time. They are a hell of a lot of fun to overclock but you need to be prepared if you're going to try and put you foot on it's neck. They require nothing short of a High end motherboard and cooling, cooling, cooling. Not one of us that push the pee out of these things, I'm talking 5.0 + do it on anything less then a full custom loop. If you are only looking to mildly overclock it then I would recommend a M5A99X evo or 990fx pro board but you will be limited on how far you will be able to push it stable.
 
Get a board with an 8+2 VRM section or you're asking for trouble with an 8-core.
 
I agree. When I do it, it will be with the best board. My current was more of a trial and my first ground up build. I knew I wanted an ASUS board and have always had AMD machines.

You are correct. I do have the bug ! If I can get this thing stable at 4.3 I will get a better cooler and try for more. Temps are getting to be an issue. I run it at stock speeds normally. 4.0 if I am going to do some hard work with it. Above that is for fun.
 
I agree. When I do it, it will be with the best board. My current was more of a trial and my first ground up build. I knew I wanted an ASUS board and have always had AMD machines.

You are correct. I do have the bug ! If I can get this thing stable at 4.3 I will get a better cooler and try for more. Temps are getting to be an issue. I run it at stock speeds normally. 4.0 if I am going to do some hard work with it. Above that is for fun.
Where do you live Poco, depending on the temps you could always put the rig outside and OC. Just remember the fluid in the Heatsink can freeze and burst the pipes. Yes we're crazy like that this is what it takes for me to get my rig over 5.6 gig, This is what Johan45 does.
 
I'm in MN. If it 5 deg here today :)

I am looking at water coolers. I was thinking of the Corsair H100
I'm not a fan of the AIO water units, they seem to have too many reliability issues. I'm a firm believer if you're going to do water do it with a custom loop, otherwise just get a top of the line Air unit, Noctua NH-D14, Phanteks PH-TC14PE, XIGMATEK Aegir, Thermaltake CLP0575 Frio OCK or Prolimatech Megahalems are a few of the really good Air units. I own a Prolimatech Megahalems and it is hands down the best Air Heatsink I own. It keeps my 4770k oced 24/7 @ 4.5 without issue. It gave me about 10c better temps then my Cm 212+.
 
That thing is HUGE. I had to remove the 212+ just to install my RAM. Not sure if that beast will fit in my case. I will have to do some measuring. I would prefer air to water. I would be worried about a leak with water. I have read of it happening many times.
 
That thing is HUGE.
Yes the Nactua, Phanteks and Thermaltake are rather large the other two are not that much bigger then the 212. I'm more or less thinking of the future, if down the road you do get an Fx 8 series you're going to want a top notch heatsink.

As far as water goes, the AIO units are fairly safe, I've never heard of one leaking, unless it was messed with by the user. A custom loop can leak if not careful, but usually it's only when first put together. Again I don't recall anyone coming into the forum stating that their loop started leaking over time. If you take the necessary precautions when first putting it together and testing it for leaks, you shouldn't any issues with it.
 
I think I can shoe horn it in. The bad part is the big heat sink they put on the ram. Seems to be a little overkill. Does ram actually get that hot? I know on my 212 it is petty much touching the heat sink on the first stick.
 
Poco242, I cannot count the times people have come on this forum trying to run a Fx 8xxx on a low end motherboard and have had nothing but issues. The Fx 8xxx is a totally different animal then the 9xx phenoms. I had my 955 on a M5A99X Evo motherboard and it ran like a champ on it, had it to 4.3 stable on H2O and as high as 4600+. My 8350 was a totally different story, I could do 4.4 stable but that was it, the Vrm section on the M5A99X Evo is only 6+2 power phases and it just isn't stout enough to supply enough voltage to run all 8 cores above 4.4 stable. The M5A99X Evo is a much better board then the M5A97 R2.0 which only has 4+2 power phases. You would be lucky if it ran well at stock settings, forget about overclocking it on that board.

From following your work on the 965 I see already you have the bug. If you really plan on getting an 8XXX do it right the first time. They are a hell of a lot of fun to overclock but you need to be prepared if you're going to try and put you foot on it's neck. They require nothing short of a High end motherboard and cooling, cooling, cooling. Not one of us that push the pee out of these things, I'm talking 5.0 + do it on anything less then a full custom loop. If you are only looking to mildly overclock it then I would recommend a M5A99X evo or 990fx pro board but you will be limited on how far you will be able to push it stable.

When you talk about the M5A99X evo do you also mean the M5A99X evo R2.0 ? (6+2+2)

Whats the difference between 6+2+2 and 8+2 ? (all joking aside of coarse)
 
When you talk about the M5A99X evo do you also mean the M5A99X evo R2.0 ? (6+2+2)
I really don't know the differences between the two revisions, that said the 6+2+2 power phases are the same on both boards. The last +2 was probably added for marketing hype. The Cpu on both boards has a 6+2 Power phase where the additional +2 on the r 2.0 is the memory power phase.


Whats the difference between 6+2+2 and 8+2
Just saying that 8+2 is better then 6+2 isn't really accurate, which is how most of us explain it. There is more to the VRM section then just the power phases and the components involved in the section also very important. In basic terms the VRM section converts the power from the PSU to the voltage that the Cpu uses. The power phases can be looked at as channels supplying power to the Cpu. In basic terms if the 6+2 power phase section has the same quality, components as a 8+2 power phase, the 8+2 will be able to supply the power more efficiency with less heat. Now, it isn't really a problem when you are overclocking a processor that doesn't consume a huge amount of power and/or are not using LN2 or Dice. For instance the example I had above with my 955be, under non extreme overclocking the Phenom doesn't draw an extreme amount of power. This is a perfect example where a lower/mid range mother board will be fine for overclocking such a chip. If going to extremes such as using LN2 this will probably not be the case.

When going to these new Fx Cpu's especially the 83xx series it's a whole new ball game. These chips just suck ridiculous amounts of power and require really good Vrm sections to provide power to them without overheating the VRM section. When running stock Cpu clocks to a mild overclock the M5A99X boards will hold their own. It's only when really pushing the voltage to the Cpu, that the Vrm section just isn't stout enough to run all 8 cores stable. I personally had an issue at 4.5 gig on my M5A99X Evo with my 8350. I had it stable at 4.4 but when trying to get it stable above that, for 24/7 overclocks it just couldn't do it. The system would lock up every time I tried running prime or any other stability test I used. Once I put the 8350 on my CHV board I was able to get it stable at 4.7 which is where I run it 24/7. These examples that I gave are a bit simplified and there is much more to it then what I wrote but in basic terms I hope it is understandable.
 
I tried a 4170 on my m5a97 R2.0 and 4.5 was it and it was a disaster.
I have not put my 6300 on it after the 4170 so I just can't say.
 
I wonder why that is? The power requirements should be no different on that compared to a 965 right? Both are just 4 core CPU's. Heck I figured that would be no problem since I am actually using an older CPU AM3 compared to the mobo being an AM3+. Interesting.
 
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