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Sabretooth 990FX + 9370. Compatibility Check

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h4rm0ny

Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2011
Location
UK
Hi. I currently have a Sabretooth 990FX motherboard. Note, this isn't the R2.0, it's the first iteration. I don't know if that makes any difference.

It currently has an 1100T nestled in it. Although I'm not likely to get much raw power boost, I want to "upgrade" to an FX chip because they have hardware acceleration for AES and this will make a big difference with my encrypted disks.

I know the motherboard is AM3+ and the FX-chips are AM3+, but I've heard that because of the power draw of these chips not all motherboards actually can support them even if the socket fits.

Can someone who knows about this say if my motherboard will handle a 9370. Even possibly a 9590?

I'm going to jump ship to Intel later this year (shame - been a longtime AMD'er, but I need more power for my work), so I don't want to spend more money than I have to, but I have a work requirement for some of my stuff to be encrypted and software disk encryption will be horrendous for the amount of data I have.

Also, if I can piggy-back an extra question on here, will my current PSU need to be upgraded for the 9370/9590? It's 750W and currently supporting the current set-up (in sig) and five hard drives.

Thanks for any replies!
 
You can look on the Asus website for your version of motherboard which is not R2.0 you say and it will tell you if Asus says the board is supposed to support the FX-9370. That is what any of us would have to do to get an answer from the motherboard manufacturer.
RGone...ster.
 
You can look on the Asus website for your version of motherboard which is not R2.0 you say and it will tell you if Asus says the board is supposed to support the FX-9370. That is what any of us would have to do to get an answer from the motherboard manufacturer.
RGone...ster.

Sorry - I couldn't find that information. Google-fail!

Anyway, apparently the best it will handle is the FX-8350. Which is unfortunate. But it seems (thanks Earthdog) that there's really little gain of the 9370 over the 8350.

Yeah, I probably should go straight to the Intel, but I'm kind of waiting for the Haswell-E refresh. I'm going to go all out one a powerful machine, then. But I've had some work land on me which requires me to store the database encrypted. A chip with AES built in will be a big boost on that. So if I can drop £160 on a chip right now and get a benefit for the next X months, it's probably worth it. I just hope the FX-8350 isn't a reduction in speed on the rest of the system. It looks pretty much the same as what I have other than the AES. :(
 
Sorry - I couldn't find that information. Google-fail!

Anyway, apparently the best it will handle is the FX-8350. Which is unfortunate. But it seems (thanks Earthdog) that there's really little gain of the 9370 over the 8350.

Yeah, I probably should go straight to the Intel, but I'm kind of waiting for the Haswell-E refresh. I'm going to go all out one a powerful machine, then. But I've had some work land on me which requires me to store the database encrypted. A chip with AES built in will be a big boost on that. So if I can drop £160 on a chip right now and get a benefit for the next X months, it's probably worth it. I just hope the FX-8350 isn't a reduction in speed on the rest of the system. It looks pretty much the same as what I have other than the AES. :(


Not sure if 9370 is really worth the upgrade from 8350 or picking one of the two.. It all depends on what you will use it for at the end of the day... i have an 8350 and my friend has the 9370.. i ran bf4 in his pc with rest being pretty much to my pc specs.. and he gets about 70ish FPS.. and i get about 65ish FPS.. and really can't see any difference between my pc and his..
 
Well an 1100T at 4.1Ghz is going to need an FX-8350 to run at probably about 4.5Ghz to be pretty equal to the 1100T @ 4.1Ghz. Or generally, that is the ratio we have seen to be mostly true. IPC is less on the FX than the Thuban so the increase in clock speed of the FX is needed to keep up with the 4.1Ghz Thuban.

BUT if you really must have AES until you can see about full blown Intel, you have little choice but to try the FX processor.
RGone...ster.
 
Not sure if 9370 is really worth the upgrade from 8350 or picking one of the two
Depends on if you're overclocking and how good of a piece of silicon you get. In most cases the 8350 will equal the 9370. On air you're probably going to be limited to around 4.5 on either chip. If you have a really good chip you may get near 4.8 on Air. The 9370 seems to have a bit stronger IMC though that may just be due to the binning of the chips.
 
There's always the 6300/6350, 2 less cores but also less heat and power draw. I have a 6350 that runs at 4.65 with a CM Hyper as the cooler, the Nochtua mau give you a bit more headroom, and yes that PSU will be fine.

EDIT I have both CPUs and there really isn't much difference. The one thing we have seen is the last few 9370s that came through here were very difficult for their owners to tame. I apparently got lucky and my chip will run at 4.8G with very low voltage the others were not.
 
Really helpful replies, everyone. Thanks a lot.

I'm going to grab the 8350. If I don't, then every time I'm waiting for something to finish on the encrypted systems, I'm going to be cursing the lack of AES support. RGone - really useful estimate there with the overclocking. I'll try and get it running at a 4.5+ and then at least I wont feel I've lost out.

Cheers,

H.
 
Unless your software handle more than 6 threads you still might get further with a 6 core. Not pushing really just save you a bit of cash and more than likely a higher clock than the 8350 because of the heat. Personally I'd get the 6350.
 
I have that exact Mobo and went from a x4 955 @4.2, not your 1100t, to a FX8330. Was a great choice. Make sure you update to the latest bios. Because I have read that it will support 6xxx series out of the box but needs the latest bios for the fx8xxx. I've had zero issues with my chip and the Mobo is running strong.

I kind of second the notion of staying with a 1100t until you are ready to move to intel. Seems kinda pointless to spend the 180-200 on the chip. That is $$ you could put towards the Intel board.

The 8350 is no doubt faster.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/203?vs=697
 
I have that exact Mobo and went from a x4 955 @4.2, not your 1100t, to a FX8330. Was a great choice. Make sure you update to the latest bios. Because I have read that it will support 6xxx series out of the box but needs the latest bios for the fx8xxx. I've had zero issues with my chip and the Mobo is running strong.

I kind of second the notion of staying with a 1100t until you are ready to move to intel. Seems kinda pointless to spend the 180-200 on the chip. That is $$ you could put towards the Intel board.

The 8350 is no doubt faster.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/203?vs=697

Those are some nice nudges. The bump on "Data Analysis" is very interesting to me. I think I'll have to look into exactly what goes into that section of the test. I'm wondering if it will be a positive with my database work.

Yeah, I agree it's pretty wasteful to get the chip for the short-term. But if Haswell-E isn't going to show until July+, and then I'll have to fit in a complete system re-build at one of my busiest times... I can get an 8350 for £140 and drop it in this weekend, probably. That's probably half a year of more efficient work. It's for a client who needs the data I'm working on to be encrypted. They can pay for it!
 
Sorry - I couldn't find that information. Google-fail!

Anyway, apparently the best it will handle is the FX-8350. Which is unfortunate. But it seems (thanks Earthdog) that there's really little gain of the 9370 over the 8350.

Your right, FX-8350 is highest that MB will handle as of last BIOS update 1604, I have seen where someone put a FX-9370 in a R1.0 MB and it worked but the CPU speed was around 1.4GHZ (not good for a 4.4GHZ CPU)
I have same MB you have and I'm running a FX-8120 clocked at 3.6GHZ, I used this PC in computer traning school running Windows 2012 server OS and it ran great.
 
Your right, FX-8350 is highest that MB will handle as of last BIOS update 1604, I have seen where someone put a FX-9370 in a R1.0 MB and it worked but the CPU speed was around 1.4GHZ (not good for a 4.4GHZ CPU)
I have same MB you have and I'm running a FX-8120 clocked at 3.6GHZ, I used this PC in computer traning school running Windows 2012 server OS and it ran great.

I actually went ahead and ordered it. It should arrive tomorrow. I'll do some benchmarking before I take the old chip out so I'm not just relying on my perceptions to see if there's a performance difference. I know there will be with the disk encryption which is what I need. I only hope that I can get a semi-decent overclock out of it with the cooler that I have.
 
In general I would think you should reach 4.5Ghz with a NH D14 air cooler. We have had two users in here in the last 6 mos I guess it was that seemed to have bought D-14s that were duds. They just would not cool. We never found out why and I think only the last user with issues was going to send his back but he bought one of those AiO mini-water loops and never said if he sent the D-14 back or not.

I have a Xigmatek Aegir in Push / Pull with two aprox 98.0 CFM fans on it and they handle 4.6Ghz pretty readily. I have to twist the fans up pretty good when pushing a real load though at 4.6Ghz. The D-14 is supposed to be right in that 'class' of air cooler.
RGone...
 
Well I got the part earlier this week from overclockers.co.uk (though my secretary forgot to tell me there was a parcel waiting for me :shrug: ). So I got the chance to put it in yesterday. Didn't go well due to a crash just before installation (not related to the CPU) which meant I didn't do a proper performance benchmark prior to the upgrade. :bang head: Although Windows 8 does tell me my WPE has gone from 7.8 to 7.9 for CPU and memory. :facepalm:

Anyway, this is all vanilla right now. It's my main work box so all I'm after is a good stable overclock. AMD Overdrive (it was installed) is telling me that my temperatures are around 14 degrees for each core. Which can't be right, surely? I mean the case is still open from the install and its a good cooler for air and it's not doing anything yet - just sitting there. But still, that cool? :screwy:

Well I have the afternoon to play around with it. It wont be anything on the scale of what you guys do, I just want something a bit quicker and 24/7 stable. I have what I really needed (hardware AES support) so the rest is just a nice little extra if I can get it going faster.
 
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