GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+ w/ AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo)

[Mantis187]

well just ordered the processor and the heatsink, time only stopping me now

 

[Mantis187]

@GatorChamp

na bro were all here to help, hell im new to the boards as well. im not a novice when it comes to overclocking hell i remember overclocking my p2 300 mhz processor to 425 LOL. we all need help sometimes. its good to get help and not get flamed for it. this build is new for everyone. i dont know anyone with the same board/processor combo so hopefully ill get a good result

 

[Mantis187]

got another question to ask, the board comes with a CPB (core Performance Booster) im guessing thats whats utilizes the turbo mode on the processor? if im going to overclock the thing anyways this should be disabled correct?
Rgone for overclocking my memory (16gb ddr3 Corsair Vengeance LP) should i do it? or not worth it (9-9-9-24 1600mhz timings) if i would have know that this was going to be my final decision on this board i would have got the 1866 but oh well can get it later.

 

[RGone]

got another question to ask, the board comes with a CPB (core Performance Booster) im guessing thats whats utilizes the turbo mode on the processor? if im going to overclock the thing anyways this should be disabled correct? = I would think it would be so or the board might be trying to move the speed up and down.


Rgone for overclocking my memory (16gb ddr3 Corsair Vengeance LP) should i do it? or not worth it (9-9-9-24 1600mhz timings) if i would have know that this was going to be my final decision on this board i would have got the 1866 but oh well can get it later. = You can try anything in a test to see what might happen with the ram overclocked. Who knows how far it will go. I have seen good DDR1600 go to DDR1800 with a little extra ram voltage. And if the DDR1866 ram had 10, 10 type timings then I doubt it would have added any real performance boost.

 

[Mantis187]

wow alot of people getting on the 4100 saying that its a out of date type speed wise. i know intels make better processors when it comes to gaming and what not but why the hell pay over 300 dollars for a CPU? most of the time when playing u dont even see the difference in FPS. so sick and tired of these benchmark gurus that only buy a processor because of the benchmarks results. im playing games not worried about benchmarks. if the processor runs games great then why should i care? 129.99? cant get any better. but alot are saying that the phenom iix4s are running faster, i dont know enough about processors to have a debate with someone. for 129.99 hell i cant beat it and if it overclocks to 4.5 as easy as most say it does... im sold

 

[Mantis187]

Wow kinda not to happy but still a better processor than what I got now

 

[ssjwizard]

Really what you must consider is that the 4100 is like a pimped out dual core. Given its the most expensive dual core AMD offers but its new tech, and that has to be expected. I will say the fact that the performance per unit is actually impressive when you look at them as 2,3, and 4 core chips instead of the advertised 4 6 8. Price vs performance BD is on the meh list ATM. IMO its advantages lie in future scaling.

Im sure you will still be happy with your new system. Make sure to report back so we can all learn something.

 

[RGone]

Well you can always put the FX-4100 on ebay after you get a 965BE if the 4100 is just too much of a dud. You are not talking about $250 processors which would really tend to hurt.

 

[Mantis187]

na im just going to use it and let it ride. ur not going to see that much of a difference in games anyways. lets see paying another 150-200 dollars for 5-7 fps? na screw that ill be happy with it

 

[Mantis187]

Really what you must consider is that the 4100 is like a pimped out dual core. Given its the most expensive dual core AMD offers but its new tech, and that has to be expected. I will say the fact that the performance per unit is actually impressive when you look at them as 2,3, and 4 core chips instead of the advertised 4 6 8. Price vs performance BD is on the meh list ATM. IMO its advantages lie in future scaling.

Im sure you will still be happy with your new system. Make sure to report back so we can all learn something.

well i got all my parts except memory. i didnt pay attention to the egg saver shipping crap and now DHL and USPS is delivering the packages. so now im stuck with everything except my memory damn im pissed

 

[Mantis187]

well got it up and running installing all the crap back on it. for anyone that wants to setup a RAID on this make sure u get the RAID drivers from gigabytes website or IT WILL NOT work. i had the cpu clocked to 4.5 with my zalman 9700 (the hyper 212+ i had the fans would not spin) had a lockup while trying to install windows updates so downed the clock to 4.3 so far so good

 

[Mantis187]

well looks like ill be sending the motherboard back. nothing but issues have had a few BSODs lockups and random restarts. im going to run a test on the memory i got to see if it is that. not happy at all after waiting almost 10days to get this damn build up and running.

 

[RGone]

"Mantis187" ole buddy, you are giving up rather quickly it seems.

1. Make a signature showing what your system is comprised of. User Control Panel and edit signature is the location. I have a template of suggested components to show in signature, in my signature.

2. It really sounds like you are rushing it. One minute you are overclocking and the next you are trying to install the O/S and other stuffs. Not a good idea to be pushing the rig and install applications at the same time. Or it would seem not.

3. Now while it is true that you could have a marginal component, but a thorough testing and stressing at stock for a valid baseline is what those of us in the overclocking hobby for years always do. How in heck we know what is what when overclocked if we do not know what is what before we start to turn the wick up? No way! I always test at default for a few days before nailing the throttle and sort out the software issues etc first.

4. When I first saw your postings, a month or so ago, you were thinking thuban 6 core and then all of a sudden you are off to FX processor land. Then you found reviews and reports that FX-4100 was likely to be a dog. Well human nature is that in your mind the FX-4100 is not good and the least little bump in the setup road is causing you to ditch the whole thing. Do it if you wish of course since it is your coins, but I hate to see you just take a quick rush to overclock and some slaps in the face as cause to ditch the whole project.

If you are going to do that then you need to get you a 2500K intel cpu and motherboard and just get on with computing. There are many, too many to count, posts about boards and 2500K processors. Clocking them to 4.4 -4.5Ghz is not a major mountain and the results are already post across the net. Luck man.

 

[Mantis187]

well rgone i talked to gigabyte for numerous hours and it was a defective RAID controller on the board itself that was causing my lockups and reboots. mem checked out ok, processor was running fine, could not get the RAID controller to setup correctly after numerous hours. so sending the board back in and while i was taking everything apart to get the mobo sent back in, u aint gonna believe this, moving the heatsink just a tiny bit to get it off the process i mean NO FORCE at all hardly the processor pulled right out of the motherboard. but to make sure i dont go through anymore crap again im just sending everything back and getting the phenom x4 956 with a asus motherboard. after all the issues with this billed right out of the boxed even BEFORE i ocd. i ocd it after i got everything installed and more than a few hours of runtime. hell i installed bf3 to play and nothing but texture glitches (rainbow colors) and random resets. thats when i decided to see what was wrong. so between the processor almost falling out of the board before i touched it, to the other lockups reboots. its better to start from scratch. the processor was running fine, but BF3 was running hella slow compared to my buddies build which was almost the same as mine. im not new to building machines, this was by far the most busted machine i ever tried to build. im always carefully with getting everything together. i just think it was my time to get some DOA equipment. soon as i get it sent in and get the new stuff ill let ya guys know how its going. thanks for all the advice.

and the best news is newegg is refunding me all my doe spend with no restocking fees. ty newegg!

no matter stock or OCd BF3 was nothing but a hellraiser of a ride. lock ups and resets no matter what settings i threw at it.

also windows 7 saw all my memory, i didnt bother running memtest, which was prolly a badthing on my part. but im pretty sure its not the memory going to run it in friends comp to see if anything happens. BIOS posted, windows saw all memory and speed 1600

 

[Terminatez]

well rgone i talked to gigabyte for numerous hours and it was a defective RAID controller on the board itself that was causing my lockups and reboots. mem checked out ok, processor was running fine, could not get the RAID controller to setup correctly after numerous hours. so sending the board back in and while i was taking everything apart to get the mobo sent back in, u aint gonna believe this, moving the heatsink just a tiny bit to get it off the process i mean NO FORCE at all hardly the processor pulled right out of the motherboard. but to make sure i dont go through anymore crap again im just sending everything back and getting the phenom x4 956 with a asus motherboard. after all the issues with this billed right out of the boxed even BEFORE i ocd. i ocd it after i got everything installed and more than a few hours of runtime. hell i installed bf3 to play and nothing but texture glitches (rainbow colors) and random resets. thats when i decided to see what was wrong. so between the processor almost falling out of the board before i touched it, to the other lockups reboots. its better to start from scratch. the processor was running fine, but BF3 was running hella slow compared to my buddies build which was almost the same as mine. im not new to building machines, this was by far the most busted machine i ever tried to build. im always carefully with getting everything together. i just think it was my time to get some DOA equipment. soon as i get it sent in and get the new stuff ill let ya guys know how its going. thanks for all the advice.

and the best news is newegg is refunding me all my doe spend with no restocking fees. ty newegg!

no matter stock or OCd BF3 was nothing but a hellraiser of a ride. lock ups and resets no matter what settings i threw at it.

also windows 7 saw all my memory, i didnt bother running memtest, which was prolly a badthing on my part. but im pretty sure its not the memory going to run it in friends comp to see if anything happens. BIOS posted, windows saw all memory and speed 1600

I will assure u that it will most likely be 80% memory problem. Make sure you get memory that is in there support list because the exact same thing happened to me. I purchased some patriot g2 for this mobo, and nothing but pure errors, first one was error on memtest, sent it backj got replaced and same problems no erros but same goddamn crashed BSODS restarts etc. Then i went on there support list, and bought some g.skills and works perfectly fine trust me..look at ur ram

 

[Mantis187]

Im getting same mobo as my roomie tested it in his comp memory works great. But im going to get the 3.7 denab x4 processor. Fx is just not that great atm

 

[ssjwizard]

All Gigabyte 990X/FX boards have 1 issue, no options to disable APM or control LLC in BIOS what as an effect causes voltage jumping, huge vdrop and throttling ( almost only while overclocking ). No matter if it's 990XA or FXA or any version like UD3/UD5/UD7, on all boards without special beta bios it's exactly the same ( and beta with LLC isn't public ). You can disable throttling using AOD - enable turbo core and disable it, then it's turning off ... but it's working only till you restart pc.
Since all 990X/FX boards have less or more issues, it's hard to recommend any board for FX cpu. Gigabyte would be perfect with fixed BIOS...

I hate to necro a solved thread but this post right here just made my day. I got my 8120 last night and I was experiencing alot of weirdness. I finally got the system overclocking decently and decided to throw finding nemo dvd through handbrake and compare at my current 4.7ghz OC VS the run I did at stock. To my amazement my cpu was running nice and cool @ 36c running at half the normal multi...... Long story short I used this trick which BTW reminds me of the old dual IDA trick that worked on core2duos to unlock an extra multi by enabling then disabling eist with throttle stop, anyways its now crunching away @4.7ghz 1.325vCore ~51c with a rather impressive FPS increase in handbrake.

 

[ssjwizard]

Followup to the last post. I installed the F10g BIOS onto the 990xa-ud3 and it is MUCH MUCH more reliable now. I was able to push my 8120 up to 5.3ghz earlier with a very solid 1.42v core. This also adds 1 core per module mode, core enable disable, and the all important Master APM mode. This is the stupid function that was previously not modifiable that was causing the throttling problems.

 

[Mario1]

990FXA-D3 does the same thing on a Phenom II X4 850.
BIOS voltage is set to 1,375, CPU-Z reports 1,392 : http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2184831

 

[Mantis187]

Glad to see u guys got ur issues straight. I went ahead and sent mine back only issues I got with amd boards is their cpu locking mechanisms. That was my main problem with mine.