m5a97 LE R2.0 Crapped out, what happened?

[caddi daddi]

the m5a97 r2.0 it is a great 955/965 board, I have one and I love the rig, it's the one i am most likly to flip on when i walk in, it has it's limits.
I tried my 4170 that is on vacation right now, it wanted to be someplace where it's warmer.
that combo was a complete disaster, put the 955 back in and it's just a sweeet, purring little kitten.

 

[Edog109]

I have an amd Fx6300 and an Asus M5a97 le R2.0...First off, update the BIOS via thumb drive fat32 format from Asus's driver website with the latest drivers offline so you don't corrupt the BIOS which better supports fx chips because people are most likely on all your computers as this board doesn't sport a vrm...Install the latest version of Ai Suite II!!!!! For a heat sink, you will need to go water cooling if you want a decent overclock. I personally use an older Corsair H80 water cooled heat sink which I will eventually modify when my back ordered cable comes in (funny). You don't just throw it together and start overclocking it, it requires the right downloads and updates, and supported cooling for this processor you can't expect alot from a four pin. Trust me, this motherboard is durable. If by some miracle you ended up breaking this board, you must have assembled it wrong, or didn't line your memory up or put the voltage over 1.40 or something. The bios is so easy to work with it isn't complicated...There are like 5 more options lol...Also the same uefi bios the sabertooth uses. I am able to clock over 4.7mhz stable....Uhm, I forget what I set my voltages to, yeah...Sorry. Anyways enjoy the board,

 

[bob4933]

Lol... not sure where to begin here... but I stopped reading when you called it a "durable board".... haha

You're a year, 2 dead m5a97s, 1 dead fatl1ty, and a sabertooth late here

3 miracles later I stopped messing around... m5a97 is a paperweight for fx chips.

 

[EarthDog]

I have an amd Fx6300 and an Asus M5a97 le R2.0...First off, update the BIOS via thumb drive fat32 format from Asus's driver website with the latest drivers offline so you don't corrupt the BIOS which better supports fx chips because people are most likely on all your computers as this board doesn't sport a vrm...Install the latest version of Ai Suite II!!!!! For a heat sink, you will need to go water cooling if you want a decent overclock. I personally use an older Corsair H80 water cooled heat sink which I will eventually modify when my back ordered cable comes in (funny). You don't just throw it together and start overclocking it, it requires the right downloads and updates, and supported cooling for this processor you can't expect alot from a four pin. Trust me, this motherboard is durable. If by some miracle you ended up breaking this board, you must have assembled it wrong, or didn't line your memory up or put the voltage over 1.40 or something. The bios is so easy to work with it isn't complicated...There are like 5 more options lol...Also the same uefi bios the sabertooth uses. I am able to clock over 4.7mhz stable....Uhm, I forget what I set my voltages to, yeah...Sorry. Anyways enjoy the board,

First, Welcome!!! Second, this thread is almost a year old...

That motherboard is not great for overclocking a hex/octo core FX CPUs.

It also 'sports a VRM'. Its 4+2 phase and there isn't a heatsink on it, which is part of the problem with it and people recommending it, especially for overclocking on it. We have another guy that just joined the forums and his system is shutting down just by stress testing it because the board can't handle the power draw of the octo (stock). He has airflow issues, but its cutting off too quick to be heat in the first place.

Lol... not sure where to begin here... but I stopped reading when you called it a "durable board".... haha

You're a year, 2 dead m5a97s, 1 dead fatl1ty, and a sabertooth late here

3 miracles later I stopped messing around... m5a97 is a paperweight for fx chips.

LOL, exactly.

 

[Blaylock]

Earthdog, you sir are fast! I guess that's why you're a first responder. LOL

I'd like to add, though, that you don't "need" a water cooled set-up for an FX 6xxx CPU. Infact many air coolers outperform many AIO coolers.

I do agree that many times people don't consider the BIOS when trouble shooting. At any rate, welcome to the forums.

 

[Mandrake4565]

people are most likely on all your computers as this board doesn't sport a vrm

?????

Install the latest version of Ai Suite II!!!!!

Do not install Ai Suite on an AMD board at all! It is well known to cause issues, I have it on my benching rigs and it's great for benching but it causes issues.

supported cooling for this processor you can't expect alot from a four pin.

Again Huh???

or put the voltage over 1.40 or something

I am able to clock over 4.7mhz stable....Uhm, I forget what I set my voltages

4.7 stable at less then 1.40???? Magic Chip perhaps?

 

[bob4933]

Proud owner of a magic chip manny

 

[Mandrake4565]

Proud owner of a magic chip manny

I suppose

 

[darkgamerx226]

First, Welcome!!! Second, this thread is almost a year old...

That motherboard is not great for overclocking a hex/octo core FX CPUs.

It also 'sports a VRM'. Its 4+2 phase and there isn't a heatsink on it, which is part of the problem with it and people recommending it, especially for overclocking on it. We have another guy that just joined the forums and his system is shutting down just by stress testing it because the board can't handle the power draw of the octo (stock). He has airflow issues, but its cutting off too quick to be heat in the first place.

LOL, exactly.

You are totally right about this board not being meant for overclocking. This is a 140watt maximum supporting board. Fx8320 is a 125watt TDP chip. At stock the fx8320 works perfectly fine on this board but turning it into a fx9370 at 4.4/4.7ghz with a TDP of 220watts is not recommended lol. This is a solid board for simple stock usage and it works perfectly fine with an fx 8 core up to the 8350. Ppl buying this board and overclocking it to fx9370 levels while expecting it to work obviously do not know what they are doing. As for the shutting off while stress testing, I have this board and the 8320 and have not had a single problem while stress testing. I am using an enermax ets-t40 HX650psu with 5 case fans though. Ran prime95 and the Overdrive stress test without a single problem. Temps remained in the low 50s. While playing watch dogs/sleeping dogs/BF4 temps remain under 50c. This board does support the chip so it could have been a number of reasons why that guys computer was shutting down. A weak/dying PSU can cause the same symptoms as well as bad cooling or a bad cpu cooler instal.

 

[darkgamerx226]

You could probably have put the FX-8320 in the socket and used it as AMD intended with TurboCore on and CNQ and all the other goodies and motored right on along.

BUT that is not what you did. You pushed it to 4.6Ghz with all 8 cores on at 4.6Ghz and the board likely gave up the fight.

Overclocking is in no way warrantied by the motherboard manufacturer. We just all assume one thing when something else is really the truth.
RGone...

This is the best comment I have read on here. This board was not meant to push an fx9370 nor is it even supported by this board. The fx8320/8350 at stock is pretty much all you can ask for from this board. Ppl who are saying this board is not meant for fx chips are speaking nonsense. Some of the fx line up are simple 95watt TDP chips and can be overclocked with this board (fx6300). Because of the 8 cores higher default TDP and the board only supporting up to 140watts the failed boards with overclocked 8 cores makes sense.

 

[bob4933]

Care to elucidate why my stock 8320 toasted one then?

 

[darkgamerx226]

Care to elucidate why my stock 8320 toasted one then?

How long did you have it before it went belly up? Did it give any warning signs before going because most components do before they die? Did you hear any sounds from the motherboard itself? It would be foolish of ASUS to claim support for a chip on a board with a 3 year warranty attached to it unless they wanted multiple RMAs/complaints. Did you update to the latest BIOS? I know the BIOS updates from last year brought stability improvements. As far as I know it my board is perfectly fine with the chip at stock. The board temp itself sits around 31c max and the socket temp is usually under 50c under load. Are you sure you didn't try that 4.5ghz OC im reading on this board? If you did then that's probably why it died. Maybe you temporary tried the OC and that caused damage to the board. THIS IS NOT A BOARD MEANT FOR OC 8 CORE CPUS!!!! Its a dead give away since it lacks an 8 pin and a heat sink on the VRMs.

 

[bob4933]

How long did you have it before it went belly up? Did it give any warning signs before going because most components do before they die? Did you hear any sounds from the motherboard itself? It would be foolish of ASUS to claim support for a chip on a board with a 3 year warranty attached to it unless they wanted multiple RMAs/complaints. Did you update to the latest BIOS? I know the BIOS updates from last year brought stability improvements. As far as I know it my board is perfectly fine with the chip at stock. The board temp itself sits around 31c max and the socket temp is usually under 50c under load. Are you sure you didn't try that 4.5ghz OC im reading on this board? If you did then that's probably why it died. Maybe you temporary tried the OC and that caused damage to the board. THIS IS NOT A BOARD MEANT FOR OC 8 CORE CPUS!!!! Its a dead give away since it lacks an 8 pin and a heat sink on the VRMs.

Your heart is in the right place, but you're literally a year too late to this party. It lasted about 3 weeks, and gave no warnings iirc. It just died, and I returned it to newegg and got a refund that time. I posted about that one on here as well, feel free to go dig up that old thread as well if you wish.

And please don't put words in my mouth, i.e. that "maybe you did this 4.5ghz oc im reading" crap. If I say I ran it stock, it meant I ran it stock. I didn't really have much of an interest of overclocking at the time anyway, and the first board I simply used the OC genie and had it run the overclock for me. The second board I was gunshy, so I left it stock and it still died. So then I got my refund and upgraded. Its all here on this forum.

 

[darkgamerx226]

Your heart is in the right place, but you're literally a year too late to this party. It lasted about 3 weeks, and gave no warnings iirc. It just died, and I returned it to newegg and got a refund that time. I posted about that one on here as well, feel free to go dig up that old thread as well if you wish.

And please don't put words in my mouth, i.e. that "maybe you did this 4.5ghz oc im reading" crap. If I say I ran it stock, it meant I ran it stock. I didn't really have much of an interest of overclocking at the time anyway, and the first board I simply used the OC genie and had it run the overclock for me. The second board I was gunshy, so I left it stock and it still died. So then I got my refund and upgraded. Its all here on this forum.

When I spoke about the OC I was talking about the 4.5ghz im reading in your parts listing under everything you say. OC genie is MSI not ASUS. I used an MSI board before this and that OC genie crap caused me to not be able to boot. Had to do a hard reset in order to get my PC working again. If you were using this board you either did a simple OC from the bios with a single click or you used AI SUITE. OC genie has NOTHING to do with ASUS so either you switched boards and had 1 asus m5a LE board or you are confused.

 

[bob4933]

When I spoke about the OC I was talking about the 4.5ghz im reading in your parts listing under everything you say. OC genie is MSI not ASUS. I used an MSI board before this and that OC genie crap caused me to not be able to boot. Had to do a hard reset in order to get my PC working again. If you were using this board you either did a simple OC from the bios with a single click or you used AI SUITE. OC genie has NOTHING to do with ASUS so either you switched boards and had 1 asus m5a LE board or you are confused.

I can't help but feel you have some agenda here. So Im going to point this out one more time, and leave it alone.

1) This post is A YEAR OLD.
2) OC Genie, AI SUITE, OC Guru, it doesn't matter matter. It's all the same garbage. Don't be a semantics stickler. You knew exactly what I meant.
3) If you'd like to continue the "Im reading 4.5ghz in your parts listing", you would notice the "Sabertooth 990fx" next to the "MOBO", not m5a97 LE R2.0.... Not sure how thats relevant to anything.
4) the second board was left stock. STOCK. As in "never touched beyond factory settings". I am not mistaken on the motherboards I have owned.

This board is garbage honestly, Im not sure why you are defending it. If it was 30$ new, you could make a case for it, but its still almost 100 bucks. No one should buy it, for any reason.

 

[darkgamerx226]

I can't help but feel you have some agenda here. So Im going to point this out one more time, and leave it alone.

1) This post is A YEAR OLD.
2) OC Genie, AI SUITE, OC Guru, it doesn't matter matter. It's all the same garbage. Don't be a semantics stickler. You knew exactly what I meant.
3) If you'd like to continue the "Im reading 4.5ghz in your parts listing", you would notice the "Sabertooth 990fx" next to the "MOBO", not m5a97 LE R2.0.... Not sure how thats relevant to anything.
4) the second board was left stock. STOCK. As in "never touched beyond factory settings". I am not mistaken on the motherboards I have owned.

This board is garbage honestly, Im not sure why you are defending it. If it was 30$ new, you could make a case for it, but its still almost 100 bucks. No one should buy it, for any reason.

If anything seems to me like you are the one who has the agenda. You totally misunderstood my question about the 4.5ghz. When I asked "Are you sure you didn't try that 4.5ghz OC im reading on this board" my intentions were to verify that you DID NOT OC this board at all before it supposedly died on you. The sabertooth is also an ASUS board so im surprised you got OC genie confused with ASUS software. I will continue using this board as is and report back if I have any problems to verify your claims. If I run into 0 problems after 6 months of usage I will also report back. The board is not garbage simply because you say it is/most likely overclocked it and it failed on you. The board is simply what it is. If you want high end features you buy a high end board, simple as that. Any board can fail from misuse even your sabertooth. A computer is only as good as the sum of its parts and the person sitting in front of it.

 

[Blaylock]

A computer is only as good as the sum of its parts and the person sitting in front of it.

Darkgamer just know that I'll still be here to help you with you new motherboard in 4 months(or less). Also know that I'll recommend 3 boards to you.

1. ASUS CHV

2. ASUS Sabertooth

3. ASRock EXT9.

P.S. this is not intended to be sarcastic. I want you to be happy with your rig. Right now it seems you are and that's great. My experience tells me that won't be long lived though. Just my opinion.

 

[RC9012Apples]

It would be foolish of ASUS to claim support for a chip on a board with a 3 year warranty attached to it unless they wanted multiple RMAs/complaints.

ASUS did claim it would support that chip on that board and others!

http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A97_LE_R20/HelpDesk_CPU/
http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A78LMUSB3/HelpDesk_CPU/
http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A97_LE_R20/HelpDesk_CPU/
http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A97_EVO/HelpDesk_CPU/
http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A88V_EVO/HelpDesk_CPU/
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A87/HelpDesk_CPU/


I have two M5A87s with a PII x6 1100T. They could barely handle running Prime95 at stock with Turbocore and all the power saving features turned on. With it all turned off, it would get to the point that the boards would just shut down. These cheap boards are just not meant for what we put them through!

 

[bob4933]

Darkgamer just know that I'll still be here to help you with you new motherboard in 4 months(or less). Also know that I'll recommend 3 boards to you.

1. ASUS CHV

2. ASUS Sabertooth

3. ASRock EXT9.

P.S. this is not intended to be sarcastic. I want you to be happy with your rig. Right now it seems you are and that's great. My experience tells me that won't be long lived though. Just my opinion.

People like to think they didn't waste their money. I don't blame him for being reticent to accept the fact these boards aren't very good. I'm just not a fan of my ignorant first post here being taken as rhetoric over a year and lots of learning later is all

 

[darkgamerx226]

Darkgamer just know that I'll still be here to help you with you new motherboard in 4 months(or less). Also know that I'll recommend 3 boards to you.

1. ASUS CHV

2. ASUS Sabertooth

3. ASRock EXT9.

P.S. this is not intended to be sarcastic. I want you to be happy with your rig. Right now it seems you are and that's great. My experience tells me that won't be long lived though. Just my opinion.

Your experience? You are speaking as if its been an epidemic with these boards failing with 8 core chips or something? Have you owned one and had it fail on you as well with STOCK CLOCKS? First hand experience is the best experience. If what you guys are saying is true my board should/will fail, then I will be contacting ASUS about this issue and getting it settled. I just find it very unlikely that they would claim support for a chip since 2012 that would cause the board to die within 3 weeks. Sounds idiotic if you ask me.