Sabertooth 990FX Upgrade - Not so nice!

[marjamar]

Hello people,

Got the Sabertooth 990FX in for the upgrade from my CHIVE. This has been a pretty difficult upgrade as I've been lazy the past year or so and had to remember/re-learn my CHIVE setup. Of course, it didn't help much to take the M/B out before remembering I had forgot so much -- Sheesh!

Since I had everything except the 8 hard drives apart and out of the case, I decided to just do a temp setup with the CHIVE M/B and the new Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme outside the case. This way, I could look (and take pics) of my BIOS settings and test the new cooler against the H80 "Scream Machine" it was to replace. I have an abundance of screen grabs on the CHIVE setups, so I have all the relevant numbers to compare to -- Just didn't have BIOS settings on my 4.8 GHz setup.

Well, where to start... I guess the best way to say it is, the new cooler is pretty much junk in comparison to the modified H80 I already have. I had spent a few hours lapping in the CPU waterblock back when I first installed the H80. Gone though about 4 or 5 fan combos looking for the best CFM/cooling flow, worked out the best setup for installation in this Landboy Air case, and the only short fall was the screaming noise the Delta 6000 RPM/210 CFM fan would make on anything more then moderate CPU loads. It did cool adequately though, so I resolved to continue using the H80 with this upgrade. Sidebar here - Why in the world do all of these cheap CPU water coolers have pointed waterblocks? How hard would it be to have them machine lapped to a reasonably flat faced surface. I know the excuse they use for having a crown on the mating surface, but they must know the loss of thermal contact they cause makes these coolers way less effective then a flat surface would.

Having took all the pics I needed of the CHIVE BIOS, I did a shutdown and swapped out the CHIVE for the Sabertooth. Using the H80 cooler, I booted up and went into BIOS. Well, I've see pics of the UEFI BIOS, but never sat in front of one until now. It is quite a bit more attractive I suppose, but it is also more to consider it seems. I was able to put up my pics of the CHIVE BIOS on the second monitor using HDMI to my camera. As much as possible, I transposed the CHIVE BIOS settings to the Sabertooth. I made sure to use less volts on everything and a bit lower frequencies to get a reasonable chance for good boot. The board came up OK so I did a bit of testing the settings.

Working with CPU-Z, HWMonitor and Linx first, I did some moderate tweeks to BIOS to get stable passes in Linx. I then started Prime95, expecting it to run pretty well as I was on the low side of a working setup I had running on the CHIVE. Well, I was wrong. I couldn't even get it to run the first pass before getting a BSOD. I continued to work with BIOS settings and Prime95, but for the life of me it really doesn't want to run unless I am way below what would be normal for this CPU's performance levels. I not done yet, but I thought I post here and maybe some of you who have already setup the Sabertooth with a FX-8150 could chime in with your working BIOS settings. I need to be at or above 4.8 GHz to equal my CHIVE setup. Obviously, I would like to be above this, but I really need to at least match it, or this new motherboard will be going back along with the Thermaltake cooler which is going back regardless.

Thanks for any helps.

-Rodger

 

[TsunamiJuan]

Your gonna gonna get much help from us without Posting full system specs, aswell as probably the specs of what you where running before. A shot of CPUz and of run time voltages would also be helpful.

We'll see what we can do from there.

 

[RGone]

My how to put up Sig at OCF.


New Shortcut method for putting a Signature with your system information following your every post so people can know what is in the case that they are trying to assist with. You can use something like what is shown in my signature as a good template of needed information Thank you.

 

[trents]

What is CHIVE?

 

[RGone]

What is CHIVE?

Asus Crosshair IV Extreme AMD 890FX Motherboard

 

[trents]

Asus Crosshair IV Extreme AMD 890FX Motherboard

Ah, yes. Of course! I should have seen that one. We live in a culture with too many acronyms.

 

[trents]

OP, you had the FX-8150 at 4.8 ghz Prime95 stable on the CHIVE with an H80 cooler?

 

[marjamar]

OP, you had the FX-8150 at 4.8 ghz Prime95 stable on the CHIVE with an H80 cooler?

Yes. It wasn't too difficult to do as I remember... about 2 days of setting and testing BIOS and stress tests. I used the final settings for over a year, and never had problems except when inside temps in the house got above 74F. or so. Then it was still fine for regular use, just too noisy for rendering or sometimes just playing Blueray encodes. Wouldn't stress test much at all either unless house temps were at 70 or less. Here's a screen capture I did at the time.

I'm pretty sure I have this all figured out now. I just need to tweak some more to see where I can go with it. I'll post back here if I see a reasonable outcome with some pic. If not, just that I'm returning the M/B for something else -- Maybe a CHVF.

-Rodger

 

[RGone]

•DIGI+ VRM - Herald the Arrival of a New Digital Power Design Era

That voltage regulation tech is probably going to make the voltages from the older CHlVE not fully valid for plug into the Sabertooth or the newer CHV as they both have moved to the newer tech over the CHIVE.

 

[marjamar]

•DIGI+ VRM - Herald the Arrival of a New Digital Power Design Era

That voltage regulation tech is probably going to make the voltages from the older CHlVE not fully valid for plug into the Sabertooth or the newer CHV as they both have moved to the newer tech over the CHIVE.

Yes, it is different for sure. I'm playing with these settings alot with each seemingly promising setup to see how it affects stress testing. So far, I seem to have better results with all of these settings set at their max. I also see memory throughput has been stepped up just a bit with identical settings related to memory. So, things are different in this M/B and the CHIVE for sure. I gotta wonder though, would the CHV have been a better choice?

-Rodger

 

[RGone]

I gotta wonder though, would the CHV have been a better choice?

That is a tough question. One I have been considering for months as I debated buying a BD and going PD late this year. Money and wanting to kniow for sure if AMD is going to come with the 1xxx chipset for PD. Oh yes they say backwards, forward and all that compatible but there is always that little edge when a cpu is run with the chipset released with the cpu. When the hardcode that chipset there can be minor differences.

I have to be honest in that I have recommended the Sabertooth for a good while. Over the last few months a few have gotten the Sabertooth BUT they came from a much cheaper Asus to the Sabertooth and like the change. You however are coming from the CHIVE. That will always be a thing to wonder about in your mind. Human nature.

Going to put up a couple of top view pics of the two boards I see a power connector point that I like on the CHV that is not on the Sabertooth but few have a power supply able to make the dual connections.

Then the VRMs are laid out slightly different between the two boards. Not sure that could make a difference. Placement of two of PCIe x16 slots should not effect cpu overclocking.

My real guess is that you will get the Sabertooth to do within a hairsbreadth of the CHV probably dead even. I think the difference in cost is a lot of the little pieces in the box and the bioses seem way too much alike to be an issue.

CHV board first then the Sabertooth.

 

[Neuromancer]

The sabertooth is geared at running in subideal conditions with more temp sensors located around the board, different cooling prooperties and different electronics components (afaik)

There are a few things you should be aware of...

a)Bulldozer on 890FX will not utilize Turbo core 2.0 or Hypertransport 3.1 so while settings might seem "lower" on the 990FX you are probably still going to get better performance.

b) The link between the fets and the CPU are capable of nearly 10x faster communication (400Khz AM3 to 3400 Khz on the AM3+) This should result in finer LLC control and thus ability to more finely adjust the voltage. (less power/more efficient) How that works in practice YMMV.

c) Start from scratch on the 990FX many things have changed, and while certain BIOS settings make look similar they wont all react in the same way.


One last thing. You are running a fresh windows install on the new socket yes? You might be able to get away with not doing a fresh install, but... issues can occur that will reduce stability.


As for would CHV been better? Yeah probably its an overclockers/gamers board. The Sabertooth can handle both of those tasks but is engineered more for finer temp controls (multiple sensors are located around the board), the electrical components may be different too, capable of handling higher efficiency at higher temps. (based on the TUF marketing campaign)

 

[Frakk]

I'm very happy and impressed with mine but then i did come from a lesser board

 

[caddi daddi]

I came from cheaper boards also and the sabertooh has been good to me.
a lot of our numbers look alike at 4.5, but your core temps look higher.
what's your cooling system?

oh! I see 200cfm through an h80. i run 3 120x38's on my 120x3.
also i have noticed that pushing my 8120 hard for the last 4-5 months that the "caps" no longer sit flush on the board, I have been told that this means death is on the way.

 

[marjamar]

Seems this Sabertooth 990FX is going to run my FX-8150 hotter at any settings then the CHIVE did -- This is not too good. Since I am already way loud, I don't need any more fan noise and to be honest, the air moving though this rad is enough anyway for max cooling on this hardware. I can't get CPUv settings below 1.4375v @ 4734MHz (1.512v full load) without getting a BSOD. At that voltage it seems stable enough, at least up to 70C. CPU temps. Don't want to go beyond that temp for fear of damage. Running Prime95 that means about the first iteration I have to stop all workers.

I'm going to do some more thinking. Perhaps this is the world of today's motherboards, don't know. If it is, seems the CHIVE is a better option.

Here's a pic to look at on the last run...

-Rodger

 

[RGone]

Seems this Sabertooth 990FX is going to run my FX-8150 hotter at any settings then the CHIVE did = That sounds like in your situation, that you had the better board already and moving to 990 chipset might not be for you.

 

[marjamar]

Well, nuff thinking, I think.

Conclusion: Even if I did manage to get temps low enough for comfort, I would still have spent a couple hundred bucks for virtually the same performance I all ready had. So, the only question I really need to ask and answer to myself is why?

Since I don't really have a good answer for that question I've RMA'd the board and the cooler. System will be restored to the CHIVE and I'll wait a bit to see what happens with Piledriver before doing any more upgrades to this setup.

-Rodger

 

[RGone]

Said before I too am 'waiting' to see what PD does. No sense in running to heat and fighting that in my mind. It will all come out in the wash as they say. Luck to you man.

 

[Neuromancer]

Good advice rgone

Im still on 890GX with a thuban for my main rig. (still means I got it last year before BD came out )

 

[caddi daddi]

i'm thinking that sabertooth is at the bottom for 8 cores but for the get in price it works for me, i hope the future holds better for us dollar wise.

your second pic post supports another thing i have been playing with more and more, a higher fsb, lower multy works better at higher clocks.