FX-8350 + Asrock 970 Extreme4; Not a good couple?

I seem to be running into problems left and right.



First the board has problems updating to the newest bios to support the core

(pi version in sys rom mismatched)

And then the Voltage wouldnt clock down no matter how many settings I changed.

Running AMD OverDrive showed a permanent stock overclock of 117 MHZ (was perma running at 4117 MHZ because the multi would force itself to 20.5).

Trying that CPU on a friends board (Gygabite 990FXA) wouldn't show any of these problems and my 965 BE never had these problems to begin with.


Furthermore thanks to the 4 + 1 Power Phase the heat readings for CPUTIN on CPUID HW Monitor would go through the roof (constant 60's during load)


On the good side though the thing seems to be a super cherry-pick. Undervolt runs stable @ 1.2 Volt and overclock ran stable after fixing most of the issues more or less @ 4.8 GHZ (air) and 1.41 Volt



It took me about 2 days to get workarounds and fixes for everything and I'm still not sure that everything is the way it's supposed to be.


So you OCers out here... Does anyone run the same combo and run into problems? Googling the web yields like 1-2 similar cases but I certainly can't shake off the feeling that I'm missing something in the greater picture here.

P.s. Anyone recommending a board that fits this thing like a glove? I wouldn't want to spend more than 130€. Got a 630 Watt PSU and a 570 GTX for anyone who wants that side info)

From an overclocking perspective, that motherboard is not a good match for the 8350. The board has 4+1 power phase and your really need 8+2 power phase with the 6 and 8 core Bulldozer and Piledriver CPUs. However, it should be okay for stock frequencies and voltages.

Shehriazad, welcome to the forums. We have seen more and more people come to the forum with issues arising from the FX cpu's and midrange to budget boards. We do not recommend using an FX on anything but upper tier boards for even mild overclocks. You may want to have a read of this post from ssjwizard.

As far as board recommendations:
Asus Crosshair V Formula/Z
Asus Sabertooth R2 and 990fx
Asrock Fatal1ty 990fx
Gigabyte UD3,5,7

I wouldn't personally use the 8350 on anything lesser then those. You mentioned a 630w psu, what make and model it makes a difference. You are also going to need some really good cooling if you are planning on high overclocks. You said you did 4.8 on air, what did you use to test for stability at those clocks? Anything other then 2 hours of prime I wouldn't consider stable.

Thanks for the welcoming, the link and the board recommendations.

I shall take a look and put this information to good use!

Mhhh I'm thinking an upgrade to an Asrock 990FX Extreme4 would be a good idea for my FX-8350 right?

There is some nice discount I could get for it.

8+1 phase
3x16 PCI-E
well and chipset is 990FX

I would stay away from the ASRock boards except the Fatality as there seem to be more problems with the ASRock boards. The probability of overclocking success with your CPU is pretty much ranked in the order that Drake has listed the boards. I note the board you link is 8+1 powerphase, not 8+2 as you also note.

As far as board recommendations:
Asus Crosshair V Formula/Z
Asus Sabertooth R2 and 990fx
Asrock Fatal1ty 990fx
Gigabyte UD3,5,7

I wouldn't personally use the 8350 on anything lesser then those.

Click to expand...

+1 to Trents post.
If you are looking to overclock you are looking at potential headaches with anything less then these boards.

Im about to give up on this CPU...I really hope a new board helps...


After all these problems I suddenly run into a different problem and google doesn't really seem to be my friend there either!


If I overclock the CPU now (tried it with 1 core per module disabled and with all cores active aswell) and may it even by only 100 MHZ....

All the games I try suddenly have extreme stuttering.

Some games show jumps to insane framerates while others just have low framerates overall.


Also no matter what I do Windows won't show the updated MHZ and when I change the MHZ in the Bios itself and not with AMD OverDrive it's not actually taken over into Windows.... It will still boot with 4 GHZ no matter what settings I change.

LLC is on 1/2
I tried power saving settings on AND off
disabled the basic turbo core
And for some reason when I open up OverDrive it shows that the multi is 20.5 even if its set at 20.0.


Either this board is already damaged or it just fails to utilize this CPU in general....might be a bad Bios flash aswell as it had a version mismatch on the first update try (even though it updated anyways)

Gigabyte 990XA D3 is the one I'm going to buy as I don't give a rats butt about SLI and Crossfire. (specially with multi GPU cards actually becoming a thing in the future)

Do you mean the GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+? That "U" in there makes a big difference in what you get.

Edit: Bah you're right.

http://www.alternate.de/html/product/GIGABYTE/GA-990XA-UD3/882648/? It's the UD3.

Well for that price Ill take it

You definitely wont be getting a huge upgrade if you move to a D3 Gigabyte board. The UD3 is there entry level enthusiast grade line. If you go with a Gigabyte motherboard the UD3 is the lowest you should even consider.

I have seen several users come on here with lower end boards especially Asrock board and go from one cheap mobo to another cheap mobo before finally settling on an entry level performance board, and all along the way your loosing money with every return, restocking fee, or shipping. IF you are going to upgrade your motherboard please do yourself a favor and reach for the highest board you can afford.

I recommend the UD3 board for budget builds alot, but there are other options available for just a bit more that are better motherboards. The UD5 series, the Asus M5A99X/ M5A99FX PRO just to name a few. The Asrock Fat1lity or Sabertooth are what you can call high end performance boards, and the Asus Chrosshair is basically on the same level but a bit more pimped out and not necessarily in any way that you will likely take advantage of.

Thanks ssjwizard but in the end all I'm looking for is a board that can

A: Handle the FX-8350 without insane issues like the 970 Ex4
B: Mild overclocking (I don't actually need the uber extreme MHZ as playing only comes in 2nd after rendering for projects/work)


So if those 2 are what I want to achieve I'm fine right? With 8 phases and a newer chipset I should have all bases covered eh?


Edit: If you now say "Uh bro, nah don't go with a UD3 at any cost go at least UD5" then I will consider it since you seem to be one of the wisemen on this board.

IF "ssjwizard" comes back and responds I believe he may say that you can use a 970 UD3 but it is not nearly as easy to setup and get stable as other 'good' motherboards. I have heard he and "Anonaru" both comment that it might take 50 trial and error tries to get to stability on the UD3. Not that you will not get there, but there certainly are easier motherboards to tweak to stability with an FX-8350.

The problem is that the 970 chipset is the entry level 9xx chipset and everything else about most 970 boards is "cheap also".

I have not seen nor know the price of the Asrock 990FX Extreme4 motherboard but it is no comparison to the CheapAzz Asrock 970 motherboards. Getting away from the 970 chipset on most of these boards would have been a huge move to the good since most of the 990FX boards are on paper, considerably more stout than any 970 entry level cheap FX processor rated motherboard.
RGone...

ssjwizard said:

You definitely wont be getting a huge upgrade if you move to a D3 Gigabyte board. The UD3 is there entry level enthusiast grade line. If you go with a Gigabyte motherboard the UD3 is the lowest you should even consider.

I have seen several users come on here with lower end boards especially Asrock board and go from one cheap mobo to another cheap mobo before finally settling on an entry level performance board, and all along the way your loosing money with every return, restocking fee, or shipping. IF you are going to upgrade your motherboard please do yourself a favor and reach for the highest board you can afford.

I recommend the UD3 board for budget builds alot, but there are other options available for just a bit more that are better motherboards. The UD5 series, the Asus M5A99X/ M5A99FX PRO just to name a few. The Asrock Fat1lity or Sabertooth are what you can call high end performance boards, and the Asus Chrosshair is basically on the same level but a bit more pimped out and not necessarily in any way that you will likely take advantage of.

Click to expand...

True!

@Shehriazad
I got no problems with M5a99FX Pro r2.0, at first I thought I was having problems with the mobo bat it was found out that I got the faulty 8350..

If your gonna try the Asus m5a99fx pro r2.0 just be sure you got older cpu's like the phenom's in order for you to update the BIOS, cause some Asus m5a99fx pro r2.0 comes with a lower bios version.

Shehriazad said:

So if those 2 are what I want to achieve I'm fine right? With 8 phases and a newer chipset I should have all bases covered eh?

Edit: If you now say "Uh bro, nah don't go with a UD3 at any cost go at least UD5" then I will consider it since you seem to be one of the wisemen on this board.

Click to expand...

The chipset is less important and the overall quality of the motherboard components is more important than most people realize, but as RGone points out most of the cheaper chipset boards use cheaper components all over. The GA 970-UD3 is the lowest board I can recommend to anyone planning to run an 8 core FX CPU, as it sports the same VRM design as the 990Xa and 990FX UD3. In this particular situation though the 990X and 990FX UD3 boards do sport slightly nicer bits and have more BIOS options.

IF there is anyway you can possibly stretch your budget to get a UD5 or comparably priced board you would be putting yourself in a better position to achieve your goals EASILY. Anything on my list of approved boards will run whatever accessories you want, and successfully OC the chip to whatever the limits of your cooling are within a few % of eachother. The difference is how easy its going to be along the way, and how stable your results are going to be.

The main reason that a board on my list would rank lower in capability has more to do with how fine edged the entire system is tuned that its actual maximum output capability. For example the UD3 line is capable of supplying the same high voltages and current as something as say a Sabertooth 990FX but it will have more fluctuation in the voltage. Those fluctuations are the cause of the instability when your on the edge. For example a cheaply tuned VRM will push above and below your target vCore resulting in instability from temps or a crash during a vCore low spot.


@Darkblitz NO R2.0 Asus board will fail to post on its shipping BIOS. The need for a PH-II CPU was for the first round of 9XX boards which shipped before the BD FX CPUs were released.

http://www.alternate.de/html/product/ASUS/M5A99FX_PRO_R2.0/1013199/?


I guess I could stretch my Budget for the M5A99FX Pro R2.0 instead of a Gibabyte 990XA UD3

Either one of those motherboards will perform similarly. The Asus has a nicer BIOS interface and a digital VRM VS the 990XAs older style menu based BIOS and analog VRM. I cant speak for the M5A99FX PRO directly but I have used a 990FX sabertooth, and the new sabertooth R2.0 and both had very stable voltage control. The Gigabyte is going to want you to tolerate slightly higher vCore spikes, but will keep on pumping out the juice as long as the CPU wants it.

Asrock has a good reputation for making budget friendly boards, but these FX CPUs are just monsters and they just dont have anything on the market aside from the Fat1lity for 9XX series boards right now that can dish out the wattage these 8 cores need. The FX Extreme 6 looks like it might be decent but I havent seen anyone testing it yet so.

The problem is you don't say what country you live in. Nor do you give us link to show where you normally buy. I looked at you saying your budget was about 130 Euro dollars. I found this link to Amazon UK and this board is considerably more likely to fit your FX-8350 like a 'good' drivers glove than just an old working-mans glove with the stitches inside it rubbing on your digits.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005FGQL...de=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B005FGQLLG

I think it is "Mandrake4564" that helps in here regular; that had a M5A99FX Pro R2.0 and he moved to the Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 for a better overclocking experience.

The motherboard and power supply are the foudations for sure, but then to push an FX-8350 to 4.5Ghz and beyond and with true stability, some very dang good water-cooling is going to be a must. There are probably 6 to 7 of us that are visible in this CPU Forum section off and on and can run 4.8Ghz stable, but we all have at least $250Usd in our water-cooling setups.
RGone...

To make it clear... I don't want to reach top overclocks as the only time I need those overclocks would be gaming (which is about 20% of what I do).

I would be happy with having 4.3-4.5 GHZ moderate OC

So judging by that I just thought I would be fine with some beginner level 100-130€ board that can run the FX-8350 stable without being freakin full of fail like the Asrock 970 Extreme 4 is for me currently



EDIT: Wow I'm silly with my budget. I still have a Phenom 965 BE and my 970 Extreme 4.... I'm pretty sure I can sell that for a bit to bump up my budget quite nicely I suppose. Well Thing is I actually don't really want to spend a whole lot more than 150-180€ (190-240USD)

EDIT2: I AM from Germany, that doesn't change anything though...if you say board X is fine then I can totally get it here...I live in a big city with many shops and online shopping is quite the possibility. You guys were already more than patient enough with me and I will see what I can get from those suggestions with my 150-180€. An UD5 or even a Fatal1ty or whatever should be in the budget I suppose.

EDIT3: My PSU is a 630Watt Be Quiet (Amazon) with a 80+ Bronze "badge" on it. I should be good I suppose eh? (570 GTX is the GPU)