FRONTPAGE ASUS 970 PRO GAMING/AURA Motherboard Review

[Overclockers.com]

Today we'll have a look at the ASUS 970 Pro Gaming/Aura AM3+ motherboard. It's been quite some time since we've seen anything new in the AMD camp and change is always welcome. The 970 Chipset isn't new but ASUS has come back with a nice set of features to update this platform. On top of that they've packaged them in a very nice looking, all new board. With the new AMD socket nearly a year away, it's nice to see some new AM3+ motherboards with added features such as USB 3.1 and M.2 SSD functionality. One other interesting tidbit is the new Aura feature which allows the user to customize color and rhythm of the on-board RGB LEDs. For those who enjoy a bit of bling, this should be right up your alley.

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[bassnut]

Nice write up Johan .......

 

[Johan45]

Thanks bud !

 

[Mandrake4565]

Board looks promising Shawn nice job!

 

[bassnut]

Now we just need something a little newer and hopefully exotic to review ....... maybe of the AM4 Socket variety.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Now we just need something a little newer and hopefully exotic to review ....... maybe of the AM4 Socket variety.

Indeed, it would be nice if they sent one out to Shawn so he can put it through the wringer.

 

[Johan45]

Got my fingers crossed guys.

 

[Janus67]

Nice review Shawn!

 

[Bluefalcon13]

Yeah if this was out half a year ago, I'd have probably picked one of these up instead of my UD5 R5. Looks pretty nice!

 

[Johan45]

It is. Overall for the price it's a good board.

 

[cat1092]

Very nice & featured MB that I got on promo, just installed yesterday, after the last component, the TPM 2.0 chip arrived. Am quite surprised that while there were only 1.2 TPM chips for current (or newer gen) ASUS MB's (1150 LGA), while offering 2.0 for an aging platform. Seems this should had been the other way around, as TPM 2.0 used the AES 256 standard (SHA256), while the newer offers SHA1, basically a dollar store padlock to keep honest folks as such, thieves will find a way in, as always.

Working on getting Windows 7 Ultimate installed in UEFI Mode, haven't got there yet, although am sure I will, there are many tutorials, and was able to do the same on my retail Dell XPS 8700. BTW, after driver updates, didn't have to reinstall the OS, simply had to reactivate MS Office w/out calling. Nice surprise!

I believe the ASUS 970 PRO Gaming/AURA will meet my needs for at least 5 years, paired with a FX-8350 running at just over 4.1GHz, this combo was an upgrade from an ASRock 970M Pro3 & FX-6300, will install the latter in a 'less important' build, or use as a LInux Mint one.

So far, given all I needed to do was run the driver CD to get going, and uninstalling ASRock software, am truly impressed!

Cat

 

[Johan45]

Yep it really is a nice board for the money, glad it's working out

 

[rayraysfunhouse]

I've actually been debating on getting this board for a cheap gaming build i'm thinking of doing. Great write up Johan.

 

[trents]

Shawn, I was reading the review and had a question. You showed benchmarks with the FX-9370 OC'd to 5.0 ghz. Did you also stress test the system at that overclock level for any length of time? And what were you using for a CPU cooler? Maybe I missed those details.

Also, I do't see the FX-9370 listed in the CPU support list for this motherboard on the Asus website. I wonder if they have removed it. The FX-8370 is listed, however. Asking these questions because Egg has a great sale on both the FX-9370 and the 970 Gaming Aura right now.

 

[Johan45]

That would have been on water and that 9370 needs less than 1.5V at 5.0 to be stable. I did a quick 20 minutes of P95 just to verify but I had run that CPU so many time Trents I know what it likes and doesn't like. The 9370 has no "official" support, the board is rated for 125W. My intention was to show the capabilities of the 970 Gaming by pushing it with a high TDP CPU and it runs just fine. The only issue I ever had with it was the NB chips gets pretty hot right around the 7 GHz mark with a high CPU_NB speed.

 

[trents]

That would have been on water and that 9370 needs less than 1.5V at 5.0 to be stable. I did a quick 20 minutes of P95 just to verify but I had run that CPU so many time Trents I know what it likes and doesn't like. The 9370 has no "official" support, the board is rated for 125W. My intention was to show the capabilities of the 970 Gaming by pushing it with a high TDP CPU and it runs just fine. The only issue I ever had with it was the NB chips gets pretty hot right around the 7 GHz mark with a high CPU_NB speed.

Did you mean 5 ghz?

Reason I was asking about the 9370 support was that I found threads on other forums where people had paired the FX-9370 with that same board and it wouldn't even post. Was the board you reviewed a retail sample?

 

[Johan45]

A sfar as I know it is Trents. It has serial #s so I can RMA if needed. I have had boards (CHVI) that came without so when it dies I pay. No I meant 7GHz I took it cold with the 9370 just to see how the VRM handled things but it was the NB that was the weak link to me when I say hot I mean hot. As for 9370 support never once had the board bark at me or refuse to post. When I had it there were only two BIOS available. I have had the 9370 in the M5A 99FX PRO R2.0 as well and it ran fine. Not sure why they were having issues.
EDIT: the 970 Aura actually has more "true" phases than the CHVz at least that's the way I understood it. No doublers on this board as there are on the CHVz