Hi,
I had a similar situation a little while back - don't think it was with Aria, cannot recall.
Basically I'd bought a bundle of a cheaper (but still respectable) MSI motherboard along with a 2500k. The bundle was a self-assemble but marketed as an "overclockers" bundle - shipped as it was with an unlocked CPU who's whole purpose is to overclock, else why unlock it.
When trying to overclock the system really struggled to maintain stability - the board was also severely lacking on features to aid overclocking. All I could adjust were basic vCore and the like, none of the settings I'd been used to on prior boards. Again, odd for a bundle marketed for overclocking.
As I kept using the board it started getting more and more quirky - overclocked or not - and things failed on it. First the Gigabit lan refused to connect at anything other than 100mbps, then the UEFI bios stopped working in anything other than "old style" mode.
I ended up returing the board and getting an ASUS P8Z68-V Pro - which was a revelation, it just worked, had all the feature I'd expect and was perfectly stable. Add to that things didn't start breaking.
When I returned my old MSI board they checked it and said nothing was wrong. They even said the BIOS and NIC worked just fine for them - why I really cannot figure as they just simply failed for me. When asked, they could not tell me how they tested and I suspect they did not consider being able to connect at just 100mbps as a fault, nor did they consider my failed UEFI bios screen as a problem as I could still access everything in the old way. I was just really surprised that these other faults were not apparrent to them.
So, they thought I had a "working" board - regardless of the faults - so my case rested on the fact that the board was generally unstable and could not overclock. As this was contrary to how the bundle was marketed they in the end gave me a full refund. My case was probably strengthened by the fact I'd just bought the new motherboard from them but still, they agreed with me in the end.
Now, if I'd broken something on my board, or blown it up trying to overclock & getting it wrong, then that's on me. I'd have taken the hit. However, as the product had been bought and marketed for a specific purpose - that being overclocking - and it wasn't even able to manage the poorest over overclocks others were achieving with relative ease, I think I was right expecting a refund.
I can see how this is a contentious issue. It's hardly fair on the on line retailers to refund boards where a heavy-handed user has broken them through lack of care - not that I'm saying the OP has, just siting it as an example. But equally if something is marketed as being able to do something then it cannot, well, that's not fair on the user.
We've learnt to expect more from our high-end kit these days. The old core 2's (I still have a Q6600 and Q6700) were revolutionary in their clocking potential as it was largely unexpected - and certainly not marketed as a feature. Now however we have chips that are both designed and marketed to overclock with motherboards that support this. So, if a product doesn't manage to deliver at least the lowest OC others are achieving while remaining stable then the customer has been let down.
I'd like to add that I know it's possible to get it wrong and inadvertantly break something. For anyone new to overclocking I'd say read read read & take baby steps to avoid damaging your purchase. Even as a fairly experienced overclocker I still read loads on overclocking Sandy B. prior to purchase - I even read up on the specific MSI motherboard that gave me such problems and it seemed fine - not up there with the best certainly, but acceptable for my moddest needs. However it did not perform for me as it appeared to for others - suggesting an underlying fault on the board.
Additionally, and this was a kick in the teeth I did not like, BIOS updates for the MSI board - while reportedly addressing issues - actually REMOVED certain features on the board regards over clocking. Bascically my "budget" board was thought to be a little too good compared to other high-end boards introduced. So, yet another variable there!
To the OP, if the board is testing ok I'd give Aria the benefit of the doubt and try overclocking again. It's been suggested that your were base-clock overclocking - which is the "old" way of doing things for the most part - so possibly using multiplier-based OC will yield the results you expect. There's plenty of people on these forums that would be more than happy to help guide you.
Sorry for the long post - it's just what I do
Cheers,
Scoob.
