New Motherboard for FX8320

[hotrob]

Hi all,

So I just had a financial windfall, so I finally ditched my Asrock Extreme3 that came with my 8320 (which couldn't deliver enough power to run stock speeds without the VRMs overheating and throttling the CPU).

So, I did some research this time and decided upon the Asus 970 pro gaming/aura.... which was out of stock so the guy at NCIX suggested the MSI 970 gaming, as it has a 6+2 power phase instead of 7+1.

The 970 gaming is better (I'm getting a stable 4.2 ghz) but it refuses to deliver more than 1.26 - 1.28 volts, no matter what the voltage is set to in bios. As an aside, I also experienced weird glitches in the bios - one of my hard drives with an OS on it kept jumping to the front in boot order, and every time it did it would copy itself in the hard disk boot priority a few times (so my boot order was my one samsung SSD, and 20 WD drives after a few reboot cycles).

All that to say, I'm going to return the MSI 970. Is the 970 Pro Gaming/Aura going to be able to deliver decent voltage (with loadline calibration preferably, which appears to not be an option at all on the MSI board) or should I save up a bit more for a 990fx board (which I don't need the extra features of)?

Thanks in advance!


-Jason

 

[Tolemac]

Go 990X or 990fx for an 8320 fella if you plan to get a decent stable overclock

 

[hotrob]

Thanks Tolemac.

I think you're right... I probably shouldn't skimp.

I note that the shop has the Gigabyte 990fx-Gaming on for not much more, so I'll trade up to that and follow up later this week!

 

[barnsley]

990fx and something with an Asus badge is the way forward. I had an ancient 990fx Asus board that was rock solid despite being a b grade part. The more recent version of it, the M5A99X EVO R2.0 is a fantastic board. A bit older than some of the other boards being sold but at the end of the day I'd prefer a super solid motherboard over a 970 chipset, usb 3.1 and a fire hazard.

 

[Thelosouvlakia]

I agree with barnsley! Get a 990FX ASUS board, when it comes to AM3+ the motherboards with the best power delivery design and thermals are going to be those on the 990fx chipset, and don't be silly buying a 990FX-UD3 the heatsinks are god awful. I have a Sabertooth board and the VRM and northbridge sensors show crazy high values (with the vrms hitting up to 90C with my OC'd 8350).

The M5A99X EVO R2.0 is the best board price/performance indeed. And the UEFI is great as well!

 

[hotrob]

Thanks to all that replied.

As an update to those that are curious, I went into my local shop (Canada Computers) looking for the M5A99X EVO R2.0, Gigabyte 990fx Gaming, or a 990fxa-ud5 (the last two mobos I was happy with were my Gigabyte f2a88xm-d3h and my Maximus II Forumla waaay back with my q6600, which my mom now enjoys). Unfortunately, both of those motherboards were on back order. All they had in stock for 990fx was an MSI board, which was out of my budget, and an ASRock 990fx Killer, which I've heard not so great things about.

So back to square one, I hit the Googles once more.

Then I came across this article where they slapped a 9370 in there and it handled it like a champ.

On the upside, my new Asus 970 Pro Gaming/Aura has been working fantastically =D

I've got my 8320 at 4.5 Ghz @ 1.305 volts, I haven't seen the smallest hint of vdroop with medium LLC, and the hottest I've seen the VRMs get was 55c (on a day when the ambient in my living room was somewhere between 38c and 42c). I might be able to push things higher, but I'm happy where it is for now.

TL;DR I need to turn on email notifications for OC3D Forum, I'm terrible at following advice, and the 970 Pro gaming/aura seems to be a surprisingly good little motherboard.