I have been fighting with a Sabertooth motherboard for over 3 week. It would power off randomly. No setting in BIOS or software would fix it. Linux would not install or load at all.
Yesterday I swapped the Sabertooth X99 for an X99-A and every problem has vanished. I can even overclock my CPU without it crashing on reboot.
X99-A = 1
Sabertooth X99 = 0
Sabertooth boards in general are shit.
I have had 3 separate sabertooth boards and ALL three were completely unstable.
First one I had was x58. I got it and immediately started having issues where the ram would sometimes not work, it would loose my bios settings like every other day, and it was just a cursed motherboard.
I exchanged it for the x58-D premium board and it was super stable.
Then I went to Ivybridge and got myself the z77-a, and I liked the board, but it was not working with my color scheme, and everything was just kind of bleh. So I got the sabertooth board. A month later and a USB port was not working right, and I lost my boot loader for windows a few times for seemingly no reason.
I was suspicious that it was the mobo, but all I did was disabled the USB port and just lived with the damn board thinking it was probably my hard drive dying (it was old)
Eventually I upgraded to Ivy bridge-E with x79 and I got a sabertooth board again. But this time, I bought all new ram that I tested out in a different computer before I installed it, a new SSD, and a new highly rated PSU.
The mobo had the SAME problems as the z77 and was doing all sorts of other funky things.
Thats when I said no more and I bought the WS board. Not a single problem.
Now I have an x99-a and a 5930K and it is really stable.
never had any issues with my x79
Does it surprise you. ASUS has gone a bit down in quality lately. Trading function for form. Its making me a little upset in my opinion because I always loved ASUS. I have switched to ASRock. I love my x99 OC formula
which bios version are you currently running on?
according to some owner topics is have read on a diffrent forum, there seem to be some issues with bios version 1801
@Tjj226_Angel This is the last chance I'm giving ASUS on the Sabertooth line. If the RMA replacement gives me any issues I'll be looking at the X99-WS to replace the Sabertooth. The X99-A is getting me through for now but I really miss the extra fan headers and the dual gigabit LAN connectivity to my NAS.
Asus seems to have some issues with their bios versions 1801 and 2001.
Not sure about 1901.
Maybe if you have issues with the Sabertooth board, you could try to do a flash back to bios 1702.
I've been running version 2001 since 25 November so far so good and stable. /me knocks on particle board. It is running Windows 10 x64 though so I cannot vouch for Linux stability.
I did however do a full BIOS reset by shorting the CLRTC jumper for 10 seconds after updating to 2001. I guess the software method of returning to defaults doesn't clear everything on this board after an update.
The only issue I've had with the board was since installing a Samsung 950pro into the M.2 slot the chip-set fan would spin constantly for hours after power down even if the components have cooled to room temperature. I live in upstate NY so ambient temperature is not an issue. It stopped doing that after I installed a PCIe card into the x1 slot. Odd.
This is what makes me scared to try ASUS Mobos in all honestly is they have an almost Seagate like reputation where you either get one that'll die in a week or last you until the end of time. The Gigabyte FM2+ board I currently have is great. No issues other then having to manually load drivers on Windows through Linux live boot
I've been running a Sabertooth X99 for several months. Updated to the 2001 BIOS a few days ago without any problems. It's been running fine. Samsung M.2, 2 Intel 730 SSDs, Seagate HDD, and a Galax 980 Ti HOF.
Maybe the 2001 bios might be better then.
Fingers crossed.
Did you have the little fan on? I think sometimes their thermal armor backfires.
my amd sabertooth board (990fx) has been rock solid ever since I bought it, I wouldnt exactly call it 'meme hardware'
The little fan wasn't needed. I tried it and it didn't make much of a different with the air my case fans move. The voltage controllers never topped 59C either way. The little fan was way too noisy anyway. I'm not using the over-voltage settings on the motherboard so the thermals should all be in check without the assistant fan.
I got my RMA from ASUS and I'm on #3 FAIL!
1 - Fried USB devices then failed to boot reliably after all USB devices were removed. (DOA). Returned to Amazon.
2 - Worked initially then refused to boot any device or OS. Showed CPU voltages at 0.0V in BIOS when it would load the BIOS. Beyond Amazon return policy so I had to RMA with ASUS which took almost a month.
3 - DOA - Doesn't see quad channel memory. Sporatically sees tri-channel. Only reliable with dual-channel. Will not load Windows on dual or tri channel. Called ASUS this morning and voiced my disapointment with 3 bad Sabertooth boards in a row. I made sure the BIOS was updated to 2001 and I cleared the CMOS RTA RAM then tried using the Mem-Check with no luck. ASUS is sending an advanced replacement early next week.
If #4 is bad I'm going to try contacting @wendell or @Logan to see if they can get ASUS to give my a tested board that everything is proven to work on, or they can shove the board up their non-QA asses until they taste the PCB as it comes out the top of their heads!
I am beyond pissed right now. My computer has been running crippled on a semi-reliable X99-A and it is not playing well with my CPU and video card combo. I want my computer back and reliable! It has been unreliable since August when I got the first Sabertooth. I would have never bought it if @wendell didn't promote it so highly. I would have gotten the X99-WS if that would fit in my HTPC case.
Hopelessly broken since August thanks to ASUS!
That really sucks. I have a Sabertooth and have never had a problem. Maybe it's time for you to move on and give another manufacturer a try. There are plenty of respectable ones out there.
Guess what. My asus x99-a has very similar issues. And so does my friends board.....and so does my friend's friend's board.
I talked to some people I know at microcenter. Turns out a LOT of asus boards are coming back with weird gremlins.
I have this MSI gaming 7 that I got from microcenter from their returns section. From their freaking returns section, and it works great.
Until asus can get their shit together, forget about them. Sell the sabertooth and get something else, or at the very least get a rampage or a WS board. Those boards seem to be doing ok.
I would already have moved on from ASUS but I am very limited on the size of motherboard my case will fit. I have a Silverstone Tek CW-03 and it fits mATX or standard ATX. Nothing more. The hard drive cage and front supports prevent installing any motherboard that extends even a few mm past the third row of screws from the back of the case. ASUS is the only manufacurer that offers a board that small that has enough fan headers and internal USB headers for my system.
I need something that is X99 that can support over-clocking a i7-5960X for 4.5 GHz or more. Supports quad-channel HyperX Fury 32 GB DDR4, has an M.2 slot, 3 internal USB 2 headers, 1 USB 3 header and at least 6 fan headers. The Sabertooth has 10 fan headers, and meets all of the other requirements.
Every other manufacture I looked at that have those requirements are all larger than ATX. Most are an inch or more longer than my case allows. All of the MSI motherboards that are small enough only have two USB 2 headers internally and 4 fan headers at best. Gigabyte has an SLI X99 board but it is lacking the USB and fan headers. I know I can run a seperate fan controller but I want to avoid adding more to the inside of my HTPC case than I need to. My cooling system is already mounted to the outside since the PSU, MB and video card are taking up most of the inside space.
In the past I have had really good success with ASUS motherboards (Z87 and X79). Even my ASUS Ultrabook is rock solid and it's 4 years old. With X99 they are all crap so far.
Asus seems to have some issues with their latest bios versions.
Especialy with the Sabertooth.
I would recommend if you buy a Asus board to not update the stock bios yet.
I´m not fully sure what the exact issues are, and it looks like nor does Asus.
But there are a couple of huge threads about it on ocn.