The SB950 chipset on my Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5 just literally went up in flames after about 18 months of use. I had an 8350 in it, which at times had been overclocked up to 4.5 ghz, but at the time of the failure the chip and board were set to the optimized defaults. This was my first build so I'm not too sure on what caused the part to fail. Can anyone make any suggestions on what would cause this happen? Any theories / ideas are highly appreciated. Thanks in advance guys & gals.
Most likely over-voltage or over-heating.
EDIT: Over voltage could be caused by a voltage regulator playing up or possibly an early sign that something is up with your PSU.
i have this board. at least i think i have the rev 1 now im a little nervous
Gigabyte AM3+ boards are just rubbish. especialy those revisions till 3.0. all the same overheating issues, crappy bios and what not.
I had a Gigabyte board once, i personaly will never ever buy one again realy.
Better grab an Asus 990FX board realy, they are more sollid.
Offcourse if your system is running fine, there is nothing to worry about.
I have this board and have had no problems with it. The only thing that gets concerningly hot is the north bridge. The south bridge on mine is only ever warm.
i also assume he means the Nbridge. ☺
Nah, it was definitely the Southbridge. I saw a quick burst of flame and that was it, plus there were burn marks on the heat sink after I took everything apart. Seems like my PSU is definitely suspect at the least, so I should probably upgrade there, and I think I'll take MisteryAngel's advice and go Asus for my next mobo.
Hmm thats kinda strange, thats indeed the southbridge.
Anyway its realy sadd that these kind of things happen offcourse, since the UD5 is not even a cheapo mobo. I dont understand why Gigabyte used the term "ultra durable" i had 2 friends one with the 990FXA UD3 and the other with the UD5, nothing else then missery with it. Both boards never worked properly, allways troubles with overheating, voltage drops and spikes, failing sata and usb ports and such..
The new Gigabtye revision 4 boards should be a bit better, still i dont trust them.
i allways recommend Asus 990FX boards, or the Asrock Extreme 9
Anyway which psu do you have?
Yea, thats the first thing I thought when it happened, "ultra durable my ass" lol. Also thought that spending a lil extra and going with a upper tier board would minimize issues like that. All in all, its a learning experience. This build was my first and I'm proud of going from a near complete noob and lifelong console gamer, to having built a pretty solid system my first time around. It met my needs as an audio production and 1080p gaming rig near perfectly. I feel like I lost a dear friend lol. A couple tweaks and my next system will be rock solid.
My psu is a Rosewill Xtreme Series 750W 80 Plus Bronze. Looks like I'll also be upgrading that to a Gold or Platinum. Thanks a bunch for the recommendations. My plan is to get this rig back together with an Asus mobo, and then building a Intel / Nvidia mini ITX for the living room.
your rosewill psu should be fine no need to upgrade that.
If you have have questions about builds, intel or amd you can allways ask. We are allways willing to help. We can allways recommend you sollid stuf :)