Hi guys, I'm new to the forum. I have to spend some words before going to the main question: I've had an ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 coupled with a 8320 and R9 290; all was fine. One day my PC decided not to boot up and after loads of attempts I noticed that my 290 was fine and my motherboard would not boot up with my perfectly functioning 290 and a perfectly functioning 270X; btw the old HD4850 worked fine and I don't know why (still now). Anyway I think it's a quite common problem of some sort of incompatibility and so I sent my MB to RMA. Time passed by (4 months) and I decided to get a refund and started looking for another motherboard manufacturer. I stumbled upon the MSI 970 gaming (970 because I won't do any CF) and I'm reading bad things regarding its VRMs. I just wanted to ask if you guys have had the same problem and also if you think this MSI is actually a valid board. I've read contrasting comments, from the anandtech review (actually quite good) to comments on another forum saying it's near to really bad and has to be avoided.
Thanks in advance to anybody would like to help me out.
P.S. I want to get to 4.5GHz daily and I've also considered the AsRock 970 performance; I kind of dislike the Gigabyte ones since I've had one and and had really poor LLC.
That your Asus board stopped working, is exaly a thing that suprises me. Asus by far has the best AM3+ boards out there for that matter.
Msi 970A Gaming is a nice feuture rich board aiming towards games. But in terms of overclocking, they are not that great indeed. VR indeed runs hot if you wanne overclock a FX8 core passed 4.5GHz.
Not sure how the Asrock 970 performance is doing, but according to its bigger brother the 990FX killer, that board has also overheating issues wenn overclocking. Next to that, the killer also lacks on any LLC settings if im right. So i would not be suprised if the 970A performance is not much better.
First of all, thanks a lot for the immediate answer :). I don't actually know what happened either. Unfortunatelly in my country 990fx motherboards have become more and more pricy (now my ASUS is 40$ more than when I bought it). So I'm kinda restricted to 970 boards and there are not a lot of option I know but I just need and average mobo that can bring to the table SOME oc and won't die in a few weeks for no good reasons xD I don't seek the best at the moment; I just do not want to encounter that problem anymore and just getting a solid board (even if I will be restricted to 4.4).
I understand your pain realy. The thing is AM3+ is allready there from 2011, and its just a shame that you still have to pay allot of cash for a decent 990FX board realy.
But in your case you dont realy have much choice. Otherwise i would have recommend to not invest anymore cash in a dead AM3+ platform anymore.
I personaly use the Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 which is a 6+2 powerphase digi vrm board, just like the Asus M5A99FX pro R2.0 basicly, but the PRO is better.
The Msi 970A gaming, also lacks on LLC so i´m not sure if that would be the best choice.
Asrock 970A performance also lacks on LLC, and the VR cooling not seem to be sufficient. Like i allready said above, those boards are not that great for overclocking.
Not sure if you could get your hands on the Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0? Its one of the best 970 chipset boards out there. It has all the bells and whisels for overclocking, just like your pro had. I was able to get 4.8GHz out of my FX8350. But i currently run at stock.
The point is that I do not want to get that problem I had; that's why I chose the refund! I could have gotten another PRO for free but I decided not, willing to get a mobo from another brand all for the sake of being free of issues.
On a side note, I've seen this picture on another site and is referring to msi 970 and 8320e
Actually the voltage regulation seems fine with no significant drops in voltage. It might not be a 9590 at 5GHz, but it's an 8core brought at 1.55V (hence should put some strain on the VRMs); and in all the reviews I've seen so far, it's pretty easy to get 4.7GHz (that I don't need). Can this motherboard be so far off of what I want? Can I risk buying another ASUS after the problem I had?
depends on which pwm controler they use on this particular board. I need to look which particular pwm controler they have used on this board. Their 970A krait only has a 4 + 1 powerphase for that matter. edit: The 970A gaming looks like a 6+2 indeed.
Still i have seen some overclocking topics, in which people were able to achieve some moderate overclocking numbers. i think that 4.4Ghz should be doable.
If I may interrupt, why don't you just get Gigabyte 990FXA - UD3 and be done with it? I mean atleast in my country the price difference is like 5$ and the Gigabyte is proven to be more than adequate... PS: I am just asking, not trying to be mean or anything.
No interruption here :); if anything else I appreciate any help. The reason I'm not satisfied with gigabyte is that I had a Z77X-D3H and it had an incredibly high CPU voltage swing between idle and full load (I tried every LLC step and I couldn't find a way to stabilize the Vcore) and I don't like the fact that there are just 3 fan headers, that's it. And more important: in my country there is a nearly 40$ difference between 970 and 990fx. A 970 MB is around 105€ (110 usd?) and a 990fx is around 145€ (kinda 150 usd). The 990FX mobos are too expensive for me (especially after the 90€ refund).
And also I don't really know Gigabyte motherboards have displayed the problem I had (it's about black screen at start up when drivers are installed and you can do literally nothing other than uninstall the drivers form safe mode and get to the starting point).
Its not very likely that msi used an all digi vrm on this board. But that does not realy matter.
The most important thing is, if you ar able to do some what of overclocking. And i think you should be fine, as long as you dont go to crazy. LLC is not availeble as far as i have seen.
Fortunately/unfortunately my 8320 is not the most lucky one xD With the asus 990fx pro I went all the way to 4.8GHz with a quite high Vcore (north of 1.55V, close to 1.6); obviously unsustainable for temps and everything. I found myself pretty comfortable with 4.3GHz (found 4320MHz as a sweet spot with incremented FSB with low temps and not so high voltage). Anyway, I've had my time with this CPU to push it hard, so I won't go crazy at all.
Yeah i still dont realy understand of what have might going wrong with your mobo. and / or if those issues occured after you did a overclock? The 990FX pro is basicly a sollid board realy.
Ok. I think my brain is frying right now but I just have found the best thing. An offer on a Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 rev. 4 from 170€ to 110€. I'm going to take it. Too good for that price when compared to the other options... right?
So, @psycho_666 I guess you were right all along :D.
According to what i have heard, it seems that allot of issues with the previous revisions of that particular Gigabyte board, seem to be fixed on the Revision 4.
I have seen a couple of threads in which users were able to reach some decent overclockings on it.
That is so good to hear xD Anyway I've just found this quite well done review for the rev 4 (focusing also on LLC effectiveness!!!!). I think this decides it :D
The thing for just €110,- you could once again give it a try of course. If it still does not realy workout well how you would have liked, then you can allways decide what to do next.
