Currently have my 8350 overclocked to 4.5Ghz via CCC but looking to do it 'the right way' via the BIOS. Anyone got any read throughs on OC'ing on a Sabertooth 990FX Motherboard? FYI Cooler is the Kraken x61 liquid cooler.
Jayztwocents has a good video explaining the steps to take in Bios overclocking.
1 Like
Thank you. I'll give this a watch!
Keep an eye on the VRM temperatures, try to keep them below 80C, if you value the longevity of your motherboard.
LOL. I set a MSI 990fxa-gd80v2 on fire overclocking an 8350. Literal fire and smoke. It was quite a show. It was the VRM that lit up. However, the 8350 survived, and still runs stable to this day.
2 Likes
I came really close to getting that motherboard. Instead, I got the ASUS M5A97 EVO, which was great for my FX-4170. (Managed to crank that baby up to 5.0ghz!)
When I got my FX-8350, though, I also upgraded my motherboard to the Sabertooth. I didn't need to upgrade, although my other mobo's VRM thottled at a 4.4 ghz overclock, but I wanted a product with all the extra features to mess with. Waste of an investment? To a lot of people, maybe. But I love tinkering.
I always wondered why they started to make VRM and chipset heatsinks so useless.
All new motherboards seem to have some slab of aluminium machined into fancy edges that do next to nothing for cooling.
This is how you make a cooling unit for high end motherboards.
Ehem, though I think its possible to clock the 8350 to 5ghz on that motherboard, as it can run the 5ghz 8 core from amd.
The JaysTwoCents video is great! I used it myself when overclocking my 8350. I would like to add that jay will recommend a pure northbridge OC, and he will explain why, however I have found that a combination multiplier/NB is most effective for popping up the the 5.0 mark without melting your cpu.
In addition you may want to run your x61 in push-pull, 8350s get hot and when you start needing to really crank up the voltage around 4.7-4.8 ghz, that thing is going to get hot! Grab some good static pressure fans.
For reference I have my 8350 at 5.1 on an m5a99x evo r2, which is a less expensive and technically inferior to your sabertooth but I am also on a custom water loop with a triple radiator.
Yes, I ended up replacing that board with the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX. After seeing the difference between the two, that is the one I should have started with. The VRM heat sinks on the MSI board had a flaw in the design in my opinion. There was one VRM under the heat pipe only. I was in the elbow section and not under the actual heat sink. A hole was burnt through the board before the power to the system cut itself off. I thought I was going to die.... not from the fire, but from the wife. I justified it as a business expense and moved on.
Sometimes I think manufacturers overlook functionality for the sake of aesthetics.
Its worth noting that the newer Intel chips don't have super high power draw so the manufactures can definitely skimp on vrm heatsinks there and not have problems, although on the older AM3+ boards it was inexcusable to have small vrms (cough cough msi gigabyte cough cough)...
If you read through this https://forum.teksyndicate.com/t/cinebench-r15-cpu-overclocking-score/60715 you can see some of the set ups we have used. I found that in order to get past 4.8 I had to play with the bus speed and most others who hit 5 have done the same. Check it out and post your scores.
You can get there on the sabertooth. Don't forget to put active cooling on the vrm's and back of socket.
Happy overclocking.
1 Like
Holy Moly all bus no fuss lol, nice one!
That is pretty sexy. What exactly is that set-up?
I have been experimenting with Enzotech VRM heatsinks, lately.
That's an old EVGA 790i board from 2008.
It is the stock heatsink that came with the board, as they kinda built it for overclocking the heatsink was massive.