AM3+ chipsets, your opinion

[mvitkun]

I find that whenever I recommend an AM3+ build I like to lean toward 990FX chipsets whenever it's higher than a FX 6300 (no OC).

 

because the VRM's and the VRM cooling the 970/880G is pretty weak.

 

what do you think?

for an overclocked FX 6300 or FX 8350 (OC'd or Stock),should a 990FX chipset be more or less a requirement?

or do you feel the 880G/970 chipsets could handle an overclocked FX 6300 or FX 8320(xx50) [OC'd or stock]?

EDIT:

I was referring to the more common boards,that are cheaper and more often recommended like these.

 

ASRock 970 pro3

 

 

ASUS M5A97

 

Gigabyte 970A D3

 

Gigabyte 970A DS3

 

Gigabyte 970A GA3

 

MSI 970A G43

[AraSarkisyan]

My fx 6300 is on a 970 chipset is at 4.3. And I used AMD Overdrive. 

[nathanhd123]

I have my FX8350 on a 970 a little overclocked, only because I wanted to stop the errors in Prime 95. The VRM's do get hot and it is a concern for me but an overclock is definitely possible.

[mvitkun]

I have my FX8350 on a 970 a little overclocked, only because I wanted to stop the errors in Prime 95. The VRM's do get hot and it is a concern for me but an overclock is definitely possible.

lol you're 970 board is one of the few with a vrm heatsink,though not an amazing one.

 

I've actually looked into that board,and the few others with heatsinks, when recommending cheaper systems.

 

I was referring to the more common boards,that are cheaper and more often recommended like these.

 

ASRock 970 pro3

 

 

ASUS M5A97

 

Gigabyte 970A D3

 

Gigabyte 970A DS3

 

Gigabyte 970A GA3

 

MSI 970A G43

[brownninja97]

Im getting a 990fx UD3 or a 990fx MSI GD65. I tend to find Gigabyte to be more reliable so im going for that. Anyone wants to change my view then you have until August.

[mvitkun]

Im getting a 990fx UD3 or a 990fx MSI GD65. I tend to find Gigabyte to be more reliable so im going for that. Anyone wants to change my view then you have until August.

I personally trust MSI more.

 

but I've heard both of those boards have a decent amount of issues on the AM3+ side,in fact there are very few boards that I havn't heard a large consensus of people claiming issues with.

something about overvolting issues on the msi side,if I recall correctly,and VRM's overheating on the gigabyte side.

[auraofjason]

My fx-8350 has been running at 4.8ghz ever since I got it in October 2012 on this ga-970a-ud3, no problems at all.

[brownninja97]

I personally trust MSI more.

 

but I've heard both of those boards have a decent amount of issues on the AM3+ side,in fact there are very few boards that I havn't heard a large consensus of people claiming issues with.

something about overvolting issues on the msi side,if I recall correctly,and VRM's overheating on the gigabyte side.

I will not be overclocking for a while as I cant afford a decent cpu cooler at the moment. Seems like MSI would have less problems for this then. The sabertooth seems nice but I hate Asus and the colour scheme is pathetic. Its also £10 over my price bracket.

[D3MON]

if it has an 8+1 (or 8+2) power phase using quality components with a good well designed vrm, yes, if not, no..
if you're counting the pennies get an fx6300 and a gigabyte ud3 board
if you need more grunt get an 8320 and oc to 4.5 (on as low volts as you can)
if you want an uber machine get a crosshair forumla v-z and oc to 4.7/4.8 (with as low volts as you can)
have fun.

edit: hate to link to another forum but I hope this helps..
http://www.overclock.net/t/946407/amd-motherboards-vrm-info-database

[mvitkun]

My fx-8350 has been running at 4.8ghz ever since I got it in October 2012 on this ga-970a-ud3, no problems at all.

again like I said in the comment to @nathanhd123, I was referring more to the cheaper more often recommended boards that are lacking a vrm heatsink.

look at post #4

[mvitkun]

if it has an 8+1 (or 8+2) power phase using quality components with a good well designed vrm, yes, if not, no..

if you're counting the pennies get an fx6300 and a gigabyte ud3 board

if you need more grunt get an 8320 and oc to 4.5 (on as low volts as you can)

if you want an uber machine get a crosshair forumla v-z and oc to 4.7/4.8 (with as low volts as you can)

have fun.

none of the 970/880G have even 8 phase to the best of my knowledge,and half of the 970's available (on newegg [6/13 motherboards]) have no VRM cooling whatsoever.

updated first post with pic's of the boards that are bad.

[auraofjason]

again like I said in the comment to @nathanhd123, I was referring more to the cheaper more often recommended boards that are lacking a vrm heatsink.

look at post #4

 

Ah sorry. Like d3mon said, overclockability depends more on the power phase count than the chipset for amd. Minimum for overclocking would be 4+1 heatsinked, which would be this board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128565 (I would not overclock an 8 core on this, though, 6 core and under would be fine).

 

 

none of the 970/880G have even 8 phase to the best of my knowledge,and half of the 970's available (on newegg [6/13 motherboards]) have no VRM cooling whatsoever.

updated first post with pic's of the boards that are bad.

 

My ga-970a-ud3 is heatsinked 8+2 phase.

[mvitkun]

Ah sorry. Like d3mon said, overclockability depends more on the power phase count than the chipset for amd. Minimum for overclocking would be 4+1 heatsinked, which would be this board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128565 (I would not overclock an 8 core on this, though). 

My ga-970a-ud3 is heatsinked 8+2 phase.

whoa,looked at that,and they were so small that I thought it was 4+2,looked through and still pretty sutre that's the only board with 8(+) phases.

that's probably the only 970 that should be overclocked.

[D3MON]

none of the 970/880G have even 8 phase to the best of my knowledge,and half of the 970's available (on newegg [6/13 motherboards]) have no VRM cooling whatsoever.

updated first post with pic's of the boards that are bad.

sorry bud didnt read the posts (dont even know if you had posted when i started typing and it doesnt update till you send)

your completly right, i will add 1 thing to this though.

if you buy a 4+1 power phasse dont overclock, the risk of killing your board/chip far outweighs the savings by buying a cheaper board, like with anything if you want more you have to pay more....

[TechFan@ic]

The only 970 chipset that I'd recommend for overclockers is the Asus M5A97, because it's pretty much the only one with decent VRM cooling.

[Darell3]

I have a 780g chipset, runing my fx-6100 @ 4.0ghz stable.

[mvitkun]

The only 970 chipset that I'd recommend for overclockers is the Asus M5A97, because it's pretty much the only one with decent VRM cooling.

no it still has 4+2 VRM's.

 

I'd personally go for that above board

ga-970a-ud3

it has a heatsink (small as it is) and 8+2 phases.

 

I do'y think there is anything aside from a 990FX that has both a beefy VRM heatsink and more than 8 phases.

[mvitkun]

I have a 780g chipset, runing my fx-6100 @ 4.0ghz stable.

3.9ghz is stock for the FX 6100 (turbo core),so that's only a 100mhz overclock....thats not even really an overclock.

 

if anything you're probably using less voltage than the board would have on it's own to feed the 3.9ghz on auto-volts

 

also what motherboard is it?

[TechFan@ic]

no it still has 4+2 VRM's.

 

I'd personally go for that above board

ga-970a-ud3

it has a heatsink (small as it is) and 8+2 phases.

 

I do'y think there is anything aside from a 990FX that has both a beefy VRM heatsink and more than 8 phases.

The number of phases is meaningless especially when you're talking about digitial VRM, an example of this is the 990FX Gigabyte UD3 which has more phases than the Asus 990FX M5A99, but the Asus board overclocks better.

I can't seem to find any review where they compare a bunch of 970 boards T_T, but I'm pretty sure that from what I've been reading for the past year that the Asus based 970 boards are significantly better than anything else especially in overclocking.

 

[TechFan@ic]

OK found an article where the M597A was compared to the M5A99X & the Crosshair Formula.

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Motherboards/Asus-M5A97-M5A99X-and-Crosshair-V-Roundup/Results-Cinebench-R115-Power-Consumpt

In terms of overclocking all of these boards provide nearly identical results. All three of the Asus boards were able to get to 325 MHz HTT speed, and all three were able to push the X6 1090T to 3.9 GHz with a small voltage increase. The Crosshair V did have a slightly higher top end, but this is not surprising given its slightly more robust power delivery.

When automatic overclocking was enabled with all boards, they consistently hit about the same spot. The CPU was clocked around 3.7 GHz with a 232 MHz HTT. Multiple reboots and retries across all three boards resulted in the same level of overclock. There were a couple MHz difference between runs, but the 232 MHz area was consistent across all three boards.

[samuel]

Most Gigabyte and Asus 970 chipset motherboards are safe to OC. You should look for the number of power delivery phases and not the chipset itself. If you are not a CF/SLI and fan expert freak, I recommend GA-970A-UD3 for safe permanent 1.50V on a 8 core CPU.

[mvitkun]

OK found an article where the M597A was compared to the M5A99X & the Crosshair Formula.

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Motherboards/Asus-M5A97-M5A99X-and-Crosshair-V-Roundup/Results-Cinebench-R115-Power-Consumpt

actually it compared the m5a97 EVO,which is currently unavailable on both amazon and newegg,and when it was cost $114.99 (the same as a 990FX chipset).

 

and it had 6+2 phases.

vs the m5a97 which has 4+2 phases.

 

thats a big difference.

and the m5a97 evo has a larger heatsink,and it has an additional heatsink near the vrm's.

[mvitkun]

Most Gigabyte and Asus 970 chipset motherboards are safe to OC. You should look for the number of power delivery phases and not the chipset itself. If you are not a CF/SLI and fan expert freak, I recommend GA-970A-UD3 for safe permanent 1.50V on a 8 core CPU.

pretty sure I wouldn't recommend 1.5v on any 970 chipset,because as I said in the top half of the available ones have 4 (+2) phases.

one has 6 (+2).

and one has 8(+2).

 

and the only 8+2 has weak a heatsink that looks like it belongs on a graphics card ram chip, cooling 3 ram chips. 

 

the 6 (+2) has decent cooling,so maybe you could get it to 1.5v,but I wouldn't push it that far.

 

it's like trying for 1.5v on an FX 8350 with a hyper 212......it just isn't smart.

[TechFan@ic]

actually it compared the m5a97 EVO,which is currently unavailable on both amazon and newegg,and when it was cost $114.99 (the same as a 990FX chipset).

 

and it had 6+2 phases.

vs the m5a97 which has 4+2 phases.

 

thats a big difference.

and the m5a97 evo has a larger heatsink,and it has an additional heatsink near the vrm's.

Hmmm, I'm lost now, it's disturbing how little reviews there are for the 970 boards T_T .

By the way I don't think that's an additional heatsink for the VRM's it's probably just the north-bridge heatsink but in a slightly awkward location.

[mvitkun]

Hmmm, I'm lost now, it's disturbing how little reviews there are for the 970 boards T_T .

That's kind of why I wanted Linus' input during the livestream,but he was like 2 tweets away for 10 min (he was on the same minute as my tweet for the entire 10 min).....damn Linus.

 

but you agree that going 1.5v on either 4+2 phases,or 8+2 with a tiny ram heatsink to cool the vrms is a bit suicidal right?