M5A97 R2.0 Questions

Sharky1289 · May 6, 2014

With this motherboard will I be able to overclock my AMD FX-6300 to 4ghz with a 212 EVO cpu cooler? Also, in general is this a good motherboard?
Thanks

Gam3r01 · May 6, 2014

Yes it will support it, and yes its a great entry-mid level AM3+ board.

Sharky1289 · May 6, 2014

Will I be able to get that overclock?

Sharky1289 · May 6, 2014

Gam3r01 :

Will I be able to overclock to 4ghz?

Gam3r01 · May 6, 2014

As long as its a good chip yes.
I have the M5A97 LE R2.0, which is not as OC friendly and I was able to hit 4.22 on my Phenom II, the non LE version does even better.

Sharky1289 · May 6, 2014

Gam3r01 :

I thought you couldn't OC at all on the le version because of no heat sinks on VRM?

Gam3r01 · May 6, 2014

You can a decent bit, but they will warm up and stop any higher OCs. Apparently the magic number for my board and CPU was 4.22, 4.33 crashes, but under that is stable for prime95 for hours.

Sharky1289 · May 6, 2014

Gam3r01 :

Well, it does look like you have a really good CPU cooler, so I will probably only go to around 4 even though I have seen viideos of it going to around 4.3 and being stable. Just another question, will OC shorten lifespan of CPU? I obviously know that if you do it wrong it will, but if you say put your CPU at 4-4.1(you know that would be very stable), would the CPU life span decrease?

Gam3r01 · May 6, 2014

If its done right, it wont harm the CPU at all, you should hit that easily.
Previously I had the 212 EVO and was at 4.1 GHz. (Went with water for the airflow and looks, this is a gaming PC but also my senior project so it needs to look nice)

Sharky1289 · May 7, 2014

Gam3r01 :

Last question kind of off topic, but for my build (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3Fhwj), I am kinda on budget, so I cut the wattage on the PSU short. The estimated is not even close to my PSU wattage, will this be ok. The only reason I ask this is because I see a lot of people completely blow there estimate wattage out of the water.

Gam3r01 · May 7, 2014

It will work, but any future upgrades will need a new PSU. The CX series has lower quality capacitors on them, but they are good entry level.

Sharky1289 · May 7, 2014

Gam3r01 :

Thanks for all your help. Really means a lot to a new guy like me.

Gam3r01 · May 7, 2014

No problem, we were all new guys at one point haha

Sharky1289 · May 7, 2014

Gam3r01 :

Sorry just one last thing, compatibility notes it says the case does not support usb 3.0 on the front. Will this create some sort of issue. I have heard the motherboard isn't a traditional ATX form fir (it skews a little), so will this create some trouble.

photonboy · May 7, 2014

Sharky1289 :

PSU:
A quick rule-of-thumb is to ensure the power supply has the proper 6/8-pin connectors for the Graphics Card. If that's sufficient you likely would be fine on the CPU side.

CPU overclocking:
While you won't necessarily "break" your CPU, it's a well known fact that overclocking reduces the lifespan of all computer chips. In some cases that means HALF the lifespan which could mean FOUR instead of EIGHT years.

It's difficult to predict an exact time frame though. This probably won't affect your decision to overclock but I thought you should be aware since a previous comment was a bit misleading.

I also suggest you do NOT overclock at all until the system has been both tested (DDR3 memory and CPU) and running without issues for at least a week. Then monitor temperatures and don't push things to the limit.

I would suggest trying 4GHz and if it's stable stick with it for at least a month before trying to push further if desired but it's a bad idea to get too close to the failure point. I recommend at least 200Mhz below the crash point.

Prime95 temperature:
Don't forget this temperature is well above idle or even gaming usage. It's probably not much above Video Encoding usage though so it's good to make sure the temperature falls below the max temperature. There are TWO I believe, one for each CORE, and one for the PACKAGE which is a sensor in a slightly different spot. You can Google those. I generally just use the CORE values and ensure every CPU core is below the max temperature in Prime95 or a similar stress program.

DDR3 memory:
In general, don't overclock this at all. It can easily be overclocked when messing with CPU settings so you may have to set things back or your crashing may be the memory not the CPU. There's also rarely a benefit to overclocking System RAM as well.

Sharky1289 · May 7, 2014

photonboy :

Sharky1289 :

PSU:
A quick rule-of-thumb is to ensure the power supply has the proper 6/8-pin connectors for the Graphics Card. If that's sufficient you likely would be fine on the CPU side.

CPU overclocking:
While you won't necessarily "break" your CPU, it's a well known fact that overclocking reduces the lifespan of all computer chips. In some cases that means HALF the lifespan which could mean FOUR instead of EIGHT years.

It's difficult to predict an exact time frame though. This probably won't affect your decision to overclock but I thought you should be aware since a previous comment was a bit misleading.

I also suggest you do NOT overclock at all until the system has been both tested (DDR3 memory and CPU) and running without issues for at least a week. Then monitor temperatures and don't push things to the limit.

I would suggest trying 4GHz and if it's stable stick with it for at least a month before trying to push further if desired but it's a bad idea to get too close to the failure point. I recommend at least 200Mhz below the crash point.

DDR3 memory:
In general, don't overclock this at all. It can easily be overclocked when messing with CPU settings so you may have to set things back or your crashing may be the memory not the CPU. There's also rarely a benefit to overclocking System RAM as well.

How do I see if PSU connectors are a match?

photonboy · May 7, 2014

PSU:
The Antec VP-450 is a power supply with a single 6-pin connector. It's fairly inexpensive and possibly the best value for you.

How to know what connectors it has?

A couple ways. You can go to the manufacturer site, or find a REVIEW like this one:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Antec-VP450-Power-Supply-Review/1487

( can't seem to copy the text but it says "6-pin connector for video cards"; I also bought this for my sister)

Other:
12-volt Wattage:
The Graphics card and CPU are the only components I believe that use 12-Volts. The above Power Supply supplies 186Watts on each of the two 12V rails.

Your graphics card uses under 150W so that's fine. Your CPU uses even less even overclocked so that's fine.

For reassurance, here's a chart showing the FX-6300 under load. I didn't bother to see what the graphics card is but the ENTIRE SYSTEM uses 146W under load so the CPU would use less than that:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6396/the-vishera-review-amd-fx8350-fx8320-fx6300-and-fx4300-tested/6

The SYSTEM POWER with the FX-4300 @ 5GHz is 185W so the FX-6300 would be more (210W?) but even then you should be okay power wise but your cooler and motherboard aren't suitable (and your power supply fan would be very loud):
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6396/the-vishera-review-amd-fx8350-fx8320-fx6300-and-fx4300-tested/8

Note how high the FX-8350 jumps though at 4.8GHz. Power does NOT SCALE linearly. A 10% overclock on the CPU is higher than 10% more power used by the CPU.

Sharky1289 · May 7, 2014

photonboy :

PSU:
The Antec VP-450 is a power supply with a single 6-pin connector. It's fairly inexpensive and possibly the best value for you.

How to know what connectors it has?

A couple ways. You can go to the manufacturer site, or find a REVIEW like this one:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Antec-VP450-Power-Supply-Review/1487

( can't seem to copy the text but it says "6-pin connector for video cards"; I also bought this for my sister)

Other:
12-volt Wattage:
The Graphics card and CPU are the only components I believe that use 12-Volts. The above Power Supply supplies 186Watts on each of the two 12V rails.

Your graphics card uses under 150W so that's fine. Your CPU uses even less even overclocked so that's fine.

For reassurance, here's a chart showing the FX-6300 under load. I didn't bother to see what the graphics card is but the ENTIRE SYSTEM uses 146W under load so the CPU would use less than that:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6396/the-vishera-review-amd-fx8350-fx8320-fx6300-and-fx4300-tested/6

The SYSTEM POWER with the FX-4300 @ 5GHz is 185W so the FX-6300 would be more (210W?) but even then you should be okay power wise but your cooler and motherboard aren't suitable (and your power supply fan would be very loud):
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6396/the-vishera-review-amd-fx8350-fx8320-fx6300-and-fx4300-tested/8

Note how high the FX-8350 jumps though at 4.8GHz. Power does NOT SCALE linearly. A 10% overclock on the CPU is higher than 10% more power used by the CPU.

Are you sure the motherboard and cooler aren't compatible? PC Partpicker says that its ok. Also if you look under compatibility notes it says the usb 3.0 on the motboard is not compatble with the front panel of my case. Does this mean I won't be able to access it, or will the whole mother board not fit in the case?

Sharky1289 · May 7, 2014

photonboy :

PSU:
The Antec VP-450 is a power supply with a single 6-pin connector. It's fairly inexpensive and possibly the best value for you.

How to know what connectors it has?

A couple ways. You can go to the manufacturer site, or find a REVIEW like this one:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Antec-VP450-Power-Supply-Review/1487

( can't seem to copy the text but it says "6-pin connector for video cards"; I also bought this for my sister)

Other:
12-volt Wattage:
The Graphics card and CPU are the only components I believe that use 12-Volts. The above Power Supply supplies 186Watts on each of the two 12V rails.

Your graphics card uses under 150W so that's fine. Your CPU uses even less even overclocked so that's fine.

For reassurance, here's a chart showing the FX-6300 under load. I didn't bother to see what the graphics card is but the ENTIRE SYSTEM uses 146W under load so the CPU would use less than that:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6396/the-vishera-review-amd-fx8350-fx8320-fx6300-and-fx4300-tested/6

The SYSTEM POWER with the FX-4300 @ 5GHz is 185W so the FX-6300 would be more (210W?) but even then you should be okay power wise but your cooler and motherboard aren't suitable (and your power supply fan would be very loud):
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6396/the-vishera-review-amd-fx8350-fx8320-fx6300-and-fx4300-tested/8

Note how high the FX-8350 jumps though at 4.8GHz. Power does NOT SCALE linearly. A 10% overclock on the CPU is higher than 10% more power used by the CPU.

So even if I over locked, the PSU would be a match. Also, why do people completely blow their necessary wattage out of the water? Why waste your money on 200 watts of room.

photonboy · May 9, 2014

PSU comment:

overclocking: you have sufficient headroom to overclock. You will be limited by the motherboard, CPU or cooler

"Why waste your money on 200 watts of room. "

Good question:

1. Less fan noise since many start ramping up about the 50% load. So if you're at 80% load it will be far louder.

2. Less stress on Power Supply so it should last longer.

3. Headroom in case more power is needed such as a better graphics card.

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