Biostar TA970 - 80C after 3 mins of Prime95

bgrieme

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May 25, 2014
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EDIT to clarify - it's the mobo reading that gets to 80, NOT my cpu. ALL components (except mobo) stayed under 40c for the test.

I know it's common for this mobo to have a hot northbridge, but is this temperature even safe for the board? If not, what can I do to improve/fix this? I want to OC my cpu.

I'm not worried about any other components as their temp is fine, all less than 40C including the CPU.

Temp reading gathered via Open Hardware Monitor - verified via infrared thermometer.

---following is supplementary information and likely isn't needed to answer the question---


CPU - AMD fx 8120; heatsink hyper212 Evo.
mobo - see title
gpu - xfx r9 280x DD edition
PSU - 1000W Rosewill CAPSTONE
RAM - 8GB (2x4) G.Skill ripjaws
Case - brand new Fractal Arc Midi r2 (great cable management, great airflow. 2x 140mm intake, 2x 140 exhaust, 1x 120 exhaust.

I checked my owner's manual and didn't see a max safe temp for this board.
 
Solution
Welcome to my nightmare. I have owned a TA970 since March of 2013. Its had two CPUs in it - an X4 980 BE and FX-6300. Its simply cannot overclock more than a few hundred Mhz because of the throttling after hitting 80C in Prime. I had the X4 980 BE @ 3.9 Ghz and the FX-6300 @ 4.2 Ghz. Neither was stable higher than that. As you said, within a few minutes of stress testing either the sensor under the VRM or NB (not sure which) would hit 80C and the throttling would begin. At the speeds I listed it would stay around the mid 50s during gaming and mid 60s while doing Prime95. The frustrating thing is the CPU would stay cool. I had a Thermalright True Spirit 140 on the FX-6300 and it wouldn't break 40C while stress testing. I...

jeffredo

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Welcome to my nightmare. I have owned a TA970 since March of 2013. Its had two CPUs in it - an X4 980 BE and FX-6300. Its simply cannot overclock more than a few hundred Mhz because of the throttling after hitting 80C in Prime. I had the X4 980 BE @ 3.9 Ghz and the FX-6300 @ 4.2 Ghz. Neither was stable higher than that. As you said, within a few minutes of stress testing either the sensor under the VRM or NB (not sure which) would hit 80C and the throttling would begin. At the speeds I listed it would stay around the mid 50s during gaming and mid 60s while doing Prime95. The frustrating thing is the CPU would stay cool. I had a Thermalright True Spirit 140 on the FX-6300 and it wouldn't break 40C while stress testing. I replaced the TIM under both the VRM and NB heatsinks with zero improvement. The case is well ventilated and there is an intake fan blowing on the CPU area.

For mild overclocks or stock its a solid motherboard. Its just definitely not a serious overclocker and I'm currently shopping for a replacement (990X or 990FX with a 6+2 or greater power phase count). I'll use the Biostar for a young family member's PC I'm going to build.
 
Solution

user938134

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Sep 22, 2014
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Sadly, I'm seeing the same too. Biostar TA970 + FX 8370E NOT overclocked!

Even without overclocking, if I run Prime95, the north bridge gets super hot at 80 C !! I'm using HWiNFO64 and see my "temperature 3" (northbridge) hit 80 C which I've verified with an infrared thermometer. Then I hit throttling.

And this is with an open case with multiple 12mm fans and even one 36" fan (yes, a 3 foot wide fan) blowing air onto an entire side WITHOUT overclocking.

Biostar is horrible ... :(

EDIT: Uploading the pictures ...
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JRedmond

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Aug 28, 2014
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I have an Asrock 990X extreme 4 With a FX 8350 installed with watercooling OC to 5.3 GHZ stable and the Northbridge temps never go above 50 C Due to its little air fan that greatly helps
 

LeeAiso

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Jul 14, 2014
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LeeAlso Here, I have the same Biostar TA 970 with an FX8150. And you should worry about your CPU as well; for the motherboard's BIOS temperatures are way off. The Fahrenheit reading are closer to true Celsius Temps than they are to Fahrenheit. And if they are off so would be any software temp monitor that you would use.
the Celsius temps for the cpu in the bios need to be multiplied by about 2.41 to be close to accurate. Biostar design problem that they will not admit to. Unless you get on a private line with one of there engineers.