- Jul 5, 2012
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I just purchased a Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 and was extremely pleased with it for the first day that I had it. I was able to overclock my Phenom II 965 to 4.335ghz @ 1.452 Vcore. On my old boards a 4.3Ghz overclock required a 1.488 or 1.5 Vcore with this CPU.
Well, on the 2nd day of owning this board the audio took a crap. It started sounding fuzzy and then quickly started making exorcist noises at all times. So, I called Asus to see if they would replace it and I was told to go back to the place of purchase and get a new one because if Asus were to send me one it would likely be a refurb.
So, I did as they said and got my new Sabertooth yesterday. I loaded everything up at stock settings and then figured I would try my old settings from the other board. I got a blue screen on startup of Windows. I have messed with various settings and can't even get this thing to pass a standard IBT (Intel Burn Test) at anything over 3.9 Ghz.
Even my old boards (Asrock 770DE+ and Asus M4A87TD EVO) can run 4ghz on stock voltage with no issues using this processor and cpu cooler.
All hardware and settings on the original Sabertooth board:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 @ 4.335 Ghz @ 1.452 Vcore (21.5 x 201.6) Max temp under IBT on Very High settings was 55C after nearly an hour.
Coolermaster 212 in push/pull
16GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3 1600
OCZ Modstream 600W PSU
Sapphire 7770 @ 1200 core / 1300 memory
Fractal R4 Case
Crucial M4 SSD (OS)
Windows 7 X64 Ultimate with all updates installed
Bios settings on original Sabertooth:
AI overclock tuner - manual
cpu ratio - 21.5
CPU Bus - 201 ( it automatically adds .6 to anything you set it to)
PCIE - 205
Memory frequency - auto (DDR3 - 1608 Mhz)
CPU/NB Freq - 2814
HT Link - Auto
CPU Offset Voltage - .0750000
If I didn't list it, it's because the setting is still at auto.
On the new board, I have tried a simple overclock of just upping the multiplier to 20 and setting the voltage to 1.5Vcore (for 4.0Ghz) and the system will boot but within a few minutes of starting IBT the system will typically freeze or restart.
I have checked all the voltages/temps and everything is within spec and I assume everything is showing the correct information as Aida, HWinfo, and CPU-Z are all reporting the same numbers and they seem to be fairly close to what is set/showing in the bios.
I have disabled all power saving features (CQ, C1 etc). I have reinstalled the OS to rule that out. I have installed my cpu, memory and 212 back on my old motherboards and both have been able to hit 4.3Ghz on 1.5Vcore (Asrock) and 1.488Vcore (Asus EVO). So I have ruled out my CPU. I have tried other memory and that makes no difference either. My CPU temps are acceptable, topping out at 55C. Both boards are running the newest BIOS. I tried loading the bios defaults and then changing just the CPU multiplier..
So far I can honestly say that in my experience, the Asus TUF series (The Ultimate Force) should instead be called The Ultimate Fail series.
So, is this just a bad/under performing board or am I missing something?
Well, on the 2nd day of owning this board the audio took a crap. It started sounding fuzzy and then quickly started making exorcist noises at all times. So, I called Asus to see if they would replace it and I was told to go back to the place of purchase and get a new one because if Asus were to send me one it would likely be a refurb.
So, I did as they said and got my new Sabertooth yesterday. I loaded everything up at stock settings and then figured I would try my old settings from the other board. I got a blue screen on startup of Windows. I have messed with various settings and can't even get this thing to pass a standard IBT (Intel Burn Test) at anything over 3.9 Ghz.
Even my old boards (Asrock 770DE+ and Asus M4A87TD EVO) can run 4ghz on stock voltage with no issues using this processor and cpu cooler.
All hardware and settings on the original Sabertooth board:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 @ 4.335 Ghz @ 1.452 Vcore (21.5 x 201.6) Max temp under IBT on Very High settings was 55C after nearly an hour.
Coolermaster 212 in push/pull
16GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3 1600
OCZ Modstream 600W PSU
Sapphire 7770 @ 1200 core / 1300 memory
Fractal R4 Case
Crucial M4 SSD (OS)
Windows 7 X64 Ultimate with all updates installed
Bios settings on original Sabertooth:
AI overclock tuner - manual
cpu ratio - 21.5
CPU Bus - 201 ( it automatically adds .6 to anything you set it to)
PCIE - 205
Memory frequency - auto (DDR3 - 1608 Mhz)
CPU/NB Freq - 2814
HT Link - Auto
CPU Offset Voltage - .0750000
If I didn't list it, it's because the setting is still at auto.
On the new board, I have tried a simple overclock of just upping the multiplier to 20 and setting the voltage to 1.5Vcore (for 4.0Ghz) and the system will boot but within a few minutes of starting IBT the system will typically freeze or restart.
I have checked all the voltages/temps and everything is within spec and I assume everything is showing the correct information as Aida, HWinfo, and CPU-Z are all reporting the same numbers and they seem to be fairly close to what is set/showing in the bios.
I have disabled all power saving features (CQ, C1 etc). I have reinstalled the OS to rule that out. I have installed my cpu, memory and 212 back on my old motherboards and both have been able to hit 4.3Ghz on 1.5Vcore (Asrock) and 1.488Vcore (Asus EVO). So I have ruled out my CPU. I have tried other memory and that makes no difference either. My CPU temps are acceptable, topping out at 55C. Both boards are running the newest BIOS. I tried loading the bios defaults and then changing just the CPU multiplier..
So far I can honestly say that in my experience, the Asus TUF series (The Ultimate Force) should instead be called The Ultimate Fail series.
So, is this just a bad/under performing board or am I missing something?
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