ASUS M5A97 R2.0-FX8350 won't overclock

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ItzCrooK2UxD

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Feb 11, 2013
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Hi, first and foremost I want to thank you guys for all your contributions to this community. I am a longtime stalker of these forums, but it wasn't until recently that I decided to build my own rig, and essentially I did just about everything wrong that I could think of as far as shopping went. I know myself and getting yester-years chip to beat (965 BE) just wasn't gonna cut it.

Long story short I ended up replacing the EVGA GeForce GT 640 I originally purchased with an EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SC, replaced the Corsair CX500 with a modular Corsair HX850. Basically out of my original build I am using the Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD for my data, Cooler Master Hyper N520 CPU Heatsink, and ASUS M5A97 R2.0 Mobo.

Now with the Phenom II I managed to get a rock solid 4 GHz on stock voltages on this board, so while I can't say my present mobo is going to break records, I really can't say it's a garbage board.

A few things I am well aware of prior to requesting input.

1) I am aware that the board has a 4+2 which is far from ideal for overclocking, but would like to add that it did manage a 600 MHz OC on a quad core Phenom II.

2) I am also aware that past results are by no means an indicator of future successes. The board may have been great for a Phenom, but may not be up to par for a Piledriver.

ASUS does advertise this board as being capable of overclocking, and compatible with the FX Chips.

My issue is I can not even get this CPU to a stable overclock of 4.2 GHz (The advertised "Turbo" speed). I have tried to up the voltage to 1.45, figuring I could work my way down once I found the sweet spot as far as the clock speeds, run Prime 95, and BAM! BSOD.

I try lowering voltages, disabling all the fancy power saving stuff, that generally I would think people who build their own PC's end up disabling anyways.

Bottom line is, I bought an FX processor because like the Black Edition chips they were made to be pushed, so I want that puppy going a little bit faster than advertised...but at this point I would be OK with seeing it run at 4.2 (Once again, the advertised "Turbo" speed), and would appreciate any input or suggestions. Also please understand that while I am not a total noob, the whole UEFI BIOS is something I still don't completely understand.

My system is as follows:

CPU: AMD FX-8350, Mobo: ASUS M5A97 R2.0 (most current BIOS), PSU: Corsair HX850, Memory: 8GB G.skill Sniper 1866 MHz, GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SC, SSD: 240GB OCZ Vertex 3, HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM, CPU Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper N520, Case: Cooler Master HAF 912

Once again thanks!
 
Solution
after some googling, many have problem to overclock an FX CPU on a 970 chipset, i guess the chipset is low-end so they don't give too much overclock options as only the latest bios support the FX, it's more like a compatibility patch to sell CPU to people that have old board than an actual Overclocking chipset like the 990fx...

spawnkiller

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after some googling, many have problem to overclock an FX CPU on a 970 chipset, i guess the chipset is low-end so they don't give too much overclock options as only the latest bios support the FX, it's more like a compatibility patch to sell CPU to people that have old board than an actual Overclocking chipset like the 990fx...

 
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ItzCrooK2UxD

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Feb 11, 2013
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My reading lead me to believe that the R2.0 versions were not patched for the FX chips, but were built for them.

My first thought was actually the mobo needs to go, if I want to run the 8350. I've been considering getting a SLI board, so that the next time I get the itch to drop some money into my PC I can grab a second GTX 660.

I'm actually curious to see if others out there running the same combination are having or had the same issue.
 

crazypotato

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Dec 25, 2012
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Oh my god. Ive had quite enough with the people who goes out and buys a crap trash board and tries to "overclock" with it.

Firstly, the 970 chipset is not for overclocking, get a 990fx board

Secondly, 4 phrases for the cpu core is pushing it quite a little. I dont know what the heck was going through your mind, but the fact that you are planning to overclock a 130 watt tdp cpu on 4 phrases tells me that you have been having too many mushrooms a time.
 

ItzCrooK2UxD

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Oh my God...I found someone on the internet who can not read! If it were a "trash" board as you say it would seem that it served my Phenom (125 TDP, just like the Piledriver) quite well in that capacity...so let me understand. It can run a less efficient Phenom at a stable O/C, but not a superior Piledriver at its stock rated speed...as far as the smart ass ***, I'm glad that on an internet forum you can pretend to be something you're not...lets face it this is a computer hardware site, and you're still a nerd :)

In summary it ran a chip with a similar power draw on those 4+2 Phases...I can accept that its not ideal for an overclock, but getting the stock boost speed would be nice.
 

Dashman9000

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May 16, 2009
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I've got the same mobo running a 6200 chip @ 4.2Ghz without any issues. In addition to the newest BIOS that you have installed, have you updated the chipset drivers? Also possibly some flaky memory causing the BSOD....try running memtest as well. So far i've only oc'd mine using the auto tune feature. It sounds like your manually tweaking yours, try auto tune...to see if that helps.
 

ItzCrooK2UxD

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Actually I have tried several OC utilities including OC Tuner (from the ASUS BIOS), AI Suite II, and AOD. All three of those apps will auto tune it around 4.3 and some change, but when I go to run OCCT or Prime 95, it is damn near an instant fail.

BIOS is current and I went on the ASUS website and verified my Chipset drivers are current . As far as flaky memory, the thought did cross my mind. I can go a head and throw a 2GB stick of Crucial memory from the original build. It is worth the effort, if indeed the issue is my memory.

A couple things worth noting:

The G.skill Snipers I am running were never run at the rated speed of 1866 MHz when I had the Phenom on the board, but I did have the timings tightened up a little.

I am going to play with the memory speed a little, and play with a few memory combinations. Thanks for your input though, which goes against the theory of its generally a crap board. If I can get a good OC on an older Phenom, and you can get a good OC on a Bulldozer, then there is something I am missing.

At this point almost everything is within the return period, except the motherboard, so I wouldn't need to RMA anything. I may just go back to Tiger Direct and tell them the CPU was DOA and see if I can just replace it, before the return/Exchange period is up and I have to deal with AMD.
 

ItzCrooK2UxD

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OK so I upgraded to a Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 yesterday and running Prime 95 I still have two cores dropping off. I haven't pushed the voltage yet but I am only running @ 4.3 GHz...should more voltage really be necessary running 100 MHz over stock Turbo speed?
 

crazypotato

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Good, you got a sabertooth. It can overclock to 5ghz probably.
 

ItzCrooK2UxD

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Actually I'm thinkin the chip is a dog. I've gotten it to 4.4 with the Hyper N520 before my temps hit the lower 60's (after about 10 mins of prime 95). I have considered disabling a module, just to see what will give me better real world performance 8 cores @ 4.4GHz or maybe 6 @ 4.8-5 GHz.

 

ItzCrooK2UxD

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Feb 11, 2013
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Actually I'm thinkin the chip is a dog. I've gotten it to 4.4 with the Hyper N520 before my temps hit the lower 60's (after about 10 mins of prime 95). I have considered disabling a module, just to see what will give me better real world performance 8 cores @ 4.4GHz or maybe 6 @ 4.8-5 GHz.

 

ItzCrooK2UxD

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Feb 11, 2013
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Actually I'm thinkin the chip is a dog. I've gotten it to 4.4 with the Hyper N520 before my temps hit the lower 60's (after about 10 mins of prime 95). I have considered disabling a module, just to see what will give me better real world performance 8 cores @ 4.4GHz or maybe 6 @ 4.8-5 GHz.

 
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