# MSI 790FX-GD70 + PII X6 question



## suraswami (Apr 18, 2013)

I have been using my MSI 790FX on and off for some testing with PII X2 555 (unlocked to X4).  Now I am thinking of replacing my gaming machine's Gigabyte 790GP-UD4H with a new setup.

Question - can I use the MSI with the X6 1045T and OC to atleast 3.5Ghz and also make use of 16GB/32GB DDR3 ram so I can load up some VMs too (this way I consolidate both machines to one).

Read people complaining about the board catching fire with a X6.  How many have such experience here with a X6?

The Gigabyte doesn't give me stable OC more than 3.1.

Other option is to build all new with 8350/8320 + decent board (Asus 99FX pro or Sabertooth).

Can I getaway with rebuilding with the MSI?  Not sure what the next generation FX will deliver, kind of want to wait for it.


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## Jack1n (Apr 18, 2013)

Get the 8350.


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## TheLaughingMan (Apr 18, 2013)

I have had a AMD 955 1090t, 1100t, fx8150, and fx8350. There is no reason to not use a Vishera chip. The best you will get from your 1045 is close single thread performance if you hit that 3.5 Ghz. There is nothing new coming for AMD FX for a while. And I don't think the next Gen will be a socket change.


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## suraswami (Apr 18, 2013)

seems like going to FX is better upgrade.

Now should I save some money and get the 8320?

I am going to pick up Mobo bundle from MC.  Which 990 based board should I pickup?

GA-990FXA-UD3/M5A990FX PRO R2/Sabertooth R2?


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## Jack1n (Apr 18, 2013)

The 8320 is just a lower binned 8350,if it was me i would save a few bucks and get the 8320.
The GA-990FXA-UD3 looks pretty solid.


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## de.das.dude (Apr 18, 2013)

foe gaming, a pii x6 will be more than enough, even at stock.


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## suraswami (Apr 18, 2013)

Gaming wise I don't have any issues except that the Gigabyte gives BSOD once in a while when waking from sleep (if the chip is OCed more than 3.1).  I can game for hours without any crashes @ 3.4.

I also want to consolidate machines to 1 to save space and energy.

Hopefully someone has experience with the MSI + X6 and not blowing up lol.


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## suraswami (Apr 19, 2013)

anybody using the board with a X6?


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## 94JZA80 (Apr 19, 2013)

suraswami said:


> anybody using the board with a X6?



yes.

i'm running a 1090T @ 3.2GHz (stock) on a 790FX-GD70.  while i'm not OCing or overvolting, i do use this machine strictly for distributed computing 24/7.  that means the CPu is always under some sort of load.  i've had 100% of the CPU's resources dedicated to crunching non-stop for weeks at a time, but nowadays i leave some CPU cores free to help with any of the 8 GPU tasks that might be running at any given time.  not once have i had blue screens, blown caps, or any other problem w/ the motherboard.  i cool the CPU w/ a CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ w/ dual fans in a push/pull configuration.  i believe the highest i've OCed was 3.7GHz @ 1.425V, at which it was still rock solid...but i didn't leave it there and do any extensive testing.  regardless, i've never had any problems w/ heat, melting, or fires while using a Phenom II X6 CPU in my 790FX-GD70.


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## suraswami (Apr 19, 2013)

94JZA80 said:


> yes.
> 
> i'm running a 1090T @ 3.2GHz (stock) on a 790FX-GD70.  while i'm not OCing or overvolting, i do use this machine strictly for distributed computing 24/7.  that means the CPu is always under some sort of load.  i've had 100% of the CPU's resources dedicated to crunching non-stop for weeks at a time, but nowadays i leave some CPU cores free to help with any of the 8 GPU tasks that might be running at any given time.  not once have i had blue screens, blown caps, or any other problem w/ the motherboard.  i cool the CPU w/ a CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ w/ dual fans in a push/pull configuration.  i believe the highest i've OCed was 3.7GHz @ 1.425V, at which it was still rock solid...but i didn't leave it there and do any extensive testing.  regardless, i've never had any problems w/ heat, melting, or fires while using a Phenom II X6 CPU in my 790FX-GD70.



Thanks for your detailed post.  Yeah my chip is an 95w, it does 3.4 Ghz at stock voltage (1.34v), but my gigabyte board doesn't like waking up with that OC settings.

The MSI board is solid and OCed several non X6 CPUs and even went more than 300 HTT very stable.  I guess only way to try out is to put the chip in.


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## sttubs (Apr 19, 2013)

FWIW: I'm looking at a similar upgrade path as the OP, plan on using the 8350 & the newest Gen3 Sabertooth: ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX/GEN3 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX SAT...


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## suraswami (Apr 19, 2013)

sttubs said:


> FWIW: I'm looking at a similar upgrade path as the OP, plan on using the 8350 & the newest Gen3 Sabertooth: ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX/GEN3 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX SAT...



I am still debating if I can justify the cost.  your Asus board should support the new FX right?


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## sttubs (Apr 21, 2013)

suraswami said:


> I am still debating if I can justify the cost.  your Asus board should support the new FX right?



It does not specifically list the 8350 as supported, it only goes up to the 8150 as officially supported.


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## de.das.dude (Apr 21, 2013)

Asus boards are bad on quality at the moment. if you want a 990fx board look at asrock. i and a lot of people can vouch for ASROCK.

i had to RMA my previous ASUS board 5 times in 3 years(and i did see a couple of 990fx sabertooths being rma's, even though they are supposed to be high quality ) . Thats why i went with asrock. i got the 990fx extreme 4 and its pretty good. either way 8350 is supported as it is the same socket.
wont go with MSI as they seem to have a recurring problm of their VRM chips burning out. Dont know about GIGABYTE


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## suraswami (May 7, 2013)

I want to give one last try using that Gigabyte board before moving on, so last weekend I was again on my quest to get higher OC.

Got her stable @ 3.4 ghz now (252 x 13.5), found out that the board doesn't like NB clocking any higher than 2100 mhz (when HTT is high), no matter how high I go on the voltage on CPU NB.

Now I am hunting for the lowest voltage it can be stable.

Tried 1.25, 1.275 not completely stable.  Trying out 1.3v, OCCT stable tested for an hour, stable so far in BF3.

Even though I gained speed on the CPU, I kind of lost speed on NB and Ram.  With higher NB clock (2300) the system seemed slightly snapier, now its at 2016.

next step is to reach 3.5 ghz


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## Aquinus (May 7, 2013)

de.das.dude said:


> Asus boards are bad on quality at the moment. if you want a 990fx board look at asrock. i and a lot of people can vouch for ASROCK.
> 
> i had to RMA my previous ASUS board 5 times in 3 years(and i did see a couple of 990fx sabertooths being rma's, even though they are supposed to be high quality ) . Thats why i went with asrock. i got the 990fx extreme 4 and its pretty good. either way 8350 is supported as it is the same socket.
> wont go with MSI as they seem to have a recurring problm of their VRM chips burning out. Dont know about GIGABYTE



I've heard this before too, but I've had a M4N72-E which worked well when I had it and I got a M4A79-T from Norton and the P9X79 Deluxe in my rig now that work pretty well. Not to say it can't fail in the future, but I've never had to send an ASUS board back out of the 3 I've owned. In fact I've only had to send one board back, and it was because I flashed the wrong BIOS to it and a new BIOS chip didn't fix it (that was quite some time ago, 8 years I think.)

Although I still think you're advice is perfectly valid. A lot of people seem to like ASRock boards and I've never had a problem with an MSI board either (other than the problem I made myself). ASUS seems to be a gamble now. If you get a good board, you have a good product but when you start dealing with RMAs, it seems to go downhill pretty quickly.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (May 8, 2013)

I have a Gigabyte 890xa-Ud3 and I couls gbet my 1055t to clock any higher then 3.2. I bought a 990Fxa- ud3 board and popped the chip in it. I hit 3.5 without breaking a sweat on stock volts. I also got a 1090t and threw it in the 890xa board and it hit 3.8 on stock volts. Seems the older Gigabyte boards atleast from what I have seen don't like to run to high of a fsb. Also the Gigabyte 990fxa is a great board. I really love mine.


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## suraswami (May 8, 2013)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> I have a Gigabyte 890xa-Ud3 and I couls gbet my 1055t to clock any higher then 3.2. I bought a 990Fxa- ud3 board and popped the chip in it. I hit 3.5 without breaking a sweat on stock volts. I also got a 1090t and threw it in the 890xa board and it hit 3.8 on stock volts. Seems the older Gigabyte boards atleast from what I have seen don't like to run to high of a fsb. Also the Gigabyte 990fxa is a great board. I really love mine.



last night in BF3 after about 30 min the game became unresponsive.  so 1.3v = fail.  Now increased to 1.35v and testing.

OCCT passes but not during gaming.

Like you said I think the board doesn't like high HTT.

Yeah may be call it a day and going to move on.  I probably will get that gigabyte 990fxa + 8350 combo from MC (when I have more funds available).

probably going to sell this combo to who ever want to run it with slight OC.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (May 8, 2013)

Yeah I love my Gigabyte 990fxa board.


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## Aquinus (May 8, 2013)

suraswami said:


> Like you said I think the board doesn't like high HTT.



Try underclocking your HTT speed. There is very little performance to be had by overclocking HTT alone. You could always try bumping your north bridge voltage if you want to try to overclock HTT anyways, but I don't recommend it, mainly for the reason that there is no reason to and it just introduces another vector for instability.


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## cdawall (May 9, 2013)

I would give the MSI a shot with the FX just keep a close eye on the VRM section under load and don't try running OCCT or anything like that. I haven't had any issues doing anything dumb with MSI boards and just snagged a $50 890FX board from them which works well.


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## suraswami (May 9, 2013)

CPU settings with the Gigabyte board.  1.35v in bios, idle its @ 1.328 and under load it goes to 1.344v.  I will play BF3 with this setting and see if its stable.


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## cdawall (May 9, 2013)

I swear my 1090t required more volts to push it...


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## suraswami (May 9, 2013)

cdawall said:


> I swear my 1090t required more volts to push it...



Don't want to blow the VRMs.  Lets see how she holds.


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## natr0n (May 9, 2013)

The x6 is a great cpu.It's capable for just about anything.

Keep your vrms and NB cooled and should have no issues.


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## suraswami (May 9, 2013)

1.344 v - BF3 crashed after 35 min of gaming

next is 1.36v.


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## Mathragh (May 9, 2013)

For me, the 990FX sabertooth has been nothing short of exemplary. I've been able to push more than 300W through my CPU (according to my PSU rail readout), and the VRMs never ever gave me the feeling they couldnt handle it, with temperatures always staying under 65 degrees(I do have a fan blowing over the CPU socket& VRM heatsink, mind).

So as far as the sabertooth goes, I've got a positive point to share.

When it comes to the vishera chip, I'd take it over the phenom X6, as its faster in nearly everything, except for very specific single threaded loads. However, if you decide to take the 8320, keep in mind that lots of rumors are floating around about them being able to clock lower. I myself had a 8320 once aswell, couldnt get it over 4,5GHz stable even with volts way over 1,5V.


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## suraswami (May 9, 2013)

BF3 crashed in 20 min with 1.36V, this time it was BSOD stating ati****.*** something file blah blah..

I realised that I had OCed the 6970's clock to 920, so reduced to 910 Mhz.

Seems to be working for last 20 min.


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## Aquinus (May 9, 2013)

suraswami said:


> BF3 crashed in 20 min with 1.36V, this time it was BSOD stating ati****.*** something file blah blah..
> 
> I realised that I had OCed the 6970's clock to 920, so reduced to 910 Mhz.
> 
> Seems to be working for last 20 min.



If it keeps crashing it could be a sign that HTT is too high. If PCI-E over HTT glitches out, that would easily cause a driver or device error.

If I were you, I would try to keep HTT at 2Ghz and the CPUNB at 2.6Ghz to see if that makes a difference. If your CPUNB isn't already that high then don't push it higher. To be fair, if I'm pushing the PCI-E controller too hard on my SB-E chip, it will crash the AMD video driver before crashing my system.


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## suraswami (May 9, 2013)

Aquinus said:


> If it keeps crashing it could be a sign that HTT is too high. If PCI-E over HTT glitches out, that would easily cause a driver or device error.
> 
> If I were you, I would try to keep HTT at 2Ghz and the CPUNB at 2.6Ghz to see if that makes a difference. If your CPUNB isn't already that high then don't push it higher. To be fair, if I'm pushing the PCI-E controller too hard on my SB-E chip, it will crash the AMD video driver before crashing my system.



check my posting, posted screenshots

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2899415&postcount=22

both HTT and NB are almost close to 2K.

I am running 4 x 2GB sticks, I have bumped the voltage of memory from 1.8 to 1.9.  Should I bump the CPU NB a bit?


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## suraswami (May 10, 2013)

ok back to 3.1 Ghz.


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## TheLaughingMan (May 10, 2013)

Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, L...

GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 ATX AMD Motherboard - Newegg....


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## suraswami (May 10, 2013)

TheLaughingMan said:


> Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, L...
> 
> GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 ATX AMD Motherboard - Newegg....



Thanks.

I reserved FX 8320 + Asrock 970 Extreme 4 to be picked up from MC tonight (for $200 bundle).  Already have 16GB ram on another machine, I will move the ram to this machine and use spare 4GB on that machine.

Hopefully above is a good combo.  Should I use a different mobo?  I probably won't be OCing much, 4.2+ I am good.


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## suraswami (May 11, 2013)

Got stuck at work so couldn't pick up the order from MC.  So started to mess with the gigabyte again.  Pulled out the machine.  Reflashed the bios, cleared the bios, reset everything.  Now put 2 x 40 mm fans on the VRM sink.  Disabled Turbo.  Took her up to 3.2 Ghz @ 1.25v.  Seems to be stable at this setting.  USB doesn't disappear so far when wake up from Sleep!  Also played few hours of BF3 without crashing.  hmm I am confused on what is hapenning?

But the VRM load temp came down from 55C to 49C.

Also I have better NB clock than before.  Memory is close to 800 Mhz.

Gaming seems to be much smoother and even, earlier @ 3.4 after about 15 min, the game seem to struggle and CPU seems to throttle down (or slow down with hiccups), then boom either throw out of game or BSOD.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (May 11, 2013)

Oh one thing keep your memory speed as close to 1333 as you can get it. If you have to go a tad lower thats alright. Phenom chips don't like there memory controllers oc'd.


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## 94JZA80 (May 11, 2013)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Oh one thing keep your memory speed as close to 1333 as you can get it. If you have to go a tad lower thats alright. Phenom chips don't like there memory controllers oc'd.



well i thought the DDR3 1600 memory on my 790FX-GD70 mobo was running at stock clocks, but it turns out its actually running at a slightly overclocked 1666mhz (i don't specifically remember doing this, though i must have at some point).  its paired w/ an X6 1055T OCed to 3.5GHz on air.  the machine is rock solid b/c its constantly under heavy load and never bats an eye (a GTX 560 Ti runs the display, while 2 GTX 580s crunch at a 95%-100% load 24/7 for the Einstein@Home distributed computing project).  that said, i really only OCed the CPU core clock and left the HT link speed and other clocks alone...so maybe that has something to do with my board's excellent stability.


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## OneMoar (May 11, 2013)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Oh one thing keep your memory speed as close to 1333 as you can get it. If you have to go a tad lower thats alright. Phenom chips don't like there memory controllers oc'd.



they don't ?
I run my 955 at 2600NB/DDR3 1600


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## Norton (May 12, 2013)

OneMoar said:


> they don't ?
> I run my 955 at 2600NB/DDR3 1600



Try it at 1333 and drop your CAS at least one point (i.e. from 1600/CAS 9 to 1333/CAS 8)

.... run it for awhile and see what happens. It may not show in a benchmark but all of my PII rigs have run noticeably smoother/zippier(?) at 1333 with tighter latency


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## OneMoar (May 12, 2013)

Norton said:


> Try it at 1333 and drop your CAS at least one point (i.e. from 1600/CAS 9 to 1333/CAS 8)
> 
> .... run it for awhile and see what happens. It may not show in a benchmark but all of my PII rigs have run noticeably smoother/zippier(?) at 1333 with tighter latency



thats because the NB runs out of bandwith at >1333 bumping it to 2600 corrects it
1600/2 = 800 800 x 3 = 2400


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## suraswami (May 12, 2013)

Ok, when I go to DDR3 I will keep these in mind, but for now my Gigabyte DDR2 790GP board seems to be working @ 3.2 ghz.  Only problem so far is USB port at the back stops communicating with my UPS and the software keeps complaining.  Seems like this happens when the board is working hard and then when it cools down it connects back.  I am going to connect it to front panel port and see if its still the same.  Going to use USB keyboard and mouse to rule out if the UPS software is dumb!


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## drdeathx (May 12, 2013)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Oh one thing keep your memory speed as close to 1333 as you can get it. If you have to go a tad lower thats alright. Phenom chips don't like there memory controllers oc'd.



^^^^^^ THIS IS NOT CORRECT. Phenoms run fine at 1600MHz.


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## eidairaman1 (May 12, 2013)

in due honesty its still a board limitation


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## TheLaughingMan (May 12, 2013)

suraswami said:


> Ok, when I go to DDR3 I will keep these in mind, but for now my Gigabyte DDR2 790GP board seems to be working @ 3.2 ghz.  Only problem so far is USB port at the back stops communicating with my UPS and the software keeps complaining.  Seems like this happens when the board is working hard and then when it cools down it connects back.  I am going to connect it to front panel port and see if its still the same.  Going to use USB keyboard and mouse to rule out if the UPS software is dumb!



NB is still overheating it would seem. That board just can't handle what you are trying to do with it.

And it is 1866 MHz where PII completely falls apart. 1600 MHz is fine.


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## suraswami (May 13, 2013)

TheLaughingMan said:


> NB is still overheating it would seem. That board just can't handle what you are trying to do with it.
> 
> And it is 1866 MHz where PII completely falls apart. 1600 MHz is fine.



Should I put a fan on the NB heatsink?

I think my 6970 is right over it and blocking airflow?

Same with the SB.  Isn't USB controlled by SB and chance that it is over heating?

May be time to check on the Artic ceramique that I used before putting in the board 3 yrs ago?

Hate to spend on new setup to find out a simple fix would have solved my problem.


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## eidairaman1 (May 13, 2013)

suraswami said:


> Should I put a fan on the NB heatsink?
> 
> I think my 6970 is right over it and blocking airflow?
> 
> ...




GO with your gut instinct, since you asked those questions you might as well do all that you asked


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## Inceptor (May 13, 2013)

On overclocking that 1045T...

1) Drop HTT to 2000Mhz, there's only a tiny bit of performance to be gained beyond that, in most cases.
2) Try using even numbered frequencies for your bus speed, you'll find there's more stability.
3) Using DDR3-1600 ram requires a CPU-NB overclock to at least 2400Mhz in order to not bottleneck the ram.  A CPU-NB overclock will also speed up your L3 cache a bit.

Max multiplier is 13.5x, so unless you've got a board that's rock solid at bus speeds above 250Mhz, you're probably going to be limited to the 3.2 - 3.5Ghz range for a stable 24/7 overclock.


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## suraswami (May 13, 2013)

been playing for few hours now with UPS USB cable plugged into front panel port, it stopped complaining even when the temps were bit high.


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## 94JZA80 (May 13, 2013)

Inceptor said:


> On overclocking that 1045T...
> 
> 1) Drop HTT to 2000Mhz, there's only a tiny bit of performance to be gained beyond that, in most cases.
> 2) Try using even numbered frequencies for your bus speed, you'll find there's more stability.
> ...



are you having to up the CPU-NB voltage at all to get yours up to 2400mhz?


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## Inceptor (May 13, 2013)

94JZA80 said:


> are you having to up the CPU-NB voltage at all to get yours up to 2400mhz?



No.  Anything higher than that requires an increase in voltage, at least on my 945 (C3), and on my current 960/1605.


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## suraswami (May 20, 2013)

TheLaughingMan said:


> Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, L...
> 
> GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 ATX AMD Motherboard - Newegg....



Got the 970A-UD3 from MC (at clearance price).  Turns out this board is Rev 1.2 (newest is 3.0) and it has NB heat issues.  Testing out with my trusty PII 555.  At default The NB heatsink temp is about 70C, but for a change the VRM heatsink is cool.  The NB hs is wobbly, doesn't fit tight on the board, removed it applied AS ceramique, came down few degrees.  Have to put a fan on it to do some overclocking.

Updated the bios to latest from gigabyte site and strangely this board doesn't unlock my 555 stable (I used the same chip on my 790GP and MSI to unlock and run @ 3.6 Ghz+ very stable).

So far not so happy with the board with respect to OC.  Sometime this week I will try it out with the X6 to see how far it will OC.

Testing with 4 x HyperX blue 4GB 1333 sticks.


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