AMD FX-9370 and unsupported motherboard

[Darnacus]

Hey.

This is my first post so I am not sure is it in right place.

I made little mistake when I bought FX-9370. I did not realize that CPU is so power hungry. (TDP 220w)

my motherboard Asus m5a97 le r2.0 only support max 140w CPU

So the question is... Should I upgrade my motherboard or should I downgrade my CPU.

I am in a budget so it is tough call because I want to upgrade my GPU (R9 280x) also,
and if I am going to buy better motherboard I should buy better cooler for my CPU I think.
I have Raijintek Themis CPU cooler now.

I also tried to downclock CPU to 3,8GHZ and it helps little with temperatures, but gaming is still off limits.

I have cooler master GX 650w bronze, is it even enough for this setup?

I cannot refund my FX-9370 and don't have any other CPU right now.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

That motherboard is a poor match for any CPU , there are no heatsinks on the VRM.

It's one of the poorest AM3+ in terms of build quality.

 

[Darnacus]

Thanks for fast/instant response.

I was thinking, if I am going to buy new motherboard it would be Asus Sabertooth 990FX R3.0 but that thing costs about 200€.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

That is a very good board , but with the 9000 series CPU's there is no guarantee it will be stable , because even with the best of the best components they are hard to get stable.

 

[13thmonkey]

Can you get a refund on the CPU and then take stock and see what your options are?

 

[Rogue Leader]

Can you get a refund on the CPU and then take stock and see what your options are?

+1 on this. The best thing you could do is dump that CPU.

 

[Darnacus]

Can you get a refund on the CPU and then take stock and see what your options are?

No I cannot get refund. If I could there would be not so bad problem with this.

 

[mjslakeridge]

I would try to sell the CPU and cut your losses and maybe look for a FX 8XXX processor. But now is probably the worst time to be selling a FX processor with the new AMD's coming out next week. As said above, even with a good motherboard, you may never get the FX 9370 to be stable.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Even an 8350 will not run stable on that board , very poor power phase and thermal design.125w CPU's shouldn't be mounted on that board.

 

[Darnacus]

I would try to sell the CPU and cut your losses and maybe look for a FX 8XXX processor. But now is probably the worst time to be selling a FX processor with the new AMD's coming out next week. As said above, even with a good motherboard, you may never get the FX 9370 to be stable.

Yea I dont think I can sell this CPU anytime soon.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I would try to sell the CPU and cut your losses and maybe look for a FX 8XXX processor. But now is probably the worst time to be selling a FX processor with the new AMD's coming out next week. As said above, even with a good motherboard, you may never get the FX 9370 to be stable.

Yea I dont think I can sell this CPU anytime soon.

Very sorry to hear that you can't return it....Many have tried to run this with the best of the best hardware and still won't get them stable.

 

[Darnacus]

Even an 8350 will not run stable on that board , very poor power phase and thermal design.125w CPU's shouldn't be mounted on that board.

So basically I have to upgrade my motherboard anyway?

 

[madmatt30]

With blackbird on this one completely , the Asus le isn't really good enough for a 125w CPU without a huge amount of vrm Cooling let alone a 9*** series.
The themis also (& it is a damn fine budget cooler) is also not really suitable in all honesty.
You need a better board & a better cooler to run that 9370 at stock speed.
The absolute cheapest board you'll get away with is a gigabyte 990 fxa-ud3 & you'll likely have to down clock to 4.5/4.5ghz to get it within the themis's cooling limits.

 

[Rogue Leader]

eBay it:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=FX-9370&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2045573.m1684

Thats sold listings, looks like you can get about $150 out of it. Cut your losses. Between that $150 and whatever you would spend on the Sabertooth 990FX, you could buy yourself a nice H110 motherboard and an i5-6400 which will demolish it.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

You can , but stability results may not be the greatest.... No guarantees.

 

[Darnacus]

Should I just buy new motherboard with different socket and new cpu? Like some intel CPU? Any ideas for solid budget CPU?

 

[DSzymborski]

Gotta concur with the others, eat a small loss by selling your unused 9370 on eBay rather than throw good money after bad. And don't delay, with the Ryzens trickling out, the longer you wait to sell it, the less you'll probably get for it; right now, the higher-end Ryzens are coming out and aren't direct competitors, but the middle-class Ryzens will likely be better than the 9370/9590, without all the nasty secondary problems of owning one of those monstrosities.

 

[4745454b]

I would sell that CPU, get the most you can for it. But because new CPUs are inbound and should be here "soon", I wouldn't buy another CPU yet. Live without a PC for a month or so, or buy a super cheap CPU for the setup you have. Once Ryzen comes out, then look at the PC world and decide if you want to stay AMD or switch to Intel. Buying an 83xx or switching to Intel now is just a bad idea. The 83xx should drop in price a lot really soon, and Intel CPUs might see some downward movement once Ryzen is here.

 

[bloodroses]

By chance, can he underclock/undervolt the CPU to get it within the wattage limits of the motherboard? And if so, what kind of performance hit would he be looking at? It could at least get him by until he replaces it.

 

[madmatt30]

^ probably get it down to 3.5ghz at 1.3v or so & it'll run OK

Its a fair performance hit though , when a 6300 @4ghz would perform better , run cooler ,with less voltage.

The issue with the 9*** series chips is they're high leakage - meaning that they'll hit high speeds but they need some heavy voltage compared to the 83** series.
You have no guarantee they'll be stable at lower voltage even if you drop clock speeds significantly.
I know of an instance where one still needed 1.42v to run at 3500mhz which is insane when an 8300 will do that at 1.25v or so

 

[Rogue Leader]

By chance, can he underclock/undervolt the CPU to get it within the wattage limits of the motherboard? And if so, what kind of performance hit would he be looking at? It could at least get him by until he replaces it.

He tried that already and it still crashed. Also theres only so much you can downclock them. Its still gonna draw and cause issues.

 

[bloodroses]

By chance, can he underclock/undervolt the CPU to get it within the wattage limits of the motherboard? And if so, what kind of performance hit would he be looking at? It could at least get him by until he replaces it.

He tried that already and it still crashed. Also theres only so much you can downclock them. Its still gonna draw and cause issues.

Yeah, I missed that line where he said he tried downclocking it to 3.8ghz.

 

[Darnacus]

Okey... Let's assume that I cannot sell my CPU. What would people suggest for decent budget cpu + board and how much money... about... I am going to need to get somewhat solid cpu and motherboard?

And have to say this forum is awesome. So much answers for so little time

 

[Darnacus]

Like Rogueleader said that I could get i5 6400 and decent motherboard with it.

Cost would be about 350€

Thinking about this now as a solution to my problem, just sad about my current cpu and have a strong feeling that nobody will buy that if I try to sell it.

Also still thinking to buying asus sabertooth motherboard for my current cpu... It would cost less but then there is the cooling problem. And if I buy some liquid cooler. Price with board and cooler would be about 350€ with that setup too... :S

Any other suggestions?

 

[Rogue Leader]

Like Rogueleader said that I could get i5 6400 and decent motherboard with it.

Cost would be about 350€

Thinking about this now as a solution to my problem, just sad about my current cpu and have a strong feeling that nobody will buy that if I try to sell it.

Also still thinking to buying asus sabertooth motherboard for my current cpu... It would cost less but then there is the cooling problem. And if I buy some liquid cooler. Price with board and cooler would be about 350€ with that setup too... :S

Any other suggestions?

Better off with the i5 6400 and board. It will perform better and you don't need crazy cooler and you don't have the chance of it STILL not working right. The i5 is a guaranteed win.

And you can sell that CPU, look at my ebay link. Just get SOMETHING out of it which will help you.