990FX K1ller Mobo + FX-9370 CPU

Hey man. I also had a great deal for 9370FX and a Killer 990FX motherboard. Both from different person, though.

I have to say , that the features on the MB are superb. Mostly the audio quality is on top of what is offered on the market as on board solution. The CPU itself, after extensive testing, proved to be rock steady, it handled even situation, where CPU NB voltage bumped to "highly unsafe" territory, by Fatal1ty software. It never happened again, after i reinstalled the soft, and CPU was not anyhow impacted, it was only highly unstable. 

The problem with this motherboard , is weak VRM cooling. CPU Temp is not a big issue, if you tamper with the voltage in Bios. I had it stable to 1.385V at the frequency under medium load, on high load it began to froze.

What i recommend to you, Abar, is to check voltage settings in BIOS, turn Turbo off, you should be able to run with 1.475V @ 4.7GHz stable. (turning Turbo off should help the VRM not to be strained so much].  Problem is as I said, VRM cooling. It begins to throttle after some time, due to VRM temp.

In case you don`t know what i mean, its the longer "Killer" heatsink near CPU. I`m now in search for waterblock to hopefully provide better cooling solution, as I do have custom water loop and 360mm long Copper radiator running,, as well as still using H100i from corsair, just to see if it`s possible to improve stability.

What hits me the most is this - is possible, that the CPU, even when set to lower voltage, is still " too much" for the motherboard to handle? When compared to  8350, it`s  the same voltage, aka . Power drained. I know, that when there is a better silicon, then resistance should be lower, in which case the amps raise, which is maybe the problem for the MOSFETs.

It would be perfect, if anyone from tech support could moderate this.

Xaltar,

i want to give Abar some hint, how to make system more stable. The architecture is the same as 8000FX, the material is only higher binned in 9000FX series of CPUs. So, if he set voltage and multilier to mimic the lower series CPUs, he should be sound and safe, as I think he is not willing to change such feature-rich motherboard due to CPU only.

What is imporant, though, is to realize, that your MB life will be prolonged, if you do not strain it too much. Cool n Quiet ON - to lower voltage during idle sessions or low load. Disabling Turbo and set multiplier to 4.0-4.4 GHz max.  within 1.385 V-1.475V range.

TDP means the heat the CPU gives off, when loaded (and in this case, in theory on maximum achievable voltage / multiplier , which should, liqiud helium cooled, be around 6Ghz single core :] ). The problem is, that the heat is not only given off to surroundings and CPU scoket and cooler, the circuit itself is perfect heat conductor, so the heat it gives off kicks back in the VRM area as well as Chipset, which itself is not a cool thing either (I was allways wondering, if it was "made to run hot" or it just sucks up heat from the CPU socket.}.  So it is more like One cooks another one and that one grills the  first one. So its a barbecue party.

I know you weren`t in disagree with me, Xaltar.

I`d be surprised, however, if the problem with instability / throttling will remain the same, even after above mentioned settings are applied. THAT would be a reason to raise my eyebrow then.  Speaking of which, I`ll set that up today to see the results myself.

But, what bugs me a bit, is the CPU NB settings. In Fatal1ty software tool, it sometimes bumps the voltage with no visible reason to say, 1.325 -1.375V, which is, IMO too high, ans it should not be touched, not with just some soft, bypassing the BIOS settings completely. I have seen such thing once and i was really afraid, that it fried my CPU, as I`ve seen artifacts, tearing screen, sound issues and bluescreens. I was like WTF, checked BIOS, then, after a while i checked fatal1ty tool and the CPU NB was ramped up like crazy. What are the safe and SHOULD BE set as default for CPU NB and FX9370 ?