M5A97 R2.0 Worth Upgrading?

Cozzi

Cozzi

Cozzi

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Joined
10 Mar 2014
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62
Afternoon.

Im currently trying to replace/upgrade the components on the PC without going into major cost.

The spec currently stands as:

M5A97 R2.0 Motherboard
AMD Athlon II 640 OC to 3.3Ghz
Kingston HyperX 8GB RAM OC to 1800Mhz
MSI GTX 670
OCZ Agility 3 SSD 120GB
500GB Storage
650w Modular PSU

The next item on my list of things to do is sort a FX 8350 out, with a decent air or water cooler.

My question is, is the motherboard worth upgrading as I cant seem to find figures which would suggest an upgrade will make much of a difference?

And if so, in what areas would a better/more expensive motherboard show?

Thanks.
 
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The motherboard should be able to handle the 8320, it has 4+1 power phases (the evo has 6+2) but would be able to easily handle it at stock, and maybe a light overclock. I'm sure other people here will chime in aswell though :)

(also you might need a bios update if you've had that mobo for a fair while)
 
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I have updated to the latest BIOS.
So in summary the advantage would be from a OC'ing point of view for the processor?

Would anyone have a suggestion which would be a good upgrade?
 
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The main benefit would be being able to overclock better with another motherboard (such as the m5a97 evo, or a 990 chipset) If you did Overclock, even on better motherboards aswell it's best to try and keep the VRM's cool if you can. There maybe other advantages but i think that is the main one (990 chipsets have Sli etc... aswell)

You should be fine i think with an updated bios so it could take an 8core.

Personally i would suggest the 8320 (saving about £40 i think?) it's basically the same chip (some differences i think though) but you can easily oc it to 8350 levels.

What brand/make of PSU do you have? As some makes don't always give there true wattage output/cheaper capacitors etc...

I hope it helps!

(you could also ask in the general hardware section if you wanted advice on your current pc, or possible new parts. You will often get a lot of advice in that part of the forum! I hope it helps! :))
 
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I would rather get the 8350 knowing its as good stock as the 8320 could be Overclocked.

The PSU is a powercool Pentium P4 Model.

I will look into the EVO or the 990 boards I think, see what sort of costs are coming back :)
 
Hey Cozzi! I'm pretty sure the 8350 will run easily at stock on the regular M5A97 R2.0, if you ask a few more people maybe in the general hardware they will have more info than me (and im super tired today so a bit slow) The 8320 was mainly aswell if you were on a tight budget :) the M5a97 evo is around £75 and the 8320 £110ish and the 8350 around £140-150. I hope it helps!
 
Cozzi said:
I would rather get the 8350 knowing its as good stock as the 8320 could be Overclocked.

The PSU is a powercool Pentium P4 Model.

I will look into the EVO or the 990 boards I think, see what sort of costs are coming back :)
Click to expand...

You need to replace that psu for a decent branded one such as Seasonic, Silverstone, Superflower, EVGA, etc. Powercool psu's are crap.
 
Yes 100% agree with MrPastymuncher (sorry didn't see that, excuse is ive been awake for 27 hours :p) A decent 500w or so should cover (sorry not too knowledgeable on Nvidea cards currently) it with the brands Pasty mentioned. If money was tight you could always get the 8320 and the saving from the 8350 could go towards that £50 or so Psu?

Xfx also make decent Psu's (oem of seasonic) but their RMA/customer service can not be great from reports if you ever ran into a problem.
 
I don't know if the mods wanna move this as we are going slightly off topic, but what can be the problems with a poor PSU, as Iv had no issues so far?
 
Best case scenario when the PSU is not up to the task, it auto shuts the PC down under load. If the PSU is cheap and not up the the task, there is a chance that it will blow and break and sometimes it wont take any components with it.

Funnily enough, i have ran a very similar spec (with a 8150 @ 4.5) before except with a PNY 580 instead of a 670 (practically the same :D) with the same exact PSU, as i had it lying around for leak tests and my other good PSU's were already in my other rigs. It ran fine for a few weeks with a couple of hours use each day until it decided to blow. Luckily it didn't take anything with it but tbh it was my fault for running a overclocked rig like that on a cheap PSU. The 8350 is quite the power jump from an athlon, i wouldn't wager my parts on 'Its been running fine up till now' tbh.

Superflower's are currently on offer. Just sayin ;)
 
That's answered the question on PSU then, I will get that changed over before the Motherboard and CPU then to be sure.

Thanks.
 
lol I remember I had a cheap PSU back in the day was a 580w done the job though since I was only running an amd x2 240 and radeon 4670. With the spec you will have it would be idiotic to run some cheap PSU :p

As said around 500w would be fine I have run my current system on a xfx 550w without problem but I would get more than that for future upgrades etc.

YOUR BASKET
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £61.99
Total : £71.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
You have all stuck fear into me lol. Im watching several PSU on ebay and if I cant get one, Iv found a place round the corner from me doing EVGA SuperNOVA NEX650G Gold Power Supply for £66.
 
They are not very good units though and have recieved mediocre reviews. The new EVGA units such as the EVGA Supernova G2 750w are the ones to get. They are now built by Superflower and have a industry leading 10 year warranty. For £79.99 that's a lot of psu for the money.

Don't go buying a second hand psu on the bay either. You don't know how old it is, how it's been treated or if it has any faults.
 
You could consider this Superflower 550w gold, which is a nice PSU:

YOUR BASKET
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
Total : £59.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).





Also as has been said XFX do a 550w (although Customer service/rma can be not great) it is an oem of Seasonic. Also Seasonic do 500w psu's that are very good qaulity, it's a shame Ocuk aren't stocking as many as they were before (notably the 520w and 620w bronze)
 
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