m5a97 evo r 2.0 vs m5a99x evo r 2.0

JonSmith · 4 Feb 2014 at 22:43

Hey guys, I'm looking to purchase a new motherboard that I intend to overclock an fx8 with, and I noticed those two boards. However, they both have a 6+2 phase VRM and identical VRM cooling so I was wondering what advantage the m5a99x actually has? Both boards have exactly the features I need otherwise (I don't wish to crossfire).

Also I noticed the picture on the store page for the m5a97 evo r 2.0 only shows the the r 1.0 version (which has a totally different chipset arrangement). Can somebody confirm that if I were to purchase this board I would get the r 2.0 version?

stulid · 5 Feb 2014 at 00:36

The 990X chipset gives you symmetrical bandwidth on the PCI-E slots, so SLI+Crossfire will be 8X/8X.

The 970 does Crossfire only and at 16X/4X.

JonSmith · 5 Feb 2014 at 10:07

so in terms of overclocking performance that's it?

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 5 Feb 2014 at 16:13

The M5A97 EVO R2.0 and M5A99X EVO R2.0 have an identical 6+2 phase VRM rated to around 275W. However the VRM coolers are not exactly the same - the physical heatsink is almost the same,but the M5A99X EVO R2.0 has a heatpipe connecting the two parts of the heatsink.

stulid · 5 Feb 2014 at 17:00

JonSmith said:
so in terms of overclocking performance that's it?

There are plenty of FX8320/8350 4.5Ghz+ overclocking results with the 970 version, they seem like great boards.

JonSmith · 5 Feb 2014 at 17:33

Thanks guys. Yeh, from the looks of it the heatpipe might make a small amount of difference but it's probably negligible, given that I intend to put a beefy cooler on it.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 5 Feb 2014 at 18:00

JonSmith said:
Thanks guys. Yeh, from the looks of it the heatpipe might make a small amount of difference but it's probably negligible, given that I intend to put a beefy cooler on it.

One of my mates has an FX6350 at 4.5GHZ using the first revision of the 970 version. He could get higher(nearer to 5GHZ) but is more limited by his cooling.

The second revision should be a better for overclocking from what I gather.

JonSmith · 5 Feb 2014 at 18:39

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
One of my mates has an FX6350 at 4.5GHZ using the first revision of the 970 version. He could get higher(nearer to 5GHZ) but is more limited by his cooling.

The second revision should be a better for overclocking from what I gather.

It would seem so, as there is a greater spacing between the VRMs and chipset + other improvements.