OC & Modding Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z + AMD FX9370 Testing

Darklord

Skilled
Hello,
As the title says, I got the Asus Crosshair V Formula - Z and AMD FX9370 to test. I decided to do Air/Water/LN2 benching on this platform. Afterall this is a flagship chip from AMD and I think it deserves that level of attention and effort and so does the board.

A few words about the board as well as the CPU,
Board : A very solid and stable board. Build quality is decent but overclocking potential is exceptional. The BIOS is filled with all the necessary settings essential for any type of benching, be it Air,Water or Sub Zero.
Although I have just begun testing this board, my initial impressions are very good. It just inspires confidence while pushing it. Good stuff.

CPU: An octa core CPU working at 4.4GHz strongly hints that these are binned chips which in itself makes them special. We can say that both, 9590 and 9370 are in a different league altogether since both come at high default clock speeds. The rated TDP is on the higher side and in today's world of efficient CPUs, seems a bit out of place.
One thing needs to be kept in mind that this is still an Octa Core CPU based on 32nm tech so its obviously not going to be as efficient as Intel's 22nm tech.
Anyway that's not the point of this thread so let's just leave it at that.

Without wasting much time, I'll let the pics and screenshots and scores do the talking,

Test Setup -
CPU : AMD FX 9370
Motherboard : Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z (Bios : 1602)
RAM : Geil EVO Veloce 4GB x 2 DDR3 1600 CL9 1.5V
Teamgroup Vulcan 4GB x 2 DDR3 1600 CL9 1.5V
PSU : Seventeam 600W
GPU : Nvidia 8400GS, ATI Radeon HD3450
HDD : Western Digital 500GB
Cooler : Cogage Arrow + 2 x Scythe Ultra Kaze Fans in Push-Pull config

3.jpg

2.jpg

1.jpg

SuperPi1M5194MHz-14710s.jpg

Cinebench5066MHz-ROG.jpg

SuperPi32M5117MHz-1450434s-ROG.jpg

Wprime32M5117MHz-ROG.jpg

Pifast5117MHz-ROG.jpg

Note: I would like to specifically mention a few points with respect to this CPU which I observed while testing.
  • First one that comes to my mind is that, If at all you are planning to buy one of these, invest in a very good Air cooler or water cooler preferably.
  • The TDP rating is a good indication that these CPUs will run hot.
  • Although I do not have the current best performing Air cooler but the Arrow is no slouch either. The fact that the CPU brought it to it's knees should tell you a lot about the heat.
  • The rated clock speed is 4.4GHz (Turbo: 4.7GHz) and to reach 5GHz I didn't need any voltage bumps.
  • Beyond 5GHz, it was a bit tricky.Not because the CPU misbehaved but the cooling was insufficient. I have a very strong feeling that once you take care of the heat, these CPUs should clock well. These are indications that these chips should love cold.
That's all for now. Will update here once I am done with water cooled testing.

Thank You,
Amey

These are samples given to me by some friends. You know who you are guys,Thanks!
 
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