Asus SABERTOOTH 990FX
Last year Asus introduced the TUF series of motherboards which eschewed a lot of the over-the-top features and instead embraced a simpler design, but with very high quality components and a penchant for high clock speeds. The boards were characterized by earth tones throughout the design, as well as the use of high efficiency/high amperage electrical components.
The SABERTOOTH (I so want to type SABERTOOF) is nicely packaged in mostly recyclable material. I hear Ryan Shrout doesn’t believe in recycling OR the tooth fairy. Fool.
The defining feature of the boards has to be the unique heatsinks used to cool the components. Instead of a full metal/alloy unit, these are metal sinks with a ceramic covering. Usually ceramics are used as insulators, so this is confusing to some. But not all ceramics are insulators though. In this case the ceramics used in these designs conduct heat fairly well, but the biggest advantage is the very uneven microscopic surface features which increase overall surface area as compared to standard metal/alloy heatsinks.
Asus goes for much of the same type of component choice as MSI does with its Military Class II, with the exception of not using the tantalum (Hi-C) caps that MSI chooses to. This is not a ding against Asus, as I would expect their capacitor choice to be as long lasting as the MSI board, considering the age of the technology when those polymer caps fail in about 7 to 10 years time. Asus is so confident in their design that they offer a full 5 year warranty on this motherboard, which is unmatched at the consumer level.
Sparse? Spartan? I would go with spartan, especially considering the color palette.
I mentioned before that motherboards are no longer simple products. The complexity of these products at this point in time is intimidating to reviewers. So many features are usually included it is hard to cover them all adequately. So let us start from the bottom up.
Asus includes a very polished UEFI BIOS which allows for a simple EZ-Mode for basic power and overclocking features. Then it offers an advanced mode that allows the user to adjust everything under the sun. What is fantastic about the BIOS is the inclusion of pretty detailed descriptions of what each setting does. Users can get a good idea of what they should and should not tweak, depending on the complexity of the description. The BIOS is very responsive and the use of the mouse is nicely integrated. I did find one issue. For some reason when I first got into the BIOS, my mouse cursor would be drawn to the lower right corner of the screen. With a lot of work I could get into the advanced section, but I thought the BIOS implementation was bugged. Turns out I had a joystick plugged in and the UEFI BIOS was recognizing that as a mouse. Just so happens that un-calibrated joystick is not perfectly centered, so the BIOS thought an input device was moving the mouse cursor down and to the right. Once the joystick was unplugged, the wandering pointer issue was resolved.
The colors really work for this board. Not garish, but really unique and with a feeling of, "Let’s get down to business, shall we?"
The board features the Digi-VRM technology which dynamically adjusts the power characteristics being delivered to the CPU. This supposedly improves overall efficiency by providing just the right amount of power to the CPU, thereby cutting down on heat and wasted power. Plus it can ramp up power very quickly when the CPU state changes in just a few nano-seconds.
The board obviously features the 990FX northbridge and SB950 southbridge. It also features two ASMedia USB 3.0 controllers, which power two USB 3.0 ports in the back of the motherboard, and two ports provided by an internal header. It is unclear if this is a licensed NEC/Renesas design, or if it is designed in-house by the Asus subsidiary. Regardless, Asus claims that it is a faster solution than the ETron or NEC products. The board also has two JMicron SATA-3G controllers, which provide e-SATA support, as well as two extra SATA connections internally. Audio is handled by the Realtek ALC-892 chip, while Gig-E is provided by the Realtek 8111 PCI-E controller. While this is a nice collection of parts, it is not fantastic. Asus does not provide the X-Fi Supreme software functionality for the SABERTOOTH as it does for the Crosshair series, nor does it use a higher end Ethernet controller.
Pretty good writeup, the “I’m
Pretty good writeup, the “I’m bored” comments were kind of unwanted, but I wanted to ask something and I am not sure if you noticed it or I missed it when reading.
The MSI board allows the PCI-E x1 slot to be used in addition to dual gpu setups, while the ASUS board covers the PCI-E x1 slot no matter what.
You could use the extra x16 slots if need be, but wouldn’t that cut down the PCI-E x16/x16 bandwidth?
That alone sways what board to get for me, despite the asus board being better. I need a PCI-E x1 slot for wireless, here’s to hoping MSI fixes the bios and other issues quickly.
EDIT: The asus board only has 6 slots, which is kind of odd.
Generally speaking, and you
Generally speaking, and you would have to consult the individual manufactures user manual for the specifics. But particularly on the older (same?) 890FX boards, specifically the MSI890FXA, there are only two true electrically x16 slots.
When running in a x16/x16 configuration, one of the slots is disabled (if memory serves it was the lower most slot), and the middle “x16 size” slot, which is physically only x8 electrically, would only being allowed x4 bandwidth.
Now, if you populate the lower most “disabled” slot (x8 electrically), it will be given x8 bandwidth, and the above true x16 slot would be reduced to a x8 as well, as the lanes on those slots are split. Which is why in a true x16/x16 configuration, it is effectively disabled.
So it is completely dependent on how the manufactures split the lanes on the board, and what slots share those lanes when split. And MOST (not all) manufactures usually give a comprehensive slot population chart to explain how it will work. But on average with a x16/x16 configuration, there will always be one remaining x4 electrically, x16 physically slot.
Usage of the slots and add in
Usage of the slots and add in cards is obviously going to differ by individual. The MSI board does give slightly more flexibility in that you can use both the PCI slot and 1x PCI-E slot even when in Crossfire or SLI. So yeah, their layout is better overall than the Asus board. Then again the DIMM slots on the MSI board are physically closer to the socket by a decent amount, which is going to cause headaches for some folks.
But in terms of a better overall board in testing, Asus has the edge here.
Agreed, definitely wooped
Agreed, definitely wooped them. Hopefully september when the fx is out (rumor) and by then the MSI big bang conquerer/AMD board is out, with something that isn’t this bad.
Unless you must have a 1x
Unless you must have a 1x PCI-E slot I see no reason to buy the MSI board over the Asus one unless there is a large discrepancy in price.
I have nothing against MSI, heck my backup PC uses a P55-GD65 and a MSI 4870×2 which I’m using to type this message, but I was sorely disappointed by the 990FXA-GD80 given the stellar performance of the 890FXA-GD65.
I need one for wireless, so
I need one for wireless, so yes, I need one. I am working on trying a powerline setup, but the power in my house isn’t the best.
I just don’t get why they leave off a slot. The heatsink blocks it, but why not go up with the heatsink, not like anything is going right there.
FYI, MSI Bought(?)
FYI, MSI Bought(?) Afterburner’s from guru3d’s RivaTuner. A good utility like that, working for all boards would be welcome.
Hmm I purchased this board
Hmm I purchased this board and really am not a fan of the BIOS but reading MSI forums it looks like this should be resolved relatively soon.
Overall, the board is working solid and while it may not be perfect, it is not “bad” to the point of not wanting to own one.
I think a lot of the issues
I think a lot of the issues with the board are related to the BIOS in one way or another. ClickBIOS II is supposed to be a major upgrade, and should feel a whole lot faster than the current one. I would imagine that overclocking the HTT bus will also show improvements, as well as the random network issues that have been reported for this board by a handful of reviewers.
Glad you are having a good experience with your board though. You are right, it is far from being a bad board, but it just didn’t quite match the level of its predecessors and competition.
I bought the Sabertooth last
I bought the Sabertooth last week.
But I have a problem with AI Suite II. It won’t start, generating an APPCRASH on my Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (x64).
I tried to uninstall it, but it leaves a bunch of entries in registry and two related services still running…
Did you run the installer
Did you run the installer from the CD, or download it from the Asus website? I have found that often it is preferable to download that version, as sometimes the ones on the CD are more than a little old and could have poor support with new products. This is something of an issue with most motherboard manufacturers.