UNOFFICIAL BIOSTAR TPower I45 M/B

[Ace-a-Rue]

OVERVIEW:http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=365

SPECIFICATION:http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/content.php?S_ID=365

CPU SUPPORT: http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/cpu_support.php?S_ID=365

BIOS: http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/bios.php?S_ID=365

DRIVER: http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/driver.php?S_ID=365

ACCESSORIES: http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/accessories.php?S_ID=365

five below bios images are shown with an E8500 cpu installed (Prime 95 stable for 2 hours)

https://home.comcast.net/~captain-is-retired/biostar/bios-14.jpg

https://home.comcast.net/~captain-is-retired/biostar/bios-10.jpg

https://home.comcast.net/~captain-is-retired/biostar/bios-11.jpg

https://home.comcast.net/~captain-is-retired/biostar/bios-12.jpg

https://home.comcast.net/~captain-is-retired/biostar/bios-13.jpg



five below bios images are shown with a QX9650 cpu installed (Prime 95 stable for one hour)

https://home.comcast.net/~captain-is-retired/biostar/bios-5.jpg

https://home.comcast.net/~captain-is-retired/biostar/bios-6.jpg

https://home.comcast.net/~captain-is-retired/biostar/bios-7.jpg

https://home.comcast.net/~captain-is-retired/biostar/bios-8.jpg

https://home.comcast.net/~captain-is-retired/biostar/bios-9.jpg

[Ace-a-Rue]

my board will be here on monday...i was hoping today but either newegg or ups misfired from their TN warehouse.

[fireice2]

darn the local channels.. they only have biostar video card. :(

[Ace-a-Rue]

i can buy it for you and then ship it via USPS EMI...if you cover all the expenses through paypal plus the fee they charge to transfer the money, i will do it for you...first you would have to transfer money to me...PM me if you are interested.

[corso13]

already ordered mine, let see if will arrive next monday

hooping to see some config settings from you guys because its been pass some time that i oc my cpu

best regards

[fireice2]

I'll think about it. My friend is more interested in this baby. :D hehehe I'll pass him on to you.

[gundamit]

Nice. I enjoyed Ace-a-Rue's posts in the Abit P35 monster thread and I'm looking forward to another great thread for a motherboard that is deserving of all the attention it is getting. :up:

[DJSUB]

i can buy it for you and then ship it via USPS EMI...if you cover all the expenses through paypal plus the fee they charge to transfer the money, i will do it for you...first you would have to transfer money to me...PM me if you are interested.


wow this is a good offer dude :D

can you please PM me the total cost including the shipping to manila philippines via USPS EMI ?

thank you very much :)

[DJSUB]

Nice. I enjoyed Ace-a-Rue's posts in the Abit P35 monster thread and I'm looking forward to another great thread for a motherboard that is deserving of all the attention it is getting.:up:

i learned a lot in the abit IP35 moster thread :up:

[DoomSayer]

Cool we needed a decent topic on this.
Its pretty easy to get by in Belgium.
I might by one if things turn out nice here.

[Red Evil]

why not buy the cheaper Biostar TSeries TP45 HP?

[Ace-a-Rue]

four reasons that i see right away:




Your board has NO Raid available and the other highligted items below




Hybrid Space-Pipe

As the Desktop system increase more fans to achieve better Overclocking, Normally, Motherboard’s heat generators are chipsets, PWM and Graphics card.

Combined with Biostar "Cooler Harbor" and "V-Pipe" Thermal solution, deliver the ultimate thermal performance and silently. Overclockers can start to boost your Desktop performance effortlessly with this new revolution!

Cooler Harbor

Effectively Thermal design directs the heat generated by MB chipsets to the heatsink on rear I/O panel, easily exhaust by existing airflow from CPU fan and a fan.

The ideal heat-pipe design on this motherboard is that the original fanless design does not have reliability problems as a chipset fan does.


T-Power2™ is a new powerful MB utility designed by Biostar Engineers for use only on Biostar motherboards and VGA cards. T-Power2™ interact hardware and software management. T-Power2 features Windows-based OC Tweaker™, BIO-WATCH™, eHot-line™ and Biostar Flash™ into a user-friendly interface providing users the perfect environment with which to maximize performance and stability.

Raid is available

differential cost is only $25 more at newegg

[Ace-a-Rue]

wow this is a good offer dude :D

can you please PM me the total cost including the shipping to manila philippines via USPS EMI ?

thank you very much :)

PM sent:)

[philbrown23]

are these boards from biostar anygood? I was thinking about getting the t45 HP

also could you PM me what it would cost for the board + usps priority shipping to 05641 U.S.? for some reason my paypal will not allow me to buy from newegg and tigerdirect does not have this board in stock

[rbuass]

Need help...
After reached 650FSB (dice), motherbord turn instable...
I did stop the tests...
next day the motherboard was dead (Post FF)
Is there are sombody can help me with some new idea...i will aprecite so much...
The condensation was isolated when i did the tests...and i can t understand why this problem occur...
I just put the motherboard in the sun (lol)...and it keeps dead...
Sorry the broken english

[Ace-a-Rue]

hmmm...sounds like either to much vcore or supporting voltages or moisture did short something out...have you tried another CPU?

[Ace-a-Rue]

are these boards from biostar anygood? I was thinking about getting the t45 HP

also could you PM me what it would cost for the board + usps priority shipping to 05641 U.S.? for some reason my paypal will not allow me to buy from newegg and tigerdirect does not have this board in stock

you might want to check with paypal to see why...log on to your online account to check to see if they have a problem with your checking account...i can access PayPal from newegg for payment!

i was only doing this for this one international user...unfortunately, you would still need to use paypal with me so that wouldn't work out if i decided to help you...sorry.

[NormanABates]

looking forward for more reviews on this board.

[Ace-a-Rue]

here is the board, 2-Raptor Velocity drives, EVGA 9800 GTX, Areca 1210 PCIe Raid card.

[Ace-a-Rue]

More Images

[OnDborder]

Anticipating your testing Ace..
Windwithme got some pretty high fsb on one of the Biostars.. http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=572320

[philbrown23]

newegg is the only place my pypal will not work, and they said it's because my newegg account it to new?? has this happened to anyone else? well looks like the tp45 hp it is for me :(

[NormanABates]

@Ace-a-Rue,
thanks for posting pics man.
really hoping to see some action soon.

[Ace-a-Rue]

the board does about 20 Mhz better on the FSB with the same E8500 that was used on the Gigabyte X48T (DDR3) DQ6 board.

what i see with the PCIe 16x slots is a slight limitation...if you do not intend on doing crossfire and just run one video card, that card can run at 16x (PCIE 2.0 specs)...the 2nd PCIE 16x slot will not function with anything plugged into the slot...it is powered but the bios will not recognize it...i have an Areca Raid 8X PCIe raid card that i wanted to operate in the 2nd 16X slot...in order to do that, i had to move the jumpers on the board to enable crossfire which puts both 16X slots into 8X speed....it is not a big thing because the speed is there for a single video card, as long it is a PCIe 2.0 specs card...i have an 9800 GTX card.

i'll run some 3D benches tomorrow or later on this morning:D to show the differences between the X48 DDR3 board and this board with the same video card used on the X48T.

basically...i could do 500 FSB @ 8x on the GA-X48T DQ6 board (GSkill DDR3-1600 memory) and this board i can do 520 FSB @ 8x using only GSkill DDR2-6400 memory..pretty good!:up:

[Ace-a-Rue]

two quicky benches...the HDTach is done on Raptor Veloci 10K RPM drives...these drives are only 2.5 inches...the latency is a bit higher than their Sata I 10K RPM 150 Gb drives but they are faster in sequential read speed.

the PCMARK 2005 bench was done on these drives which will boost the score because the drives are in a Raid 0, 128K stripe...over a single drive setup, it might mean about 500-700 point differential.

i will show you what the Gigabyte X48T board scored with the same E8500 with a different drives attached to the Areca 8x card...i'll have to pull those drives out of this machine (i have two extra) and attach them to the Biostar Areca card and then run set up again for a comparison...BUT...just from an eyeball point of view, this board and the P45 chipset is darn good for a DDR2 board.

[OnDborder]

in order to do that, i had to move the jumpers on the board to enable crossfire which puts both 16X slots into 8X speed



I thought this was normal for the p45's. :shrug:
Just anything populating the 2 slots kicks it to 8x ??

[Ace-a-Rue]

I thought this was normal for the p45's. :shrug:
Just anything populating the 2 slots kicks it to 8x ??

that is what i thought...biostar, at least for their board, did not design it that way...it is shipped with 8 RED and one normal black, in color type, jumper set to run the 1st PCIe slot at 16X speed...the 2nd slot is powered but the bios won't recognize the card; not until you do the jumper thing.

here is a picture of the board..i inserted a green arrow to highlight the two banks of red jumpers which have to be moved over from rows 1/2 to 2/3 to put it into crossfire...there are eight jumpers.

there is a 9th jumper to move also, which is just like all the rest of the jumpers on the board...i used a yellow arrow to identify it...the manual does spell this out in clear terms.

[Ace-a-Rue]

i am going to run the 3D2001, 3D2005 and 3D2006 benches to see how this puppy runs in crossfire at 8x speed...i am going to gather that the tests results will be slightly better with the exact same video card used on my X48T DQ6 (DDR3) board....will see in a hour or so.:)

[Ace-a-Rue]

WOOPS!...i got confused looking back at my images from the X48T board...i was looking at 8800 GTS results...sorry!...found the 9800 GTX results and the scores are higher than this biostar but the frequency was higher...so my objective is to match the frequency and rerun the tests...be back in a while.

[nachthymnen]

Hope to receive mine tomorrow:)

[Ace-a-Rue]

my memory settings are little fussy since i am using DDR-6400...i tried DDR-8000 and it was about the same...with the 6400 memory, one memory timing change can stop it from posting...then, there is a little bit of a hassle to reset the bios with a previous saved bios...they have a numerical value that you can set for how many times it should try to overclock at the newer settings...might as well set it to 1 or 0 since 3 times (default setting) doesn't get you any where but lost time.

[Ace-a-Rue]

first set of images are from Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 (DDR3) board with the 9800 GTX card and same Areca card in Raid 0 but the drives were different...i used Seagate 7200.10 series, 250 gig, Sata II, one platter drives on the X48 Areca card.

the biostar has Veloci-Raptor, 300 gig, Sata II drives...pretty amazing drive for only 2.75" wide.

next post will show the Biostar runs.

[Ace-a-Rue]

here are the biostar runs at the same FSB and Mhz...the link speed is only 8X while gigabyte was at 16X...both boards incorporate the PCIe 2.0 specs.

[Ace-a-Rue]

biostar keeps right up with the X48T board and it is running at half the link speed...i'd say biostar did a darn good job of engineering this board for half the price!

superpi runs for the next post.

[Ace-a-Rue]

superpi was right there and better than i could do on the GA-X48T-DQ6 (DDR3) board:

[Henry]

Ace, can you test the vdroop with Quad ? Thx...

[Ace-a-Rue]

i'll have to find the actual DIMM measuring point...i won't change out to a quad until a few days from now....i need to run a new setup with different drives to makes sure the Veloci-Raptors are not adding an extra edge to any of the benches other than PCMark 2005...that bench will do better with the raptors.

[Ace-a-Rue]

i'm about 1.5 hours into Prime 95...hanging in there nicely using the XIGMATEK HDT-D1284..it has four 8MM heatpipes...i replaced the fan with a higher volume Panaflo fan, 2.7K....temps are running 62C outside of the case on the bench with about 1.35 for Vcore.

[NormanABates]

biostar keeps right up with the X48T board and it is running at half the link speed...i'd say biostar did a darn good job of engineering this board for half the price!

superpi runs for the next post.

@ace,
really appreciate this review your spending so much time with. you're the man. :up:

[Ace-a-Rue]

@ace,
really appreciate this review your spending so much time with. you're the man. :up:

thanks for the vote.:)

here are two hours of Prime 95 @ 4255 Mhz (i don't believe in 8, 16 or 24 hour runs..to me, it is absurd:shrug:)...the E8500 handled much better on this board than the GA-X48T-DQ6 (DDR3) board at about the same Mhz...the Vcore to hold the E8500 was less on the biostar...i have it set to about 1.35 in the bios...in windows it says 1.36v...still have not found a reading point for an actual DMM reading....kind of hard to get around the heatsink to test the various resistors sitting around the cpu socket.

Biostar's Tpower software, if fairly accurate, says 1.36v for idle and when i load up the two cores, it drops to 1.336, which is a Vdroop of 0.024v...that is not bad for Vdroop..even with the gigabyte X48 board, which had Loadline enabled, it still dropped about 0.025 under full load....all in all, this one of the better price point boards around for the P45 chipset...it is now selling at newegg with an instant $25 discount....man, it is a good deal...check it out! (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138118)

[Ace-a-Rue]

also, i just had run setup again since i put to many dings on XP...i just did the repair feature...NOW...how many boards will allow you to run a setup at 420 FSb @ 9X = 3780 Mhz with all the voltages set to "AUTO"...i'd say PRETTY nice!!:up:

[OnDborder]

Thanks Ace for the review. Best-bang-for-the-buck mb.
I'll be looking at this board when the 4870x2 comes out.

[Ace-a-Rue]

it is the best-bang-for-the-buck!:up:

[gundamit]

Ace-a-Rue, nice work so far. I was wondering if you could share your bios settings. Are use using one of the pre-set "DDR2 RCOMP Configuration" settings or auto for your 2x2GB sticks?

[Ace-a-Rue]

yes, i am using "number 3" for "DDR2 RCOMP Configuration"...i found that is the best setting for my GSKill DDR-6400 memory...it looks like the max stable for me (without using to much voltage) is about 1030 Mhz...that is at 8.5X or 4382 Mhz (E8500).

i will work up the bios settings that i am using in a day or so.

[Ace-a-Rue]

For all those guys having problems with Gigabyte EP45 boards with PCIe 2.0 video cards, this board post to boot without any hitches...i had one time a video corruption after installing the driver but as soon as i rebooted in windows safe mode and then rebooted back into windows desktop, it worked perfectly...the corruption occurred after i repaired the windows install since i had many dings on the operating system as i was trying to find the limits.

my video card is an EVGA 9800 GTX

[natedog420]

man i hope my tp45hp im getting in the mail today is as good as the tpower. nice stable board from the looks of it. i always like biostar this will be my 3rd 775 biostar board and all of them overclocked like mad.

[Budwise]

what does this board have over the P5Q-E and Pro?

[Mortis360]

I have ordered one of this, had to induce my favorite webshop NetShop AS (Norway) (www.netshop.no) to import this one, hoping this motherboard will be a hit in Norway too! Can't wait until i get it!

~ Mortis360

[mrcape]

what does this board have over the P5Q-E and Pro?

lots of world records! :) It's got a great bios and can be tuned to super high freq.

Day to day I wouldn't say it's anything out of this world. I'd take my DFI LP UT P35 over this for memory tuning and 24/7 use. But for high freq and WRs fahgetaboutit, this is the board.

[Ace-a-Rue]

i can't talk comfortably about the P5Q-E since i am not that familiar with the board.

the Tpower board is easy to get high overclocks once you take the memory out of SPD and start setting them independently...you don't have to change much; two or three settings...i will give you them later...not feeling very good at the moment....of course, i only used PC6400 memory...if you got some PC9600 (DDR 1200 Mhz) that will open it to very high FSB's.

my max FSB with the highest useable multi is 8.5x and 515 FSB on my E8500...that gave me 4382 Mhz.

the board is engineered well, IMO...the TPower software that changes voltages and FSB in windows desktop works good...the only thing, do NOT do "multiple" clicks on the "Plus" or "Minus" signs, just click ONCE if you want to make a change...there is about a 5 second lag for resultant increase or decrease to show up...once you see it show up and you want more or less, click it but only once each time and then wait (that's my recommendation)...i did it a few times in a row for vcore and the next thing i knew, it shutdown...just a warning to the wise.

the other thing i like about it for the TPower model is the extra 70 mm cooling fan plus a vertical heatsink that comes with it to add (screw it on) additional cooling capacity for the PWM area...the fan appears to be a delta fan because of the whine at full speed...it is a little noisy when it is running at 4.5K rpm but you have a fan header that is controllable from the bios to set a range of temps for hi/lo which in turn reduce or increase the rpm as temperature changes...i have mine setup at about 2.8K for idle.

another thing: the bios has the capability to save as many 10 different CMOS settings, so, you can try various overclocks and if it fails, the board will reset itself...in that condition, you have to re-enter the bios and recall a good overclock setting and start over again making your changes.

the only draw back that i see at the moment is for the monster 9800 GTX cards which overlaps the backside of the board...my 9800 goes right over the middle of the Sata Ports so you would need to hook the Sata cables in first before inserting the VC...be aware that the ports are configured at 90 degress so the plug-in openings will be facing to the rear of the case....i am sure other people will find other little nagging annoyances about placement of certain ports, but not evey board is perfect unless you pay $400 for it!;)

[Ace-a-Rue]

i thought these were fairly good for the board...they beat my gigabyte X48T-DQ6.

[Ace-a-Rue]

i'll eventually put up a memory bench sometime tomorrow.

[Ace-a-Rue]

you have to LOVE this board...this is a new personal high in Mhz for this E8500!

currently running 32M and then i will continue soaring in Mhz if that is successful...but, i think i am at the max for my memory, which is not to bad for PC6400 memory.

[Sniper]

Why is the highest usable mp 8.5, E8500 uses 9.5 doesnt it ?

[Ace-a-Rue]

Why is the highest usable mp 8.5, E8500 uses 9.5 doesnt it ?

i use 8.5x or 8x (even 7.5x) to attain the highest FSB...understand?:up:

[ChuckM]

Once again Ace, you are THE MAN.
Thanks for the review and info.

[Ace-a-Rue]

i am having fun with the board!

my only disappointment is not having better rated ram...i do have some TeamXtreme PC8000 stuff but it will not do any better than my Gskill PC6400...maybe it will get about 5 mhz better on the FSB.

[politenessman]

i am having a little trouble with the nomenclature of the voltages, its different than most other boards i have used. which is vtt?

[Ace-a-Rue]

i am having a little trouble with the nomenclature of the voltages, its different than most other boards i have used. which is vtt?


under the category of "O.N.E." which is your overclock settings.

you have to be in "Manual Overclock" to see the sub setting of "Voltage Configuration"

from there you enter and you have three sub categories covering "VTT":

1) CPU CORE1 GTL REF VOLTAGE
2) CPU CORE2 GTL REF VOLTAGE
3) MCH GTL REF VOLTAGE

the Core VTT's are apparent to what can be set. (i would start with 63% for 45 nm CPU's)

the MCH VTT. (you have AUTO, or, 4 different settings if you come out of the auto setting...my recommendation: stay in auto)

[politenessman]

no, i mean just the vtt voltage setting. is it the fsb voltage, or the pll voltage. i am assuming that the chipset voltage is for the northbridge. in other bios's the vtt voltage is called, appropriately, vtt voltage. not here tho.


edit - ok now i dig. there is a reference terminal voltage thats probably around 1.2v that i could adjust (if i were so inclined) by using the percentages given.

[Sniper]

i use 8.5x or 8x (even 7.5x) to attain the highest FSB...understand?:up:
Sure, just wonderd since you began talking about ram holding you back.
But, keep up the god work, might buy this board.

[shimmishim]

can someone please post their mem settings for 600+ fsb using D9GMH?

Thanks!

[Red Evil]

what kind of fsb you could expect with faster 4GB kit?

[Ace-a-Rue]

right now, i would say between 550-570 FSB with the right cpu and memory unless you go extreme cooling...the higher you get the FSB and system bus the faster your L2 cache will work; that improves the write and copy speed...read speed increases but not as dramatic.

it looks like 520 FSB @ 8.5x = 4420 Mhz, for E8500, is my good working frequency...it is a happy balance of being able to run all three 3D benches...3D2005 bench is apparently very stressful on the CPU in one of the sub-benches and it won't complete unless you have enough Vcore...that is where i stop...i try not to go very high on the 45nm cpu's in addition to the FSB voltage.

it looks like the bios has an OVP circuit design for 45nm cpus to stop at going over 1.40v...everything saves perfectly until i try to raise the Vcore to 1.45v...when i attempt to do that, it will not save and then i have to recall my previous settings...BUT...not all is lost since their Windows based TPower2 software will raise the voltage above 1.40v...it might just be a bios quirk since the NB Voltage has the same behavior once going above 1.40v...i hope Biostar engineers correct that since there are tons of voltage increases above those points...it absolutely does not make any sense to have all those additonal voltage settings available if you are stopped because they don't want you to go above a certain actual bios voltage for Vcore or NB...me thinks;), there is sort of a "black hole" in the bios code for the next stepping above 1.40v actual vcore...i'll try a bigger jump than 0.50 to see if it still fails to save correctly.

i will eventually do a tech report...i believe there is an option for that with their software.

[Ace-a-Rue]

just a starter:

[Mortis360]

Cant wait until i get my hands on this board, coming to Norway about 12th Aug, should be here before friday that week. Got an E6420 that stops at 400x8 which is boring, I can get it to 425x8, but then I need 1,5V (Mobo V), 1,63 irl volts. How is volt in BIOS compared to the real volt? Got some tips about clocking with this card? Maybe a little guide?

~ Mortis360

[Ace-a-Rue]

this covers almost the entire page of timings...i will post the bottom part shortly.

[Ace-a-Rue]

self-evident.

[Ace-a-Rue]

this should be it for the meantime.

[railmeat]

wow man,AMAZING REVIEW.i have this board and swapped it out from my nightmare evga 750i ftw mobo.didnt look back for a second and its a complete dream on my watercooled e8400 at 3.6 stock voltage(sets automatically to 1.27) and (watercooled)nb manual at 1.224.ddr2 800 4-4-4-12 800(nothing fancy(cell shock ddr1000 d9ghkx sticks)2.0 volts.tweaking ram now,was running ddr 960 4-3-4-9 no problem for a few days but think slight voltage tweaks are needed for complete stabilty.regardless the board is simply amazing,just like biostars amazing 965pt i thought was thee best headache free clocking dual core mobo out for the conroe 965 chipset days.


i would really like to see ace do some moderate STABLE quad core clocks,gives me a real good idea how the 8phase power can push a 45nm quad.9550 would be the ideal chip(cpu)i would love to see tested.i know some other $200+ 45 chipset mobos use 12-16 phase power and think they might prevail over this board because of this fact,could be wrong..we will just have to see.

again man AMAZING review.keep it up please and dont let this thread die anytime so0n,im learning so much by all your hard work u put into this,ty.

railmeat-
quake(3,4) still lives on!!


few pics on my water,biosatr i45 tpower mobo,evga gtx-280 in,single raptor-150x,coolermaster 1250 pro,

3 x 2 gig kits i own\use (6gig total to play with)

cellshock ddr1000 (d9ghkx,yes the good stuff barely used at all) there in now.i am certain in this mobo with more time this
combo ram\mobo can scream stably very high\tight timings with min voltage needed.

my other 2 gig kits(2x1gig sticks)

ocz sli 1066- these sticks always run amazing for some reason

supertalent cheapy blue ddr 800 kit

(both 2,3rd kits are d9ghm sticks)


yes thats a danger den ati rd600nb block with very LITTLE enlarging of holes for a purfect fit on the i45nb.and modified danger den socket 939 cpu block with chrome multi socket adapter.was thinking about cooling the card but the gtx-280 runs at amazing 41c with my 120mmsunon and 2x80 sunnon hi rpm fans killing it with airflow.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/2-1.jpg



http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/3-3.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/5-1.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/7.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/6.jpg

older mobo but u see my video card air cooling solution i still swear by

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/gotcooling.jpg

[Ace-a-Rue]

E8500 (BATCH: Q803A706; PACK DATE: 04/15/08)
GSKILL PC6400 2 X 2GB KIT
EVGA 9800 GTX (512 mb)
ARECA 1210 8X PCIe RAID (w/500 MHZ I/O CPU AND 256 ECC SDRAM)
TWO W/D VELOCI-RAPTOR (300g PER) DRIVES
XIGMATEK (direct touch) HDT-D1284 CPU COOLER w/PANAFLO 120X38MM 2.7K RPM FAN

[Ace-a-Rue]

QX9650 will be up next...in a few days:)

[Ace-a-Rue]

wow man,AMAZING REVIEW.

thanks for the vote of confidence!:up:

[Ace-a-Rue]

few pics on my water,biosatr i45 tpower mobo,evga gtx-280 in,single raptor-150x,coolermaster 1250 pro,


older mobo but u see my video card air cooling solution i still swear by

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/gotcooling.jpg

i see you got the air cooling crazies like myself!:D

[railmeat]

i see you got the air cooling crazies like myself!:D

lol yep always did,currently running 14 case f@nz +water.few diff air shots on diff setups.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/tempsaftermodding.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/88002.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/bf2nut7-1.jpg


http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/bf2nut6-1.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/ramcooler.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/purty.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/IMG_1461.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/rad-1.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/bf2nut5.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/88001.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/beaterrig3.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/sidewindercomputers_2003_8299740.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/sidewindercomputers_2003_8341749.jpg

[Ace-a-Rue]

pretty good at PL=9

[railmeat]

Ace,
could u comment on were the cas 4 slower ram speed vs cas 5 higher ram speed wins.and when the performance leans heavier each way.

this is were im at slowly working my ram up to as hi as cas 4 will stably allow with a decent cpu clock...3.6+

example-im thinking dd850-900+ speed cas 4 CRUSHES any cas 5 ddr`1000-to bout 1150 speed with way LESS voltage then i think the cas 5 1150+ speeds pull ahead performance wise over the slower cas 4?????is my mindset accurate ,if not please explain were the perfomance table breaks at.ty..

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i know that ddr900+ using cas 4 crushes ddr1100+ cas5,u actually have to go past ddr1150 to beat out the cas4 ddr900+ speed ...

thoughts,suggestions please?!?!

this is were im at now slowly priming away

using cell shock ddr 1000 2x1 gig kit d9ghkx(the good stuff)
ram cooling--2x40mm hi rpm sunnon fans blasting them down with air.

--current cfg----

cpu speed - 3.65ghz (450x8.5) -auto volts,sets to 1.28

ram ddr860 4-4-4-12 <--trying to get highest STABLE cas 4 speed,love the 1\2 cpu multis i can use in conjunction with my ram\cpu clock speeds and gives some killer ram divider speed options.

cpu 3.65---auto-- volts going to 1.28

*temps-
prime small ffts\blend

biostar temp moniter program--29c idle\66c load

real temp --idle wierd locked bug\load72c

*ram v 2.176--

*nb-1.224

*fsb term v-1.24
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
my overclocking STABLE test method-
run a quick hour of prime(passing) then play quake4 or bf2 for MANY HOURS,then if its GAME stable then prime it for 8hrs.pretty simple and very effective.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/priming.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/priming.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/1-1.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/2-1.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/3-3.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/4.jpg

[Ace-a-Rue]

the battle over cas 4 and cas 5 is useless battle...what you really want is Mhz, crunching power!...it really doesn not make any sense to sacrifice crunching power for ability to move data a little faster.

[railmeat]

the battle over cas 4 and cas 5 is useless battle...what you really want is Mhz, crunching power!...it really doesn not make any sense to sacrifice crunching power for ability to move data a little faster.


"the battle over cas 4 and cas 5 is useless battle...what you really want is Mhz, crunching power!..."

hmm-
i read alot of big tonys comments threw the years and i went with cas 4 hi as i could get on ram\mobo combos and it worked out well espiacally with 1t.have u seen the 1t command rate in bios???

[Ace-a-Rue]

hmm-
i read alot of big tonys comments threw the years and i went with cas 4 hi as i could get on ram\mobo combos and it worked out well espiacally with 1t.have u seen the 1t command rate in bios???

are you kidding about 1T!?:eek:...1T is fine if your ram can handle it like cell-shock memory, but the less expensive stuff has a more difficult time.

1T usually only gives you about 2% to 3% jump in data moving speeds...remember, tony is in the business to promote OCZ memory..that is his main concern; to work out problems with mobo makers to make sure OCZ memory will work...he knows how to maximize memory performance!...i think most of us inferior mortals;) need to work on maximizing MHZ first, then, work on maximizing your memory performance...sometimes there is a happy balance where you can back down on the Mhz by 50 or 100, to allow tighter memory settings that gives good overall performance.

the big change for intel will be the nehalem cpu comes with the MCH right on the CPU die..then, all things change for intel performance.

[railmeat]

are you kidding about 1T!?:eek:...1T is fine if your ram can handle it like cell-shock memory, but the less expensive stuff has a more difficult time.

1T usually only gives you about 2% to 3% jump in data moving speeds...remember, tony is in the business to promote OCZ memory..that is his main concern; to work out problems with mobo makers to make sure OCZ memory will work...he knows how to maximize memory performance!...i think most of us inferior mortals;) need to work on maximizing MHZ first, then, work on maximizing your memory performance...sometimes there is a happy balance where you can back down on the Mhz by 50 or 100, to allow tighter memory settings that gives good overall performance.

the big change for intel will be the nehalem cpu comes with the MCH right on the CPU die..then, all things change for intel performance.


were is 1t option in 80015 bios ???????

[Ace-a-Rue]

i never look to set 1T...almost everytime i make sure 2T is set...as i look, i see no setting for Command Rate...but...there is that DDR Recomp Configuration and that might be it just disguised....i know only number 3 works for me.

[Ace-a-Rue]

this is at 4425 mhz...currently running set up on the Seagate drives @ 4425 Mhz...hanging right in there.

after completing setup on the Seagate's and running a few benches to make sure W/D Veloci-Rapto 10K RPM drives add no significant increase in overall performance, i will switch out the E8500 with my QX9650 and re-run everything again.

here are four video benches using the Veloci-Raptor drives:

[ceemic]

Ace-a-Rue, first of all, thanks for the good review!

Have You measured drop and vdroop with DMM in different Vcore areas (for example 1,30V, 1,40V and 1,50V set in BIOS)?

[Ace-a-Rue]

to difficult, at the moment, to find the correct resistor to read for Vcore...just from measuring the Vdimm, the bios ouput reading was spot on with the DMM reading...i am going to say it is the same from windows through their TPower2 software...looking at idle Vcore and then full load Vcore, the Vdroop is 0.024v...not bad for an E8500...true test will come when i switch out to my QX9650.

[ceemic]

What about coil legs otherside board near socket?

[Ace-a-Rue]

What about coil legs otherside board near socket?

damn, trying to find your vcore readout, the positive probe slipped and touched another unknown part and then, the board shutdown...now it won't start up...DARN!:mad:

[OnDborder]

the board shutdown...now it won't start up...DARN!:mad:

Oh no!!

[ceemic]

Ups :mad:
Sorry about that :(

[Ace-a-Rue]

it was against my better judgement since i do know accidents can happen...won't make that mistake again...not your fault, it was my slip-up.

[railmeat]

it was against my better judgement since i do know accidents can happen...won't make that mistake again...not your fault, it was my slip-up.

o lord,thought the biostar temp proggie was pretty much dead nuts on as far as voltages went.seemed like it to me,compared side by side to cpuz etc.
:shakes:sorry to hear.

[Ace-a-Rue]

aaah, knew better but the other guy wanted to know...i thought it was accurate but wanted to attempt to pin that down...so...i pinned the board down right into not working;)...lesson learned; the hard way!

[railmeat]

progress so far ddr8800 cas 4-4-4-12 vdimm 2.176 -----cpu 3.75ghz (440x8) auto voltage = 1.28.

now going for 3.8 900 cas 4-4-4-12 2.2 volts max im thinking,this must be prime stable\game stable

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/priming375ddr880cas4.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/priming375ddr880cas4.jpg

[mrcape]

Anyone got settings for 4-4-4-12 PL7 stable > 500fsb (for wolfdale)?

I had them at one point but can't seem to get it back today. I think it's the wrong Rcomp config. If I get it I'll post it here. I think for some of us it's important to find efficient settings / tight timings and trd. Maybe only a few of us, but in my case, I want to get as efficient as possible before I take it under cold for benching.

I'm comparing results with DFI LP UT P35. Testing with 1m for efficiency using similar settings gets me close when I can get 44412 trd 7, but like I said above it's failing today.

Overall this board is great. I've been able to get it up to 6.1ghz+ with e8400. 1m 7.81s. e86 will do way better.

My only gripes so far are small lack of efficiency, large grain vcore options.

[Ace-a-Rue]

did you mod the board to cutout the OVP?

4-4-4-12 & PL=7 is very tight settings for 500 FSB..per chance, are you using cell-shock memory?

[mrcape]

No mod, I had no probs with OVP at all. I had actually had it up to -160c and 2.05vcore lol. It's really amazing this board, especially the price, speed and durability.

The memory is 2 kits Gskill, 1 Team and 1 mushkin, all with D9GMH ics. Probably not for the average settings, but I'm not opposed to throwing voltage at my ram. It's held up fine too. I've ran a D9 kit at 2.23v for over a year at 1000mhz 44412. It's a breeze to run those settings on the DFI, I'm sure I can get it back on this board too.

Nice review and thread by the way. :) This board needed a good thread for more than just benchers.

[GueD'S]

What about the RAID option on this board? Did you guys are using RAID on it? I saw that you Ace-a-Rue was using Areca cards to do RAID, but can i use, the board have native RAID option??

[Ace-a-Rue]

i presume the intel raid option would work very WELL!...everytime that i used it on other boards, it performed very nicely!:up:

[Ace-a-Rue]

No mod, I had no probs with OVP at all. I had actually had it up to -160c and 2.05vcore lol. It's really amazing this board, especially the price, speed and durability.

what bios were you using then?

if you had no problem with that vcore then maybe my board had a defect...i had the 710 bios!


Nice review and thread by the way. :) This board needed a good thread for more than just benchers.

thanks!:)...i had the same impression as i reviewed other threads before starting this one!:up:

[GueD'S]

i presume the intel raid option would work very WELL!...everytime that i used it on other boards, it performed very nicely!:up:
Thanks for the feedback, i didn't saw that option on specs or descriptions, so the doubt :)
Glad to know it exists.

[Ace-a-Rue]

well..the TPower I45 has Raid...the other versions might not, so check!

[GueD'S]

well..the TPower I45 has Raid...the other versions might not, so check!
Yes, the other one (cheaper version) surely not have, but as i said i didn't saw it on specs of this one. Now i know it have, thank you :)

[Ace-a-Rue]

as i said i didn't saw it on specs of this one.

here is a snippet of the specs...

[GueD'S]

here is a snippet of the specs...
Oh, this image show clearly the option, my mistake, didn't saw it from your first post, i jump directly to the first link (overview) from it specs on Biostars site.
But seems that with the update the site didn't show it as was shown before. My bad, now its totally cleared, thanks :up:

Changing subjects, another question, didn't saw bios chip on pictures. What is it location? Thanks again.

[shimmishim]

No mod, I had no probs with OVP at all. I had actually had it up to -160c and 2.05vcore lol. It's really amazing this board, especially the price, speed and durability.

The memory is 2 kits Gskill, 1 Team and 1 mushkin, all with D9GMH ics. Probably not for the average settings, but I'm not opposed to throwing voltage at my ram. It's held up fine too. I've ran a D9 kit at 2.23v for over a year at 1000mhz 44412. It's a breeze to run those settings on the DFI, I'm sure I can get it back on this board too.

Nice review and thread by the way. :) This board needed a good thread for more than just benchers.

What were your mem settings when you did your 6.1+ on the biostar???

The max I've been able to boot windows is between 550-575.

If I try to run 1M superpi at 575, my computer locks up.

I have some 2x512 D9GMH that's capable of 650 with 2.4ish volts so I'm not mem limited.

If i'd venture a guess, I'd say it was the chip.

I have another chip coming to see if this is really the case.

[mrcape]

What were your mem settings when you did your 6.1+ on the biostar???

The max I've been able to boot windows is between 550-575.

If I try to run 1M superpi at 575, my computer locks up.

I have some 2x512 D9GMH that's capable of 650 with 2.4ish volts so I'm not mem limited.

If i'd venture a guess, I'd say it was the chip.

I have another chip coming to see if this is really the case.

Well, it certainly is a really good e84.

For 600 fsb - I used rcomp config 2, set PL manually in bios to 10, left timings at auto/spd, boot at 580, then in windows use setfsb to 600fsb. Then once you're in you can drop to PL 9 with memset if you want.

Here's 6.06ghz 1m with e84

http://www.movement-radio.com/super1.gif

[mrcape]

I got as tight as PL7 4442 @ 500fsb, but it's not a fast as my p35s with these settings. I'm going to screw with some pmem tweaking and see if I can shave some time.

Screen -

http://www.movement-radio.com/4500mhz1m.gif

[railmeat]

wow 1.9v!!

[Mortis360]

Ace-a-Rue: You mind if i borrow some of your pictures (from bios etc) to post in my own thread at our Norwegian Hardware community?

~ Mortis360

[Ace-a-Rue]

Ace-a-Rue: You mind if i borrow some of your pictures (from bios etc) to post in my own thread at our Norwegian Hardware community?

~ Mortis360

just give me the credit and that is fine with me....or...i can substitute those slides with my name imprinted on them...let me know.

[OnDborder]

Nice Mrcape:up:
What cooling method on that 1.9?

[mrcape]

This Biostar is the little engine that could...

http://www.movement-radio.com/lnrun2/3.jpg

[Mortis360]

just give me the credit and that is fine with me....or...i can substitute those slides with my name imprinted on them...let me know.

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/3613/picturesborrowedbyacearer3.th.jpg (http://img179.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picturesborrowedbyacearer3.jpg)
Gave you the credit as you can see in the bottom of picture.
"Bilder av BIOS er lånt fra Ace-a-Rue @ XtremeSystems" = "Pictures from BIOS borrowed from Ace-a-Rue @ XtremeSystems" transelated from Norwegian! Thanks for letting me borrow them!

~ Mortis360

[rostrow]

Ace,

Why do the CPU-Z Memory screens show Memory Type as DDR3?

Can someone run the following test on the Biostar TPower I45 motherboard and post the results? Please indicate bios version.

DPC Latency test:
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

[Nelly]

Would be interested to see result's with Quadcore CPU's i.e. Q6600, Q9450, Q9550, Q9650.

Also do soundcards such as the Asus Xonar D2, Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series work okay with this motherboard? No reason why they shoudnt just making sure.

I'm guessing previous bugs with graphics cards have now been fixed as their has been a few official bios releases since. :)

Ace,

Why do the CPU-Z Memory screens show Memory Type as DDR3?

Can someone run the following test on the Biostar TPower I45 motherboard and post the results? Please indicate bios version.

DPC Latency test:
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtmlI'ts actually a bug with the latest official release of CPU-Z i.e. Version 1.46.0

The latest beta version fixes this i.e. Version 1.46.4

http://www.cpuid.com/download/beta/cpuz.zip (http://www.cpuid.com/download/beta/cpuz.zip)

Should also display the correct voltages for people using Abit IP35 series motherboards, as per the CPU-Z forums. Not sure what else it fixes.

[Mortis360]

The 6 SATA cables thats included, are they soft or are they very hard to bend?

~ Mortis360

[railmeat]

Would be interested to see result's with Quadcore CPU's i.e. Q6600, Q9450, Q9550, Q9650.

Also do soundcards such as the Asus Xonar D2, Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series work okay with this motherboard? No reason why they shoudnt just making sure.

I'm guessing previous bugs with graphics cards have now been fixed as their has been a few official bios releases since. :)
I'ts actually a bug with the latest official release of CPU-Z i.e. Version 1.46.0

The latest beta version fixes this i.e. Version 1.46.4

http://www.cpuid.com/download/beta/cpuz.zip (http://www.cpuid.com/download/beta/cpuz.zip)

Should also display the correct voltages for people using Abit IP35 series motherboards, as per the CPU-Z forums. Not sure what else it fixes.

"Also do soundcards such as the Asus Xonar D2, Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series work okay with this motherboard? No reason why they shoudnt just making sure."

i run this board and Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi xtremeusic(the good older 1),works flawlessly.make SURE u go to creatives xfi website then choose your model and get ALL the critical auto updates and install them before gaming or anything else!

once in a blue moon a mobo comes out that blows everything out of the water for price and overclocking ease\stabbilty,this is the 1 in 2008....

i rarely say this about any mobo minus the dfi ultra d skt 939,biostar 965pt skt 775,but this biostar i45 tpower is flawless for $145!!!!

no issues at all,easist board on the planet for cpu\ram overclocking.grab a cheap e8400\e8500 some decent d9ghm or better yet d9ghkx ram and your going to fly down the street like your on nitrous out of the box.also no mods are needed at all for sane ppl who want amazing overclocks with STABILTY for programs to run flawlessly.now insane benchmark dudes i guess will mod this im assuming to break wr,s easy(they are now)....its simply crushing $250-$300+ asus,gigabyte mobos,dfi mobos all day long.gotta love biostar always looking out for the little guy who wants to spend money on other components and not ALL on a friggin mobo.vid cards and cpus should be the price factor in a good rig,not a mobo(what happened here?).marketing,longevity,reputation made some of the other companys feel they could simply up there prices threw the years as there names got bigger,sad but true.look at asus asking prices of the last 5 boards they released,good but mostly beaten or buggy same as dfi lately.dont get me wrong asus is ok on certain models but by no means worth the money they charge these days.biostar is humble and true to the overclocker\consumer.after rd600 dying and dfi 680i lt,im done with them also.the evga sli for the win 750i sli was soooo hyped up i bought it and it was a complete dud.put this mobo in and bam,amazing.

in this thread i seen benchers and casual\gamer overclockers get whatever they want period out this board.no real bels\whistles just brute force silently smashing everything.
__________________

[Ace-a-Rue]

Ace,

Why do the CPU-Z Memory screens show Memory Type as DDR3?

Can someone run the following test on the Biostar TPower I45 motherboard and post the results? Please indicate bios version.

DPC Latency test:
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

cpuz and memset both read them as ddr3...i presume a coding problem with those two softwares.

[Ace-a-Rue]

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/3613/picturesborrowedbyacearer3.th.jpg (http://img179.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picturesborrowedbyacearer3.jpg)
Gave you the credit as you can see in the bottom of picture.
"Bilder av BIOS er lånt fra Ace-a-Rue @ XtremeSystems" = "Pictures from BIOS borrowed from Ace-a-Rue @ XtremeSystems" transelated from Norwegian! Thanks for letting me borrow them!

~ Mortis360

glad it worked out...thanks for the credit.:)

[NormanABates]

railmeat seems to be very satisfied with this mobo.

im itching to have mine too soon.

[Ace-a-Rue]

you will enjoy it!..it is an excellent board with great overclocking potential....i am disappointed..mine went kaput!:D because of me!:p:

[_G_]

Just ordered one. theres a deal in the newegg thread over at the H if you're a newsletter subscriber

[mrcape]

The 6 SATA cables thats included, are they soft or are they very hard to bend?

~ Mortis360

This is one of the stranger questions I've seen on here. :)

They're actually pretty good for free sata cables, they bend and they have the little metal clip like the OKgear cables. And they're a fantastic shade of yellow.

[Nelly]

What ram would people reccomend for this board? i.e. 2x2GB is their any that dont seem compatable? I usually go with Corsair was thinking the 8500 Dominators.



cpuz and memset both read them as ddr3...i presume a coding problem with those two softwares.


Ace,

Why do the CPU-Z Memory screens show Memory Type as DDR3?

Can someone run the following test on the Biostar TPower I45 motherboard and post the results? Please indicate bios version.

DPC Latency test:
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtmlDid you try the latest beta version of CPU-Z?

The latest beta version supposingly fixes this i.e. Version 1.46.4

http://www.cpuid.com/download/beta/cpuz.zip (http://http://www.cpuid.com/download/beta/cpuz.zip)

[barong]

how about the crossfire is there any significant performance compare to x48 or x38?
because im planning to use crossfire in this mobo , please need help

[Ace-a-Rue]

What ram would people reccomend for this board? i.e. 2x2GB is their any that dont seem compatable? I usually go with Corsair was thinking the 8500 Dominators.

Did you try the latest beta version of CPU-Z?

The latest beta version supposingly fixes this i.e. Version 1.46.4

http://www.cpuid.com/download/beta/cpuz.zip (http://http://www.cpuid.com/download/beta/cpuz.zip)

GSkill PC6400 worked very well for me...corsair will probably do well too!

yes, i downloaded the beta from your link, unfortunately, if you didn't see my previous post, i killed the board with a slip of the DMM probe....what gets me, the + probe was taped up down to 3/16 inches just exposed...DARN!:(

[Ace-a-Rue]

how about the crossfire is there any significant performance compare to x48 or x38?
because im planning to use crossfire in this mobo , please need help

with one 9800 GTX running at 8X speed, i saw no real difference with that same card running on an X48 board at 16X speed!

[mrcape]

......

i killed the board with a slip of the DMM probe....what gets me, the + probe was taped up down to 3/16 inches just exposed...DARN!:(

OUCH. :(

[Ace-a-Rue]

i know...i am crying:D

[Mortis360]

This is one of the stranger questions I've seen on here. :)

They're actually pretty good for free sata cables, they bend and they have the little metal clip like the OKgear cables. And they're a fantastic shade of yellow.

For the people that want a clean case, hard cables are horrible! Ordered some angeled SATA cables from Performance-PCs and they were horrible! Actualy when I tried to bend them, they broke in two pieces! Thanks for the answert mrcape! :)

If anyone are intressed to watch my thread about Biostar, I'm putting a link here (Google Translate used to translate to english, but some words are not well translated). Biostar Thread @ Hardware Norway (http://66.102.9.104/translate_c?hl=no&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.diskusjon.no/index.php%3Fshowtopic%3D989283&usg=ALkJrhgQiSNo5udevmBznsLREZVUerP0hQ)

~ Mortis360

[barong]

with one 9800 GTX running at 8X speed, i saw no real difference with that same card running on an X48 board at 16X speed!

is this method also works with crossfire? just wanna make sure :D

[barong]

also can i ask bfor dual super pi 32mb, because it looks like difrent result with my old dfi mobo, dual super pi 32mb run faster with same speed

[Ace-a-Rue]

i ran only a single instance of super-pi..that is what most users do...thought not to try to change that method.

[Ace-a-Rue]

is this method also works with crossfire? just wanna make sure :D

well...if using one video card is any indication, i presume two VC cards will be right there against an X48 running in 16X link width.

[Ace-a-Rue]

last bench before going kaput!;)

[Ace-a-Rue]

If anyone are intressed to watch my thread about Biostar, I'm putting a link here (Google Translate used to translate to english, but some words are not well translated). Biostar Thread @ Hardware Norway (http://66.102.9.104/translate_c?hl=no&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.diskusjon.no/index.php%3Fshowtopic%3D989283&usg=ALkJrhgQiSNo5udevmBznsLREZVUerP0hQ)

~ Mortis360


good start!...a tidy presentation.:)

[Mortis360]

good start!...a tidy presentation.:)

Thanks, what do you think about my logo of the thread?
As a new brand in Norway I have to give it a good reputation with a good info thread!
Translated it means: "The Great Biostar Thread"

I hope they get my card in stock tomorrow, because then I will get it before the weekend!

~ Mortis360

[Ace-a-Rue]

i LIKE it!..NICE!:up:

[railmeat]

also can i ask bfor dual super pi 32mb, because it looks like difrent result with my old dfi mobo, dual super pi 32mb run faster with same speed

ace did dual super pi,scan the pages.

few things about this board and benchmarking- i read extensive reviews that included some pretty in depth multiple benchmarks test resulting in hanging with all mobos withing a few points on diff tests.the thing with this board is its simply amazing to overclock cpu\ram instantly,no fudging for hours on end with bsod,lockups etc like other hi end $200-$300 mobos.you put your componentes in and it flys like the wind.im not a benchmark guy at all i simply overclock cpu\ram a few days to get stable and game on it(i actually use it everyday for fun).as far as benchmarking etc goes like i said it gets within a few points of hi end mobos in multiple tests.its not going to win every single benchmark test but who cares. it kicks ass bottom line and can max out your cpu if u can cool it...

@barong-
is your specs "E8400 @ 4250 with TRUE Black 120"
prime 95\occt stable at all(screenies plz)?im curiuos cause i have same chip.if its not stable then no reply needed, if it is plz state voltages\temps.

[Nelly]

Ace-a-Rue, not sure if you want to add it but got a link here that maybe useful to people

Biostar Forums - http://www.rebelshavenforum.com/sis-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

I can't remember how I came across the above website, it's dedicated to BIOSTAR motherboards including modded bios which includes adding extra memory options etc.

PS: Just ordered my Biostar Tpower I45 :D

Was bored so updated this website with new info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biostar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biostar) will add the Biostar logo when permitted. :D

[barong]

@railmeat

i'll try to post it soon for the orthos & occt

[|ron]

Guys, I have this mobo too but I've a problem with my Mushkin XP2-8500... I get post code "E1" and it doesn't proceed with the Post.
The only way to get everything functioning is to use another stick of corsair ddr2 to get in the bios, save relaxed parameters and then swap again the ram...
Already tryed to clear cmos etc... is there any way to temporary reset memory parameters to get the mobo to Post?
I remember that in my old DFI Lanparty Ultra.b, if I pressed the "Ins" button before to switch on, it let me enter in the bios with temporary parameters to change and save them...

[shaolinchicken]

Hi guys,

loving the thread, nice to see the little guy (biostar) supported.
I have this great board also and I am very pleased with it. Good layout too.

I have managed to boot into windows at 500fsb, but not stabilized yet and have managed to get it stable at 460fsb, this is on a q9300 with a 6x mutli.
At the moment I am just pushing the fsb as high as it will go and then move on to clocking the q9300.

Like I said and has been said all ready, great board and great thread,

thanks guys :clap:

[Mortis360]

My card is shipped now! Should be here friday, maybe even tomorrow evening (Depends if the card comes to Oslo today)! Can't wait!

~ Mortis360

[barong]

orthos blend with my rig :D

http://img32.picoodle.com/img/img32/3/8/13/f_blendm_f0e8370.jpg

[Nelly]

Nice result there barong. :)

Biostar have uploaded the manual to their website today for anyone who doesnt have the motherboard & wishes view it.

http://download.biostar.com.tw/upload/Manual/IP45A-A7P_080813_B.zip (http://download.biostar.com.tw/upload/Manual/IP45A-A7P_080813_B.zip)

I presume the motherboard has a removeable bios chip right?

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/8319/biostartpoweri45layoutxq6.jpg

[Ace-a-Rue]

Guys, I have this mobo too but I've a problem with my Mushkin XP2-8500... I get post code "E1" and it doesn't proceed with the Post.
The only way to get everything functioning is to use another stick of corsair ddr2 to get in the bios, save relaxed parameters and then swap again the ram...
Already tryed to clear cmos etc... is there any way to temporary reset memory parameters to get the mobo to Post?
I remember that in my old DFI Lanparty Ultra.b, if I pressed the "Ins" button before to switch on, it let me enter in the bios with temporary parameters to change and save them...


i am not clear on the no-post issue...are you saying the board is already at default bios settings and it will not post with that particular memory??

i would stay with one stick of memory in the first slot until you get it pinned down

what bios file is installed on the mobo?

[Ace-a-Rue]

Nice result there barong. :)

Biostar have uploaded the manual to their website today for anyone who doesnt have the motherboard & wishes view it.

http://download.biostar.com.tw/upload/Manual/IP45A-A7P_080813_B.zip (http://download.biostar.com.tw/upload/Manual/IP45A-A7P_080813_B.zip)

I presume the motherboard has a removeable bios chip right?

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/8319/biostartpoweri45layoutxq6.jpg

i looked when mine was working and i did not see any removable bios chip...so...i use the external flashing program (afudos.exe) to flash..the latest afudos version does quality checks before flashing.

PS...Nelly, i corrected your download url in my reply...it look liked "HTTP" was in there twice. http://download.biostar.com.tw/upload/Manual/IP45A-A7P_080813_B.zip

[Ace-a-Rue]

orthos blend with my rig :D

http://img32.picoodle.com/img/img32/3/8/13/f_blendm_f0e8370.jpg

NICE going!:up:

i was able to do the same with Prime 95 for 2 hours which is one hour and 55 minutes longer than i like to do!:D

[Nelly]

Looks like Biostar got an Overclocking competition going on at various locations in the world: http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/event/occompetition/ (http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/event/occompetition/)

i looked when mine was working and i did not see any removable bios chip...so...i use the external flashing program (afudos.exe) to flash..the latest afudos version does quality checks before flashing.Aye not to worry, besides these features look interesting! :clap: :yepp:

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/5755/biosflasherbiosrelifepm6.jpg

[barong]

do u have the download link for prime , thx :D

[Ace-a-Rue]

do u have the download link for prime , thx :D

http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

[Ace-a-Rue]

Looks like Biostar got an Overclocking competition going on at various locations in the world: http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/event/occompetition/ (http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/event/occompetition/)
Aye not to worry, besides these features look interesting! :clap: :yepp:

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/5755/biosflasherbiosrelifepm6.jpg

not to slight Biostar but i do not put a whole load of confidence in that crap...gigabyte said they had two bioses and it didn't work when they posted a 'bad' official bios release for download...it hosed many boards.

[tapauly]

In response to the question of Crossfire functionality, I run two 4850's with zero problems on my I45. Love the setup!

[Mortis360]

My card is shipped now, only been registered in Stokke, lets hope it wont take the trip over to Oslo, and just right to Drammen! The stupid post services send many packages to the sentral in oslo before they go back to Drammen, they would save 140kms just sending it to my central instead of taking the way to Oslo! *prays* Gonna have answer about that tomorrow tho!

~ Mortis360

[Ace-a-Rue]

same kind of thing happens over here in the USA...inefficiency of the Post Office is significant!

[Mortis360]

same kind of thing happens over here in the USA...inefficiency of the Post Office is significant!

Inefficiency is not good, in our biggest northern city Tromsø, if a package get sent from one of the neighbour citys it have to take the trip within Oslo, that makes it more than 2000kms EACH way, that is insane! They could save many millions on not taking it to the main central and instead have county centrals, they do have county centralt, but they are only used after the post has come from Oslo and spread around to the postoffices or "Post in Stores".
Wasted if you ask me, just send the packages to the right county central and be done with it! :rolleyes:

YAAY! It arrived at my local terminal today! :D
Can pick it up later today or sometime tomorrow!:cool:

~ Mortis360

[corso13]

hi all got mine 3 days ago and also a E8500, but i came from a nvidia chip7 and i can´t find any setings to OC my rig, also i don´t understand much how it works the voltages settings , can anyone give me a help on the settings to inpunt on the bios to get o good OC for a stable 24\7 rig

here´s the specs of my current rig

E8500
Biostar TPower 45
GSkill Pi 8800 4 Gigs
HD 4870
PSU Corsair HX 620
some Hard drives
CPU cooled under Water

thanks to all

[|ron]

i am not clear on the no-post issue...are you saying the board is already at default bios settings and it will not post with that particular memory??

i would stay with one stick of memory in the first slot until you get it pinned down

what bios file is installed on the mobo?

Hi Ace, the bios is the last posted on the official website, the one from the 10th July 08.
1 stick or 2 sticks in dual channel don't change the situation, It still continues to visualize "E1" in Dual Channel and "d4" in single slot configuration.
Oh I made another try: I used a stick of mine Mushkin in the first slot and a stick of Corsair PC6400 in the third slot... It posted right.
So I entered as usual into the bios, put the ram in 1:1 at 4-4-4-12, saved and everything gone ok.
After that, pulled out the corsair stick and put back the Mushkin in Dual Channel... everything ok.
It seems that the biostar sets something strange that my memories don't want to accept... or viceversa...
Same thing happened time ago with cellshocks and other mobos...

[_G_]

Still waiting on mine, ordered from newegg on Monday, shipped from Edison NJ
on Tuesday and if im lucky maybe here on Friday lol.

[Ace-a-Rue]

hi all got mine 3 days ago and also a E8500, but i came from a nvidia chip7 and i can´t find any setings to OC my rig, also i don´t understand much how it works the voltages settings , can anyone give me a help on the settings to inpunt on the bios to get o good OC for a stable 24\7 rig

here´s the specs of my current rig

E8500
Biostar TPower 45
GSkill Pi 8800 4 Gigs
HD 4870
PSU Corsair HX 620
some Hard drives
CPU cooled under Water

thanks to all

go to the 1st page of this thread to see some bios shots.

[Ace-a-Rue]

Hi Ace, the bios is the last posted on the official website, the one from the 10th July 08.
1 stick or 2 sticks in dual channel don't change the situation, It still continues to visualize "E1" in Dual Channel and "d4" in single slot configuration.
Oh I made another try: I used a stick of mine Mushkin in the first slot and a stick of Corsair PC6400 in the third slot... It posted right.
So I entered as usual into the bios, put the ram in 1:1 at 4-4-4-12, saved and everything gone ok.
After that, pulled out the corsair stick and put back the Mushkin in Dual Channel... everything ok.
It seems that the biostar sets something strange that my memories don't want to accept... or viceversa...
Same thing happened time ago with cellshocks and other mobos...

first of all...forget the 4-4-4-12 for now...those are tight even at default speeds...Intel chipset really like to work at loose timings like 5-5-5-15 and tRFC of 48, at least...just because your memory worked at those tight settings on another board doesn't mean it will work on this one the same way.

also, have you tried increasing your Vdimm to see if you can hold 4-4-4-12?

[ddogg]

Wanted to make my first post something useful (hopefully):

My BioStar TP-I45 will totally corrupt/wipe/destroy bios when any number FSB frequency 450 and up is entered. Code shown will be E9 on readout. Board is near dead at this stage, but can be restored by jumping through a few hoops:

1> Download the latest bios and rename to "AMIBOOT.ROM". Put on a floppy or FAT formatted USB stick.
2> Suggest pulling all juice, shorting bios and removing battery for 10 minutes (at least). 4 out of 5 times the restore would not complete without the battery being removed first.
3> Replace battery/CMos jumper and power on. Readout should show E9, then after a pause change to F something as the USB stick or floppy is read.
4> If you are lucky, your screen will come on during the last stages of the restore process and then it will reboot.
5> Again, if your are lucky, you will get into a fresh bios. If not, readout will hang on 03 or C0. If so, do all the above all over again, but make sure to pull the battery for a good while while shorting bios (15-30 minutes). Even pull the wiring harness from the MOBO. I had to do this 5 times before it "took" the last time, so don't give up.
6> Eventually you should get back up.

Anybody have any thoughts on why the hell this board will run fine at 449 with a 9450 Quad (3.58 Ghz), then totally hose the bios at 450? I do like the board, but this is frustrating. For the 9450 Quad I probably should have stayed with my beloved IP35 and IP35XL.

Btw, I have no problem when using setFSB to run up to 465, so it is not a corruption caused by pushing too far. Also, this occurs no matter the divider. So, 1-1 450 will do it as well 5/6 450/540

Present config: 9450 @ 3.58 @ 1.39 VCore/ 4g Gskill 8500 @ 448 5/6 @ 2.1 v. System is under water. I'll post other settings and voltages later when I get them stabilized.

Thoughts appreciated.

DD

[Ace-a-Rue]

it sounds like your boot block code is corrupted...the only way to correct that is to use this AFUDOS.exe program (http://www.lejabeach.com/AMI/AFUDOS4.23.zip) (compliments of Rebel Haven) and flash from external DOS...i would bet the internal flash does not flash the boot block unless the updated bios has it coded to write over those blocks, like an update is added to the newest bios...the afudos should automatically flash the boot block...just watch the flash and it should announce it is flashing that section...if it does not, do a "HELP" command to find the appropriate switch.

also The Rebels Haven has the latest bios (http://www.lejabeach.com/Biostar/TPI45/P45AA710.zip) for a quick download.

here is The Rebsls Haven Biostar TPower Bios/Beta page: http://www.lejabeach.com/Biostar/TPI45/

if all this fails to correct your problem, my best guess would be the bios chip itself is defective..return the board for replacement or RMA it to Biostar.

[|ron]

first of all...forget the 4-4-4-12 for now...those are tight even at default speeds...Intel chipset really like to work at loose timings like 5-5-5-15 and tRFC of 48, at least...just because your memory worked at those tight settings on another board doesn't mean it will work on this one the same way.

also, have you tried increasing your Vdimm to see if you can hold 4-4-4-12?

Mmmhhh, my mushkins are rated to go to 5-5-4-12@1066mhz with 2,2v so the problem isn't in the latencies but maybe I think that the problem could be the fact that they request a little higher voltage that the default for ddr2 of 1,8v.
So, unless I put it at 2v (1,8+0,200 in the bios), they don't start...
This should be correct but then why everything goes ok if I don't change any setting and simply put on a stick of corsair and a stick of mushkin?:shrug:
It's not logical...

[Ace-a-Rue]

i presume your 2nd stick of mushkin is not working correctly or requires higher voltage than the other mushkin stick....stick with the corsair.

[ddogg]

it sounds like your boot block code is corrupted ...Thanks. You got me thinking. I reflashed, and while I don't think it was the bootblock, I do think it was some residual corruption. Upshot is my 450 wall went away and I'm sitting at 3.755 ghz on the Q9450 with ram 469/fsb1877/mem 563 (5,5,5,15).

Not shabby on the 9450 and the GSkill 8500 is happy at 2.14 v.
Temps are decent via the water. Core 0 < 60 on RealTemp, but VCore is pumped higher than I'm happy with on a 45 core. Sitting at 1.44 vcore, NB 1.42, FSB 1.42.

All and all not a bad place to be in the early stages. Hopefully I can suck the NB and FSB back down.

[mrcape]

No idea, I have beat on the board really hard and never experienced boot block corruption. I thought I had at one point, but it was a faulty cpu. I re-flash every so often, try diff bios etc., but it's been pretty sturdy.

One thing I have not done is test with a quad. Maybe there's something with that chip and this bios.

[ddogg]

I'm thinking back to 3am a couple of days ago ... This started when I pushed way too hard and the system would not return from a bad OC. So now that I am thinking about it, I guess Ace was right, it must have been a corrupted bootblock. Odd thing was, before that this board always wiped all settings when returning from a bad oc, now the settings are still intact. I wonder if it was a bad flash from the factory?

Anyway I am happy as hell now. The new flash turned it all around and I don't think my I35P-XL could accomplish the same thing. 3.6 on this voltage was all I could do with it, though it was a quick and casual oc try.

I'm seeing 100 FPS+ from an h264 encode. This really shows off the quad as the 8400 turns about 50 FPS at the same clock. I suppose that makes sense as it is pretty much a half 9450.

I wish we had a SuperPi that used all cores available so we could actually gage and compare the work potential of these setups with each other. A single core benchmark doesn't really make any sense anymore. Is there such a thing that I've missed? Been away from the OC scene quite a while. Circa AW8D with a 930D@4.6 Ghz.

[corso13]

go to the 1st page of this thread to see some bios shots.

thanks a lot Ace now im running 3619 MHz (9.5 x 381) on stock volts and playing for a couple of hours and looks solid let me try some more fsb to see wen will be needed to add the volts:D

[Ace-a-Rue]

I wish we had a SuperPi that used all cores available so we could actually gage and compare the work potential

you ask, thy will receive!:D

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=176904

[Ace-a-Rue]

thanks a lot Ace now im running 3619 MHz (9.5 x 381) on stock volts and playing for a couple of hours and looks solid let me try some more fsb to see wen will be needed to add the volts:D

glad it all worked out...i like success!:up:

[charmedmeat]

Hey all, gonna be getting this board in the next month or so, along with an E85/86 and I'm planning on going water. Are there any Mosfet WB's available for this board?

[mrcape]

I'm thinking back to 3am a couple of days ago ... This started when I pushed way too hard and the system would not return from a bad OC. So now that I am thinking about it, I guess Ace was right, it must have been a corrupted bootblock. Odd thing was, before that this board always wiped all settings when returning from a bad oc, now the settings are still intact. I wonder if it was a bad flash from the factory?

Anyway I am happy as hell now. The new flash turned it all around and I don't think my I35P-XL could accomplish the same thing. 3.6 on this voltage was all I could do with it, though it was a quick and casual oc try.

I'm seeing 100 FPS+ from an h264 encode. This really shows off the quad as the 8400 turns about 50 FPS at the same clock. I suppose that makes sense as it is pretty much a half 9450.

I wish we had a SuperPi that used all cores available so we could actually gage and compare the work potential of these setups with each other. A single core benchmark doesn't really make any sense anymore. Is there such a thing that I've missed? Been away from the OC scene quite a while. Circa AW8D with a 930D@4.6 Ghz.

Are you benching for points or just for the heck of it? I'd say try 3d06 and Vantage.

Many are using duals because or the crazy fsb possible on the recent boards. That obviously allows the super high freq in the benching zone, which can't be beat in SuperPi etc..

[ddogg]

you ask, thy will receive!:D

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=176904 Thanks. He seems to be running 4 SuperPi's concurrently so it exercises the cpu cores pretty well, but the workload is not distributed. Still, you got me thinking and looking a round a bit and I think we have a candidate. Plus it is very cool to say the least.

The new POV multithread beta (http://www.povray.org/beta/POV-Ray%20for%20Windows%20v3.7%20beta%2028.msi) and a real cool render file (http://www.ignorancia.org/uploads/zips/bonsai.zip).

My rig took 4m37s at 1280x1024, AA0.3 (Vista Business)

Btw, this really stesses the CPU. Temps are like Prime small ffts so it might be a good stability check as well.

If you get a chance, I'd love to see a comparison. Clean install and uninstall on this for me and easy to use. Just press load and browse to the render file.

Set the resolution and press run. Read the instructions and do not install for "all" users on Vista http://www.povray.org/beta/

[Lome]

104$ for open box at newegg gogo

[Nelly]

http://www.overclockersonline.net/?page=articles&num=1921&pnum=4

On the above review using a Thermalright Ultima 90, it looks like their was problems associated with interference with the Cooler Harbor fan upon installing the heatsink.

Anyone had any problems installing a (TRUE 120) Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 with the Biostar TPower I45?

[tjelaw]

any insight yet how this board performs with quads? Id like to get a Q9550 or X3660 close to 4ghz on water. Pondering about mobo... this one, P5Q-dlx or Maxi 2 Formula

[Supershanks]

Certainly looks like Biostar have struck a winner , you reckon it's the P45 equivalent of the Abit Ip35 ?? (apart from the lack of guru :lol:)
That refresh Counter looks interesting , looks like you can change Refresh Period (tRef) like Memset (see value above command rate ) , is that right ??

Only stock I could see available in the uk was 2 on Amazon last night.

[Mortis360]

Well, I got the board here now, but do not understand a thing about the BIOS.
On my old gigabyte motherboard i hat td the CPU Frequency Setting at 400,
Ratio CMOS setting x8
memory run same speed as cpu

In volts i got 1,375V @ CPU, memory were running at 2,2V.

Any help please?

~ Mortis360

[Ace-a-Rue]

http://www.overclockersonline.net/?page=articles&num=1921&pnum=4

On the above review using a Thermalright Ultima 90, it looks like their was problems associated with interference with the Cooler Harbor fan upon installing the heatsink.

Anyone had any problems installing a (TRUE 120) Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 with the Biostar TPower I45?

i used the XIGMATEK Direct Touch H-1284, which is a broad heatsink...i had to flip the fan to the other side...it would not line up with the screw holes since the PWM lip interferred...so...i had to raise the fan slightly and use two plastic ties to hold the fan in place...i oriented the fan so the air would blow to the rear, away from the heatsink.

i should add that the raised heatsink was tucked right up against the CPU heatsink (1284)

[Ace-a-Rue]

Well, I got the board here now, but do not understand a thing about the BIOS.
On my old gigabyte motherboard i hat td the CPU Frequency Setting at 400,
Ratio CMOS setting x8
memory run same speed as cpu

In volts i got 1,375V @ CPU, memory were running at 2,2V.

Any help please?

~ Mortis360

go to page 1 of this thread and look at the bios images.

[Ace-a-Rue]

Thanks. You got me thinking. I reflashed, and while I don't think it was the bootblock, I do think it was some residual corruption. Upshot is my 450 wall went away and I'm sitting at 3.755 ghz on the Q9450 with ram 469/fsb1877/mem 563 (5,5,5,15).

Not shabby on the 9450 and the GSkill 8500 is happy at 2.14 v.
Temps are decent via the water. Core 0 < 60 on RealTemp, but VCore is pumped higher than I'm happy with on a 45 core. Sitting at 1.44 vcore, NB 1.42, FSB 1.42.

All and all not a bad place to be in the early stages. Hopefully I can suck the NB and FSB back down.


any insight yet how this board performs with quads? Id like to get a Q9550 or X3660 close to 4ghz on water. Pondering about mobo... this one, P5Q-dlx or Maxi 2 Formula


@tjelaw...you had to only look back one page to find ddogg's above post referencing his 9450

[Ace-a-Rue]

Certainly looks like Biostar have struck a winner , you reckon it's the P45 equivalent of the Abit Ip35 ?? (apart from the lack of guru :lol:)
That refresh Counter looks interesting , looks like you can change Refresh Period (tRef) like Memset (see value above command rate ) , is that right ??

Only stock I could see available in the uk was 2 on Amazon last night.

SURPRISE...they have a Uguru alternative called "TPower2"....you can change alot of things in the bios from windows desktop...let me try to find an image to give you a reference point.

the only thing to mention, the changes have about a 5 second lag so you only want to click once and then wait for the five seconds to see the change has taken place.

[ddogg]

Talk about pushing voltages (http://bbs.taihe.net/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=11&replyID=2664&id=1235&skin=0) on this board - whew!

[Mortis360]

Got a clock at 3,4Ghz stable at 1,43V.
Can take it to 3,8Ghz, but then it need 1,6V!

~ Mortis360

[Supershanks]

SURPRISE...they have a Uguru alternative called "TPower2".. Great stuff looks like it has the lot then :) :up:

[Ace-a-Rue]

Got a clock at 3,4Ghz stable at 1,43V.
Can take it to 3,8Ghz, but then it need 1,6V!

~ Mortis360

at 3.4 Mhz that is a 61% overclock...pretty darn good!

[Ace-a-Rue]

Great stuff looks like it has the lot then :) :up:

right!....and...there is a"Bio Watch" which is a review of the voltages and the ability to change the cpu and system fan speed...in the bios you have three controls for fan speed: cpu, system and NB fan...this is where i put my PWM riser add-on heatsink fan...it did a nice job of controlling the speed.

[ddogg]

OK, found out something useful with my 9450 quad. My bios corruption, and hung boot problems were coming from what seems obvious now - lack of NB and FSB voltage.

So, if you have a quad don't mess around. Move up the NB and FSB voltages to > 1.50 like so many other boards require. I was trying to pussyfoot around 1.39-1.42 v. It has caused me nothing but going half bald with bios restores, hung boots and kicked cats.

For some reason that I don't yet understand, using my Dominator or Ballistix ram really agravated this problem further. No doubt this board likes the GSkill 8500. It seems much less cantankerous with it. Still, it took 1.5-ish to gentle it down and get clean boots above 448. Something happens on this board when you cross 450. I don't get that yet, either.

I hope this saves some of you some aggro.

[Mortis360]

at 3.4 Mhz that is a 61% overclock...pretty darn good!

I managed to get it booting at 4200mhz (8x525)! :D
But got BSOD when Windows loaded. :(

~ Mortis360

[Ace-a-Rue]

might require higher voltage, and maybe beyond your comfort zone.;)

[Mortis360]

might require higher voltage, and maybe beyond your comfort zone.;)

It needed 1,75volts for that, I dont wanna go higher at aircooling. In some weeks I'm gonna be at a friend that uses dryice and heavy watercooling!
Maybe some records then! I run it stable at 3,4Ghz with 1,42V!

~ Mortis360

[shimmishim]

can someone post a shot of the cache & memory benchmark test results at 4-4-4-8 around 570-575 fsb 1:1.

going down the "other timings" category on memset
4
25
10
10
10
3
8
4
4
3120T
2T

Thanks!

I think this board has some real slow latency versus some of the other boards... no doubt this is a great FSB board but latency appears to be a bit.... lacking!

i'm getting around 55 ns with strap tweak

[shaolinchicken]

OK, found out something useful with my 9450 quad. My bios corruption, and hung boot problems were coming from what seems obvious now - lack of NB and FSB voltage.

So, if you have a quad don't mess around. Move up the NB and FSB voltages to > 1.50 like so many other boards require. I was trying to pussyfoot around 1.39-1.42 v. It has caused me nothing but going half bald with bios restores, hung boots and kicked cats.

For some reason that I don't yet understand, using my Dominator or Ballistix ram really agravated this problem further. No doubt this board likes the GSkill 8500. It seems much less cantankerous with it. Still, it took 1.5-ish to gentle it down and get clean boots above 448. Something happens on this board when you cross 450. I don't get that yet, either.

I hope this saves some of you some aggro.

I had the same troubles as you, with corrupted bios and not being able to post over 450fsb.
I used the AMI bios recovery method to bring my board back to life.

I thought the same as you more volts needed, but its not.

Changing the MCH GTL REF voltage from AUTO to 0.64xVTT got me over the 450fsb hurdle.

I am at 460fsb, occt 1hr stable after changing that setting, give it a try

NB/ SB voltage at 1.088 (+0.100v added to Chipset Voltage)
FSB voltage at 1.104 (+.0100v added to FSB Voltage)

Honestly mate, try it :)

[Ace-a-Rue]

I think this board has some real slow latency versus some of the other boards... no doubt this is a great FSB board but latency appears to be a bit.... lacking!

i'm getting around 55 ns with strap tweak


i think that is what i had in latency but you can not argue with the results when you run a 32M SuperPI bench...i had the best ever bench on this board.

truthfully, it is not about the latency, it is about speed in computation...that is what you really want from a board and cpu.

[ddogg]

I had the same troubles as you, with corrupted bios and not being able to post over 450fsb.
I used the AMI bios recovery method to bring my board back to life.

I thought the same as you more volts needed, but its not.

Changing the MCH GTL REF voltage from AUTO to 0.64xVTT got me over the 450fsb hurdle.

I am at 460fsb, occt 1hr stable after changing that setting, give it a try

NB/ SB voltage at 1.088 (+0.100v added to Chipset Voltage)
FSB voltage at 1.104 (+.0100v added to FSB Voltage)

Honestly mate, try it :) WOW! I could give you a big old slobbery Dog kiss for finding this! Exactly as you said. My poorly ventilated case no longer smells like I was making coffee in it. Temps across the board have dropped a lot.

What type of ram are you using? I have not tried it again, but before I could not even use my 2g's of Dominator on this board past 400. Perhaps now I'll see something different.

Ace, put this one in the guide book :)

[mrcape]

Adjusting gtls for fsb is pretty obvious no?

[Ace-a-Rue]

WOW! I could give you a big old slobbery Dog kiss for finding this! Exactly as you said. My poorly ventilated case no longer smells like I was making coffee in it. Temps across the board have dropped a lot.

What type of ram are you using? I have not tried it again, but before I could not even use my 2g's of Dominator on this board past 400. Perhaps now I'll see something different.

Ace, put this one in the guide book :)


not sure this is for all users...i had my E8500 in auto for MCH GTLREF...i seem to remember trying several of those settings and i couldn't find a manual setting that made it work any better than leaving it in "Auto"...now...the quad cpu might require more finessing and that is where taking it out of Auto helps.

[farookh]

this board is really nice i could do 620MHz on air but i think its the ram cant do much more.

http://www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/21336_thqtj/620.JPG (http://www.imgx.org/view/full/21336_thqtj)

[ddogg]

Adjusting gtls for fsb is pretty obvious no? I'm glad it was obvious to you after the fact. It was not to me because 449 was 1 hour prime stable, 450 was a complete avalanche needing a bios restore. That seemed too drastic. I'm happy one more piece of the puzzle has been added for all of us that are ignorant. Thanks for your help solving the matter.

[Ace-a-Rue]

this board is really nice i could do 620MHz on air but i think its the ram cant do much more.

http://www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/21336_thqtj/620.JPG (http://www.imgx.org/view/full/21336_thqtj)

NICE!:up:

what kind of ram and specs?

[railmeat]

this board is really nice i could do 620MHz on air but i think its the ram cant do much more.

http://www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/21336_thqtj/620.JPG (http://www.imgx.org/view/full/21336_thqtj)


thats nice but what can u get stable?


heres mine,bulletproof,amazing temps,voltages. 3.6 ddr860 4-4-4-12 voltages are crazy low,this tells me i have a winner of a cpu chip in my hands(priceless)
eyeball that nb and fsb term vtt volts...
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/24_7setup.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/24_7setup.jpg


heres 4 ghz without even trying but it dont count it being worth squat cause i didnt tweak it to be stable and not really into hi voltages\temps for no more fps in games.let alone degration on my cpu for no gain in gaming.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/4ghzddr900cassuperpi.jpg
4ghz ddr900 4-4-4-12 noticed no gains in anything excpet pointless super pi time.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/bf2nut/4ghzddr900cassuperpi.jpg

[shaolinchicken]

WOW! I could give you a big old slobbery Dog kiss for finding this! Exactly as you said. My poorly ventilated case no longer smells like I was making coffee in it. Temps across the board have dropped a lot.

What type of ram are you using? I have not tried it again, but before I could not even use my 2g's of Dominator on this board past 400. Perhaps now I'll see something different.

Ace, put this one in the guide book :)


Glad it worked .
Like you, I found it nightmare to overclock past 449, took a while to get there, this was with trial and error, not easy when you are overclocking your first quad core and threads like this weren't available. Most people seem to be overclocking dual cores and not many quad cores. Also quite a few people were saying the I45 was not good for clocking quads, so i wasn't sure that my board coukld actually get past 449.
I am still new to overclocking noob
I am using gskill PQ PC2-8000C5 memory.


not sure this is for all users...i had my E8500 in auto for MCH GTLREF...i seem to remember trying several of those settings and i couldn't find a manual setting that made it work any better than leaving it in "Auto"...now...the quad cpu might require more finessing and that is where taking it out of Auto helps.

As Ace-a-rue says Auto setting is fine for dual cores, but as ddogg and me have found out , it needs to be tweaked for quad core (i have a q9300)


@mrcape
If adjusting gtls was so obvious, why didn't you offer advice to ddogg, when you could see he was struggling to get past 449.
Not everyone is an expert overclocker like you seem to think you are.:down:


To end on a positive i'm really glad I bought this motherboard and hope other people have some good overclocking adventures on what is a fine motherboard.
Well done Biostar!

[ceemic]

this board is really nice i could do 620MHz on air but i think its the ram cant do much more.

http://www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/21336_thqtj/620.JPG (http://www.imgx.org/view/full/21336_thqtj)
Nice FSB, but why so much Vcore?
As allready asked: what RAM?

Also I would like to know Your other voltage settings in BIOS.

[farookh]

Nice FSB, but why so much Vcore?
As allready asked: what RAM?

Also I would like to know Your other voltage settings in BIOS.


Vcore i left @ auto in bios so the high volts
ddr +.6v
chipset +.35
FSB +.35
CPU PLL 1.6v

Ram is Corsair pc8500 very old pair i had lying around.

i am doing 3.8ghz 24/7 prime stable @ 1.36v

[ceemic]

Thanks farookh!


I have another question related to older LGA775 CPUs.
Does this mobo support for example Celeron D 347 and P4 631?
Some say P45 should support them but it depends on manufacturer...

[Ace-a-Rue]

Thanks farookh!


I have another question related to older LGA775 CPUs.
Does this mobo support for example Celeron D 347 and P4 631?
Some say P45 should support them but it depends on manufacturer...

go to the 1st page of this thread; i provided a link that shows all the cpu's that are supported by this board.

[ceemic]

Ace-a-Rue, I have looked this CPU support list several times last week.

I formulated my last post wrong.
What I meant was why doesn't Biostar support older CPUs?
Hopefully it will with newer BIOS?

[Ace-a-Rue]

good question!...try to look up at intel's site to see if you can find the specs for the P45 and see if it mentions what cpu's it would support.

[ddogg]

500 1-1 Ballistix PL-9 3.750 Quad9450@1.44v

Some screens of a 1-1 config using 4 Ballistix 6400 @2.2v
I don't think I'll use this for 24/7 as voltages have to be up considerably 1.44 VCore, fsb 1.6, NB 1.54. Maybe once I really feel it is stable I'll try to pull the NB and FSB down. I did lower the DDR voltage to 2.2 v a while after doing the screen. Seems to be holding up ok.

[trans am]

Those ballistix should do 4-4-4 easily @ 500. maybe take 2 out and just keep the best ones in for today. get a fan on them crank up the vdimm and post another screen
very good quad overclock.

[ceemic]

The damn Intel homepage support sucks. Can't find any info there (probably I'm n00b).

OK, seems supporting older Celerons was my mistake. But Pentiums should work. For example:
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P5Q%20Premium

[ddogg]

Those ballistix should do 4-4-4 easily @ 500. maybe take 2 out and just keep the best ones in for today. get a fan on them crank up the vdimm and post another screen
very good quad overclock.
Thanks, trans am,

What do feel an acceptable push volage would be on the Ballistix ... Maybe 2.4 or 2.5?

Also, the Gskill 8500 will run at 500, but seems to need pl 10 to be stable which costs me 300 MB/s in MemTest. Anybody know any tricks with some other voltage or memory adjustment that might stabilize it at pl9? I really don't want to fry it and 2.3v did not stabilize it, yet 300 MB/s is substantial.

I may be better off sticking with 465/560 on a 5/6 multiplier, but 500/2000 just sounds better.

[Ace-a-Rue]

The damn Intel homepage support sucks. Can't find any info there (probably I'm n00b).

OK, seems supporting older Celerons was my mistake. But Pentiums should work. For example:
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P5Q%20Premium

the pentiums could work or they might not on this biostar board...the lowest common denominator on their chart is celeron dual core...i guess you could try it to see if it posts.

other thing you could do is email tech support and ask them...sometimes the website postings could be behind with the updates.

[Ace-a-Rue]

Also, the Gskill 8500 will run at 500, but seems to need pl 10 to be stable which costs me 300 MB/s in MemTest. Anybody know any tricks with some other voltage or memory adjustment that might stabilize it at pl9? I really don't want to fry it and 2.3v did not stabilize it, yet 300 MB/s is substantial.

you could try RAS to CAS delay for read and write at = 6 and then set PL=9, but that will slow it down in speed...remember, the L2 cache and having four cores puts a huge strain on the memory and MCH, which is why you will have a difficult time getting above 470 FSB.

[ddogg]

you could try RAS to CAS delay for read and write at = 6 and then set PL=9, but that will slow it down in speed...remember, the L2 cache and having four cores puts a huge strain on the memory and MCH, which is why you will have a difficult time getting above 470 FSB.
I popped out the Ballistix and put in the GSkill without changing settings and it seems to be holding up so far. Maybe I forgot to change something when I was comparing before. So much stuff to keep up with. Here is where I am on the GSkill:

/add: btw, I also tested some 2x1g Mushkin 6400 and a new set of 2x1g Dominator 8500. Neither could hold up. The Mushkin came close but the Dominator, on my particular board with this CPU, is nothing but trash. Lucky to hit 400. Hopefully others will fair better with it, but it is so bad I'm gonna stick it in an ECS board (to give you my perspective :) )

I'll try comparing PL10 against changing ras to cas r&w=6 on the GSkill 8500. Thanks for the suggestion.

[trans am]

your cpu-z and memset screens show p45 with ddr3 some bug I guess/
The first thing you need to do is open you case. Do you have an extra fan laying around anywhere? You are going to need a fan if you want to do this. With the case upright place a fan on the top of you video card. (make sure its a plastic fan or else you will short out the video card). You don't need to mount the fan just let it stand upright and aim it blowing in the direction of your memory dimms. If you have a 120mm fan you should be able to hit the NB at the same time. Once you have the fan going boot up and get in the bios. drop you cpu multi to 7 to take the cpu out of the equation. You want to concentrate on ram clocking now.
get in the mem settings and run 4-4-4-15 to start out. keep rest on auto. increase vdimm .5 mhz and reboot. keep doing this until you can get windows to load. once in windows open cpuz and check the timings . then open superpi and run a 1m run. if it passes go for a 8m run. If you get errors reboot and raise vdimm some more. try not to exceed 2.5v keep messing around. play with nb voltage a bit. start at 1.35 and keep going up. some times lower NB voltage can help. higher is not always better. but 1.5v seems about right for this. if 4-4-4 @500mhz doesnt work at all drop your fsb to 450 and go from there.

7.5 @500mhz 5-5-5 and run a spi 1m run and see how fast it goes
try running multi at 8 x 469 (3752mhz) fsb 1:1 at 4-4-4- and run spi and compare the time and report back

you are discovering the sweet spot of your cpu and now you need to find the sweet spot of your ram so you have maximum performance.

[ddogg]

ddogg Exactly what board are you on? your cpu-z and memset screens show p45 with ddr3 but you keep referring to ddr2 ram. Is this a bug with cpuz and memtest? Yep, it is a bug. Using the Biostar TP-I45 with DDR2. I think there is a Beta back a few pages with this fixed but I was lazy. Sorry for the confusion.

[trans am]

Yep, it is a bug. Using the Biostar TP-I45 with DDR2. I think there is a Beta back a few pages with this fixed but I was lazy. Sorry for the confusion.

get the fan over the dimms and do waht I said

run the same cpu frequency as before 3.7xxghx 7.5 * 500 and run spi 1m

reboot and set multi at 8 at 469 or 470fsb and ram at 4-4-4- run spi 1m again and compare. if its stable keep raising the fsb

also try 5-4-5 or 5-5-4 anythings better than 5-5-5.

[Ace-a-Rue]

superpi is one of many benches..passing 1M, 8M or 16M does not make it a stable system...i would bet if you are trying for high FSB using 4-4-4-12, it won't pass the mustard with SuperPI or EVEN the new intel burn test.

[ddogg]

get the fan over the dimms and do waht I said

run the same cpu frequency as before 3.7xxghx 7.5 * 500 and run spi 1m

reboot and set multi at 8 at 469 or 470fsb and ram at 4-4-4- run spi 1m again and compare. if its stable keep raising the fsb

also try 5-4-5 or 5-5-4 anythings better than 5-5-5. Must be a telepathy thing going on as I did all that near exactly as you suggested (this ain't my first ram BBQ). No way in hell you, me, or anybody else is going to do 4-4-4-x at anywhere close to 500 on this particular board and CPU with Ballistix 6400. Best I could do was like 465 9t 4-4-4-15. Frankly I think the fixation on 4-4-4-12 is a throwback to the old days and is not necessarily the target on the later Intel Chipsets.

To give a perspective, @450 all 4's you are looking at 5035 MB/s in MemTest. All 5's give you 4861. Sure that is a bit, but at 500 all 5's I'm doing near 6000 MB/s. I guess if a board and a set of ram would both do the same fsb then certainly one would want to go tighter all things considered but that is impossible. On the other hand I've seen encoding apps drop speed when the timings are too tight.

<Edited out dumb rant on dumb benchmarks>

Btw, 12.50 second SuperPi

[_G_]

Got my board Friday, just waiting on my new cpu block to show up. (should be here the same day as the hurricane :rolleyes: )

[shaolinchicken]

Good work ddogg, nice to see you hit 500mhz, I have got to 500mhz, but not managed to stablize it yet.
Having fun trying though.:)

At least we know that the board is capable of reaching 500mhz on the 45nm quads.

[HousERaT]

My board gets delivered today. I'll see what two wolfdales get regarding fsb. I'd like to see 600Mhz on air. :D

As far as ram goes If I can't pull off 500Mhz 4-4-4-x, I'll be quite pisxxd.

[mrcape]

My board gets delivered today. I'll see what two wolfdales get regarding fsb. I'd like to see 600Mhz on air. :D

As far as ram goes If I can't pull off 500Mhz 4-4-4-x, I'll be quite pisxxd.

Don't worry, 600fsb will be simple with a wolfdale. :) My ram maxed out at 685fsb, but that was satisfying.

If you want the efficiency you get on other chipsets with cas 4 timings, you'll need to use strap tweaks.

[mrcape]

I'm glad it was obvious to you after the fact. It was not to me because 449 was 1 hour prime stable, 450 was a complete avalanche needing a bios restore. That seemed too drastic. I'm happy one more piece of the puzzle has been added for all of us that are ignorant. Thanks for your help solving the matter.

:) Hey I think this was just bad communication on my part. Wasn't trying to be a jerk about it, especially since you probably haven't dealt with those on recent chipsets. I also forgot that you are on a quad which is a diff game. One thing to note though, GTLs will differ from chip to chip so you can't really advise gtl settings across the board.

Good luck!

[HousERaT]

Don't worry, 600fsb will be simple with a wolfdale. :) My ram maxed out at 685fsb, but that was satisfying.

If you want the efficiency you get on other chipsets with cas 4 timings, you'll need to use strap tweaks.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'll post my results later. Any issues with the different straps? I've had problems with the lower ones on my old Asus boards.

[mrcape]

No issues with 333/667 333/800 dividers. Didn't experiment much with straps other than 1066 1333.

@ DDogg -

Here's a nice ref. for GTL info:
http://ocxtreme.org/main/?q=node/1

[screwtech02]

Anybody runnin a Q6600 and 8gb on this board??? I'd kinda like to know how it clocks 8gb before i get one....:cool:

[ddogg]

No issues with 333/667 333/800 dividers. Didn't experiment much with straps other than 1066 1333.

@ DDogg -

Here's a nice ref. for GTL info:
http://ocxtreme.org/main/?q=node/1
Thanks so much for that link. It has a ton of info I need to refresh myself. So much of this stuff is changed in the last few years. I hope to pick your brain on some of the finer points once I can ask the intelligent question.

I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made, but I know I have been using a brute approach. I'd like to learn some of the finer points so I don't throw so much unneeded voltage around. Btw, this whole "strap" thing is not clear to me. Any suggestions? I'm using 1333

[DiscoTech]

how is this motherboard for quad cpu + micron ddr2 overclocking on air?

cpu is q9450, ram is 4x1GB micron d9gmh.

I am trying to choose between this motherboard and p5q deluxe.

[ddogg]

how is this motherboard for quad cpu + micron ddr2 overclocking on air?

cpu is q9450, ram is 4x1GB micron d9gmh.

I am trying to choose between this motherboard and p5q deluxe.You might want to take more than 5 seconds and read back a few pages. Check around and see what the higher FSB's on the p5q are with the 9450. With the BioStar TP-I45 I've done a stable 500 x 7.5 = 3.750 Ghz with 2x2 Gskill 8500 and 4x1 Ballistix 6400 which I know is pretty decent from reading about other boards.

I've tried some other ram which turned out to be terrible, namely 2x1 Dominator. Maybe I got some bad sticks. Good luck.

[Mortis360]

Quite happy with my E6420 results, this is gonna be my 24/7 stable clock (61% OC).
http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/3845/biostarvu4.jpg

~ Mortis360

[Ace-a-Rue]

60% overclock, and the ability to prime it, is a VERY GOOD overclock!:up:

[ddogg]

Good work ddogg, nice to see you hit 500mhz, I have got to 500mhz, but not managed to stablize it yet.
Having fun trying though.:)

At least we know that the board is capable of reaching 500mhz on the 45nm quads. Thanks, I appreciate the help you have given. It really helped me a lot get past that first 448 hurdle.

Do you think it is your ram or cpu holding you back? Are you staying conservative with your voltages, or have you tried to pump them up, just for a short time, to seek stability? I'm rooting for you to get there!

[tapauly]

I would just like to say that I appreciate all of the information coming out of this thread. As a first time overclocker, I have my hands full with this board and an 8400. Thank you for helping me out! And please, keep it coming!;)

[breakfromyou]

I picked one of these up, and there are a few things I can't stand about it.

1) CMOS reset jumper...why did they have to put it right there :( I have to take my 4850 halfway out of the slot to be able to get the jumper off.
2) is it possible to get the thing into BIOS with a hard drive installed? it says "entering setup" on the first screen, but immediately tries to boot to windows. I have to unplug my drive to get the thing into bios. is this a bug or is my board busted?

max SUICIDE FSB on my E7200 so far with this board = 480. Can't get past it. The gigabyte EP35C-DS3R got this chip up to 502 suicide.

at least it does over 420fsb, the EP45-DS3R wouldn't.

[shaolinchicken]

Thanks, I appreciate the help you have given. It really helped me a lot get past that first 448 hurdle.

Do you think it is your ram or cpu holding you back? Are you staying conservative with your voltages, or have you tried to pump them up, just for a short time, to seek stability? I'm rooting for you to get there!

Thanks ddogg.
It is not my ram or cpu holding me back, as I am not pushing my q9300, just trying to find max fsb for the board. Also my ram is rated at 1000mhz at stock settings.
I am trying to be conservative with the volts, as I feel that there must be a better way to reach 500mhz than to pump it full of volts, I maybe wrong though, but I feel that it is just a matter of finding the right settings.
Like I said though, I could (probably) be wrong.
A few of the settings go way over my head. I still don't understand any of the gtlref settings even after trying to read the link provided by mrcape.

@mrcape,
I would just like to apologize as I seem to have misjudged your earlier post, please feel free to contirbute, as your knowledge would be most welcome.:up:

[_G_]

new review out:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUzMCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

[Mortis360]

60% overclock, and the ability to prime it, is a VERY GOOD overclock!:up:

The best thing, it wont go over 62º Celcius!:D
Did the Orthos test for 4 hours, no crashes, so its stable enough for me!;)
Biostar is lovable! <3

~ Mortis360

[politenessman]

anybody using the molex over the top pcie slot? did it help/hurt/nada?

[Ace-a-Rue]

i plugged a line into it...i never tried it without...i get a new board today...but, that might not happen with all this rain from tropical storm FAY!

[Mortis360]

i plugged a line into it...i never tried it without...i get a new board today...but, that might not happen with all this rain from tropical storm FAY!

Pff, tropical storms... :p:
In the wintertimes we get more than 300cm snow every year, and between -10º and -25º celcius. Dont complain! :p:

http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/5679/orthos3thv5.jpg
New test, 3 hours and 30mins stable!

~ Mortis360

[Ace-a-Rue]

:ROTF::rofl::D...darn, can't get any pity from our international friends...BUT...my sunroom roof is leaking;)..wind is blowing all around..NOW!:yepp:

[ddogg]

This is what I was looking for.
http://www.wprime.net/

[Ace-a-Rue]

i am going to get my board this afternoon and i will plug my 9650 in to see how much i can beat YOU!:D;)

[Supershanks]

In the wintertimes we get more than 300cm snow every year, and between -10º and -25º celcius. Dont complain!
:lol: sounds perfect for overclocking :)


my sunroom roof is leaking..wind is blowing all around..NOW! That's tough Ace sorry to hear that. Insurance premiums must be pretty high where you are :eek2:

that's not a bad turn round on your board isn't it ??

[Ace-a-Rue]

what is funny, i went up on the sunroom roof and tried to seal it on sunday...obviously, i did not do a good job!...the ole body does not respond like it use to!...think i will need to hire a roofer to repair it professionally!;)..the rain and winds has let up for now.

i hope to have the board in my hands by 3PM local time..and YES, a very good turnaround!...NEWEGG is the BEST!