ABit AX78 Overclocking/Stability

[Shaz]

I'm looking to get one of these to replcae my KN9. I've had some decent results with this, in the 2.8GHz out of my 3800+ which I was pleased with, I was wondering if it would be able to replicate this sort of result with this CPU and what sort of results people have got with the Phenom, just to see what it's average clocking is.

Also, I believe it's Crossfire, I hear some boards are better than others with XFire, this give anyone problems?

[roadie]

The board is brand new and I've not seen any benchmarks or overclocking results so far. How would you like to be the first?

[Oc-Ghost]

dammit, false alarm :|

read thread title and was like :eek:

also its a 16x/4x (pcie gen2) setup, don´t know how xfire likes that.

[Shaz]

I'm tempted by it because it's the sort of range I'd go with, there's a slight possiblity of getting one in the next week or 2. I'll need a home for my KN9 if I do...

[madfaze]

anybody found any review?

[Shaz]

Not as yet. I get paid today so I might order one.


http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3749&Itemid=37

Found one. Nevermind. Doesn't say much at all.

[madfaze]

hope that somebody could provide us a review...:D


even the manual....:yepp:

[Hazzan]

I have this Board ABIT AX78 in my house....maybe this weeks I can post the result I still waiting my X2 5000+ BE come to my house:) :)

[Shaz]

Mail it to me when you're finished with it ;)

[madfaze]

yeah post it here!

[tictac]

he is a big liar guy. beware.

[madfaze]

hahaha... :D

[KTE]

The manual is here (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/scott.donaldson3/AX78_V100.pdf)

First impressions and pics of the board: http://www.pc-treiber.net/thread.php?postid=48051

Pics of BIOS from Manual (excellent IMHO)

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/5282/ax782dl5.png

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/4169/ax781gf1.png


The main bits I wanted=> :up:


http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/1489/ax786dp0.png

http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/1072/ax784lo1.png

http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/5915/ax785um5.png

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/586/ax783iv4.png

[madfaze]

hmm will this be good replacemement for k9a2 plat?! :D

[roadie]

It's a budget board (£50) so I wouldn't expect miracles out of it. However, the layout is perfect, although they have carried on placing the RAM slots for dual channel operation right next to each other.

I am really looking forward to seeing how this board overclocks with both Phenom and the X2.

abit link to specs etc (http://www2.abit.com.tw/page/uk/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=AX78&fMTYPE=Socket%20AM2)

[Shaz]

I got my KN9 on a budget and got 3GHz on a suicide run with a 3800+, so a 50% clock on air and about 150MHz short of my chips world record isn't bad.

I will make another attempt...

[KTE]

It looks to have an excellent BIOS. Don't know how well it'll work but it's looking better than most boards AM2+ out there. ;)

[roadie]

The BIOS looks pretty similar to the one on my current board. abit certainly provides lots of overclocking options for their budget boards, and doesn't restrict access to important options like some brands. This is great for the price concious overclocker.

I too would be confident that this board would overclock well. I think a real test of its abilities would be with a high wattage CPU to see if it exhibits any of the problems some other AM2+ boards have shown. It is certified to work with 125W CPUs but I wonder if V droop is a problem at all?

[Jethro]

My experiences with clocking both the Abit AV8 (via), AN8 (nf4) were horrible. I'd be leary of any of Abit's budget crap for overclocking.

[Heidfirst]

My experiences with clocking both the Abit AV8 (via), AN8 (nf4) were horrible.
AV8 was limited by chipset - but it was still probably the best K8T800 Pro mobo.
AN8 was fine - ~325fsb without touching chipset voltages & it would hit the 400 fsb BIOS limit with tweaking.

My AX78 is sitting here waiting for a 5000+ Black (due tomorrow) & possibly a Phenom in a week or 2.
All the reviews that I have read say that Phenom doesn't overclock well though ...

[Jethro]

Same chip in AV8 285, AN8 300 semi stable, DFI 327 rock stable. Some are probably better im sure but lately ABIT's wares seem hit and miss and nothing like the NF7 was. I look forward to your results as im lookin into a 770 board. Though im gonna mess with a phenom so ur results may not apply =)

[gOtVoltage]

I hope its made LIKE a TANK...Abit was one of the first real overclockers..I rember my KTraid very well and still have it along with that Tbird and VooDoo5500:D !

[Heidfirst]

Though im gonna mess with a phenom so ur results may not apply =)
I'm supposed to have a Phenom coming but from what I read you only get a couple hundred extra MHz out of them.

[KTE]

That true Heidfirst. :yepp:

[Shaz]

Heidfirst, try and get that Phenom to go really high on that Abit, be interesting to see what it can do.


My experiences with clocking both the Abit AV8 (via), AN8 (nf4) were horrible. I'd be leary of any of Abit's budget crap for overclocking.

Budget ABit boards have clocked really well for me a few times. I always use them unless I can get something really high end.

[madfaze]

i used to have abit mobo (AN-M2) but my problem there was the temp reading (quite high)..but if somebody can give a good review out there this will perhaps be my next mobo...

[KTE]

I'll have this board very soon, can get it in 2 days but am on holiday till after 10th.

[madfaze]

I'll have this board very soon, can get it in 2 days but am on holiday till after 10th.


cool! looking forward to it...

[Shaz]

Yeah looking forward to seeing some results out of it. I'm still tempted by one, just wanting to see some results with it to see if it's worth an early upgrade or wait until I'm actually changing CPU.

[Hazzan]

This my short test with this board...I still waiting my X2 5000+ BE with all test... :) :)

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=321347

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3046/img1982nq5.jpg

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/3567/img1985wn4.jpg

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/6814/spixp3.jpg

Still continued with all my test !!! :) :)

[madfaze]

seemes its a promising board...


what bios version did you used?any temp monitoring on those PWM?


does this supports 125w cpu's?

[Hazzan]

@madfaze : Using bios 12B01....I will try later with 125w cpu's....

[madfaze]

@madfaze : Using bios 12B01....I will try later with 125w cpu's....


cool!...

are there any PWM monitoring temp?NB temp? etc..

what other temps can these mobo monitor?

[LIKMARK]

would believe it supports 125w Athlons as it supports phenom and got a eight pin 12v for the cpu

[madfaze]

are there any benefits on havin' 8pin on 12v?


what are the difference on havin only 4pin?

[LIKMARK]

It can supply more power at more stable voltages. It is basically two p4's connected I believe.

[madfaze]

hmm can this be done with k9a2 platinum it has 4pin molex connector but i believe this is fot graphic card feature...

[roadie]

How do those results above compare with previous motherboards? 280HTT is hardly anything to get excited about, but it would be great to see 400!

The board supports all 125W CPUs, I have looked at the compatibility sheet on the abit site.

It should monitor PWM temps if you use Speedfan. I believe my board does with the "AUX" sensor.

[madfaze]

how about the NB and SB?does it read temps? :rolleyes:

[angelicavoc]

i have ax78 w/phenom 9600 , the temp show 50-55c running 2.645Ghz
are that temp is currectly right r just the board can`t read the temp phenom 9600??
my colling is noctua NH-U12P

sori my english is bad.. :(

[madfaze]

can you post some screenie...

[LIKMARK]

Hazzan: What is max voltage for cpu, ht link, nb, sb, mem, and how is mem tweaking options on the board? Sbtimings/drive strenghts tweakable?
How is the vdroop? I'm close to buying this board now..

[Heidfirst]

if it holds true to form it will be CPU VID plus a set amount (i.e. max Vcore will vary according to installed CPU).
On my 5000+ Black it's 1.30 min, 1.67V max
Vdimm is 1.80- 2.50V
nb 1.8V max 2.35V
nb 1.1V max 1.90V
sb 1.2V max 1.57V
HT max 1.50V

[LIKMARK]

Thanks Heidfirst, then it's an AX78 for me too :)

Update: Ordered. :)

[Shaz]

Anymore Phenom results for this yet?

[LIKMARK]

The board is under way, so I'll be posting some results in a few days I believe. I'm not sure if I'm gonna continue with Vista x64 or revert back to the good old XP 32 bit though..

[Shaz]

Well with 4GB of RAM you might want to stay on 64.

Also, when you switch between boards will Vista survive it without getting buggy, I could never make XP do that.

[LIKMARK]

That's what I was wondering about too, if it does, I'll stay with Vista x64 I think.

[madfaze]

more pics...

[KTE]

Works fine here. Booted a tester 9600 BE which the owner said "has 3rd core faulty" perfectly first time. :)

Only tried once though. Nice little CMOS clear switch at the back panel, BIOS looks amazing for any board. ;)

[madfaze]

Works fine here. Booted a tester 9600 BE which the owner said "has 3rd core faulty" perfectly first time. :)

Only tried once though. Nice little CMOS clear switch at the back panel, BIOS looks amazing for any board. ;)


can you posts some temp monitoring screenie?

[LIKMARK]

I'll have to wait a few days more for my board as it was sent to the other edge of Norway by mistake..... KTE: How is max vcore with Phenom?

[madfaze]

I'll have to wait a few days more for my board as it was sent to the other edge of Norway by mistake.....


too bad you should have been using it right now...

[KTE]

Plenty of Vcore and options last I checked. Abit EQ too but better, I have to fix up my GBT Odin and get monitoring info from that first to compare, especially voltages. ;)
Will show how accurate/inaccurate MB software utilities are, especially since I have a n-type temp. probe and a DMM here and GBT Odin P-Tuner software is very accurate.

I don't have spare CPU to start it up again. All of mine are busy and I'm staying at a friends house far away from home (as I foretold). Very little of my equipment here.

I have to bench and analyze GBT Odin with MSI board first before trying it with AX78+X4. Will post as soon as I can, don't worry. :)

Want to see some N95-2 taken pics? :p:

[madfaze]

lookin forward to it...

[LIKMARK]

Want to see some N95-2 taken pics? :p:
Oh yes please :)

[Shaz]

Sounds very exciting. It's my birthday tomorrow so I'll attempt to cash in on something.

[KTE]

Their main advertisement is Phenom FX board ;)

I'll try and find some pics but I don't think the lady with me took any as I asked her. Let me ask...
Well there are many rough shots all around the board. Let me know what you want to see specifically before I build it (it's tight in there) and I'll retake better ones (working around clockwise from when she first opened it+some I just took).

Board Opening Tour:
http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02105.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02105.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02106.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02106.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02108.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02108.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02110.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02110.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02111.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02111.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02112.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02112.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02143.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02143.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02139.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02139.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02113.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02113.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02133.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02133.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02125.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02125.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02120.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02120.png)

Clockwise Detail:
http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02119.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02119.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02122.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02122.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02127.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02127.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02121.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02121.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02134.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02134.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02128.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02128.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02129.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02129.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02130.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02130.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02114.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02114.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02115.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02115.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02116.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02116.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02118.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02118.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02137.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02137.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02146.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02146.png) http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02144.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02144.png)

Other important chips are above and this is PLL: http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02132.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/dsc02132.png)

[roadie]

Looks good. Am looking forward to some good OCs with this board. Would be great to see how it handles Phenom, plus a 6000+/6400+ and a 5000+BE.

[Jethro]

Thanks for the pics! Someone stress this board out plz. :)

[GenTarkin]

primarily, my question is...does this board have option in its BIOS to turn off the phenom TLB fix?

[KTE]

Abt EQ reports Phenom temps 20C higher than all other utilities.
So 50C load is 70C load with Abit EQ on this board.

No Phenom boots o can't run anything yet (Phenom problem).

Only one boot I had I checked this much.

GenTarkin: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2822517&postcount=1448
According to Abit, yes.

[LIKMARK]

Finally got my board today. Gonna set it up now. I'll try Vista x64 first, and if it's crappy, I'll go for XP x86
Wish me luck :)

[madfaze]

Finally got my board today. Gonna set it up now. I'll try Vista x64 first, and if it's crappy, I'll go for XP x86
Wish me luck :)

posts some shots of monitoring temps... :D

[KTE]

Good luck. ;)

Vista x64? Will still be slow with poor compatibility, softwares and a pain to overclock.

Delayed edit: Sorry I won't be updating on AX78+Phenom. My Phenom is dead with IMC problems. I don't expect to use the one I get in replacement and I'll play with X2 2350/4850e+770+780G and sell one set off while keeping the other for use.

[LIKMARK]

posts some shots of monitoring temps... :D

I will. I have to say, the bios holds nothing back. It's at least as full of options as the Crosshairs, a high end AM2 board. It's monitoring cpu, system and pwm. The bios read these as 30, 29, 26 degrees celcius at boot up. Ripped off nb heatpipe, and got the nb under water, the rest of the heatpipe (on the pwm) stays though, with a 80mm Nochtua fan humming away on top of it. Not sure how the readings is as of now, but they're probably not correct :p


Good luck. ;)

Vista x64? Will still be slow with poor compatibility, softwares and a pain to overclock.
Thanks :)

I'm gonna run it under XP x86, only option for Vista x64 were if it could boot without reinnstalling it (=hassle), and it wouldn't load Vista, soo, it's XP for me for a while. The 0,5 gb ram I'll be missing will just have to stay put, idling away.. I'm at work now, so I'll have to install XP when I come home, (after my kids is in bed that is)

[madfaze]

how was your OCing venture?

[LIKMARK]

Sorry, but my time is quite limited in the evenings. I just managed to install XP yesterday, and run a winrar stock benchmark to compare it to Vista X64 with AM2 board.

Vista x64 AM2, TLB patch enabled: 240kb/s
Vista x64 AM2, TLB patch disabled: 1200kb/s

XP x86 AM2+, TLB patch enabled: 540kb/s
XP x86 AM2+, TLB patch disabled: 1650kb/s

That should be the normal XP -> Vista difference...

Looking forward to oc'ing a little this evening, though.

Anyone got any requests? (Not too complex requests please :p)

[roadie]

It's all about the max HTT and max OC you can reach compared to other boards. I reckon all the other benchmarks will be much of a muchness amongst AM2+ boards.

[KTE]

1650KB/s on using 9500?
Can you check your NB speed and the DRAM timings in Memset?

It should be higher. My 9500 had >1800KB/s stock (MEM/IMC dependent bench) using all RD790 boards.

Can you post a pic of Abit EQ and the values it's showing compared to AMD OverDrive and AMD PowerMonitor?

[daytripper67mi]

just ordered this board and a 5000+be

[LIKMARK]

It's all about the max HTT and max OC you can reach compared to other boards. I reckon all the other benchmarks will be much of a muchness amongst AM2+ boards.

For max HTT I'll have to put in my X2 6000+, not happening atm..

Max HTT with Phenom after a tiny bit of testing is 240, but I'll need to test more.


1650KB/s on using 9500?
Can you check your NB speed and the DRAM timings in Memset?

It should be higher. My 9500 had >1800KB/s stock (MEM/IMC dependent bench) using all RD790 boards.

Can you post a pic of Abit EQ and the values it's showing compared to AMD OverDrive and AMD PowerMonitor?

Abit EQ shows nothing at all, totally blank..

I'm running my ram at 800MHz CL4 4 4 12 2t with loose subtimings as my Ballistix ain't my Phenoms best friend yet. NB speed @stock

Tweaked subtimings a little, and made 1700Kb/s, but no more. System became quite unstable too.

Installed Aod 2.17 and Systool, and either one of them is buggy as hell, or both, system crashed repeatedly as I tried to get ss of memset, aod, systool, cpuz etc.

Will have to try again tonight. Bios lacks nb fid control for Ph 9500 btw. Will have to change nb multi with bar edit.

Need to learn the bios too as there is some values I'm not familiar with atm

[KTE]

Which BIOS are you on?
Are you sure you've checked all the menu's for NB FID control? It won't be in the main oc section, it's under CPU Features (for 96BE anyway). It started as a hidden option though and they might have hidden it again.

Try this BIOS, it's the latest I have from Abit: http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=other&file=M706A_13beta_bios.rar

I hope you meant AOD 2.14 BETA there BTW :p:

You're using Vista 64b, right?

[LIKMARK]

I'm on the latest bios, 12 with the date 01.17.08

Yeah I checked all the menus. According to the manual it should be there, but not in this bios. I'm thinking its not supported by 9500/9600s or its removed from the latest bios.

whats the combination for unlocking bios features again? alt+f2?

No, I meant AOD 2.17 but maybe I read wrong :D Edit: This one: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1012/AMD_Overdrive_2.0.17.html

I reverted to XP x86

I'll test the beta bios you uploaded tonight.

Edit: I got my Phenom stable at 2,5GHz last night, but I want it to run at least 2,6GHz when I'm finished. At reasonable voltages that is.

[KTE]

This ones 2 BIOSes newer IIRC, try it. Dated 26th Feb, internal BETA.

Sorry, I didn't know about the release of AOD 2.17. Can you guys test it please, it is supposed to calibrate temps better. Thanks. :D

Alt+F1?

[LIKMARK]

AOD read my idling temps as 24 degrees celcius (water), bios read them as 41 degrees, speedfan read them as 41 degrees idle, 56 degrees load. Not sure wich ones to believe, most possibly none of them reads temps right.

Abit EQ =-> good laugh.

Edit: NB volt 1.1 is the memcontroller voltage control yes?
NB volt 1.8 is the nb voltage control

[madfaze]

can you posts some temp monitoring screenie?

anyone?... :shakes:

[LIKMARK]

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/3646/tempsnd1.th.jpg (http://img340.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tempsnd1.jpg)

[GenTarkin]

do you have any OC results with motherboard capabilities? like, does it exceed in areas where other boards dont....
I ask cuz Im extremely interested in this board =) and want to know its OC abilities.
With the Phenom that is =)

[LIKMARK]

Well, thing take time..

I'm doing 2,5GHz at 1,30 vcore (can probably go lower on the vcore) stable.
No exeptional overclock.. This is without changing NB fid as this bios don't allow for that, will have to try it out with BAR EDIT.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/6217/2500primed2nv6.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2500primed2nv6.jpg)

KTE:Winrar reported the bios zip as: Unexpected end of archive. Could you upload it again?

[KTE]

It's an issue with your download being incomplete and in broken bits due to network line jumps. I've been having it a lot lately too but attempting to download 2-3 times fixes the problem. I've just downloaded it now to try and the links is fine, try again after clearing your browser cache. :)

[LIKMARK]

Had to download it seven times to get it :) I tested downloading it four times before I wrote my last post.. Gonna test some nb multi changes tonight.

[maxwedge]

Beta Bios 13.b02
I had a lot of hangs from the bios after using f10 to save. This board and cpu combo has been a real chore so far and I've gone back to bios 12 for now.

Under cpu features, what is the stepping option about, where you've got P0 and P1 as options? Is that for enabling the TLB fix?

[LIKMARK]

Only booted once using the p1 setting, didn't test if it were disabling TLB patch as I'm running Sam2009's program for disabling it. Thanks for the warning about the beta bios, have note tested it yet.

Edit: BTW are your PC8500 ballistix keeping up with the Phenom? My PC6400 Ballistix (easily overclockable to above 1100MHz with Athlons) can't even run stable at CL4 @stock speeds.

[maxwedge]

I'm having a generally hard time with this board and at this point I've determined I having the same issues with bios 12, so I've gone back to the beta again. Mostly trying to pick voltages for the ram other than auto tends to make it hang. I can't get my ram to run well either and had them up to ddr1200 on my IP35 pro. I got the sticks to run at 800 4 4 4 12 volts at auto (2.0v) but had to drop the multi to 10x to do it. With the cpu at default it crashes at 4 4 4 12.
5 5 5 18 is ok with auto volts and cpu at default.:shrug:

[Hazzan]

everybody if need new beta bios for this board !! I send to your email...PM me !!

[KTE]

Edit: BTW are your PC8500 ballistix keeping up with the Phenom? My PC6400 Ballistix (easily overclockable to above 1100MHz with Athlons) can't even run stable at CL4 @stock speeds.No where even close to like X2/C2 oc and stability but I have and can run 1066 4-5-5-15 2.3VDIMM and 1000 4-4-4-4-11 1T 2.2VDIMM with Phenoms + Ballistix. Have to go easy on the NB in these scenarios though. :D

[LIKMARK]

Some pics if anyone are interested:

Cinebench R10, 9500@2500Mhz, XP 32bit, AX78
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/3743/cinebenchr10ohenom2500dc1.th.jpg (http://img211.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cinebenchr10ohenom2500dc1.jpg)

Max stable overclock ATM: 2505Mhz
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/6217/2500primed2nv6.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2500primed2nv6.jpg)

Max suicide Cpuz:
http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=333344

[KTE]

Looking good. Temps seem to be high, maybe they limited you or the NB?
Also 4GB is going to limit you, you might as well try with two sticks to try and see max CPU oc.
Can you post any BIOS oc option pics yet? (or I have missed them?)

BTW, just checked and a little correction. I've ran 1200 4-5-5-15 2.25 vDDR with Phenom.

[LIKMARK]

Haven't tested much yet, but four sticks seems to limit ram overclock, as expected, but not cpu overclock. Temps are high, a lot higher than I would believe under water, maybe sensors are showing too high temps. I'm thinking it's a combination of nb and general bad overclocking performance limiting me. You remember where you posted the nb fid register values in your MSI thread?
And just to be sure, nb speed could not be lower than ht link speed? Right, or was it the opposite...

Should be able to take som pics of bios..

[LIKMARK]

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8282/img1770xe2.th.jpg (http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1770xe2.jpg)http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/1021/img1771yy4.th.jpg (http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1771yy4.jpg)http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/1857/img1772hn1.th.jpg (http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1772hn1.jpg)
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http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5488/img1782vf0.th.jpg (http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1782vf0.jpg)http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7259/img1783hh6.th.jpg (http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1783hh6.jpg)http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/5171/img1784cb2.th.jpg (http://img170.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1784cb2.jpg)
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/491/img1785gj8.th.jpg (http://img170.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1785gj8.jpg)http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/7509/img1786lw0.th.jpg (http://img517.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1786lw0.jpg)http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/9732/img1787nt9.th.jpg (http://img517.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1787nt9.jpg)
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/273/img1788ax6.th.jpg (http://img517.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1788ax6.jpg)http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/8748/img1789ik2.th.jpg (http://img517.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1789ik2.jpg)http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/3374/img1790jc2.th.jpg (http://img517.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1790jc2.jpg)
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/6561/img1791ui3.th.jpg (http://img223.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1791ui3.jpg)

Edit: Sorry for using slooooow loading imageshack...
Edit 2: Damn, thats one dusty LCD monitor :p

[freeloader]

Does anyone have a problem with Coretemp on this board with a 5000+ Black Edition processor? It shows my core temps as below 10 degrees C. Not likely as I'm on air....LOL

[LIKMARK]

Thats a problem known with the Brisbanes rather than the board I think.

I can't change nb multiplier with Phenom on this board (with BAR EDIT). Anyone got any ideas?

[freeloader]

Thanks for the heads up! :D

I've been playing with this combo for a few hours now. I've noticed that my on board NIC dies about every hour and I need to restart to get it working again. Does anyone else have this problem?

[cygnus_x_1]

anyone in the US with this board that is willing to hot flash my bios? i killed mine trying to flash in vista, i know im a putz, but abit's tech support is taking forever getting back to me if they have replacement bios' available.

[Cheffy]

Anyone here got any issues with the PWM temps sky rocketing?

6400+BE, 1.4v (stock) orthos = ~70c pwm. 1.45v = 80c pwm, i was trying 3.5ghz/1.5v but pc shutoff and pwm temp was reading like this as it updated from idle to shutdown: 30, 45, 60, 73, 84 (shutdown) - the heatsink was pretty much cold to the touch but visual inspection seems to show its contacting correctly..

otherwise everything seems to be working nicely.

[LIKMARK]

Pwm temps with priming Phenom @2500MHz @1,35v = 51 degrees celcius with a 80mm 1800rpm fan blowing at the heatsink. Heatsink feels cold to the touch. You tested reseating the heatsink?

[Cheffy]

ill try when i get home.

i wish i had a removable tray :( lol

- im now all AsC'd up.. basically no change to temps :/ ill just avoid high v-core i guess

thanks anyway :)

[LIKMARK]

Any luck Cheffy?

I've got 2*2048MB of Dominators on my way in the start of april. Hoping they will play better with my Phenom at1066 speeds. Anyone tested this combination?

[Cheffy]

i pulled the sink off, everything looked to be contacting ok, replaced the rubbery pad (easy to peal off!) with arcticsilver ceramic.. temps down maybe 5-10c. but not a great deal. still hitting 70c at 1.45v/3433mhz..
i think i just have a poorly calibrated diode.

motherboard seems to have little to no issue with high fsb for x2's, running 286 atm without touching voltages, ht link at 1143. when i get round to it ill test max-posting fsb with 5x multi.

***EDIT***

i got 300 fsb no problem but 333 always hung/auto reboot and gave the error "The CPU Frequency has been over running" - this was with all stock voltages and 3x ht multi and 5x cpu. so id say 11x is the lowest multi for use for trying to hit 3300mhz+ on an x2 for my board. your milage may vary, and i didnt explore settings for long :)

***END***

as a side note, the ax78 is applying the selected multplier at powerup unlike the AX8 (939/via 890) which started on default multi then dropped it. so im not used to running fsb much over 250 :)

[Jethro]

Seeing just enough positives with this board to give it a go.

Plan on ordering Ax78, Phenom B3 quad or B2 triple, gddr4 3870 and some OCZ Titanium XTC ddr 800 sticks. Also have a corsair 575psu enroute for a possible crossfire setup later. All im waiting on to pull the trigger is for the B3's and Triples to hit shelves.

Anyone using OCZ sticks with success?

[LIKMARK]

Why not go for some 1066Mhz ram?

[Jethro]

Speed DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Cas Latency 3
Timing 3-4-4-15

Figured at cas 4-5 these prolly have 1000+ in em for clocking. Day to day I prefer lowest latency however.

No NB multi adjustments>?

[KTE]

Thanks for the pics, images are great! :up:
Sorry could not get back to you earlier and I lost my earlier fully wrote post because of an Fx crash. :mad:

Low vDIMM there.. I wonder why.


I can't change nb multiplier with Phenom on this board (with BAR EDIT). Anyone got any ideas?Why not, what do you get? Can you post an image of what you're changing and to what?
Do you reboot?

Haven't tested much yet, but four sticks seems to limit ram overclock, as expected, but not cpu overclock. Temps are high, a lot higher than I would believe under water, maybe sensors are showing too high temps.Those are Tcontrol values rather than degrees temperature values but yep, they do indicate relative temperatures. How high are the temps?

You remember where you posted the nb fid register values in your MSI thread?Are you looking for the BIOS FID values or the MSR FID values?

And just to be sure, nb speed could not be lower than ht link speed? Right, or was it the opposite...

Yep, HT Link speed is always equal or below NB speed.

Also, for chipset temps I'm not sure. The 790FX chip has a higher TDP yet lower temps. so that would point to the cooling/contact being problematic mainly. 780G is cooler than those temps at full load. :yepp:

[LIKMARK]

Speed DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Cas Latency 3
Timing 3-4-4-15

Figured at cas 4-5 these prolly have 1000+ in em for clocking. Day to day I prefer lowest latency however.

No NB multi adjustments>?

Would believe they're running quite high vDIMM for those latencies, wondering how much headroom they got.

No NB multi adjustments with bios 12 and Phenom 9500 at least.



Low vDIMM there.. I wonder why.

Well any higher vDIMM and you kill your Phenom anyways.. :D



Why not, what do you get? Can you post an image of what you're changing and to what?
Do you reboot?
I'll post pics when I come home after work.

Example: changing NB multi with msr register on bus 24/3 from ***101 (1800MHz) to ***100 (1600MHz, seeing it change "on the fly" in cpu-z)
Reboots, and "bang" back to stock speed.



Those are Tcontrol values rather than degrees temperature values but yep, they do indicate relative temperatures. How high are the temps?

CPU@2,5GHz, 1,3 vcore, 57c when priming, and pwn 51c when priming.



Are you looking for the BIOS FID values or the MSR FID values?

MSR FID values.



Also, for chipset temps I'm not sure. The 790FX chip has a higher TDP yet lower temps. so that would point to the cooling/contact being problematic mainly. 780G is cooler than those temps at full load. :yepp:

Hmm, I'll check my blocks then.

[Jethro]

No NB multi is bad mojo! Ive been doing homework and read that this board has subpar memory performance as well. Can anyone confirm this?

[LIKMARK]

NB multi is applicable with either BE Phenom and/or earlier/later bioses than bios #12.

I'm not sure if it is my Phenoms memcontroller or the board not liking ballistix, but they can't oc as well as with my Athlon X2 on Crosshair. Awaiting new ram to test with. Today I'm running 4GB Ballistix PC6400 @940MHz 5,0 4 4 12 2T, with relativly high latencies on the subtimings @2,0 vDIMM.

Cas 4 is almost a no go (at reasonable vDIMM), this was also the story when running Phenom on Crosshair (AM2), so I'm thinking its the Phenom memcontroller who is the sinner.

My memory ran 1173MHz 5,0 5 5 5 15 2t@ 2,20 vDIMM and 1100Mhz 4,0 4 4 7 2t tight sumbtimings @2,20 vDIMM with Athlon X2 6000+ and Crosshair.

Edit: It's certainly not on par with a 790FX DFI board, but what could you expect from a board in this price range?

[Cheffy]

if you have any specific memory related benches you want me to run i can do. - to quantify the performance to see if it is bad or not.

sisoft: 11828 int, 11833 float,
everest, 10641 read, 9768 write, 9947 copy, 38ns.

looks to be ok? - perhaps a specific problem with phenoms, bios fixable i guess

[Jethro]

No NB adjustment and lackluster mem perf may be the deal breaker for me. Might just have to spend the extra money for a 790 board! All i would be curious to know is how much less ram perf then a 790. Doesnt make much sense when mem controller is on the cpu.

[LIKMARK]

This is what I do:
change msr, and hit write. Then reboot, and it's back at stock speed.

[LIKMARK]

Anyone know where the ganged/unganged memory mode values is on this board? See bios pics earlier in the tread.

[SocketMan]

Anyone know where the ganged/unganged memory mode values is on this board? See bios pics earlier in the tread.

Are there any "hidden" settings in BIOS that Abit includes?
Like F4 for M3a,CTR+F4 -I think:confused: for GB boards, did some1 say CTR+F1? for abit?

[LIKMARK]

tested most combinations, no luck so far.

[Cheffy]

ive never known A-bit to hide settings, perhaps it will be comming in a future bios? (or we can ask an a-bit rep)

what is it set to by default?

[LIKMARK]

nb multi = 9, mem mode = ganged (1 *128b) (not sure wich you ment) :)

[Jethro]

Well for now i ordered the AX78, opteron 1216 (2.4), gigabyte 3870, and some Geil EVO cas 4 pc6400 2 x 1gb rams. Phenom isnt ready for prime time i reckon. Will push this board to the xtreme with the opty tho i assure you :).


Get your beta bios here:http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=122393

[Heidfirst]

Ive been doing homework and read that this board has subpar memory performance as well. Can anyone confirm this?
another user compared his AX78 against his brother's Biostar TF770, if anything they preferred the abit but both were down against a 790X/FX chipset mobo so probably chipset issue?

[Jethro]

From what ive read in the last few days the difference is minimal really. Justapost did a comparison where the 770/790 were nearly the same from what i could tell. Its prolly nothing more then different bios settings from board to board either hidden or accessable.

Hope this board can push the new opty well over 3ghz! Not much info on clocking this board or the new opty's to be found! This thread and the abit usa forums are about it...

[LIKMARK]

From what ive read in the last few days the difference is minimal really. Justapost did a comparison where the 770/790 were nearly the same from what i could tell. Its prolly nothing more then different bios settings from board to board either hidden or accessable.

Hope this board can push the new opty well over 3ghz! Not much info on clocking this board or the new opty's to be found! This thread and the abit usa forums are about it...
How about ordering one of the new Phenoms?

[Jethro]

I got a good deal on a 1216 opty dually, 2.4 santa ana for 100bux. Gonna mess with it for awhile, could be fun! Phenom was tempting but i really dont need all them cores heating up me water! Max single thread mhz still important here to..

Prolly pick up a B3 triple or even B3 dually? in a few months to mess with if they end up clocking to 3ghz+ typical. Waiting eagerly to see em hit the channels.

[LIKMARK]

I see. Let us know how it overclock ;)

[Cheffy]

i open the offer again, if you have heard memory performance is down, i will run whatever cpu/ram speed combo you want for comparison, i suspect its a ganged/unganged thing with phenom and that it should be bios fixable - and that x2 should be about normal..

[LIKMARK]

Have you made running unganged on your board Cheffy? I made it once, but I can't find the correct bios options again.. Also setting trfc higher (127,5ns/195ns/325ns does not help for stability and cl 4 wich still is no go with four sticks of d9gmh.

I really hope that there will be more memory options in the next bios. It's kinda scarce..

[Jethro]

Hey Cheffy, what do you like better the cas3 setup or the higher clocked cas5?

Woot got my board and rams today! Ram is rated at 2.1~2.3v and its supposed to be 1.9-2.0 however =(

[Cheffy]

this is my first DDR2 board, but i started out long ago with 1*256mb BH5 running 2-2-2-6 went to crucial balistix 5B-G @ 2-2-2-6 then 5B-F @ high mhz 3-3-3-8 and found that the higher speed worked better, so im favouring 5-5-5-15 right now, i dont think these g-skill have much in them at 3-3-3 due to non micron chips. they fly at 5-5-5- tho :D

i only have an X2, so i cant comment on ganged/unganged, but im guessing its where the low results come from.

im getting what seem to be decent scores for memory and elsewise from it,
24.9 second super pi / 10KMBs 38ns Everest (http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/6996/cpulo8.jpg),
9K nuclearus (http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/6862/nucpx6.jpg),
11.1K 3dmark with amd/ati (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=5950073)

the board has plenty of ram voltage available, so atleast your ok running your ram still - the beta bios supports loading EPP profiles apparently.

[Jethro]

Yeah i'm afraid these chips are gonna force me to go 5 5 5. Nice to see your latency @ 38. My 939 setup does 37 with 7500mb or so right now. Nice super pi man! I hope i get at least 3.2 or so outa this opty =) Tempted to pull off me spreaders before there stuck and see what IC's they have.

[Cheffy]

im held back by cpu - its not happy with anything much more than 3433 really :( the ram has more in it, only running 2v atm O.o

all those bench are at day-to-day clocks. i could probably pull them off at 3.5 or so if i set my mind to it. no idea how to "tweak" for pi. just ran it and got that result - brute force style. good luck with the opty!, and nice scores on the 939.

[Jethro]

Well im up and running! Playing aroudn with overdrive now. Opty not to shabby she is giving me 3.1 already but need 1.55v and i have no .5 multi's? Ram is acting strange thus far. Currently at 258x12 with ram at 667 b/c 800 wont boot! What an easy board to setup! Smoking fast even in its virgin tweaked state =)

[LIKMARK]

You might have to set trfc manually on this board as it tends to set it too tight by default. It's probably set to 75ns, right?

[Cheffy]

pulled ~24.45 seconds pi at 3.5ghz, and 9120ish on nuclearus. temps were fine then got a sudden shutdown while running 3dm06 (during the loading phase of test 2 i think) that could only be recovered with a full switch off the mains. i think it might be OCP on the psu, but im pretty sure it should still have plenty of amps left - it coped with my old (and much hotter running) 939 when i fed it 1.75v @ 3.25ghz ?!

the ram wont boot @ 800 even with extra voltage set and so on(you said it was rated for upto 2.4v? i was under the impression that the 75ns was a bank specific delay set to keep all the sticks in sync despite being at different distances from cpu and that trfc was listed further below under these? ill have to check tonight how its set on mine

[LIKMARK]

i was under the impression that the 75ns was a bank specific delay set to keep all the sticks in sync despite being at different distances from cpu and that trfc was listed further below under these? ill have to check tonight how its set on mine
That is what I thought too, apparantly it is trfc set in ns on this board according to users at Abit forums. It waas set to 105 for dimm1+2 and 75 for dimm3+4, wich would have made sense if it were a delay due to dimm distance to imc.

[Cheffy]

your running 4 sticks then? im running 2 and i think it says something like 120 / 75 / 75 /75

jethro - if i remember the 1/2 multis arent in bios for my 6400BE either, i seem to memember reading (a long time ago) that some athlon 64 boards couldnt do 1/2 multi so they ran at the lower full multi and bumped fsb (without reporting it) eg 10.5*200 became 10*210

[LIKMARK]

Yes. Four sticks. I'm running bios 1.2, not bios 1.3a FYI

[roadie]

I had a similar trfc issue on my nvidia AM2 board. With default BIOS options, trfc was set to 75, 125, 75, 75. I'm only running my RAM in slots 3+4 (furthest away from the CPU) so have trfc set to 75ns for those slots, but I have relaxed the timings for the other, empty slots.

[davidletterboyz]

Just wondering...does this board support 125W Phenoms? I'm looking for a cheap AM2+ mobo.

[LIKMARK]

Yes it does

[davidletterboyz]

Yes it does

Anyone tried it on 9850 before? :confused: Anandtech reported that 3 and 4 phase pwn ain't good enough for 125Watter....i'm not sure how true is that though. Still waiting for their updates.

[Cheffy]

people used to run the old 74w thunderbirds and athlon xp's on 2 phase on the cheaper boards... 3 phase was considered luxuary, and after you wound them upto 2v+ your easily breaking 125w

solong as the pwm is well designed it should be fine! (ive not heard of any 9850's on the AX78 yet, but i dont see why it wouldnt work as the B2's have been fine for others and it runs 125w X2's and i think they only get 3/4 phases as 1 is for the phenom imc?

[davidletterboyz]

Yeah, that's what I thought too. But anandtech tested a few m-atx. All of them are having either 3 or 4 phase PWM. Those with 3 phase PWM will blow after a few sec lol. Those with 4 phase can hold on a bit longer...but once they oced it, they killed the mobo.

BTW, those phenom B2's are mostly 95W TDP. However, 6400+ BE is 125W eh?

[LIKMARK]

Think that is 95W ACP, about 120W TDP @stock. My 9500 is overclocked to 2,5GHz and runs at 1,35v. My whole system draws about 275W when playing, and 240W when priming. Well above 125W TDP on the cpu i think.

I do not think they would sell a mobo with full Phenom support unless it can handle it.

[davidletterboyz]

Actually, some manufacturers' websites do not mention their mobo support 9850 BE, except asrock (5 phase PWM) and gigabyte which they just updated today. (that's off topic anyways).

[Jethro]

By default the board had set dimm1 to 105 and the rest to 75 but i changed em all to 75 oops! That might explain my ram clocking woes. That setting is new to me have to do some homework. Bad news tho upon trying to flash to latest bios she froze up :( Had to RMA, be awhile before i can do further testing!

[LIKMARK]

Bad news tho upon trying to flash to latest bios she froze up :( Had to RMA, be awhile before i can do further testing!

Sorry to hear, what happened exactly and wich bios did you update to?

[Jethro]

The beta bios file! She just froze up whilst erasing main block! Prolly be a week and a half or so before i get her back! One interesting thing i noticed was that even with ddr2 and 200mhz more cpu speed it wasnt but 7~10% faster then my current setup in sig if that. Not much of an upgrade at all. Perhaps if im able to hit 1100 or so rams and get a bit more fsb that will change. Might even take a 3ghz phenom to really feel like an upgrade i reckon.

[LIKMARK]

Hmmm, your'e not the first one having to rma your board after trying to flash that bios. I've downloaded it, but do not dare to flash it.

[Cheffy]

I Made the purchase knowing it was a side-grade, but i knew it was the end of the road for the 1gb ballistix ive been using (and diligantly RMA'ing every few months) as the last set were shockingly bad, the prices on crucials site went up 50% over a few weeks and now they arent even listed...

I shall miss the old VIA chipsets tho.. not the fastest, but i have used them since the days of the thunderbird and if you had any problems with an addon card you just install the v-latency patch and it went away

[Heidfirst]

Bad news tho upon trying to flash to latest bios she froze up :( Had to RMA, be awhile before i can do further testing!
couldn't you just have got a new BIOS chip?

[Jethro]

Didnt know you could get one easily. Perhaps i will for the future. Ty for the tip. Ive since read as Linmark indicated that this board is not windows flash compat atm. Quite a number of peeps frying bios chips indeed. Seems the old floppy method is the only safe bet. To bad i dont even run a floppy anymore haha :) I guess usb flash will do!

[LIKMARK]

Actually I meant that the beta bios probably is quite dangerous to flash to, at least without the right addons in dos (awdflash)

[Jethro]

Well however you meant it either way flashing the bios appears to be a bit risky! I'm gonna order a backup chip to be safe! At least im doing some homework for clocking ddr2 while i wait :)

[KTE]

Sorry for the delay LIKMARK, I've had many many issues and only made posts I can risk losing - lost my post to you about 8 times before I quit [unstable Phenom] :(

Thats a problem known with the Brisbanes rather than the board I think.Yep.

I can't change nb multiplier with Phenom on this board (with BAR EDIT). Anyone got any ideas?
Example: changing NB multi with msr register on bus 24/3 from ***101 (1800MHz) to ***100 (1600MHz, seeing it change "on the fly" in cpu-z)
Reboots, and "bang" back to stock speed.
You can only change NB multi using the NB registers through tools like CCPUID/Bar_Edit, but they don't set it until after a restart [CPU limitation].

It looks like you have a BIOS limitation or a CPU limitation, as 9500/9600/9700 should be capable of dropping NB multi. I had one 9600BE which did not drop NB multi in the same BIOS which dropped NB multi for the second 9600BE, so its very possible :yepp:

Has anyone else tested this with a Phenom on this MB?

NB multi is applicable with either BE Phenom and/or earlier/later bioses than bios #12.

I'm not sure if it is my Phenoms memcontroller or the board not liking ballistix, but they can't oc as well as with my Athlon X2 on Crosshair. Awaiting new ram to test with. Today I'm running 4GB Ballistix PC6400 @940MHz 5,0 4 4 12 2T, with relativly high latencies on the subtimings @2,0 vDIMM.

Cas 4 is almost a no go (at reasonable vDIMM), this was also the story when running Phenom on Crosshair (AM2), so I'm thinking its the Phenom memcontroller who is the sinner.

My memory ran 1173MHz 5,0 5 5 5 15 2t@ 2,20 vDIMM and 1100Mhz 4,0 4 4 7 2t tight sumbtimings @2,20 vDIMM with Athlon X2 6000+ and Crosshair.It's a Phenom limitation, yup. They don't oc RAM well although 3-3-3-3-11 1T 450, 4-4-4-4-11 1T 500 and 5-5-5-15 600 is easy on them at 2.2v if MEMs can do it. ;)

Edit: It's certainly not on par with a 790FX DFI board, but what could you expect from a board in this price range?
Your board is better for RAM/Monitoring than the DFI 70FX, try one of those and try getting some good stability and accuracy, or RAM compatibility and RAM oc, and you'll see why ;)
Their BIOS has tons of good options but also tons of problems with basics settings and options. They are improving but since Nov'07, not enough.

Anyone know where the ganged/unganged memory mode values is on this board? See bios pics earlier in the tread.No idea yet.

That is what I thought too, apparantly it is trfc set in ns on this board according to users at Abit forums. It waas set to 105 for dimm1+2 and 75 for dimm3+4, wich would have made sense if it were a delay due to dimm distance to imc.Many 700 series boards set 105ns for the first DIMM and 75ns for the others at boot, default. More of a safety mechanism.

Think that is 95W ACP, about 120W TDP @stock. My 9500 is overclocked to 2,5GHz and runs at 1,35v. My whole system draws about 275W when playing, and 240W when priming. Well above 125W TDP on the cpu i think.

I do not think they would sell a mobo with full Phenom support unless it can handle it.They wouldn't have added an 8-pin 12V connector if it couldn't support above 16A CPU draw ;)

Your oc'd 9500 runs at minimum 126W TDP, if you take 95W TDP being stock. You're using the same hardware voltages and CPU/NB speeds as 9850BE does, and the current draw is the same, so is the end power.

Anyway, I'll talk with an Abit rep today and find out if 9850BE is officially supported and with which BIOS.

Which is the most stable BIOS ATM BTW?

Has anyone ran a 9850BE and if so, which BIOS allowed it boot?

I have tried 9850BE about 6 days ago and it gave me C1 errors at POST, not tried again. Don't have an X2 spare yet to flash to better BIOS and check.

[davidletterboyz]

KTE, I just found one person who has tested ax78 with 9850BE (been searching for days lol). --> http://forum.uabit.com/showthread.php?t=137048&page=2
He mentioned that there is no sign of PWM problem....so I guess it's your BIOS? BTW, he haven't stress that CPU enough to be 100% sure the PWM is a non-issue. He has problems with detecting the HDDs, so i guess it's still remain to be seen if the mobo can handle it under full load.

At the same thread, someone pointed out that he blew a MOSFET when ocing an x2 6000+ (125W TDP) within 4 days. But it has been running without any problem for a week after replacing the mobo (RMA).

[KTE]

KTE, I just found one person who has tested ax78 with 9850BE (been searching for days lol). --> http://forum.uabit.com/showthread.php?t=137048&page=2
He mentioned that there is no sign of PWM problem....so I guess it's your BIOS? BTW, he haven't stress that CPU enough to be 100% sure the PWM is a non-issue. He has problems with detecting the HDDs, so i guess it's still remain to be seen if the mobo can handle it under full load.Thanks :)

Yeah it seems they work fine.

On another note, the mod there showed how to access CPU/NB FIDs in the BIOS: http://forum.uabit.com/showpost.php?p=947369&postcount=15

:up:

[KTE]

BTW, I have clarified 4 months ago with Abit and they did not get any problems with running RAM at 1.8-2.3v with this board and Phenoms, even after I gave them instructions to test what I thought was highly likely a Phenom killer setting :D

[LIKMARK]

Sorry for the delay LIKMARK, I've had many many issues and only made posts I can risk losing - lost my post to you about 8 times before I quit [unstable Phenom] :(

No problem :)



It looks like you have a BIOS limitation or a CPU limitation, as 9500/9600/9700 should be capable of dropping NB multi. I had one 9600BE which did not drop NB multi in the same BIOS which dropped NB multi for the second 9600BE, so its very possible :yepp:

I love inconsistency..... Makes things so much easier pinpointing...



It's a Phenom limitation, yup. They don't oc RAM well although 3-3-3-3-11 1T 450, 4-4-4-4-11 1T 500 and 5-5-5-15 600 is easy on them at 2.2v if MEMs can do it. ;) That's with two sticks right?



Your board is better for RAM/Monitoring than the DFI 70FX, try one of those and try getting some good stability and accuracy, or RAM compatibility and RAM oc, and you'll see why ;)
Their BIOS has tons of good options but also tons of problems with basics settings and options. They are improving but since Nov'07, not enough. Yea I know, really bad example there :D I saw that as soon as i wrote it. Its beginning to look like the last AMD chipset board DFI made.. crfx3200 or what it's called. Brilliant when you made it work, but pure hassle for most of the time.



They wouldn't have added an 8-pin 12V connector if it couldn't support above 16A CPU draw ;) That's what I'm thinking too, one of the reasons why I bought this board.



Your oc'd 9500 runs at minimum 126W TDP, if you take 95W TDP being stock. You're using the same hardware voltages and CPU/NB speeds as 9850BE does, and the current draw is the same, so is the end power. I thought 95W was ACP, not TDP. TDP being about 120W for the 9500/9600



Anyway, I'll talk with an Abit rep today and find out if 9850BE is officially supported and with which BIOS. Case closed :D



Which is the most stable BIOS ATM BTW? I've only tried #12 so far.


KTE, I just found one person who has tested ax78 with 9850BE (been searching for days lol). --> http://forum.uabit.com/showthread.php?t=137048&page=2
He mentioned that there is no sign of PWM problem....so I guess it's your BIOS? BTW, he haven't stress that CPU enough to be 100% sure the PWM is a non-issue. He has problems with detecting the HDDs, so i guess it's still remain to be seen if the mobo can handle it under full load.

At the same thread, someone pointed out that he blew a MOSFET when ocing an x2 6000+ (125W TDP) within 4 days. But it has been running without any problem for a week after replacing the mobo (RMA). Basically down to getting a bad board I think.


Thanks :)

On another note, the mod there showed how to access CPU/NB FIDs in the BIOS: http://forum.uabit.com/showpost.php?p=947369&postcount=15

:up:
Actually he shows a noob how to unlock cpu fid by disabling C'n'Q....



BTW, I have clarified 4 months ago with Abit and they did not get any problems with running RAM at 1.8-2.3v with this board and Phenoms, even after I gave them instructions to test what I thought was highly likely a Phenom killer setting :D I'm running my ram at 2.2v ATM. Just to test this. (low vcore/imc - high vdimm)

Wouldn't mind if my Phenom died of this as it oc's horribly. Early version....

[KTE]

That's with two sticks right?Yea DC Unganged or Ganged.

I thought 95W was ACP, not TDP. TDP being about 120W for the 9500/9600That applied to their server lineup mainly, TDP for Phenom lineup was said to be what they stated. During user testings the 95W rated pulled less than 90W, so it kinda proves their ratings. I'm not exact about them all though, only have very limited data. I have not seen a Phenom 9500/9600 draw more than 89W at the worst though, so who knows. Usually they pull 68-75W DC at stock. The 1.25v rated 9500/9600 at 76A would still equal 95W maximum theoretical, which is their lowest bin IIRC.

Actually he shows a noob how to unlock cpu fid by disabling C'n'Q....
It shows NB FID option there, that's what I mention and the mod had a 9500. Do you see that option with your 9500?

[LIKMARK]

BTW confirmed from users in Abit forum that cpu-nb fid only is accessable in beta bios 13a. Then I need to flash it :)

[KTE]

Any link to it?
Or was it the one I posted?

[LIKMARK]

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showpost.php?p=947595&postcount=18

Edit: Misunderstood there.. Yeah it is the same bios you posted.

[KTE]

Np, thanks. Will try flashing and booting the 9850 :)

[Jethro]

Just a heads up, when i first got the board I removed and inspected the heatsinks thoroughly and found the PWM sink to be arched and not flat. It had 4 mosfets in the middle of it barely making contact with the TIM material and there is no way it wouldve cooled properly. I took some time to flatten it but its a pain even vise mounted b/c of the shape of the ends.

[Jethro]

BTW are you guys just doing standard floppy bios flashing? No special flags etc? Its been along time since ive had a mishap even flashing in windows. Just wanna make sure :)

[LIKMARK]

You'll need /py /sn (just type awdflash /? an a list will show) maybe more as it is beta bios. You got something to add KTE?

[Jethro]

Thanks for the heads up on the Phenom compat! Look forward to more info's really leaning towards a B3 triple if they tend to hit at least 3gig.

[KTE]

I usually either use:

awdflash <name>.bin /py /sn /cd /cp /cc /cks /R
Or just type:

runme
:D

[LIKMARK]

Lol

I'm gonna flash this thing tonight, hoping for better mem support too

[LIKMARK]

Anyone else having trouble flashing this one in DOS? I get "unknown flash type" message... using AWDflash 8.67

Edit: Being unable to flash my bios ATM, I tested som mem overclocking just to test with two sticks. As you know I can't even boot with Memclk 1066 with four sticks. With two sticks it is another story. http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=344303

DDR2 1215MHz actually is new record for me :). Adding two more sticks seriously impedes ram overclock with Phenom and a untweakable bios. (for ram at least) Can't even boot over 1000MHz

[Cheffy]

just an update on the power situation:

the pwm is fully capable of huge wattage, i was just loading it past 170w without issue (v-core drooped about 0.01v from 1.55 to 1.54) the high temps im seeing are not from the fets: its actually the coils that are getting very hot, but these are simple analogue devices so its no problem as far as i can tell - i just assume that the one closest the thermal diode is unusually well thermaly bonded to the motherboard

the random shutdowns - that was ocp on the +12v rail.

[Master of None]

BIOS13.B02 seems safe enough. It can be found here:

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=122393

It will just be the BIN file. Download BIOS12 final

ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/download/bios/ax78/

and extract the files. Rename the Beta BIN to the same name as the official BIOS12 BIN. Replace the official 12 BIN with the now renamed Beta.

Use Dr.DOS to create a boot floppy

ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/download/utilities/drdos/

Copy the five files to the boot floppy, boot with it, and type runme.bat at the A prompt.

Clear CMOS after flashing.




tRFC

I have no idea why one dimm gets a slower timing than the other three. We've been setting them manually to 105ns or 127.5ns, depending on dimm size. I found some info on tRFC on a Samsung pdf. For some reason the tRFC you can set and run in BIOS is one step lower than the Samsung info suggests it should be. Maybe you need the slower tRFC if you run four dimms. I set 127.5 for my G.Skill 2 x 2GB kit of DDR2 1000 running at 480MHz.

[KTE]

The older BIOSes on the MSI RD790 and the ones on DFI/Sapphire AFAIR also default to 105ns and 75ns at boot regardless of what values you do set. But the new MSI BIOSes can set 75ns for both manually and it works so it looks like a BIOS bug.

Auto always defaults to DIMM1 105ns and DIMM 2 75ns on all boards that I've seen yet with 2x1GB.

Higher tRFC is needed for higher density RAM or when you have higher number of DIMM slots occupied or when you're oc'ing HT ref with X2 and Phenom.

[LIKMARK]

Thank you Master of None. Managed to flash it with the batch files you provided (by cdrom). Strange that it didn't work by regular method. Well well. Disappointingly there is still no cpu-nb fid option for me, so it must be cpu limited. That's too bad. Gonna test the bios a little tonight.

[LIKMARK]

Lol!!

That was one strange BIOS!!

First the positive things: (After some quick testing last night)

A few new settings, whatever SMART ram is. Probably some C'n'Q related application for ram.
Auto is default in most settings.
AOD support is greatly improved (2.0.17):
HT ref clock is included, making overclocking easier from AOD.
Voltage control for everything is applicable. With bios 12 there were only cpu VID and NB VID, now everything is included. Very good.

The not so good things:
No matter what I set cpu FID to, it chooses cpu FID 5,5. And yes, C'n'Q is disabled. No one else using this BIOS noticed this?
I know I'm not supposed to trust AOD voltage readings, but as I understood it VDDC is vcore, and set in bios to stock 1,25v, AOD read it as 1,55v. Set in bios to 1,35 AOD read it as 1,65v. That is quite much for Phenom IMO. Temps were low though, so I'm thinking it's AOD reading wrong values.

I did not test any memory performance last night, this I'll test tonight and upload some pics if I find the time :)

[KTE]

I've been in touch with Abit.

The official BIOS Abit AX78 ships with is BIOS11 and they tested and were able to replicate my issues.

BIOS11 does not support 9850, neither me or Abit were able to boot it.
BIOS11 does support and boot Phenom X4 9750 and X3 8400 though.

The advice was to contact the retailer or the local distributor so they can help update to the latest BIOS as it supports 9850/9650.

I have a non-booting Phenom again anyway.

[Deliximus]

I got this mobo a few weeks back and it has been good except for a few quirky things that I can live with. Here are my specs first of all.

Specs:

Phenom 9500 w/ Thermalright Ultima-90 HSF
OCZ Reaper 2x1GB DDR2-800 on the furthest slots.
WD 2 x 320GB B3s RAID 0
External sata2 controller, WD 750gb
XFX Geforce 8800GT
Xfi-XtremeMusic
Intel Pro1000 GT Nic
Corsair HX 620W
Antec 900 Case

Everything installs fine (dualbooting XP and Vista Ultimate, both 32bit), everything runs well in windows, the weirdest things occur with the booting process. Currently, if I shutdown my computer and cold-start it, it will not boot and I can hear the 8800GT’s fan going at full. I eventually am forced to power off the PSU, let the red light go away, and the start it all back up, everything is fine then until next shutdown.
Then, when I get into windows, the USB Logitech mouse receiver for my VX Revolution doesn’t respond in the front USB ports. I have to take out the USB receiver and plug it back in and everything is fine. A soft reboot will not result in this problem. I am on BIOS 12 and not going to move to BIOS 13 beta considering all the weird issues. I’d thought I’ll just throw that out there. Anyone notice it takes a long time for the monitor to detect the signal during bootup. I usually see my screen when the RAID setup kicks in.

I had the Silverstone Zeus 650W and Crossfire 3870s before going to the Corsair and Geforce 8800GT. This boot issue happens to both combos. Weird….

[Master of None]

AX78, 9500, 2 x 2GB DDR2 1000

BIOS13 Beta2 -

Smart RAM has three options, Disabled, Table 1 and Table Best. It sets an ECC profiles more or less. It set CAS wrong but everything else correctly for the one set of G.Skill I tried. None of us will ever use it because other things must be set to Auto for it to work.

I can drop the multi without issue. I've run 239 x 10.5 with 32-bit XP and now 240 x 10 with 64-bit Vista.

The highest FSB, HTT, or External Clock that I and another Mod can boot with is 240MHz. 241 is a no go and we get the “CPU is over running” message and no matter how many times we enter BIOS and save we can’t get rid of it.


AMD OD -

I'm not sure if VDDC is really Vcore. My base Vcore is 1.25, I added +.15 and CPU-Z reports 1.392v under load. AMD OD reports 1.70V for VDDC.

Reported CPU temps - SpeedFan, AMD OD, and CoreTemp all report the same temp. SpeedFan only reports one temp, CoreTemp reports one and three 0's for the others in the system tray.

I was able to set 242MHz External Clock, 245MHz and the system froze. I wish I had tried this with 32-bit XP because I’m running 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 1000 and 250 x 10 with the 1:2 memory ratio is where I wanted to be.


64-bit Vista -

I was running 239 x 10.5 with XP, running Folding@Home, and completed 28 work units without the first problem. I tried installing Vista with my proven overclock and I got a BSOD very early on. I set default speeds and the install completed without issue. After the OS was installed, updated, and patched I tried 2.5GHz again. No Go. I set 240 x 10 with the same voltages I used for 239 x 10.5 and it is working well. I've completed 3 work units without issue. So the reports that you can’t overclock as far with 64-bit Vista are true for me. Or at least you can’t overclock as far with the same voltages that work in 32-bit XP.


AbitEQ -

The only thing I was really using it for was monitoring the PWM temp. Another Mod was having trouble with it in 64-bit Vista so I installed the latest version, 2.0.0.6, from the AX78 Global page. It installed but I got the "Log in as administrator and run once so you don't see this message" with no reported values. I uninstalled it and it borked the system. I had to do a Repair by booting with the Vista DVD. It was quick and fixed the problem. I don't believe this version supports the AX78, I couldn't find the files for this MB anywhere but I could find them for other boards.

A couple of nights later I tried with the version that ships with the MB, 2.0.0.1. I installed it with UAC disabled and it installed and even reported temps. It also caused two Blue Screens in short order even though it wasn't running. I did a system restore to just before I installed it and the system is solid once again.

[LIKMARK]

I got this mobo a few weeks back and it has been good except for a few quirky things that I can live with. Here are my specs first of all.

Specs:

Phenom 9500 w/ Thermalright Ultima-90 HSF
OCZ Reaper 2x1GB DDR2-800 on the furthest slots.
WD 2 x 320GB B3s RAID 0
External sata2 controller, WD 750gb
XFX Geforce 8800GT
Xfi-XtremeMusic
Intel Pro1000 GT Nic
Corsair HX 620W
Antec 900 Case

Everything installs fine (dualbooting XP and Vista Ultimate, both 32bit), everything runs well in windows, the weirdest things occur with the booting process. Currently, if I shutdown my computer and cold-start it, it will not boot and I can hear the 8800GT’s fan going at full. I eventually am forced to power off the PSU, let the red light go away, and the start it all back up, everything is fine then until next shutdown.
Then, when I get into windows, the USB Logitech mouse receiver for my VX Revolution doesn’t respond in the front USB ports. I have to take out the USB receiver and plug it back in and everything is fine. A soft reboot will not result in this problem. I am on BIOS 12 and not going to move to BIOS 13 beta considering all the weird issues. I’d thought I’ll just throw that out there. Anyone notice it takes a long time for the monitor to detect the signal during bootup. I usually see my screen when the RAID setup kicks in.

I had the Silverstone Zeus 650W and Crossfire 3870s before going to the Corsair and Geforce 8800GT. This boot issue happens to both combos. Weird…. This was a strange problem, never heard of anything like it before. I have not had this kind of troubles with my setup.


AX78, 9500, 2 x 2GB DDR2 1000

BIOS13 Beta2 -

Smart RAM has three options, Disabled, Table 1 and Table Best. It sets an ECC profiles more or less. It set CAS wrong but everything else correctly for the one set of G.Skill I tried. None of us will ever use it because other things must be set to Auto for it to work. Ok, I've got four options, the same as you plus table 2. Reckoned it was something like EPP profiles. As you say, we wont be using those anyways :D



I can drop the multi without issue. I've run 239 x 10.5 with 32-bit XP and now 240 x 10 with 64-bit Vista.

The highest FSB, HTT, or External Clock that I and another Mod can boot with is 240MHz. 241 is a no go and we get the “CPU is over running” message and no matter how many times we enter BIOS and save we can’t get rid of it.
Have not tried this board under Vista x64 yet, but I'm going that way as soon as I can build up enough patience to go through the installation and patching process.

Max bootable (into XP) for me is HTT 248. 250 is a no go no matter what voltage I put through it. I have tested raising HTT in AOD (2.0.17) to 250, and my system freezes instantly. Dropping multis is no problem for me either.



AMD OD -

I'm not sure if VDDC is really Vcore. My base Vcore is 1.25, I added +.15 and CPU-Z reports 1.392v under load. AMD OD reports 1.70V for VDDC. Yes, vDDC is vcore. It shows 0,3v too much, but changes is reported correctly.



Reported CPU temps - SpeedFan, AMD OD, and CoreTemp all report the same temp. SpeedFan only reports one temp, CoreTemp reports one and three 0's for the others in the system tray. Speedfan, AOD and coretemp shows the same values for me too, but they are showing too low temps. Between 19c and 25c idling. Knowing how hot Phenom runs this ain't right.



64-bit Vista -

So the reports that you can’t overclock as far with 64-bit Vista are true for me. Or at least you can’t overclock as far with the same voltages that work in 32-bit XP. I've tested Vista x64 with my AM2 Crosshair, and found max stable overclock to be 2420MHz, This might be due to flaky BIOS. Didn't test it under Xp 32bit, so I've got nothing to compare with.



AbitEQ -

The only thing I was really using it for was monitoring the PWM temp. Another Mod was having trouble with it in 64-bit Vista so I installed the latest version, 2.0.0.6, from the AX78 Global page. It installed but I got the "Log in as administrator and run once so you don't see this message" with no reported values. I uninstalled it and it borked the system. I had to do a Repair by booting with the Vista DVD. It was quick and fixed the problem. I don't believe this version supports the AX78, I couldn't find the files for this MB anywhere but I could find them for other boards.

A couple of nights later I tried with the version that ships with the MB, 2.0.0.1. I installed it with UAC disabled and it installed and even reported temps. It also caused two Blue Screens in short order even though it wasn't running. I did a system restore to just before I installed it and the system is solid once again.
I too downloaded version 2.0.0.6 from Abit Global page and found it to not report anything, I did not have any trouble uninstalling it though. This was under XP 32bit. Version 2.0.0.1 (from cd) runs fine with XP 32bit, and actually reports what seems to be right temps (albeit a bit higher than I like.) CPU 57c, System 32c, PWM 50c. All this under load. I've got cpu and nb under water, and 80mm 1800rpm nochtua fan on PWM heatsink.

Question: Do your cpu FID behave strange? (as I described in earlier post). After testing a bit I believe multi changes due to cpu VID. When I boot up, it boots into windows with 5,5 multiplier and cpu VID at 1.05v on all four cores no matter what I set in BIOS. When I change cpu VID to 1.25 in AOD, cpu multi jumps up to what I set it in BIOS (In this case X9), but just on core0. For the rest cores to follow I have to press the apply button once again. WEIRD.. I believe this might have to do with P-states and some wrong values set in BIOS. It is the only viable explanation IMO.

KTE: Doesn't P-states get regulated by cpu-VID (or the other way around, but the result is the same)?

I have not tested ram performance much yet. Gonna test it soon, hoping four sticks will do better with this BIOS, Max ram freq so far is 490MHz @CL5 5 5 15 24 2t@2,2v 127,5ns - 127,5ns + 105ns - 105ns tRFC, Memclk 800 (safe settings for testing max HTT)

[KTE]

Max boot on my last 9600BE was 248HT consistent and 250HT if I get lucky on 4 different boards ;)

Speedfan, AOD and coretemp shows the same values for me too, but they are showing too low temps. Between 19c and 25c idling. Knowing how hot Phenom runs this ain't right.They will run like Intel C2Q. Check end of this post: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2913668&postcount=1706

I too downloaded version 2.0.0.6 from Abit Global page and found it to not report anything, I did not have any trouble uninstalling it though. This was under XP 32bit. Version 2.0.0.1 (from cd) runs fine with XP 32bit, and actually reports what seems to be right temps (albeit a bit higher than I like.) CPU 57c, System 32c, PWM 50c. All this under load. I've got cpu and nb under water, and 80mm 1800rpm nochtua fan on PWM heatsink.There's only two temps I know it can gather with K10, one from the registers and from the diode. Register is the correct one, Tctl.

KTE: Doesn't P-states get regulated by cpu-VID (or the other way around, but the result is the same)?P-States are independent of VID, you can either change to them manually in MSRC001_0062 or through CnQ being activated, which drops to what you have set in MSRC001_0065. Any changes to this procedure are due to the BIOS coding and reference of each register and how they use VIDs. VID has nothing to do with anything but VID, the register codings are not the same for NB/CPU volts or multis to affect one another like this. If BIOS was writing to the wrong bit of the CPU MSR then the system would most likely crash before BSP, since 1.25VID [stock 9500] = 28h in the relevant MSR. If they wrote that register value to FID by mistake, it would not boot since 28h is something over 20x multi where 12.5x is 09h ;)

[LIKMARK]

Ok..

Testing AMD CPU stepping option in BIOS, P0 or P1. Noticed the Sapphire explanation in another thread, but there is no change in performance or boot settings by changing it.

[KTE]

Can you set P0 and then P1 and each time check what your MSR [64/65] values are?

[LIKMARK]

Can check when I come home :)

Edit:
Damit, my mother in law came for a visit a day earlier than expected, (having birthday party for my oldest daughter on saturday), didn't have time to check. I'll have to do it sometime in the weekend if I can find time for it, sorry.

[KTE]

Alright man let us know, I'm counting on you since mine doesn't start :)

[Jethro]

WooT got my board back! Testing 307 x 10 DDR = 1023 4 5 5 15 cr2

3D stable so far~! 1.45v cpu / 2.2v ddr

[Cheffy]

looking good Jethro.

if you get a chance, can you test something for me - check your PM

[Jethro]

She crashed overnight! Not there yet it seems. Gonna test higher voltage now.

Test FAILed! I suspect the ghetto- fabbed stock mobo heatsinks. Rippin em off after work!

[Jethro]

PWM Temp is serious biz on this board. The stock "TIM" is horrible as well as the flatness of the PWM heatsink. 4 of 8 mosfets dont even come close to making contact. Lapped the heatsink, removed "TIM", applied thermal grease. Making contact with all 8 nicely now and PWM temps under load are now 42c. Also replaced the "TIM" from northbridge and removed the so called heatpipe linking the two. Dunno if that helped but couldnt hurt after seeing how poor the TIM was acting. 1.45v cpu reports 39 core1 42 core 2 which seems on par with past temps for this water setup as far as temp accuracy is concerned.

All settings that were not stable before are now rock solid after the fixes. Both boards I had this very poor heat transfer w/ mosfets and NB so beware.

307 x 10 = 27.4 super pi wooT!

[Cheffy]

good work :D
310*11 next?

[Jethro]

Beta bios is rather nice. AOD works very well now. .5 multi's working as well! No problems overall :thumbs:

[LIKMARK]

It actually reads cpu fid you set in bios, or does it boot with cpu fid 5,5 no matter what with K8?

[Jethro]

Everything seems to work perfectly for me. HT/MULTI/Timings/Voltages etc. Its really quite cool actually!

EDIT: .5 multi's not working in AOD


Current optimal settings are 3.02ghz (302x10) Ram 4 5 5 15 c2 1007mhz 1.47v cpu 1.9v~Nb1 1.27~Nb2

9700mb's / 40.2 latency in Everest. So not to bad, finally feels a good bit faster then my 939 setup.

This latest bios dropped my highest FSB by a tad, cant boot at anything over 308 now altho i havent crunk NB volts yet.

@cheffy, anything over 1.57v definately gets flakey even tho PWM temps dont reflect it. By flakey i mean random reboots!

[Extelleron]

I am wondering what kind of CPU temp you guys are getting with this board + Phenom? At stock 2.2GHz @ 1.24V, AOD reports around 46-47C as the maximum Core temp, but Speedfan/BIOS, which report the "CPU Temp" show much higher temp. In BIOS, it shows CPU temp as being ~50C at idle, and Speedfan shows as high as 77C Priming.

Is the AOD temp right and the CPU temp crazy? It seems impossible that this CPU is really 77C under load.

[Master of None]

I am wondering what kind of CPU temp you guys are getting with this board + Phenom? At stock 2.2GHz @ 1.24V, AOD reports around 46-47C as the maximum Core temp, but Speedfan/BIOS, which report the "CPU Temp" show much higher temp. In BIOS, it shows CPU temp as being ~50C at idle, and Speedfan shows as high as 77C Priming.

Is the AOD temp right and the CPU temp crazy? It seems impossible that this CPU is really 77C under load.


I'm running a 9500 240 x 10 with a mild increase to a couple of voltages and I'm seeing 50C reported by AMD OD, CoreTemp, and SpeedFan. The Abit reported temp, using SpeedFan, is 73C. This is at 75F ambient running Folding@Home. If you've used abit boards before you'd know most of the time the abit reported CPU temp is only useful for controlling fans.

[hokiealumnus]

I too downloaded version 2.0.0.6 from Abit Global page and found it to not report anything

This is because, for whatever reason, the config for our board is not included in the installer for 2.0.0.6. If you install it and look in \Program Files\U-ABIT\abitEQ\, there are a bunch of .ini files. The AX78 one is not there with the new version, but certainly is with the CD version. It's titled "AX78.ini".

Haven't tried to see whether you can install 2.0.0.6 and copy that config to it. Presumably it works, but who knows what they changed in between versions. If anyone wants to try it, that'd be interesting info to know. I'm folding with Ubuntu now and don't get into XP much any more. :hehe:

[hokiealumnus]

PWM Temp is serious biz on this board.

Been following this thread for a while awaiting membership authorization and saw this was a common theme. If you've spent any time at the abit forums, you've probably seen my name a time or ten. Anyway, this will probably not be new information for anyone here at XS, but for posterity I'll post it anyway. If nothing else, some pretty pics to look at - AX78 Heatpipe Mod (http://forums.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=136994).

[Jethro]

Welcome hokie :) That heatpipe is definately useless, in fact it probably makes things worse since the NB is more sensitive to heat then i originally thought. I'm stuck at 300FSB cant do much more stable with this latest bios. I'm debating on what type of cooling to throw on it. I've got a big zalman from my vid card i may mod to fit :D. Good news is 1200HT is rock solid!

I just bought a 6000+ on the cheap so ill be able to confirm if its chipset at least. Next step will probably be a triplecore and im sure that'l change everthing!

Speaking of ABIT forums, for some reason i cant do ANYthing there, reply, delete i dunno.

this is what i see:

You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

[hokiealumnus]

That's very strange. Did you get the confirmation email when you signed up? There isn't any administrative hold on accounts there. Just click on the link in the email and it should allow you to post straightaway.

[Jethro]

Yeah ive posted there before so i dunno man. :)

[LIKMARK]

Haven't tried to see whether you can install 2.0.0.6 and copy that config to it. Presumably it works, but who knows what they changed in between versions. If anyone wants to try it, that'd be interesting info to know. I'm folding with Ubuntu now and don't get into XP much any more. :hehe:
Hi there hokiealumunus! I might try it :)


Been following this thread for a while awaiting membership authorization and saw this was a common theme. If you've spent any time at the abit forums, you've probably seen my name a time or ten. Anyway, this will probably not be new information for anyone here at XS, but for posterity I'll post it anyway. If nothing else, some pretty pics to look at - AX78 Heatpipe Mod (http://forums.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=136994).
It's a nice mod. I have not used it though as the pwm part of the heatpipe seemed fine enough. I ripped out the nb part and put it under water, and put a 80 mm fan on the mosfet part. It reaches 52c AbitEQ when crunching. As for temps AOD reports too low temps for being reliable IMO. Max temp registered when priming+running 3Dmark06 is 62c with AbitEQ. This is under water.

[Cheffy]

From my experience i have concluded that abit boards for some time (KD7, AX8, AX78) have gotten their "cpu" temp reading from a board side diode - cpu temp often very closely follows pwm temp on all of these (presumably due to pwm heating up the board itself) - try running board in opne air and point a fan at the back side of board, close to cpu area and "cpu" temp often drops 10c or more, but the cpu diode readings in speedfan/coretemp/etc very rarely shift more than 1c.

Im working on a mod to overcome the OCP on the PWM Controler - this should stop the shutdown-locked off that some of us are getting with higher power cpu's - but will obv make it much easier to fry the PWM, on which subject im also working on a cooling mod. its going to involve a fair bit of fiddly soldering to implement the OCP however, so looking for volunteers!

[Jethro]

My hardware graveyard has exceeded capacity so therefore no more soldiering on items cept for repair :)

Making a good heatsink for this board isn't that big a deal however. I mean u do get a template via the stock heatsink to work from. Any cheap copper cpu cooler could be modded to do both the PWM and the NB pretty easily really. The stock heatsink's even lapped are crap and thats the bottom line.

If temps are right using 1.46v cpu and 2.1v ddr my pwm hits 52 c loaded all night folding which really isnt bad but if i want to use 1.55+ ill have to make the new sinks most likely.

I'm getting a 6000+ in a few days that i hope* doesnt need 1.55+ to hit 3.5. If it does i'll be making the sinks for sure and ill post pics.

[Extelleron]

What kind of NB and HyperTransport voltages are you guys running with Phenoms?

W/ my 9500, 2.3GHz (209x11) was unstable with all stock voltages. It was also unstable w/ CPU voltage @ +0.02V. Finally I got it stable by increasing CPU voltage +0.05V, NB + 0.10V, and increasing HT voltage from 1.20V to 1.25V.

I've now tried lowering just the CPU voltage, and it seems to be stable at stock (1.24V). Prime 95 has been running for just about 1.5 hours.

W/ the stock HT/NB speed, 220x10 would not even boot, so that is why I am thinking that it was just the HT/NB voltages that needed adjusting.

[hokiealumnus]

What kind of NB and HyperTransport voltages are you guys running with Phenoms?

W/ my 9500, 2.3GHz (209x11) was unstable with all stock voltages. It was also unstable w/ CPU voltage @ +0.02V. Finally I got it stable by increasing CPU voltage +0.05V, NB + 0.10V, and increasing HT voltage from 1.20V to 1.25V.

I've now tried lowering just the CPU voltage, and it seems to be stable at stock (1.24V). Prime 95 has been running for just about 1.5 hours.

W/ the stock HT/NB speed, 220x10 would not even boot, so that is why I am thinking that it was just the HT/NB voltages that needed adjusting.

You're right about the NB voltage, but I haven't had to mess with the HT. I Fold@Home at 2.5GHz (239 x 10.5) and leave the HT multi @ 9x without issue. Vcore is +.15v & NB is +.10v.

[Cheffy]

My hardware graveyard has exceeded capacity so therefore no more soldiering on items cept for repair :)

dont worry, i just generated a spare myself... an hour after removing the heatpipe and reworking the mounting for the sinks.. "Pfffssssss" (off) *smoke*... gfx waterblock spring a leak, rip pcie slot 1 :down: rest of the boards still going, but i lost my 3870, so its now x1800xt time on 4x

In other news: the pcie gfx power cables on the tagan U22's dont reach the 2nd slot :rofl:

[Jethro]

Cheffy you just scared anyone that was considering watercooling from even trying it hahah. No but seriously sry you lost that card man may it RIP.

[Cheffy]

Its entirely my fault:

the block had been leaking ever so slightly from 1 barb for a while but was so little i didnt care, moving everything about yesterday losened the clip and the tiny tiny leak (so little it jsut caused a crusting of gunk arround the edge of tube) turned into a far more substantial leak, but i never leak tested while re-filling last night and just bolted it together and hit GO.

on pulling it apart to find out what caused the leak i was reminded that when i last got some new tubing for my koolance i ordered the 6mm OD pipes (as suited for the older PC2 systems) but was sent the 6mm ID stuff as suited to PC3+ and never returned it... turned out i had used some of that stuff from the gpu block

heres a lesson kids: if it leaks, find out why. if you move it about - leak test properly.

Back on subject:

I now have a board i will be replacing when pay day comes - that still works. i think i know someone with a surplus 3800+ so i can work on the ocp mod :) i think it could be done with just a pencil and DMM

[LIKMARK]

Yay!!

FINALLY my 2*2gb Dominators arrived. Been waiting for them for over a month now.
They are compatible with AX78 at preconfigured values (when choosing memclk 1066MHz), memclk 1066MHz, cl5 7 7 27 or whatever they are, but... ...they wont get past dma updating screen @ 1066Mhz cl 5 5 5 15 2t 2.1v trfc195ns. Just managed to test superficially yesterday, so more testing is needed.

Got a picture of the insides of my rig before putting my new ram inside (if anyone are interested), got more pics, but only managed to upload this before imageshack fkd up yesterday:
http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/9075/img1948hx0.th.jpg (http://img76.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1948hx0.jpg)
Nice and tidy........:p:


@Jethro: Tested your X2 6000+ yet?

[Cheffy]

looks very nice mate! dont you find the elbows hurt performance??

[LIKMARK]

Haven't tested without, so actually i don't know. Probably a little restrictive, but the mcp655 pump is pretty effective, so i don't think it will be a problem :)

[Jethro]

Not bad Likmark, no elbow's here just 3/16 thick 1/2" tubing that is very resisant to kinks :). Let us know if you can get some Higher FSB's with that NB cooling man!

FYI Paypal just cleared today so no beastly cpu till next week!

[Deliximus]

I am having a lot of trouble with my 9850BE. EVerything was great with my PHenom 9500 OC'd to 2480mhz and my x2 4000+ and my x2 6000+ Oc'd to 3.35ghz, but this is a nightmare so far. I have reinstalled windows XP today 4x. I am going with just drivers and minimum programs to run these stress tests.

My PHenom even fails stress test (AOD and P95 4 threads) within 1 second a full stock speeds. I lowered my RAM down to 667mhz and the NB to 1600mhz and it fails a second. To be more specific, P95 fails 3 of 4 threads in 1 second. I just got this Abit board replaced yesterday due to a bad flash, so this is a new one. Sigh....

Specs in my sig.

Reponse to below: Hmmm...where IS my sig?! I just updated it. I am posting my specs:

Main Rig: Ph 9850BE, Thermalright Ultima90, AX78, OCZ Reaper PC26400 2 x 1GB. RAID 0 2xWD 320GB B3s, WD 750GB, Corsair HX620W, XFX GF 8800GT, XtremeMusic, Intel Pro1000 Nic.

[Jethro]

6000+ working fine! PWM temps are now 55c Load @ 1.5v Currently at 300x11 = 3300 cant get anything higher very stable yet. Starting to think the vcore stability just sucks on this board. Both these chips just want to much juice for moderate clocks. Gonna try some better board cooling asap. Cant believe how useless this board is over 300FSB. Something isnt right yet!

Good news is with this new CPU my ram is in a more friendly range and now runs 4 4 4 12 and im breaking 10k mb's!

[KTE]

I'm testing a X2 4450e in the AX78, going good so far ;)

[GenTarkin]

you guys think X3 would be a good match for this board, a OC'd X3?

[Cheffy]

Jethro:
im on my 2nd board now, seems very much like my last, except pwm temps are much lower despite non modded. not tried above my previous stable settings yet, but i will.
other good news, 4*1gb sticks hasnt touched stability. mem volts holding fine, timings unchanged (other than to allow the lower ability of new pair, maxed them on their own, added the old pair works fine.)

does the board allow you better cpu clock using higher multi? what sort of trouble you got in the 300mhz+ range, maybe i can try and duplicate.
sounds like you might just have bad luck, but if you can check the required volts for say, 3200, 3225, 3250 and 3275 can check to see if it seems to be scaling like my chips all have - which would indicate the cpu limit rather than board.

Gentarkin: I think an X3 is probably the best match for the board, there are (as you can see) scattered issues with the pwm and the 125w+ cpu's. the X3's (get a B3 stepping not an oem surplus B2) are all well below this level, and the board should have the muscle to push them to a good clock. added to that the low combined price for such a setup (only 780g would be nicer) and.. you get the idea.
Phenom support seems solid on the whole from the reports i have seen and the boards are well rounded in other respects also.

[GenTarkin]

yeah Im wondering...if the X3 8650 can hit any decent clocks like in the 2.7-2.8ghz range at least...that would be wonderful cuz its only a 165$ chip. I am on a Opteron 165 @ 2.93ghz right now and Ive been tempted for a very long time to go to phenom but Ive just been waiting for a awesome combo of cpu and board to come along, now I gotta see if its worth to wait for 45nm and a 780a board or something....GRRRR!!!! lol I wonder if 45nm will be drop in to AX78 , if it is then I would have no issues with getting the current setup I mentioned....

[Jethro]

WooT my new chip has unlocked this board after all! I take back my FSB whining!

327 x 10 1.45v ROCK solid :shocked:

1300HTT / 1100 Rams over 10k mb's

There is some clocking here after all!

[hokiealumnus]

Oh yea, the board is great if you have the CPU to go with it. Definitely won't run into an FSB problem with this Phenom, but I'm happy with it at 2.5 even if the PWM is a little toasty. :)

I'd imagine the X3's would work well with this board if they're anything like the Phenoms. Except for the gentleman having issues with his 9850, everything seems to run quite well.

[ChrisTucker2004]

Hello from Germany

I have one question. MSI removed all NB-Multi Options in their Bios Versions. I search a new Board that allow me to change the NB-Multi for Ocing my AMD Phenom 9650. I have an 11,5 Multi and need Options to reduce the NB-Multi.

best regards and thanks in advance.

Chris

[KTE]

Here's a review comparing X2 difference between 780G, 770 (AX78) and 790FX http://www.cpu3d.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4643&Itemid=54&limit=1

[ChrisTucker2004]

I need an answer pls ;)

[LIKMARK]

I do not have cpu-nb fid options in either bios 12 or in beta bios 13a. Appareantly there is supposed to be cpu-nb fid in beta bios 13a.....

[ChrisTucker2004]

damn, also you expect that the Beta Bios 13a include maybe the cpu-nb fid?

[Jethro]

Redid my radiator shroud yesterday and moved a fan Directly over the PWM. Stability as went up tremendously as a result! CPU load temps on the highest temp core are 43c @ 1.5v. (33c ambient)

Can bench up to 338 x 10 now! Board craps out > 340 so far. After folding all night PWM temps before fan were 58c now with fan its around 50c.

What i found in my case is that if the PWM hits 60c or more the board shuts down!

This board is really fast @ 330+ i must say. Breaking 11k 06' untweaked, 130k+ Aquamark, 10500mb's / 39.2latency and 25sec super pi.

[LIKMARK]

damn, also you expect that the Beta Bios 13a include maybe the cpu-nb fid?I am currently using the beta bios, there is no cpu-nb fid in it. Sorry

[ChrisTucker2004]

ok thx ;)

[GenTarkin]

so, that probably means I should purchase highest multiplier I can, if its not a BE right?
so that the NB stays at a lower clock? translating to higher core OC potential?

[LIKMARK]

so, that probably means I should purchase highest multiplier I can, if its not a BE right?
so that the NB stays at a lower clock? translating to higher core OC potential?
Yes in theory. It should not be a problem at all as you can give NB lots of juice with this board anyways. You probably won't be able to overclock the cores that much that it becomes an issue in the first place.:yepp:

[GenTarkin]

ok cuz, Im thinkin on getting the 8650 X3...you think multi wont be an issue for its NB then? cores will get unstable first? =)
Thanks

[hokiealumnus]

I can change the NB multi on mine. From the manual:

CPU-NB FID
This item (appears only with AM2+ CPU) selects the processor to north-bridge frequency.

and

http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/userpics/10080/NBmulti.jpg
:)

[LIKMARK]

Strange, It must be cpu limited for me then. I have tested changing it with BAR EDIT too, and it dosen't work either. @hoki: you're running beta bios 13a too? (That pic from the manual was one of the reasons I bought the board)

[KTE]

I'm in Ubuntu 8.04 right now using AX78 with 9850, for over 3 hours now, benchmarking mainly.
I'm using stock BIOS and it booted and runs perfectly. I'm using my MSI board settings, 2700MHz stock voltage, 1.288v, just placed a heatsink on it but its not attached and there's only old TIM :p: The PWM are running quite cool, cooler than MSI board and far cooler than DFI M2R. Only got 1 stick in yet, busy online yet.

http://imageupload.com/out.php/i111441_Screenshot1.png
http://imageupload.com/out.php/i111440_Screenshot.png

The 43/44C is BIOS reported temp.

Board fails POST with C1 using 1066/1000 RAM modules but works perfect with 800 RAM modules. It also boots very weird timings but has CPU-NB voltage control although there is no NB-FID option in this BIOS and I do have it on other boards.

[KTE]

In XP now;

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/4900/ssep2.th.png (http://img146.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ssep2.png) http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/7087/wpxv7.th.png (http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wpxv7.png) http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/2989/wpfla9.th.png (http://img525.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wpfla9.png)

Next I'm going to shoot for higher, 3000MHz -- easily with the CPU's range but let's see if the "idling instability" exists on this board too.

Volts is reported accurately so far..

[KTE]

3 in a row for me... :D

2.8GHz 9850BE stock voltage = 1.292/1.288v ID / 1.280 LD

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/8420/2800nv8.th.png (http://img233.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2800nv8.png)

These aren't just ss, I'm benching them trying to invoke an error - previously MSI and two GBT boards have found the core is 3055MHz 1.355v stable, so this is well within the load range.
Only trying to check if it suffers what they suffer -> idle instability.
All other boards failed at the above setting, freezing idling at anything above 2700 at any voltage... so far Abit has not froze or given any hiccups at this setting and its also the first BIOS.

Issues

-1066 RAM just does not run with this board - C1. :(
-How do I get unganged mode, there's no option as such anywhere?
-Also I cannot get my 800 RAM to run 1066 mode with Phenom in there (it can do it easily on other boards).
-Abit EQ keeps starting yet is not in autostart and keeps harping on about running as admin first time even when I've done it ten times and it still won't come on :shakes:

The BIOS voltages work perfect for me.
0.1v NB adds 0.1v to NB.
0.02v CPU adds 0.02v to CPU, all the way up, I tried it.

[davidletterboyz]

The PWM are running quite cool, cooler than MSI board and far cooler than DFI M2R. .
Thanks for sharing. :) I'm looking for an affordable 9850-able mobo (I don't need multi gc). Probably will go for this or gigabyte 780 :P
BTW, what's the temp of the MOSFET? Do u cool it with a fan?

[KTE]

There wasn't a fan in the above shots, no. But since then I added one around the back, I always do it to rule out factors when testing as a good assurance. Fan is more around the back of the heatsink than the PWM area though.

PWM idles this at stock+CnQ+full fanspeed->
http://imageupload.com/out.php/i111723_pwmfs.png

PWM idles this at stock full speed+lowest fanspeed->
http://imageupload.com/out.php/i111725_pwmfsls.png

PWM under 5min load->
http://imageupload.com/out.php/i111724_pwmfsfs.png

Ambient is quite high, around 25-6°C and the "CPU" temp is taken from BIOS/Abit EQ gathered through ACPI. The "core" temp is taken from K10 sensors, its the same as 780G/790FX report.

BIOS 12 doesn't give me NB FID, going to try 13 B2 now. LIke I said earlier, MB is very good and excellent for the price, but it can't be in wreckless hands.

[ChrisTucker2004]

tell me pls if Bios 13B2 include the NB Fid.

I saw on the Bios Screenshots, that there is an NB Fid, cant you change him or whats the problem?

[KTE]

Chris, I am using that BIOS, I have flashed them all one by one - there is no such option in the BIOS unfortunately :(
I've tried boards where there was and they changed it fine - this one doesn't have it. However, I'm just going to use Bar_Edit to change it temporarily for testing.

This board does not run 1066 mode or 1066 mode RAM (2 kits) at all! One big peeve of mine, it does give plenty of options though but no POST if you try 1066 with 1200-1380 capable RAM. The chip runs it fine though.

This board has no option for Unganged mode anywhere! :(

Also I ran EVEREST comparisons across both boards.. AX78 at high/loose timings and 800 clocks performs better in MEM than the MSI 790FX with tight timings in 1066 mode ;)

Ganged that is.

AMD OverDrive runs the quickest and smoothest I've yet seen to date on any board, wow. MSI is 2nd after this board but it really is no where near this good :)
Also, in AOD, CPU VDDC is a dead value.

Next up to try is Auto Clock...

[KTE]

OK now for the bad news :)

This board is just not made for high volt/watt CPUs. I would say stick to stock volts, simple as that.

I am 2750 stock volts stable... but I fed the CPU 1.4v 2.5GHz and the system shut off instantly - nothing but motherboard.
Then rebooted and it would not boot for a while - the board itself won't start.
Then tried 2.7GHz stock volts boot, shut down at Windows loadup as soon as the power draw topped 100W on CPU.
Then tried stock boot, booted up.
Now at 2.7G/2.8G/2.7G/2.7G using AOD at stock volts but I booted up 2.5GHz on all.

There is no;

overheating
rail tripping/faulty-weak component

anywhere - this is totally the motherboard not able to withstand high power draw by CPU. The shut off is instant, as if you tripped a power rail or overheated too much. But the fact is, none of those are happening. The tems are 30-40C maximum and the rails have 300W still spare working fine.

I fed CPU 1.5v in AOD and the system shut down there and then! Again motherboard, not my CPU because on other boards I can bench <1.6v on Phenom perfectly fine.

So with a 1.3v chip, I'm stuck to 1.3v on this board -> hold your horses though, I'm still experimenting :yepp:

[LIKMARK]

@KTE: 1066 memclk mode runs, but with horribly loose timings (6 7 7 20 etc..). I have made choosing unganged mode once, and it involved multiple auto settings, so I have not been able to reproduce it. :(
Were you able to change cpu-nb fid with BAR EDIT?

[Jethro]

This board would surely be more xtreme material if not for the very weak power handling. I had to ditch 330+ fsb, everything was wonderful till NWN2 and she just refused to be nice. Even at current she still flakes out now and again. All voltages reduced to minimum and everthing well within spec and she still act's up now and again. Might keep it for now but its not gonna be my phenom board I'm quite sure.

Current 98&#37; stable settings = 300 x 11 1200HTT 943ddr 4 4 4 12 2t 1.5v cpu... 1.31v nb 2.00v pcie 1.3v HTT

[KTE]

Ignore post#237 by me. ;)
I've figured it out -> it's the friggin BIOS not the board, 13B2 is very buggy!

It gets stuck at bootup with 2F/2B code, then keeps recycling it really quickly.
It also takes around 25 seconds to reach C1, just before system starts.
It will not startup many times getting stuck at the above codes at stock.
It will not allow voltage adding to CPU, it'll reboot before startup if you do.
It will not boot anything but stock.
BUT, thanks to MSR Editor and Sam's MSR Tool, I've been running/benching 2700/2800/2700/2800 across all my cores stock voltage since my last post here without fail (no idle freezing, which is what I'm trying to avoid)

Look here, 26C ambients: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2963235&postcount=80

I have even ran 2800/2900/2800/2800 stock voltage running the old and latest two x264 benchmarks for about 20 minutes full load, no problemo including the PWM being 45C max, which is excellent (now have a low speed fan over it) for any PWM as they're rated for 110-120C.

So it is not a PWM problem but a BIOS one - I'm reverting to BIOS 12 now unless someone has one after BIOS 12 but before 13B2?

This is what I'm testing for 19 hours now, going very strong.

http://picsorban.com/upload/27-28-27-28.thumb.png (http://picsorban.com/upload/27-28-27-28.png)

Still sticking to stock voltage, I know I have at least two good cores which'll do 2900MHz stock voltage.

Just a note: Phenom cores are arranged like this by AMD and this is how they're picked up by AMD Power Monitor/CPUZ;

core 0 - core 1
|.................|
core 3 - core 2

So anything you use which thinks;

core 0 - core 1
|.................|
core 2 - core 3

will get it wrong (i.e. MSR Editor).


@KTE: 1066 memclk mode runs, but with horribly loose timings (6 7 7 20 etc..). I have made choosing unganged mode once, and it involved multiple auto settings, so I have not been able to reproduce it. :(Thanks for the help :)
I'll try to reproduce it then.. which BIOS are you running?

Were you able to change cpu-nb fid with BAR EDIT?
Yes ->

77882

77883

[LIKMARK]

Ignore post#237 by me. ;)
I've figured it out -> it's the friggin BIOS not the board, 13B2 is very buggy!

It gets stuck at bootup with 2F/2B code, then keeps recycling it really quickly.
It also takes around 25 seconds to reach C1, just before system starts.
It will not startup many times getting stuck at the above codes at stock.
It will not allow voltage adding to CPU, it'll reboot before startup if you do.
It will not boot anything but stock.

You are running XP 32bit I presume. Under Xp 32 bit this bios was VERY buggy for me too, under Vista x64 there is "NO" problems (exept for general unwillingness to give good tight ram timings, and no logic (at least for me) ganged/unganged mode settings). When playing with ram timings I've got som serious no boot issues though, that can only be solved by taking out the cmos battery for a long time.



I'll try to reproduce it then.. which BIOS are you running?
13B2, B for buggy :p:


Yes ->
77882

77883
Then it definitley is cpu limited for me. Very strange that some cpu's are limited like this. (it is a week 44 though, pretty early batch, that might be the reason?)

Anyways.. just bought myself a L164WS/B and a barcy, looking for som fun :) Just need to wait for it to be sent from the US :)

[KTE]

Yes, I'm running XP 32b and Ubuntu 8.04 32b with that.
I also had all those weird RAM timing issues, no boots so many times. :confused:

Is there any BIOS after 12 but before 13B2 you have?

My week 44 9600 was also CPU limited, could not downclock the NB on any board or BIOS while the others could (non BE).
Week 43 and 45 9500/9600/9600BE were all fine.

Good luck with the Barcy.. which one BTW? :shrug:

[LIKMARK]

Yes, I'm running XP 32b and Ubuntu 8.04 32b with that.
I also had all those weird RAM timing issues, no boots so many times. :confused:

It is the achilles heel of this board IMO, If they could fix some decent ram values I think it would shine as the best entry level Phenom board.



Is there any BIOS after 12 but before 13B2 you have?

No, sorry.




Good luck with the Barcy.. which one BTW? :shrug:
It's a 2347, 1.9GHz with too low cpu fid for real fun, but they're the only ones that is possible to get hold of at a reasonable price. Seller stated it was a B3, but I think they only comes in B2 flavour. Overclocking probably will be limited by cores before cpu fid anyways. (always hoping for the opposite to happen, though:))

[ChrisTucker2004]

Bar_Edit is a tool to change the NB-Fid?

Then you would say, that this Board is better to oc as the MSI? MH 4 Phases vs 5.

[KTE]

Yes we change NB FID using Bar_Edit or WPCREDIT for a long while now ;)
We change CPU FID, CPU VID and NB VID using MSR Editor/Sams MSR Tool aswell.
You can do it on any AM2+ supporting board, the registers we change are within the CPU.

Abit board is 770, MSI board is 790FX.
Both are very different categories, different price, different offerings.
Abit 770 is tons better than the MSI 770/790X no doubt.
MSI 790FX v1 has far less problems with Phenoms, much better support/compatibility but also less BIOS options for oc unless you go to 1.13b, which is one of the best performing/overclocking BIOSes I've seen. It has everything you need.

They are different boards, I would wait for a good BIOS for Abit board if you're planning to get that with Phenom B3, but for less than the price of GBT 780G, it's one excellent price:perf board!

-MSI board is the best 790FX offering in terms of price:perf at the moment, without a doubt in my mind. Best RAM clocker aswell. But I would not use it for over 1.50v load 125W CPU clocking, go DFI/ASUS 790FX for that.
-Best high end clocking, over 1.5v is DFI/Sapphire and ASUS 790FX, but all three are too expensive for what they're worth, not worth their price and only better if you go over 1.5v because of the PWM and because of better oc BIOS options.
-ASUS 790FX is far more stable than the DFI, DFI just has too many issues and weirdness, like always.
-Abit, IMHO, is the best 770 I've come across so far including the ASUS M3A coming second - they just have to resolve some major BIOS issues: RAM/NB FID. I would also limit the voltage to sub-1.4v with 125W quads personally.
-ASRock 780G is better than GBT 780G aswell, just to add and GBT 740G is not good, to say the least.

I have hit 224HT with AX78 fine so far, all stock voltages: http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=355810
Haven't tried more because of bad BIOS.

Where the heck is cutie nowadays by the way?
Did he go crazy for that girl in his av or something?

***I know you're reading mate*** :p:

[hokiealumnus]

Ok, I see several of you have memory timing / OC'ing issues. This was an answer to KTE's post in the abit support section. It may (hopefully) clear up some issues you are seeing:

Most likely the reason you can't OC your memory is the tRFC timing. That timing on this board is measured in ns and are selectable individually for all four DIMMs. By default, the empty slots are set to 75ns. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, it'll change one populated slot to the setting it should be at (either 105ns or 127.5ns, depending on your memory) but it treats all three other DIMMs as empty with respect to that timing. Anyway, long story short, change the DIMMs that you have memory in to 105ns and try again. You can probably clock your memory higher at that point. If not, try changing both of them to 127.5ns.

Secondly, regarding your multipliers, are you all disabling Cool n' Quiet? If not, the option will not be present. You have to disable CnQ to be able to change your multiplier.

[KTE]

Perfect timing. I just ran all my tests :)
My post to Abit is here: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=186671

Ok, I see several of you have memory timing / OC'ing issues. This was an answer to KTE's post in the abit support section. It may (hopefully) clear up some issues you are seeing:

Secondly, regarding your multipliers, are you all disabling Cool n' Quiet? If not, the option will not be present. You have to disable CnQ to be able to change your multiplier.
First of all, yes you are spot on. I checked about 45 mins back and was intending to post on it; the issue of no POST and weridness is on all BIOSes and it is caused when you move tRFC from 127ns to 105ns or lower. Sometimes USB keyboard stops working and graphics screw up this way. If you change it back to 127ns, it all works fine.

Secondly, I don't have CnQ enabled, it just does not show up there. :confused:

The rest of the RAM issues are timing independent. I've tried the highest there is, no 1066, no unganged.

[ChrisTucker2004]

thx KTE:

Can you show me a link for Bar-Credit?

[LIKMARK]

thx KTE:

Can you show me a link for Bar-Credit?

You sure you want bar credit, it could get you into financial issues if you can't control yourself :p: LINK: http://www.tweakers.fr/baredit.html

[ChrisTucker2004]

thx :rofl:

I hope i can control myself, but i must try it. Could anybody say me which line i must change for the NB-Fid?

Or an Tutorial?