*New* ABIT Fatal1ty AN8-SLI = 3.55V Vdimm

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Originally Posted by Plywood99

^^
Yes it can. But waiting on Abit to make the bios has been frustrating to say the least.

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Fear not, Abit appear to be listening, at least to what i'm posting, magically after i made some preliminary findings in their forums and done THIS artical abit have been somewhat forthcoming with fixes, give it just a little more time, and hopefully abit will give us a nice christmas present in the guise of a BIOS19 with some heavy dram compatability loving :)

and for anyone wanting this board, only buy corsair memory or Mushkin High Performance PC4400, go with the mushkin, trust me on this, words right out of a mushkin representatives mouth were "these modules have been pushed up to 295MHz on the Fatal1ty SLI"

anyone who wants to join abits forums and make some noise by all means do so, linking to my artical anywhere possible will also help, especially if its in abits forums ;)

hmm well i'm not sure if you realize it but i have had gskill up to 330fsb benchable 325fsb prime/super pi stable and 300fsb 100% stable all a 1T mind you. (see page 1 for details)
I also discovered a value ram that the abit board loves called super talent memory. As far as OCZ memory goes well i have a 2 gig kit of the pc3200 platinums (2-3-2-5-1T) that just needed 2.65 volts versus they're rated 2.6 to be stable at rated timings. I must admit though that most of the issues that plagued other users did not plague me over all 4 boards i have had(fatality an8, an8,an8 ultra,an8 sli) my only real complaint was lack of dram setting, lack of dram voltage on the non sli fatality, and a dead cpu fan header on a brand new fatality board costing $200( no i never rmaed it cuz the board works fine other than that)

I will agree bios 18 seems smoother and i gained 50 mhz OC with it on my 3700+ sandy which now runs at 10x250 4xhtt dram divider 333 all at stock volts.
I do have a complaint about the ethernet but i tend to blame nvidia for that one. regardless of stock or OC on all of my boards when having run pc for more than 24 hours sometimes the ethernet will just dissapear. ipconfig with cmd line shows internet is still active however device manager shows ethernet with an ! as if there is a problem. a simple reboot fixes the issue but it sure is annoying.

EDIT: Crucial ballistix pc 4000 does not work on this board whatsoever though. I tried 2x256 modules hoping that the issue was due to 2x 512 mb ram and it was barely stable at ddr 400 much less 500. even 1 stick of 256 was highly unstable at anywhere near rated speeds and timings.

Consequently all 4 x 256 mb of the same crucial run fine at ddr 268 in my sons gigabyte board 1T command rate.

Exactly, your one of the very few fortunate ones :), I've tried a LOT of different hardware on the Fatal1ty SLI with simalar problematic results, 99% of issues I can without a doubt put down to BIOS incompatability or lack of flexability due to me testing each component individually on a SLI-D, I'm not condemning abit, but I am shaming them, their BIOS should be much better than it is, heres hoping we get a nice christmas present in the form of a BIOS19 with some heavy dram compatability loving.

and for thoughs curious heres what ive tried on this board

Winchester & Venice A64s
G-Skill & PQI enthusiast level 1GB memory kits
Maxtor and WD HDDs
Hiper and Tagan PSUs

undoubtedly this boards akillies heel is poor dram compatability or lack of dram options, whichever way you want to look at it, and the rediculous 1T issue.

Though as I said, Mushkin hi perf pc4400 seemingly carries a gurantee of working 100% no problems, and thus far, is the only memory ive seen that simply plugs in and works as it should on this board out of all the enthusiast kits.

If any Abit rep happens to read this, take a look at THIS i'm sure your BIOS team can learn a thing or two :rolleyes:

Yup my mushkin 4400 works fine on my an8 ultra. Right now its at 295x9 with 2.85 volts goin to it.

Kinda bummed it wont do 300 without throwing errors in memtest. Ill have to have another go at it sometime.

When I had my an8u the only complaint was its 1T issue, although it would run 1T up to 285 htt with a certain amount of stability... the only way I could make it crash was in futuremarks PC2005 memory suite?

As for ram compatibility; I only ever tried 3 different sticks, 2 brands of tccd and some old school CH5... all proved quite stable at stock and OCed frequencies, when used with venice and manchester CPUs. In fact the an8u had no trouble running the venice with 2GBs of mixed ch5 + tccd. so I was not aware of any serious ram compatibility issues, really what boards these days don't have some kind of a ram issue with different IC/brands.

I really quite enjoyed my time with the AN8 Ultra, there passive chipset cooling is brilliant, if you’re into OCing with stock voltages you can achieve an almost silent setup. Both my venice and manchester happily ran 24/7 @ 8x 300MHz with stock vcore, that’s 600 and 400MHz OC with the loudest component in my rig being the fan on the graphics card.

hey guys justed installed my opteron 144 and prommy mach1 problem over 335HTT the screen goes black then comes back on sometimes locks up then unlocks itself would that be due to the HTT being to high ? everthing seems fine at 335 tho using old school BH5 ram

has somebody tips for me and my GEIL ONE S?
The Memory do 295 CL2,5-3-3-5@2,72V on the DFI, but on the Abit AN8 SLI they only do 265 Cl2,5-3-3-6@2,8V
I tested all Bios-Versions and all different timings, nothing help :(

lol go find my thread in "suggestions and support" in abits forums apparently i was trying to cause "problems" by reporting on bios issues by the way it reads - or something like that. rolf, err, sorry m8, but the only problem here is the boards crap bios :rolleyes: :rofl:

and as a side note, im going to buy some mushkin hi perf 4400 myself (G-Skill 4800LA for sale anyone interested pm me :D ) and if the board still doesnt work after that, ill but another psu, probably an enermax Liberty 620W, and if that still doesnt work, i will literally melt the damn board with my blowtorch attach a note to it saying what a POS it is and mail it to abit.

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Originally Posted by Ket

lol go find my thread in "suggestions and support" in abits forums apparently i was trying to cause "problems" by reporting on bios issues by the way it reads - or something like that. rolf, err, sorry m8, but the only problem here is the boards crap bios :rolleyes: :rofl:

and as a side note, im going to buy some mushkin hi perf 4400 myself (G-Skill 4800LA for sale anyone interested pm me :D ) and if the board still doesnt work after that, ill but another psu, probably an enermax Liberty 620W, and if that still doesnt work, i will literally melt the damn board with my blowtorch attach a note to it saying what a POS it is and mail it to abit.

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i've already got that up and running http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=86928

but i think Abit is not listening to their customers

looks like you'll be going back to DFI........i was at a similar stage as you except that i was happy with Abit....my only concern was the fact i was loosing 5-10MHz on RAM OCs and 1T issue for benchmarks to DFI....so just went DFI......i thought about all the components i'm getting to make it better and then it struck me....just get rid of the mobo (probably cheapest component) and get something which will max current hardware....i honestly think DFI is more consistent than others........i don't dare touch UTT/winbond stuff on DFI tho :(

i was running BH5 on my sli-d great, it was doing 250 @ 5-2-2-1.5-2-2-2-2 1T 3.6v, and to put things to rest, thoughs total powerdowns are memory compatability related, best ive got so far is 310HTT, physically i think the board its fine, the problems lay within the bios. eitherway, i havent given up on this board QUITE yet, though my support fro it has dropped significantly, and to be honest abit dont want to lose support of ppl like me, i mean come on, they dont want to lose support of anyone really, our support is what keeps them in business, whats really sad is if even they just introduced a drive strength option and updated the CPU microcode the board would basically be fine.

ed- YAY! jus got my RMA number for my dead SLI-D :D i hope they give me a brand spanking new SLI-DR or something coz i only had the damn board like 7 months and it crapped out for no reason.

q for tic; you going to do a modded bios 18? its leaps and bounds ahead of the rest, im sure you would have a much easier time working with it ;)

oh by the way, in my insanely detailed testing i happend to flash my fatal1ty with the dfi 623-3 bios, guess what? it worked, fatality booted up like a charm with the dfi bios, just something for you all to think about.... :fact:

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Originally Posted by Ket

q for tic; you going to do a modded bios 18? its leaps and bounds ahead of the rest, im sure you would have a much easier time working with it ;)

oh by the way, in my insanely detailed testing i happend to flash my fatal1ty with the dfi 623-3 bios, guess what? it worked, fatality booted up like a charm with the dfi bios, just something for you all to think about.... :fact:

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interesting
what options worked and didn't work?

i didnt do any detailed testing with the dfi bios as i was hot flashing, but all seemed to work fine. so in theory, it seems totally possible to modify the dfi 623-3 bios to function on the fatality, giving us the oc options and just removing things from the bios which wont work.

however i will say that voltages all read a flat 4v, though as nothing died instantly (and im sure things would of if they really were that) that it was more than likely misreading.

anyone? i dont have any spare parts to fry in the worst case atm, *cough* chew

come on its not that risky, any cheap memory bunged in plus a cheap pci-e card (some reason u cant see bios screen when using a pci card) look at it this way, anything that does get fried, if anything, can still be RMA'd :D

Okay, I've read about as much as I can, but my eyes started to bleed.....LOL. My questions are this:
Is the temperature issue fixed?
The VTT tracks okay on Fatal1ty AN8-SLI for up to 3.55v?
And as far as I can tell, I will have a good experience with 2 x 512MB Corsair XMS pc3200LLPT v1.1 (old school BH-5)?
What is the best BIOS to use?

EDIT: BTW, I found this BIOS_19.

ket order yourself some no name brand supertalent memory and the an8 will work like a dream sadly. i got 2 x 512mb modules rated for 2.5-3-3-8 and they run flawlessly on the board. My 2 gig kit of OCZ has been acting up lately on it. If you want a part # let me know as they have many kits. It's the only memory i found to work great without screwing around with the settings or getting migraines. I do totally agree though that the lack luster support for memory suxxors. i run on the fatality at stock voltages now 3700+ 10x250 ddr 333 divider 4 x ht prime stable. the only thing good i can say is the board was never DOA and it never killed any hardware. I can hope for bios 19 but i wouldn't hold my breath. I was in close contact with abit on the bios and testing beta's for awhile and then they just stopped. My guess is they gave up to focus on the ati board.

As far as temps go they were actually accurate originally. now all my components read 32 C while the cpu reads 21C idle........ ambient isnt even that low. funny when i put a load on it it shoots to 32C instantly.....

Old school bh-5 works yes but does it love it no not really. I can get it higher with ease on other boards it was a struggle with this board.

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Originally Posted by chew*

ket order yourself some no name brand supertalent memory and the an8 will work like a dream sadly. i got 2 x 512mb modules rated for 2.5-3-3-8 and they run flawlessly on the board. My 2 gig kit of OCZ has been acting up lately on it. If you want a part # let me know as they have many kits. It's the only memory i found to work great without screwing around with the settings or getting migraines. I do totally agree though that the lack luster support for memory suxxors. i run on the fatality at stock voltages now 3700+ 10x250 ddr 333 divider 4 x ht prime stable. the only thing good i can say is the board was never DOA and it never killed any hardware. I can hope for bios 19 but i wouldn't hold my breath. I was in close contact with abit on the bios and testing beta's for awhile and then they just stopped. My guess is they gave up to focus on the ati board.

As far as temps go they were actually accurate originally. now all my components read 32 C while the cpu reads 21C idle........ ambient isnt even that low. funny when i put a load on it it shoots to 32C instantly.....

Old school bh-5 works yes but does it love it no not really. I can get it higher with ease on other boards it was a struggle with this board.

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yeah i know cheap stuff mysteriously works great but the board is aimed at the enthusiast, and as such im trying to find enthusiast kits that work like abit claim on the board, seemingly mushkin high perf 4400 is a dead cert tho so that makes ONE kit that should let the board stretch its legs. i also found out something else interesting, setting the temp at which the OTES1 fan cuts in seems to affect the board shutting off, very peculiar :stick: i found setting it to 42c high 40c low helps in stopping it from shutting off. dont ask its got me stumped, at least, for now :p abit are also doing a bios19 it seems :D :banana: lets hope it fixes memory compatability 1T issue and adds a weak drive strength option *feels the urge to do a happy dance but resists temptation until official bios19 is out*

@ SPQQKY you know whats been changed with this beta19 yet?

Am testing beta bios 19 as we speak. my clock of 2.5 on my 3700 remains stable. I did notice however when i enabled usb mouse and keyboard support in bios it blue screened me. As for ram options no more than were already there in bios before..........

hmm.....well its only beta still and a fairly new beta at that bios18 wasnt released that long ago as official so lets keep open minded for now..

noticed any improved DRAM compatability? abit are taking the piss not having a bios that works good with OCZ\G-Skill\GeIL and even to a lesser extent Corsair.

Just had the arse to flash to Beta19 and for thoughs wanting to know about it here is the first thing, 1T issue seems to be FIXED! hurrah! currently running 2-11-11-2-2-6-3-3-2-3 1T 1:1 @ stock speed.

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Originally Posted by Ket

Just had the arse to flash to Beta19 and for thoughs wanting to know about it here is the first thing, 1T issue seems to be FIXED! hurrah! currently running 2-11-11-2-2-6-3-3-2-3 1T 1:1 @ stock speed.

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Where is version 19?

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Originally Posted by MaStA

Where is version 19?

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Here you go. Also, it is a beta just so you know!

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Originally Posted by Rolle2k

Here you go. Also, it is a beta just so you know!

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Well seeing what some said about 19...I think I will wait lol.

Thanks,
Jared

^^ i wouldnt, i have absolutely no problems with it, a single footstep forward from the official bios18 already, lets hope abit manage to take another 4 or 5 steps forward before it gets an official release. let it be noted though that 1T, while working, is a bit flakey, it mysteriously stopped working, but is working again now, but with timings of 2-7-14-2-2-7-5-3-2-5 performance drops with thoughs timings are also very marginal, in fact they barely even register on any test i put it through.

Ket: In the last update of your article you said the only bug left besides the 1T is the 1GB stick compatibility.. but there are also trouble with 4x512 dualsided. Mine runs fine two and two, but with all four of them i cant even run rated timings at any voltage, so thats another one. but hopefully all this will be adressed in the official 19 bios!