[First look] Biostar TF560 A2+ (can do at least 355MHz HTT)

Yesterday I spent some time to test what the new Biostar TF560 A2+ AM2+ mainboard is capable of.

It's the first time, I played around with a AM2 CPU and board. The board layout is something I really like. Has no flaws from what I can tell. For long video cards, there is just a small cap, which is no higher than a PCIe slot, so it should not be in the way, even for large heatsinks. The sata ports are not blocked either.

The CMOS clear jumper is below the last PCI slot and as long as no PCI card is in there, it is easy accessable. Like on other TFORCE models, there is also a RESET and POWER switch on the board.

The chipset is a single chip chipset and the NB (I call it NB, technically it is not a NB) is cooled by a tiny heatsink. I had my doubts that it could not cope with the heat at first, but later I found out that it is doing a fairly decent job. Even with overvolted VMCH it does not get that hot. You can still touch it. I was running it at max VMCH and the HTT I was able to archieve was the same than with using a 120mm fan to cool the NB. I used the fan later on anyway. I feel better the cooler my components run.
In a good ventilated case, additional cooling is not really necessary.

The bios is somewhat TFORCE standard. There are all kind of options and also enough overclocking and voltage options to satisfy me :)
I will post bios pics, once I have a digital camera again. I had to lend my cam to a mate for the next 3 weeks :/
The memory options are crazy, there is a lot of options and as I was short on time, I did not even touch them. There really is a lot of options and I have to play around with them first to see if the have an impact on perfromance or max oc of the board.

The maximum HTT I was able to boot into windows and run dual 32m was 355MHz. I never had a AM2 board before, but I would say thats pretty decent. The board is 80$ at newegg, so I would consider it a budget board.

I am using a X2 3600+ brisbane and the board is more than enough for that CPU. It might be that my CPU is the limiting factor here and not the board. Furthermore, playing around with the memory options might boost the max HTT even more.

I will post updates once I did more testing. I have to learn for exams, so I have no idea when that will be, but I wanted to share my initial testing. :)

So far I realy like the board. It resets itself to stock when a OC fails, reboots wihtout shutting down (unless current Intel boards :rolleyes: ) and is easy to OC.

Booting at 355HTT sometimes doesn't work, but 350 is a piece of cake. All I did was upping VMCH a little, use a low multiplier, so that my CPU is not limiting me in terms of max clockspeed et voila 350MHz HTT rockstable in windows :)

If you want to see any benchmarks or have other questions, feel free to ask and I will try to do what you wish :)

Some more pics and screenshots:

Thanks for sharing Fr3ak!

This board really looks to be one of the best in its own class!

BTW can you post voltage ranges available in BIOS for CPU/mem/NB/etc? Thanks!
:up:

Looks interesting, thanks for the photos!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lightman

BTW can you post voltage ranges available in BIOS for CPU/mem/NB/etc? Thanks!
:up:

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Sure.

chipset voltage: 1.250V, 1.275V, 1.300V, 1.325V
memory voltage: 1.95V, 2.05V, 2.15V, 2.20V, 2.25V, 2.3V, 2.4V, 2.5V
2.1V is missing for whatever reason. Maybe it will be available via bios update
vcore: up to + 0.787V in 0.012V steps

The CPU voltage circuit uses solid caps and vcore is very stable with the CPU I am using.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fr3ak

Sure.

chipset voltage: 1.250V, 1.275V, 1.300V, 1.325V
memory voltage: 1.95V, 2.05V, 2.15V, 2.20V, 2.25V, 2.3V, 2.4V, 2.5V
2.1V is missing for whatever reason. Maybe it will be available via bios update
vcore: up to + 0.787V in 0.012V steps

The CPU voltage circuit uses solid caps and vcore is very stable with the CPU I am using.

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Thats fair enough!
I like 2.5V memory voltage. Should be more than enough for micron D9GMH :) .
CPU voltage adjustment is also very impressive!

this board looks impressive , is there any real cons to it ?

Its a very good AM2 board, thats for sure, but I am don't know yet if it is really 100% a AM2+ mainboard, meaning I don't know if vcore and memory controller voltage of K10 can be adjusted seperately and if it really supports HTT3.0. I tried to run a HTT of 350*5 and it did not boot. 350*4 worked fine. I can't determine whether the CPU or the board is limiting here.

So far the only real cons is that the memory options are a little confusing, but I don't know if they are like that on all AM2 mainboards. But thats about it. The layout has no flaws from what I can tell and the bios seems to be working fine too and it boots very fast.

I will post all OC bios options as soon as I am home, later today, then you can decide if it has any cons.

FYI: This board is 79.99 from newegg.com

Thank you for taking your time to do a review on this board

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fr3ak

Its a very good AM2 board, thats for sure, but I am don't know yet if it is really 100% a AM2+ mainboard, meaning I don't know if vcore and memory controller voltage of K10 can be adjusted seperately and if it really supports HTT3.0. I tried to run a HTT of 350*5 and it did not boot. 350*4 worked fine. I can't determine whether the CPU or the board is limiting here.

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That'll be CPU. 350x4 = 1,400, and even Opterons crap out at about 1,200. No K8 is rated for an HTT bus that high.

Fr3ak this board is 'just' compatible with AM2+ and maybe can do split power planes, but I'm sure it can't do HTT3.0 (dependent on chipset). Non the less brilliant board.

After having a discussion on a German forum about the board, I noticed that there are some minor things I didn't think of before.

-You cannot undervolt the CPU. You can only set higher values.

- Some people think that the PATA port and the gigabit lan port are connected via PCI, so they are slow. I only have a 5400RPM PATA drive which is slow by default, so I don't know if that is true.

-The PCIe port has some mechanism to lock/unlock the video card. Its way too small. I am using a short 7300GT, so unlocking it is easy. But if you are using a long vide card, unlocking it might be a pita as you cannot reach the slot easily.

-Most likely no real Am2+ board. From the marketing, one could think it is a full AM2+ board, supporting HTT3.0 and split power supply.

Then I set 347*4, CPU-Z reads 1041MHz for the HTT, so no idea if its being read out wrong or if the board does something weird.

I was finally able to take some pics of the OC menu and the DDR2 settings. Sorry for the bad quality, but I had to use a mobile phone cam.

Either I am blind and cannot see the setting to adjust cas latency or there is really no option to set CL. If it is not, I will ask Biostar for more information why it is not there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fr3ak

-Most likely no real Am2+ board. From the marketing, one could think it is a full AM2+ board, supporting HTT3.0 and split power supply.

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it is kind odd about that clame, but then again we know for sure that mobo has "hybrid BIOS" that allow functionality of STARS CPU's. Lack of HT3 is lowdown but then again it's something that is acceptable for this price.

We will see what AM2+ performance and settings will be like, once the CPUs are out :)

In the meantime, I got a new bios for the board. With the 612 bios there is Cas Latency and Command rate in bios, so my main cons are fixed :)

I will post new pics with the bios as soon as I have a cam again, but except the 2 new entries, nothing has changed. Max FSB/HTT is still 355MHz, which might be CPU limited in my case.

The board has been running great so far, crunching WCG for several days. I am running 333*8 with a LDT multiplier of 3.

I really like the board. Running that good without a single mod is great. I didn't even change the paste on the NB yet.

I am too busy to figure out some voltmods right now, but I am planning to do that once I have some free time. Will be interesting if the board clocks even higher with more VMCH.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fr3ak

We will see what AM2+ performance and settings will be like, once the CPUs are out :)

In the meantime, I got a new bios for the board. With the 612 bios there is Cas Latency and Command rate in bios, so my main cons are fixed :)

I will post new pics with the bios as soon as I have a cam again, but except the 2 new entries, nothing has changed. Max FSB/HTT is still 355MHz, which might be CPU limited in my case.

The board has been running great so far, crunching WCG for several days. I am running 333*8 with a LDT multiplier of 3.

I really like the board. Running that good without a single mod is great. I didn't even change the paste on the NB yet.

I am too busy to figure out some voltmods right now, but I am planning to do that once I have some free time. Will be interesting if the board clocks even higher with more VMCH.

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if you take the chipset heat sink off could you tell us what it says on the chip. if it supports htt3.0 it would have to read mcp72 on it somewhere i think.

Here is what is written on the chipset. I still do not have a cam, so you have to trust me on this. The numbers are damn small, so they could be wrong.

Quote:

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NVIDIA
L7041041 07|7 A3
S TAIWAN
P24339 S4
NF560-A3

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it has a nforce 560 (cheaper version of 570) and thus does not support HTT3.0 or PCIe 2.0.
So the name is purely a marketing tool as they make people believe that it is a AM2+ motherboard.
Wierd bit is like said that the Biostar site claims it as being AM2+ but also says it uses the nforce 560 chipset and that chipset doesnt support the added Am2+ features.

but even if it isnt an AM2+ motherboard it stil clocks damn nice.

Yes, looks like that is right.

It is a nice AM2 board nonetheless.

Btw under the chipset heatsink was a thermal pad. I replaced it with AS5, but it still does not clock higher than 355MHz. Above that it either says bios corrupt or does not boot, so maybe it is a bios issue or my CPU hits a wall.

I have been asked about the bios several times, so I uploaded it.

I do not know if it is still in beta status because it is still not on the Biostar website. The bios works fine for me, but I cannot guarantee that it will work fine for you too, so download and use it at your own risk. Don't make me responsible if anything goes wrong.

Link:
http://media.online-racing.org/ftp_b...r/N56BA612.BST

how warm does the chipset get at 24/7 use.
So without having them extra fans on it.

Good question. Honestly I have no idea. I did not check that yet. I only installed the Biostar fan untility which only displays CPU and GPU temp. I will try speedfan.

But what I can tell by touching it, it doesn't get close as hot as the 650 NB gets. Even after 30mins of 100% load it can still be touched for quite some time. If you are using a CPU aircooler that cools the surroundings of the socket a little, cooling should not be a problem, even with increased chipset voltage.

I figured the chipset voltmod out today, but have to get the appropriate VR first. I have 2 exams next week. so I am really busy right now, which is why it could take a little longer. But I am quite positive that the Max reference clock/HTT/FSB can be improved by quite a bit. If not my CPU is definately limiting.

I got this motherboard a few days ago, but my Team RAM died so I can't test it yet. Thanks for sharing your results Fr3ak.

I just ordered this motherboard today, hope to have it thursday so Ill post my results as well. Im hoping for 350+ HTT :D

btw Fr3ak were did u buy the board?
cant find it on geizhals.

I have this board, this is the first brand new mobo I have ever bought. It runs pretty smooth so far.

Opty 1210 stock HSF
2Gb pc6400 Crucial Ballistix
BFG 7900 gtx (borrowed so I should run and get an 8600 card soon I guess)
FSP 500 watt psu


As far as the advanced 2+ ability and/or HT3, I doubt I'll miss it, this is such a step up from my old rig its not even funny...(1.33 t-bird)

I think the monitoring programs that came with it are ok, but Motherboard Monitor spoiled me. I think I will look at speedfan and anything else and see what results I get.

I played around with the included overclocking program/settings and it was amusing, but I felt like I had as much control over it as I would attempting to steer an oil tanker with a canoe paddle. I think I topped it out at 2.3 Ghz, but I am really a novice overclocker anyway.

Its very cool to see folks buying this board, I dont feel quite so out in the cold.


Jimmer, I see you are in Wa. State, I am south of Oly a ways....

Ordered this board to replace my TForce 6100-AM2. I probably wont get it till the end of next week. But it definately looks to be another winner. Ill be using a 65nm 4400 (2.3) that I run at 2.8ghz on 1.4 vcore. Hopefully this board has much more stable vcore as this TF6100 vcore fluctuates too much even with my Silverstone OP750 psu. I will be mating using water cooling on it with a 8800GTS as well in the short future.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Starscream

btw Fr3ak were did u buy the board?
cant find it on geizhals.

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Oh I am sorry, I forgot to mention that in this thread. Biostar sent it to me, but I have been told it is a retail board and not cherry picked.

The OC tool that came with the board did not work for me. Seems like I am unlucky when it comes to that tool. It only worked once with my S754 TFORCE board and with all other boards I had it also doesn't work. I have no idea why that is the case. I am using a fresh install of XP SP2. I prefer overclocking from the bios anyway, so I can live with that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fr3ak

Oh I am sorry, I forgot to mention that in this thread. Biostar sent it to me, but I have been told it is a retail board and not cherry picked.

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I hope your right, seeing as I have this board on the way lol.

I am very paranoid when it comes to new mainboards, because I had some bad experiences in the past where online resellers sent me used boards. Since then I have been looking for marks of usage in every board I got and when I had evidence that it has been used before, I send it back.

On this board, I could not find a single thing that made me think it has been used and run before. No signs of thermal paste and the retention modul looks untouched too.

But don't point fingers at me when your board only does 349MHz HTT :)

I mentioned that I got the board along with a TP35D3-A7 Deluxe for testing on the German threads I started, but I forgot to mention it in this thread for whatever reason. I have been (and still are) very busy, which might be a reason for my stupidity.

Fr3ak, where did you find the 612 bios?

I had a complete shutdown last night, it was rather odd since I do not really stress the system much when I am web browsing. It just completely shut down, no warning or bluescreen. I had to sit and wonder if the house power was off, but I noticed my monitor was still on so I started it back up....

I do have the computer plugged into a small UPS. Maybe I need to use a larger one.

I cant get the included bios updater to work properly, either, but I wonder if that is because of my firewall. I am not in a rush to update, but to confirm that things operate properly. It did allow me to make a backup of the bios, so that was cool.

I understand this board is still pretty new, so it might be a little while before little bugs are smoothed out, I guess that is not a big deal as long as they are dealt with.

Is a 500 watt FSP brand powersupply enough for this board? I thought it would be plenty, but maybe I guessed wrong. I am also using a 7900 GTX video card so I guess I need to read up on how many amps/watts/energon twinkies it uses per hour.

I'll sit and do some reading later today, since its still early (3pm PST) now...got stuff to do for a lil while tho'. :-D

The bios was sent to me by Biostar.

Your PSU should be more than enough for your components.

Were you able to power the PC up after it shut down?

By the way, welcome to XS! :toast: :welcome:

Aww, thanks and yes, it powered back up fine...very odd to see it crash to completely, I guess I will shut down for now and then later check all connections and whatnot.

Got to run to town for a meeting @ work on my day off..damn them~

But Ill be back soon and right into goofing off mode...ahhh!

Anyone else with this board care to post their results? Thursday is a long way away for me lol

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y268/lbrycecp/jhk.jpg

I only ran Orthos for 3 hours but it has been great so far.

Very nice to see 333 :D

Have you tried 355+ with a divider by chance? Just to see what the board maxes at?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jimmer411

Very nice to see 333 :D

Have you tried 355+ with a divider by chance? Just to see what the board maxes at?

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I'll try it right now but I don't have time to stress test it yet.

Edit:
Alright, 355 HTT was no good I had to reset the CMOS. 350 Booted to Windows, and got it to pass 1M Super PI

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y268/lbrycecp/350.jpg

I'm really happy with it at 333 HTT for 24x7 use.

Sweet thanks.

Im starting to feel better seeing someone else get over 300 HTT (Minimum I need for 3ghz)

ok I was looking at the manual a little and I guess I need to find a decent tutorial about K8 overclocking for dummies..ha ha ha. At least the manual has some explanations for what some of the settings are, but I really dont want to just muck about blindly.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I overclocked my 1.33 t-bird to 1.52Ghz, is that any good?

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/3...andoptysl7.jpg



made a quick grab of CPU-Z and the stock settings......

Have any of you guys blown up/fried a set of Crucial Ballistix, DDR2? I am scared about cooking mine, I read in a forum that a lot of folks did do just that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by elfy_008

Have any of you guys blown up/fried a set of Crucial Ballistix, DDR2? I am scared about cooking mine, I read in a forum that a lot of folks did do just that.

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I killed a set of Team Xtreem (800 D9s) w/2.35V on an Abit AW9D-MAX after about 3 months, that was with 2 80mm fans too. Now I got some Ballistix (1066 D9s) but I don't go over the rated 2.2V

2.2V is a good enough voltage for D9GMH in terms of good speed and timings. I even try to run less than that 24/7. I use 2.05-2.15V depending on what speed I run them at.

CPLB: Nice to see that you could hit 350MHz too.
Set the LDT divider to 2 or 1 and see if you can get higher. You also have to set chitset voltage to the max (which is 1.325V if I am correct). With a LDT of 4 I cannot boot 350*4.

elfy_008: Overclocking is not that hard on K8. Lower the LDT multiplier, so that FSB * LDT <= 1000MHz. Then raise the FSB in 5MHz steps and run Orthos for half an hour or SuperPi 32M on each core. If it doesn't fail, raise the FSB another 5MHz (all in the bios) and run those applications again. If they produce an error, you have to either lower your overclock again or increase VCore by a little step. Use CoreTemp or any other app of your choice to monitor temp. +0.15V should be no problem in case you have decent cooling. At a certain point you will have to raise chipset voltage too. When you think you have overclocked enough, run Orthos for 15-24 hours. When it runs that long without an error, test 3D applications. If they are also stable, your overclock was successful. If not, lower FSB again and run the tests again until it is stable.
If you want to test the max FSB of the board, set the LDT to 2 or 1, set chipset voltage to the maximum (1.325V), FID (CPU multiplier) to 4 and raise FSB until you cannot boot any more. If the board fails to boot, switch the PSU off, press the power button to get rid of power left in caps, set the CMOS jumper below the PCI slots to the other position, wait 5 secs and set it back again. Then you can power on again. Before you start messing with the bios settings, better save your current (working) config in one of the 50 profiles, so in case you have to do a CMOS clear, you have your old setting back in no time.

seems like i am having a system stability problem now, its crashed without warning 3 times...not good. it just shuts off.

i am wondering if my choice of PSU was a good one, but oh well...

guess i need to take this apart completely and redo it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fr3ak

2.2V is a good enough voltage for D9GMH in terms of good speed and timings. I even try to run less than that 24/7. I use 2.05-2.15V depending on what speed I run them at.

CPLB: Nice to see that you could hit 350MHz too.
Set the LDT divider to 2 or 1 and see if you can get higher. You also have to set chitset voltage to the max (which is 1.325V if I am correct). With a LDT of 4 I cannot boot 350*4.

elfy_008: Overclocking is not that hard on K8. Lower the LDT multiplier, so that FSB * LDT <= 1000MHz. Then raise the FSB in 5MHz steps and run Orthos for half an hour or SuperPi 32M on each core. If it doesn't fail, raise the FSB another 5MHz (all in the bios) and run those applications again. If they produce an error, you have to either lower your overclock again or increase VCore by a little step. Use CoreTemp or any other app of your choice to monitor temp. +0.15V should be no problem in case you have decent cooling. At a certain point you will have to raise chipset voltage too. When you think you have overclocked enough, run Orthos for 15-24 hours. When it runs that long without an error, test 3D applications. If they are also stable, your overclock was successful. If not, lower FSB again and run the tests again until it is stable.
If you want to test the max FSB of the board, set the LDT to 2 or 1, set chipset voltage to the maximum (1.325V), FID (CPU multiplier) to 4 and raise FSB until you cannot boot any more. If the board fails to boot, switch the PSU off, press the power button to get rid of power left in caps, set the CMOS jumper below the PCI slots to the other position, wait 5 secs and set it back again. Then you can power on again. Before you start messing with the bios settings, better save your current (working) config in one of the 50 profiles, so in case you have to do a CMOS clear, you have your old setting back in no time.

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Very nice to see that it supports profiles, thats one of the things that I love about my DFI. Being able to switch summer, winter, benching and suicide settings on the fly :D

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/2...ghzcpuzlw1.jpg

Hows that? I need to work on RAM timings, since my sticks are CAS 4 and if that info from CPU-Z is right, they are running at CAS 5.

Also: I am just booting the system, I am not stress testing or anything. I just finally figured out how to play with the board a little.

What (anyones best guess) speed would be the top end for d9 ram?

Vram is reported on my machine as being 1.92v. I wonder if I should bump it up a little bit.

Yes bump the vdimm up a little. Set it to 2.05V. I am actually surprised it booths with 540MHz CL5 at that voltage. The board is undervolting vdimm from what it looks like, so 2.05V should not be a problem at all, considering the rated voltage is 2.1-2.2V if I am not mistaken.

To get 300MHz FSB/HTT stable, you would have to raise chipset voltage a little if you haven't done so already.

I think I am right at the limit without being able to swap CAS around, on top of that I am a big novice OC'er so, when you guys say to change the TDL, RSVP, LMNOP or whatever...I go 'huh?'

One thing I will need to do is figure out which variables in the RAM settings on the board are what....


oh, and hit 2.84 Ghz after I made that screenshot.....I think thats not too shabby for never really trying anything like that before~

Biostar should be releasing the 718 BIOS shortly, does a tad better up top and memory timings are a little tighter, at least with the beta we have been testing. ;)

@bingo13: Were you told by Biostar what exactly the AM2+ features are? To me it looks like a (good) just AM2 board.
Will there be a test of this board on anandtech?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mibo

@bingo13: Were you told by Biostar what exactly the AM2+ features are? To me it looks like a (good) just AM2 board.
Will there be a test of this board on anandtech?

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Waiting on official word from NV about the AM2+ capabilities. Yes, we will have a full review of the board up in a week or so.

I just got mine from the UPS man! :D Tearing down my rig and hoping to have results later tonight :D

I havent tried setting my multiplaier for the processor to its lowest yet, or the RAM divider. But I did knock them both down a step for two and I seem to be hitting a wall at 280fsb on this board, even with the max ammount of chipset voltage and a 3x HT multiplier. I know the processor is capable of doing 3.3GHz at 1.4 volts and the RAM will do DDR1100 at 2.2v so those arent the problem. Is it possible I just got a bad board? or does the PCI-Express speed make a big difference in how high the fsb can go? Right now I am running the PCI-E at 150MHz.

EniGmA1987 - I dont do much to the settings other than bump HT to 3, and turn the frequency up, what CPU are you using? What PSU do you have, too.

I think I was even turning down my CPU's multi at some point, from 9 to 8 (im running a 1210 Opty). Only towards the limit over 2.7 Ghz did I start to bump up Vcore and Vram. I dont know jack about setting good RAM timings, so I am limited by that for now. I just left it on auto, I think the #'s below are what my sticks do on default, 1.92v


Jimmer411 - Hope your build goes as easy as mine did, it was a lot of fun but at times a pita too since I was also working on two of my roomies machines.

I guess everything is stable in the house, just a little moving of firefox profiles and whatnot...then there are the other computers that I have to fix. If this is my hobby, why do I work on them so damn much?

and for some laughs (not that I expect anyone to do my work for me, this is stuff I guess I can sneak off and read on my own..) but can anyone give some hints/pointers on what I should be setting my RAM to? Here is what I have:


TwTr 2
Trfc0-3 75ns
Twr 5
Trtp 3
Trc 26
Trcd 5
Trrd 5
Trp 5
Tras 12

These are twin 1 Gb Crucial Ballistix, and I think I'll point a fan I have sitting around at them and see if I can keep them from roasting.



Timing > Max MemClk
Memclock Limit > 800

does the max mean just that, a limit? Would overclocking be any fun if the mobo Bios was easy to figure out?

Oh and does anyone have an idea of what big heatsinks wont fit on this mobo? I guess it has some decent room, I am using an antec sonata II case...
I was thinking of possibly using a Thermalright ultra 120 or something big like that, it doesnt have to be too large, just a step up from my stock HSF. I did look at the arctic cooler AM2 HSF, anyone have one of those?

Well i've been lurking here for a few days but i guess no place better then this one to make my first post then here.


Has anybody with this board had a need or desire to cool the chipset actively?

My board should arrive today along with my 6000+ and was hoping that with my Tuniq 120 and a good cooler on the chipset i can get at leats 3.2 on my 6000+

I'd love to push for 3.4-3.5 but hear its nearly impossible with the 6000's. Shame, i wish they built em like my current.

Anyways, i'll let everybody here know what i personally think of the board. I kept looking at boards and kept wanting a very basic stripped down board and this looked to be a great value for the cash so i hope it ends up being a good one.

elfy_008 - I am using an OCZ StealthXtreame power supply, 600w. I did notice the 5v rail is quite weak...

I am using an 5200+, the new F3 stepping. It runs perfectly well at 3.3GHz becuase I am running that right now on this setup (275fsb x 12multi). Even after knocking down the multi to 10 I cant get over 280fsb.

RAM is running right now on the 800 divider, so its up at like 1100 speed, but when I was trying to increase the fsb I was running it on the 533 divider and I still couldnt get up any higher.


Today I did try and take the PCI-E freq down to 100 and I did get an extra 5fsb or so, but nothing like I was hoping. So I dont think that is the problem.

EniGmA1987 - hm, wonder if its a limitation of the PSU and that 5v rail..

last night I had some fun and swapped some settings around and bumped the multi to 8x from my stock 9...and in CPUz it said 9x multi..and my properties of 'my computer' said the 8x multi speed....

I wonder which was correct lol.

I dont know if my little chip will do 3.0 ghz, but I will give it a shot.

When I know more about what I am doin'.

The multipliers are weird on my board too, I can only get 9x or 4x, anything else and it still posts at 9x. I also can't figure out how to change CAS latency in the bios. I've got tRCD, tRP, tRAS all set right but I can't find CAS.

Rock solid. Well I had my 6000+ at 3.2 out of the box. Currently i'm abit pissed at Tuniq though - My Tuniq 120 had NO AM2 clip so i'm using the stock AMD cooler until they send me a clip so i'm back at 3.0 until i get that cooler mounted.

Anyways this board seems to be rather decent for the casual overclocker (me) i'm not hardcore but i like a lil boost if i can get it. This 6000+ seems to be a decent processor for the price, same with the mobo. Booted out of the box no issues. Vista install flawless and i must say vista is pretty nifty.. never used it and i like it so far.

Finally got mine up and running, starting to play with it some and in windows rock solid at 3ghz :D Still setting it up slowly, but Im hoping to have some pics up soon.

Jimmer abit OT here but where in WA?

I'm by Orting.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Husky42

Jimmer abit OT here but where in WA?

I'm by Orting.

---

Pacific, right outside Auburn. Not too far from you it seems lol.




Well so far Im priming at 3.2ghz 1.5v. I can get into windows at 3.3, run most benchmarks but 3D05 crashes. on the CPU tests.

I havent tried past 330 HTT since im just seeing if I can get 3.2~ stable, then Ill go from there. Link to the updated bios on the first page is dead, so Im still using factory shipped bios.

DDR533 setting seems to be the sweetspot for me, 667+ setting is too unstable, and I havent messed with DDR400 setting. Still only putting 2.25v into my ram, not sure if I should put more and really try to push for 3.4ghz yet.

Another thing that I noticed is that the chipset gets HOT.


Anyways Im off to bed, going to leave orthos blend running overnight and hope for the best :D

dammit Fr3ak I HATE IT when ppl post about good Biostar boards :down:

Why..........................because I cant buy them in AU :mad:


Wanna send me your board when finished testing.................PLEASE :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CPLB

The multipliers are weird on my board too, I can only get 9x or 4x, anything else and it still posts at 9x. I also can't figure out how to change CAS latency in the bios. I've got tRCD, tRP, tRAS all set right but I can't find CAS.

---

Don't have time to read all replies on this page now, so I will answer them later, after lunch.

I noticed that behavior too sometimes. When the multiplier seems to be stuck, no matter what you set, change FSB/HTT by a few MHz and it should be working. Above 355MHz FSB/HTT sometimes it gets stuck as well when trying to set higher values. I have to clear the cmos then and reload the settings, after that it usually works.

To set cas, you have to flash the bios to 612. I posted it in an earlier post.

ok if one more person shows up from Washington, I will scream since I am south of Oly.

And I think we have had mention in the thread of not one but two new possible Bios's's's, 612 and 718...

maybe the 718 will pop up soon for folks to try, if its stable and stuff.

If you fry the bios (say the power fails while flashing) what do you do with this particular board? Anything?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by elfy_008

If you fry the bios (say the power fails while flashing) what do you do with this particular board? Anything?

---

Unless you have a board with a dual bios (most Gigabyte boards have that) there are 2 things you can do:

First and easiest method is to buy a new bios chip. In Germany you can order new bios chips off ebay and tell the guy to flash whatever bios you want. Costs about 10 Euro here. Then you get the damages bios out and insert the new bios, which is pretty easy.

Second possibility is to hotflash the bios. That means you need one bios that is working fine (in most cases from a second board with a ok bios). You boot with the ok bios, remove the bios chip while the pc is running, insert the damages chip and flash it. I would prefer the first method, because the second method is very risky. The possibility to short something is quite high.

The bios chip on the TF560 A2+ looks different, it is a new and smaller bios chip, so maybe people selling bios chips need a new flashing device first in order to flash the bios.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jimmer411

I havent tried past 330 HTT since im just seeing if I can get 3.2~ stable, then Ill go from there. Link to the updated bios on the first page is dead, so Im still using factory shipped bios.

Another thing that I noticed is that the chipset gets HOT.

---

I am sorry about the link, it seems to be dead. The FTP server is not my own, so I have no idea if or when it will be up again.

Everyone who wants the 612 bios PM me your email address and I will mail it to you.

Sorry about the link being dead.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by alpha0ne

dammit Fr3ak I HATE IT when ppl post about good Biostar boards :down:

Why..........................because I cant buy them in AU :mad:


Wanna send me your board when finished testing.................PLEASE :D

---

Too bad you cannot get Biostar boards over there. Unfortunately in Germany Biostar doesn't release the same amount of boards that are available at Newegg, so I kind know that feeling.

I have been always happy with the boards I have owned. The bios had some glitches, but for a low budget boards, my board overclocked way better than average. The TFORCE 6100 S754 board I have hit 400MHz FSB at stock NB volts and stock cooling (Link). After that my superlocked Sempron was at its limit. With PCIE and onboard graphics, that board was really good considering it was 59 Euro when I got it. I am still using it on my bench rig right now :)

0718 BIOS -

http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/...N56BA718AT.rar

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bingo13

0718 BIOS -

http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/...N56BA718AT.rar

---

Thanks, going to test now :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by elfy_008

ok if one more person shows up from Washington, I will scream since I am south of Oly.

---

hehe, oddly i've met quite a few people on random forums from Western Washington.

So I only have one thing i dont understand with this board.. or it could be vista.

When I do a complete shutdown (something i rarely do) but still it seems that its far too fast shutting down but my fans and power led stay on. I dont see anything that references this board to stay on for a few minutes at shut down and i'm positive that my wiring is correct (my HDD led and power LED work and everything else seems to be wired fine) - Has anybody else experienced this?

Another positive for this board is the onboard sound.. although Realtek the HD Digital is really nice vs my old Extigy sound card.

Everything of mine apears to turn off, tho the LEDs do stay lit as long as the mobo has power.


My only issue is my temps are all funky in speedfan, 127C on 2 of my sensors no matter what, but that could be a bios issue. I couldnt find any documentation at all on those 0718 bios :/ Ima test the 0612 instead now. Thanks Fr3ak

bingo13 - thanks for the Bios link (unless I fubar my machine, in that case it was nice knowing you).


I too see the 127 speed on speedfan, I guess it will be a little while before some of the kinks are worked out..

I REALLY miss motherboard monitor on my old machine, that was so easy to set up, now I feel a little lost until I can sit and have a good read with SF's instructions.

After shutdown this mobo leaves my mouse LED lit, anyone find that annoying?


Some electronics do the soft power on/down cycles now, dont they? maybe this mobo does something like that as well.

The 127C is a misread from speedfan. At least one sensors reports that value on about every board out there, so don't worry.

Ok, I updated t0 71B, ev3rything s33ms finw.

I had a quick test of 718 and in terms of max oc, I had worse results than with 612. Not by much, just a few MHz, so the difference might be negligible. I did not notice any changes in the bios too.

Hmm, may have to give this board a try. Good replacement for my flakey Abit board I'm hoping...


Ply

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fr3ak

I had a quick test of 718 and in terms of max oc, I had worse results than with 612. Not by much, just a few MHz, so the difference might be negligible. I did not notice any changes in the bios too.

---

Brisbane overclocking improved a great deal for me (BE2300 to 3.3GHz), but at the same time latencies went through the roof. I had the same issue with the MSI board so NV is researching it now as results in most benchmarks just plummeted.

Well i was in a situation to sell my computer build to a friend and considered buying the Biostar mother board that you guys are posting about.

Before pouncing on it like a beast I called Biostar tech two times and emailed twice as well. All of them said its "compatible AM2+" but its no secret that the new phenoms will be HT 3.0. So i wanted to know if it was possible for an update in bios later in the future.

heres a direct copy paste from my email

Dear Customer,

Thanks for your explain and more technology knowledge on AM2+ CPU. The TF560 A2+ motherboard able compatible with AM2+ CPU, but it does not provide AM2+ Full function due to nVidia chipset limitation. It can help endusers if they want to buy a board with AM2+ CPU platform. General speaking, nVIdia does not a MP product for support Full AM2+ platform.

Thank you very much.

:eek:

So dissappointed about the HT 3.0 not truly utilized i decided to stay with my 939 mobo till at least a true AM2+ ready motherboard and pci express 2.0 comes out next year...

Ill wait contently for Phenom and Barcelona though. I have a friend that works in Intel, and they are taking AMD's new line up very seriously about the upcoming Barcelona and Phenoms. So that say's alot about AMD's lineup, IMO. :yepp:

Welcome to XS :)

It is as we thought, only AM2+ support, but no support for split power supply and HTT3.0.

As soon as I moved I will do the chipset voltmod to see if I can get the board any higher than 355 MHz.

What are you guys using to clock these boards?

Are you doing it via bios, or their awful t-utility program? Clockgen doesn't appear to want to work.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

SAD

Always use the bios for permanent overclocking. Clockgen is just good for suicide runs or if you want to test how far your components can be overclocked without having to reboot often. But using the bios is the best thing you can do.

fr3ak - thanks for the quick reply :)

Typically I do my clocking via clockgen to find the max and get suicide runs (see what the hardware can do). Any permanent / long term OC, i will set in bios. Oc'ing via BIOS is just too time consuming.

Were you able to get Clockgen to work with this board? So far I am at 360Mhz HTT. It post at 370, but didn't boot into windows :(

Right now I am running Orthos at 360 and see what I can get.

SAD

Nice board! What are the rest of your settings? LDT and chipset voltage would be interesting. I can sometimes post at 360, but not boot. 355 works always and is dual 32m and 24/7 stable. Might be my CPU limiting me.

But nice to see that you are able to boot into windows at 360MHz and CPLB aat 350MHz too, which shows that the board clocks quite decent in average.

I am having trouble trying to manually set timings for Centon DDR2-667 chips that run at 5-5-5-18

I can set CAS to 5 but as soon as I change the DDRII Timings from auto to manual system will not post with beep codes.. have to use cmos clear jumper to start over.

I had an TForce 6100-AM2 that couldnt get my 4400brisbane over 2.7ghz stable.. I am now working on trying to get it higher with this board

Yeah.. the memory timing on this board is a little funky. I mean.. it seems to be detail, but it didn't seem to go in the typical 4-4-4-10 format that most manf go by.

As for the chipset voltage.. I pretty much maxed out all the voltages to check for max performance. I then go back and start trying to find optimal voltage and speeds.. I am just the type that needs to find the max speed ASAP, then tweak to find the bestg 24/7 operations.

I will keep everyone posted.

Oh.. any benefits form the newer bios? I am still using the original BIOS from 06/07.

SAD

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SuAsDu

Yeah.. the memory timing on this board is a little funky. I mean.. it seems to be detail, but it didn't seem to go in the typical 4-4-4-10 format that most manf go by.

As for the chipset voltage.. I pretty much maxed out all the voltages to check for max performance. I then go back and start trying to find optimal voltage and speeds.. I am just the type that needs to find the max speed ASAP, then tweak to find the bestg 24/7 operations.

I will keep everyone posted.

Oh.. any benefits form the newer bios? I am still using the original BIOS from 06/07.

SAD

---

Use the 0612 BIOS - http://www.biostar.cn/supports/BIOSR...?vID=32&MID=26

- for best results at this time. The seven series BIOS targeted specific overclocking improvements for certain Brisbane cores but at the expense of memory performance. The 0612 allows CAS and Command Rate changes compared to the release 0611 or 0607 BIOS.

Ok.. so it wasn't me, when I didn't see the CAS and Command rate in the bios with my Bios version.. I thought I was going crazy. I will update the BIOS later today and see how things go.

SAD

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SuAsDu

Ok.. so it wasn't me, when I didn't see the CAS and Command rate in the bios with my Bios version.. I thought I was going crazy. I will update the BIOS later today and see how things go.

SAD

---

Just remember to change your Command Rate to 2T manually until you can verify if your memory will run at 1T. Once you change your memory ratio below "DDR2-800" in the BIOS, it will try to boot with 1T settings automatically.

OK.. the bios 612 REALLY helped alot. I am running Corsair 5400UL.. so it wanted to do CAS 3. So when I was pushing like 360 Mhz.. the ram was being the bottle neck.

Now that I put Cas 5 and T2, I can boot into windows at 371Mhz right now :D Not post at 373Mhz and above. So its not a hole.

I'm running orthos right now, but I do not think I am going to do so well.. the processors is running a bit hot.

You know that 15x multi isn't available with 612 Bios for the x2 6000+.. I need to do some hunting for another bios. Does anyknow what version support 6000+?

SAD

Can you guys post some memory benchmarks from Sandra along with memory speed and timings... I am getting extremely good results from the 612 bios getting very close to 7000mb/s in single channel with my G.Skill HZ stick 5-5-5-15 @ 936mhz 280x10 for my 4400 brisbane

I am currently running orthos @ 371Mhz.. it was running for about 20 min.. then I stopped it and flashed to 0718. I wasn't even able to boot at 365Mhz.. so I said forget it and reflashed to 0612.

So I have started Orthos again.

here is a CPUz Validation: http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=223682

Here is a screen shot of CPUZ - http://valid.x86-secret.com/ccpuz.php?id=223682

I will post results of my Orthos tomorrow.. I will try to run some Sandra too.

SAD

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SuAsDu

OK.. the bios 612 REALLY helped alot. I am running Corsair 5400UL.. so it wanted to do CAS 3. So when I was pushing like 360 Mhz.. the ram was being the bottle neck.

Now that I put Cas 5 and T2, I can boot into windows at 371Mhz right now :D Not post at 373Mhz and above. So its not a hole.

I'm running orthos right now, but I do not think I am going to do so well.. the processors is running a bit hot.

You know that 15x multi isn't available with 612 Bios for the x2 6000+.. I need to do some hunting for another bios. Does anyknow what version support 6000+?

SAD

---

15x is available, just have to leave the CPU multi set on Auto in order to get it. I will post up the new performance 0801 BIOS in the morning, hand tuned by a couple of NVIDIA engineers this week. I am not getting any higher clocks for the most part but was able to lower voltages and run slightly better memory timings.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hawkeye4077

Can you guys post some memory benchmarks from Sandra along with memory speed and timings... I am getting extremely good results from the 612 bios getting very close to 7000mb/s in single channel with my G.Skill HZ stick 5-5-5-15 @ 936mhz 280x10 for my 4400 brisbane

---

I am getting 10,810 Buffered with a lowly BE-2300 at 350x9, DDR2-1050, 5-5-5-12, with 2x1GB OCZ HPC under Vista 64.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bingo13

15x is available, just have to leave the CPU multi set on Auto in order to get it. I will post up the new performance 0801 BIOS in the morning, hand tuned by a couple of NVIDIA engineers this week. I am not getting any higher clocks for the most part but was able to lower voltages and run slightly better memory timings.

---

Yeah, Would like to get that bios, when available...


Ply

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bingo13

15x is available, just have to leave the CPU multi set on Auto in order to get it. I will post up the new performance 0801 BIOS in the morning, hand tuned by a couple of NVIDIA engineers this week. I am not getting any higher clocks for the most part but was able to lower voltages and run slightly better memory timings.

---

Ahh.. well.. being an OC'er.. i don't ususally set anything to Auto :P So I figure there would be a 15x multiplier listed.. my bad.

I can't wait to see the bios and try it out.

Now. you mentioned it is tuned by NVIDIA's engineers.. This board isn't nvidia's reference design is it?

SAD

371MHz, that is very impressive! :)

I think I have to try a different CPU to seeif I can get the board higher too.

The defeault CPU multiplier is set when you set the option to "auto". A little confusing, but once you know it, it is alright.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bingo13

I am getting 10,810 Buffered with a lowly BE-2300 at 350x9, DDR2-1050, 5-5-5-12, with 2x1GB OCZ HPC under Vista 64.

---

Good deal. I have been prime95'n mine all night 9x300. My 4400 has never been much of an overclocker, and I have been trying to see the best memory performance I could get. Hopefully this performance bios will help a little.

Current settings:
9x300
G.Skill HZ 1gb @ 5-5-5-15-24 1080mhz

I have tried higher clock speed and lower ram speed and I just cant get it that stable. This chips sweet spot is around 2700mhz .. a shame.

http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/...N56BA801AT.rar

New 0801 BIOS, try at your own risk. I am seeing mixed results compared to the 0612, but it depends on your processor. ;)

Bingo - Awesome.. I will give it a shot later today and see how it goes :)

Everyone - As for Sandra, what verisons are you guys using. I remember there is a HUGE difference in teh results for Sandra based on the version you are using. Let me know which one. Also.. what gives more bandwidth.. Slower & tighter, or Fast & Loose?

SAD

Generally faster and looser gives more bandwidth, but the best performance comes from whatever combination gives you the least latency

Bingo13 put the review online.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3051

I went from the bios that the board comes with to the new 0801 bios an I can finally go past 275 fsb :D I found the max speed of my processor to be 3.45GHz with 1.5v. Maybe I can get it it bit farther with some nice tweaking. Although I am still only going to run it at 2.75GHz on stock voltage because I am only using the stock HS & fan