720 Be + Ga-ma790xt-ud4p

Hey guys. New member here. Been lurking on the forums for months and finally decided to sign up since I ordered some new toys this morning :D

AMD Phenom II X3 720
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103649

GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128378

CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145200

My current system consists of Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe, Opteron 175 @ 270x10, and 2GB of Corsair XMS PC3200. I set an upgrade budget of $350 (lol you know how those go) but was really torn on whether I should go the AM2+ route or jump into the AM3 and DDR3. Since my current system is just DDR, didn't really make sense to me to buy DDR2 since DDR3 has gotten cheaper even though it doesn't offer much tangible benefit now. My thinking is in a year or so, I might have a better chance of dropping in a new CPU with the AM3 DDR3 combo than on an AM2+ DDR2 if AMD decides to drop the DDR2 support in the future CPUs.

Anyway, this is my first Gigabyte board, so I hope it doesn't disappoint. I used to strickly use MSI until I moved into the s939, then I had an Asus K8V Deluxe which I swapped out for the A8R32-MVP Deluxe (love that board) and PCIe support.

Does anyone know if the 720 BE comes with a heatsink... and if so, is it any good to get started with some mild overclocking? I had heard the one that came with the 940 wasn't bad to start out with but anything past about 3.5ghz needed an upgrade.

If it's retail it should, I have no clue if its as beefy though.

The majority of gigabyte boards although not amd seem to be able to clock higher, they however need more volts as well. The asus although not record breakers seem to be a little more stable for 24/7 usage. this is just my view on the WHOLE outlook of asus versus gigabyte.

I will say my gigabyte has lackluster memory options in an amd variant if ram tweaking is your thing. It's also an onboard video board though, not particularly high end.

Yeah, I went with a 790X because the FX was a little out of my price range for the Giga and Asus boards currently available... and I only have one video card and doubt I'll crossfire it. I skipped looking for a GX because I don't need the onboard video and thought maybe it would add additional heat to the NB.

BTW, those are awesome results on that 720 you've been playing with. I read that this morning and it just sealed the deal on my purchase. :up:

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Originally Posted by Hemi345

Yeah, I went with a 790X because the FX was a little out of my price range for the Giga and Asus boards currently available... and I only have one video card and doubt I'll crossfire it. I skipped looking for a GX because I don't need the onboard video and thought maybe it would add additional heat to the NB.

BTW, those are awesome results on that 720 you've been playing with. I read that this morning and it just sealed the deal on my purchase. :up:

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Where are the Results *chew is getting? I am thinking of the exact combo you are, although i may opt for ddr2, ma790X - ud4 am2+/am3 ddr2 as it seems you really need the 1600+ ddr3 and a 2.8 nb to see a noticable difference, for that price i d rather have 8 or 16 gb of ddr2 oc'd ;P. But i am interested in what volts, temps etc, these chips run at vs 940.

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Originally Posted by chew*

If it's retail it should, I have no clue if its as beefy though.

The majority of gigabyte boards although not amd seem to be able to clock higher, they however need more volts as well. The asus although not record breakers seem to be a little more stable for 24/7 usage. this is just my view on the WHOLE outlook of asus versus gigabyte.

I will say my gigabyte has lackluster memory options in an amd variant if ram tweaking is your thing. It's also an onboard video board though, not particularly high end.

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I've noticed that Giga boards are a little thin on ram options as well, luckily for me I am an impatient OC'er and usually only glance over the ram unless I have a really bad chip that needs help desperately.

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Originally Posted by villa1n

Where are the Results *chew is getting? I am thinking of the exact combo you are, although i may opt for ddr2, ma790X - ud4 am2+/am3 ddr2 as it seems you really need the 1600+ ddr3 and a 2.8 nb to see a noticable difference, for that price i d rather have 8 or 16 gb of ddr2 oc'd ;P. But i am interested in what volts, temps etc, these chips run at vs 940.

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His results: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=217679

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Originally Posted by iandh

I've noticed that Giga boards are a little thin on ram options as well, luckily for me I am an impatient OC'er and usually only glance over the ram unless I have a really bad chip that needs help desperately.

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I'm the same, I don't find alot of joy in getting really granular on memory tweaking. If I can set the major timings, voltage and speed and I'm usually satisfied :)

Well, welcome to the our favorite AMD insane asylum!

Cool choices of parts. I'm thinking about the same things, or maybe the DDR2 version of the mobo, cuz I have piles of DDR2 1066 memory (everytime its $40 for 4GB, I can't control myself):rofl:

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Originally Posted by nanohead

Well, welcome to the our favorite AMD insane asylum!

Cool choices of parts. I'm thinking about the same things, or maybe the DDR2 version of the mobo, cuz I have piles of DDR2 1066 memory (everytime its $40 for 4GB, I can't control myself):rofl:

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nanohead..if you can believe it, I might set this one out..Well, mey be till price settles:p:

OP...Nice parts tho...thats what i would have got.

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Originally Posted by Hemi345

His results: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=217679



I'm the same, I don't find alot of joy in getting really granular on memory tweaking. If I can set the major timings, voltage and speed and I'm usually satisfied :)

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Thanks for the link. What cooler are you using for your cpu? Just wondering if there is RAM clearance issues, as I plan on getting the dark knight s1283, and retiring my TRUE.

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Originally Posted by Hemi345

Anyway, this is my first Gigabyte board, so I hope it doesn't disappoint. I used to strickly use MSI until I moved into the s939, then I had an Asus K8V Deluxe which I swapped out for the A8R32-MVP Deluxe (love that board) and PCIe support.

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:welcome: Hemi345

I was always an MSI fan myself, in fact I'm still looking forward to that new GD70!
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=217278

I wish you the best of luck with the GBT board, hopefully they've gotten better with thier Phenom boards. The DS5 was my first GBT/Phenom board and it was a really poor/defective design... For your sake I hope they've figured things out, I was really PO'd at them and it will probably be awhile before I buy another one of thier boards....

Your choices look good though, and the 720BE looks like a great budget chip!

Be sure to keep us posted... :up:

I have a 720BE and a Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P on the way, unfortunately they will only be delivered on monday, so it will be tuesday before I have my results up here, as for the ram, I have 2x2GB 1600 7-7-7 G.Skill and 4x1GB Cellshock 1866 (both old "high" voltage kits) and ahem several 2GB stick ocz 1333 low voltage stuff ready.

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Originally Posted by iandh

I've noticed that Giga boards are a little thin on ram options as well, luckily for me I am an impatient OC'er and usually only glance over the ram unless I have a really bad chip that needs help desperately.

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The latest Gigabyte boards for intel chips have tons of ram options, maybe they will do that for the amd boards as well now.

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Your choices look good though, and the 720BE looks like a great budget chip!

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Yep, especially if you consider it's the same price as a E7500 here, so you get a extra core and far more cache for free.

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Originally Posted by charged3800z24

nanohead..if you can believe it, I might set this one out..Well, mey be till price settles:p:

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I don't believe you :rofl::rofl::rofl:


I'm trying to control myself, but I may have to buy something... gonna get a 720 at minimum. I'm not sure about the board yet, but the CPU, a def

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Originally Posted by nanohead

I don't believe you :rofl::rofl::rofl:


I'm trying to control myself, but I may have to buy something... gonna get a 720 at minimum. I'm not sure about the board yet, but the CPU, a def

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Ya, I have been eyeing the boards... I really like the Gigaebyte with dual x16's. The colors and layout are nice. It is starting to call to me :eek:

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Originally Posted by villa1n

Thanks for the link. What cooler are you using for your cpu? Just wondering if there is RAM clearance issues, as I plan on getting the dark knight s1283, and retiring my TRUE.

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Just going to start out with the stock cooler. There is a review on Newegg that says it is a fairly nice heatpipe model that isn't half bad to get started with some mild overclocks in the 3.5-3.6 range.

I have an arctic cooler64 on my opteron, i wonder if it would fit the 720?

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Originally Posted by Hemi345

Just going to start out with the stock cooler. There is a review on Newegg that says it is a fairly nice heatpipe model that isn't half bad to get started with some mild overclocks in the 3.5-3.6 range.

I have an arctic cooler64 on my opteron, i wonder if it would fit the 720?

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Yeah, i think those coolers are okay, until you have to start pushing the volts over stock, 3.5,3.6 seems to be the ceiling of what phenom II's can do at stock or close to stock volts. I guess i ll find out :P I m not to ambitious though, no ocz reaper with 3 inch high cooling on top, probably gonna end up with some Gskill 1066 8gb, or depending, maybe mushkin if i can push my budget a little bit hehe.

Does anyone have opinions on which sata ports to use? I notice that the two facing up are supposed to be connected to the "Gigabyte sata2" which I think is really a Jmicron controller. Do those two have any advantage over the ports run off the SB750?

I'd avoid anything JMicron, but thats just me :)
If you can, test the throughput using ATTO / HDTune / your favorite disk benchmark on both the SB750 / JMicron ports, then use whichever is better. Should not take long. Be sure to post your results and tell us of your experiences with the UD4P + 720BE combo (which I may be getting as well soon)

Looks interesting! Here's a review from Guru3D, notice that they used DDR2 board (ASUS M4A79 Deluxe)

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-ph...e-review-am3/1

That 3,8GHz OC was done only with voltage and multiplier. I am pretty sure it will run as hell when it sits on a AM3 mobo with bumped NB speed and premium DDR3. :up:

Smarter choice... that starts to have a right ring to it.

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Originally Posted by Hemi345

Just going to start out with the stock cooler. There is a review on Newegg that says it is a fairly nice heatpipe model that isn't half bad to get started with some mild overclocks in the 3.5-3.6 range.

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The good news... all the parts showed up! The box that gigabyte board came in sure is purty.:ROTF: Hopefully they put as much energy into the board itself.

The "bad" news is the HSF that comes with the 720 BE looks like a piece of :banana::banana::banana::banana:. I don't even think it has a copper core. Looks like that trash Intel retail CPUs come with. So no overclocking for me till I buy a decent cooler. Damn, I was hoping it would atleast have been that heatpipe model I saw on Legit reviews to get me started.

putting it all together (i'll add more details tomorrow, it's getting late)

old Opteron config...before i take it out of there:
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild0.JPG

the parts:
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild1.JPG

the board with cpu installed. easily the heaviest desktop motherboard I've handled:
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild2.JPG

is it too early to know if this from a good batch?
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild3.JPG

cheezy yet impressive oem heatsink (idles @ 28C stock)
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild4.JPG

Ram installed:
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild5.JPG

Picture of the voltage and timings for 1600mhz:
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild6.JPG

All wired up and ready to run.
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild7.JPG

looking good, I hope your UD4P lives longer than mine, oh well, atleast it gave me a excuse to get the UD5P, I'd look into a better cooler though, the stock one wont really cut it at high clocks.

put those memorys in the white slots:up:

^ +1

looking forward to your results Hemi. I'm hoping that you have better luck and that naokaji's experience was just a rare bad one. This seems like the ideal combo for people that aren't too interested in having dual 16x Crossfire.

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Originally Posted by naokaji

looking good, I hope your UD4P lives longer than mine, oh well, atleast it gave me a excuse to get the UD5P, I'd look into a better cooler though, the stock one wont really cut it at high clocks.

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What's crazy is the idle temp of all cores (stock) is 28C with CnQ enabled, 32C with CnQ disabled with that stock cooler :shocked: I thought that can't be right, so I went into the BIOS and it said 33C. I ran Orthos blend to stress cpu and ram (CPU stock, memory set at 1333mhz and timings at auto) for about 10 minutes and cpu temps never went above 35C. So now I'm wondering if the temp reporting is off or if that cooler really is doing that good of a job (never seen a stock CPU run this cool with a oem hsf).

Yeah, I'll need better cooling when I start leaning on it, but for now I want to make sure everything is completely stable before I start monkeying with stuff.

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Originally Posted by msimax

put those memorys in the white slots:up:

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I remembered you saying that as I was carrying it all back upstairs to try it out :D I'll move them tonite :up:

How is everyone else setting the memory timings?

I thought this would be like my Asus board where you can leave what you don't know how to configure at auto and change the timings you do know. But it's either Auto for everything or full on manual mode for everything.

I notice when i change the memory speed from 1066 -> 1333 -> 1600 that there are two columns of values next to each timing that also change. These columns, "SPD" and "Auto", are next to the column where you actually change the values:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/cpu/p...10/bios-2s.jpg

I was thinking I could use these values to manually set the timings, but (unlike the screenshot above) some are drastically different comparing SPD with Auto... I know the SPD values are programmed into the memory, but where is it getting the Auto values from?

show us some screens of when it is in auto and SPD, then ya might get some better help. Gotta see what you are looking at to try and figure out the best way to answer your question

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Originally Posted by Miwo

I'm hoping that you have better luck and that naokaji's experience was just a rare bad one.

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The UD5P I got to replace it while waiting for the rma is working fine*

* minus usual issues of newly launched hw (bios setting ram timings far away from spd timings, oc auto recovery not working reliable and such minor stuff), but no serious problems.

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Originally Posted by Hemi345

is it too early to know if this from a good batch?

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Yup, too early, time to push it to the limit:p:

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Originally Posted by daseto

show us some screens of when it is in auto and SPD, then ya might get some better help. Gotta see what you are looking at to try and figure out the best way to answer your question

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I'm at work now. But see the screenshot above and imagine, for example, that "Write recovery time" is 12T for Auto while 24T for SPD. Would the value for SPD be the one you'd choose to manually set it?

Idealy the SPD should be the rated timings for that RAM, but at times they arent all that right, and some mobos do not read them correctly. If you can find some white papers for your RAM, or someone else that has the same sticks and compare values, you should be able to kinda get an idea of what the RAM should be set at. One thing you might do, is try to find info about a DFI mobo and their mem settings. I know its weird, but DFI has a loyal following and some guys that are good at explaining what does what. OCForums had a guide for the s754 DFI Lanparty UT NF3 250GB and explained every single memory timing. DFI usually has a million options for memory in their bios and im sure there are guides out there that talk about DDR2 and even DDR3 timings from the intel camp. While you have a diff mobo, memory timings are pretty much standard, just some manufacturers decide to show you alot of the list, or some of it, and i believe DFI gives it all to you. In the very least, you would likely find some info as to what each timing does, and if you can find a comparison between a ddr2 775 board and a ddr3 775 board i think you might be able to see what is right with the timings for your setup that you are running.

Okay, I posted over on Corsairs forum last night and in the mean time screwed around with the timings. I basically took the average of Auto and SPD on the timings I didn't know how to configure (scientific, I Know!). So if one said 30T and the other 25T, I manually set it to 27T. Set the voltage to 1.8V memory to 1600mhz and it booted up and was stable for 3 passes of memory stress in Orthos. Man is this system snappy! And I haven't even started overclocking yet. :)


Someone from Corsair replied to me this morning. This is what they recommend:

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DDR3 Timing
CAS# Latency = 9
RAS to CAS R/W Delay = 9
Row Precharge Time = 9
Minimum RAS Active Time = 24
1T/2T Command Timing = 2T
TwTr = 6T
Trfc0 for DIMM1 = 110ns
Trfc0 for DIMM2 = 110ns
Trfc0 for DIMM3 = 110ns
Trfc0 for DIMM4 = 110ns
Write Recovery Time = 12T
Precharge Time = 3T
Row Cycle Time = 40T
RAS to RAS Delay = 7 - 8
DQS Training Control = Skip DQS
CKE Power Down Mode = Disabled
CKE Power Down Control = Per Channel
Memclock tri-stating = Disabled
Bank Swizzle Mode = Disabled

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Just built a similar config with some GSKILL 1333 as I got a great deal on it, do these X3 720 BE's really run this cool? Mine with CNQ enabled is at 18C with a 940BE Heatsink (waiting for my water cooling which I should be getting tomorrow). If so I cant imagine what I can OC this thing to.

Also wasnt able to run Overdrive :-( It says it cant detect my CPU, any suggestions? 3.8ghz so far on stock volts, not going to play with voltage until my waterblocks on.

Either the temp sensors are off, or they really do run this cool. Last night it was idling with CnQ at 21C. Played that FEAR demo and left HWMonitor running and it never got above 37C. Ambient is 20C. That's with the OEM HSF that has no heatpipes on it.

I was able to sorta get an old version of Overdrive working but I don't think it supports the Phenom II X3s very well, I couldn't change the multi on the 1st core, but i could sort on the 2 and 3... if i set it to 16, it would drop back to 15.5 when I clicked Apply. :(

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Originally Posted by Hemi345

Either the temp sensors are off, or they really do run this cool. Last night it was idling with CnQ at 21C. Played that FEAR demo and left HWMonitor running and it never got above 37C. Ambient is 20C. That's with the OEM HSF that has no heatpipes on it.

I was able to sorta get an old version of Overdrive working but I don't think it supports the Phenom II X3s very well, I couldn't change the multi on the 1st core, but i could sort on the 2 and 3... if i set it to 16, it would drop back to 15.5 when I clicked Apply. :(

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Thanks for your updates the past 2 days I ended up doing the same board and chip, I think CoreTemp may be off, mines only listing 2 cores, CPU-Z see's 3 cores and Windows does too. This seems like the budget chip to buy right now, I absolutely love it. I cannot wait to throw water cooling in this case and push it more. My only disappointment was that OEM heatsink lol. Im use to as of late seeing the heatpipe coolers ship with BE chips from AMD, I had two that arent being used though and threw that on it until Saturday.

I couldnt be happier right now I just wish AOD 3.0 was out.

See if you have the latest version of CoreTemp. Mine shows the three cores and reports the same temps that HWmonitor does but I'm starting to think they're not reading the correct sensor. If I fire up Gigabyte's Easy Tune or whatever it's called, it says the CPU temp is the same as Sensor #2 in HWmonitor... which also is much closer to what the BIOS reports for CPU temp. Idling around 35C.

Last night Overdrive wouldn't work at all on my system...it would lock up the machine while the msg indicated Overdrive was reading the information from my PC. I really only want to use it to play with the multipliers in the OS.

I was able to boot and run a few games at 3.4ghz no problem at stock voltage (17x200). :cool:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hemi345

See if you have the latest version of CoreTemp. Mine shows the three cores and reports the same temps that HWmonitor does but I'm starting to think they're not reading the correct sensor. If I fire up Gigabyte's Easy Tune or whatever it's called, it says the CPU temp is the same as Sensor #2 in HWmonitor... which also is much closer to what the BIOS reports for CPU temp. Idling around 35C.

Last night Overdrive wouldn't work at all on my system...it would lock up the machine while the msg indicated Overdrive was reading the information from my PC. I really only want to use it to play with the multipliers in the OS.

I was able to boot and run a few games at 3.4ghz no problem at stock voltage (17x200). :cool:

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turn off any other hwmonitor before you run aod

Are you running the 64-bit version of Core Temp? I grabbed it last night off the coretemp site and its showing 2 cores idk why.

CPU-Z indiciates 3 cores as does task manager.

Just found this over at AMDzone may explain temps a bit:

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...rge_phenom.jpg

Check out the AM3 listing for thermal monitor.

Someone (I think Informal) posted earlier that the latest AOD doesn't work with Gigabyte boards and that you need to use the previous version

Just a tip i think you can use your old opteron Artic cooling cooler on the new phenom

Thanks. I polished the base on the Arctic Cooler64 this weekend, I'm going to slap that on tonite. Should help alot with load temps compared to the stock cooler.

I'm going by what "TMPIN1" says for temp in HWMonitor as it matches up with what Gigabyte's EasyTune6 and the BIOS reports what the cpu temp is.

I got the Overdrive 2.1.4 (I think that's the version, one back from the latest) to work fine. I ran the stability test and watched the cpu temp go from mid 30s up to about 48C. Then bumped the multi to 15x for 3.0ghz (no change to voltage or fsb) and the temp rose past 55C till I stopped it and decided I needed better cooling :)

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Originally Posted by DPGX

Are you running the 64-bit version of Core Temp? I grabbed it last night off the coretemp site and its showing 2 cores idk why.

CPU-Z indiciates 3 cores as does task manager.

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No, i was using probably 32bit of Core Temp... I wanna say version 1.55? It showed three cores, but the same extremely low temps that HWmonitor is reporting as the "core" temps. TMPIN1 seems much more realistic.

Yep :-) thanks man I just went back to Win7 32bit to play around a little more and core temp lists all 3 cores. Also that GB Util isnt half bad either.

Hello. New guy here.

I have this motherboard and an X3 720 BE processor. It's assembled on my desk but I haven't powered it up yet.

Memory is Mushkin DDR 1600. It's actually a three-channel kit purchased with an i7 920 in mind and then I changed to the AMD processor. It should run at CAS 7 at 1333 from what I've read, but we shall see.

My cooler is a Scythe Mugen II. This is a huge cooler but it fits with only one minor clearance issue - the memory. The 120mm fan sits right on top of the Mushkin memory, which is a little taller than most, but shorter than some. Something a tad shorter would be a more comfortable fit.

Question: Why are the white slots recommended? The User's Manual says if just one pair of DIMMs are used they should go in the blue slots. This has been found through experimentation to not be the case?

This is a nice looking motherboard. I like the layout and it has a quality feel.

Evidently, memory supposedly just works more reliably in the white slots. A few people on here as well as the Corsair forums recommended the white slots. I haven't had time to experiment to see why. But when I mounted up my AC Freezer64 last night and there was no way that cooler was fitting in the orientation I wanted in if I had left the memory in the blue slots... so maybe the white slots are recommended for that reason as well?

I haven't had a chance to tighten the timings further than 7-7-7-20-1T on my Corsair memory at 1333mhz either. Wanted to try that out but getting the cooler mounted and checking temps and such took up most of my limited time last night.

7-6-6-18-1T @ 1.7V are the tightest timings I could get memtest-stable (3 complete passes). 6-6-6-20-2T had errors halfway thru the first pass.

Can you unlock the 4 cores?

No. I believe it's only doable on AM2+ boards with the "right" bios.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hemi345

Okay, I posted over on Corsairs forum last night and in the mean time screwed around with the timings. I basically took the average of Auto and SPD on the timings I didn't know how to configure (scientific, I Know!). So if one said 30T and the other 25T, I manually set it to 27T. Set the voltage to 1.8V memory to 1600mhz and it booted up and was stable for 3 passes of memory stress in Orthos. Man is this system snappy! And I haven't even started overclocking yet. :)


Someone from Corsair replied to me this morning. This is what they recommend:

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1. Enable DQS training, the way Memclk works with the DDR3 controllers now is that even the slightest of changes requires DQS/Memory training routines. If you are using a windows based program to change HT ref clocks, do it one or two steps at a time in order to let the system reset Memclk values correctly. You will get a lot further with the memory clocks in this fashion. The best way is to simply go as far as you can in the BIOS and use a Windows utility to get that last extra increase in clock speeds.

2. I do not know if this is in the F2 BIOS (using F3B), but keep an eye on TFAW, very important setting and the Phenom IIs like running it a little looser than the i7s. 30 is recommended at 1600, some memory will take 24 at 1600, some will need 36. If you can run 24, it will offer the best performance.

1. I have only been messing with the memory timings in the BIOS. I'll make a single change, save and exit and then run Memtest. If it passes the first three tests, then I let it keep going for a few passes. If I've gone too far with the change, it will usually start erroring within the first 3 tests. In this situation, is Enabling DQS training needed? What is to be gained by changing the timings in Windows? If it's not stable for Memtest with changing the timings in the BIOS, how is changing it in Windows going to make it any different?

2. Where can I find BIOS F3B? I don't recall seeing tFAW (or Four Activate Window) in the F2 advanced BIOS.

Thanks for your help.