Asus M4a79 deluxe up close and personal

I thought I'd document some shots and work on this.....

I usually post a board before I tear it apart as my warranty is preety much void the first time I turn it on.......however this time I pulled it all apart due to a poor mounting job on the mosfets. It was literally not even touching on one side......as you will see from the pics.

I will follow up with thoughts, results etc etc next week, I have a big weekend planned and I need something I'm a little more comfortable with for those plans.

Onto the picture show...

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/asus1.jpg

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/asus2.jpg

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/asus3.jpg

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/asus4.jpg

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/asus5.jpg

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/asus6.jpg

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/asus7.jpg

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/asus8.jpg

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/asus9.jpg

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/asus10.jpg

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/asus11.jpg

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/asus12.jpg

Vcore read point
yellow circled is the chip pic 1.....yellow circled pin is read point pic 2. Have fun :)

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer1/asusvcore1.jpg

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer1/asusvcore2.jpg

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/IMG_0530[1].jpg

looking good already with my 940BE 3800 on stock heatsink/paste 1.45v 2400HT, 2600NB preety sure my gigabyte would have given me a blank blue screen at this speed/volts.
http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/IMG_0532[1].jpg

Prime stable and a screenshot of bios to show what it takes to get it there, take note that this board has a rather large amount of vdroop....This particular chip refuses to boot at 1.6vcore in other boards on air, in this board it refuses to boot at about 1.63 = measured 1.6v.

I ran prime for 3 hours instead of 2 as I had it fail once shortly after the hour mark.

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer3/primepass1.JPG

Bios

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer3/primepass2.jpg

Some NB and ram clocking, the efficiency with the board is preety good, finally cracked sub 67,500 efficiency rather easily. Shows how much PI is motherboard tuning dependant..

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/NB.JPG

Now for the fun stuff Xtreme air benching

Beat my previous validation with air, max before was 4.2
http://valid.canardpc.com/cache/banner/525966.png

Just some benches i'm tossing up no rhyme or reason, 32mPI is preety impressive considering everything I had open after I ran the 1m.
Dissapointed with my PC mark run, will probably re run it appears I needed a defrag preety bad.

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/airbench1.JPG

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/airbench2.JPG

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/airbench3.JPG

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/airbench4.JPG

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/airbench5.JPG

Reserved 3

Some DI results with X3 720 BE

1102 bios ran very smooth although at this point I was low on Dry Ice so I wasn't pushing it to hard.

No optimizing, one bench after another, managed to crack my current x3 720BE WR pifast time....just quick benches, was tired after an 8 hour Dry Ice run.

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer1/bingo1.JPG

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer1/bingo2.JPG

Reserved 5

You have no idea how hard it is to find that board in UK and Ireland.

I want and need it!

Please Chew, please make it squeel with overclocking :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by N19h7m4r3

You have no idea how hard it is to find that board in UK and Ireland.

I want and need it!

Please Chew, please make it squeel with overclocking :D

---

hell yeah, god it took so long for the SB750's to turn up, that it was too late for me, got myself a Phenom II :rofl:

i got to admit that board looks sexy, its been a while since i seen a sexy AMD board, but again as you noticed chew*, bad contact on the mosfets.

tut tut, i wish these mobo makers would get there act together with this, i wonder how many are RMA'd for this very reason?

what are you going to do with the heatsink and bridges? remount it with some ceramic?

all the same i look forward to your review of it, i myself am very busy over the weekend, so no crosshair fun for me just yet :(

Ooo... That be the board I'm getting for my 940BE so I'll keep an eye on this thread for sure!:cool:

:up:

nice board, thanks for the pics chew*.
i thought about getting one, but ur pics made me realize that my mosfet waterblock doesn´t fit on it...
why does asus have to change the mosfet cooler?? and don´t even ensure good contact... damnit

I used ceramique on north and southbridge.

Spread out the mosfet pad a little, straightened the heatpipe assembly and reinstalled. I will try it like that.

If I'm not happy with it I will use a hardware mount versus the pushpins and springs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chew*

I used ceramique on north and southbridge.

Spread out the mosfet pad a little, straightened the heatpipe assembly and reinstalled. I will try it like that.

If I'm not happy with it I will use a hardware mount versus the pushpins and springs.

---

when i do this, i allways get rid of that mosfet strip, and just put ceramic on there, then use some bolts to lock it down.

as you said, you can try the push pins first, for me i allways just snip them off, cause i wrecked a mobo trying to get them through one time,

yeah bolts and nuts since then :up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by N19h7m4r3

You have no idea how hard it is to find that board in UK and Ireland.

I want and need it!

Please Chew, please make it squeel with overclocking :D

---

funny enough i was looking for fun, and guess what i found in the UK? :up:

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=34974

i have delt with aria a few times, and they are sound :up:, prompt postage and delivery :up:


mmmmmmm, shall i pull the trigger? sleep on it, the missus will kill me :shocked:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by soundood

funny enough i was looking for fun, and guess what i found in the UK? :up:

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=34974

i have delt with aria a few times, and they are sound :up:, prompt postage and delivery :up:


mmmmmmm, shall i pull the trigger? sleep on it, the missus will kill me :shocked:

---

There are some slight hardware changes, I personally think it has been tuned for 45nm specifically as I have seen asus do this before.....you can sell off your current. I was a big fanboy of abit but when oscar left it fell apart, I'd bet money that this will get that cpu cranking more. I did a lot of homework before I made the purchase.

Hey Chew!

Boy am I glad you're working on this mobo...:D

I have the same and I'm having problems with software (AOD, OCCP,...) not detecting my voltages (vCore, 12V, 3.3V) correctly...

I tried the 701, 801 and 901, but there's no difference....

Do you have any idea what it could be...?

And oh yea, my CPU is overheating like crazy...

I will look into it, I just decided to set it up, posted fine running memtest now.

Just working off the 940 and stock heatsink for now...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mcbalaban

Hey Chew!

Boy am I glad you're working on this mobo...:D

I have the same and I'm having problems with software (AOD, OCCP,...) not detecting my voltages (vCore, 12V, 3.3V) correctly...

I tried the 701, 801 and 901, but there's no difference....

Do you have any idea what it could be...?

And oh yea, my CPU is overheating like crazy...

---

Try BIOS 0903, the 0801 had a problem with overvolting Core VID, also AMD is working on an update for AOD, until then try and use TurboV for the basic settings.

OHhhhh this is gonna be interesting... It gonna be my next Mobo too. Like the M3 79-T,, Repasted before i even used it. Its most likely the Number One flaw with any AMD Mobo ,,

Manufactures need to give us better bang fr the Buck. Its not hard to make shure the Heatsinks actually lay flat and work now is it:D

Beside that ,, I like the 8+2 or actually 4+4+2 power department and New Layout. Clean . Funny that Before i used Asusu it was MSI or ABIT. Its nice to see ASUS Still on Top after all these years. Adding a M4-79T will make Four Asus Mobos in the last year for me. Waiting for a 945/950 and ill be happy.

Chew ,, Crank that puppy :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gOtVoltage

Manufactures need to give us better bang fr the Buck. Its not hard to make shure the Heatsinks actually lay flat and work now is it:D

---

Its a flaw with many motherboards, especially asus, my maxximus formula southbridge had one corner touching the SB chip and that was it, it was so bad it was noticable to the eye how crooked it was.

I like the memory options, not bad at all, should be able to unlock some extra performance out of these sticks now. Still not as good as my manta options but they will do. ( that board would give most users brain freeze, the amount of settings was insane )

The phase for the ram definitely needs to be paid attention to, it runs very hot, under the shot of the asus NB heatsink.

Hehe, you don't want to see the thermal cr@p under the heatpipe assembly of a $350,- Asus Rampage Extreme, it was just awfull!

I will keep an eye on this thread chew, thanks for posting it up.

First flaw i found with mine is that NB frquency set in bios is not always detected after you've set it in bios.

Setting it to 2.6GHz for example and rebooting will put it just at 1.8GHz according to CPU-Z.

Workaround is to go back into bios, set it to 2.4, reboot and then set it to 2.6GHz.

Did you notice this too?

Oh, selecting 1066 divider allows to even set cas level 3 and 4, naturally both didn't boot. :D

i ran into this issue with am3 my workaround is to use stock multi ex. if i tried 18x227 going for 3.5nb in windows cpuz shows 2200nb. i was racking my head with that one. it not a big problem though, i set 15x oc htt till u get the ram were you want it then use k10stat in win thats if you have unlocked chip. lock chips should work just needs more massaging:)

No choice for 925 locked @ 14:)

Have to be all set from bios then k10stat if neccessary.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bingo13

Try BIOS 0903, the 0801 had a problem with overvolting Core VID, also AMD is working on an update for AOD, until then try and use TurboV for the basic settings.

---

You don't know how much better that makes me feel....:yawn:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by soundood

funny enough i was looking for fun, and guess what i found in the UK? :up:

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=34974

i have delt with aria a few times, and they are sound :up:, prompt postage and delivery :up:


mmmmmmm, shall i pull the trigger? sleep on it, the missus will kill me :shocked:

---

I have already tried registering on their site.

I live in Ireland , we dont use a postcode.

Even if you select Ireland from the drop downbox it still insists on a postcode.

I emailed them, they told me to select Ireland from the drop down box.

I'm extremely pissed at this moment. I detailed in my email that it still wants a postcode even with Ireland selected and I got that rubbish answer.

I sent another email this morning, although I went alittle over board....

I have never delt with them but already I dont like it.


I'm stuck with a dead system until I get a new mobo and I dont want to get a nornal AM2+ that I need to flash the bios. I've no spare cpu to do that...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by N19h7m4r3

I have already tried registering on their site.

I live in Ireland , we dont use a postcode.

Even if you select Ireland from the drop downbox it still insists on a postcode.

I emailed them, they told me to select Ireland from the drop down box.

I'm extremely pissed at this moment. I detailed in my email that it still wants a postcode even with Ireland selected and I got that rubbish answer.

I sent another email this morning, although I went alittle over board....

I have never delt with them but already I dont like it.


I'm stuck with a dead system until I get a new mobo and I dont want to get a nornal AM2+ that I need to flash the bios. I've no spare cpu to do that...

---

SCAN are also showing them, they ship to ireland, in the postcode box when ordering online put 'RIE' shipping should cost you £20 though :up:

any problem give them a call, again i have dealt with scan a few times, they are sound :up:, with a great returns system, never had any hassle from them :up:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?W...source=froogle

Thanks man, but when did scan start shipping to Ireland.

I've been in contact with them for over 2 years now and they've neve shipped to Ireland before.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by N19h7m4r3

Thanks man, but when did scan start shipping to Ireland.

I've been in contact with them for over 2 years now and they've neve shipped to Ireland before.

---

im not sure when they started shipping there, all i know is a mate of mine in Dublin, orderd from them a month or so back, and we were chatting about how hard it is to get some parts (Mobo's) in the UK and ireland (especialy ireland)

i remebered the convo from that, so i called them, and they ship, how long doesnt really matter now, you can have yourself a mobo without any bios update hassle :up:

more and more british based companys are realising that ireland is a big market on thier doorstep, all this cross border nonsense is gone now, we are after all the EU....lol.

same applys to stuff i order from german sites, those guys are great (Usualy watercooling stuff)

and may i take the oppertunity to say i love the german people, what a great bunch of people, and such a dry sense of humour (too dry for most) them and the italians. never a dull moment at a dinner party full of scots, italians and germans...lol

Thanks again.

It just so happened I got an email from Steve at Specialtech telling me they just added the board :)

These guys a extremely helpful and friendly.

I'll be ordering from them instead, the price works out the same and I've dealt with them before :)

I can't wait.

fantastic news, glad it worked out, this is a cracking board, i am still humming and howing as to whether to get it.

its not cash, just the time really, i got a crosshair sitting here that i still havent had time to play with.

i look forward to your results :up:

Does it have 10+2 phases? It looks like 4+1 but with 12 chokes...

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...12139&Itemid=1

Quote:

---

Affordable monster overclocker

The guys at Xtremesystems forum have managed to overclock the $140 three-core AMD Phenom X3 720 all the way to 4.2GHz. They even got the CPU-Z 3.0 validator to second the score.

The guys used Gigabyte's GA-MA790GP-DS4H, an AMD 790GX based motherboard, and set the multiplier to 21 and bus speed to 200MHz. Going over 4.2GHz is really an awesome score, especially if you take into account the relatively low price of the platform. The rest of this OC beast included 2x2g OCZ Gold modules doing 5-5-5-15 2.1v @ 1066, PC P&C 750, 2 X hd4850 512mb, OCZ Vindicator, 36gig Raptor,Benq DL DVD burner.

Obviously this overclocker, known as chew* on the forum, likes OCZ but his second machine does have an Q6600 overclocked to 3.6GHz so he still likes Intel too.

You can check the validator here and the rest of the details how he got to that amazing speed here. Good job chew*, and we certainly hope we can achieve some similar speeds in our test environment.

---

Keep pushing it chew*! :up:

Hmm, I humbly agree about the OCZ comment, this is due to the awsome support Tony has offerd me over the years....:up:Glad they recieved some publicity.


Board claims 8+2 phases.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chew*

Hmm, I humbly agree about the OCZ comment, this is due to the awsome support Tony has offerd me over the years....:up:Glad they recieved some publicity.


Board claims 8+2 phases.

---

Your modesty makes me sick!


But seriously, congrats. ;)

Soooo anyway.

fell asleep at keyboard last night, woke up to this.
1.4875 vcore, I dropped everything else to stock to eliminate any other factors.

Still on Stock amd HS:shocked:

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/IMG_0541[1].jpg

Now if I saw that shot I'd say yah but that doesn't mean it will get into windows......Well we would all be wrong ;)

http://members.cox.net/bostonreefer4/asusstockHS.JPG

Woo! That's what I wanted to see :D

Push it harder!

Got some d9's donated to the cause, give me a day to through all the memory options and I will post up some bullet proof micron D9 settings.

I'm not going to list timings as always YMMV, I am going to list everything else that will help get the most out of your ram though.

Method used, push memory till it errors, tweak till it doesn't, push more till it does, go onto next setting and repeat. This is very time consuming, grabbing a pen and pad to jot down info works wonders.

2x1corsair dominators v1.2 5-5-5-15 1066.

0801 bios

940BE Retail

I'm testing them 4-4-4-10 to find max at tight timings.
Settings for Micron D9

Voltage 2.26 ( I feel this is max you would want to go for 24/7 use for the safety of ram and the memory controller in the cpu )

AI tweaker bottom of page CLOCK SKEWS

Setting 1 clock skew delay 150PS

Bottom of ram timing page
Drive strengths = very important
CKE Drive Strength - 1.5x
CS/ODT drive strength - 1x
Address/command Drive Strength - 1x
Data drive strength - 0.75x
DQS drive strength - 1.25x
Processor On die termination - 300ohms +/-20%

I suggest looping test 5 as that will be the only test that will fail, making one pass will not likely error.
Will update in a few with a breakdown of voltages for what ram clock speeds.

2.20 920mhz 10 loop pass memtest test 5, 1 full pass all tests 4-4-4-10
2.26 988mhz 10 loop pass memtest test 5, 1 full pass all tests. 4-4-4-10
2.30 1000mhz 10 loop pass memtest test 5, 1 full pass all tests. 4-4-4-10

Gonna try less volts see what they do. still havent touched sub timings, gained a little playing with drive strengths maybe 8mhz per voltage step. Will give 5-5-5-a shot when I have time.

hrm, 4 hours later...................

must realy be getting to know the Blue screen by now ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by G0ldBr1ck

hrm, 4 hours later...................

must realy be getting to know the Blue screen by now ;)

---

yah thank god its not a BSOD have no spare hard drives atm, thumb drive with memtest is gold though, very time consuming trying to get 500 (1000) stable 4-4-4-10. 484 was cake, not such a cake walk to 500 though.

Problem is once you test each setting by its lonsome you have to mix and match them to work with one another. My luck is i'll get everything kosher then update to 903 bios and have to start over.

hey hey,

edit: i assumed you would have flashed straight to the 903 bios? i have, am i missing something with the 801?

well i got my OCZ running at nothing special, 5-5-5-15 2T 2.0v 1066, i wanna see how they go, they ran fine in memtest overnight, but they would blue sceeen on last mobo (mobo problem).

but yeah i wanna run them like this for couple of days, as for clock, i am burning in my AS5, with a clock of 3500 mhz @ 1.45 vcore, and 2200 mhz NB.

to be honest i would not be upset if this was my 24/7 clocks in the end ;)

as expected this is all prime stable, just wait for the AC5 to 'cure' and push for more.

gota say this bios took me a little to get used too, i havent run around an ASUS coprehensive bios in a while.

one thing i did notice though, my x-fi does not enjoy changes to HTT, i was going for a high HTT, low multi, and was a no no.

took the x-fi out and no problem 240 x 15, ohhhh this is going to be fun over the next couple of weeks

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chew*

yah thank god its not a BSOD have no spare hard drives atm, thumb drive with memtest is gold though, very time consuming trying to get 500 (1000) stable 4-4-4-10. 484 was cake, not such a cake walk to 500 though.

Problem is once you test each setting by its lonsome you have to mix and match them to work with one another. My luck is i'll get everything kosher then update to 903 bios and have to start over.

---

how many volts are you at now on the ram?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by G0ldBr1ck

how many volts are you at now on the ram?

---

refuse to go over 2.26, I could go more but i'd rather tweak my way there.

I've got one of these on the way from ZipZoomFly to replace this M3A78-T that I picked up from Microcenter in an emergency. Hopefully I'll have better luck with it! It looks like an amazing board!

--Matt

I just purchased this board today from NewEgg so I hope I get good results. I have been running my 940 on a spare gigabyte 780G mATX board, but it just doesn't have enough power regulation to keep the vcore stable over 1.45v. My chip does 4GHz on 1.5v so I figured it deserved a proper board.

Thanks for this thread, it helped a lot in making my decision.

Sound I usually plow my way through every bios version till I find one with the maxclocks/performance. This was already in it so thats what i'm working with atm.

I used about 8 bios's on the gigabyte till I was happy, exploring every setting like a fiend scraping resin from a bowl once his sack is gone :D

Updating D9 settings ;)

Sound I have those plats in a rig, I will give them a go for you in this board ;)

This is the first AM2/AM2+ board I have used that doesn't have memory dividers for 400 and 533. This severely limits overclocking for me on what is supposed is supposed to be an enthusiast board.

Is there a way around this lack of dividers?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jamesrb

This is the first AM2/AM2+ board I have used that doesn't have memory dividers for 400 and 533. This severely limits overclocking for me on what is supposed is supposed to be an enthusiast board.

Is there a way around this lack of dividers?

---

this is ddrII era? 667/800/1066?

I am considering this mobo and the high end Gigabyte AM3 DDR3 mobo as well. I wonder what the advantages are of this Asus over the Gigabyte. I am more used to Asus but it seems a lot of people are going for the Gigabyte mobo due to its better connector placement and other things.
Any opinions are welcome before I make my decision over the weekend.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by shaolin95

I am considering this mobo and the high end Gigabyte AM3 DDR3 mobo as well. I wonder what the advantages are of this Asus over the Gigabyte. I am more used to Asus but it seems a lot of people are going for the Gigabyte mobo due to its better connector placement and other things.
Any opinions are welcome before I make my decision over the weekend.

---

Well I know the gigabytes bios is not up to snuff for extremists atm......might be fine for the casual overclocker, I personally like the layout better myself, I guess on of the advantages is quadfire on this board....

I assume you mean that the Gigabyte lacks bios options? Memory timings perhaps? that would be bad indeed although I guess if its OCes to the same level at the of the day then it wont matter too much.
The quadfire is no big deal for me as I use Nvidia.
I still have two days to make up my mind. :-)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chew*

this is ddrII era? 667/800/1066?

---

Yeah. It is less of an issue if you have 1066 or even 800mhz RAM. Also not an issue with the black edition's.

With my old AM2 board, I overclocked from 1.9ghz to 2.7ghz. I just dropped the divider so the RAM was running at 675mhz. With this board, to get the same 2.7ghz, the lowest I could run the RAM is 900mhz.

The M3A79-T Deluxe seems like it had all of the dividers, but on the M4A79, the only options I have are 667 and 800.

I've been wondering if a bios mod is possible.

might not be, may be do to the difference in the denebs memory controller. I would just pick up a cheap set of 1066 if i were you .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by shaolin95

I assume you mean that the Gigabyte lacks bios options? Memory timings perhaps? that would be bad indeed although I guess if its OCes to the same level at the of the day then it wont matter too much.
The quadfire is no big deal for me as I use Nvidia.
I still have two days to make up my mind. :-)

---

Doesn't lack options in bios, the options just arent working currently with current bios. etc NB clocking, ram over 1600......gigabyte has been very lazy in memory tweak department, this board is a nice change.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/produc...d=5&subid=1377

Chew, thanks for all the time you have/will put into examining this board!! Very good info's man. Im excited to put this board thru its paces. Hope my tagan 480 doesnt hold me back for now!

I ordered one of em from the egg + kuma 7750 BE and 2gb x 2 gskill 800 4 4 4 12. Should be up and running midweek and will post findings. No more water atm but i do have a solid copper zerotherm butterfly type cooler that works really well and should allow for some 1.5v+ clocking. Question: Are the mosfets flat enough for thermal paste? I have a custom case with 3 120mm fans that should compliment the passive sinks nicely provided they actually work!

I personally don't like paste directly on mosfets, having no cushion between a metal object and a source of power other than paste gives me the heebee jeebee's. I ended up bolting the PWM part of the heatsink down to ensure good contact.

Sinking the PWM for the memory is a good idea as well..

chew, so I assume you have experience with both this and the Gigabyte...is this in your opinion a clear victory for the Asus or are they pretty much equal?

Anyone know if this board is able to run 4x2GB sticks of 1066MHz ram? I already have it running 4GB of OCZ 1066 Platinums (OCZ2P10664GK) no problem, passes memtest and everything, but I want to get another 4GB so I can run a RAMdisk. I know that OCZ2P10664GK is not on the QVL for this motherboard, but the 1066 Reapers are and I read over at the OCZ forums that these are the same as the reapers, just different heatsinks (I hope this is true). If I have to run all 8GB at 800MHz, is there really a big difference between 800MHz and 1066MHz?

i am running the same sticks as you, i also have 2 x 2 gig, and as far as i am aware this is the exact same chips that are in the reaper 1066's.

as for 8 gig? im not sure, i would expect it to work on this board, as it seems solid enough, and also has no disclaimer as such in the manual to suggest there could be issues.

the differance between 800 and 1066? from what i have seen not a lot, tighter timings can companstae for the mhz differance (i have both the gold OCZ 800 mhz(8 gig) and plats 1066's(4 gig))

@chew* did you notice any noticeable differance with the mem clock skew set to +300?, i remember you mentioning it somewhere?

i currently have it set to -300 on channel A (mem slots) and all seems good, did you get higher clocks with the advance 300?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by shaolin95

chew, so I assume you have experience with both this and the Gigabyte...is this in your opinion a clear victory for the Asus or are they pretty much equal?

---

Depends on what boards your comparing, this is a ddr II variant FX, versus my GX gigabyte, I think this board has alot more potential.

I can get the gigabyte to do some preety crazy stuff but that is not the norm for most users.

I think this asus will surpass it in the right hands.

As far as ddrIII boards the jury is still out. Bios's for all of them are to fresh atm.

The gigabyte has the "potential" to be better than the asus ddrIII variant because of the better quality compenents used to make it (namely PWM ) whether they can get the bios to play nice though is another question.

Not sure about the MSI, havent seen a shot naked of the PWM yet. I hear the bios is usable in it's current state though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by soundood

i am running the same sticks as you, i also have 2 x 2 gig, and as far as i am aware this is the exact same chips that are in the reaper 1066's.

as for 8 gig? im not sure, i would expect it to work on this board, as it seems solid enough, and also has no disclaimer as such in the manual to suggest there could be issues.

the differance between 800 and 1066? from what i have seen not a lot, tighter timings can companstae for the mhz differance (i have both the gold OCZ 800 mhz(8 gig) and plats 1066's(4 gig))

@chew* did you notice any noticeable differance with the mem clock skew set to +300?, i remember you mentioning it somewhere?

i currently have it set to -300 on channel A (mem slots) and all seems good, did you get higher clocks with the advance 300?

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-150 for D9's
will get to the OCZ golds and plats later.

Gotta put something together for the wife to keep her happy and off my highly sensitive setups in my room....

Well it does say in the manual for the mobo on page 2-11 that it is primarily due to a cpu limitation of the IMC that they will run at 800 with 4 sticks. Oh well, I just ordered another 2 sticks anyways so we will see what happens. I'll post back here to let you guys know if I can get all 4 sticks running at 1066MHz.

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Originally Posted by chew*

Depends on what boards your comparing, this is a ddr II variant FX, versus my GX gigabyte, I think this board has alot more potential.

I can get the gigabyte to do some preety crazy stuff but that is not the norm for most users.

I think this asus will surpass it in the right hands.

As far as ddrIII boards the jury is still out. Bios's for all of them are to fresh atm.

The gigabyte has the "potential" to be better than the asus ddrIII variant because of the better quality compenents used to make it (namely PWM ) whether they can get the bios to play nice though is another question.

Not sure about the MSI, havent seen a shot naked of the PWM yet. I hear the bios is usable in it's current state though.

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Thanks for the reply...yeah I am actually talking about DDR3 mobos so since both are still new I guess I would go with Gigabyte this time because it has extra Sata and the higher build quality you mentioned. :)

Anyone notice voltage oddities with the 0903 bios? 1.55v bios = 1.55v windows, 1.565v bios = 1.465v windows, 1.6v bios = 1.5v windows. When I first got the board 1.5v BIOS set would pass OCCT at 3.7ghz. With this new BIOS it will insta BSOD. 1.6V is going fine so far (4 minutes LOL) so I have my fingers crossed...

That's odd indeed.:)

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Originally Posted by afireinside

Anyone notice voltage oddities with the 0903 bios? 1.55v bios = 1.55v windows, 1.565v bios = 1.465v windows, 1.6v bios = 1.5v windows. When I first got the board 1.5v BIOS set would pass OCCT at 3.7ghz. With this new BIOS it will insta BSOD. 1.6V is going fine so far (4 minutes LOL) so I have my fingers crossed...

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Yes, I have 1.375 in bios. CPU-Z shows 1.275

Anyone notice this board overvolting by .05v? I've got 1.55 set in the bios and I see 1.60 at idle and 1.57 under load.

--Matt

that bios 0903 matt?

Fwiw asus has always overvolted on me regardless of socket/cpu brand etc etc...my maxximus overvolts the PLL voltage by a hell of a lot..even when set manually to 1.5 it measures 1.6v

cpu/ram arrived today! Board tomorrow woooT!

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Originally Posted by chew*

that bios 0903 matt?

Fwiw asus has always overvolted on me regardless of socket/cpu brand etc etc...my maxximus overvolts the PLL voltage by a hell of a lot..even when set manually to 1.5 it measures 1.6v

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It happened on the 0801 that came with it and in 0903. Temps are only breaking 41C under load at 3.7, so I'm probably okay with that voltage.

It might be my imagination, but 801 seemed to clock better...

--Matt

Pretty sweet deal: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.165049

My M4A79 tends to overvolt by about .025v but I don't mind because it still provides a much much better vcore than my mATX gigabyte board I was running. I've also noticed that I don't need as much voltage with this board as I did with my gigabyte. I haven't finished fully testing it yet but 4.0GHz now boots and is stable at 1.5v instead of 1.55v like it required before, and my daily OC only requires 1.4v instead of 1.45v.

I'll post more results in my own thread

Has anyone found chipset drivers for this board other than from the cd or asus website?

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Originally Posted by Hudson

Has anyone found chipset drivers for this board other than from the cd or asus website?

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I think the newest chipset drivers will be in the catalyst install suite if your using a ATI card youve probly installed them.

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Originally Posted by Lathode

Pretty sweet deal: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.165049

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thanks for pointin out that deal
was in 2 minds about whether to go ddr3 or ddr2 route. that sealed it off
also ordered ocz plat 1066 and a core contact freezer

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Originally Posted by Lathode

Pretty sweet deal: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.165049

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WOW! I just got my M4A79 last week (order date: 2-22-09). I should have waited an extra week. How was I to know. Especially since I was planning on getting the PII in a few weeks anyway.

Argh!:shocked:

Well I got my other 2 sticks of ocz platinums 1066MHz. I will try to mess around with them tomorrow before I have to go to work to see if I can get all 4 sticks running at 1066MHz and post my results back here.

Hi, Im new to overclocking and would be interested in a little help tweaking
my settings any help would be a huge help. Just put the system together and its time to play. running Vista64

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3593/...b8559452_o.jpg

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Originally Posted by Lathode

Pretty sweet deal: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.165049

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Oh Noooos- This is exactly what I want but I was gonna wait till the end of the month:eek: what should i do??!!

I'm running into crashes when pushing to and beyond 3.8Ghz on this board. On the M3A78-T I was able to run there without any issues until I did something CPU intensive. With this board, I get a BSOD reporting that USBHID.SYS failed after 30 seconds or so of sitting at the desktop. Could this indicate anemic SB voltage? I've not touched it yet, but didn't need to with the SB750 on my other board. I do have an aging Razer Diamondback, and I see that this BSOD is common with these mice. The BSOD does occur upon moving the mouse, so it might be related. I'm going to give another mouse a try when I get home.

--Matt

matt 1.28 NB volts and 1.28 sb volts.

when overclocking you should always add a tad more volts to help stable things up. IME usb is the first to get knocked out if a tad unstable.

I lose my USB stick on a regular basis when pushing my gigabyte really hard.

I avoid USB devices when pushing really really hard, ps2 mouse and KB.

AMD freak, drop memory down to 800 spd, drop ht and nb down to 1800 spd, clock cpu multi and and use cpu vcore and test in prime, keep pushing till you prime loses a core consistently.......keep an eye on temps, I do not reccomend higher than 55C load temps.

After you find max stable core, drop cpu frequency to stock and clock NB multi using cpu NB vid, use the same step for cpu mhz with prime...... Once you find that max try to find a happy medium between both and start running PI 1m to note subtle differences in performance.

Once you find a happy medium bring your memory and HT up to speed and adjust HT volts and vdimm voltage and timings as necessary to stabilize it in prime.

I reccomend 1.28 nb and sb volts when running OC'ed on this board.

Hello AMD_Freak;

I was wondering if you had to change of modify any settings to get speedfan to show your fan2 rpm's. I only get fan1 to show rpm's. What's weird is I know the temp thresholds and speed setting are working properly during benching and gaming. I have tried a couple of older versions but still can't get it to show.

I have also tried enabling and disabling Qfan in the bios, but still get abnormal fan rpm's.

I just installed speedfan and let it do its thing ..Im showing 1 fan at low 22 RPM prolly change the fan to a different header I have Q-cool to disable.

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Originally Posted by chew*

matt 1.28 NB volts and 1.28 sb volts.

when overclocking you should always add a tad more volts to help stable things up. IME usb is the first to get knocked out if a tad unstable.

I lose my USB stick on a regular basis when pushing my gigabyte really hard.

I avoid USB devices when pushing really really hard, ps2 mouse and KB.

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That makes sense. Looking back at screenshots from the old board, it looks like the default for NB and SB was 1.30v whereas this board defaults them both at 1.20v. I was just a little thrown off because I didn't need to change them on the last board. I'll give 1.28 a shot and take a look around for some USB->PS2 adapters.

--Matt

Well I just plugged in the extra 4 gigs of ocz platinum 1066 that I got and it worked right off the bat. I didnt have to change anything at all in the bios, just plug em in and boot it up :) So now I have 8gigs of 1066 ram, I'm very happy.

lucky you!

On my M379-T, two 2 GB sticks of OCZ PC2-8500 Platinums don't work @ 1066 :(

Well hold on, I just started running memtest 3.4 with all 8 gigs and after 21 minutes it gave me 3 "ECC correctable errors" Does anyone know what this means? Is one of the new sticks I got bad?

is there any known issues with memtest86 3.4? Right now i'm trying 1 stick at a time with 3.4, but should i be using memtest86+ 2.11 instead?

there are a few issues with Phenoms and memtest versions other than 2.11, just use v2.11 and let us know the outcome :up:

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Originally Posted by soundood

there are a few issues with Phenoms and memtest versions other than 2.11, just use v2.11 and let us know the outcome :up:

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Alright, thanks for the info soundood. One of the new sticks already passed memtest 3.4 for 25 minutes with any errors, and right now the second stick as 10 minutes to go. After that I will plug all 4 sticks back in, and start memtest86+ before I leave for work, and leave it running untill i get home at about 1 in the morning. I'll post the results then.

One other thought, these sticks are rated at 2.2v, but right now i'm running them at 2.1, would that cause any of this?

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Originally Posted by chew*

matt 1.28 NB volts and 1.28 sb volts.

when overclocking you should always add a tad more volts to help stable things up. IME usb is the first to get knocked out if a tad unstable.

I lose my USB stick on a regular basis when pushing my gigabyte really hard.

I avoid USB devices when pushing really really hard, ps2 mouse and KB.

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1.28v isn't an option on the SB. I only have 1.20v and 1.35v in the 903 bios...

Are there more options in some other bios version?

--Matt

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Originally Posted by mattkosem

1.28v isn't an option on the SB. I only have 1.20v and 1.35v in the 903 bios...

Are there more options in some other bios version?

--Matt

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0801

Is it safe to flash to an earlier version? I had a bad experience with doing so on an abit board years ago.

--Matt

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Originally Posted by mattkosem

Is it safe to flash to an earlier version? I had a bad experience with doing so on an abit board years ago.

--Matt

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:shrug: I dunno I done some crazy stuff with bios's and chips never had issues. I flash from dos most of the time though none of this windows stuff.

Never flashed a bios from windows either. I flashed it back to 0801 and there's still only 1.20 and 1.35v. It shows the default as 1.20, increment of .15v and max of 1.35v... I've got my HT at 1.28 and the NB at 1.28. 801 does seem to be more stable though.

--Matt

good news, I bumped the vdimm up to 2.2v, and ran memtest86+ for 11 hours now and there have been no errors with all 8 gigs in running at 1066MHz. :)

got mine up and running woot! Didnt even have to reinstall windows7 coming from rdx200 O.o. havent updated bios from 701 thats on it. With .025 more cpu volts along with some very slight board v increases she is folding away at 225 x 15 (3375) withrams at 900 (4 4 4 12).

pretty excited that i got a decent chip!

what a groovey board. wow. thanks for the voltage tips Chew. will apply and start pushing more tonight. may install xp sp3 so i can use aod. turbo v works but is nowhere near as powerful a utility as aod.

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Originally Posted by mattkosem

Never flashed a bios from windows either. I flashed it back to 0801 and there's still only 1.20 and 1.35v. It shows the default as 1.20, increment of .15v and max of 1.35v... I've got my HT at 1.28 and the NB at 1.28. 801 does seem to be more stable though.

--Matt

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Matt I find that for overclocking the latest and greatest bios's are not up to snuff, just my 2 cents. they are an accumlation of fixes for stabilty for average users.

Only bios's that would concern me are bios's with memory compatability in the list of fixes. Everthing else I usually work around. Those voltages you have set are the one's I was referring to, forgot they call SB HT on this board.....HT volts 1.28 and NB volts 1.28.

I have been procrastinating on this board but will give it the full workout asap....

Gotcha. So far I've managed to get 3.7 stable with 1.55v. I'll play with it more tonight if I have a chance.

--Matt