Crosshair IV on the bench!

Hi Folks,

I got my new board today, right before I had to leave for work (sucked).. :p:
Oh well, all's good now! I'm home and will have a chance to play with it for a few hours before I need to go to bed...

I'm not going to install it in the main rig until this weekend, but I just couldn't resist getting a little play time with it tonight!

Overall I'm pretty impressed so far. The build quality seems excellent!
One of the things I was impressed with was the fact that all the heatpipes were actually attatched with screws (no goofy plastic clips here ;)).
I read that the board has 10+2 power, but I'm not really sure, it only has 10 chokes on the pwm area which would lead me to believe it's 8+2 but I could be wrong.

Here's the rig specs as it sits on the bench:
Asus Crosshair IV Formula
AMD 555 X2 (unlocked)
4Gb Crucial (cheapo) 1333 9-9-9-24-33 @ 1333 7-7-7-18-26 (know good)
Seagate 80Gb (SATA 1) drive with Vista HP 32bit (both VERY old and used)
Visiontek 3870

I basically just shoved all my old available parts on here to get it up and running. :D

Heres a few pics/SS's:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...t/DSCN0459.png

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...t/DSCN0460.png

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...t/Unlocked.png


This drive doesn't have enough space for alot of benches, but really the only ones I'm concerned about are Clockability and Mem Bandwidth.
Let's face it, not alot of point to running 3D benches on this settup... :rofl:

The only bench I have on the drive that stresses the system at all right now is WinRAR. I let it run the benchmark test for about 5 minutes on the unlocked 555 and it didn't error, so at least thats something. :yepp:
It would seem to be reliable at unlocking an X2 (more tests to come)...

Oh well, I'm off to flash the newest bios (0602).

damn that's a sexy board.

nice dave, looks good! lookin forward to some more results.. im trying to decide if i should get formula or some dominator gt's, i think im getting one of the 2 in the coming days

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crazydiamond

nice dave, looks good! lookin forward to some more results.. im trying to decide if i should get formula or some dominator gt's, i think im getting one of the 2 in the coming days

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If you're looking to bench I'd pick up the dominator's. You'll probably see better results with new ram than moving to a new board (unless these boards hold something special :D). The boards new so you'll probably see the price fall in a little bit.

I am in the same situation though, and I guess it all depends on what you're looking for. I've got a GD70 and I'm going to be picking up a 1090T in the near future. I still love my board and it obviously supports thuban but I'm also going to be picking up some Vertex 2's for RAID and I'd be infinitely bottle necked by SB750. I'd like some dominator's but for the time being picking up the 1090t/890FX makes sense for me because once I finally install my loop into my case it'd be a huge pain in the ass to upgrade my motherboard, especially if it's only a few weeks after I get everything finalized. Swapping out 2 sticks of memory is a much easier, and a much less painstaking upgrade for me.

Good luck and I'm interested in hearing your feedback from whichever route you wish to take.

Congrats on the upgrade Dave, I'm excited to see more. When are you gonna pair that board up with Thuban? ;)

appreciate the input bluechanell.. i will also be getting thuban too so i guess it might not hurt to wait until i hear from some people who have x6 on msi 790fx once they get turbo sorted out in bios. also interested in msi's 890fxa, but have been leaning toward formula, i like the idea of black & red theme :D i think i will probably go w/ ram soon & wait for a board because i currently have 790gx am2, 790fx am3, 890gx am3 boards here, 8gb ddr2 ballistix, 4gb ddr3 ocz here, 2 am2 phenoms, 2 am3 phenoms and soon x6 :D i think getting some more ddr3 would be better idea right now.. having 3 am3 boards & only 1 set of ddr3 wouldnt make much sense :p: maybe ram & thuban soon, formula down the road when i sell some hardware, and upgrade gpu's when ati brings out refresher card :up:

I'm loving this board! :D

My biggest complaint about the GBT 790XT-UD4P was the lack of detail on the voltages. You were pretty much stuck raising V's by .25 a pop on almost all components...

The finese on this board is amazing! I can change voltages down to .00125 on almost all the components.. :shocked:

The bios is a little confusing though, there are so many options it's kind of hard to find your way when it's all new....
I'm trying to take my time, seems like you could kill something if you got impatient, but it also seems like you could really dial things in perfectly if you take your time!

Most voltages change font color in BIOS when your adjusting them.
Green is undervolted, Blue is within Spec, Yellow is pushing it and Red is dangerous...

There seems to be some quirks with CPU-Z compared to BIOS settings, but it's not too hatefull.

I still have alot of testing to do, but this 555 is close to stable @ 1.5125v and 4013Mhz even under P95... :up:
And that's on a Zalman 9700 (decent, but not the best Air cooler)!

I get the feeling this board is going to ROCK when I move it to the main rig and put it under water... :yepp:

My opinion of Asus just went up about 2 points! ;)

That board looks like a beast Dave! I hope we will be seeing some more benches and a mini review from you in the near future :P

I ordered mine from Newegg last night.......cant wait to get it:)

Thought I'd share mine too:

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6587048_n.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3060/...6ca04aa5_o.png

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/...1e322f32_o.png

Repeating with 2GHz Dominators @ 8-8-8-20

nice board, but not problems with BIOS vcore and real vcore? How about diferent version BIOS? Some reviewers had problems with high default voltage at Thuban or crashing. Hm?
Im waiitng for Giga boards, but can waiting max one week. Than ASUS :). So, Crosshair IV is on the second place. We have in shop only this Crosshair IV and new MSI. Nothing about gigabates :shakes:

I got BIOS 0706, it's supposed to make 2GHz RAM work but no joy with Corsair Dominators so far.

OC to 4GHz on first Boot with 4x4GB RAM's a good start.

Update: Gained ~100 points in GPU-P Vantage (31999) with 8GB @ 2GHz 9-10-9-27

Quote:

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Originally Posted by initialised

I got BIOS 0706, it's supposed to make 2GHz RAM work but no joy with Corsair Dominators so far.

OC to 4GHz on first Boot with 4x4GB RAM's a good start.

Update: Gained ~100 points in GPU-P Vantage (31999) with 8GB @ 2GHz 9-10-9-27

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0707 is the latest BIOS, running 8GB of Corsair GTX2 at 2000 7-8-7-24 here. PM me your Dominator part number please. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Oh well, I'm off to flash the newest bios (0602).

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PM me for the 0707 please. 0602 is not the best performing BIOS due to early AOD beta compatibility code. ;)

Thanks Bingo, SF3D posted a link to it in another thread. Flashed it late last night but didn't have time to test it much.

Excellent!
Dave, if you're happy with this board I will be happy as well!
Hope to get it tomorrow..

@bingo13 Thanks for sharing all the privileged details :up:

@FlanK3r I was planning on getting GA UD7 but it's not in stock and no ETA for UK in any of distros so ASUS won this round! My 1090T needs a home ASAP and I'm without my main rig since last weekend.

Go Dave...;) looks like a great board. I am not buying any 890FX boards yet...I want a x6 1090t first. I am looking forward to your testing, enjoy!!

Wow thats a nice settup initialised! Could you run the Heaven Bench for me? (1900x1200 2x AA and 8x AF)

Lightman, I think you'll like this board man. ;)
The bios is a little different, with lots of options but it's starting to grow on me, and it seems pretty darn stable considering it's a new platform...

FlanK3r, the Vcore seems to be fine and runs steady. Pretty sure it's just a quirk with CPU-z and the new chipset.
In fact the new BIOS cleared up what few problems I was noticing.

bingo13: It's not really a big deal, but after I flashed 0707 the "Core Unlocker" button on the mobo quit functioning on the 555.
It still works fine if I set it in bios though.

dave: thx, maybe it will my next board...Its very hard for choose :-/. Ctross IV or Gigabyt UD5/7? Need some info about max OC with this 2 boards :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FlanK3r

dave: thx, maybe it will my next board...Its very hard for choose :-/. Ctross IV or Gigabyt UD5/7? Need some info about max OC with this 2 boards :)

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+1

I have a dream machine build coming up and those are the boards I'm looking at. 1090T + 8GB DDR 2000 + 8x2TB Samsung F3s in 4x2TB RAID 01 Configs (Two 4TB Striped Mirrors). So I really need to go with the CH IV Extreme unless the UD has 8 SATA 3.0 Ports and is a better clocker... I'll probably wind up with the Asus. I'm going to need a monster PSU on this too because more than likely I will be putting in my 2 4850x2s until prices on the cards drop. tesselation does nothing for me and DirectX11 performance sucks compared to the visual bonuses.

Hate to burst ya bubble but 2000mhz might be not 100% warranted... think you need a good IMC to handle that... really thinking this Early sample is holding me back...

Currently fighting to get higher then 1966Mhz Pi32mb... (rams OC far better in the outer slots...)

http://users.telenet.be/OAP/1966pi32.jpg

Alright That's it!!

I'm watching all you folks having so much fun with your new gear and here I am with this shiney new Mobo running old hand me down peripherals and Air cooled (ewww:p:)...

I can't even do any decent comparisons cause all my good gear is in the main rig.
I was going to wait till the weekend and do it right, but I'm moving the board tonight! ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Leeghoofd

Currently fighting to get higher then 1966Mhz Pi32mb... (rams OC far better in the outer slots...)

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I've got some Mushkin (BBSE's) in the main rig, I'll try the outer slots first!

It may not be tonight, but at least I'll be able to compare some benchies to things I tested on the 790X-UD4P!

I'm off to tear things apart. :yepp:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Thanks Bingo, SF3D posted a link to it in another thread. Flashed it late last night but didn't have time to test it much.

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Just one key to this BIOS, be sure to max NB and HT speeds in sync to keep the memory tables at optimum settings. Auto mode will cause them to drop below 2000 if HTT (bclk) exceeds 240 and a weird situation with lower bus speeds and high memory multis might get the two out of sync also. This is due to the current auto rule tables that are tuned for compatibility/stability.

The current AGESA code is stable for Thuban now so we will start to tighten up the tables and offer some additional performance tweaks in the near future. I will have another BIOS release next week (I hope) that will offer additional performance and enhance auto settings.

As a reminder, C1E/CnQ being enabled will slightly affect performance and to maximize drive performance, either operate in AHCI or RAID mode and be sure to use the proper 10.4 SB/AHCI/RAID driver set from ATI.

Besides the two extra SATA ports, and the different PCI-E slot placement, does anyone know what difference there will be for the Crosshair IV Extreme?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bingo13

Just one key to this BIOS, be sure to max NB and HT speeds in sync to keep the memory tables at optimum settings. Auto mode will cause them to drop below 2000 if HTT (bclk) exceeds 240 and a weird situation with lower bus speeds and high memory multis might get the two out of sync also. This is due to the current auto rule tables that are tuned for compatibility/stability.

The current AGESA code is stable for Thuban now so we will start to tighten up the tables and offer some additional performance tweaks in the near future. I will have another BIOS release next week (I hope) that will offer additional performance and enhance auto settings.

As a reminder, C1E/CnQ being enabled will slightly affect performance and to maximize drive performance, either operate in AHCI or RAID mode and be sure to use the proper 10.4 SB/AHCI/RAID driver set from ATI.

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Thanks bingo13, I catch alot of grief for it, but I always try to keep the IMC/HTLink matched (or at least close). If you come up with any decent beta BIOS be sure to shoot me a PM, I'll be more than willing to help you test it... ;)

It's really late here, but I got all my gear moved over to the main rig.
It's not as pretty as some folks, but at least I'm runnning on the good stuff!

Heres a Pic:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...t/DSCN0461.jpg

I'm going to go to Microcenter this weekend to get some "Blood Red" coolant. I know it's just asthetics, but that green fluid just doesn't do my rig justice... :rofl:

I'll get some legit comparisons between the 790X and 890FX on the same gear within the next few days too, not sure how much improvement I'll see, but I'm curious myself, and I'll share my results!

dave, if you change your coolant to blood red, you might as well change the tubing to something clear so that we can see it flowing ;) but your rig is already beautiful :up:

will be waiting for your results on the crosshair IV, it definitely is a very good board

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

bingo13: It's not really a big deal, but after I flashed 0707 the "Core Unlocker" button on the mobo quit functioning on the 555.
It still works fine if I set it in bios though.

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Umm, still working here. Let me try a retail 555 today.

Hey Dave, what are your work hours...? Looking forward to some test... I am real close to buying one:p:

Hey Jay,

I work 2nd Shift (3pm-11pm). I took a floating holiday tommorow to watch the Black-Ops feed and hopefully get a little time to put the rig through it's paces now that I have it under water.

I'd really love to have an X6, but I've been using mid range boards for quite awhile and I've been waiting for the 890FX's, so it was one or the other... :yepp:

I'm testing stability some tonight, I'll try and post a CB11.5 run at least.

Yeah, I am looking at the x6's on newegg everyday. Been trying to resist. I have a shopping cart beeing done this afternoon. I have a group buy of part. The asus might go on that order, My cousins are upgrading there rigs finally :p:. I look forward to the test, wonder if you'll be able to squeze any more out of your chips.;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bingo13

0707 is the latest bios, running 8gb of corsair gtx2 at 2000 7-8-7-24 here. Pm me your dominator part number please. :)

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cmg4gx3m2a2000c8

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Apokalipse

Besides the two extra SATA ports, and the different PCI-E slot placement, does anyone know what difference there will be for the Crosshair IV Extreme?

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Overclocking by Bluetooth on smart phones, rumours of SLi support but nothing concrete yet.

Nice board Dave! :up: Will be getting one for my bithday soon. :) Have fun with yours, a Thuban will complement the fun.:)

Watching the BlackOps feed got me in an OC frenzy, and since I finally have a day off I decided to push this Crosshair a little... :D

Heres a SS of what I've got so far:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3.../430_best1.png

Thats my best WPrime score ever!
I'm impressed with this boards ability to clock RAM, almost 1800 @ reasonable voltages and clocks. ;)

Not too shaby on the Cores either considering I'm only @ 1.5v.

Oh well, I'm sure everyone is watching the BigDogs, but I'm pretty happy with this... :up:

One really nice thing about this board is the fact that the 1600 Mem divider actually works!... :up:

I've had a few boards and always had to set Mem @ 1333 and clock the HTRef up to get 1600. At least with the C4F I can set the mem divider properly (@ 1600) and clock the HTRef up from there.
It may not sound like much, but for all you folks who OC it takes one more thing out of the equation on BE chips....
I can push my memory without worrying about the HTREf being too high.

Good Job, Asus and Bingo13... :up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Watching the BlackOps feed got me in an OC frenzy, and since I finally have a day off I decided to push this Crosshair a little... :D

Heres a SS of what I've got so far:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3.../430_best1.png

Thats my best WPrime score ever!
I'm impressed with this boards ability to clock RAM, almost 1800 @ reasonable voltages and clocks. ;)

Not too shaby on the Cores either considering I'm only @ 1.5v.

Oh well, I'm sure everyone is watching the BigDogs, but I'm pretty happy with this... :up:

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good job man congrats on breaking your own high:up:

Did you do any comparison between the 0505 and 0707 bios? is there an increase in performance?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Titan7171

good job man congrats on breaking your own high:up:

Did you do any comparison between the 0505 and 0707 bios? is there an increase in performance?

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Wassup Titan7171... :)

Personally, I would highly recommend flashing the 0707 Bios. My board came with something wierd (0602?) and it didn't work right at all, 0707 is much better!

It's always cool beating your own personal best and that one fell already... :p:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...est_Wprime.jpg

I've been working so much, I really haven't gotten a chance to play with this board, but I took the day off from work, and all I can say is I'm loving this puppy!! :D

You know me bro, I'm a wimp when it comes to voltage (I really hate to break Sh*t)... The C4F lets ya take baby steps on voltage.
This is turning out to be a good thing! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Wassup Titan7171... :)

Personally, I would highly recommend flashing the 0707 Bios. My board came with something wierd (0602?) and it didn't work right at all, 0707 is much better!

It's always cool beating your own personal best and that one fell already... :p:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...est_Wprime.jpg

I've been working so much, I really haven't gotten a chance to play with this board, but I took the day off from work, and all I can say is I'm loving this puppy!! :D

You know me bro, I'm a wimp when it comes to voltage (I really hate to break Sh*t)... The C4F lets ya take baby steps on voltage.
This is turning out to be a good thing! :D

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believe me when I say you will not break anything

this is what ive benched with without a problem so if you wanna use this as a guide of voltage safe up to.?? unless you already passed these settingsthen disregard.

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/j...1/P4300382.jpg

I doubt I can touch my 4.5ghz Wprime with this mobo itd be a struggle to get a few milleseconds so Ill just wait for thuban

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.co...0&d=1259303791

Nice dave, and you to titan... I will hopefully have mine Monday. I hope to have just as much fun. It shipped this morning and I did over night. Dave, do you see the board being better efficient compared to your old board at same clocks?

Titan7171:, Thanks for the BIOS Screen Bro....

I'm still a fricken wimp! Those voltages kind of scare me man... :cool:

I've been going real easy all day/night, taking baby steps if you will..

I've tested most clocks (except CPU Core) pretty extensively tonight and I've found (as always) cranking voltages ain't always the answer... :cool:

Your WPrime score frikkin ROCKS, but I'm not really ready push voltages that far...

Call me a wuss, but I'm still looking for best clocks @ reasonable voltages.. A 24/7 kind of thing... :cool:

Hey Dave, I think me, you and oldtimer (he is from the big O) need to do an XS OCing weekend;) Really get that board broke in. I'll bring the LN2:up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Titan7171:, Thanks for the BIOS Screen Bro....

I'm still a fricken wimp! Those voltages kind of scare me man... :cool:

I've been going real easy all day/night, taking baby steps if you will..

I've tested most clocks (except CPU Core) pretty extensively tonight and I've found (as always) cranking voltages ain't always the answer... :cool:

Your WPrime score frikkin ROCKS, but I'm not really ready push voltages that far...

Call me a wuss, but I'm still looking for best clocks @ reasonable voltages.. A 24/7 kind of thing... :cool:

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I dont use those settings for 24/7 that is the highest Ive put them for benching prolly ran like that for 3-4 hours. They all lower now. I did that basically to set a threashold for future reference. So if I do need to raise them for any reason I can go back and see my limit and that its been done before.

That Wprime is on my M3A79-T not this mobo. Do you have a link for the 0707 bios? I think Im ready to try it out and see if it makes a difference.

Hey, where did you guys get that board? I can't find it anywhere.....

Been busy as *&^% for the past year or so, and haven't been here that much (former XS addict :D)

But now that we have all new stuff, argh.. the bug is back. Has Chew* beaten one of these things yet?

Here's a link for the bios Titan:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=134

If you can't get it from the link it's posted over in the review section/Crosshair pictures.

Nanohead: I bought mine from ZZF, I think Titan got his from New Egg. JUst google Crosshair IV Formula and look under shopping.

Nano, yeeah it has been a while. I got mine from newegg also.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Here's a link for the bios Titan:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=134

If you can't get it from the link it's posted over in the review section/Crosshair pictures.

Nanohead: I bought mine from ZZF, I think Titan got his from New Egg. JUst google Crosshair IV Formula and look under shopping.

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Thanks for the link! :up: Do you know what are the changes?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cele303

Thanks for the link! :up: Do you know what are the changes?

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I really didn't test the original BIOS long enough to be able to notice changes... I'm pretty sure it was mostly for stability though, maybe a few cosmetic changes.

Like I mentioned to Bingo13, the onboard "Core Unlocker" button quit working on my 555 (testing settup), but it still worked fine when set in Bios.

Doesn't the core unlocker work when pressing 4 at boot ?

Hey guys help me make up my mine I wont to build a new 1090T RIG WHAT MOBO WOULD YOU USE FOR 100% 24/7 STABLE OPERATION. I have always been a MSI guy until now the asus looks good. Asus has always had a issue with bios is that true now? The new MSI GD70 looks nice but I have not found anybody running one yet. Help me out here..

I've had problems with early Asus bios in the past myself Yancey (especially with new chipsets (785G comes to mind))...

But I don't think you'll have any problems with the Crosshair IV. Stability hasn't been a problem for me at all with this board and it seems like the bios team is putting alot of effort in to make it even better! WTG Asus... :up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

I really didn't test the original BIOS long enough to be able to notice changes... I'm pretty sure it was mostly for stability though, maybe a few cosmetic changes.

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I'm having some issues, with one 5870 no problems at all, C IV + 1090T, but with two 5870 in crossfire windows freezes after few minutes and after restart button no boot, bios lock up, reset bios and again after few minutes in windows they freeze... :(

Try 0701... :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Valg

Try 0701... :)

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I flashed "0701" tonight Valg, so far so good, although 0707 is probably newer, I'm assuming a release bios may have some benefits...

Bingo13: I'm sure your aware of this, but the LLC (Load Line Calibration) needs a little work.... :p:
If I turn it off in bios I get some serious VDroop (causes major problems!), if I turn it on without taking it into consideration the board overvolts to the point where temps come into play... ::cool:

So far I've left LLC on and adjusted Vcore down to take it into consideration and this has worked pretty well for me...
The slight bump with it on actually seems to help (as long as you know it's going to do that)...

I've left LLC on for the IMC too, although thats alot harder to figure out since AMD PowerMonitor doesn't work on the new chipset, so I really have no idea what effect it's having on the IMC (CPU-NB)... :shrug:
I'm just trying to guess what effect it has on IMC voltges (assuming it's the same as Vcore ~.025v's)..

What I'm saying is, leave LLC on as it is, and fix the Vdroop when it's off... :)

This is all just trivial stuff for folks who are used to OC'ing, but I'm sure it could give noobs fits!!

Dave

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

I flashed "0701" tonight Valg, so far so good, although 0707 is probably newer, I'm assuming a release bios may have some benefits...

Bingo13: I'm sure your aware of this, but the LLC (Load Line Calibration) needs a little work.... :p:
If I turn it off in bios I get some serious VDroop (causes major problems!), if I turn it on without taking it into consideration the board overvolts to the point where temps come into play... ::cool:

So far I've left LLC on and adjusted Vcore down to take it into consideration and this has worked pretty well for me...
The slight bump with it on actually seems to help (as long as you know it's going to do that)...

I've left LLC on for the IMC too, although thats alot harder to figure out since AMD PowerMonitor doesn't work on the new chipset, so I really have no idea what effect it's having on the IMC (CPU-NB)... :shrug:
I'm just trying to guess what effect it has on IMC voltges (assuming it's the same as Vcore ~.025v's)..

What I'm saying is, leave LLC on as it is, and fix the Vdroop when it's off... :)

This is all just trivial stuff for folks who are used to OC'ing, but I'm sure it could give noobs fits!!

Dave

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Yes, LLC on CPUNB gives +0.1V at default, but If you change any of the affected voltages from default to other value then all is good and back to normal :)

Confusing at first but at least can be worked out!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Watching the BlackOps feed got me in an OC frenzy, and since I finally have a day off I decided to push this Crosshair a little... :D

Heres a SS of what I've got so far:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3.../430_best1.png

Thats my best WPrime score ever!
I'm impressed with this boards ability to clock RAM, almost 1800 @ reasonable voltages and clocks. ;)

Not too shaby on the Cores either considering I'm only @ 1.5v.

Oh well, I'm sure everyone is watching the BigDogs, but I'm pretty happy with this... :up:

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You didn't just do that!

Sure. Make me look at my DDR2 MA790GP-UD4H and realize how much it is garbage. (NOTE: Gigabyte still hasn't updated the bios for Thuban... they already did the older motherboard that this board replaced but they haven't done this board. I wouldn't be surprised if they have some hardware issue and they end up not supporting Thuban on this board.)

I was kind of waiting for the 890FX boards. But I was going to wait a bit longer.... until the next Thuban update probably in the summer.

BUT NO! You had to go and show the PhII 965 doing VERY WELL in the ASUS Crosshair IV. Now I want one... er rather... must have one. But I already decided that when I upgrade from DDR2 to DDR3 I would get top quality instead of medium quality ram. Ouch. (BTW: probably Dominator GT 1600 CL6 ram. EDIT: Dang I can get good 1600C7 for $130.00 and the 1600C6 is $280.00. I don't know I can justify the C6.)

DANG IT... there goes $500.00. And I won't even have Thuban yet. THANKS DAVE.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lightman

Yes, LLC on CPUNB gives +0.1V at default, but If you change any of the affected voltages from default to other value then all is good and back to normal :)

Confusing at first but at least can be worked out!

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So LLC active on the IMC gives a +0.1v bump? Thats quite a bit! Unfortunately I don't quite understand what your saying about changing voltages etc... So I'll just ask a simple question. ;)
What software are ya using to monitor IMC voltages, PCProbe, Everest?
That way I can see the results for myself and maybe understand a little better... :up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by keithlm

You didn't just do that!

Sure. Make me look at my DDR2 MA790GP-UD4H and realize how much it is garbage. (NOTE: Gigabyte still hasn't updated the bios for Thuban... they already did the older motherboard that this board replaced but they haven't done this board. I wouldn't be surprised if they have some hardware issue and they end up not supporting Thuban on this board.)

I was kind of waiting for the 890FX boards. But I was going to wait a bit longer.... until the next Thuban update probably in the summer.

BUT NO! You had to go and show the PhII 965 doing VERY WELL in the ASUS Crosshair IV. Now I want one... er rather... must have one. But I already decided that when I upgrade from DDR2 to DDR3 I would get top quality instead of medium quality ram. Ouch. (BTW: probably Dominator GT 1600 CL6 ram. EDIT: Dang I can get good 1600C7 for $130.00 and the 1600C6 is $280.00. I don't know I can justify the C6.)

DANG IT... there goes $500.00. And I won't even have Thuban yet. THANKS DAVE.

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Glad I could be of help keithlm... :devil: :p:

I was kind of in the same boat as you. Tired of using mid range boards and was waiting for the 890FX's. I'd really love to have a Thuban, but I made the call and the 890FX came first. ;)
Hopefully, in a couple weeks I'll be able to afford an X6.

FWIW, my ram isn't really high dollar stuff but does pretty well on this board.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820226122

Probably the same as this G.Skill kit, but I think the Mushkin may be binned a little better.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231321

As for the Crosshair IV, I'm sure you'd love this board seeing as how your coming from the mid range stuff like I did.

If it makes you feel any better, those clocks weren't Prime stable but they'd run most benchies.
Memory performance/clocks definetly improved compared to the GBT 790X-UD4P, and it IS running stable on this board @ 1740 7-8-7-18-29 with 1.475v. :D

I'm going to do a little testing tonight @ CL6 and see what I come up with.

I'm sure those CL6 Dominators would ROCK, but $150 is alot of cash to me personally... :(

Good to see you're enjoying the board Dave. I have one on the way, together with a 1090T thuban. I hope it will be fun. ;)

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

I was kind of in the same boat as you. Tired of using mid range boards and was waiting for the 890FX's. I'd really love to have a Thuban, but I made the call and the 890FX came first. ;)
Hopefully, in a couple weeks I'll be able to afford an X6.

As for the Crosshair IV, I'm sure you'd love this board seeing as how your coming from the mid range stuff like I did.

I'm sure those CL6 Dominators would ROCK, but $150 is alot of cash to me personally... :(

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You are exactly right. I could have bought a newer high end board about 6 or 9 months ago; but I knew the 890FX was coming. So I waited. Now I don't really want to buy them all at once so I think I will get:

Crosshair IV
Corsair Dominator GT 1600C6 (The $280.00 stuff.)

Then I can wait for a bit to get the X6. If the X6 is as good as people say then the next release (1095T?) will be slightly better.

But then.. can I wait that long? If I can play with the PhII 965 on this new board and make it do new tricks like you have done it will probably be hard to wait. (I bet I can beat every benchmark record I currently have with just the new board.)

NOTE: They are out of Crosshair IV on Newegg... so that will force me to wait at least a bit. Or I might consider the MSI. (AsRock? Probably NOT... reminds me too much like Foxconn... a good board... but bios support as bad as Gigabyte. DANG... makes me remember I have the GA790FX-DS5 sitting in a box. That was supposedly a top-line board until Gigabyte stopped supporting it when the Phenoms were released. I'm almost tempted to pull it out and test it again... but it wasn't totally stable with a PhII 940 so I doubt the 965 would be any better.)

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Originally Posted by Zeus

Good to see you're enjoying the board Dave. I have one on the way, together with a 1090T thuban. I hope it will be fun. ;)

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Bastage! :p:
With your rig your going to kick butt with the new gear!
Can't wait to see the results... :up:

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Originally Posted by keithlm

You are exactly right. I could have bought a newer high end board about 6 or 9 months ago; but I knew the 890FX was coming. So I waited. Now I don't really want to buy them all at once so I think I will get:

Crosshair IV
Corsair Dominator GT 1600C6 (The $280.00 stuff.)

Then I can wait for a bit to get the X6. If the X6 is as good as people say then the next release (1095T?) will be slightly better.

But then.. can I wait that long? If I can play with the PhII 965 on this new board and make it do new tricks like you have done it will probably be hard to wait. (I bet I can beat every benchmark record I currently have with just the new board.)

NOTE: They are out of Crosshair IV on Newegg... so that will force me to wait at least a bit. Or I might consider the MSI.

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Just my MHO keithlm, although I'm sure those Dominator CL6's would smoke on benchmarks I'm not sure how much help they would be for everyday tasks, $150 may not be worth it (at least to me)...
If you went with the BBSE kit and added $50, you could get the Crosshair IV, the Mushkins and a 1055T all at the same time!

I'm like you, I'd really want a 1090T, but it sure would be fun to have an X6 to play with! :)

BTW: ZZF has the C4F in stock for $5 more with free shipping...
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...odlist=froogle

It's your call man, I'm just trying to live vicariously through someone who actually has money... :D

I don't want to buy something that I would end up thinking of as "mid-range" memory in three months.

But then I am also known to dream big... and then end up buying small.

Small enough I did actually look at the ASRock. But I think I might like that Crosshair feature that allows me to hookup my laptop for on the fly monitoring. That would be worth it's weight in gold if it works well. So I think at least the Crosshair IV. The memory... I"ll probably skimp on and not buy the $280.00 ram. But I can think big.

BIOS 0801 will be released tomorrow. Some additional fine tuning for memory performance improvements, additional voltage tweaks on auto settings, additional voltage tweaks on core 0, and a few other items. Still working on HT/NB auto settings to clock past 2400MHz when HTT exceeds 240, right now you need to switch to manual clock settings on both. Also, additional fine tuning for Thuban power management is still coming.

looking forward to it !!

I can't get a bios on my gigabyte board to save my life. (The last one they released was December last year.)

And these guys have put out 3 bios now for this new board.

I wants one. NOW!

(Although I want to see the price of the Crosshair IV Extreme first... if it is not that much more I'll go for that instead of the Formula.)

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

So LLC active on the IMC gives a +0.1v bump? Thats quite a bit! Unfortunately I don't quite understand what your saying about changing voltages etc... So I'll just ask a simple question. ;)
What software are ya using to monitor IMC voltages, PCProbe, Everest?
That way I can see the results for myself and maybe understand a little better... :up:

.....

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Dave, I've used AOD and BIOS values. When I've set LLC to enable and left everything else on auto my voltages were like this:
CPU vCore - 1.41V (org. 1.3V)
IMC - 1.25V (1.15V)
MEM - 1.61V (1.55V)

rest of them I don't remember :p:

By changing voltages I meant changing Auto values to anything different. For instance CPU vCore AUTO to +0.0125V.
With that change BIOS is taking CPU real vid. and adding mere 0.0125V resulting in 1.3125V going to CPU.

I hope now it's clear.
Sorry if I'm not explaining this well enough, but I'm tired after 2 very hard days at work (covered 1500 miles and 30 working hours :().

Can you guys tell me what the northbridge temperature reading was before replacing the thermal pad (if you replaced it)?
I went through 2 boards so far and both displayed temperature between 83~94C. The heatsink was barely making contact with the chipset on both boards.

Hey Dave, sounds like you are enjoying the board. :up:

Aside from the memory divider and clocking, are you finding any more cpu or nb headroom compared to your old board? I'm still running with a Gigabyte MA790XT-UD4P...

And still the old socket A swiftech block :rofl: I'm saving my pennies to add a new block to my next upgrade, but not sure where to go next. I'd likely get the most use out of a DX11 5XXX series, as I love games and as a programmer I'd like to mess with GPGPU. But it's easy to want to add the Crosshair IV, Thuban, Dominator GT's, a couple of solid state drives, and what the hell why not a Porsche while I'm at it :cool:

Anyway, just curious how much difference the Crosshair made for you.

Hi guys

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Originally Posted by bingo13

BIOS 0801 will be released tomorrow. Some additional fine tuning for memory performance improvements, additional voltage tweaks on auto settings, additional voltage tweaks on core 0, and a few other items. Still working on HT/NB auto settings to clock past 2400MHz when HTT exceeds 240, right now you need to switch to manual clock settings on both. Also, additional fine tuning for Thuban power management is still coming.

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Thanks

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Originally Posted by Leeghoofd

looking forward to it !!

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ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/so...-ASUS-0801.zip

LLC enabled for CPU&CPU/NB all Voltages @ Auto

Manual setting for CPU multi@20, MEM @1600 [6-7-6-15] and CPU/NB and HT@2400

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/8...us0801bios.jpg




:peace:

Bios 0801

Boot up and run

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/8...enshot035i.jpg

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/2...nshot036wf.jpg

:slobber:....


Is that the real Vcore ....


Amazing what a good Bios can get ya :D

Sweetjam and Jessica Simpson Jigglets thats great.

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Originally Posted by Dumo

Bios 0801

Boot up and run

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Phase Change?

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Originally Posted by charged3800z24

Phase Change?

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Cold vodka :p: [joking, only Team Russia uses that for cooling]

Yes, Dumo is putting his Thuban on freezer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by charged3800z24

Phase Change?

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Yep, barely hold the 1090T load:D

I'm having lots of freezes during idle and now running Far Cry 2 benchmark... Oh man, i'm stressed!

I'm using 1090T, CH IV Formula and HD 5870 CrossFireX :(

PSU...?TRy it with only one-2 HD5870s

Sorry for the threadjacking :x

Enermax Revolution 1050W, never saw the system consuming more than 700W.

I'll try that. It's MSI Lightning and GIGABYTE SOC, hope i can put the system all together :(