QuadGT Arrived (56k warning)

[pauldovi]

QuadGT arrived today:










Removing the NB heatsink, cleaning it, and replacing it with AS5:








Seating the CPU and placing AS5 on it:




System put together, light show:




Basic BIOS Page



Wow... The LCD display is so cool. It has a ton of commands which is displays as it does POST and boot. You can see exactly what the BIOS is doing and if it fails what it was doing when it failed.

For example:

C1: Detect Memory: Detect DRAM size, type and ECC
1F: Load keyboard matrix
23: Check validity of RTC value
50: Initialize USB
FF: Boot Attempt

Very cool!

Windows is currently being installed. Then drivers and BIOS files. After that I will let her lose!

[newls1]

Looks great, have fun with it!

[PcCI2iminal]

very nice

im waiting for numbers

[pauldovi]

Windows just installed. Getting drivers up and running.

[pauldovi]

First results:

CPU @ 1.50V, NB @ 1.60V, Memory @ 2.3V

[Ajfina]

very nice board , i got mine yesterday, like it a lot, just hate my memorys cant test the full potential for now until i recieve the new memorys i order, so far pretty good

[pauldovi]

Can't budge 444Mhz FSB. I can't increase the memory passed 1:1 either (@ 444Mhz FSB)

[MrDeeds]

Nice nice nice. Even though i went commando im still considering purchasing this board also. The reason i stopped short was because i wanted to see the boards potential at overclocking memory.

My Aw9d-max couldnt get above Ddr-900 without ridiculous voltage so i wanted to make sure abit got their act together.

You may want to try the new beta bios. You can find it on abits forums.

[pauldovi]

Doesn't seem to do to well with high memory speeds. Probably because of the 1066Mhz strap. But the 1T can help.

[Ajfina]

the board have some issues with high memory settings, but no that bad below 1100
from anantech
We take a look now at seeing how well our GEIL PC2-6400 memory operates in this board in both two and four DIMM testing. The screenshot above shows the actual memory settings used in our benchmark tests of the board. We do not modify the memory timings beyond the four major settings in our charts. The balance of memory settings are implemented automatically via the BIOS. abit implements slightly tighter memory and MCH timings than some of the other P965 boards we have tested.

abit AB9 QuadGT
Stable DDR2-800 Timings - 2 DIMMs
(2/4 slots populated - 1 Dual-Channel Bank)
Clock Speed: 800MHz
CAS Latency: 3
RAS to CAS Delay: 3
RAS Precharge: 3
RAS Cycle Time: 9
Voltage: 2.20V

We were able to set our timings to 3-3-3-9 by increasing the memory voltage to 2.20V with our GEIL memory. We were able to hold these timings up to DDR2-880 on this board before switching over to timings of 4-4-4-12 up to DDR2-1030 at 1:1 timings. We then switched to 5-5-5-15 timings at a 7x465 with a 4:5 ratio that resulted in a maximum stable memory speed of DDR2-1163. We tried out our Corsair Dominator PC-8888 and OCZ Flex XT memory but could not get the board stable at memory speeds greater than DDR2-1163.

abit AB9 QuadGT
Stable DDR2-800 Timings - 4 DIMMs
(4/4 slots populated - 2 Dual-Channel Bank)
Clock Speed: 800MHz
CAS Latency: 3
RAS to CAS Delay: 4
RAS Precharge: 4
RAS Cycle Time: 12
Voltage: 2.275V

Our settings of 3-4-4-12 at 2.275V were not quite as good as our ASUS P5B-E 1.02G settings of 3-4-3-10, but due to fairly tight memory timings elsewhere the benchmark results were actually better. We were able to keep this setting up to DDR2-860 before switching over to 4-4-4-12 settings that held stable until we reached DDR2-960 during our overclocking tests. The board was able to handle settings of 5-4-4-12 up to DDR2-1010. Our final settings of 5-5-4-15 at DDR2-1030 required a voltage increase to 2.325V.

[pauldovi]

I think BIOS releases will help the memory a lot.

[JoeBar]

4:5 issues? Hope this will be resolved otherwise it will make this board a

[Ajfina]

4:5 issues? Hope this will be resolved otherwise it will make this board a

havent try 4:5 yet , need better memory(waiting for them)

[Millyons]

hows the NB cooling after putin on the AS5...is it adequate enough...is that nb/pwm cooling real coper?

[pauldovi]

With a 120mm fan over the NB / Memory / CPU socket the NB is at 35C and the PWMs are between 40-44C during full load after about 12 hours. Abient is 24C

[nightic]

Abit QuadGT - E6600 @ 3.5GHz - 9 x 389
1:1 389 4-4-4-10
1066 strap
Super Pi mod 1.5 - 32M - 14m 34.532s




Abit QuadGT - E6600 @ 3.5GHz - 8 x 437
1:1 437 4-4-4-10
1066 strap
Super Pi mod 1.5 - 32M - 14m 18.094s




Abit QuadGT - E6600 @ 3.5GHz - 7 x 500
1:1 500 4-4-4-10
1066 strap
Super Pi mod 1.5 - 32M - 13m 56.515s




Abit QuadGT - E6600 @ 3.5GHz - 9 x 389
1:1 389 3-3-3-10
1066 strap
Super Pi mod 1.5 - 32M - 15m 12.985s




Abit QuadGT - E6600 @ 3.5GHz - 8 x 437
1:1 437 3-3-3-10
1066 strap
Super Pi mod 1.5 - 32M - 14m 57.297s




Abit QuadGT - E6600 @ 3.5GHz - 9 x 389
4:5 486 4-4-4-10
1066 strap
Super Pi mod 1.5 - 32M - 14m 01.890s

[GrossmeisterB]

With a 120mm fan over the NB / Memory / CPU socket the NB is at 35C and the PWMs are between 40-44C during full load after about 12 hours. Abient is 24C

How did you measure "NB temp"??

And did you put AS5 underneath the "OTES"-cooler as well? To get better contact to the PWM regulators?? My PWM-regulators are getting very hot (like 75°C under heavy load and high Vcore, even with a 120mm blowing over CPU area... )

[fgw]

How did you measure "NB temp"??

would be interesting to me too. is there a sensor near by?

And did you put AS5 underneath the "OTES"-cooler as well? To get better contact to the PWM regulators?? My PWM-regulators are getting very hot (like 75°C under heavy load and high Vcore, even with a 120mm blowing over CPU area... )

from what i have read, the digital pwm's could get verry hot. 75c would be a rather usual temp under load. wouldn't care too much about this temps ...

i have put as5 under the heatsinks of the pwm's on my aw9d-max. couldn't see a real difference in temps. but on the other hand, it won't hurt either ...

[GrossmeisterB]

Thanks for the info!

There is no sensor on the NB, only a "system" temp somewhere on the board showing "in case temp"...
Maybe he used an external measurement?

And I'm not sure about the high PWM temp, without any fan and "high" load drawn from the CPU, they get very hot and the system will crash, I think the cooling wasn't designed for that extreme overclocking, but with a 120mm fan over that area, it works just fine...

I think I will have to do some more tests etc...I don't want to mod my board (because of the warranty), and if it's just a "little" decrease in temperature, I don't care that much...

[Eclipse3EB]

QuadGT arrived today:

Removing the NB heatsink, cleaning it, and replacing it with AS5:

Make sure that the VRM heatsink is properly touching the VRM's after AS5. When I did mine using the "thinnest layer possible" principle of thermal paste application, I noticed my VRM temps shoot up to 160C at load, then my system would crash. I removed the heatsink and noticed that there was absolutely NO contact.

I guess there's a reason the brown stuff that comes stock on the heatsink is so thick. Anyways, I fixed it by globbing on a lot more thermal paste so now there's at least a little bit of contact. My load temps (at stock voltage) is about 70C now.

[situman]

so any quirky behaviors with the beta bios? For example, mouse/kb not working. CD roms disappearing. Board boots weird...?

[Revv23]

I want this board, i have been dieing for a 1066 board... but its so buggy!!!

If abit would get on thier bios support it would be the best board out IMO.

It would be amazing if they got 1t working too...

[pauldovi]

How did you measure "NB temp"??

And did you put AS5 underneath the "OTES"-cooler as well? To get better contact to the PWM regulators?? My PWM-regulators are getting very hot (like 75°C under heavy load and high Vcore, even with a 120mm blowing over CPU area... )

I had thought that system temperatures were the NB temperatures... I guess not.

I did not put any AS5 or change the cooling method on the PWM. Someone had mentioned that the AS5 can induce a electric field on the PWM affecting its performance. IDK....

so any quirky behaviors with the beta bios? For example, mouse/kb not working. CD roms disappearing. Board boots weird...?

DVD drive disappears sometimes. Same thing happened on the P5B Dlx... strange. The 1T times down work very well at high Mhz. Could use a 1333Mhz strap. Other than that, BIOS isn't bad. It isn't great either.

[fgw]

I had thought that system temperatures were the NB temperatures... I guess not.

i don't have the quad yet, but i use an w9d-max. the system temp on the aw9d-max is read from a temp sensor located on the motherboard but definitely not near the nb! may be the 965 chipset has a temp sensor built in, but i doubt its displayed as system temperatur!
if interested, have a look at the aw9d system temp sensor here, post #11 and post #12:
http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread...=118264&page=2

I did not put any AS5 or change the cooling method on the PWM. Someone had mentioned that the AS5 can induce a electric field on the PWM affecting its performance. IDK....

i think the bad temp readings after replacing the stock tim with as5 comes from uneven contact surface between the pwm's and the heatsink. this is a known problem at some other boards. don't know if the quad is effected too. would be best to check before applying as5 and reinstalling the heatsink.

DVD drive disappears sometimes. Same thing happened on the P5B Dlx... strange. The 1T times down work very well at high Mhz. Could use a 1333Mhz strap. Other than that, BIOS isn't bad. It isn't great either.

don't see any benefit in using 1T and at the same time switching to 1333 strap introducing higher latencies.

[situman]

anyone else seen any other issues? Very interested in this board.