BD7-II drivers / bios....

[PiLsY]

As title really - the boards on the way, should arrive monday (or tuesday) and I could really do with pointing in th direction of which drivers / bios to use. Also any useful tips would be handy (bios settings). Ive heard this board can be a bit finicky so Id rather learn from other people's mistakes than my own .

Specific info id quite like would be :

Bios version - fastest for raid and board.
Chipset drivers : tons of intel drivers - also that app accelerator thingy - worth bothering with?
Dets : which det works best with the board? (Ti4600)

Anything else ive overlooked .

Thx muchly,

PiLsY.

[N8]

u might want to have this moved over to the intel forum, pilsy...see lots of intel guru's in there frequently

[PiLsY]

Not after intel gurus m8, im after OC and 3dmark gurus and this is the place to be .

PiLsY.

[CSHawkeye81]

hmm i got the new mr n's bios that might help you out so shoot me an email for it.

[OPPAINTER]

PiLsY,

I wish I remember more about the mobo but I don't

I just installed the drivers from the CD myself. As far as the bios, the latest was best, 93

"Add an option "Enhance DRAM Performance" in Advanced Chipset Features.
HPT 37x BIOS Version 2.31 The RAID function is for BD7II-RAID only. This BIOS version is also for non RAID boards and HPT BIOS will be automatically disabled while RAID controller chip not detected

BIOS compile date: 5/3/2002."


This is a good bios, for the Enhanced Dram got me alot more points in 3D.

Other then that i just used it straight from the box and did pretty good with it. It's only problem was lack of Mem voltage.

OPP

[N8]

my bad, PiLsY...just thought the thread had gone unnoticed

[PiLsY]

No worries N8 , any replies are appreciated .

Youre on the IT7 now then Opp? I was put off by all the onboard stuff. Also Ive heard that you cant use the 3:4 divider over 133mhz. Ah well, made my choice now. I *may* be able to figure out the vmem anyway, but besides that I still have the Eval stick of samsung DDR400 knocking around at work (until someone forgets about it and I can claim it :p) which will do 200mhz maxed @ 2.62v. I remember the days of 3.45v and crucial PC2100 - seems like an eternity ago now .

Anyway, thx for the input. Have dld the updated inf files and the app accelerator. I'll grab the bios now. Any advantage to getting a modded bios - as hawkeye says hes using the MrNatural bios. Will stick with the latest official for now tho.

Cheers,

PiLsY.

[OPPAINTER]

No the IT7 has the same 3:4 feature as the BD7II. It also gives you up to 3.2 mem voltage in the bios. The IT7 also uses the 6301 IC chip for easy V-core mod. I like it better then the BD7 for these reasons. Do to the Mem voltage I was able to take my memory to 238 stable on the IT7.
Don't know about Mr Naturals bios unless there is a v-mem feature in it I would stick to the 93, the bugger works great for 3D.

OPP

[UaZa]

Originally posted by OPPAINTER
No the IT7 has the same 3:4 feature as the BD7II. It also gives you up to 3.2 mem voltage in the bios. The IT7 also uses the 6301 IC chip for easy V-core mod. I like it better then the BD7 for these reasons. Do to the Mem voltage I was able to take my memory to 238 stable on the IT7.
Don't know about Mr Naturals bios unless there is a v-mem feature in it I would stick to the 93, the bugger works great for 3D.

OPP

the pin mod wont with the IT7 too?

[OPPAINTER]

I didn't try the pin mod on this IT7 mobo.

OPP

[PiLsY]

Well in all honesty considering Im on a 1.6a I cant see me reaching over 233mhz memory anyway. 3Ghz would be nice but Im only air cooled. Still building my new WC kit for the hammer . Gonna be sweet - already had it cooling a 250watt heater element down to room temp + 0.4c which considering im only using 8 80mm silent fans is not bad going . Built the chiller chamber - itll take 8 * 72 watt pelts (or higher - just depends if you can remove that much heat) plus over 7 metres of surface area to chill the water over. Im aiming at keeping the water temp just above dew point but having enough capacity to cool the cpu to a basically identical temp.

Anyway, enough going off at a tangent, the board should be here within th enext 40 minutes, so I should be storming the MX440 catagory later today, then I'll take a shot at the Ti4200 (or 4400 - not decided which to get yet) catagory later in the week.

Toodle pip fr now,

PiLsY.

[N8]

Help me in the 4200 cat, PiLsY

There are some VR-Zone P4's that I'm pretty sure I won't be able to touch w/ this CPU

From what I'm seeing the SUMA, Abit, and MSI are all good 4200's to start w/.....i wouldn't mind having one of those SUMA's w/ the 3.3ns memory myself!

[2xD]

Originally posted by [N8]
Help me in the 4200 cat, PiLsY

There are some VR-Zone P4's that I'm pretty sure I won't be able to touch w/ this CPU

From what I'm seeing the SUMA, Abit, and MSI are all good 4200's to start w/.....i wouldn't mind having one of those SUMA's w/ the 3.3ns memory myself!

I can imagine

[PiLsY]

Theres some dubious looking gfx cards in the 4200 catagory. Well I certainly wasnt aware of 128mb Ti4200s anyway....

Could be wrong tho - we tend to be well behind on gfx cards over here in the UK. Anyone seen any? If not then it could be a case of Ti4200 drivers on a Ti4400 or 4600 card. Doesnt affect the clocks (its hardware via card bios) or the settings / support (same capabilities), but does mean 3D Mark sees the card as a 4200.... Was the same thing with the Ti200 and Ti500.

As I said tho, it could well be that there are 128mb Ti4200s out there and theyve just not reached our shores (or my attention) yet.

Anyway, Its either the 4400 or 4200 for me, have to see what my bank balance is like next weekend.

On the downside, my board didnt arrive and I now have basically a fortnight straight with no day off. I doubt I'll have much time for any serious scoring until mid July .

PiLsY.

[N8]

Yea work sux.....i been workin like a fool here lately......giving me barely any time to play. On the upside of that, it gives ya more money to play w/! just no time to play w/ it

There are 128MB 4200's indeed. The cream of the crop right now is the SUMA Ti4200SE 128MB....it looks just like a 4400/4600 and has some ridiculously fast BGA memory on it for a 4200.....forget the exact ns.....i just know that it smokes.....tho not available in the US

Good luck PiLsY....whatever ya choose.

[PiLsY]

Yup my bad .

Just found an Abit 4200 with 128mb (3.3ns - same as the 4400) so I guess my choice is made . Itll only cost me around $165 in your money too which is saving me loads. Can finally afford the copper I need for my water kit now :p.

Cya on the Orb next weekend . I'll have to satisfy myself with the MX440 catagory for now - that top spot WILL be mine .

PiLsY.

[KAIN]

Pilsy could you e-mail me as to where ya got it from?

[N8]

Yes, I would also like to know that

[PiLsY]

I'll let you know as soon as I know for certain its 3.3ns. ATM im only going on "my m8 has one for sale and its...." for the time being. I do know where it was bought from (albeit 3 weeks ago) so i'll pass on the knowledge once I know its for real. Dont want you running out spending money only to find its been "exaggerated" . The only downside is that the core is A2 so the core clock may not be too impressive. Again hearsay but an educated guess would say an A2 core whether id been told or not.

Anyway, back to 3dmark with this MX440.

Laters all.

PiLsY.

[N8]

that would be odd.....i have the 4ns version and the core is A3. I sure hope they wouldn't put A2's on their "overclocking" card

[PiLsY]

Maybe ive mislead a bit here - this isnt any special card, just a standard, run of th emill abit ti4400. It just happens to have 3.3ns memory (from what ive been told). This happens fairly often (well more than youd imagine) as a manufacturer runs out of stock or manages to get a better deal buying twice as many fast modules as half and half, and just sticks them on all the cards. We saw it with the R8500LE too. The trick is tho spotting it when it happens. I'll be finding out on friday for certain.

PiLsY.

[N8]

Oh, I thought you meant it was a 4200 w/ 3.3ns
I gathered this from the quote below...from a couple posts up

Originally posted by PiLsY
Yup my bad .

Just found an Abit 4200 with 128mb (3.3ns - same as the 4400) so I guess my choice is made . Itll only cost me around $165 in your money too which is saving me loads. Can finally afford the copper I need for my water kit now :p.

PiLsY.

[PiLsY]

Doh - did you spot my typo? Thats what you get for posting after a 10 hour shift then building a PC :p. It is a Ti4200, but I dont know for certain its 3.3ns ram. Ive only been told by a friend of mine whos house mate has one. If it is 3.3 ill be going to the shop he got it from to check out whether the rest of their stock is. If not I'll offer his m8 £150 for the card .

PiLsY.