Foxconn BlackOPS (Retail version)

[BenchZowner]

Granted that you're cooling the NB and keeping it under 65C, 1.7V is safe for 24/7.

[FuriousSalesman]

Thank you.

I was following Anandtech's example. I think I got to 500fsb and Ram at 2000mhz using their tweaks.

It took me 6 hours and a lot of bsods. I was getting more and more bsods the higher I raised my ram. At 2.2v it bsod after posting. But at 1.99v its stable.

Maybe I am overly enthusiastic. Which is the best way to stress test a overclock?

Edit? Did I do this right? Is it good/bad? What other things should I provide?

Edit. I tried Orthos and it failed after 1 second at 1.45v.

[bachus_anonym]

Hi guys!

I wanted to drop in, and provide those of you interested the settings that worked well for me on Black Ops, set up with Wolfdale processor and 2x1GB of Corsair Dominator DIMMs.

First up was a month-old P02 BIOS I downloaded from Foxconn's website. It has bugs that all of you know, e.g. forced half-multipliers even though option is not visible, Command Rate stuck at 1T. But despite those problems, it wasn't awfully difficult to get the system stable. This is sort of basic get-going config, default Performance Level @ L 8.

In general, motherboard is set up a bit differently than, e.g. Asus P5E3 Premium, by default at 500FSB/DDR3-2000, meaning pretty aggressive tRFC, tighter TWR and tRTP. I tuned it up a bit for better stability. vPLL can be still dropped to about 1.60v, but board appeared to need a tad more vNB for the speed I ran. Compared to Asus P5E3 Premium, where even at 533FSB/DDR3-2133 about 1.61v (measured) is needed. See below:

Black Ops, C2D E8400 @ 510FSB / DDR3-2040 CL8 @ 2.00v - P02 BIOS setup
This is TW3X4G2133C9D ES which has been showcased here - 2 x 1GB DDR3-2133 9-9-9-24

--- Click image for larger version ---


Black Ops, C2D E8400 @ 510FSB / DDR3-2040 CL8 @ 2.00v - ORTHOS 4 hrs
This is TW3X4G2133C9D ES which has been showcased here - 2 x 1GB DDR3-2133 9-9-9-24

--- Click image for larger version ---


Black Ops, C2D E8400 @ 510FSB / DDR3-2040 CL8 @ 2.00v - Dual SPi32M
This is TW3X4G2133C9D ES which has been showcased here - 2 x 1GB DDR3-2133 9-9-9-24

--- Click image for larger version ---



Next I grabbed the latest BETA G22 BIOS, and basically set it up in identical way as P02, except for Performance Level @ L 7. You can see boost in Everest Ultimate bandwith scores as well as better time for Dual SPi32M. I snapped a screenshot of ORTHOS at over 2hr mark as it was time to start enjoying weekend - I left the office

Next week I will have a bit more time with the board, to play with skews, CPU and GTL Refs. That should bring us closer to the goal, 533FSB/DDR3-2133

Black Ops, C2D E8400 @ 510FSB / DDR3-2040 CL8 @ 2.00v - G22 BIOS setup
This is TW3X4G2133C9D ES which has been showcased here - 2 x 1GB DDR3-2133 9-9-9-24

--- Click image for larger version ---


Black Ops, C2D E8400 @ 510FSB / DDR3-2040 CL8 @ 2.00v - ORTHOS 4 hrs
This is TW3X4G2133C9D ES which has been showcased here - 2 x 1GB DDR3-2133 9-9-9-24

--- Click image for larger version ---


Black Ops, C2D E8400 @ 510FSB / DDR3-2040 CL8 @ 2.00v - Dual SPi32M
This is TW3X4G2133C9D ES which has been showcased here - 2 x 1GB DDR3-2133 9-9-9-24

--- Click image for larger version ---


I will drop by next week with some screens for QX9770 + 2x2GB Dominators.

Happy tweaking guys

[Planet]

Nice job Bachus. The board should shine with the 9770 however the 2x2GB some people have been having some issues with.

[Solarfall]

hey could someone tell me can a flash bios by using usb stick ?? ..
the windows flash that i did got corrupted and now i cant get into windows and i dont own a floppy drive !!!!!

[Planet]

Solarfall

Grab a thumbdrive with nothing on it. Use the HP utility to create a bootable USB disk. It will format your drive. You will need bootable files if you need those just download a program to make a virtual floppy then format it as bootable in windows then use the files from there. Then put AWDFLASH on the stick and the bios. Hit ESC or Printscreen to select your usb drive to boot from.

[FuriousSalesman]

I would like to try this method but what do you mean by HP utility?

[Me1tDown]

To make a bootable flash drive with the HP Utility, follow the instructions in the Asus Maximus Formula to Rampage Formula conversion thread (relevant part quoted here for convenience). The flash drive I prepared this way has been tested and boots in the Rampaged Maximus, my EVGA 790i, and my Gigabyte P35-DS3P. I can't guarantee it will work on a BlackOps as I don't have one to test it on, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

1: Download the HP Bootable USB Utility from here:

• HPUSBBOOT.

2: Download the Boot Files from here:

• Boot Files.

5: Run the HP Bootable USB Utility and tick the "Create a DOS Startup Disk" option. Now navigate to the Boot Files (extract them first) and select the Folder you extracted them to.

6: Click "Start" within the HP Bootable USB Utility and it will make your USB Stick bootable.

[Solarfall]

Solarfall

Grab a thumbdrive with nothing on it. Use the HP utility to create a bootable USB disk. It will format your drive. You will need bootable files if you need those just download a program to make a virtual floppy then format it as bootable in windows then use the files from there. Then put AWDFLASH on the stick and the bios. Hit ESC or Printscreen to select your usb drive to boot from.

To make a bootable flash drive with the HP Utility, follow the instructions in the Asus Maximus Formula to Rampage Formula conversion thread (relevant part quoted here for convenience). The flash drive I prepared this way has been tested and boots in the Rampaged Maximus, my EVGA 790i, and my Gigabyte P35-DS3P. I can't guarantee it will work on a BlackOps as I don't have one to test it on, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

hey thanks guys ..you ROCK

[Kensek]

I tried for 2 days to get my Blackops to Post at a CPU FSB higher than 177 and No Joy. Does this board, for some reason only Post at 50-66% of the speed selected in BIOS?

But then with any load placed on the CPU it would never increase to 266 or 333 or whatever I set the OCd FSB to in BIOS. I tried 3 different CPUs (Q6600, Q6700 and a E8400) with every Bios (P01. P02, P03, G17-G22) and no Go.

My E8400 got a 3DMark06 score of 1185. Oh well I sent it back for a refund. But I really want a Top Tier X48 DDR3 Mobo to run those HD4870s coming out.

Should I try one more, just in case I received a dud on my initial purchase.

AL

[Telo]

I tried for 2 days to get my Blackops to Post at a CPU FSB higher than 177 and No Joy. Does this board, for some reason only Post at 50-66% of the speed selected in BIOS?

But then with any load placed on the CPU it would never increase to 266 or 333 or whatever I set the OCd FSB to in BIOS. I tried 3 different CPUs (Q6600, Q6700 and a E8400) with every Bios (P01. P02, P03, G17-G22) and no Go.

My E8400 got a 3DMark06 score of 1185. Oh well I sent it back for a refund. But I really want a Top Tier X48 DDR3 Mobo to run those HD4870s coming out.

Should I try one more, just in case I received a dud on my initial purchase.

AL

Go to this thread: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=187199

It seems that you are not the only one with a "dud". It appears to me that this was just a bad case of over hyping a product to get people to buy it, then just move on to the next one in a rinse/repeat motion. For a motherboard that had so many overclockers developing/testing the BIOS, it sure does suck. Oh wait, the ES ones don't suck, I wonder why? Oh nevermind, I know why now, they needed good results to hook people into buying their product.

[ceevee]

Go to this thread: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=187199

It seems that you are not the only one with a "dud". It appears to me that this was just a bad case of over hyping a product to get people to buy it, then just move on to the next one in a rinse/repeat motion. For a motherboard that had so many overclockers developing/testing the BIOS, it sure does suck. Oh wait, the ES ones don't suck, I wonder why? Oh nevermind, I know why now, they needed good results to hook people into buying their product.

This is exactly my experience too. You can overclock the BIOS but it doesn't actually produce an overclock, and I am not even going to get into the problems of how difficult it was to get this board to even post with 8Gb of DDR3 RAM.

I have been to the Foxconn forums but saw very little response there to people's problems. 80% of the threads were unanswered by technical support. I will go there and post anyway though. What really makes me sad is that Newegg will not accept a RMA of this board. SO it looks like I am stuck with it.

Anyway back to my ongoing problems. Here is what I set in the BIOS:


Here is what the Aegis panel, Foxconns own utility says:



So what is the problem here? Aegis panel agrees with CPU-Z, which does not agree with the BIOS. Why doesn't the BIOS work?

[G H Z]

Lookin good bachus!

Interested in seeing your GTL Ref findings

[SF3D]

I just tested my 2x 2GB G.Skill memory set (F3-12800CL7D-4GBHZ)

They are working just fine on this motherboard. I didn't try to overclock them yet. I used stock voltage 1.9V

Here is one 32M shot. Of course I didn't try to do best possible time :



http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=372760

No boot or any other problems so far


My 2x1GB set was able to do 1030MHz on this board (515fsb / 1030MHz ram):

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=372758

All dividers are working fine with 2x1GB set(525fsb / 700MHz ram:

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=372754

[ceevee]

I just tested my 2x 2GB G.Skill memory set (F3-12800CL7D-4GBHZ)

They are working just fine on this motherboard. I didn't try to overclock them yet. I used stock voltage 1.9V

Here is one 32M shot. Of course I didn't try to do best possible time :

The other problem I am having is even though I set 2T command rate in the BIOS CPU-Z and Memset are still reporting 1T.

Why would this happen that it won't go on 2T?

[OverClocker_gr]

if anybody have patriot 1866C8 with xmp profiles,before pluging them on the black ops,just remove the xmp profile,otherwise you will see the E0 debug code all the time with bioses ,G17,G20,G21,G22,P02
(realy,where the hell are the debug codes of this mobo?,they put in trimmers for vmods and the necessary debug codes.........)

[SF3D]

The other problem I am having is even though I set 2T command rate in the BIOS CPU-Z and Memset are still reporting 1T.

Why would this happen that it won't go on 2T?

This must be a bug in bios. I think it will be fixed in next release

You are using 8GB of memory? Why? I can't see any use of that amount in "normal" everday usage

If you have a problem with multiplier:
Check that frequency unlimit option is enabled in bios. If it is enabled and still multi doesn't work, try to use Crystal CPUID and "Intel enhanced speedstep" option from that program. Open CPU-Z and select 9x from CCPUID and see what happens. If nothing, I'm out of answers.

Do you have more questions? I'll try to answer, but everyone should remember, that I'm not the tech support

[Kensek]

if anybody have patriot 1866C8 with xmp profiles,before pluging them on the black ops,just remove the xmp profile,otherwise you will see the E0 debug code all the time with bioses ,G17,G20,G21,G22,P02
(realy,where the hell are the debug codes of this mobo?,they put in trimmers for vmods and the necessary debug codes.........)

I have my Patriot Vipers DDR3-1866 all set for RMA because of the E0 error.

But if they are actually OK and only need the XMP profile removed - How do you do that?


Alan

[ceevee]

This must be a bug in bios. I think it will be fixed in next release

You are using 8GB of memory? Why? I can't see any use of that amount in "normal" everday usage

If you have a problem with multiplier:
Check that frequency unlimit option is enabled in bios. If it is enabled and still multi doesn't work, try to use Crystal CPUID and "Intel enhanced speedstep" option from that program. Open CPU-Z and select 9x from CCPUID and see what happens. If nothing, I'm out of answers.

Do you have more questions? I'll try to answer, but everyone should remember, that I'm not the tech support

Hi and thank you

This is the problem I am having where what I set in the BIOS does not actually happen:

Well I think I have discovered what some of the RAM problems might be from. Again there is a situation where what you set in the BIOS does not actually happen.

Look here at my BIOS setting for memory timings (you can see CAS9 and 2T):



Here is what actually happens:


Why won't the BIOS set 2T CR? I think this may be what is holding back my memory. It is supposed to run at 1600Mhz 2T, but I cannot get the motherboard to actually run 2T. Am I missing anything here? (and why is it running CAS8 when I put CAS9??)

I really hope they will fix all this stuff because I can see the board has good potential, but it is VERY VERY buggy atm.

[OverClocker_gr]

I have my Patriot Vipers DDR3-1866 all set for RMA because of the E0 error.

But if they are actually OK and only need the XMP profile removed - How do you do that?


Alan

its not the mems....its the board .
Very bad support from foxconn



send me via pm your email to send you the spd ready for use

The only think that you need is the spdtool 0.62.
download it from techpowerup

[Kensek]

its not the mems....its the board .
Very bad support from foxconn



send me via pm your email to send you the spd ready for use

The only think that you need is the spdtool 0.62.
download it from techpowerup

I just googled SPDTool and read the threads that it lead me to.

It Seems SPDTool cannot modify the code yet within DDR3 Memory.

[OverClocker_gr]

yes you cannot modify all the DDR3 spd's but you can flash them correctly

To remove the XMP i used the Thaiphoon Burner

[T_M]

Using CrystalCPUID every boot up is a pain in the arse to set multi >8, but it works

[clone38]

My board is sitting here as im waiting on a videocard to finish of my build and the more i read the more i want to send it back to the shop,the non copper northbridge started it off for me.

[Telo]

My board is sitting here as im waiting on a videocard to finish of my build and the more i read the more i want to send it back to the shop,the non copper northbridge started it off for me.

You might want to make up your mind soon, especially if all you get is a 30 return policy.