Retail Abit IN9 32X-MAX - Pictures, observations and testing...

[Johnny Bravo]

try passing 435FSB by about 10-15MHz or so, it may be a "gap" in the FSB speed causing instability.

[revenant]

Good to hear people are enjoying the board without any problems at all I'm currently talking to Abit about a few things you guys have raised, we're trying to get it all ironed out so that future BIOS releases are exactly what you want. As for board cooling this one is still up in the air as far as I'm concerned. I personally believe that this whole heatpipe business has got to stop. It seems to me that what has happened is that one manufacturer has used them and get some good press so now everybody wants in on the action. I for one think this kinda a market lead thinking is bad. Consider the following....we all accepted that the DFI boards for NF4 were good overclocking boards, they used active fan cooling onboard because it was needed. I think we need to return to the times that mainstream and enthusiast boards are quite different, I can understand the mainstream user wanting a quiet PC, that's fine. But to the overclocker, this is far less of a concern. I feel the waters have been muddied due to the gamers who want a high performance PC but also want it quiet. Problem is they're a bigger market so if your gonna make your money you go after the biggest buyers. I guess at the end of the day we are overclockers and not adversed to doing a little modding of our own

Just my thoughts on the matter, would love to hear what you all think too

John

I completely agree.. these enthusiast boards are be geared towards performance, so the cooling on the board should be the same.. quiet is nice, but that's not why I am buying this board.. I want speed and stability! Please give me an actively cooled NB... and SB also. heck, those tiny fans never once bothered me.. but I am used to computer noises..

speaking of the devil, I am thinking about this for my NB:Microcool_NorthPole_XE_Whisper_Chipset_Cooler (very pricy tho.. wow)

and maybe this for my SB: Vantec CCB-A1A

I don't think it's absolutely necessary for active cooling on the SB, but with two hot 8800GTXs in the area, I think it might be good.

what do you guys think? I am a little concerned my Tuniq's 120mm fan might hit the top of the NB cooler.. that fan rides low on the tuniq. hrm.

edit: duh.. nm, I can install the tuniq rotated 90deg so the air blows towards the top.

[MrToad]

and maybe this for my SB: Vantec CCB-A1A

If you're going for the Vantec solution get the CCB-A1C, is the same design, which means it has holes @ both 54.8 & 59.2mm (distance between centres), being the latter the distance suitable for the SB, and would fit right under a 8800 GTX just removing the top cover (you'll have to do the same with the A1A btw). The difference is, this one is made of copper instead of aluminium.

I personally used the Evercool VC-RE. It has a slightly bigger diameter, a few fins around the top pin need to be cut/filed slightly (damned ultra-long 8800 GTX again) and you need to make a custom mounting clip because the one it comes with has only 54.8mm holes, but all in all it looks nicer, and the fan has longer blades. Besides, is dead quiet. Oh, and of course is all copper.

[revenant]

ok, thx for the info. that's very helpful. Evercool VC-RE looks very nice.

[ettis]

Just got my setup ready and preparing to overclock it hopefully during the weekend. Have taken a few screenshots of the rig at stock. Haven't noticed any instability what so ever so far.

[Core 2 Quadro QX6700]
[Tuniq Tower 120]
[Abit IN9 32X MAX nForce-680i SLI]
[4x1024 PC2-6400 Team Xtreem[Geforce 8800GTX SLI]
[2x74GB WD Raptor 10000RPM]
[SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS]
[Tagan TurboJet 1100W]
[6x TT Blue Led VR]
[CoolerMaster Stacker 830 Evolution]
[Samsung SH-S183A SATA]

Coretemp at idle


PWM temps in uGuru at idle


Superpi 1M and 32M


temp after 5min dual orthos.


Cpu-z (cpu voltage at 1.3375V :wink:


3Dmark results at stock








So far looking at the bios I see that the multiplier is locked upwards and I can't find the 1333Mhz N/b strap, only up to 1066.

[gerri28]

You will find the 1333Mhz N/b strap on beta 2 bios.
But can someone explain to me what this strap thing are? I havent done much overclocking since the days we shifted som jumpers on mobo and i am not quite up to date on such things.

[kiner]

You will find the 1333Mhz N/b strap on beta 2 bios.
But can someone explain to me what this strap thing are? I havent done much overclocking since the days we shifted som jumpers on mobo and i am not quite up to date on such things.

1333 strap for 1333 fsb cpu to use... but if you use 1333 strap on 1066 fsb cpu .. it helps overclock a bit...

[JargonGR]

I received mine today and will post findings if I managed to set it all up (with watercooling) during the weekend or by next week.

[revenant]

nice.. I want to go water on my video cards I think.. but am going to stick with the Tuniq on the cpu.. I ended up ordering the Microcool NorthPole XE Whisper for my NB and the Vantec CCB-A1C for my SB... not taking any chances with hot chipset issues.. The Microcool NP is about as much as a cpu cooler, but it looks so slick.. built in thermal fan throttle and supposedly dead silent also. I could not resist. I get my board on Monday.

edit: review of NP XE.

[sonofander]

So I just got my IN9 today and am having a hell of a time overclocking the thing. I can't seem to get my FSB past 1500...

What voltages and other settings are you guys using to get your FSB so high?

thanks for the help

[sonofander]

So I just got my IN9 today and am having a hell of a time overclocking the thing. I can't seem to get my FSB past 1500...

What voltages and other settings are you guys using to get your FSB so high?

thanks for the help

[sonofander]

Sorry double post

[dekruyter]

Triple post.

[revenant]

lol..

anyways, does it matter which slots you use for the memory on this board? I know past MSI and DFI boards have been fussy about that.. just curious.

[sonofander]

I have memory in all 4 slots... this board actually seems to be very memory friendly. I've had no probs clocking ram as high as I want.

Now if only I could get my FSB past 1500... Any ideas?

[kiner]

I have memory in all 4 slots... this board actually seems to be very memory friendly. I've had no probs clocking ram as high as I want.

Now if only I could get my FSB past 1500... Any ideas?

I know there is the fsb hole in the official bios. You can try to go to higher, for example, FSB 1600, 1700 or 1800....

[hipro5]

I haven't got the board yet but I can say one thing....
ALL 680i boards have major problems as for stability.....
I'm playing with ASUS Striker Extreme about three weeks and I must confess that this is the WORST mobo I've ever played with.....
NOT Asus' faults though as I read here and there BUT NVIDIA's fault.....

I just wish NVIDIA could stick with AMD and leave Intel alone.....

Whenever NVIDIA messes with Intel platforms, screws’ things up.....
IF it wasn't SLI right now I wanted to play, I would have through the board out of the window....

On one reboot everything's fine and bench 3D and on the next reboot, freezes, BSOD, etc.....

At least I have found Striker's problem......It's the 680i chipset......

[dekruyter]

Here, here; well said about the 680i.

But, why are so many new boards still coming out w/ the 680i? Do they think the public is happy with it? No alternative?

[Yellowbeard]

Here, here; well said about the 680i.

But, why are so many new boards still coming out w/ the 680i? Do they think the public is happy with it? No alternative?

In many cases, people want SLI + C2D without hacked drivers ala 975.

[Johnny Bravo]

I have memory in all 4 slots... this board actually seems to be very memory friendly. I've had no probs clocking ram as high as I want.

Now if only I could get my FSB past 1500... Any ideas?

Hate to say mate, but this could very well be the reason your not hitting such high FSB. From what I've seen 4 DIMMs puts alot of strain no the memory controller which limits the overclockablilty. Perhaps you should try just two stick for the time being and see if you can go higher. I realise this is all because of Vista and the "4GB requirement" I hear flying about.

Also I could do with knowing a few more details about your system, and the settings you have for the overclock?

[Yellowbeard]

I don't have a multi meter at the moment. Can someone please verify actual Vcore and Vdimm on this board with a meter and also give the mGURU readings at the same voltages? I would really appreciate it. Also, if it is convenient, can you tell me where the points are on the MOBO to check these as I will have a meter later today.

EDIT: DUH, JB already did it at the front of this thread.

[sonofander]

I've already pulled 2 gigs out...

My specs areAbit IN9 32x MAX
E6700 (Watercooled)
Patriot DDR2 800
EVGA 8800 GTX
Thermaltake 850w PSU


I've tried just about all the voltages trying to get to 1600 but just can't seem to get there. I can get to 1580 now but it's really unstable. My current settings are:
Vcore: 1.55
NB: 1.45
SB: 1.6
DDR2: 2.2
HT: 1.4

If you could help me get the next 20 ticks to 1600, you'd make my day!

[Johnny Bravo]

what are yuor strap settings, is the memory runnig sync or async to the cpu fsb? what is the ratio ie 1:1, 3:2 etc

[linflas]

My findings are, I have been able to stabalise @ 400, easily bootable 425-455, have not tried to hard to stabalize that yet, prime fails in about 30 minutes, no lockup or anything, so it should be a fairly simple issue when I track it down to stabalize. I just have not had time.

The Bios is scetchy, my overclock settings vanish on reboot at times, the USB keyboard/mouse thing is awful, the FSB holes are HUGE.

As I type am 11.5 hours into a prime run @ 400, memory is unlinked and @ 1.9V






Now if I could just stabalize this on my rig, we shall see when my ballistix get here if better ram will git er done

[PsySc0rpi0n]

...

So far looking at the bios I see that the multiplier is locked upwards and I can't find the 1333Mhz N/b strap, only up to 1066.

Wont that be a BIOS issue??? There are some boars (mine for example, Abit AW9D-MAX) that we must update BIOS, if it is availiable, so that you have multis unlocked...

Anyway, in my case, E6600, i only have lower multis unlocked, the default multi for E6600 is 9x...