**Official DFI LanParty UT 790FX-M2R Review/Overclock/Guide Thread**

[Rammsteiner]

My first impressions are allright.

I love the newer lay-out a lot. There are no descriptions on the options but the options them selves are a lot clearer though. I love that.

Only thing I like less is that instead of hanging in some sort of POST code after the IDE devices check it now hangs before it so you got to reset CMOS before you can change it back again. It's not a disaster, just a little annoying.

Didnt notice anything else yet though, not really 'tested' BIOS's before. But as I said, the new lay-out is a lot better though

[KTE]

Just to add: when you play with Drive Strength, be very cautious. Weaker is better, the weaker, the better for your RAM's. D9's regularly have higher than usual current passing through them, higher than ProMOS and Elpida DDR2 IC's anyway, hence they run hotter at the same voltage/settings and require higher power although they also overclock better. They also, for this reason, will fail quicker especially if not cooled sufficiently, motherboard overvolts and if the supply line isn't regulated well from idle to load transitions of loadline offshoot V. Different boards/BIOSes can set differing drive strengths and this can and does kill RAM when you're left wondering how. Worst case scenario is if your SMPS has too much ripple voltage on the +3.3V, with poor voltage regulation on the motherboard along with high voltage and high drive strength RAM => bound to die very quick.

Every IC is different with it's limits regardless of the same conditions and manufacturing process. If you feed your D9's above the threshold they "like", they will degrade and start to suffer from electronmigration instantly. Then you see users moaning about dying RAM when they DID apply high voltage themselves at least once. Typical sign of that is, you need higher voltage for stability at stock rated settings, and as time continues, this voltage will increase up-to at least the 2.6V region just to run CAS4 800 with Crucial Ballistix 1066 5-5-5-15 2.2V.

[Rammsteiner]

Yeah,

thx for reminding. That's why I was looking earler for those 6 Drive Strengths as I didnt even know whether they're the Drive Strengths able to kill the RAM. They're on auto now however Ill play with them soon and decrease the multipliers as much as possible.

[Brother Esau]

Know not of the IDE/Sata HDD issues due to the fact I run a Raid Controler so I cannot comment good bad or indifferent on that subject but so Far the Bios is very good and none of the previous issues I experienced on all 3 different Flashes with the 1/03/08 Beta & Official release are present New Layout in Bios is nice clears up allot of confusion related to PCI-E settings and in general its very nice.

One thing I notice though is that there is still not proper support for AMD Overdrive on this Board lock ups and BSOD in Windows when installed and that just by having it open to view temps and settings not even making any adjustments though AMD Overdrive I don't overclock in Windows any way never have but something tells me that there is something lacking in Bios code that allows AMD Overdrive tio coexist peacefully

Can some of you guys install the new 1/30/08 Beta and see if AMD Overdrive is a issue for you and also give feedback in general please Phenom users please join in on this!

[Rammsteiner]

Gave up on AOD long time ago. Dont like Windows OC/ing anyway. Only things I believe in are Atitool, Memset, CPU-Z and CoreTemp.

Anyway, got a new OC for today, about the max for my PC: 11x320. 3.52Ghz and the RAM ~DDR1006. Had to change MAL from 4ns to 6ns though but it's stable now and a lot of bandwith. Only thing decreased was the latency in Everest, from 36.5 to 37 and read performance went down with about 50MB/s. Then again Write went up with about 100~200MB/s and Copy with 50MB/s. Was faster over all in SuperPI as well.

Found the max now I think, will do some GPU tuning soon as well and then reinstall Windows and GAME!.

Poor school, or it's me sitting behind the TV while Priming or gaming

[Brother Esau]

If AMD Overdrive could be on the same caliber as Uguru is then we would have something good to work with!

[Rammsteiner]

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=4994260

As description already states, not 100% done yet with the subtimings. Mainly things as tWRWR, tWRRD and tRDRD aren't optimized yet.

For now Ive this in 3.5 beta (from left top to right bottom):
4-4-4-10-2T-15-7.8us-3-4-3-4-105ns-105ns-105ns-105ns-4-3-4-4-16x-7-6ns-E-8-13.

And still got to do the pencil mod on the GPU's too.

[3oh6]

well guys, i have gone over the thread and find no mention of this issue so it might be new but here goes.

brand new 790FX-M2R, shipped BIOS was the november one. i have tried every BIOS under the sun with the same results. basically, the system is locked at 133MHz HTT. the BIOS shows default of 200 (thats as low as you can go) but in Windows, everything reads 133MHz. i can adjust multi, memory timings, and NB frequency it seems, but HTT does nothing and is always 133MHz~135MHz with the memory on a 1:2 ratio.

once in a while after a BIOS reset, if i don't go into the BIOS and let the system go straight to windows i get a 200MHz, once i got 242MHz, but after a reboot, back to 133MHz. here is a shot of CPU-Z:

http://www.3oh6.com/forum_posted/0801/dfi_cpuz-2.png

BTW, does the same thing with a Phenom processor as well. any ideas? anyone experienced this? TIA for any help.

[KTE]

3oh6: you're not opening AOD are you? If so don't and see what it does. AOD is known to cause this problem, throws HT ref. sub stock on opening.

[tictac]

have you install amd phenom driver?

[Brother Esau]

tictac who is the most beautiful girl in you're avatar?

[3oh6]

3oh6: you're not opening AOD are you? If so don't and see what it does. AOD is known to cause this problem, throws HT ref. sub stock on opening.

nope, not opening AOD. CPU-Z is the first thing i open after boot and it shows the 133MHz HTT.

have you install amd phenom driver?

for the Phenom chips yes, i tried installing the Phenom driver, no change. still boots at 133MHz. with the 3200+ there was no CPU driver loaded.

i have borked a couple installs and have done fresh installs with both the 3200+ and the phenom chips with the same results. i just did a long battery out CMOS clear (3 hours) followed by a re-flash of the official December BIOS. i noticed this time that there was 'No Update' on the very first line of the flash during the write of the new BIOS...should there be? i am just using the .EXE and letting it write the floppy then do its thing automatically from boot.

also, as i was thinking if there was a way to see CPU frequency before windows i saw the new Memtest thread from Eva so popped it in and it too shows a CPU frequency in-line with 133MHz HTT except for after the first boot after a CMOS clear in which case it is running 200HTT. so it is being set in the BIOS and not some funky thing with Windows reading it wrong.

thanks for the help guys, obviously no one has seen this before but hopefully i can get it sorted without having to send the board back for a new one.

[Rammsteiner]

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=4994260

As description already states, not 100% done yet with the subtimings. Mainly things as tWRWR, tWRRD and tRDRD aren't optimized yet.

For now Ive this in 3.5 beta (from left top to right bottom):
4-4-4-10-2T-15-7.8us-3-4-3-4-105ns-105ns-105ns-105ns-4-3-4-4-16x-7-6ns-E-8-13.

And still got to do the pencil mod on the GPU's too.

Nvrmind this, decided to do another Prime run but longer now (only ran 2 hours last time) however it BSOD'd. Stupidly enough, I changed a few timings in Memset where I wasnt even sure that's stable.

Testing CPU now with Small FFT's @ 11x320 1.488V. Memory is just below 200Mhz and enough V's on them for sure. Just a pure CPU test time now and see what it really can do without messing with timings. I so suck on OC'ing now and then, full with stupid actions really.

[Brother Esau]

nope, not opening AOD. CPU-Z is the first thing i open after boot and it shows the 133MHz HTT.


for the Phenom chips yes, i tried installing the Phenom driver, no change. still boots at 133MHz. with the 3200+ there was no CPU driver loaded.

i have borked a couple installs and have done fresh installs with both the 3200+ and the phenom chips with the same results. i just did a long battery out CMOS clear (3 hours) followed by a re-flash of the official December BIOS. i noticed this time that there was 'No Update' on the very first line of the flash during the write of the new BIOS...should there be? i am just using the .EXE and letting it write the floppy then do its thing automatically from boot.

also, as i was thinking if there was a way to see CPU frequency before windows i saw the new Memtest thread from Eva so popped it in and it too shows a CPU frequency in-line with 133MHz HTT except for after the first boot after a CMOS clear in which case it is running 200HTT. so it is being set in the BIOS and not some funky thing with Windows reading it wrong.

thanks for the help guys, obviously no one has seen this before but hopefully i can get it sorted without having to send the board back for a new one.

Well something is wrong with 12/11/07 and I told DFI in detail my thoughts on it when using Alpha release and why they made it publicly available I don't have a clue!

Also I want you to follow these instructions carefully please there is something wrong with the Bios and the way it Programs the Flash Chip and DFI has just now acknowledged this

Please do the following and this will be requiring 3 Bios Flashes don't question just do please

First off you will probably have to reinstall Windows get over it reality may just be that!

First off Download 11/07/07 Bios ....11/22/07 Bios.....1/30/08 Bios all Zip Packages Please

Clear cmos properly and Boot with DR DOS with only a PS2 Keyboard then insert 11/07/07 Bios and Type AUTEXEC.BAT ..let it Flash and do a proper clear cmos for 10 Minutes Boot set Date / Load Optimized Defaults save/exit ..........Let the DMI Data Pool Build ......see if you can get into Windows (I doubt it) due to Different SB600 Option Rom

Then repeat the Process with 11/22/07 Bios

And repeat once again with the 1/30/08 Bios Please

See if that straightens you're Arse out

Just so you know I program Bios Chips and I noticed that unless you start with the Initial Release 11/07/2007 on the actual EEprom Programmer It does not Program correctly if you just Erase the chip and program directly with 11/22/2007 Bios So from my Findings I program with the 11/07/2007 Bios on my Programmer and then just update Bios via Normal Motherboard Flash and it yields more satisfactory results.

This should not be the case! I should be able to take any .bin file off of the site and it should have all Bios code in it but it does not and I have erased re-programmed to and fro with this board and there is most definitely something going on with the way the Bios is being coded internally at DFI

ALSO.........What Operating System are you trying to use?

ALSO....If you really want to clear you're cmos Properly I recommend using a program called Kill Cmos it will clear that cmos like no other way! You can find it on Tmods CD or Google it!

[llenkoll]

crap, i was running 1.3.08 bios for about a week, then last nite i went and downloaded speedfan, as soon as i ran it, i get a hang, i reboot and get a c1 error (first ever with this system), i followed all the steps in clearing cmos (through both jumpers and holding the reset and pwr buttons down, also tried different ram, cant confirm if they are 1.8vdimm as some have mentioned to try, please is there anything else i can try to get this thing up and running again other than having to rma the board, TIA

at the time of the hang the system was running at default bios settngs, so disregard the sig


enko

[3oh6]

ALSO.........What Operating System are you trying to use?

ALSO....If you really want to clear you're cmos Properly I recommend using a program called Kill Cmos it will clear that cmos like no other way! You can find it on Tmods CD or Google it!

i am running XP.

thanks for the advice and the thorough instructions but it didn't change anything. i followed your instructions and still just end up with the same situation.

i noticed when flashing the first BIOS only half of the first line had no flash as well with the second BIOS. the third was back to not flashing the whole first line. not sure if that means anything but that is all that i noticed.

[Tmod]

You can find the Tmod/Loggan cd here.

Also have you tried flashing with no command line switches?

Tmod

[KTE]

3oh6: uninstall the CnQ/Phenom drivers>reboot and see how it goes, if you haven't already tried this separately.

Also, with Phenom, check the BIOS options to see any NB/HT multiplier option. Make sure they're set to 9x (1800MHz), any more and you'll get a low HT ref. clock.

[3oh6]

Also have you tried flashing with no command line switches?

i have just been flashing with the autoexec.bat and followed BEs instructions above which said go with autoexec.bat as well.

3oh6: uninstall the CnQ/Phenom drivers>reboot and see how it goes, if you haven't already tried this separately.

Also, with Phenom, check the BIOS options to see any NB/HT multiplier option. Make sure they're set to 9x (1800MHz), any more and you'll get a low HT ref. clock.

yeah, it isn't a Windows issue...the clocks are the same in Memtest in DOS.

and i am back on the 3200+ to rule out anything else with the Phenoms.

[KTE]

First time I've heard of it and it looks like your PLLs are stuck. When I had this board, I tested Phenom and X2 BE-2350 in it and they ran fine even with the early BIOSes, no such problem. I am leaning strongly to a fudged board here if both chips give the same problem whilst no one with working boards experienced this. GL

[3oh6]

First time I've heard of it and it looks like your PLLs are stuck. When I had this board, I tested Phenom and X2 BE-2350 in it and they ran fine even with the early BIOSes, no such problem. I am leaning strongly to a fudged board here if both chips give the same problem whilst no one with working boards experienced this. GL

thanks mate...thats what i am leaning towards as well. although BE has my hopes up with some sort of BIOS issue that might be fixable.

[KTE]

I think I asked before but it wasn't answered... has anyone with a Phenom and D9s been able to run plus 1200 RAM on this board?
What about >1200 4-4-4-4 (volts)?
What about 1200 5-5-5-x/4-4-4-x with >2.4G IMC? (EVEREST/Sandra/Pi)
What about 3-3-3-x >900-1100?
What about CAS4 1066 1T?

Has anyone been able to boot 1300 with RAM known to have done it easily?

The MSI RD790 has most of these limitations.

[Kennymester]

Have any of you gotten a hang error when waiting for the raid bios to scan your sata drives? I can't seem to enable raid on the new bios or the last one.

Thanks

[Brother Esau]

thanks mate...thats what i am leaning towards as well. although BE has my hopes up with some sort of BIOS issue that might be fixable.

If that didn't do it which I did not think it would unfortunately sound like you need a RMA

[3oh6]

If that didn't do it which I did not think it would unfortunately sound like you need a RMA

thanks anyway man, i appreciate the help none-the-less. it looks like this one is going back. not sure i am ready to go round 2 with these beasts though.