nForce 790i SLI/Ultra chipset mobos - Reviews/OC/Guides

[M@G!C]

I have been having the same problems with 1800MHz. The test of stability for me is installing Crysis: even Prime95 stable and memtest passed at 1800MHz, but the system freezes when installing Crysis. It would also freeze at various other times, but always when installing Crysis. So I did a new install of Vista X64, installed no graphics drivers, no NForce drivers - just a basic installation, with my two Raptors in Raid 0 - no SLi etc. At 1800MHz linked and synced, I tried to install Crysis and it froze. I did this three times and each time it froze. I then did a new install, this time I replaced the Raptors, with two of the new VelociRaptors in Raid 0. Same settings, and Crysis installed fine!! Uninstalled and reinstalled Crysis three times, and still no freeze!! Since then, I have played movies, played Crysis, run all the Crysis benchmarks in 2 hour loops, Prime95 - no freeze!!! Then I remembered the problems THG reported with Vista and Raptors last year.

Could it be that the Raptors are the problem?
BTW this was the same with bios 0701, 0703 and 0704.

I have two raptors in RAID 0, i have installed Crysis with this settings and everything went fine! I have been playing Crysis in very high just for testing, and played for 1 hour and half with no freezes

TIKE i really dont think the raptors are the problem because if you take it out, they problaly will work 100% with other boards. IMO i think this Board REALLY have a problem with SATA controler that is causing data corruption, and that may be more evident with certain type of hard drives.

[Coupa]

Could it be that the Raptors are the problem?

I get freezes, and i have 2 500GB Samsung drives...no Raptors.

But who was it that said their hard drives were not working in RAID, then changed to a different brand and said it started working?

Maybe some types of HDDs are working better then others?

[Warboy]

I guess some people just cant get enough SATA Cables xD

Yea, I like my 28.4 Deluxe Surrond sound system from ASUS (Because of the 4 sound cards I have from them laying around.)

[extremis]

It seems that alot of people prefer the S2E over the EVGA. Is it really worth the extra $100?

[Tyke]

I have two raptors in RAID 0, i have installed Crysis with this settings and everything went fine! I have been playing Crysis in very high just for testing, and played for 1 hour and half with no freezes

TIKE i really dont think the raptors are the problem because if you take it out, they problaly will work 100% with other boards. IMO i think this Board REALLY have a problem with SATA controler that is causing data corruption, and that may be more evident with certain type of hard drives.

Just to be clear, I had no problems installing Crysis with the Raptors at lower FSB, I am just talking about 450FSB = 1800MHz. At this speed the Raptors did not work, and I was having all sorts of freezing problems. Now, for two days with the VelociRaptors in Raid I have not had a single freeze. I was also unable to run any FSB higher than 450 (even with the VelociRaptors in Raid) without Crysis freezing during installation, so this seems to be the max for me.

[M@G!C]

Just to be clear, I had no problems installing Crysis with the Raptors at lower FSB, I am just talking about 450FSB = 1800MHz. At this speed the Raptors did not work, and I was having all sorts of freezing problems. Now, for two days with the VelociRaptors in Raid I have not had a single freeze. I was also unable to run any FSB higher than 450 (even with the VelociRaptors in Raid) without Crysis freezing during installation, so this seems to be the max for me.

Tike, many odd things are happening with this board , i will show you another example:

With BIOS 0603 and with this settings 1400FSB and 1800Mhz memory i´m completely stable with no CORRUPTION at all, i´ve donne several new installs of the SO with this settings and ALL of them where sucessfull and end up with NO CORRUPTION.
Then i upgraded to BIOS 0704, and with the VERY SAME SETTINGS, i was able to install the SO but everytime i run SFC i get CORRUTION!!!!
Isn´t this weird???? The BIOS that should fix CORRUPTION, just gives me CORRUPTION when others dont!!!!
I tried 3 new installs all of them got corruption when i run SFC.

[aussie-revhead]

Hi guys , I just assembled my first ddr3 rig but initial memtest failed miserably from test2 , so I rebooted and pumped the vdimm a bit and it passed . The pc is all default atm , but what sort of voltages do you guys use with ddr3 ? Im using OCZ 1600 platinum atm on EVGA 790i Ultra .

Im really concerned about the issues with corruption etc so Im going very easy on it , testing ram for stability before I do anything .

Any help would be great.

[Tyke]

Tike, many odd things are happening with this board , i will show you another example:

With BIOS 0603 and with this settings 1400FSB and 1800Mhz memory i´m completely stable with no CORRUPTION at all, i´ve donne several new installs of the SO with this settings and ALL of them where sucessfull and end up with NO CORRUPTION.
Then i upgraded to BIOS 0704, and with the VERY SAME SETTINGS, i was able to install the SO but everytime i run SFC i get CORRUTION!!!!
Isn´t this weird???? The BIOS that should fix CORRUPTION, just gives me CORRUPTION when others dont!!!!
I tried 3 new installs all of them got corruption when i run SFC.

Yes very weird Clearly there is some way to go on the bios front, we will just have to be patient. 1800MHz is probably the limit for me on a Quad Core.
I can run my memory right up to 2000MHz unlinked, but 1800MHz linked and synced gives the best numbers in Everest.

[Tyke]

Hi guys , I just assembled my first ddr3 rig but initial memtest failed miserably from test2 , so I rebooted and pumped the vdimm a bit and it passed . The pc is all default atm , but what sort of voltages do you guys use with ddr3 ? Im using OCZ 1600 platinum atm on EVGA 790i Ultra .

Im really concerned about the issues with corruption etc so Im going very easy on it , testing ram for stability before I do anything .

Any help would be great.

My understanding is that you are safe with 1.9V on all DDR3, certainly with OCZ (my Corsair is running at this voltage). Most of it is the same Micron chips anyway! OCZ allow up to 1.95 without invalidating the warranty, according to their website.

[M@G!C]

Yes very weird Clearly there is some way to go on the bios front, we will just have to be patient. 1800MHz is probably the limit for me on a Quad Core.
I can run my memory right up to 2000MHz unlinked, but 1800MHz linked and synced gives the best numbers in Everest.

Four you should be more easy to achive 1800FSB stable because you have a QX9770 that have a native 1600FSB. Howhever i have a QX9650 with a native 1333FSB.... so achiving a 1800FSB stable is more difficult... but i still have hope!

[aussie-revhead]

My understanding is that you are safe with 1.9V on all DDR3, certainly with OCZ (my Corsair is running at this voltage). Most of it is the same Micron chips anyway! OCZ allow up to 1.95 without invalidating the warranty, according to their website.

Thanks Tyke but my ddr3 defaulted to 1.500v and is running Ok so far at 1.55 , am I still too low then ?

[Tyke]

Thanks Tyke but my ddr3 defaulted to 1.500v and is running Ok so far at 1.55 , am I still too low then ?

Yes, I would run it higher than that. 1.55 is very low..try 1.80

[aussie-revhead]

haha Ok then , why would it default so low ? Wouldnt that make every stock pc with these parts fail/unstable etc ?

I started a thread in the ocz support forum , but I think you answered my main question anyway.

[dinos22]

Hi guys , I just assembled my first ddr3 rig but initial memtest failed miserably from test2 , so I rebooted and pumped the vdimm a bit and it passed . The pc is all default atm , but what sort of voltages do you guys use with ddr3 ? Im using OCZ 1600 platinum atm on EVGA 790i Ultra .

Im really concerned about the issues with corruption etc so Im going very easy on it , testing ram for stability before I do anything .

Any help would be great.

just flash to P05
corruption is sorted out in that bios

[Trigger5521]

Im really concerned about the issues with corruption etc so Im going very easy on it , testing ram for stability before I do anything .

Any help would be great.

I was worried about corrupting as well so I simply used the Vista back-up util to do a complete PC-Backup to my external hard drive before I did any overclocking. If you get corruption and can't restart simply boot from the VISTA install disc and there is an option to do a complete restore. Works like a charm even with my dual raid 6 hard disk setup. My back up was something like 220GB and it didn't even take very long to restore through USB.

For some reason the restore util does not find my back-up when connected to the e-sata port on the freeagent I had to use USB..no biggie.

[extremis]

I hate to be a pest, but could one of the striker owners explain why I should or shouldn't get a striker over a reference board?

[GAR]

because for #1, eVGA has the best support in the business period, #2 the striker has no advantages over the reference, # 3 eVGA/XFX are cheaper, #4 Asus has crap support, it takes them forever to ship you a board

[extremis]

because for #1, eVGA has the best support in the business period, #2 the striker has no advantages over the reference, # 3 eVGA/XFX are cheaper, #4 Asus has crap support, it takes them forever to ship you a board

GAR, thank you for your opinion. This is one of the reasons that I am heavilly considering the eVGA board. I already have an ASUS Rampage and I don't really want to tarnish my opinion of them with a 790i that I may have to fight with.

However, that being said. I am very interested in purchasing the most flexible board for the future. From what I can tell, the ASUS has greater overclocking ability. I plan on using a Q9450 and probably some G.Skill HZ 1600 RAM. I don't plan on watercooling anything except the CPU in this rig.

If I don't plan on watercooling anything except the CPU, does the overclocking benefits of the ASUS justify the purchase over the eVGA? The reason I ask is because I assume that I will hit a NB heat wall on both boards that may be before the limit of the eVGA.

Am I completely uninformed? Should I just suck it up and get a Striker II so that in the future I will have a bigger playground?

[RLM]

Hi guys , I just assembled my first ddr3 rig but initial memtest failed miserably from test2 , so I rebooted and pumped the vdimm a bit and it passed . The pc is all default atm , but what sort of voltages do you guys use with ddr3 ? Im using OCZ 1600 platinum atm on EVGA 790i Ultra .

Im really concerned about the issues with corruption etc so Im going very easy on it , testing ram for stability before I do anything .

Any help would be great.

Aussie-Revhead, the settings below on my Q6600 worked great for me.

You have better spec ram than mine but I'm currently running my ram at 1.975v with an OCZ cooler on them at (Synced and linked) 1700mhz 7-7-7-20 1T P1 P2 Enabled. Subtimings 4-20-10-20-25-7.7us. TRFc set to 58, when i remember.lol

You could probably do a bit better than that.

My Settings

Chip Q6600 @ 3.825mhz
Memory OCZ 8500 Gold Rated 1066 7-7-7-21-1t - Set 1360 6-6-6-21-1T @ 1.85v

System Clocks

**Frequency Settings**
CPU Freq, MHz 3.825.00 mhz
FSB Reference Clock, MHz 1700.00
CPU Multiplier [09X]
PCIe x16_1 & 16_2, MHz [Auto] 100
PCIe x16_3, MHz [Auto] 100
SPP<->MCP Ref Clock, MHz [Auto] 200

**HT Multiplier**

nForce SPP --> nForce MCP [5 x]
nForce SPP <-- nForce MCP [5 x]

**Spread Spectrum**

CPU Spread Spectrum Disabled
HT Spread Spectrum Disabled
PCIe Spread Spectrum(SPP) Disabled
PCIe Spread Spectrum(MCP) Disabled
SATA Spread Spectrum Disabled

FSB & Memory Config

FSB – Memory Clock Mode [Linked]
FSB – Memory Ratio [5:4]
FSB (QDR), MHz [1700.00]
Actual FSB (QDR), MHz 1700.00
x MEM (DDR), MHz Linked
Actual MEM (DDR), MHz 1360

P1 Enabled
P2 Enabled

Memory Timing Setting

Memory Timing Setting [Expert]
x tCL (CAS Latency) [6] 6
x tRCD [6] 6
x tRP [6] 6
x tRAS [21] 21
x Command Per Clock [1T] 1T

** Advanced Memory Settings **

x tRRD [Auto] 6
x tRC [Auto] 35
x tWR [Auto] 12
x tWTR [Auto] 18
x tFAW [Auto] 27
x tREF [Auto] 7.7us

System Voltages

CPU Core [1.60000 v] 1.52 v
CPU FSB [1.30 v] 1.30 v
Memory [1.85 v] 1.85V
nForce SPP [1.35 v] 1.35V
nForce MCP [1,55 v] 1.55V


GTLVREF Lane 0 [Auto] +75 mv
GTLVREF Lane 1 [Auto] +50 mv
GTLVREF Lane 2 [Auto] +00mv
GTLVREF Lane 3 [Auto] +00mv

CPU Configuration

Limit CPUID Maxval Disabled
x Intel SpeedStep Disabled
xPPM Mode [Native]
CPU Thermal Control [Disabled]
C1E Enhanced Halt State [Disabled]
Execute Disable Bit [Enabled]
Virtualization Technology [Disabled]

CPU Core 0 Enabled
CPU Core 1 [Enabled]
x CPU Core 2 [Enabled]
x CPU Core 3 [Enabled]



Good idea to run memtest first prior to booting. personally I also have a separate OS on my non raid drive that I use for benching and stability tests.

RLM

[aussie-revhead]

just flash to P05
corruption is sorted out in that bios

OK thats done now but I am having great trouble getting this stable even at 2.4GHz , I have had maybe 15-20 goes at bios settings and the longest Prime pass has been 5 mins , it seems that the more vdimm and vcore I give it the faster it fails , very odd indeed.

[tekjunkie]

Is it too much if I ask what revision and BIOS do you have on that board?

It came up with 0512 BIOS and revision 1.02G. The weird thing is that if I put the memory on the blue slots, it gets stuck on "TestMem", if I change it to the white ones, it boots fine. Very weird. I put my PC together yesterday, took me like 6 hours. I was up until the wee hours of this morning and haven't had much time to test anything(not even Memtest).

[slim142]

For those who are having artifacts in windows dreamscene and watching videos:

It happened to me too when running the memory at 1800Mhz with BIOS 702,703,704 but not with 603. Bios 603 is the only from the latest BIOS that doesn´t give me artifacts in Windows dreamscene.

I´ve been strugling with this board for almost 45 days!!!!
By now i should be relaxing, enjoying it and playing my favorites games..... but no..not with this board...

For now i´m completely stable at 1400FSB and memory at 1800Mhz multiplier 8x. Prime95 stable, no hard freezes,no BSOD´s, no freezes when playing games etc... and NO CORRUPTION!!!
I will post my actual settings later.
But i´m not happy with what i have, i realy whant to run at 1800FSB linked and sinked with memory, because perfomance is so much better that way.

I also have trouble with RAM at higher than 1600. Jump straight to 1800FSB and lower your RAM to 1600Mhz. GAR told me this after days of struggling and I when I booted, my eyes went

Yea, I like my 28.4 Deluxe Surrond sound system from ASUS (Because of the 4 sound cards I have from them laying around.)

Thats what I call pwnage

It seems that alot of people prefer the S2E over the EVGA. Is it really worth the extra $100?

I bough ASUS because I like the layout, accesories, extras and the bling. However, I knew that 75% of the time I was going to be my own warranty and that the other 25% was going to be XS... but at least Im glad that I got mines working (except for the SLi issue lol)

[slim142]

It came up with 0512 BIOS and revision 1.02G. The weird thing is that if I put the memory on the blue slots, it gets stuck on "TestMem", if I change it to the white ones, it boots fine. Very weird. I put my PC together yesterday, took me like 6 hours. I was up until the wee hours of this morning and haven't had much time to test anything(not even Memtest).

Ok so I guess the board you got is 100% brand new right? nothing looks used or refurbished?

You might have a board that overclocks better on the white slots, however, testing has not been done so I suggest you find that out

Take your time to test it and OC it
Remember if you run in any trouble try BIOS 0701, 0703 or 0704 which are the best ones for most people in here.

[extremis]

Okay, I got the striker II extreme. I picked up a Q9450 and an eVGA 9800gx2.

What RAM should I get?

[slim142]

IMO 1600Mhz with tight timings (ex:7-7-7-21)