[First look] Biostar TF560 A2+ (can do at least 355MHz HTT)

[VILLAIN_XX]

Well i was in a situation to sell my computer build to a friend and considered buying the Biostar mother board that you guys are posting about.

Before pouncing on it like a beast I called Biostar tech two times and emailed twice as well. All of them said its "compatible AM2+" but its no secret that the new phenoms will be HT 3.0. So i wanted to know if it was possible for an update in bios later in the future.

heres a direct copy paste from my email

Dear Customer,

Thanks for your explain and more technology knowledge on AM2+ CPU. The TF560 A2+ motherboard able compatible with AM2+ CPU, but it does not provide AM2+ Full function due to nVidia chipset limitation. It can help endusers if they want to buy a board with AM2+ CPU platform. General speaking, nVIdia does not a MP product for support Full AM2+ platform.

Thank you very much.



So dissappointed about the HT 3.0 not truly utilized i decided to stay with my 939 mobo till at least a true AM2+ ready motherboard and pci express 2.0 comes out next year...

Ill wait contently for Phenom and Barcelona though. I have a friend that works in Intel, and they are taking AMD's new line up very seriously about the upcoming Barcelona and Phenoms. So that say's alot about AMD's lineup, IMO.

[Fr3ak]

Welcome to XS

It is as we thought, only AM2+ support, but no support for split power supply and HTT3.0.

As soon as I moved I will do the chipset voltmod to see if I can get the board any higher than 355 MHz.

[TiTON]

What are you guys using to clock these boards?

Are you doing it via bios, or their awful t-utility program? Clockgen doesn't appear to want to work.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

SAD

[Fr3ak]

Always use the bios for permanent overclocking. Clockgen is just good for suicide runs or if you want to test how far your components can be overclocked without having to reboot often. But using the bios is the best thing you can do.

[TiTON]

fr3ak - thanks for the quick reply

Typically I do my clocking via clockgen to find the max and get suicide runs (see what the hardware can do). Any permanent / long term OC, i will set in bios. Oc'ing via BIOS is just too time consuming.

Were you able to get Clockgen to work with this board? So far I am at 360Mhz HTT. It post at 370, but didn't boot into windows

Right now I am running Orthos at 360 and see what I can get.

SAD

[Fr3ak]

Nice board! What are the rest of your settings? LDT and chipset voltage would be interesting. I can sometimes post at 360, but not boot. 355 works always and is dual 32m and 24/7 stable. Might be my CPU limiting me.

But nice to see that you are able to boot into windows at 360MHz and CPLB aat 350MHz too, which shows that the board clocks quite decent in average.

[Hawkeye4077]

I am having trouble trying to manually set timings for Centon DDR2-667 chips that run at 5-5-5-18

I can set CAS to 5 but as soon as I change the DDRII Timings from auto to manual system will not post with beep codes.. have to use cmos clear jumper to start over.

I had an TForce 6100-AM2 that couldnt get my 4400brisbane over 2.7ghz stable.. I am now working on trying to get it higher with this board

[TiTON]

Yeah.. the memory timing on this board is a little funky. I mean.. it seems to be detail, but it didn't seem to go in the typical 4-4-4-10 format that most manf go by.

As for the chipset voltage.. I pretty much maxed out all the voltages to check for max performance. I then go back and start trying to find optimal voltage and speeds.. I am just the type that needs to find the max speed ASAP, then tweak to find the bestg 24/7 operations.

I will keep everyone posted.

Oh.. any benefits form the newer bios? I am still using the original BIOS from 06/07.

SAD

[bingo13]

Yeah.. the memory timing on this board is a little funky. I mean.. it seems to be detail, but it didn't seem to go in the typical 4-4-4-10 format that most manf go by.

As for the chipset voltage.. I pretty much maxed out all the voltages to check for max performance. I then go back and start trying to find optimal voltage and speeds.. I am just the type that needs to find the max speed ASAP, then tweak to find the bestg 24/7 operations.

I will keep everyone posted.

Oh.. any benefits form the newer bios? I am still using the original BIOS from 06/07.

SAD

Use the 0612 BIOS - http://www.biostar.cn/supports/BIOSR...?vID=32&MID=26

- for best results at this time. The seven series BIOS targeted specific overclocking improvements for certain Brisbane cores but at the expense of memory performance. The 0612 allows CAS and Command Rate changes compared to the release 0611 or 0607 BIOS.

[TiTON]

Ok.. so it wasn't me, when I didn't see the CAS and Command rate in the bios with my Bios version.. I thought I was going crazy. I will update the BIOS later today and see how things go.

SAD

[bingo13]

Ok.. so it wasn't me, when I didn't see the CAS and Command rate in the bios with my Bios version.. I thought I was going crazy. I will update the BIOS later today and see how things go.

SAD

Just remember to change your Command Rate to 2T manually until you can verify if your memory will run at 1T. Once you change your memory ratio below "DDR2-800" in the BIOS, it will try to boot with 1T settings automatically.

[TiTON]

OK.. the bios 612 REALLY helped alot. I am running Corsair 5400UL.. so it wanted to do CAS 3. So when I was pushing like 360 Mhz.. the ram was being the bottle neck.

Now that I put Cas 5 and T2, I can boot into windows at 371Mhz right now Not post at 373Mhz and above. So its not a hole.

I'm running orthos right now, but I do not think I am going to do so well.. the processors is running a bit hot.

You know that 15x multi isn't available with 612 Bios for the x2 6000+.. I need to do some hunting for another bios. Does anyknow what version support 6000+?

SAD

[Hawkeye4077]

Can you guys post some memory benchmarks from Sandra along with memory speed and timings... I am getting extremely good results from the 612 bios getting very close to 7000mb/s in single channel with my G.Skill HZ stick 5-5-5-15 @ 936mhz 280x10 for my 4400 brisbane

[TiTON]

I am currently running orthos @ 371Mhz.. it was running for about 20 min.. then I stopped it and flashed to 0718. I wasn't even able to boot at 365Mhz.. so I said forget it and reflashed to 0612.

So I have started Orthos again.

here is a CPUz Validation: http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=223682

Here is a screen shot of CPUZ -

I will post results of my Orthos tomorrow.. I will try to run some Sandra too.

SAD

[bingo13]

OK.. the bios 612 REALLY helped alot. I am running Corsair 5400UL.. so it wanted to do CAS 3. So when I was pushing like 360 Mhz.. the ram was being the bottle neck.

Now that I put Cas 5 and T2, I can boot into windows at 371Mhz right now Not post at 373Mhz and above. So its not a hole.

I'm running orthos right now, but I do not think I am going to do so well.. the processors is running a bit hot.

You know that 15x multi isn't available with 612 Bios for the x2 6000+.. I need to do some hunting for another bios. Does anyknow what version support 6000+?

SAD

15x is available, just have to leave the CPU multi set on Auto in order to get it. I will post up the new performance 0801 BIOS in the morning, hand tuned by a couple of NVIDIA engineers this week. I am not getting any higher clocks for the most part but was able to lower voltages and run slightly better memory timings.

[bingo13]

Can you guys post some memory benchmarks from Sandra along with memory speed and timings... I am getting extremely good results from the 612 bios getting very close to 7000mb/s in single channel with my G.Skill HZ stick 5-5-5-15 @ 936mhz 280x10 for my 4400 brisbane

I am getting 10,810 Buffered with a lowly BE-2300 at 350x9, DDR2-1050, 5-5-5-12, with 2x1GB OCZ HPC under Vista 64.

[Plywood99]

15x is available, just have to leave the CPU multi set on Auto in order to get it. I will post up the new performance 0801 BIOS in the morning, hand tuned by a couple of NVIDIA engineers this week. I am not getting any higher clocks for the most part but was able to lower voltages and run slightly better memory timings.

Yeah, Would like to get that bios, when available...


Ply

[TiTON]

15x is available, just have to leave the CPU multi set on Auto in order to get it. I will post up the new performance 0801 BIOS in the morning, hand tuned by a couple of NVIDIA engineers this week. I am not getting any higher clocks for the most part but was able to lower voltages and run slightly better memory timings.

Ahh.. well.. being an OC'er.. i don't ususally set anything to Auto :P So I figure there would be a 15x multiplier listed.. my bad.

I can't wait to see the bios and try it out.

Now. you mentioned it is tuned by NVIDIA's engineers.. This board isn't nvidia's reference design is it?

SAD

[Fr3ak]

371MHz, that is very impressive!

I think I have to try a different CPU to seeif I can get the board higher too.

The defeault CPU multiplier is set when you set the option to "auto". A little confusing, but once you know it, it is alright.

[Hawkeye4077]

I am getting 10,810 Buffered with a lowly BE-2300 at 350x9, DDR2-1050, 5-5-5-12, with 2x1GB OCZ HPC under Vista 64.

Good deal. I have been prime95'n mine all night 9x300. My 4400 has never been much of an overclocker, and I have been trying to see the best memory performance I could get. Hopefully this performance bios will help a little.

Current settings:
9x300
G.Skill HZ 1gb @ 5-5-5-15-24 1080mhz

I have tried higher clock speed and lower ram speed and I just cant get it that stable. This chips sweet spot is around 2700mhz .. a shame.

[bingo13]

http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/...N56BA801AT.rar

New 0801 BIOS, try at your own risk. I am seeing mixed results compared to the 0612, but it depends on your processor.

[TiTON]

Bingo - Awesome.. I will give it a shot later today and see how it goes

Everyone - As for Sandra, what verisons are you guys using. I remember there is a HUGE difference in teh results for Sandra based on the version you are using. Let me know which one. Also.. what gives more bandwidth.. Slower & tighter, or Fast & Loose?

SAD

[EniGmA1987]

Generally faster and looser gives more bandwidth, but the best performance comes from whatever combination gives you the least latency

[mibo]

Bingo13 put the review online.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3051

[EniGmA1987]

I went from the bios that the board comes with to the new 0801 bios an I can finally go past 275 fsb I found the max speed of my processor to be 3.45GHz with 1.5v. Maybe I can get it it bit farther with some nice tweaking. Although I am still only going to run it at 2.75GHz on stock voltage because I am only using the stock HS & fan