**Official ABIT IX38 QuadGT Review/Overclock/Guide Thread**

[Supershanks]

im pretty noob but i think abit ix38 is the best board i ever bought . vista installed and work perfectly in 1 try.

That's good going xoxo, many seem to have had issues with vista.

Even 1:1,25 was stable up to DDR2-1100 - didn't go any further

it ain't if ya go further Muhahah

Cheers ace

12.B05 is at least stable, i got 8x470@1.4625v1:1.20 Hve re-run it overnight on 5 & it's past 9hrs.

[berk]

See Key Posts for bios settings of various clocks BTA 12.02 is about the best performance & stability.

luck

Hey,thanks!!

[jcool]

Ok fellas, tomorrow's gonna be the day - I finally got all the stuff I need to rebuild my rig (Scythe S-Flex 1200 instead of 800, T-Balancer, inline temp sensor,...) PLUS I finally have some time at my hands
So tomorrow we'll see whether or not the Mips PWM cooler fits the old AND new QuadGT

[GAR]

how is this board, is it better than the gigabyte x38???

[DangeR!]

So tomorrow we'll see whether or not the Mips PWM cooler fits the old AND new QuadGT

Some pic's of that would be great if it fits .

I'm thinking of replacing mine in preperation for the quad I'm going to get next year.
I'll be water cooling the PC.

[Supershanks]

how is this board, is it better than the gigabyte x38???

Build & package wise no but more bios features & slightly higher oclock. may improve further with better bios, though not holding my breath. No super stable strap like the 2.66, in fact no 1:1.33 at all

Some pic's of that would be great if it fits .

- seconded

[R*r]

i was trying to run my q66 at 4G and set the vcore at 1,65v

but under super pi load it drooopppp until 1,62v even when i set 1,67v still drop until 1,63v under load.havent try physical measure,since it quite cramp after i put fan for the pwm,using 12B02

how about you guys?

[Supershanks]

More benches had primed 470x8 @1:1.20 1128 22hrs using 12.02 b4 I got 12.05
Have repeated run 12.05 - 8x470 @1:1.20 1128 24hrs
Bench comparison Added to M704B_12.B05 Initial Feedback at 470x8 most of the benches favour 12.05.

The only downer appears to nbe no improbement of 1:1.25 strap, & also

4) Vdimm resets to stock on entering bios.
Quote:
glowball
this is odd - every time I go into teh BIOS the CPU volts are set to teh default - but if I don't go into teh BIOS the voltage remains as set and so boots OK
confirmed by olliewbnn & myself.
So if you've just been in bios & your oc doesn't boot , look no further

luck

[jcool]

Evening guys,

I had a pretty full day today but I finally managed to rebuild my rig
And to my delight, I can tell you that the MIPS PWM Freezer from my old AB9 QuadGT fits the board perfectly!
Unfortunately, you'll see the pics later cause I took them with a friends' camera and he didn't send them to me yet

First impression is mixed, I bumped my Q6600 directly to 400x9 - however still fighting to get it stable. It seems to need a lot more Vcore than on my old board, last setting I was running BOINC at 375x9 with 1,23V load for 2 weeks stable - with the IX38 I can't get prime to run even 1 second at that setting

But I just started, after all, and still using Bios 11.B02. Which one should I use, 12.B02 or 12.B05?

Anyways I'll keep you posted!

[Hazzan]

try with bios 12B05 ...............................

[jcool]

It sucks.
I flashed to Bios 12.02 and bootet up 400x9 - or so the board would tell me at post. In Windows, CPU-Z, Everest and so on tell me that I'm actually running stock FSB - SuperPi confirms this. I also tried 12.05 with the same result - no matter what multiplier and fsb I set in Bios, it always uses the default FSB. OMG... should've stayed with 11.02.
I'm going to bed now, like I said its been a long day.

[jcool]

Ok so I found the culprit: It seems that my old µguru installation gave me all this trouble, even though I re-installed using the repair function. So remember, if you're taking your old windows from your old Abit board with you, completely remove µguru, reboot, reinstall, reboot, and you're fine

I am currently priming 450x8 with my Q6600, but it's not quite stable yet.
Anyone have some reference voltages for me?

[Supershanks]

Talke your pickStable Bios settings(well on my rig) 9x400,8x450,8x470

luck

[jcool]

Talke your pickStable Bios settings(well on my rig) 9x400,8x450,8x470

luck

Thanks, seems like I got it anyways
About the pics, my mate's camera screwed up badly... so I just took some quick shots with my Exilim right now, nothing fancy but hey

[R*r]

wah the wb for the pwm looks nice bro hows the temp?

btw i just tried bios 12B05,after i set the bios n bench etc all look almost the same only the vcore setting display.

it always show me 1,3 no matter how i set the vcore it always back to 1,3

but the reading were correct,i meant if i set 1,5 then the guru will show 1,5.only the display at the vcore setting

are you guys having the same display?

but on the other side my mem can run higher on this bios before cant boot at 600 5-5-5 2,4v with bios 12B02 but now can even though not stable

[jcool]

Temps not that great (around 70 with Q6600@3,6), same problem as with the old QuadGT.
But since this one fits I'd recommend anyone who wants to watercool their PWMs to get the Watercool SW-7 as it will fit aswell, is made of pure copper and cools better. Plus it's cheap

[Supershanks]

Thanks for sharing pics, looks a good block.

Temps not that great (around 70 with Q6600@3,6),

What Vtt you using there??

I'm getting 72~73C with a 60mm fan
8x470 VTT=1.36v on Load - se guru tems bottom left of pic

luck

[jcool]

Erm.. running 1,33 VTT. Like I said, the block doesn't make good contact intentionally. It has built-in "spacers" so that you can't crack the phase chips by accident. I'm gonna have to modify it - on the other hand, who cares? 70 C is perfectly ok for 24/7 use - and there's no noise.

cheers

[Supershanks]

Sorry missed the spacer thing. Have you noticed any change in the other components in your loop. The PWM block looks a bit restrictive wondered if it had any knock on effect.

I'm tempted to add one , as you say 70~80C ain't an issue, but quiet is nice, unlike crushed chips

luck

[jcool]

It's not that restrictive, but again, the block from watercool has less restriction.
This block ain't new anyways, like I said it was also used on my old QuadGT:



As for the flow, there's some pretty good action going on in my loop considering I'm only using a HPPS+ (modded to 70Hz though)
Most restrictive component is defiinitely the GPU-X 8800.

Back OT: 400x9 seems to be stable now, I adopted your settings with a tad more VTT and less Vcore (~1,32V load)

[Supershanks]

Thanks what tubing you on??

[jcool]

That's Tygon, 11/8.

[OnDborder]

I'm shopping for a x38 board.
Can I run crossfire with 3 cards on this board?
How does this board stack up against the maximus and the dfi x38 board?

[JPxM0Dz]

Well I'm finally back in the game since owning my IP35-Pro, went through a few mobo's since then with Asus and DFi, but havn't landed anything solid since I went back to Abit and glad I did. Absolutely zero issues from innitial setup, everything booted fine, raid drivers loaded and windows installed successfully without a hiccup.
Not sure what bios I have as I havn't made time to look, but I'm sure it's the first release.
I've only had the system up a running now for a few hours and I went right to work, no easy step by step taking it up notch at a time, I started at 8 x 485 and I'm sitting at 8 x 490 right now. I did try 8 x 500, but it froze, so now I need to tweak for a higher o'c and stability.
Very happy with my innitial results and hopefully she'll clock a little higher once tweaked.

I'll update as progress increases... Please feel free to comment on voltage settings as I'm still green with this baby, but does remind me of my IP35 days where I was able to easily crack 500FSB right outa the box!

[jcool]

That's looking real good mate
I wish I had that CPU temp - what do you use for cooling?
Also nice low board voltages... how can you run 490 FSB with a quadcore w/o raising ICH voltage?! Amazing. MCH is rather low too