Official eVGA 780i Discussion/Review/Overclock/Guide Thread

[CikaNovo]

well this is interesting. i looked in the SPD tab like you said and in the timings table only the first two columns have values. they are:

1st column:
Freq: 200 MHz
Cas Latency: 3
RAS to CAS: 3
RAS Precharge: 3
tRAS: 9
tRC: 11
Command Rate: No value
Voltage: 1.8

2nd column:
Freq: 266 MHz
Cas Latency: 4
RAS to CAS: 4
RAS Precharge: 4
tRAS: 12
tRC: 15
Command Rate: No value
Voltage: 1.8

All 4 slots show the exact same values. Also, in the table above the timings for the part number it says: OCZ25331024V.

however the part number should be: OCZ2N1066SR2GK
i bought 2 sets of the above from here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227181 and the stickers on the actual ram have the correct part number and it looks like the one pictured also.

it doesnt look like the part number it thinks it is: http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...0_value_series so im not sure whats going on. ill try that spdtool you mentioned.

edit: i ran the spdtool and it also displays the incorrect part number.

What version of CPU-Z you're using, is it 1.43?Anyway,it looks very strange that both CPU-Z and SPD Tool are showing the same timings.I don't want to make you feel bad but it could be that your RAM only has SLI heatspreaders and god knows what chips underneath!

[fadetoblack]

I'm liquid cooling the CPU (EK Supreme/dual Laing D-5's/PA 120.3) with the actual volts under load @ 1.44. Chipsets are all on air.

10.5x 400fsb for 4.2 GHz
SPP 1.45
NForce 1.55
FSB 1.40
HT SPP/MCP 1.3
Mem 900 (OCZ PC-6400 Plat) 2.2v 5-5-5-15 4/22/5/9/7.8

Solid as a rock 24/7 folding or anything else I do. I can actualy get it up to 4.4Ghz on the same volts for benching, but not stable 24/7 folding. Great board. one of the best I've ever used.

hope this helps,

andyc

thanks. did you do the vdroop mod? if not then what vcore did you set in the bios to get a 1.44 vcore under load? i get almost an entire .1 vdroop under load when setting it over 1.4.

[fadetoblack]

What version of CPU-Z you're using, is it 1.43?Anyway,it looks very strange that both CPU-Z and SPD Tool are showing the same timings.I don't want to make you feel bad but it could be that your RAM only has SLI heatspreaders and god knows what chips underneath!

yeah i think its 1.43 ill have to double check. thats ok, i was thinking the same thing myself. it seems to me that if you take off the heatspreaders on the set i have it looks just like the other set.

[fadetoblack]

Pencil mod which made the vdroop same for load and idle. 1.462 bios to get a 1.448 actual for both idle and load.

andyc

i see.. and looking at this pic (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...3&postcount=16) there is a vdroop and vcore mod.. did you do both?

[joe.denice]

so you guys think its a good idea to remove the north and south bridge heatpipe setup and throw some AS5 on top of them to help out?? what about the mosfets?? should I use Arctic Alumina or Artic silver on those??

[ncsa]

Couldn't find one, so here's a Template for the key BIOS items which may help others to share their settings. Although it is an XFX BIOS it is running on an eVGA board so maybe some differences between the two.

eVGA/XFX 780i BIOS Settings

Advance Chipset Features

System Clocks

** Frequency Setting **
CPU Multiplier - x9
PCIe x16_3, MHz - 120
SSP<->MCP Ref Clock, MHZ - 250.0

** HT Multiplier **
nforce SPP --> nForce MCP 4 x
nforce SPP <-- nForce MCP 4 x

** Spread Spectrun Setting **
x CPU Spread Spectrun - Disabled
x HT Spread Spectrun - Disabled
x PCIe Spread Spectrun(MCP) - Disabled
x SATA Spread Spectrun - Disabled

FSB & Memory Config

FSB - Memory Clock Mode - Unlinked
x FSB - Memory Ratio - Auto
FSB (QDR), MHz - 1700
MEM (DDR), MHz - 907

Memory Timing Setting

Memory Timing Setting - Expert
tCL (CAS Latency) - 4
tRCD - 3
tRO - 3
tRAS - 8
Command Per Clock (CMD) - 2T

** Advance Memory Settings **
tRRD - Auto(4) (4)
tRC - Auto(26) (26)
tWR - Auto(6) (6)
tWTR - Auto(10) (9)
tREF - Auto (7.8uS)

CPU Configuration

Limit CPUID MaxVal - Disabled
Intel SpeedStep - Disabled
PPM Mode - Native Mode
CPU Thermal Control - Disabled
C1E Enhanced Halt State - Disabled
Excute Disable Bit - Disabled
Virtualization Technology - Disabled
CPU Core 0 - Enabled
CPU Core 1 - Enabled
CPU Core 2 - Enabled
CPU Core 3 - Enabled

System Voltages

CPU Core - 1.60000 (1.52v)
CPU FSB - Auto (1.4v)
Memory - 2.200v ( 2.200v)
nForce SPP - Auto (1.40v)
nForce MCP - Auto (1.500v)

GTLVREF Lane 0 - Auto (+00mv)
GTLVREF Lane 1 - Auto (+95mv)
GTLVREF Lane 2 - Auto (+00mv)
GTLVREF Lane 3 - Auto (+00mv)

HPET Function - Disabled

Intergrated Peripherials

RAID Config
IEEE1394 controller - Disabled
HD Audio - Disabled
IDE HDD Block Mode - Enabled
Onboard FDC Controller - Enabled
Onboard Serial Port 1 - Disabled

PnP/PCI Configurations
Init Display First - PCIEx
Reset Configuration - Disabled
Resources Controlled By - Auto(ESCD)

PCI/VGA Palette Snoop - Disabled
PCI Latency Timer(CLK) - 32

** PCI Express relative items **
Maximum Payload Size - 4096

GeIL EVO 4Gb DDR 907 C4-3-3-8 2T BIOS Settings
CPUz Validation - http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=307927

[jbrukardt]

so you guys think its a good idea to remove the north and south bridge heatpipe setup and throw some AS5 on top of them to help out?? what about the mosfets?? should I use Arctic Alumina or Artic silver on those??

I had a big problem doing this. Per usual, evga uses about a pound of thermal grease on all the chipsets. I cleaned that off, nicely AS5ed all of em, and reattached the heatpipe assembly. The damned heatsinks dont touch the nb/sb without a massive layer of AS5........

So i proceed to shave down the little rubber spacers, and even though i only took half a mm or less off of them, apparently that was a much needed half mm. The board shorted out and got a permanent 1d error.

ARGH

Irritated at EVGA for having a halfassed solution of just globbing on more thermal grease to fill a rather large gap between the ICs and the heatpipe assembly

[JAG87]

I had a big problem doing this. Per usual, evga uses about a pound of thermal grease on all the chipsets. I cleaned that off, nicely AS5ed all of em, and reattached the heatpipe assembly. The damned heatsinks dont touch the nb/sb without a massive layer of AS5........

So i proceed to shave down the little rubber spacers, and even though i only took half a mm or less off of them, apparently that was a much needed half mm. The board shorted out and got a permanent 1d error.

ARGH

Irritated at EVGA for having a halfassed solution of just globbing on more thermal grease to fill a rather large gap between the ICs and the heatpipe assembly

wow your smart... ever heard of electrical tape?

also, put ceramique on the mosfets not AS5, AS5 is capacitive. AS5 can go on NB and SB provided you isolate the rest of the green PCB with electrical tape to cover the resistors all around the 2 dice. There are also some resistors on the board itself that will touch the heatsink if you remove the rubber spacers, you need to cover those up too.

running 400x10 right now with 1.45v set in bios, 1.42v idle, 1.35v at small FFT load. be aware if you do the mod, vdroop is important, and it is especially important with crappy boards like these. there is a reason why vdroop is a whole 0.1v, it is tuned that way because the voltage regulation on these boards is garbage. the mosfets have as much as 0.1v of oscillation, so doing the mod and setting the voltage to 1.35 isn't going to earn you much. right when the load starts, the voltage will dip to 1.25, and then stabilize at 1.35v, and when going from load to idle, it will jump to 1.45v, and then stabilize at 1.35v. this takes milliseconds obviously, not enough for you or any software to measure, but in those milliseconds your cpu can crash. so be careful what you do, vdroop is important, don't get rid of it. if you need higher load voltage, just increase vcore in the bios.

[radical]

I have done two things now with the same results:

1) Migrated existing disk partition and ran with eVGA 780i drivers.
2) Bare, ground up XP install using eVGA 780i drivers.

I am having the same problem - the machine with sometimes run for a period and then Blamm - Blue Screen and the error I am getting is complaining about a issue with evga.exe (or com, or dll, I forget).

I am running a eVGA 8800GTS for video. Other than that, the only other issue I have had is reading from the SATA DVD on the same RAID controller as the disks (no, I have not included the DVD's in the array in BIOS).

I have tried the drivers that came with the board and video. I have tried the latest drivers from both eVGA and nVidia. I have upgraded the BIOS to the latest available on both the DVD's and MoBo. I still get the same results.

Anyone have other suggestions or solutions? Is the evga.exe a MoBo driver, or Video? For a while there it seemed like maybe the DVD's were culprit. Does anyone know, is there an issue with running optical drives off the same controller as a RAID5 with 3 disks?

I will be pinging eVGA with the same questions. I need to find an answer or I have to return the board (and I think I am already too late for that!).

Thanks all,

rad

[Reinvented]

I have done two things now with the same results:

1) Migrated existing disk partition and ran with eVGA 780i drivers.
2) Bare, ground up XP install using eVGA 780i drivers.

I am having the same problem - the machine with sometimes run for a period and then Blamm - Blue Screen and the error I am getting is complaining about a issue with evga.exe (or com, or dll, I forget).

I am running a eVGA 8800GTS for video. Other than that, the only other issue I have had is reading from the SATA DVD on the same RAID controller as the disks (no, I have not included the DVD's in the array in BIOS).

I have tried the drivers that came with the board and video. I have tried the latest drivers from both eVGA and nVidia. I have upgraded the BIOS to the latest available on both the DVD's and MoBo. I still get the same results.

Anyone have other suggestions or solutions? Is the evga.exe a MoBo driver, or Video? For a while there it seemed like maybe the DVD's were culprit. Does anyone know, is there an issue with running optical drives off the same controller as a RAID5 with 3 disks?

I will be pinging eVGA with the same questions. I need to find an answer or I have to return the board (and I think I am already too late for that!).

Thanks all,

rad

What's the rest of your system specs?

And what does the BSOD say?

[fadetoblack]

running 400x10 right now with 1.45v set in bios, 1.42v idle, 1.35v at small FFT load. be aware if you do the mod, vdroop is important, and it is especially important with crappy boards like these. there is a reason why vdroop is a whole 0.1v, it is tuned that way because the voltage regulation on these boards is garbage. the mosfets have as much as 0.1v of oscillation, so doing the mod and setting the voltage to 1.35 isn't going to earn you much. right when the load starts, the voltage will dip to 1.25, and then stabilize at 1.35v, and when going from load to idle, it will jump to 1.45v, and then stabilize at 1.35v. this takes milliseconds obviously, not enough for you or any software to measure, but in those milliseconds your cpu can crash. so be careful what you do, vdroop is important, don't get rid of it. if you need higher load voltage, just increase vcore in the bios.

1.45? so you didnt do the vdroop mod? do you think its safe for me to set 1.45 on the qx9650 (rated max 1.3625 by intel) with air cooling? i went all the way up to 1.43 or something without the vdroop mod and it still wasnt stable at 400x10

[Khaotic]

Rodge'
I'm getting .1 v vDroop at idle -
1.48 set in BIOS, 1.47 reported. will stabalize under load though.


I know a lot of people are probably holding out for a Quad core 45nano, but has there been any testing of the E8400 on this board? What clocks / temps are people getting?

[jas420221]

Rodge'
I'm getting .1 v vDroop at idle -
1.48 set in BIOS, 1.47 reported. will stabalize under load though.


I know a lot of people are probably holding out for a Quad core 45nano, but has there been any testing of the E8400 on this board? What clocks / temps are people getting?

.01 you mean?

Thats not bad at all.

From waht I have seen from other sites, the e8400 plays just fine on it.

[joe.denice]

well I have a first casualty of the evga boards, the dreaded FF error message when booting up as it does nothing. Its very weird as I used that 780i board in my rig for a month and then gave it to my best friend and popped in a new one for myself. when he went to install it, it stopped working, now it could be either the board just died or he caused a short in it.

[jas420221]

FF= Fully Functional. How is that dreaded?

Regardless, sorry to hear that your friend killed the board b/c of mishandling it (likely).

[Gunslinger]

I got the "FF" also. Was working fine before that happened. When trying to boot, it goes straight to "FF". Tried everything that EVGA support suggested but nothing worked, they said to RMA it.

[GAR]

One thing to note guys, if you plan on overclocking with 4gb of ram, you shouls use no less than 1.5v on the NB.

[fadetoblack]

One thing to note guys, if you plan on overclocking with 4gb of ram, you shouls use no less than 1.5v on the NB.

why is that? im just wondering.. i have mine set to the highest green, i cant remember if thats more than 1.5

[lopri]

FF= Fully Functional. How is that dreaded?

Regardless, sorry to hear that your friend killed the board b/c of mishandling it (likely).

I thought it meant 'Fist F*ck', considering some users get that with no POST.

One thing to note guys, if you plan on overclocking with 4gb of ram, you shouls use no less than 1.5v on the NB.

My E8400 is at 400FSB for now, but with 8GB of RAM and 1.30V on NB.

[Psycho_eddie]

Anyone know when the EVGA 780I FTW editon with Solid caps, 8PVM etc is comming out?


Allmost bit the bullet and bought one otherday they found out this new version will be comming out but when?

[GAR]

Anyone know when the EVGA 780I FTW editon with Solid caps, 8PVM etc is comming out?


Allmost bit the bullet and bought one otherday they found out this new version will be comming out but when?

Dont get the 780i enless you are going to get SLi

[Psycho_eddie]

Dont get the 780i enless you are going to get SLi

Thats exactly why i would be getting SLI capable mobo, tried two HIS 3870 ICEQ3 Turbos both needed RMA so fcuk ATI.... Love my 8800Ultra so getting second when i get SLI ready mobo 'EVGA 780I FTW'

[op1e]

One thing to note guys, if you plan on overclocking with 4gb of ram, you shouls use no less than 1.5v on the NB.

You mean 4gig or 4 sticks? I'm guessing you have the same 2x2 kit as me. I'm thinking about this board, but I gotta know, will it do 500 1/1 with e8400? The 650i I'm on now will not run my ram any faster than 800, so its gotta go.

[GAR]

You mean 4gig or 4 sticks? I'm guessing you have the same 2x2 kit as me. I'm thinking about this board, but I gotta know, will it do 500 1/1 with e8400? The 650i I'm on now will not run my ram any faster than 800, so its gotta go.

4gb, 4 sticks or 2sticks, you need atleast 1.5v on the NB, thats pretty much up to the memory controller on the board you get, i have had a 780i who couldnt pass prime blend on anything above 333fsb, which was a broken NB, this board i have now is pretty good memory overclocker at high fsb, with the nvidia chipset at higher fsb its harder to get higher frequency form 4gb of memory.

[op1e]

Argh, has me thinkin Intel chipset again. Bet thats why I cant run this ram at rated speed right now. Not giving up 400mhz on the cpu to get ram up to speed.
Guess I'll stay with this for now.