ABit AX78 Overclocking/Stability

[Jethro]

Seeing just enough positives with this board to give it a go.

Plan on ordering Ax78, Phenom B3 quad or B2 triple, gddr4 3870 and some OCZ Titanium XTC ddr 800 sticks. Also have a corsair 575psu enroute for a possible crossfire setup later. All im waiting on to pull the trigger is for the B3's and Triples to hit shelves.

Anyone using OCZ sticks with success?

[LIKMARK]

Why not go for some 1066Mhz ram?

[Jethro]

Speed DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Cas Latency 3
Timing 3-4-4-15

Figured at cas 4-5 these prolly have 1000+ in em for clocking. Day to day I prefer lowest latency however.

No NB multi adjustments>?

[KTE]

Thanks for the pics, images are great!
Sorry could not get back to you earlier and I lost my earlier fully wrote post because of an Fx crash.

Low vDIMM there.. I wonder why.

I can't change nb multiplier with Phenom on this board (with BAR EDIT). Anyone got any ideas?

Why not, what do you get? Can you post an image of what you're changing and to what?
Do you reboot?

Haven't tested much yet, but four sticks seems to limit ram overclock, as expected, but not cpu overclock. Temps are high, a lot higher than I would believe under water, maybe sensors are showing too high temps.

Those are Tcontrol values rather than degrees temperature values but yep, they do indicate relative temperatures. How high are the temps?

You remember where you posted the nb fid register values in your MSI thread?

Are you looking for the BIOS FID values or the MSR FID values?

And just to be sure, nb speed could not be lower than ht link speed? Right, or was it the opposite...

Yep, HT Link speed is always equal or below NB speed.

Also, for chipset temps I'm not sure. The 790FX chip has a higher TDP yet lower temps. so that would point to the cooling/contact being problematic mainly. 780G is cooler than those temps at full load.

[LIKMARK]

Speed DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Cas Latency 3
Timing 3-4-4-15

Figured at cas 4-5 these prolly have 1000+ in em for clocking. Day to day I prefer lowest latency however.

No NB multi adjustments>?

Would believe they're running quite high vDIMM for those latencies, wondering how much headroom they got.

No NB multi adjustments with bios 12 and Phenom 9500 at least.

Low vDIMM there.. I wonder why.

Well any higher vDIMM and you kill your Phenom anyways..

Why not, what do you get? Can you post an image of what you're changing and to what?
Do you reboot?

I'll post pics when I come home after work.

Example: changing NB multi with msr register on bus 24/3 from ***101 (1800MHz) to ***100 (1600MHz, seeing it change "on the fly" in cpu-z)
Reboots, and "bang" back to stock speed.

Those are Tcontrol values rather than degrees temperature values but yep, they do indicate relative temperatures. How high are the temps?

CPU@2,5GHz, 1,3 vcore, 57c when priming, and pwn 51c when priming.

Are you looking for the BIOS FID values or the MSR FID values?

MSR FID values.

Also, for chipset temps I'm not sure. The 790FX chip has a higher TDP yet lower temps. so that would point to the cooling/contact being problematic mainly. 780G is cooler than those temps at full load.

Hmm, I'll check my blocks then.

[Jethro]

No NB multi is bad mojo! Ive been doing homework and read that this board has subpar memory performance as well. Can anyone confirm this?

[LIKMARK]

NB multi is applicable with either BE Phenom and/or earlier/later bioses than bios #12.

I'm not sure if it is my Phenoms memcontroller or the board not liking ballistix, but they can't oc as well as with my Athlon X2 on Crosshair. Awaiting new ram to test with. Today I'm running 4GB Ballistix PC6400 @940MHz 5,0 4 4 12 2T, with relativly high latencies on the subtimings @2,0 vDIMM.

Cas 4 is almost a no go (at reasonable vDIMM), this was also the story when running Phenom on Crosshair (AM2), so I'm thinking its the Phenom memcontroller who is the sinner.

My memory ran 1173MHz 5,0 5 5 5 15 2t@ 2,20 vDIMM and 1100Mhz 4,0 4 4 7 2t tight sumbtimings @2,20 vDIMM with Athlon X2 6000+ and Crosshair.

Edit: It's certainly not on par with a 790FX DFI board, but what could you expect from a board in this price range?

[Cheffy]

if you have any specific memory related benches you want me to run i can do. - to quantify the performance to see if it is bad or not.

sisoft: 11828 int, 11833 float,
everest, 10641 read, 9768 write, 9947 copy, 38ns.

looks to be ok? - perhaps a specific problem with phenoms, bios fixable i guess

[Jethro]

No NB adjustment and lackluster mem perf may be the deal breaker for me. Might just have to spend the extra money for a 790 board! All i would be curious to know is how much less ram perf then a 790. Doesnt make much sense when mem controller is on the cpu.

[LIKMARK]

This is what I do:
change msr, and hit write. Then reboot, and it's back at stock speed.

[LIKMARK]

Anyone know where the ganged/unganged memory mode values is on this board? See bios pics earlier in the tread.

[SocketMan]

Anyone know where the ganged/unganged memory mode values is on this board? See bios pics earlier in the tread.

Are there any "hidden" settings in BIOS that Abit includes?
Like F4 for M3a,CTR+F4 -I think for GB boards, did some1 say CTR+F1? for abit?

[LIKMARK]

tested most combinations, no luck so far.

[Cheffy]

ive never known A-bit to hide settings, perhaps it will be comming in a future bios? (or we can ask an a-bit rep)

what is it set to by default?

[LIKMARK]

nb multi = 9, mem mode = ganged (1 *128b) (not sure wich you ment)

[Jethro]

Well for now i ordered the AX78, opteron 1216 (2.4), gigabyte 3870, and some Geil EVO cas 4 pc6400 2 x 1gb rams. Phenom isnt ready for prime time i reckon. Will push this board to the xtreme with the opty tho i assure you .


Get your beta bios here:http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=122393

[Heidfirst]

Ive been doing homework and read that this board has subpar memory performance as well. Can anyone confirm this?

another user compared his AX78 against his brother's Biostar TF770, if anything they preferred the abit but both were down against a 790X/FX chipset mobo so probably chipset issue?

[Jethro]

From what ive read in the last few days the difference is minimal really. Justapost did a comparison where the 770/790 were nearly the same from what i could tell. Its prolly nothing more then different bios settings from board to board either hidden or accessable.

Hope this board can push the new opty well over 3ghz! Not much info on clocking this board or the new opty's to be found! This thread and the abit usa forums are about it...

[LIKMARK]

From what ive read in the last few days the difference is minimal really. Justapost did a comparison where the 770/790 were nearly the same from what i could tell. Its prolly nothing more then different bios settings from board to board either hidden or accessable.

Hope this board can push the new opty well over 3ghz! Not much info on clocking this board or the new opty's to be found! This thread and the abit usa forums are about it...

How about ordering one of the new Phenoms?

[Jethro]

I got a good deal on a 1216 opty dually, 2.4 santa ana for 100bux. Gonna mess with it for awhile, could be fun! Phenom was tempting but i really dont need all them cores heating up me water! Max single thread mhz still important here to..

Prolly pick up a B3 triple or even B3 dually? in a few months to mess with if they end up clocking to 3ghz+ typical. Waiting eagerly to see em hit the channels.

[LIKMARK]

I see. Let us know how it overclock

[Cheffy]

i open the offer again, if you have heard memory performance is down, i will run whatever cpu/ram speed combo you want for comparison, i suspect its a ganged/unganged thing with phenom and that it should be bios fixable - and that x2 should be about normal..

[LIKMARK]

Have you made running unganged on your board Cheffy? I made it once, but I can't find the correct bios options again.. Also setting trfc higher (127,5ns/195ns/325ns does not help for stability and cl 4 wich still is no go with four sticks of d9gmh.

I really hope that there will be more memory options in the next bios. It's kinda scarce..

[Jethro]

Hey Cheffy, what do you like better the cas3 setup or the higher clocked cas5?

Woot got my board and rams today! Ram is rated at 2.1~2.3v and its supposed to be 1.9-2.0 however =(

[Cheffy]

this is my first DDR2 board, but i started out long ago with 1*256mb BH5 running 2-2-2-6 went to crucial balistix 5B-G @ 2-2-2-6 then 5B-F @ high mhz 3-3-3-8 and found that the higher speed worked better, so im favouring 5-5-5-15 right now, i dont think these g-skill have much in them at 3-3-3 due to non micron chips. they fly at 5-5-5- tho

i only have an X2, so i cant comment on ganged/unganged, but im guessing its where the low results come from.

im getting what seem to be decent scores for memory and elsewise from it,
24.9 second super pi / 10KMBs 38ns Everest,
9K nuclearus,
11.1K 3dmark with amd/ati

the board has plenty of ram voltage available, so atleast your ok running your ram still - the beta bios supports loading EPP profiles apparently.