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

[pinto]

Like Dinos said with P1 and P2 enabled thanks to 3/14 bios (thx eternal) i have big memory boost!
I gain over one minute in Pi32mo and memory bandwitch is over 12400mo/s (with 4Go and 2T), before with P03 if i increase FSB past 400mhz performance were worst.

[saaya]

Saaya, if the new program SPD in my memoirs Cell-Shock then I worked well the other motherboars (X48, X38, etc.)? A greeting.

si, con el spd mas acutal deberia funcionar en cualquier placa madre con cualquier BIOS. si la placa madre no arranca con ese spd, algo esta mal con el BIOS pues, o se quemo algo en el sistema

just started Prime but it will run for days like that.
Ram left on auto but I would wind it back in.

LMAO! 8-12-12? does it need trcd and tras that high? :o

I am having a real hard time getting any kind of OC on this board. The max FSB I can do on my QX9650 is 350. Any thing over that, I cannot even run SPI 1M!!!!. Here are my parts

try just a single hdd, if possible even IDE.
i suspect something is up with the SATA ports on that board...
How high can you get in bios or memtest without a hdd connected to the board?

A trend forming anyone?
On another subject I have flashed my EVGA 790i with the P03R2 BIOS, and the memory performance is on par with the ASUS S2E!!!
However the BIOS will not post with FSB past 425Mhz when restarting the system (including after save setting & exit BIOS menu), only boots from power off. Very strange...
Oh well can't complain too much I guess
Now just the droop mod...

fsb hole?
did you try to jump higher by 10 or 20mhz fsb? :/
maybe that helps...
and more chipset voltages maybe?
the new bios seems to be more agressive so maybe it needs higher volts...
hmmmmm

One of the things I hate about the eVGA is the vdroop and vcore problems...
Well as someone else said before... I guess Loadline Calibration makes some people buy it hehe

well, does it really matter?
as long as you CAN get the vcore you want, i dont see a problem.
if vcore is higher in idle than load... i couldnt really care less as long as its where i want it to be under load and its stable there

Q9300 tested, and max FSB i reached is 480MHz ... 500MHz dont work ...

hmmmm with what multi? 6x?
did you notice any fsb holes?

EVGA droop >>> ASUS Data corruption + random BSOD

I have both boards, but maybe I've just got a ty ASUS board, giving me more grief then EVGA is giving me droop. (if that makes any sense... )

hmmmm this sounds just like 680 all over again to me...
both reference and asus boards seem to have roughly the same strengths and weaknesses.

i corrupted both SATA and IDE drives

reason = too agreesive RAM timings heheh

on 790 you mean? are you sure it was the mem?
fubarswe said the speeds were 100% stable with an IDE drive, so it must have to do something with the sata ports...

Like Dinos said with P1 and P2 enabled thanks to 3/14 bios (thx eternal) i have big memory boost!
I gain over one minute in Pi32mo and memory bandwitch is over 12400mo/s (with 4Go and 2T), before with P03 if i increase FSB past 400mhz performance were worst.

what memspeed and timings is that with?
you mean everest read bandwidth right?
nice results!

[pinto]

Yes Saaya everest bandwitch.
440X10 ram 4X1go cellshocks 14400 880 765-18 2T

[Fusion2002]

Like Dinos said with P1 and P2 enabled thanks to 3/14 bios (thx eternal) i have big memory boost!
I gain over one minute in Pi32mo and memory bandwitch is over 12400mo/s (with 4Go and 2T), before with P03 if i increase FSB past 400mhz performance were worst.

Stupid qustion.... what is P1 and P2. I saw the bios settings to enable them, but what function do they serve?

[Justifire]

I am having a real hard time getting any kind of OC on this board. The max FSB I can do on my QX9650 is 350. Any thing over that, I cannot even run SPI 1M!!!!. Here are my parts

Striker II Extreme(0507)
QX9650(L739A732).
OCZ3P16002GK
TRUE 120 with SLFEX

I left everything on auto except for FSB linked and synced with the RAM. Sometimes if I go over 350 FSB, it gets stuck on "Code Init" and I have to do a hard reset???. Should I RMA it or is there anything else I should try. Please help. I spent so much of money and time only to get frustrated.


It runs fine with everything @ default 12 hours prime stable and 1M and 32M SPI stable. I don't think it's my RAM as I tested it with "Unlinked" with FSB @ 1333(default) and the RAM @ the rated speed(1600 @7-7-7-20 1T 1.9V) and 12 hours prime stable also no errors in Memtest.


I also forgot to mention that I am running dual raptors in Raid 0 and XP professional x32. I first installed mediashield and tried reformatting and reinstall of XP without the mediashield.

Use 2T !!
And take a look at Striker II Extreme thread, look for the voltages i used in Everest screenshot.
Keep that as a guideline and you can come quit far.

[Justifire]

A trend forming anyone?

On another subject I have flashed my EVGA 790i with the P03R2 BIOS, and the memory performance is on par with the ASUS S2E!!!
However the BIOS will not post with FSB past 425Mhz when restarting the system (including after save setting & exit BIOS menu), only boots from power off. Very strange...

Oh well can't complain too much I guess

Now just the droop mod...

Have you tried 2T ?
Bios is standard on 1T

[eternal_fantasy]

Reading through the ASUS forum S2E thread:
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?...e=en-us&page=3
Looks like the data corruption when the FSB is raised from stock 333Mhz is very widespread on the ASUS Striker II Extreme... and I'm not seeing ghosts and tooth fairies benching/tweaking early into the morning!!

[slim142]

Q9300 tested, and max FSB i reached is 480MHz ... 500MHz dont work ...

Well thats pretty nice for a cpu with a 7.5x
Hopefully Q9450s are more friendly

EVGA droop >>> ASUS Data corruption + random BSOD

I have both boards, but maybe I've just got a ty ASUS board, giving me more grief then EVGA is giving me droop. (if that makes any sense... )

I see it weird that people are getting data corruptions, are you all making sure you are not going to windows without making sure your RAMs are at least memtest stable?

And Saaya, I see it important (vcore, vdroop) mostly for us that do OC their cpus. I own an striker extreme 680i and sometimes you just hate that your CPU is stable at 1.36v but because it goes down to 1.34, you cannot keep it stable and that means by the time you get it stable, it will be getting a lot more energy than the neccesary when idle.

[dinos22]

on 790 you mean? are you sure it was the mem?
fubarswe said the speeds were 100% stable with an IDE drive, so it must have to do something with the sata ports...
what memspeed and timings is that with?
you mean everest read bandwidth right?
nice results!

100% sure

i benched high FSB on both SATA and IDE drive
no difference

only difference is higher PCI Express frequency on IDE hence why i like using it more

[eternal_fantasy]

I see it weird that people are getting data corruptions, are you all making sure you are not going to windows without making sure your RAMs are at least memtest stable?

When 1 or 2 inexperienced people are reporting data corruption after overclocking, suspecting those people are at fault with their settings may be reasonable. However when 5 - 6+ experienced overclockers are encountering this issue, and only limited to the ASUS motherboard, an undeniable trend is starting to form, that points squarely at the hardware/BIOS that the issue arise form.

Speaking from my own experience;
- Corruption starts to occur when I move away from stock FSB
- Leaving the FSB at stock but upping the multipliers does not cause data corruption
- Leaving the FSB at stock but upping the memory frequency (within reason) does not cause data corruption
- Memory timing and frequency at any (resonable) level on stock FSB does not cause data corruption
- Memory timing and frequency at any level does not alleviate the data corruption when the FSB is raised away from stock settings

Memtest or not, why should EVGA at 400FSB works at same settings while ASUS s up my system files?

[eternal_fantasy]

By the way no personal attacks on my above posts

Just frustrated such trivial problem is causing such grief on such a beautiful motherboard...

[dinos22]

eternal

what he is suggesting is a possibility

i bet you right now that none of those ppl used memtest to check RAM
i corrupted the drives on really tight timings past 2GHz on ref board and i know that it is RAM related 100% >>> i didn't have a memset handy lol but those OS installs were really old anyways so i wasn't bumed about it as i was gonna do some reinstalling on benching drives

reason i say that is that i've seen someone post for example that they booted cellshocks (back off saaya just using an example with an actual post so don't go PMing me about it ) at stock settings and board was picking up the SPD at high clocks (900MHz) at tight timings (8-7-6-x 1T) with ONLY 1.5vdimm >> same thing would apply to say corsair 1800 CAS7 sticks if the bios was booting at those settings with 1.5v......bios should select 1333 CAS9 for initial boot if RAM is not EPP2.0 ready

that is a recipe for an OS corruption right there if you attempt to boot into windows

[slim142]

When 1 or 2 inexperienced people are reporting data corruption after overclocking, suspecting those people are at fault with their settings may be reasonable. However when 5 - 6+ experienced overclockers are encountering this issue, and only limited to the ASUS motherboard, an undeniable trend is starting to form, that points squarely at the hardware/BIOS that the issue arise form.

Speaking from my own experience;
- Corruption starts to occur when I move away from stock FSB
- Leaving the FSB at stock but upping the multipliers does not cause data corruption
- Leaving the FSB at stock but upping the memory frequency (within reason) does not cause data corruption
- Memory timing and frequency at any (resonable) level on stock FSB does not cause data corruption
- Memory timing and frequency at any level does not alleviate the data corruption when the FSB is raised away from stock settings

Memtest or not, why should EVGA at 400FSB works at same settings while ASUS s up my system files?

Well I didnt clarify my statement. Sorry for that. If you take a look around at all the SIIE owners, some of them are getting nice OC results. I have seen people with 500mhz FSB and some others going higher than 4Ghz. For a moment I thought people in here were like OC without testing their hardware, or that they had faulty drives. I guess we will have to see what future owners say...
Last time I checked the SIIE forums, all I found was people asking for availability, guess is time to go around there again to check whats up with the board.

[eternal_fantasy]

Dino,

If setting FSB at 400, using CellShock 1800 8-7-6-21 1.9V @ 1:2 1600Mhz 8-7-6-21 @ 1.9V still causing corruption... you really can't blame the memory... can you?

[dinos22]

Dino,

If setting FSB at 400, using CellShock 1800 8-7-6-21 1.9V @ 1:2 1600Mhz 8-7-6-21 @ 1.9V still causing corruption... you really can't blame the memory... can you?

no you can't UNLESS some of the subtimings are getting set to high

corrupting windows is blamed more on mobo bios than memory

[webwilli]

I am having a real hard time getting any kind of OC on this board. The max FSB I can do on my QX9650 is 350. Any thing over that, I cannot even run SPI 1M!!!!. Here are my parts

Striker II Extreme(0507)
QX9650(L739A732).
OCZ3P16002GK
TRUE 120 with SLFEX

I left everything on auto except for FSB linked and synced with the RAM. Sometimes if I go over 350 FSB, it gets stuck on "Code Init" and I have to do a hard reset???. Should I RMA it or is there anything else I should try. Please help. I spent so much of money and time only to get frustrated.


It runs fine with everything @ default 12 hours prime stable and 1M and 32M SPI stable. I don't think it's my RAM as I tested it with "Unlinked" with FSB @ 1333(default) and the RAM @ the rated speed(1600 @7-7-7-20 1T 1.9V) and 12 hours prime stable also no errors in Memtest.


I also forgot to mention that I am running dual raptors in Raid 0 and XP professional x32. I first installed mediashield and tried reformatting and reinstall of XP without the mediashield.

i have the same problem now.

i only change the cpu today:

old: E6600, max FSB on STRIIEX = 490 FSB, 400 FSB rockstable all the time
new: E8500, more than 375 = no post

i don´t understand

[eternal_fantasy]

Well I didnt clarify my statement. Sorry for that. If you take a look around at all the SIIE owners, some of them are getting nice OC results. I have seen people with 500mhz FSB and some others going higher than 4Ghz. For a moment I thought people in here were like OC without testing their hardware, or that they had faulty drives. I guess we will have to see what future owners say...
Last time I checked the SIIE forums, all I found was people asking for availability, guess is time to go around there again to check whats up with the board.

No probs

Have a look at my link a few posts above, 2-3 people experienced system file corruption just by raising their FSB slightly, and have had to make do with stock FSBs and only raising multipliers and memory frequencies...

I can run ORTHOS/OCCT for hours with FSB 450+ @ 4Ghz+, but that dosen't stop the random BSOD upon starting up programs due to the inevitable data corruption.

[Justifire]

I can't say this enough...
With 1T i run into a fsb wall @ 425mhz with my qx9650
With 2T i run into the wall @ 490mhz fsb
Because you guys don't confirm you tried 2T I mention this again.

[dinos22]

i have the same problem now.

i only change the cpu today:

old: E6600, max FSB on STRIIEX = 490 FSB, 400 FSB rockstable all the time
new: E8500, more than 375 = no post

i don´t understand

that is very odd

[JPxM0Dz]

Make sure you give us the 790 vs X38/X48 opinion as well when you can...

Early reviews over the web show the 790i on par with X48, in some cases ahead, others just behind.

[Broly]

anyone know how to force flash the 790i evga with the p03r2 bios?

[eternal_fantasy]

i have the same problem now.

i only change the cpu today:

old: E6600, max FSB on STRIIEX = 490 FSB, 400 FSB rockstable all the time
new: E8500, more than 375 = no post

i don´t understand

Dang.. aint the sky falling down on ASUS today!
I got around the same barrier on my E8400...

I can't say this enough...
With 1T i run into a fsb wall @ 425mhz with my qx9650
With 2T i run into the wall @ 490mhz fsb
Because you guys don't confirm you tried 2T I mention this again.

Why would I run on sub-par timings on a much more expensive board when the cheaper reference EVGA with the right BIOS does not need to, while with performance on par with the ASUS?
Anyway what I just typed is irrelevant. Can you run a system file integrity check on your computer?

[canislupy]

Seriously? I am running an E3110 and 4 sticks of Cellshock @ 7-6-6-18-1t 450MHz 2.0v on the EVGA board. 2t for $130 more.

Although, is the 1t vs. 2t thing related to the Asus having P1/P2 and the EVGA not? Which is to say, is the Asus at 2t still faster than the EVGA at 1t due to the P1/P2 settings (I imagine the answer would be yes, and I wonder if this whole 1t/2t thing is linked to the p1/p2?).

Any which way, so far so good on the EVGA board, I couldn't be happier.

[|SiLA|]

does asus corrupts all the disks plugged or just the window's one disk?

[eternal_fantasy]

does asus corrupts all the disks plugged or just the window's one disk?

I would guess just the disc that is written to, and the files that is accessed.