**Official DFI LanParty UT 790FX-M2R Review/Overclock/Guide Thread**

[nanohead]

Truly the Flake-O-Matic this thing. Prime all 4 cores perfectly for nearly 2 hours. Also played an hour of Hellgate before that. Thing ran perfectly.

Now, I restart, and BANG ... BSOD.

I'm thinking that Windows might need a lobotomy. Something important might have become corrupted deep down inside during all my shenanigans.

Gonna do a fresh install, but keep my existing disk untouched and see what happens

[nanohead]

OK. Here's the results of playing with this whole setup most of the day, aside from a flare up of reboot fatigue syndrome

The 9850BE seems to have no trouble running at 3Ghz all day. Its the DFI 790FX-M2R that seems to be having a schizophrenic time handling the 9850.

1. The system will consistently RUN at 3Ghz.
2. As Nico pointed out in his TTR post, it does NOT always like to BOOT to 3Ghz
3. I can get it to boot to 3Ghz by having CPU voltage set to 112.82%, yielding 1.45V, which is somewhat high, but not ridiculous (I'm on water, although I'd be dubious about doing this on air)
4. There is definite MISMATCH between AOD, Smart Guardian and Everest on many IMPORTANT readings to tweakers and modders. A variety of voltages are simply inconsistent
5. One PECULIAR item of note, is that I boot using the BIOS voltage setting of 112.82%, which yields 1.45-1.47 volts in SG and Everest. the MINUTE I start up AOD, the voltage DROPS to 1.38-1.39 in SG and Everest.
6. AOD definitely has value now with Phenom, but the BIOS and AOD do not agree. Voltages are clearly not the same in both.

All in all, my confidence with the Phenom is starting to grow. Its pretty obvious that more experience and testing is needed to further the development of Firmware for these motherboards, and to tighten up integration between AOD and BIOS.

Its clear to me that there is something that happens at boot time, that is different than run time as it relates to CPU state. My simple mind might drift towards there being some kind of voltage drop during boot up that causes the CPU to not be able to tolerate 3Ghz at bootstrap, causing BSODs. But after about a minute of steady state, the system runs just great and will Prime all night.

[Tony]

OK. Here's the results of playing with this whole setup most of the day, aside from a flare up of reboot fatigue syndrome

The 9850BE seems to have no trouble running at 3Ghz all day. Its the DFI 790FX-M2R that seems to be having a schizophrenic time handling the 9850.

1. The system will consistently RUN at 3Ghz.
2. As Nico pointed out in his TTR post, it does NOT always like to BOOT to 3Ghz
3. I can get it to boot to 3Ghz by having CPU voltage set to 112.82%, yielding 1.45V, which is somewhat high, but not ridiculous (I'm on water, although I'd be dubious about doing this on air)
4. There is definite MISMATCH between AOD, Smart Guardian and Everest on many IMPORTANT readings to tweakers and modders. A variety of voltages are simply inconsistent
5. One PECULIAR item of note, is that I boot using the BIOS voltage setting of 112.82%, which yields 1.45-1.47 volts in SG and Everest. the MINUTE I start up AOD, the voltage DROPS to 1.38-1.39 in SG and Everest.
6. AOD definitely has value now with Phenom, but the BIOS and AOD do not agree. Voltages are clearly not the same in both.

All in all, my confidence with the Phenom is starting to grow. Its pretty obvious that more experience and testing is needed to further the development of Firmware for these motherboards, and to tighten up integration between AOD and BIOS.

Its clear to me that there is something that happens at boot time, that is different than run time as it relates to CPU state. My simple mind might drift towards there being some kind of voltage drop during boot up that causes the CPU to not be able to tolerate 3Ghz at bootstrap, causing BSODs. But after about a minute of steady state, the system runs just great and will Prime all night.

Yup...they have to warm up, i found the same

There is new bios on the way from DFI I hear, we just need to wait and see what they managed to fix

[nanohead]

Yup...they have to warm up, i found the same

There is new bios on the way from DFI I hear, we just need to wait and see what they managed to fix

Yeah, its amusing actually. Never met a solid state device that needed to get cozy first before reporting to work

[Brother Esau]

Sounds like allot of you guys come out like a six shooter with this Phenom and board Not really the logical approach to doing this at all

Not that I put myself on a pedastal by saying this but.....why is it that I am at 2800mhz @ 1.23v and have yet to have a BSOD in over a weeks time with the Phenom? I can tell you all why because I am using my common sense with the way I approach this and I also realize that before you can walk you must crawl and so forth with the progressive order of things

You fellas need to slow down and keep in mind there is allot of unchartered territory with whats being done on this forum as well as others so at the risk of getting shunned for being practical and patient with this whole Phenom process just keep in mind if you blow you're up just remember I told you so.

[nanohead]

Sounds like allot of you guys come out like a six shooter with this Phenom and board Not really the logical approach to doing this at all

Not that I put myself on a pedastal by saying this but.....why is it that I am at 2800mhz @ 1.23v and have yet to have a BSOD in over a weeks time with the Phenom? I can tell you all why because I am using my common sense with the way I approach this and I also realize that before you can walk you must crawl and so forth with the progressive order of things

You fellas need to slow down and keep in mind there is allot of unchartered territory with whats being done on this forum as well as others so at the risk of getting shunned for being practical and patient with this whole Phenom process just keep in mind if you blow you're up just remember I told you so.

Huh All I was doing was posting a day's worth of testing observations. 2.8Ghz runs great for me too all day long, but I've been trying to figure out how to get 3Ghz to boot consistently, which it will not do, much as NicoOCZ has posted as well at TTR. Thats kinda all I wanted to show

[informal]

Heya Brother,glad to see you post about your 9850 .Call me crazy(not really ) but i'm with you on this random BSOD thing people are experiencing with Phenoms.

Anyhow,report your findings Brother(and all of you Phenom ppl ),i'm on the verge of buying one x50 chip for myself .

[Brother Esau]

I'm not trying to rain on anyones parade with what I said and its not directed to anyone in particular its just some words of advice spoken generally from personal observation is all I am not the King of overclock by any means but I also have never fried a Motherboard , CPU , or Ram for that matter and I get what allot of people get on allot less voltage then people with the same overclock. Do I plan on having this stuff for 5 years hell no! I have changed systems like 10 times just this past year But the fact is that I get what I want from what I have without sending it to the Electric Chair in the process and all of my stuff when sold and usually to members on the Forum here is all cherry and in Mint condition because I don't hit my stuff over the ass with high voltage.

I see allot or most on the entire forum Reaching for the Voltage with this more is better mindset and guess what generally happens? The point I am making with this Psycho Babble is that the Voltage is the last thing you should reach for and only after all else and available options have failed

[Brother Esau]

I need some verification on some stuff from Members that have Hitachi Drives

Oddest thing my DFI Expert Board has gone bye bye and need to get it RMA'ed so I decided to Run Hitachi Drive Fitness Test on all of My Hitachi Drives today or at least 4 of them anyway and what I found after a 2 1/2hr session of attempting to Run the tests on the Drives on both the SB600 & Silicon Image v=controller is that Hitachi Drive Fitness Test as well as my $100.00 SPIN RITE6 Program thatss the standard in the IT Induastry and Pinacle of HDD Testing Software cannot and will not acknowledge either onboard controller and refuses to see any of the Hitachi Drives ....$^%^%#@#$^&^&* F@$R$$T$ ing SB600 ...POS

Can anyone with a Hitachi Drive please verify this Finding with Hitachi Drive Fitness Test in DOS? Now I don't expect any of you to own SpinRite6 as it costs $100.00 for the HDD testing Program vs the "FREE" H.D.F.T

[SAB]

I need some verification on some stuff from Members that have Hitachi Drives

Oddest thing my DFI Expert Board has gone bye bye and need to get it RMA'ed so I decided to Run Hitachi Drive Fitness Test on all of My Hitachi Drives today or at least 4 of them anyway and what I found after a 2 1/2hr session of attempting to Run the tests on the Drives on both the SB600 & Silicon Image v=controller is that Hitachi Drive Fitness Test as well as my $100.00 SPIN RITE6 Program thatss the standard in the IT Induastry and Pinacle of HDD Testing Software cannot and will not acknowledge either onboard controller and refuses to see any of the Hitachi Drives ....$^%^%#@#$^&^&* F@$R$$T$ ing SB600 ...POS

Can anyone with a Hitachi Drive please verify this Finding with Hitachi Drive Fitness Test in DOS? Now I don't expect any of you to own SpinRite6 as it costs $100.00 for the HDD testing Program vs the "FREE" H.D.F.T

Ok Esau, I own a few Hitachi drives.