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

[saaya]

so apparently evga seems to integrate and release updated code bits in a new beta now while asus... is waiting for more code updates from nvidia before they release a new beta?

[BenchZowner]

I have plenty of BIOSes for the S2E from Asus as well.
How many releases do you have for the eVGA ?
I have 8 for the S2E.

[ not a e-p**is fight, and no offense meant ] { it's just my silly way of expressing it that makes it sound a tad bad }

[3oh6]

[ not a e-p**is fight, and no offense meant ] { it's just my silly way of expressing it that makes it sound a tad bad }

so why bother saying it if you know what it sounds like and no real point to the comment?

BTW, the P03R2 reference board BIOS from NVIDIA is stable as a rock and does everything i could imagine.

[BenchZowner]

so why bother saying it if you know what it sounds like and no real point to the comment?

Because he's making a fuzz about eVGA and their BIOS releases ( which are supposedly happening more often ) compared to the "poor" Asus S2E owners.

For real, both the eVGA 790i and the Asus S2E got released about the same time.
I have 8 BIOSes for the S2E already ( and I believe that somebody I know has more than I do ).
How many BIOSes are there for the eVGA ?

p.s. Nice to hear the eVGA 790i Ultra SLI is treating you well.

[dinos22]

lol 8xbioses

do they actually change something in those bioses or? j/k

[BenchZowner]

lol 8xbioses

do they actually change something in those bioses or? j/k

Yeap, sure they do change stuff.
1) After a specific release ( I think from 0511 and on ) they added the P1 & P2 options.
2) Every now and then they swap bugs and/or invent new ones
3) Not to forget, release BIOSes that can be flashed only 1 way....sometimes only via Asus Update... sometimes via EZ-Flash....sometimes via AWDflash... and sometimes... hard to rollback as well

At least it's way better in terms of b*tchiness over the first Striker.

P.S. Wow, they got the name right on their FTP now! ( the first striker is still shown as "Stricker" on their FTP )

[3oh6]

haha, so more is better? i thought that meant that it was worse because there were more issues or they needed more tries to get things fixed

as of now, the P03R2 bios is absolutely bang on...for dual cores anyway, no idea bout quad users. they just have to fix the CL7 bug, leave P1/P2 adjustment in there, and perhaps clean up some of the POSTing issues. every now and then, a completely stable setup won't POST. it just hangs at 11 or some other random code. a quick reset, save & exit and she fires right up though.

that is one thing i have not heard mentioned...how easily the reference boards recover from failed clocks. no need to even turn the power off, just hit reset and your back to a safe boot. it is very handy.

[BenchZowner]

haha, so more is better?

Nope, that's not what I meant.
Anyways, let's drop this s**t, leads nowhere, and there's no point talking about how many BIOSes each board has seen, who gets the updates first, etc.

as of now, the P03R2 bios is absolutely bang on...for dual cores anyway, no idea bout quad users. they just have to fix the CL7 bug, leave P1/P2 adjustment in there, and perhaps clean up some of the POSTing issues. every now and then, a completely stable setup won't POST. it just hangs at 11 or some other random code. a quick reset, save & exit and she fires right up though.

that is one thing i have not heard mentioned...how easily the reference boards recover from failed clocks. no need to even turn the power off, just hit reset and your back to a safe boot. it is very handy.

Ha! eVGA has CL7 issue, and Asus has CL5 issue
LOL. What kind of issues are you talking about with CL7 ?

It's good to see more and more mobos being able to recover from failed clocks easily.

[3oh6]

Ha! eVGA has CL7 issue, and Asus has CL5 issue
LOL. What kind of issues are you talking about with CL7 ?

to be honest, i'm not 100% sure. stability at CL7 is shyt...benching is fine at decent clocks but getting anything 24/7 stable much over 900MHz at CL7 was impossible in my testing. could just be the single kit i have tested with thus far or a FSB thing. the BIOS also doesn't recognize that CL7 is set on the POST screen and some guys are thinking CL7 doesn't even get set.

in windows everything picks up CL7 and SPi times go down with CL7 and bandwidth goes up so i'm not sure exactly what the issue is. they talk about the CL7 issue as being fixed at the EVGA site in the new BIOS though so who knows. it could just be the P03 official BIOS that doesn't actually set CL7...not sure.

[dinos22]

haha, so more is better? i thought that meant that it was worse because there were more issues or they needed more tries to get things fixed

as of now, the P03R2 bios is absolutely bang on...for dual cores anyway, no idea bout quad users. they just have to fix the CL7 bug, leave P1/P2 adjustment in there, and perhaps clean up some of the POSTing issues. every now and then, a completely stable setup won't POST. it just hangs at 11 or some other random code. a quick reset, save & exit and she fires right up though.

that is one thing i have not heard mentioned...how easily the reference boards recover from failed clocks. no need to even turn the power off, just hit reset and your back to a safe boot. it is very handy.

i love that bit myself

i get code 11 as well sometimes

sometimes while experiementing with crazy OCs i like to do a full cmos clear/battery....load up old settings and bang perfect...just to make sure there is no bad blood between me and this lovely lass

i donno man i am just as happy with mine but ppl shoot down anyone that's happy especially if you got the board from them lol..... 'sif

i am yet to have an actual corruption of the hard drive.....as in the whole drive goes or kill one....i seriously don't know wtf some of the review sites/users here were doing to kill their hard drives...maybe a PSU issue

but it is annoying to corrupt windows when RAM is not stable......only cause i'm a tool and still don't know how to use Acronis or ghost or others........actually i think i've mainly given up in the past cause of lack of raid sata support and other things..........and i never successfully managed to reload acronis backups on a couple of mission critical machines at home

jody i know what you are saying about CL7 .> i also see CL8 when i set CL6 in bios during bootup >> so for me at least both CL7 and CL6 reporting issues need to be fixed >>> i didn't prime with these though so can't tell you about stability but all my DDR3 sticks >> 2GB and 4GB Corsair kits and 2GB Crucial kit tend to do the same

maaan i wish i could bench CL6-5-5 at 900+ on this board....that would be crazy fast lol.........it would be hideously fast and would even beat Bill's board in Superpi

[GAR]

the eVGA is rock solid at 450fsb with Q9450 P03 bios, but memory performance seems to be low............here is what i got..............

[noobzed]

Just an info for you those who are concerned by heat issues
I have throw a hr05 sli ifx on NB and evercool cooper on SB
decrease by 15°c on NB or more and 20°c on SB
so far so good

[Coolclocks]

I got the reference 790i now en only 1 stick at the time works thats F*ckud up

And yes i use the black 1's
slot 4 works 2 is down

That can't be software related or not?

Mems i did test on the 790i

Kingston 1066 mhz Cl7 1.5v
Corsair 1800 mhz Cl7 2.0v
Cellshock 1800 mhz Cl8 1.9

[pmp]

the eVGA is rock solid at 450fsb with Q9450 P03 bios, but memory performance seems to be low............here is what i got..............
/pic cut/

Seems to be bad. Just take a look what i got...

[slim142]

How come a new BIOS release is good news for the eVGA owners, and bad news for the Asus owners ?

[/QUOTE]


I have no idea why you took this so serious but I respect what you think about the case and Im not going to deal with anything because Im here for solutions, not more problems.
The reason why I said this was because eVGA has at least an admin in the forums who answers questions to problems and tells users about the new upcoming BIOS releases. Something ASUS doesnt have.
Also, there is something called "changelog" which ASUS for some reason doesnt include in the beta BIOS files, why? I would like to know why too.

Whats so amazing/useful about a new beta BIOS if we dont know the changelog? Why leave the task of finding changes to the user?

And NO, Im not been an eVGA fanboy neither an ASUS fanboy. I dont own neither boards but this has ALWAYS been the case with this companies since 680i. Currently I own an ASUS Striker Extreme but that doesnt cover my eyes from the reality which is evga>asus in support which has been said enough times already.

[BenchZowner]

I have no idea why you took this so serious but I respect what you think about the case and Im not going to deal with anything because Im here for solutions, not more problems.

I took it as serious as I take everything.
However I was affected a little by the way you expressed your impatience about the new BIOS for eVGA.
It sounded like you were expecting miracles ( just like everybody expected with the newer BIOSes for the 680i's ).

The reason why I said this was because eVGA has at least an admin in the forums who answers questions to problems and tells users about the new upcoming BIOS releases.

That's not bad.
The key however is delivering a good update.

Something ASUS doesnt have.

Asus doesn't have lots of things, but... they have a huge market share.

Also, there is something called "changelog" which ASUS for some reason doesnt include in the beta BIOS files, why? I would like to know why too.

I'm not concerned about the changelog-less BIOSes... I'm mostly concerned about the new bugs ( a text file with a line "Fixed 13x CPU Ratio bug" is ok, but I'd rather have the big list...the list with their latest mistakes ).
I'm quite sure sometimes they've got nothing to say for the new BIOS... wonder if there's any real difference between 0507 and 0508 [ apart from the broken ID ]

And NO, Im not been an eVGA fanboy neither an ASUS fanboy.

Never accused you of being a fanboy.
I'm not a fanboy as well.
Or actually... I am a fanboy of... performance

evga>asus in support which has been said enough times already.

Sure thing.
If Asus can't reach sky...bottom, who would ?

[slim142]

BenchZowner;2921717]I took it as serious as I take everything.
However I was affected a little by the way you expressed your impatience about the new BIOS for eVGA.
It sounded like you were expecting miracles ( just like everybody expected with the newer BIOSes for the 680i's ).

But arent we all impatient for a new BIOS? We expect a working product from a $350 purchase dont we?

That's not bad.
The key however is delivering a good update.

eVGA does it most of the times or at least tells you what to expect from the next update so you wont be dissapointed in case is not what you are expecting

Asus doesn't have lots of things, but... they have a huge market share.

What can we do about it? Yes it is 100% true and even when they do great motherboards, is always the user that has to find the way to make it work like it should (or at least most of the cases).

I'm not concerned about the changelog-less BIOSes... I'm mostly concerned about the new bugs ( a text file with a line "Fixed 13x CPU Ratio bug" is ok, but I'd rather have the big list...the list with their latest mistakes ).

Well yeah me too, but you know there are always useless BIOS releases (for some not all) like useless fixes for some people and we dont want to waste time doing a pointless upgrade unless is something critic, hey I use BIOS 1004 for my Striker

I'm quite sure sometimes they've got nothing to say for the new BIOS... wonder if there's any real difference between 0507 and 0508 [ apart from the broken ID ]

And thats why I would like a changelog

Never accused you of being a fanboy.
I'm not a fanboy as well.
Or actually... I am a fanboy of... performance

Who isnt
We pay OUR money to expect that, not data corruption and stuff...

Sure thing.
If Asus can't reach sky...bottom, who would ?

Wow, what a nice review (or should I say terrific )

And now BenchZ, like you said before, lets stay on topic?

[BenchZowner]

Let's corrupt the topic ( in a 790i fashion )

[ just kidding ]

[slim142]

Let's corrupt the topic ( in a 790i fashion )

[ just kidding ]

That would be sort of like spam (since 790i has sooo many different stories from all of us)

Btw, there is not much activity in the ASUS forum. At eVGA, people are desperate. Over here, Im still waiting for the price to drop.
BTW, I asked this on the other topic but I would like to ask this here as well, is anybody besides OBR using a RAID with nvidia Mediashield and Getting corruptions?
I might be getting another Raptor but killing them, hell nah I wouldnt tolerate that. I might use my old 100gb drive to test the 790i whenever I get it.

[DaMulta]

For ntune to work

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_...ools_6.01.html

[slim142]

Ok Here you go Striker II Extreme Owners, I have collected every single BIOS out (except for 0101 and 0402), try AT YOUR OWN RISK. All this BIOS files here came from users that posted them here in XtremeSystems.org so they should work with no problems but again since I dont own the SIIE I havent tried them. I TAKE NO RESPONSABILITY. Remember all of this are BETA BIOS files!.

ASUS Striker II Extreme BIOS 0507
ASUS Striker II Extreme BIOS 0508
ASUS Striker II Extreme BIOS 0509
ASUS Striker II Extreme BIOS 0511
ASUS Striker II Extreme BIOS 0512

Hopefully this will save the time of many people looking for specific BIOS releases

[BenchZowner]

Ok Here you go Striker II Extreme Owners, I have collected every single BIOS out (except for 0101 and 0402), try AT YOUR OWN RISK. All this BIOS files here came from users that posted them here in XtremeSystems.org so they should work with no problems but again since I dont own the SIIE I havent tried them. I TAKE NO RESPONSABILITY. Remember all of this are BETA BIOS files!.

ASUS Striker II Extreme BIOS 0507
ASUS Striker II Extreme BIOS 0508
ASUS Striker II Extreme BIOS 0509
ASUS Striker II Extreme BIOS 0511
ASUS Striker II Extreme BIOS 0512

Hopefully this will save the time of many people looking for specific BIOS releases

I've got something better
BIOS collection ( sorry I can't include 1 specific BIOS ) and a bugs-list attached with each BIOS ( bugs that I've found ).
http://www.benchzone.com/Downloads/B...er_II_Extreme/

[CapFTP]

i subscribe the thread.....
running sometimes (when I have time..) the Evga 790i + Cellshock 1800....really great rams



didn' tested BW and have to upgrade to P03r2 to see if something changes.
My problem right now is to pass 400 Mhz fsb...there seems to have a wall in my configuration ( Q6600 G0)...really strange...

[Gylen]

i subscribe the thread.....
running sometimes (when I have time..) the Evga 790i + Cellshock 1800....really great rams



didn' tested BW and have to upgrade to P03r2 to see if something changes.
My problem right now is to pass 400 Mhz fsb...there seems to have a wall in my configuration ( Q6600 G0)...really strange...

CapFTP, read this:

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=...1&key=&#313624

EVGA's new bios should be out soon fixing the problem with the Q6600 G0.

[CapFTP]

thnx Gylen, hope I can test soon....(quite) happy to know i'm not alone.