UNOFFICIAL BIOSTAR TPower I45 M/B

[Ace-a-Rue]

i can't talk comfortably about the P5Q-E since i am not that familiar with the board.

the Tpower board is easy to get high overclocks once you take the memory out of SPD and start setting them independently...you don't have to change much; two or three settings...i will give you them later...not feeling very good at the moment....of course, i only used PC6400 memory...if you got some PC9600 (DDR 1200 Mhz) that will open it to very high FSB's.

my max FSB with the highest useable multi is 8.5x and 515 FSB on my E8500...that gave me 4382 Mhz.

the board is engineered well, IMO...the TPower software that changes voltages and FSB in windows desktop works good...the only thing, do NOT do "multiple" clicks on the "Plus" or "Minus" signs, just click ONCE if you want to make a change...there is about a 5 second lag for resultant increase or decrease to show up...once you see it show up and you want more or less, click it but only once each time and then wait (that's my recommendation)...i did it a few times in a row for vcore and the next thing i knew, it shutdown...just a warning to the wise.

the other thing i like about it for the TPower model is the extra 70 mm cooling fan plus a vertical heatsink that comes with it to add (screw it on) additional cooling capacity for the PWM area...the fan appears to be a delta fan because of the whine at full speed...it is a little noisy when it is running at 4.5K rpm but you have a fan header that is controllable from the bios to set a range of temps for hi/lo which in turn reduce or increase the rpm as temperature changes...i have mine setup at about 2.8K for idle.

another thing: the bios has the capability to save as many 10 different CMOS settings, so, you can try various overclocks and if it fails, the board will reset itself...in that condition, you have to re-enter the bios and recall a good overclock setting and start over again making your changes.

the only draw back that i see at the moment is for the monster 9800 GTX cards which overlaps the backside of the board...my 9800 goes right over the middle of the Sata Ports so you would need to hook the Sata cables in first before inserting the VC...be aware that the ports are configured at 90 degress so the plug-in openings will be facing to the rear of the case....i am sure other people will find other little nagging annoyances about placement of certain ports, but not evey board is perfect unless you pay $400 for it!

[Ace-a-Rue]

i thought these were fairly good for the board...they beat my gigabyte X48T-DQ6.

[Ace-a-Rue]

i'll eventually put up a memory bench sometime tomorrow.

[Ace-a-Rue]

you have to LOVE this board...this is a new personal high in Mhz for this E8500!

currently running 32M and then i will continue soaring in Mhz if that is successful...but, i think i am at the max for my memory, which is not to bad for PC6400 memory.

[Sniper]

Why is the highest usable mp 8.5, E8500 uses 9.5 doesnt it ?

[Ace-a-Rue]

Why is the highest usable mp 8.5, E8500 uses 9.5 doesnt it ?

i use 8.5x or 8x (even 7.5x) to attain the highest FSB...understand?

[ChuckM]

Once again Ace, you are THE MAN.
Thanks for the review and info.

[Ace-a-Rue]

i am having fun with the board!

my only disappointment is not having better rated ram...i do have some TeamXtreme PC8000 stuff but it will not do any better than my Gskill PC6400...maybe it will get about 5 mhz better on the FSB.

[politenessman]

i am having a little trouble with the nomenclature of the voltages, its different than most other boards i have used. which is vtt?

[Ace-a-Rue]

i am having a little trouble with the nomenclature of the voltages, its different than most other boards i have used. which is vtt?

under the category of "O.N.E." which is your overclock settings.

you have to be in "Manual Overclock" to see the sub setting of "Voltage Configuration"

from there you enter and you have three sub categories covering "VTT":

1) CPU CORE1 GTL REF VOLTAGE
2) CPU CORE2 GTL REF VOLTAGE
3) MCH GTL REF VOLTAGE

the Core VTT's are apparent to what can be set. (i would start with 63% for 45 nm CPU's)

the MCH VTT. (you have AUTO, or, 4 different settings if you come out of the auto setting...my recommendation: stay in auto)

[politenessman]

no, i mean just the vtt voltage setting. is it the fsb voltage, or the pll voltage. i am assuming that the chipset voltage is for the northbridge. in other bios's the vtt voltage is called, appropriately, vtt voltage. not here tho.


edit - ok now i dig. there is a reference terminal voltage thats probably around 1.2v that i could adjust (if i were so inclined) by using the percentages given.

[Sniper]

i use 8.5x or 8x (even 7.5x) to attain the highest FSB...understand?

Sure, just wonderd since you began talking about ram holding you back.
But, keep up the god work, might buy this board.

[shimmishim]

can someone please post their mem settings for 600+ fsb using D9GMH?

Thanks!

[Red Evil]

what kind of fsb you could expect with faster 4GB kit?

[Ace-a-Rue]

right now, i would say between 550-570 FSB with the right cpu and memory unless you go extreme cooling...the higher you get the FSB and system bus the faster your L2 cache will work; that improves the write and copy speed...read speed increases but not as dramatic.

it looks like 520 FSB @ 8.5x = 4420 Mhz, for E8500, is my good working frequency...it is a happy balance of being able to run all three 3D benches...3D2005 bench is apparently very stressful on the CPU in one of the sub-benches and it won't complete unless you have enough Vcore...that is where i stop...i try not to go very high on the 45nm cpu's in addition to the FSB voltage.

it looks like the bios has an OVP circuit design for 45nm cpus to stop at going over 1.40v...everything saves perfectly until i try to raise the Vcore to 1.45v...when i attempt to do that, it will not save and then i have to recall my previous settings...BUT...not all is lost since their Windows based TPower2 software will raise the voltage above 1.40v...it might just be a bios quirk since the NB Voltage has the same behavior once going above 1.40v...i hope Biostar engineers correct that since there are tons of voltage increases above those points...it absolutely does not make any sense to have all those additonal voltage settings available if you are stopped because they don't want you to go above a certain actual bios voltage for Vcore or NB...me thinks, there is sort of a "black hole" in the bios code for the next stepping above 1.40v actual vcore...i'll try a bigger jump than 0.50 to see if it still fails to save correctly.

i will eventually do a tech report...i believe there is an option for that with their software.

[Ace-a-Rue]

just a starter:

[Mortis360]

Cant wait until i get my hands on this board, coming to Norway about 12th Aug, should be here before friday that week. Got an E6420 that stops at 400x8 which is boring, I can get it to 425x8, but then I need 1,5V (Mobo V), 1,63 irl volts. How is volt in BIOS compared to the real volt? Got some tips about clocking with this card? Maybe a little guide?

~ Mortis360

[Ace-a-Rue]

this covers almost the entire page of timings...i will post the bottom part shortly.

[Ace-a-Rue]

self-evident.

[Ace-a-Rue]

this should be it for the meantime.

[railmeat]

wow man,AMAZING REVIEW.i have this board and swapped it out from my nightmare evga 750i ftw mobo.didnt look back for a second and its a complete dream on my watercooled e8400 at 3.6 stock voltage(sets automatically to 1.27) and (watercooled)nb manual at 1.224.ddr2 800 4-4-4-12 800(nothing fancy(cell shock ddr1000 d9ghkx sticks)2.0 volts.tweaking ram now,was running ddr 960 4-3-4-9 no problem for a few days but think slight voltage tweaks are needed for complete stabilty.regardless the board is simply amazing,just like biostars amazing 965pt i thought was thee best headache free clocking dual core mobo out for the conroe 965 chipset days.


i would really like to see ace do some moderate STABLE quad core clocks,gives me a real good idea how the 8phase power can push a 45nm quad.9550 would be the ideal chip(cpu)i would love to see tested.i know some other $200+ 45 chipset mobos use 12-16 phase power and think they might prevail over this board because of this fact,could be wrong..we will just have to see.

again man AMAZING review.keep it up please and dont let this thread die anytime so0n,im learning so much by all your hard work u put into this,ty.

railmeat-
quake(3,4) still lives on!!


few pics on my water,biosatr i45 tpower mobo,evga gtx-280 in,single raptor-150x,coolermaster 1250 pro,

3 x 2 gig kits i own\use (6gig total to play with)

cellshock ddr1000 (d9ghkx,yes the good stuff barely used at all) there in now.i am certain in this mobo with more time this
combo ram\mobo can scream stably very high\tight timings with min voltage needed.

my other 2 gig kits(2x1gig sticks)

ocz sli 1066- these sticks always run amazing for some reason

supertalent cheapy blue ddr 800 kit

(both 2,3rd kits are d9ghm sticks)


yes thats a danger den ati rd600nb block with very LITTLE enlarging of holes for a purfect fit on the i45nb.and modified danger den socket 939 cpu block with chrome multi socket adapter.was thinking about cooling the card but the gtx-280 runs at amazing 41c with my 120mmsunon and 2x80 sunnon hi rpm fans killing it with airflow.













older mobo but u see my video card air cooling solution i still swear by

[Ace-a-Rue]

E8500 (BATCH: Q803A706; PACK DATE: 04/15/08)
GSKILL PC6400 2 X 2GB KIT
EVGA 9800 GTX (512 mb)
ARECA 1210 8X PCIe RAID (w/500 MHZ I/O CPU AND 256 ECC SDRAM)
TWO W/D VELOCI-RAPTOR (300g PER) DRIVES
XIGMATEK (direct touch) HDT-D1284 CPU COOLER w/PANAFLO 120X38MM 2.7K RPM FAN

[Ace-a-Rue]

QX9650 will be up next...in a few days

[Ace-a-Rue]

wow man,AMAZING REVIEW.

thanks for the vote of confidence!

[Ace-a-Rue]

few pics on my water,biosatr i45 tpower mobo,evga gtx-280 in,single raptor-150x,coolermaster 1250 pro,


older mobo but u see my video card air cooling solution i still swear by

i see you got the air cooling crazies like myself!