UNOFFICIAL BIOSTAR TPower I45 M/B

[ddogg]

you ask, thy will receive!

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=176904

Thanks. He seems to be running 4 SuperPi's concurrently so it exercises the cpu cores pretty well, but the workload is not distributed. Still, you got me thinking and looking a round a bit and I think we have a candidate. Plus it is very cool to say the least.

The new POV multithread beta and a real cool render file.

My rig took 4m37s at 1280x1024, AA0.3 (Vista Business)

Btw, this really stesses the CPU. Temps are like Prime small ffts so it might be a good stability check as well.

If you get a chance, I'd love to see a comparison. Clean install and uninstall on this for me and easy to use. Just press load and browse to the render file.

Set the resolution and press run. Read the instructions and do not install for "all" users on Vista http://www.povray.org/beta/

[Lome]

104$ for open box at newegg gogo

[Nelly]

http://www.overclockersonline.net/?p...um=1921&pnum=4

On the above review using a Thermalright Ultima 90, it looks like their was problems associated with interference with the Cooler Harbor fan upon installing the heatsink.

Anyone had any problems installing a (TRUE 120) Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 with the Biostar TPower I45?

[tjelaw]

any insight yet how this board performs with quads? Id like to get a Q9550 or X3660 close to 4ghz on water. Pondering about mobo... this one, P5Q-dlx or Maxi 2 Formula

[Supershanks]

Certainly looks like Biostar have struck a winner , you reckon it's the P45 equivalent of the Abit Ip35 ?? (apart from the lack of guru )
That refresh Counter looks interesting , looks like you can change Refresh Period (tRef) like Memset (see value above command rate ) , is that right ??

Only stock I could see available in the uk was 2 on Amazon last night.

[Mortis360]

Well, I got the board here now, but do not understand a thing about the BIOS.
On my old gigabyte motherboard i hat td the CPU Frequency Setting at 400,
Ratio CMOS setting x8
memory run same speed as cpu

In volts i got 1,375V @ CPU, memory were running at 2,2V.

Any help please?

~ Mortis360

[Ace-a-Rue]

http://www.overclockersonline.net/?p...um=1921&pnum=4

On the above review using a Thermalright Ultima 90, it looks like their was problems associated with interference with the Cooler Harbor fan upon installing the heatsink.

Anyone had any problems installing a (TRUE 120) Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 with the Biostar TPower I45?

i used the XIGMATEK Direct Touch H-1284, which is a broad heatsink...i had to flip the fan to the other side...it would not line up with the screw holes since the PWM lip interferred...so...i had to raise the fan slightly and use two plastic ties to hold the fan in place...i oriented the fan so the air would blow to the rear, away from the heatsink.

i should add that the raised heatsink was tucked right up against the CPU heatsink (1284)

[Ace-a-Rue]

Well, I got the board here now, but do not understand a thing about the BIOS.
On my old gigabyte motherboard i hat td the CPU Frequency Setting at 400,
Ratio CMOS setting x8
memory run same speed as cpu

In volts i got 1,375V @ CPU, memory were running at 2,2V.

Any help please?

~ Mortis360

go to page 1 of this thread and look at the bios images.

[Ace-a-Rue]

Thanks. You got me thinking. I reflashed, and while I don't think it was the bootblock, I do think it was some residual corruption. Upshot is my 450 wall went away and I'm sitting at 3.755 ghz on the Q9450 with ram 469/fsb1877/mem 563 (5,5,5,15).

Not shabby on the 9450 and the GSkill 8500 is happy at 2.14 v.
Temps are decent via the water. Core 0 < 60 on RealTemp, but VCore is pumped higher than I'm happy with on a 45 core. Sitting at 1.44 vcore, NB 1.42, FSB 1.42.

All and all not a bad place to be in the early stages. Hopefully I can suck the NB and FSB back down.

any insight yet how this board performs with quads? Id like to get a Q9550 or X3660 close to 4ghz on water. Pondering about mobo... this one, P5Q-dlx or Maxi 2 Formula

@tjelaw...you had to only look back one page to find ddogg's above post referencing his 9450

[Ace-a-Rue]

Certainly looks like Biostar have struck a winner , you reckon it's the P45 equivalent of the Abit Ip35 ?? (apart from the lack of guru )
That refresh Counter looks interesting , looks like you can change Refresh Period (tRef) like Memset (see value above command rate ) , is that right ??

Only stock I could see available in the uk was 2 on Amazon last night.

SURPRISE...they have a Uguru alternative called "TPower2"....you can change alot of things in the bios from windows desktop...let me try to find an image to give you a reference point.

the only thing to mention, the changes have about a 5 second lag so you only want to click once and then wait for the five seconds to see the change has taken place.

[ddogg]

Talk about pushing voltages on this board - whew!

[Mortis360]

Got a clock at 3,4Ghz stable at 1,43V.
Can take it to 3,8Ghz, but then it need 1,6V!

~ Mortis360

[Supershanks]

SURPRISE...they have a Uguru alternative called "TPower2"..

Great stuff looks like it has the lot then

[Ace-a-Rue]

Got a clock at 3,4Ghz stable at 1,43V.
Can take it to 3,8Ghz, but then it need 1,6V!

~ Mortis360

at 3.4 Mhz that is a 61% overclock...pretty darn good!

[Ace-a-Rue]

Great stuff looks like it has the lot then

right!....and...there is a"Bio Watch" which is a review of the voltages and the ability to change the cpu and system fan speed...in the bios you have three controls for fan speed: cpu, system and NB fan...this is where i put my PWM riser add-on heatsink fan...it did a nice job of controlling the speed.

[ddogg]

OK, found out something useful with my 9450 quad. My bios corruption, and hung boot problems were coming from what seems obvious now - lack of NB and FSB voltage.

So, if you have a quad don't mess around. Move up the NB and FSB voltages to > 1.50 like so many other boards require. I was trying to :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:foot around 1.39-1.42 v. It has caused me nothing but going half bald with bios restores, hung boots and kicked cats.

For some reason that I don't yet understand, using my Dominator or Ballistix ram really agravated this problem further. No doubt this board likes the GSkill 8500. It seems much less cantankerous with it. Still, it took 1.5-ish to gentle it down and get clean boots above 448. Something happens on this board when you cross 450. I don't get that yet, either.

I hope this saves some of you some aggro.

[Mortis360]

at 3.4 Mhz that is a 61% overclock...pretty darn good!

I managed to get it booting at 4200mhz (8x525)!
But got BSOD when Windows loaded.

~ Mortis360

[Ace-a-Rue]

might require higher voltage, and maybe beyond your comfort zone.

[Mortis360]

might require higher voltage, and maybe beyond your comfort zone.

It needed 1,75volts for that, I dont wanna go higher at aircooling. In some weeks I'm gonna be at a friend that uses dryice and heavy watercooling!
Maybe some records then! I run it stable at 3,4Ghz with 1,42V!

~ Mortis360

[shimmishim]

can someone post a shot of the cache & memory benchmark test results at 4-4-4-8 around 570-575 fsb 1:1.

going down the "other timings" category on memset
4
25
10
10
10
3
8
4
4
3120T
2T

Thanks!

I think this board has some real slow latency versus some of the other boards... no doubt this is a great FSB board but latency appears to be a bit.... lacking!

i'm getting around 55 ns with strap tweak

[shaolinchicken]

OK, found out something useful with my 9450 quad. My bios corruption, and hung boot problems were coming from what seems obvious now - lack of NB and FSB voltage.

So, if you have a quad don't mess around. Move up the NB and FSB voltages to > 1.50 like so many other boards require. I was trying to :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:foot around 1.39-1.42 v. It has caused me nothing but going half bald with bios restores, hung boots and kicked cats.

For some reason that I don't yet understand, using my Dominator or Ballistix ram really agravated this problem further. No doubt this board likes the GSkill 8500. It seems much less cantankerous with it. Still, it took 1.5-ish to gentle it down and get clean boots above 448. Something happens on this board when you cross 450. I don't get that yet, either.

I hope this saves some of you some aggro.

I had the same troubles as you, with corrupted bios and not being able to post over 450fsb.
I used the AMI bios recovery method to bring my board back to life.

I thought the same as you more volts needed, but its not.

Changing the MCH GTL REF voltage from AUTO to 0.64xVTT got me over the 450fsb hurdle.

I am at 460fsb, occt 1hr stable after changing that setting, give it a try

NB/ SB voltage at 1.088 (+0.100v added to Chipset Voltage)
FSB voltage at 1.104 (+.0100v added to FSB Voltage)

Honestly mate, try it

[Ace-a-Rue]

I think this board has some real slow latency versus some of the other boards... no doubt this is a great FSB board but latency appears to be a bit.... lacking!

i'm getting around 55 ns with strap tweak

i think that is what i had in latency but you can not argue with the results when you run a 32M SuperPI bench...i had the best ever bench on this board.

truthfully, it is not about the latency, it is about speed in computation...that is what you really want from a board and cpu.

[ddogg]

I had the same troubles as you, with corrupted bios and not being able to post over 450fsb.
I used the AMI bios recovery method to bring my board back to life.

I thought the same as you more volts needed, but its not.

Changing the MCH GTL REF voltage from AUTO to 0.64xVTT got me over the 450fsb hurdle.

I am at 460fsb, occt 1hr stable after changing that setting, give it a try

NB/ SB voltage at 1.088 (+0.100v added to Chipset Voltage)
FSB voltage at 1.104 (+.0100v added to FSB Voltage)

Honestly mate, try it

WOW! I could give you a big old slobbery Dog kiss for finding this! Exactly as you said. My poorly ventilated case no longer smells like I was making coffee in it. Temps across the board have dropped a lot.

What type of ram are you using? I have not tried it again, but before I could not even use my 2g's of Dominator on this board past 400. Perhaps now I'll see something different.

Ace, put this one in the guide book

[mrcape]

Adjusting gtls for fsb is pretty obvious no?

[Ace-a-Rue]

WOW! I could give you a big old slobbery Dog kiss for finding this! Exactly as you said. My poorly ventilated case no longer smells like I was making coffee in it. Temps across the board have dropped a lot.

What type of ram are you using? I have not tried it again, but before I could not even use my 2g's of Dominator on this board past 400. Perhaps now I'll see something different.

Ace, put this one in the guide book

not sure this is for all users...i had my E8500 in auto for MCH GTLREF...i seem to remember trying several of those settings and i couldn't find a manual setting that made it work any better than leaving it in "Auto"...now...the quad cpu might require more finessing and that is where taking it out of Auto helps.