Crosshair IV on the bench!

[Cele303]

I really didn't test the original BIOS long enough to be able to notice changes... I'm pretty sure it was mostly for stability though, maybe a few cosmetic changes.

I'm having some issues, with one 5870 no problems at all, C IV + 1090T, but with two 5870 in crossfire windows freezes after few minutes and after restart button no boot, bios lock up, reset bios and again after few minutes in windows they freeze...

[Valg]

Try 0701...

[Daveburt714]

Try 0701...

I flashed "0701" tonight Valg, so far so good, although 0707 is probably newer, I'm assuming a release bios may have some benefits...

Bingo13: I'm sure your aware of this, but the LLC (Load Line Calibration) needs a little work....
If I turn it off in bios I get some serious VDroop (causes major problems!), if I turn it on without taking it into consideration the board overvolts to the point where temps come into play... :

So far I've left LLC on and adjusted Vcore down to take it into consideration and this has worked pretty well for me...
The slight bump with it on actually seems to help (as long as you know it's going to do that)...

I've left LLC on for the IMC too, although thats alot harder to figure out since AMD PowerMonitor doesn't work on the new chipset, so I really have no idea what effect it's having on the IMC (CPU-NB)...
I'm just trying to guess what effect it has on IMC voltges (assuming it's the same as Vcore ~.025v's)..

What I'm saying is, leave LLC on as it is, and fix the Vdroop when it's off...

This is all just trivial stuff for folks who are used to OC'ing, but I'm sure it could give noobs fits!!

Dave

[Lightman]

I flashed "0701" tonight Valg, so far so good, although 0707 is probably newer, I'm assuming a release bios may have some benefits...

Bingo13: I'm sure your aware of this, but the LLC (Load Line Calibration) needs a little work....
If I turn it off in bios I get some serious VDroop (causes major problems!), if I turn it on without taking it into consideration the board overvolts to the point where temps come into play... :

So far I've left LLC on and adjusted Vcore down to take it into consideration and this has worked pretty well for me...
The slight bump with it on actually seems to help (as long as you know it's going to do that)...

I've left LLC on for the IMC too, although thats alot harder to figure out since AMD PowerMonitor doesn't work on the new chipset, so I really have no idea what effect it's having on the IMC (CPU-NB)...
I'm just trying to guess what effect it has on IMC voltges (assuming it's the same as Vcore ~.025v's)..

What I'm saying is, leave LLC on as it is, and fix the Vdroop when it's off...

This is all just trivial stuff for folks who are used to OC'ing, but I'm sure it could give noobs fits!!

Dave

Yes, LLC on CPUNB gives +0.1V at default, but If you change any of the affected voltages from default to other value then all is good and back to normal

Confusing at first but at least can be worked out!

[keithlm]

Watching the BlackOps feed got me in an OC frenzy, and since I finally have a day off I decided to push this Crosshair a little...

Heres a SS of what I've got so far:


Thats my best WPrime score ever!
I'm impressed with this boards ability to clock RAM, almost 1800 @ reasonable voltages and clocks.

Not too shaby on the Cores either considering I'm only @ 1.5v.

Oh well, I'm sure everyone is watching the BigDogs, but I'm pretty happy with this...

You didn't just do that!

Sure. Make me look at my DDR2 MA790GP-UD4H and realize how much it is garbage. (NOTE: Gigabyte still hasn't updated the bios for Thuban... they already did the older motherboard that this board replaced but they haven't done this board. I wouldn't be surprised if they have some hardware issue and they end up not supporting Thuban on this board.)

I was kind of waiting for the 890FX boards. But I was going to wait a bit longer.... until the next Thuban update probably in the summer.

BUT NO! You had to go and show the PhII 965 doing VERY WELL in the ASUS Crosshair IV. Now I want one... er rather... must have one. But I already decided that when I upgrade from DDR2 to DDR3 I would get top quality instead of medium quality ram. Ouch. (BTW: probably Dominator GT 1600 CL6 ram. EDIT: Dang I can get good 1600C7 for $130.00 and the 1600C6 is $280.00. I don't know I can justify the C6.)

DANG IT... there goes $500.00. And I won't even have Thuban yet. THANKS DAVE.

[Daveburt714]

Yes, LLC on CPUNB gives +0.1V at default, but If you change any of the affected voltages from default to other value then all is good and back to normal

Confusing at first but at least can be worked out!

So LLC active on the IMC gives a +0.1v bump? Thats quite a bit! Unfortunately I don't quite understand what your saying about changing voltages etc... So I'll just ask a simple question.
What software are ya using to monitor IMC voltages, PCProbe, Everest?
That way I can see the results for myself and maybe understand a little better...

You didn't just do that!

Sure. Make me look at my DDR2 MA790GP-UD4H and realize how much it is garbage. (NOTE: Gigabyte still hasn't updated the bios for Thuban... they already did the older motherboard that this board replaced but they haven't done this board. I wouldn't be surprised if they have some hardware issue and they end up not supporting Thuban on this board.)

I was kind of waiting for the 890FX boards. But I was going to wait a bit longer.... until the next Thuban update probably in the summer.

BUT NO! You had to go and show the PhII 965 doing VERY WELL in the ASUS Crosshair IV. Now I want one... er rather... must have one. But I already decided that when I upgrade from DDR2 to DDR3 I would get top quality instead of medium quality ram. Ouch. (BTW: probably Dominator GT 1600 CL6 ram. EDIT: Dang I can get good 1600C7 for $130.00 and the 1600C6 is $280.00. I don't know I can justify the C6.)

DANG IT... there goes $500.00. And I won't even have Thuban yet. THANKS DAVE.

Glad I could be of help keithlm...

I was kind of in the same boat as you. Tired of using mid range boards and was waiting for the 890FX's. I'd really love to have a Thuban, but I made the call and the 890FX came first.
Hopefully, in a couple weeks I'll be able to afford an X6.

FWIW, my ram isn't really high dollar stuff but does pretty well on this board.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820226122

Probably the same as this G.Skill kit, but I think the Mushkin may be binned a little better.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231321

As for the Crosshair IV, I'm sure you'd love this board seeing as how your coming from the mid range stuff like I did.

If it makes you feel any better, those clocks weren't Prime stable but they'd run most benchies.
Memory performance/clocks definetly improved compared to the GBT 790X-UD4P, and it IS running stable on this board @ 1740 7-8-7-18-29 with 1.475v.

I'm going to do a little testing tonight @ CL6 and see what I come up with.

I'm sure those CL6 Dominators would ROCK, but $150 is alot of cash to me personally...

[Zeus]

Good to see you're enjoying the board Dave. I have one on the way, together with a 1090T thuban. I hope it will be fun.

[keithlm]

I was kind of in the same boat as you. Tired of using mid range boards and was waiting for the 890FX's. I'd really love to have a Thuban, but I made the call and the 890FX came first.
Hopefully, in a couple weeks I'll be able to afford an X6.

As for the Crosshair IV, I'm sure you'd love this board seeing as how your coming from the mid range stuff like I did.

I'm sure those CL6 Dominators would ROCK, but $150 is alot of cash to me personally...

You are exactly right. I could have bought a newer high end board about 6 or 9 months ago; but I knew the 890FX was coming. So I waited. Now I don't really want to buy them all at once so I think I will get:

Crosshair IV
Corsair Dominator GT 1600C6 (The $280.00 stuff.)

Then I can wait for a bit to get the X6. If the X6 is as good as people say then the next release (1095T?) will be slightly better.

But then.. can I wait that long? If I can play with the PhII 965 on this new board and make it do new tricks like you have done it will probably be hard to wait. (I bet I can beat every benchmark record I currently have with just the new board.)

NOTE: They are out of Crosshair IV on Newegg... so that will force me to wait at least a bit. Or I might consider the MSI. (AsRock? Probably NOT... reminds me too much like Foxconn... a good board... but bios support as bad as Gigabyte. DANG... makes me remember I have the GA790FX-DS5 sitting in a box. That was supposedly a top-line board until Gigabyte stopped supporting it when the Phenoms were released. I'm almost tempted to pull it out and test it again... but it wasn't totally stable with a PhII 940 so I doubt the 965 would be any better.)

[Daveburt714]

Good to see you're enjoying the board Dave. I have one on the way, together with a 1090T thuban. I hope it will be fun.

Bastage!
With your rig your going to kick butt with the new gear!
Can't wait to see the results...

You are exactly right. I could have bought a newer high end board about 6 or 9 months ago; but I knew the 890FX was coming. So I waited. Now I don't really want to buy them all at once so I think I will get:

Crosshair IV
Corsair Dominator GT 1600C6 (The $280.00 stuff.)

Then I can wait for a bit to get the X6. If the X6 is as good as people say then the next release (1095T?) will be slightly better.

But then.. can I wait that long? If I can play with the PhII 965 on this new board and make it do new tricks like you have done it will probably be hard to wait. (I bet I can beat every benchmark record I currently have with just the new board.)

NOTE: They are out of Crosshair IV on Newegg... so that will force me to wait at least a bit. Or I might consider the MSI.

Just my MHO keithlm, although I'm sure those Dominator CL6's would smoke on benchmarks I'm not sure how much help they would be for everyday tasks, $150 may not be worth it (at least to me)...
If you went with the BBSE kit and added $50, you could get the Crosshair IV, the Mushkins and a 1055T all at the same time!

I'm like you, I'd really want a 1090T, but it sure would be fun to have an X6 to play with!

BTW: ZZF has the C4F in stock for $5 more with free shipping...
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...odlist=froogle

It's your call man, I'm just trying to live vicariously through someone who actually has money...

[keithlm]

I don't want to buy something that I would end up thinking of as "mid-range" memory in three months.

But then I am also known to dream big... and then end up buying small.

Small enough I did actually look at the ASRock. But I think I might like that Crosshair feature that allows me to hookup my laptop for on the fly monitoring. That would be worth it's weight in gold if it works well. So I think at least the Crosshair IV. The memory... I"ll probably skimp on and not buy the $280.00 ram. But I can think big.

[bingo13]

BIOS 0801 will be released tomorrow. Some additional fine tuning for memory performance improvements, additional voltage tweaks on auto settings, additional voltage tweaks on core 0, and a few other items. Still working on HT/NB auto settings to clock past 2400MHz when HTT exceeds 240, right now you need to switch to manual clock settings on both. Also, additional fine tuning for Thuban power management is still coming.

[Leeghoofd]

looking forward to it !!

[keithlm]

I can't get a bios on my gigabyte board to save my life. (The last one they released was December last year.)

And these guys have put out 3 bios now for this new board.

I wants one. NOW!

(Although I want to see the price of the Crosshair IV Extreme first... if it is not that much more I'll go for that instead of the Formula.)

[Lightman]

So LLC active on the IMC gives a +0.1v bump? Thats quite a bit! Unfortunately I don't quite understand what your saying about changing voltages etc... So I'll just ask a simple question.
What software are ya using to monitor IMC voltages, PCProbe, Everest?
That way I can see the results for myself and maybe understand a little better...

.....

Dave, I've used AOD and BIOS values. When I've set LLC to enable and left everything else on auto my voltages were like this:
CPU vCore - 1.41V (org. 1.3V)
IMC - 1.25V (1.15V)
MEM - 1.61V (1.55V)

rest of them I don't remember

By changing voltages I meant changing Auto values to anything different. For instance CPU vCore AUTO to +0.0125V.
With that change BIOS is taking CPU real vid. and adding mere 0.0125V resulting in 1.3125V going to CPU.

I hope now it's clear.
Sorry if I'm not explaining this well enough, but I'm tired after 2 very hard days at work (covered 1500 miles and 30 working hours ).

[mngdew]

Can you guys tell me what the northbridge temperature reading was before replacing the thermal pad (if you replaced it)?
I went through 2 boards so far and both displayed temperature between 83~94C. The heatsink was barely making contact with the chipset on both boards.

[Grinder]

Hey Dave, sounds like you are enjoying the board.

Aside from the memory divider and clocking, are you finding any more cpu or nb headroom compared to your old board? I'm still running with a Gigabyte MA790XT-UD4P...

And still the old socket A swiftech block I'm saving my pennies to add a new block to my next upgrade, but not sure where to go next. I'd likely get the most use out of a DX11 5XXX series, as I love games and as a programmer I'd like to mess with GPGPU. But it's easy to want to add the Crosshair IV, Thuban, Dominator GT's, a couple of solid state drives, and what the hell why not a Porsche while I'm at it

Anyway, just curious how much difference the Crosshair made for you.

[aGeoM]

Hi guys

BIOS 0801 will be released tomorrow. Some additional fine tuning for memory performance improvements, additional voltage tweaks on auto settings, additional voltage tweaks on core 0, and a few other items. Still working on HT/NB auto settings to clock past 2400MHz when HTT exceeds 240, right now you need to switch to manual clock settings on both. Also, additional fine tuning for Thuban power management is still coming.

Thanks

looking forward to it !!

ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/so...-ASUS-0801.zip

LLC enabled for CPU&CPU/NB all Voltages @ Auto

Manual setting for CPU multi@20, MEM @1600 [6-7-6-15] and CPU/NB and HT@2400

[Dumo]

Bios 0801

Boot up and run

[gOtVoltage]

....


Is that the real Vcore ....


Amazing what a good Bios can get ya

Sweetjam and Jessica Simpson Jigglets thats great.

[charged3800z24]

Bios 0801

Boot up and run

Phase Change?

[Lightman]

Phase Change?

Cold vodka [joking, only Team Russia uses that for cooling]

Yes, Dumo is putting his Thuban on freezer.

[Dumo]

Phase Change?

Yep, barely hold the 1090T load

[Marco André]

I'm having lots of freezes during idle and now running Far Cry 2 benchmark... Oh man, i'm stressed!

I'm using 1090T, CH IV Formula and HD 5870 CrossFireX

[FlanK3r]

PSU...?TRy it with only one-2 HD5870s

[Marco André]

Sorry for the threadjacking :x

Enermax Revolution 1050W, never saw the system consuming more than 700W.

I'll try that. It's MSI Lightning and GIGABYTE SOC, hope i can put the system all together