Retail Abit IN9 32X-MAX - Pictures, observations and testing...

[Skrips]

First post, here goes...
I'm on the verge of buying my first Core 2 Duo MB - but I can't decide which.
I keep returning to this Abit board, I hear some glowing reports and also some problems but what's stopping me making a purchase is being unclear whether the problems 'can' and 'will' be fixed with a BIOS update or not.
PS/2 / USB issue and SATA RAID being the main issues to me and I'm looking for quality over absolute overclockability.

I currently have an over-clocked ASUS board that will never re-boot, have to turn off, wait 15 seconds then turn on again - not prepared to pay £220 for another board with problems that can't be fixed in time. Thanks.

Well, speaking only from what I have been reading since I dont have mine yet, if you are hell bent on building a C2D machine and must have SLI, then look no further than this. At this moment, this is, from what I am reading, the most trouble free board. WIll the problems get fixed with BIOS later on? Who knows, but I will have mine ordered in a few days!

[Speederlander]

What exactly is the multi locked at on the IN9; 10,11 ?

It would be locked at the default multi of the ship you are running.

[jer1cho]

Well, speaking only from what I have been reading since I dont have mine yet, if you are hell bent on building a C2D machine and must have SLI, then look no further than this. At this moment, this is, from what I am reading, the most trouble free board. WIll the problems get fixed with BIOS later on? Who knows, but I will have mine ordered in a few days!

yeah i agree wth that too, with a bios update, everytin could be fixed up easily. Other than the heatsink PWM overheat problem, this board is near to perfect. I dont own the board, but if you just read out the posts here, youll find out that its good to go.

[Yellowbeard]

Well, if I am checking the Vcore at the right point, I have found my issue. If I clear CMOS, bios shows, 1.325v Vcore. The point illustrated in the pic gives 1.27v. If I set manually to 1.55v Vcore (or any value in between 1.325v and 1.55v) and measure again, there is no change.

So my question, is; Is this leg illustrated on the 5th PWM the correct check point for Vcore?

Thanks.

[mark0326]

yeah i agree wth that too, with a bios update, everytin could be fixed up easily. Other than the heatsink PWM overheat problem, this board is near to perfect. I dont own the board, but if you just read out the posts here, youll find out that its good to go.

Thanks, I've pretty much made my mind up ... but at just over £700 for MB, RAM and CPU it's a big investment that I want to get right first time!

[Johnny Bravo]

See the red circles above the tape measure, these are the actual vcore voltages where I measure them.

[Yellowbeard]

Man I feel dumb as my brain is tired. Did you mean to attach a pic or am I just missing it?

[\/ENDE][A]

First post, here goes...
I'm on the verge of buying my first Core 2 Duo MB - but I can't decide which.
I keep returning to this Abit board, I hear some glowing reports and also some problems but what's stopping me making a purchase is being unclear whether the problems 'can' and 'will' be fixed with a BIOS update or not.
PS/2 / USB issue and SATA RAID being the main issues to me and I'm looking for quality over absolute overclockability.

I currently have an over-clocked ASUS board that will never re-boot, have to turn off, wait 15 seconds then turn on again - not prepared to pay £220 for another board with problems that can't be fixed in time. Thanks.

Dude i`ve been running this board for a couple of weeks no problems at all, USB/PS2 issue easily worked around, can`t comment on SATA, don`t run it.
Currently running 7900GTO`s SLI problem free, not hugely oc`ed yet @3038mhz, still finding my way on C2D, but so far rock steady. Benching on this board, in just one week i`ve gone from 733 on HWBOT rankings to 134. Money well spent as far as i`m concerned.

[ronin4740]

Great thread! I'm having a bit of a bizarre issue which maybe some can shed some light on...

I've assembled all the components and gotten XP to install, patch and install drivers sever times.... Why? 'Cause when I join it to my domain it seems to hose a few .com services, kill windows installer and the event viewer goes from being a nice, quiet peaceful place to being filled with red and yellow entires.

Any thoughts? I have Vista as well but am not quite ready to migrate.

[Yellowbeard]

Thanks JB, for some odd reason the first few times I viewed the page, the pic did not load. I checked it and Vcore is adjusting properly so, I have not found my issue.

[Johnny Bravo]

Thanks JB, for some odd reason the first few times I viewed the page, the pic did not load. I checked it and Vcore is adjusting properly so, I have not found my issue.

What is this issue you speak of yellowbeard?

[Yellowbeard]

In general, my board will not clock 2 different CPUs, both known to clock well on other boards. So far, it won't do even Memtest, much less Orthos stable at anything above about 300 FSB, even at 1.5v+ on Vcore. It's odd. I've changed CPUs and PSUs and every single piece of hardware with known working gear and I'm on water in room about 14c-15c ambient.

As an example, my 6300 will boot at 500FSB bus and is semi stable at 475+ on another board. But, on the IN9, I cannot get it stable at all. My PC6600 will not pass Orthos Prime at default settings.

[situman]

does this mean it won't get corsair certification? Man I was interested in this board too. Looks like immature bios.

[Yellowbeard]

So far the memory works fine in both linked and unlinked. I finally got a formula that works. I MAXed every voltage except Vcore and Vdimm which are 1.55v and 2.4v respectively. I am Priming at 389 x 8 right now, 1hr+. If this proves to be stable, I'll slowly work the voltages back down and see what I get. I've never had to max all voltages to get an OC like this.

[linflas]

don't reboot, LOL

For some reason on one boot all your settings will be stable and prime through, reboot, same settings unstable. Weird. I have had to drop my FSB to 378 to resolve this issue, multiple reboots, stable each time.

vcore 1.25 E6600 L630BXXX
Vdimm 1.9 Corsair Pc6400C5
all other voltages are as set by the bios

400 FSB for me was rock solid, 12 hour prime runs, reboot, and it is unstable, reboot again, and it was stable. Got tired of that, and have dropped down to this to have it 24/7 stable.

i hope this is a bios instability, not the board, as this would be frustrating. Will give abit some time as this board has only been retail in USA for about a week.

Good luck Yellowbeard, hope you can get this puppy running right, and give us some good pointers.

[The Nemesis]

The most disturbing thing about this board is all these comments about a possible bios immaturity, chipset bugs, etc., because these are the things I thought Abit was working hard to eliminate. I thought this was the reason we had to wait two months after the intial 680i boards were released for abit to put their spin on the Nvidia reference design & produce a hell of a board. I was not expecting to have to wait on a bios release for my sytems to be stable and somewhat problem free. Very disturbing.........

[situman]

Its the current trend. We have ourselves to blame for falling into these kinds of hyped up marketing.

[hipro5]

don't reboot, LOL

For some reason on one boot all your settings will be stable and prime through, reboot, same settings unstable. Weird. I have had to drop my FSB to 378 to resolve this issue, multiple reboots, stable each time.

vcore 1.25 E6600 L630BXXX
Vdimm 1.9 Corsair Pc6400C5
all other voltages are as set by the bios

400 FSB for me was rock solid, 12 hour prime runs, reboot, and it is unstable, reboot again, and it was stable. Got tired of that, and have dropped down to this to have it 24/7 stable.

i hope this is a bios instability, not the board, as this would be frustrating. Will give abit some time as this board has only been retail in USA for about a week.

Good luck Yellowbeard, hope you can get this puppy running right, and give us some good pointers.

Hmmmm........ASUS Striker Extreme does the EXACT SAME.....I definitely think it's 680i's problem.....Three motherboard manufactures with the EXACT SAME problem using the EXACT SAME chip.....At least they design different and use different bios.....BUT the problems are EXACT THE SAME....

[Skrips]

Hmmmm........ASUS Striker Extreme does the EXACT SAME.....I definitely think it's 680i's problem.....Three motherboard manufactures with the EXACT SAME problem using the EXACT SAME chip.....At least they design different and use different bios.....BUT the problems are EXACT THE SAME....

So, the question is this: Is it fixable through BIOS revisions, or is it just simply a flawed chipset, just like the ill fated Ganite Bay? Time will tell on that one, IMO.

[linflas]

So, the question is this: Is it fixable through BIOS revisions, or is it just simply a flawed chipset, just like the ill fated Ganite Bay? Time will tell on that one, IMO.

I never had this problem on the evga 680i, it either worked or it did not.

the reason I got rid of the EVGA was that it would be the best board I have ever had for 3 weeks, then just blow up, and some times take ram with it.

I have my 3rd evga sitting under my desk right now.

[jer1cho]

I never had this problem on the evga 680i, it either worked or it did not.

the reason I got rid of the EVGA was that it would be the best board I have ever had for 3 weeks, then just blow up, and some times take ram with it.

I have my 3rd evga sitting under my desk right now.

holy thats extreme man! the third one already! i wouldnt have purchased the second one...lol gl guys and if u find a solution to this prob, just let us know thanks

[palese]

I never had this problem on the evga 680i, it either worked or it did not.

the reason I got rid of the EVGA was that it would be the best board I have ever had for 3 weeks, then just blow up, and some times take ram with it.

I have my 3rd evga sitting under my desk right now.

I beat you there, I went for my 4th And it ran like a top for 4 days and then I had to reboot 2 times to get into windows All I wanted was an SLI solution but with the looks of things the 8800GTX's and Nvidia are gone to get the boot I think for Nvidia the 680i is the final nail in its coffin.

What good is a card if you do not have a platform to use it on

[revenant]

Wellllll - I got my board and my NB and SB coolers should be in today and tomorrow, one each day.. so I will start building on Thursday evening, which is a good night to start because Friday is a day I can tollerate sans decent sleep... anyways, so I am going to pull the sinks on the NB and SB off, and pull the heat-pipes out of the PWM sink, so it will look like this when done:



I plan on leaving the thermal pad under the pwm sink... I think that's best for those fragile chips under it, but here's my question, should I use a fan on this also? will it overheat with just the sink on it? I do have an extra 40mm fan I could rig on it somehow.. but I don't want to do that unless it's becoming necessary to actively cool the PWM sink also.. ideas?

[Johnny Bravo]

May I ask where you got that photo from revenant? If your running water cooling then get it some active cooling on it somehow, if your running air then there should be enough airflow to keep it cool in that region.

[noobzed]

put bga swiftech heatsink on pwm chips, better contact, all copper.