!UPDATE! abit AW9D-Max (retail) arrived

[hipro5]

With a BETA bios I'm playing now, I took ALL four cores of the QUAD at ~5100MHz 3D Benchable.... Unfortunately don't expect to achieve high fsb with this mobo, BUT it can bench QUADs HIGHER that many others....
The worst frequency I have achieved with this QUAD, was 5010MHz as for the 3DMark2006..... At ALL other 3D benches, it can do around 5100MHz with a peak 5200MHz..... ALL cores x 17 multi ....
So higher fsb I could play under LN2 or on air was about 300 - 320MHz.... The "advantage" of this mobo with the QUADS is that you can play your rams at 2:3 with tight timmings 3 - 3 - 3 - 4 - etc. and you gain a lot by doing this....
It works PERFECT ALL 4 cores of a quad at any multi and "balance" them despite what some other mobos do out there....
ALSO it might be the only mobo that can handle the load of one "heavy overclocked" QUAD at over 350Watts.....
I don't really know if this new final bios works for QUAD though....
Off course I'm waiting for those new ATI VGAs to show up, coz as for me, THIS will be the mobo that will be a winner with a CF combination....

[Budwise]

just flashed to the 15 bios with no problems. New options are there for 800 strap etc otherwise i dont see a whole lot changed. Glad to see this board is still getting some well deserved attention as it is a great all around board.

[mukmaster]

OFF topic but it's all iahve to say

That BIOS looks so freaking sexy

[Blue078]

Anyone tested to see if all 4 Dimm slots work again with this 15 BIOS?

The last two BIOS's borke the Blue Dimm slots on my board. Wont POST at all with mem in the blue slots. Have to flash back to BIOS 12 to get the blue slots back. If all 4 slots are working again might pull the Max8 out of the closet and put it back in service.

[johnsally]

Anyone tested to see if all 4 Dimm slots work again with this 15 BIOS?

The last two BIOS's borke the Blue Dimm slots on my board. Wont POST at all with mem in the blue slots. Have to flash back to BIOS 12 to get the blue slots back. If all 4 slots are working again might pull the Max8 out of the closet and put it back in service.

from what i heard from other users on the abit forum it has been fixed in bios 15.04

[Blue078]

Yea thats what they say Those guys don't seem to mention the stuff thats broken in each new beta BIOS. At any rate the board out on the table, I'm hooked in to giving Abit one more try tomorrow

[Big Deel]

bios 15 can be downloaded from abit's ftp site in tw:

ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/download/bios/aw9d/

BIOS release V.15 for AW9D, AW9D-MAX

Release information:

1. EIST and C1E Enable/ Disable function now work as intended.
2. Fixed an issue where the system sometimes hangs on POST code 2A.
3. Fixed an issue where the system may not boot when installing memory on DIMM3.
4. Enhanced overclocking ability with certain CPUs.
5. Fixed the issue that the system hangs during Vista installation, when using a Kentsfield CPU.
6. Enhanced compatibility with certain memories.
7. Support E6850 and E6750.
8. Support 1333 Strap.
9. Support DDR2-400
10. BIOS compiled date: 04/18/2007

Has anyone tried this bios yet? Have the problems been fixed?I know some have moved on to other boards.Sticking a kentsfield in this would be a nice build for air cooling and crossfire.

[SilveradoJ442]

Has anyone tried this bios yet? Have the problems been fixed?I know some have moved on to other boards.Sticking a kentsfield in this would be a nice build for air cooling and crossfire.

I've got a q6600 coming in today or tomorrow. I will slap it in my trusty AW9D-MAX and also will flash to this bios and see what happens. I'm not expecting any crazy FSB though. The low 300's would be nice but im not holding my breath.

I have had this board since last sep. Its been through numerous cases, multiple watercooling setups, phase change and now I'm back on tuniq air. Its a trooper!

[The Nemesis]

Of all the core 2 duo boards I've owned, this is still my favorite. I really wish it was able to pass an orthos run above 400FSB for me. Maybe I'll dust it off, flash this bios & try again.

[trickards]

I cant be bothered to read through 51 pages of replies to this thread. I had this board for 2 weeks. Repetitive reboot problem after replacing all components. Turns out q6600 is not supported.

I rang abit and confirmed this. Check thier cpu cupport list too.

Shameful.

[Deanzo]

I cant be bothered to read through 51 pages of replies to this thread. I had this board for 2 weeks. Repetitive reboot problem after replacing all components. Turns out q6600 is not supported.

I rang abit and confirmed this. Check thier cpu cupport list too.

Shameful.

There support list says bios 15 does, what bios are you using ?

[adslegend]

Mine is rock stable at 8x400 with my E6420 at stock vcore, 1.75 Vmch and 2x1GB Ballistix 5300 @ 5:4, 4-4-4-12 (left RAM slack to test the CPU/NB) however even 1 or 2 MHz over the 400 FSB and it fails Orthos/OCCT in mins or seconds.

This is with 13 beta and 15 offical BIOS, using 1333 strap. I v-modded for Vmch drop and watercooled the NB but no improvement at all. There is a wall somewhere on this board, but I still love it

[Lu523]

I am happy with mine. I haad thought about one of the P35 boards, but it seems that this one will hang close to them.

[adslegend]

I am wondering whether a BIOS change will help me get the FSB higher, since my CPU is still at stock vcore at 3.2 GHz and I reckon it would be nice to get more.

In people's experiences what is the best BIOS for consistently hitting the highest FSBs?

[Big Deel]

I got one of these boards and put a qx6700 in it.It will post the video card bios,then when it should start the post it just restarts.Should it at least post even if it's got a older bios?I just want to try and rule out bad chip or to low of power supply(ocz700,generic pci video card).

[johnsally]

maybe power supply, if you have another chip try that and see if it will boot and update bios.

[adslegend]

I'm hearing that at the default Vfsb on this board (~1.2V) only the 2 meg cache C2Ds are really going well above 400 FSB and the mod is required for E6600, E6420 etc.

Can anyone verify this from experience?

[oohms]

I flashed to bios 15 final, and now my scsi card refuses to find my drives...

Back to 13.b01 i guess

[johnsally]

cant seem to get anything above 399 anything over windows will not boot anymore. Bios problem? I went above this before with some of the older bios. This is even with vtt mod. Was able to boot at 420fsb on my ds3. This is with E6600 that can do 4g on phase pretty easily.

[hipro5]

Feed the maximum VMCH you have so to go higher....Apparently if you haven't done the VMCH "boost mod", giving 2Volts in bios, it's about 1.83 - 1.87V real....so it's OK....

I also want to add that EVEN with 1.2VFSB, MOST (if not all) of the CPUs could do over 400MHz for sure......Just pop up more VMCH .....and a fan over Northbridge will be helpfull....

[s e t h]

does raising the pci-e frequency also help fsb overclocking?...

i'm trying to break 10 seconds this weekend for my first time on this mobo...will have x6800 on ln2.
ram is gmh and gkx and psu aopen 700watt.
right now i have a sata drive which i'll swop to ide if necessary.
i have a vcore mod for the cpu when its cold enough.
hipro's booster mod also done.
and i have a nice copper 1U sink on the NB with a 60x60x10mm fan at 3000rpm.

now my problem is i'd like more fsb.
so far with max vMCH (2.0) i can still not reach 433fsb.
and this is with promos ram at 5-5-5 and running 1:1
ram is tested good up to 533mhs 1:1 on dfi dark 965.

would switching to an ide drive open more fsb?...or the vmch mod?

any help and ideas for a good 1M run would be appreciated...but i'm not going to copywasa or any of those wird things.
just the best windows tweaks if there are any that really work.
otherwise i'll just run a fresh os and it will be xp-pro i think

thanks for any and all help

[DEVIL K-ce]

Boot from bios Flytek or used guru clocking on windows ?

For me max boot from bios and stable is 420-425MHz, but in windows used guru I can reach 450MHz easy


Martin

[s e t h]

thanks for the response.
i have tried both...the latest uguru 3.104 i think...and i have tried from bios.
when booting too high it likes to hang at the end of the xp loading bars.
when using uguru the test bar freezes after a little while.
also i have tried gkx ic ram now too and no further.
next up is ide hdd and or earlier uguru and earlier bios.
(current bios 04/18/2007)

edt:...ok found it....seems like the cpu multiplier wasn't taking properly so i was running default multi instead of dropped multi...therefor the limit was in fact the cpu core speed limit...*whew*
anyway seen 455 so far and it seems to get worse with more vNB indicating a lack of cooling for the NB.
oh well i guess this must be that perfect time to test my chipset block/tube

[StealthyFish]

is this motherboard particularly picky about IDE cables? I'm just curious becuase I just purchased this motherboard, and it gave me post code 25 hang with just about every little thing... first motherboard i've had that complained as much as this one. is it just my board?

[johnsally]

thanks for the response.
i have tried both...the latest uguru 3.104 i think...and i have tried from bios.
when booting too high it likes to hang at the end of the xp loading bars.
when using uguru the test bar freezes after a little while.
also i have tried gkx ic ram now too and no further.
next up is ide hdd and or earlier uguru and earlier bios.
(current bios 04/18/2007)

edt:...ok found it....seems like the cpu multiplier wasn't taking properly so i was running default multi instead of dropped multi...therefor the limit was in fact the cpu core speed limit...*whew*
anyway seen 455 so far and it seems to get worse with more vNB indicating a lack of cooling for the NB.
oh well i guess this must be that perfect time to test my chipset block/tube

What bios are you using? it seems bios 15 has stopped me from going above 400fsb. But i am too lazy to flash old bios.