View Full Version : Abit TH7II Owners - Question about Vcore
I just set up a TH7II with 1.7gig P4. The core voltage settings are wacky. At the default setting of 1.75 the hardware monitor shows 1.63. I gradually bumped it up to get the system stable at 2.1GHz. The bios is set to 2.10 volts, and the hardware monitor is reading 1.87. I just wanted to compare this with other TH7II owners. I'm assuming the hardware monitor is right. I know the voltage is higher because it wouldn't boot at 2GHz before - now it appears stable. I sure hope the monitor is right. I can't complain too much though. My Asus P4T wouldn't raise the voltage at all. I had to use the wire wrap trick.
TC, I haven't ordered my TH7-II yet, but hope to within a week or two. However, the last three motherboards I've owned have been Abit. There seems to usually be a little lag from what the setting is and what the actually voltage is. I won't be too concerned about as long as you're stable. Hey, nice overclock. What are you using for CPU cooler and what load temps are you seeing?
Kool_Aid
09-22-01, 01:00 AM
Same with mine......about 1/2 point to 1 point lower than the bios setting.
Thanks for the input. I've had quite a few Abit boards, so I wasn't worried about quality, but this voltage stuff had me a little worried.
Right now I'm using the oem heatsink from Intel. I literally just set the thing up about 11 tonight, so I haven't loaded it and checked temps. I was using the oem heatsink with my 423 pin 1.7 gig chip, and it overclocked to 2GHz just fine, with temps of around 135 running Seti and Folding - ambient is about 71. The oem heatsink is actually fairly nice if you lap it. It's a hefty block and the fan is decent without too much noise. I don't like this new mounting method on the 478 pin board. I ordered a cpu bundled with the board, and it was a real pain to remove the heatsink so I could apply arctic silver. The clips are hard to detach on the side where the caps are lined up. I see a fair amount of flex in the board too. Looks like a lot of stress, but I guess it will be alright.
I wonder with the Asus P4T not able to adjust voltage at all, and the Abit board being a little weird - is there something strange about the voltage regulator circuit for the P4?
Kool_Aid
09-22-01, 01:28 AM
Every Abit board I have owned has shown lower numbers on the Winbond vs. the bios.
What do you think about pushing this P4 1.7 with 2.2 volts?
Think it will live very long?
I would sure like to try to get a little more out of this tiny little CPU. :D
JetMech
09-22-01, 05:47 AM
Originally posted by TC
Thanks for the input. I've had quite a few Abit boards, so I wasn't worried about quality, but this voltage stuff had me a little worried.
Right now I'm using the oem heatsink from Intel. I literally just set the thing up about 11 tonight, so I haven't loaded it and checked temps. I was using the oem heatsink with my 423 pin 1.7 gig chip, and it overclocked to 2GHz just fine, with temps of around 135 running Seti and Folding - ambient is about 71. The oem heatsink is actually fairly nice if you lap it. It's a hefty block and the fan is decent without too much noise. I don't like this new mounting method on the 478 pin board. I ordered a cpu bundled with the board, and it was a real pain to remove the heatsink so I could apply arctic silver. The clips are hard to detach on the side where the caps are lined up. I see a fair amount of flex in the board too. Looks like a lot of stress, but I guess it will be alright.
I wonder with the Asus P4T not able to adjust voltage at all, and the Abit board being a little weird - is there something strange about the voltage regulator circuit for the P4? I think Intel is sitting back laughing at us jump through the hoops trying to figure out what the have done to voltage on those chips. It seems that everything we try to do with the P4 from an overclocking slant has a weirdness about it. But just like the other tricks they played we'll figure it out
I've got a TH7 and a TH7II and they both do the same thing yours is doing. I have to say that stock HSF is alright, but that retention mechanism is retarded. Not only does it put a lot of stress on the mobo, it's a pain to put on and an even bigger pain to take off! I liked the one on the 423 a lot better. Anyway I chuncked that HSF and I've got it watercooled now. Gonna slap a pelt on it soon and see what this baby can do! Here's a crappy pic.:)
http://stephenlivingston.homestead.com/files/water.jpg
Is that pic of the water block on the 423 pin P-4 or the 478 pin P-4? I'd be interested in hearing about 478 pin water blocks.
Originally posted by Kool_Aid
Every Abit board I have owned has shown lower numbers on the Winbond vs. the bios.
What do you think about pushing this P4 1.7 with 2.2 volts?
Think it will live very long?
I would sure like to try to get a little more out of this tiny little CPU. :D
I don't think it would last long at all with 2.2 volts. I sure mine is not actually getting the 2.1 volts I set it to. Hopefully the hardware monitor is right, and it's about 1.85.
Is that pic of the water block on the 423 pin P-4 or the 478 pin P-4? I'd be interested in hearing about 478 pin water blocks.
Funny you should ask, batbay. It's on my 478 pin mobo, but the waterblock is made for a 423. I had to make my own adapter for it and it works really well.:cool:
Very nice, Doc. I'm impressed. I can't afford water cooling right now... but maybe this winter when I get my Northwood CPU. Hmmmm.
I'm having some weird problems with this new setup. Last night I didn't feel like installing a fresh copy of windows, so I used the hard drive that I had been using with the Asus P4T. It was acting a little weird - refused to shutdown or restart, so I just decided I would do clean install today and called it a night. I just finished doing that install, next I installed the chipset drivers, and then I installed the nvidia 12.81 drivers, and after rebooting from that the desktop comes up with vertical colored bars across the screen, and the system locks up. I tried booting in vga mode and it locks up with a blank white screen. Safe mode works fine. Normal boot doesn't. Looks like the nvidia drivers did something. I've got a gainward gf3 power pack card. It was working just fine with the P4T and 12.81 drivers. Getting ready to try a different video card and see what happens :(
Kool_Aid
09-22-01, 07:54 PM
What OS are you using?
Originally posted by Kool_Aid
What OS are you using?
2000 pro - don't know what the heck was wrong now. I put a different video card in and it runs fine. Took the other card that appeared to be the problem and it runs fine in a different machine with the same drivers.
mrsense
09-23-01, 12:32 PM
I read on another forum that the voltage problem is due to i850 chipset limitation, and the same problem also exists on other i850 mobo. Can you tell me if this is true since you also have an ASUS mobo.
Also, I'm having this cold boot problem when FSB is set above
110mhz. My system just doesn't start, and I have to kill the power for a minuite or so in order to force the bios to the default.
Originally posted by mrsense
I read on another forum that the voltage problem is due to i850 chipset limitation, and the same problem also exists on other i850 mobo. Can you tell me if this is true since you also have an ASUS mobo.
Also, I'm having this cold boot problem when FSB is set above
110mhz. My system just doesn't start, and I have to kill the power for a minuite or so in order to force the bios to the default.
I don't know if it's the i850 chipset, but my Asus board will not change the voltage at all, period. I had to use the wire wrap trick to bump it up.
I'm also having a cold boot problem. It makes it past post, but never gets to the OS boot - just blank screen. Hitting reset seems to get it going for me. My overall impression of this board now is it's a little buggy.
I didn't want to hear that, TC. I was almost ready to order that TH7-II RAID motherboard. Sometimes that happens with brand new boards. Maybe I should hold off another week and see if others are having trouble too.
Originally posted by batboy
I didn't want to hear that, TC. I was almost ready to order that TH7-II RAID motherboard. Sometimes that happens with brand new boards. Maybe I should hold off another week and see if others are having trouble too.
Sorry but I would hold off on this board :( I'm having problems with the onboard audio too. Last night I tried to playback an mpeg, and it was in slow motion with no audio. Happened to notice the volume control was missing in the bottom right corner where it usually is. Rebooted the machine and it reappeared.
Kool_Aid
09-24-01, 12:53 PM
Sorry to hear about your problems.
Mine is working fine, without any problems at all. (unless you count the difference in the vcore readings).
I am not trying to insult you, but have you checked the basics.......like the proper Power Supply, and make sure there are no stand off's on the mobo plate grounding out on the bottom of the board, etc..................
Originally posted by TC
I'm also having a cold boot problem. It makes it past post, but never gets to the OS boot - just blank screen. Hitting reset seems to get it going for me. My overall impression of this board now is it's a little buggy.
Hey TC I think your problem on the cold boot is voltage. Same thing started happening to me when i started dropping my voltage settings. My abit bx6 2's power readings aren't quite as bad but they are a bit lower than what i set them to in the bios. hit the insert key when you cold boot. it usually gets the computer going.
Too bad about this board. I was going to recomend one to my brother. TC let abit know about your problem and hopefully they will fix it.
JetMech
09-24-01, 04:56 PM
TC, are you having any problems with the floppy drive. Glimmer was trying to get info in another thread because he couldn't get any floppy to operate on his board. Someone else (sorry can't find the thread to get the name) gave him a link to the Abit web site and there it's apparent they know about that prob. The configuration of the ASUS P4t board is supposedly to compensate for some little electron gremlins caused by all that memory bandwith. I'm not dong a good job describing this because I'm rushing to get ready for work but the point I'm trying to make is that there may be some design issues with that board at very high clocks. On the videocard prob, have you checked Gainward for 2k drivers?
No insult taken. I have checked just about everything I can think of. Bios settings look good. 400 watt P4 ready power supply should be okay - worked fine for the P4T. Doesn't seem to be any shorting. I should have restated my boot problem. It will cold boot and go through post, and when it should be loading the OS it just goes to a blank screen. If I hit reset it posts again and loads on the second try. It's not like it's completely dead on a cold boot. On the video I did reload windows from scratch and try the gainward drivers for 2k. Funny how everything is perfectly fine until I reboot immediately following video driver install. Then it comes up with vertical bars as though the newly loaded drivers screwed something up. The 423 pin 1.7 gig chip I have overclocks much better. It was almost 100% stable at 2100. This new chip and board (1.7 gig also) does not even post beyond 2040. I used the oem heatsink for both setups. Last but not least, no floppy problems whatsoever - can't offer any advice for glimmer. I'm still using the board, but with a plain jane ati pci video card. I may swap in a asus 6800 card just to see what happens with another agp card. I wouldn't call this a nightmare, but certainly appears to have some kinks that hopefully with be fixed with some bios updates.
Hyperfish
09-24-01, 06:38 PM
Originally posted by r_wesleyjr
TC, are you having any problems with the floppy drive. Glimmer was trying to get info in another thread because he couldn't get any floppy to operate on his board. Someone else (sorry can't find the thread to get the name) gave him a link to the Abit web site and there it's apparent they know about that prob. The configuration of the ASUS P4t board is supposedly to compensate for some little electron gremlins caused by all that memory bandwith. I'm not dong a good job describing this because I'm rushing to get ready for work but the point I'm trying to make is that there may be some design issues with that board at very high clocks. On the videocard prob, have you checked Gainward for 2k drivers?
Wesley-
Have your friend try:
A. Cutting/grinding the tab off the floppy cable & flipping it.
B. "Hot" plugging the cable during POST.
I went through three boards on the last TH7II system I built.
Board #1 ran hot as he**, idling at 36'C-38'C in an Antec SX1030B, 2 x 80mm intakes, 2 x 80mm exhaust fans, Enermax 431W PSU.
The board died after 3 days.
That same case/PSU runs my Asus P4T/1.7GHz @ 2040MHz, board temp is 30'C-32'C.
Board #2 had a bad floppy controller.
Board #3 exhibted the same problems, floppy detected in BIOS, not in OS.
Light remained lit at all times, if I flipped the cable (after grinding off the tab) it wasn't detected.
I finally "hot" plugged out of frustration during POST with a known bad floppy in it.
It now works, and the cable is actually in the connector as it should be, minus the tab.
This board also runs at 32'C to 34'C using the identical components & setup as board #1.
Weird...
Hyperfish
09-24-01, 06:42 PM
Originally posted by TC
No insult taken. I have checked just about everything I can think of. Bios settings look good. 400 watt P4 ready power supply should be okay - worked fine for the P4T. Doesn't seem to be any shorting. I should have restated my boot problem. It will cold boot and go through post, and when it should be loading the OS it just goes to a blank screen. If I hit reset it posts again and loads on the second try. It's not like it's completely dead on a cold boot. On the video I did reload windows from scratch and try the gainward drivers for 2k. Funny how everything is perfectly fine until I reboot immediately following video driver install. Then it comes up with vertical bars as though the newly loaded drivers screwed something up. The 423 pin 1.7 gig chip I have overclocks much better. It was almost 100% stable at 2100. This new chip and board (1.7 gig also) does not even post beyond 2040. I used the oem heatsink for both setups. Last but not least, no floppy problems whatsoever - can't offer any advice for glimmer. I'm still using the board, but with a plain jane ati pci video card. I may swap in a asus 6800 card just to see what happens with another agp card. I wouldn't call this a nightmare, but certainly appears to have some kinks that hopefully with be fixed with some bios updates.
TC-
See my reply above.
IMHO, I would RMA that board.
I'm VERY disappointed in the lack of QC on the TH7/TH7II boards.
I've built 12 systems using the Asus P4T, have [b]nver[/b[ had a single problem or cause for RMA.
The P4T is faster in every benchmark AND seat of the pants feel, particularly PCI and memory throughtput...
Originally posted by Hyperfish
TC-
See my reply above.
IMHO, I would RMA that board.
I'm [b]VERY disappointed in the lack of QC on the TH7/TH7II boards.
I've built 12 systems using the Asus P4T, have nver[/b[ had a single problem or cause for RMA.
The P4T is faster in every benchmark AND seat of the pants feel, particularly PCI and memory throughtput...
What would you suggest getting for a replacement s-478 i850 right now? Or just try another abit?
i think you should rma it and get a board from a different manufacturer unless abit actually is going to fix it and relatively soon. thats sad. i like abit boards too.
Unfortunately this appears to be the only overclocking friendly s-478 i850 board. I would try an Asus - but it's i845 - yuck.
JetMech
09-25-01, 07:01 AM
Originally posted by TC
Unfortunately this appears to be the only overclocking friendly s-478 i850 board. I would try an Asus - but it's i845 - yuck. You're in the same boat I was in when I started building my P4. You're slightly ahead of the technology motherboardwise. Could get expensive. Whatever ASUS comes up with will have a premium price tag. I spent $230.00 for my P4T.
JetMech
09-25-01, 07:08 AM
Originally posted by TC
No insult taken. I have checked just about everything I can think of. Bios settings look good. 400 watt P4 ready power supply should be okay - worked fine for the P4T. Doesn't seem to be any shorting. I should have restated my boot problem. It will cold boot and go through post, and when it should be loading the OS it just goes to a blank screen. If I hit reset it posts again and loads on the second try. It's not like it's completely dead on a cold boot. On the video I did reload windows from scratch and try the gainward drivers for 2k. Funny how everything is perfectly fine until I reboot immediately following video driver install. Then it comes up with vertical bars as though the newly loaded drivers screwed something up. The 423 pin 1.7 gig chip I have overclocks much better. It was almost 100% stable at 2100. This new chip and board (1.7 gig also) does not even post beyond 2040. I used the oem heatsink for both setups. Last but not least, no floppy problems whatsoever - can't offer any advice for glimmer. I'm still using the board, but with a plain jane ati pci video card. I may swap in a asus 6800 card just to see what happens with another agp card. I wouldn't call this a nightmare, but certainly appears to have some kinks that hopefully with be fixed with some bios updates. Is Win 2k installing drivers upon detection of the video card and if so are you reverting to standard vga before installing new drivers. Gainwards drivers may be modified like Diamond used to do. I couldn't upgrade to a geforce2 mx because my system held remnants of diamonds TNT2 drivers. Just a thought.
Hyperfish
09-25-01, 08:29 AM
Originally posted by TC
What would you suggest getting for a replacement s-478 i850 right now? Or just try another abit?
TC-
Been waiting for vendors to get this: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1001404151
Unfortunately, it does appear to be a 4 layer design:
http://www.asus.co.jp/Whatsnew/whatsnew2109.html#p4t-e
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