Abit AB9-QuadGT first thoughts...

[LordFrank]

I have a WD 160gig 7.2k and a WD 150gig 10k HDD that I've tried both with the system, neither worked.

Trying the FDD method now... took me awhile to secure one.

 

[LordFrank]

That did it... I am typing this post on my QuadCore system.

 

[LordFrank]

anyone know why CPU-Z would be reporting my FSB properly but not the multipler? This is in Vista... that's my assumption, just wanted to know if anyone had info on it.

 

[LordFrank]

It was just vista... works fine in XP.


I am pretty dissapointed in the cooling of the chipsets on these boards... mine get so hot you'd burn your fingers touching them... bios reporting over 100C...

Anyone know any tricks or any good advice with this board that pretty much anyone should know or do?

 

[chawks2]

100c, WOW! Err...something doesnt sound right. What temp are u looking at in the BIOS so I can compare values.

 

[LordFrank]

I'll give some more detail when I get home.

But yeah, that heat sink with QuadGT written on it, you can't touch it... i did and I have a burn blister from it on my finger.

My Quad Core CPU Temp is good, even OC'd tp 3.75GHz.. even at 1.6v core.

The PMW temps are high too, in the 90-100c ranges.

Do I have a bad board?

 

[chawks2]

Ahh..the PWM temps, mine are about 65-75. I was able to get up to 515 FSB, but my PWM temps were still in above range.

 

[LordFrank]

I got a question for ya.

I have the G.Skill 1000 ram. I don't see any area to actaully input those speeds. What I did was lowered it to 633 (or what ever) and with the FSB I inputed it looked like it was putting it closer to it's MHz. Is that how/what you are suppose to do?

What kind of voltages did you use for the 515FSB?

 

[chawks2]

I was only able to hit 515 once and my puter crapped out. I have had a really hard time getting my machine to work with 400+ FSB period. It appears to me the RAM is my problem, my stix do not like to be over volted past 2.2.

The RAM timings are in a different area of the BIOS. In my case the timings did make a difference.

To hit 515 I did the following:
CPU vcore - 1.505
CPU VTT - 1.4
DDR vcore - 2.4
RAM speed - 533, 4-4-4-12
Multiplier - 7 (7 x 515 = 3605)

I was able to hit 3.6 (400 x 9 = 3600) - Windoze loaded very fast and 3DM2006 = 11288, BUT my MMORPG kept on quitting. All other games ran fine. Oh well 3.2 is good enough for me .....for now.

 

[LordFrank]

Ok, I wasn't speaking in terms of the timings, I was thinking of the 680i and how it seperates the FSB between CPU and MEM... I forgot intel chipsets don't do that.

The high temps in the BIOS are the PMW ones. They go really high when I start to push the Vcore up for OCing the QX. Not sure why that is. I don't like that there is no active cooling for the OTES heatsinks... so something has to be modded.

 

[LordFrank]

I broke it....

After all the Vcore and FSB I've messed with yesterday... Today I ONLY increase the multi from x10 to x14 or 15 and don't mess with the voltage hardly at all off from stock and left the FSB at stock... and now it won't boot past uGuru. I get the 90 code, which is it pasted uguru and is awaiting BIOS to take over...


I have NO CLUE!



Any suggestions?

 

[chawks2]

Clear CMOS w/switch on back panel?

 

[Rocinante]

LordFrank, I'm ready to pull the trigger on my quad core... I have a couple of questons for you if you don't mind... I'm torn between the AB9-QuadGT or the BadAxe2..

What kind of CPU cooling are you using??? I plan on water cooling, and was wondering what your max stable front side bus is, and your max overclock???

 

[Slovak]

Well I can say this about my QuadGT, I like it plenty, decent board, but if Abit doesn't get their heads out of their asses and fix the bios issues soon, I'm canning it for either the xbx2 or evga 680i. Totally unsatisfactory that a board in the $200+ price range doesn't have something as basic as raid working out of the box. I know the 680i didn't either, but evga probably released like 10 beta bios within the first month or so of its release, and Abit has released what, two? Two that are even no where on any of Abits pages, just floating around a few forums on the net, and each bios surely fixed the usb bootable error, and raid, but broke power management things like eist and c1e, plus b06 also increased my temps by 5c all around, and both betas locked my multi at 6x, so for now I am stuck with the original bios. Yes I can live without using my bootable usb dvdram drive, and raid. I give them until the end of the month and I'm selling my QuadGT and buying something else.
Abit's tech support totally sucks too, and the only real technical help you can get from Abit is through their forums, which have been down hard for almost three weeks on and off in the last 5 weeks.

 

[LordFrank]

Clear CMOS w/switch on back panel?

Yes, that and the jumper and both at the same time... I get the CC message, just doesn't fix anything afterwards.

 

[LordFrank]

LordFrank, I'm ready to pull the trigger on my quad core... I have a couple of questons for you if you don't mind... I'm torn between the AB9-QuadGT or the BadAxe2..

What kind of CPU cooling are you using??? I plan on water cooling, and was wondering what your max stable front side bus is, and your max overclock???

With this board I was using the QX cpu with PA120.1 (two of them) and one PA120.2. those are the Thermochill radaitors, swifttech pump, EK CPU block and EK GPU block for my 8800GTX, all running the same loop.


I didn't get much playing done... the bios is horrible... took me three days just to locate a FDD to flash the bios to a beta version (the one on this thread). That atleast allowed me to load a OS.

The other thing I was unhappy about was the performance with the 8800GTX. The 680i's over clock themselves as soon as they detect an nvidia GPU. My 3Dmark06 GPU scores went done several hundred from the 680i to the QuadGT.


Honestly, if you don't mind dealing with a buggy BIOS, get the 680i... it allows more OCing options as well (being able to seperatly OC the RAM FSB, which I really missed on the QuadGT.


Well, a hot naked woman is next to me about to crawl into bed... so I'm gonna join her. g-night

 

[Heidfirst]

but evga probably released like 10 beta bios within the first month or so of its release

you mean that nVidia did -only thing that eVGA does is brand the BIOS.

 

[chawks2]

Rocinante, c2d temps do not seem to matter as much as previous cpus. I am able to get 3.6 on my 6600 on air, the temps dont change much maybe 5c MAX.

Pales in comparison to my PD which @ 1.465 vcore was in the 70c range @ full load w/water cooling.

 

[Rocinante]

Rocinante, c2d temps do not seem to matter as much as previous cpus. I am able to get 3.6 on my 6600 on air, the temps dont change much maybe 5c MAX.

Pales in comparison to my PD which @ 1.465 vcore was in the 70c range @ full load w/water cooling.

Yeah, I have a PD950 and a PD965XE under water, and they can still get toasty... I'm thinking of going 3x120mm radiator for my quad core..

 

[NinjaZX6R]

I've got a stupid question...since I don't have a floppy drive, my USB ports are non-functional and I don't have any blank CD's...how the heck can I update my bios???

There really are no windows based flash utilities?

-Collin-