Biostar TForce 550

[juane414]

I left the cpu multi on auto (10.5x for my cpu), HTT multi is 3x and timings I set for 5-5-5-15-20. BTW... it could be my bios... i'm running b16 right now, is this a bad version?

 

[juane414]

ok i think i found the problem... apparently on the 4000 brisbane when the cpu multi is set to 6x it actually runs at 10x. but when the multi is set at 4x is really does run at 4x. i can't believe i didn't try 4x sooner. this should help to get my HTT higher

 

[Ruiner]

I haven't thoroughly shaken the board out, but wanted to update for those interested.
I had been doing some stress testing via the linux 'ultimate boot disk' and was surviving at 325 HTT. Chipset voltages were left at stock Vcore was set to 1.45. I had to ratchet back to 316HTT once I ran Orthos in windows (the stress test app on that boot disk is an older version, and I doubt multithreaded).

I'm currently using Ubuntu Feisty for everything but gaming. For some reason the cpu scaling function won't scale above the stock core speed of 1.9 (but does scale down properly). Rmclock scales fine in windows.

Since I prefer silent rigs, I replaced the NB HSF with an original Alpha heatsink (back from my Celeron 400 days). I had to remove about 20-30% of the pins to clear the caps on my vid card and my sound card, but it 's only slightly warm running passive (my radiator fan blows right on it anyway).

 

[funnyperson1]

I haven't thoroughly shaken the board out, but wanted to update for those interested.
I had been doing some stress testing via the linux 'ultimate boot disk' and was surviving at 325 HTT. Chipset voltages were left at stock Vcore was set to 1.45. I had to ratchet back to 316HTT once I ran Orthos in windows (the stress test app on that boot disk is an older version, and I doubt multithreaded).

I'm currently using Ubuntu Feisty for everything but gaming. For some reason the cpu scaling function won't scale above the stock core speed of 1.9 (but does scale down properly). Rmclock scales fine in windows.

Since I prefer silent rigs, I replaced the NB HSF with an original Alpha heatsink (back from my Celeron 400 days). I had to remove about 20-30% of the pins to clear the caps on my vid card and my sound card, but it 's only slightly warm running passive (my radiator fan blows right on it anyway).

How are the temps with that and how high are the pins? Those old Alpha sinks were really high quality.

I am really tempted to get one of these:
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/encnfoconoco.html
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/encnfoconohe.html

But the round one probably requires sawing off a bunch of pins to fit and the low profile one may not be good enough. I wish there were some reviews of these things on the net.

 

[juane414]

yea, eventually i'd like to replace my NB HS and my GPU HS. they are easily the two noisiest fans in my computer...

 

[Ruiner]

How are the temps with that and how high are the pins?

In bios they run in the mid 20's.
I would guess about an inch tall above the base plate.

http://s2.supload.com/free/Picture_001-20070622212807.jpg/view/
http://s2.supload.com/free/Picture_002.jpg/view/

some pics of my ghetto rig. The cardboard (there until I bother getting something prettier) separates the case into 'chambers'. The rad exhaust blows over the NB and vid card, then out the uncovered spare PCI slots.
The upper fan draws air in through open CD bays, over the HDD enclosure, under the PSU passive sinks, the mosfets, and out. The fans are 220v but run at on 110 and the case is damped with foam and tile. The loudest thing is a faint hum from the Eheim. I found 3/4" ID hose fits over the inlet of the 1048, and is much less restrictive than the screw in 1/2" barb that comes with the pump. Centrifugal pumps enjoy low inlet restriction.

 

[Foxbat Kannan]

Hey guys.

Right now I'm reading up on the overclocking, but used the V12 engine and got 2.38GHz stock everything as far as I know, using the heatsink funnyperson recommended (and that I had my eye on for the longest time due to price)

I have a SB Live! (classic/original) 4.1 having the same issues as Audigy etc. with light crackling etc. during some games. One game, I lose sound during the game, it doesn't come back, then the system reboots when I try to quit game.

I'm pretty sure this is a sound issue, so I was wondering, do I bother troubleshooting or is the Realtek 861 7.1 better than the SB Live! ?

 

[funnyperson1]

I can guarantee you the V12 overclocking engine jacked the VCore way up and has a lot of other settings messed up. However if you look through this thread you can find out how to do everything manually and you will be much better off, you should be hitting 2.8-3ghz with this setup.

Ruiner I like that ingenuity, looks like a dominant nb cooler.

 

[Foxbat Kannan]

Yea thanks! I've already manually switched to the Paragon RAM settings and have the "settings" at 1.425v vcore, RAM bumped one notch, and chipsets and HT bumped up one setting. I'm at 2.95GHz/HT 930MHz/RAM 420MHz with that Vcore and everything else bumped up one notch.

I got the RAM to run at 1GHz which meant the game FlashPoint (so far the only thing crashing now and then) only lasted 1-4 mins before crashing but everything else was still fine.

V12 taught me my chip can take 1.53v and be pretty stable and without heat issues So now I'm wondering if it was the sound card to begin with, and which one was better anyway.

 

[Ruiner]

I forgot to mention the hole cut in the top of the case over the PSU, allowing more passive cooling from its fins.

 

[Foxbat Kannan]

So I took my SB Live! out and ran the game, it sporadically crashes around the same place too in the game Flashpoint, so it's probably not the sound card.

Am I basically just pushing the envelope too much, or am I running with too low voltages? It was hella stable when V12 basically jacked the voltages to levels. I remember seeing stuff in the 1.5 range.

Here are my settings:

Mem Div - 400 or 533. The 667 divider boots but dies fast.
vcore 1.425 - 1.46 shown
vchipset - unchanged
vmem - unchanged, adding voltage reduces Prime95 blend time.
vht - unchanged
HT - 310MHz

Heat does not seem to be a problem, I put a table fan to the case and didn't notice a trend in reduced crashes, nor did pushing the graphics card fan to 100% affect anything.

Prime 95 blend (the memory one) lasts 2-4 mins
Prime 95 max heat/power lasts 5 mins
Prime 95 max FPU lasts quite a while, haven't actually seen it crash (or run it for more than 20 mins).

Oh yea, the stuff that I don't meddle with:
all spread spectrum off, NPT fid auto, K8-SB/NB 3x
disable PMU, C1E
CAS 5 5 5 15 2T 4T 8ns 25T 5T 4T 3T 7.8us auto auto (as Paragon suggests)

EDIT:

Also, my motherboard has the 2/2007 BIOS. Are most people using the new one on their website 5/2007?

 

[Shroomer]

I too am getting random reboots in a game (WOW). I'm trying to isolate the problem. COuld be a lot of things in my case. Right now I'm trying really lowering the speed of my RAM. If that doesn't work, I'm going to completely rebuild the system and check the NB heatsink to see if it has enough thermal compound.

 

[Shroomer]

FUnny. I've spent over a month diagnosing this problem and it ended up being the video card fan. It would spin when the computer started up until the driver loaded then it would stop and not restart even when the video card reached a scorching 105c. Fortunately it has the nice zalman heatsink on it or it'd be dead. Strange that it never showed an artifact on the screen. Also strange that the memory settings on the mobo would help/hurt the symptoms. Anywho... I now the the fan hooked up directly to the PS and it's not getting over 60c. A shame I kept coming back to the mobo/memory for the problem.

 

[Ocelaris]

FUnny. I've spent over a month diagnosing this problem and it ended up being the video card fan. It would spin when the computer started up until the driver loaded then it would stop and not restart even when the video card reached a scorching 105c. Fortunately it has the nice zalman heatsink on it or it'd be dead. Strange that it never showed an artifact on the screen. Also strange that the memory settings on the mobo would help/hurt the symptoms. Anywho... I now the the fan hooked up directly to the PS and it's not getting over 60c. A shame I kept coming back to the mobo/memory for the problem.

There is a setting in the bios to have the fans controlled by the temperature of the thermistors... i.e. pulse width them down when they're not needed at full blast, I wonder if you could turn that off and get the same effect?

I know that before I had my vid card drivers, the stock fan on my vid card was a little obnoxious, but with the drivers, it quieted down. But this was all in windows. I know it was a driver thing because when I was in linux, the fan was always at full blast... I eventually replaced the stock fan for a quieter, larger one, and all has been well. Although I haven't run any games on it though either...

 

[YetAnotherNoob]

I'm trying to get this board to recognize my seagate sata-II drive. is there a special setting to get it to work? where would the sata drive be listed in the bios? it doesn't show as a boot option in boot sequence. i know its not my drive because the drive works in my enclosure, and i also tried a second sata-II drive in the port just to make sure. neither is detected by any os.

 

[Ocelaris]

well, if you're just installing windows, then you may need to have the boot disk (floppy) with the SATA card drivers (i.e. oem.inf etc...) and press F6 while booting. Or you need to turn the SATA, AHCI controller to "compatability" mode but you lose some speed, you can turn it back on when you are done with windows. I don't recall having any issues having any drives being recognized, I have 2 raptors and a WD 500AKS no problems...

I know you can see the drives when you are in the bios, under the boot section, undor Hard drive Priority, you should have all your hard drives listed. If not update the bios and try again.

 

[juane414]

I had a problem with my board not recognizing my sata dvd-rw drive... i eventually just reformatted, reinstalled windows, and reinstalled all the drivers and now it works just fine. It sucked but it worked.

 

[juane414]

Guys at 290x9.5 everything is fine... but at 310x9.5 Day of Defeat closes out randomly. Is this my gpu or whats going on?

 

[hank123]

so you can run high then ddr2 800 with this mobo with out problems right?

 

[funnyperson1]

Definitely as long as the ram itself is up to it, I can run up to 589 (DDR2 1178) with my Ballistix at 6-5-5-15-20 timings.

juane, what Memory divider and HT divider speeds are you running with?