- Joined
- Feb 13, 2010
- Location
- Missouri
Time for a blast from the past kids! Introducing one the best and buggiest budget LGA775 boards. We all know about the double post issue but we are going to delve deep and expose the quirks.
Relevant specifications
Intel P35 Express / Intel ICH9
Compatible Processors Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad
Processor Socket LGA775 Socket
Max Bus Speed 1333 MHz
Max Processors Qty 1
Manufacturer ABIT Computer Corp.
1 x PCIe x16
2 x PCIe x1
1 x CPU
3 x PCI
4 x DIMM 240-pin
Storage Interfaces ATA-133 -connectors: 1 x 40pin IDC - 2 devices
SATA-300 -connectors: 4 x 7pin Serial ATA - 4 devices
4-Phase 8-pin.
BIOS 18 final
Initial observations
Despite specifications and reviews this board will boot and run DRR2 1066 easily.
Double post issue oddly clears up when going cold.
Temperature reading for CPU's are all over the place and not accurate at all whether it be Conroes/Allendales or Wolfdale. In order to successfully overclock or even install Windows with Wolfdale processors the CPU overheat protection must be disabled as it reports 98c and within seconds will trigger.
Does not play well with SSD's and Windows 7. What do I mean you say? Installing 7 is a nightmare if your trying to use and SSD as your OS drive. I tried 3 different models/manufactures and varying capacities. All hang when Windows attempts install devices. This possibly could be cleared up by slip streaming some modern drivers into the Windows install. An 2TB Seagate standard SATA drive works great. I'll elaborate and edit later.
Lets get into it shall we!
We'll start out easy with an Core 2 Extreme X6800. This should at least give us an idea of how the boards 4-phase power specifications handles this hungry chip. It will also keep us out of the FSB for now.
SL9S5 MALAY
2.93GHZ/4M/1066/05B
RAM
Crucial PC2-8500U-777-13-E0 2GB x 2.
OS
Windows 7 Super lite x86. I know we need x64 to fully utilize the the 4GB of RAM and we may go there but for now were just shooting for dual channel performance.
If you guys want me to use a different OS such as XP for for SuperPI let me know. I'll bench on request but in my opinion it's not really an accurate indicator of performance. But why Opty would you say such a thing? One answer. Too many tweaks! Same for PCMark.
Cooling
OCZ Cryo-Z modded.
This is a bit of a tricky situation here. Ideally we want to pull down before firing it up but the reality is if we wait to long ice builds up between the pads on the CPU and the pins of the socket and no post.
So what do we do? We let it pull down for say 5 minutes or so then we fire it up and let it pull down the rest of the way. The heat generated by the processor prevents the ice from building. We'll get condensation for sure but oddly enough the board doesn't mind that much unless we're a doing a real long run. We might get a lock-up or BSOD here but it's just a matter of patience. Simple fix shut down and use your handy dandy hair dryer. In no time you'll be up and running again.
Condensation protection? Good old petroleum jelly. A good dab all around the socket covering all the little bits. It will run if you use the hair dryer but no issue we only need a film. One of the biggest mistakes folks make with extreme cooling is too much especially when using eraser or conformal. This results in the little bits getting hotter than normal. May not seem like a big deal but were trying to pull every bit of performance out of our board.
We have fans everywhere! This serves a few purposes.
http://drive.google.com/file/d/1qMvfX-K_NghQNMUqNyF-5RTs3dSKRzpF/view?usp=sharing
1: We keep our northbridge and southbridge cool as well as the PWM's.
2: We keep condensation on the PCB down some. It's not really and issue when your room is nice and cool but if your doing a long run and the room is warmish then the water can pool and potentially run into places that are not pleased with getting wet such as the northbridge.
Power
EVGA 500B 500W Bronze. Solid PSU with a strong and stable 12V rail.
Graphics card is irrelevant for our purposes as we won't be running any benchmarks requiring grpahics performance.
Comments, observations and corrections are welcome! We all know I'm a flake so hold me accountable guys!
Good news is I'm clean and sober these days and in a good place mental health wise. Ditched the pharmas and went all natural so this little expose should be good assuming we don't kill it first!
Relevant specifications
Intel P35 Express / Intel ICH9
Compatible Processors Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad
Processor Socket LGA775 Socket
Max Bus Speed 1333 MHz
Max Processors Qty 1
Manufacturer ABIT Computer Corp.
1 x PCIe x16
2 x PCIe x1
1 x CPU
3 x PCI
4 x DIMM 240-pin
Storage Interfaces ATA-133 -connectors: 1 x 40pin IDC - 2 devices
SATA-300 -connectors: 4 x 7pin Serial ATA - 4 devices
4-Phase 8-pin.
BIOS 18 final
Initial observations
Despite specifications and reviews this board will boot and run DRR2 1066 easily.
Double post issue oddly clears up when going cold.
Temperature reading for CPU's are all over the place and not accurate at all whether it be Conroes/Allendales or Wolfdale. In order to successfully overclock or even install Windows with Wolfdale processors the CPU overheat protection must be disabled as it reports 98c and within seconds will trigger.
Does not play well with SSD's and Windows 7. What do I mean you say? Installing 7 is a nightmare if your trying to use and SSD as your OS drive. I tried 3 different models/manufactures and varying capacities. All hang when Windows attempts install devices. This possibly could be cleared up by slip streaming some modern drivers into the Windows install. An 2TB Seagate standard SATA drive works great. I'll elaborate and edit later.
Lets get into it shall we!
We'll start out easy with an Core 2 Extreme X6800. This should at least give us an idea of how the boards 4-phase power specifications handles this hungry chip. It will also keep us out of the FSB for now.
SL9S5 MALAY
2.93GHZ/4M/1066/05B
RAM
Crucial PC2-8500U-777-13-E0 2GB x 2.
OS
Windows 7 Super lite x86. I know we need x64 to fully utilize the the 4GB of RAM and we may go there but for now were just shooting for dual channel performance.
If you guys want me to use a different OS such as XP for for SuperPI let me know. I'll bench on request but in my opinion it's not really an accurate indicator of performance. But why Opty would you say such a thing? One answer. Too many tweaks! Same for PCMark.
Cooling
OCZ Cryo-Z modded.
This is a bit of a tricky situation here. Ideally we want to pull down before firing it up but the reality is if we wait to long ice builds up between the pads on the CPU and the pins of the socket and no post.
So what do we do? We let it pull down for say 5 minutes or so then we fire it up and let it pull down the rest of the way. The heat generated by the processor prevents the ice from building. We'll get condensation for sure but oddly enough the board doesn't mind that much unless we're a doing a real long run. We might get a lock-up or BSOD here but it's just a matter of patience. Simple fix shut down and use your handy dandy hair dryer. In no time you'll be up and running again.
Condensation protection? Good old petroleum jelly. A good dab all around the socket covering all the little bits. It will run if you use the hair dryer but no issue we only need a film. One of the biggest mistakes folks make with extreme cooling is too much especially when using eraser or conformal. This results in the little bits getting hotter than normal. May not seem like a big deal but were trying to pull every bit of performance out of our board.
We have fans everywhere! This serves a few purposes.
http://drive.google.com/file/d/1qMvfX-K_NghQNMUqNyF-5RTs3dSKRzpF/view?usp=sharing
1: We keep our northbridge and southbridge cool as well as the PWM's.
2: We keep condensation on the PCB down some. It's not really and issue when your room is nice and cool but if your doing a long run and the room is warmish then the water can pool and potentially run into places that are not pleased with getting wet such as the northbridge.
Power
EVGA 500B 500W Bronze. Solid PSU with a strong and stable 12V rail.
Graphics card is irrelevant for our purposes as we won't be running any benchmarks requiring grpahics performance.
Comments, observations and corrections are welcome! We all know I'm a flake so hold me accountable guys!
Good news is I'm clean and sober these days and in a good place mental health wise. Ditched the pharmas and went all natural so this little expose should be good assuming we don't kill it first!
Last edited:
