Abit IX38 Quad GT - Living Review II

[supershanks]

Getting a decemt oc is most often a balance between vcc& vcoesee.
What vtt are you running 1.53i pretty high for vcore

[leffe]

Well it seems I didn't have the 500 FSB stable after all. Some random crashing in games etc. I had the MCH up to 1.46v but just gave up when the cooler on the NB was getting so hot with a fan on it and just not being stable.

I have the system at 9*467 = 4209mhz and ran orthos small FFTs with the following settings for an hour successfully:

CPU VID 1.4250
CPU VTT 1.25
MCH 1.35
ICH 1.11
DDR2 2.100

Supershanks do you think 1.4250 is too much for 24/7 settings? Im cooling with water. Just been reading about some degradation stuff on xtremesystems so...

[supershanks]

Your going pretty well there leffe

From what i've read a high Vtt can be more responsible for degrading the cpu than vcore. Adjusting [Advanced] Gunning Transceiver Logic (A/GTL+) Voltage Levels
for Increased Front Side Bus (FSB) Signaling Margins and Overclocking

VTT, sometimes referred to in the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) as the FSB Termination Voltage, provides the low level signaling bias needed for the processors, chipsets, and all other devices on the bus to communicate. The FSB is the electrical interface that connects the processor to the chipset (also called the processor system bus or the system bus). All memory and I/O transactions as well as interrupt messages pass between the processor and chipset over the FSB.

Intel rates the maximum VTT voltage for desktop processors at 1.55v (with respect to VSS). Because undershoot and overshoot specifications become more critical as the process technology for microprocessors shrink due to thinner gate oxide layers; we must note that violating these limits may excessively degrade the life expectancy of the processor and/or chipset.

From your settings you've plenty of leeway re vtt. So i'd be happy at that.
I've been running nearly 2 months 24/7 on 3760 8x470 1:1.20 24Hrs Prime Stable Vcore 1.4625v & Vtt = 1.36v , like yourself on water.

luck

[supershanks]

Having had this board now for around 3 months it's crossed my mind I should give an opinion of it.

I must admit my feelings are pretty mixed.

Good Points:
* Good board layout and design.
* Guru
* Bios options
* Decent overclocking - Highest 24/7 Overclock

Bad Points
* Poor Packaging - about a half " gap which lets the mobo move in transit.


* No USB pci Header only 4 USB rear slots unless you buy your own backet
No NB & PWM 40mm fan retension clips Despite being shown in the manual



* Poor 45nm support - This may be down to the wrong command line switch being used Changed Bios command line gets 45ns support in bios 12
* DMI Pool corruption Whilst not unique to this board, i've had the same issues on an Asus Commando, after a period of overclocking, or changes in hardware the board is laible to run extremely badly, often with C1 errrors. Fix For General Instability & No post/Boot This doesn't seem to be a specific bios issue (although i've only had C1 errors sing BTA 12.09(official 12) THe more likely cause seems to be a corrupt DMI pool. By removing the battery & replacing it, the DMI pool is rebuilt.

Niggles
* No Boot Menu like other boards [Del] etc., brings up a boot menu.
* Poor keyboard detection to enter bios, this has been an issue to varying degrees with different bios & keyboards
* Guru CPU Temp Whilst all other Guru readings have been accurate CPU Temps have varied greatly with bios versions.


I think that Abit had an opportunity to bring to market a board that would have been a worthy successor to the P35-Pro. The first 3 Bad points are issues that might be expected on a budget board, but basically amount to own goals by Abit which sour the enjoyment of the board.

Performance :******** 8/10
Features : ******* 7/10
Accessories :***3/10
Stability :******** 8/10
Reliability : ******* 7/10
Build Quality: ********* 9/10
Overall : ******* 7/10

[Robbo770]

We here is my settings after just getting it up and running and heat sink of vapo unit bedded in on the CPU QX6850, running cross fired X1800 XT 512Mb each and 4 Gb of Ballistix DDR2 8500 1 Gb strips,

got Raptor 150 to boot and wd74 in raid and 320 in raid with a backup 80 in normal sata,

remote lan storage of 1 Tb

monitor dell 3007WP

b]ABIT IX38 QuadGT[/b]

OC GURU:

CPU OPERATING SPEED................ - USER DEFINE
EXTERNAL CLOCK..................... - 365 MHz
MULTIPLIER FACTOR.................. - x 9
ESTIMATED NEW CPU CLOCK.......... 3285 MHz
DRAM SPEED (CPU/DRAM)........... 1.1.50 / 1096 Mhz
PCI EXPRESS CLOCK.................. - 105MHz

VOLTAGE CONTROL:

CPU CORE VOLTAGE................... 1.39 V
CPU Core Voltage Offset............ 0.0 V
Target CPU Core Voltage............ 1.375 V
DDR2 VOLTAGE....................... 2.20 V
CPU VTT VOLTAGE.................... 1.30 V
MCH 1.25V VOLTAGE.................. 1.27 V
ICH 1.05V VOLTAGE.................. 1.05 V
ICHIO 1.5V VOLTAGE................. 1.5 V
DDR2 REFERENCE VOLTAGE............. Default
CPU GTLREF 0+2..................... 68 %
CPU GTLREF 1+4..................... 67 %

ADVANCED CHIPSET FEATURES:

DRAM TIMING SELECTABLE............. - MANUAL
CAS LATENCY TIME (TCL)............... 5
RAS TO CAS DELAY (TRCD)............. 5
RAS PRECHARGE (TRP)......... .......... 5
PRECHARGE DELAY (TRAS).............. 10
REFRESH CYCLE TIME (TRFC)........... 30
WRITE RECOVERY TIME (TWR)......... 4
WRITE TO READ DELAY (TWTR)........ 4
ACT TO ACT TIME (TRRD)............... 4
READ TO PRECHARGE (TRTP)............12
COMMAND RATE....................... - 2T
PCIE Root Port Function............ - V1.0A
PEG FORCE X1....................... - DISABLED
INIT DISPLAY FIRST................. - PCIEX

ADVANCED BIOS FEATURES / CPU FEATURES:
THERMAL CONTROL.................. - ENABLED
C1E FUNCTION....................... - DISABLED
EXECUTE DISABLE BIT................ - DISABLED
VIRTUALISATION TECHNOLOGY.......... - DISABLED
EIST FUNCTION...................... - DISABLED


I have 40mm fans on both NB and PW heatsink locations as well as original fatality memory active cooling, case fans throughout and also the PSU is suprisingly cool in operation and quite!! for 1Kw of grunt and it really stable with 5 yr guarentee!!

any Ideas of now how to push it on a Quad core?

Only pain is the reboot on even bios 12 offical, I have to run second PSU for the vapo to stop it from shutting down with the reboots on bios save and update!!!!!

[supershanks]

Rig sounds great m8
Are those settings stable then?? if not try dropping

1.1.50 / 1096 Mhz

down to 1:1.25 / 913 Mhz if it then runs ok we need to look at getting your memory stable.

you might try 3760 8x470 1:1.20 24Hrs Prime Stable next to see how it runs on vapo, if not for you but for me

You might find that GTLref is very sensitive at low temps. I know Clunk found that with his phase.

luck

[Robbo770]

b]ABIT IX38 QuadGT[/b]

OC GURU:
CPU QX6850

CPU OPERATING SPEED................ - USER DEFINE
EXTERNAL CLOCK..................... - 380 MHz
MULTIPLIER FACTOR.................. - x 9
ESTIMATED NEW CPU CLOCK.......... 3420 MHz
DRAM SPEED (CPU/DRAM)........... 1.1.50 / 1100 Mhz
PCI EXPRESS CLOCK.................. - 105MHz

VOLTAGE CONTROL:

CPU CORE VOLTAGE................... 1.4375 V
CPU Core Voltage Offset............ 0.0 V
Target CPU Core Voltage............ 1.4375 V
DDR2 VOLTAGE....................... 2.20 V
CPU VTT VOLTAGE.................... 1.30 V
MCH 1.25V VOLTAGE.................. 1.30 V
ICH 1.05V VOLTAGE.................. 1.11V
ICHIO 1.5V VOLTAGE................. 1.5 V
DDR2 REFERENCE VOLTAGE............. Default
CPU GTLREF 0+2..................... 68 %
CPU GTLREF 1+4..................... 67 %

ADVANCED CHIPSET FEATURES:

DRAM TIMING SELECTABLE............. - MANUAL
CAS LATENCY TIME (TCL)............... 5
RAS TO CAS DELAY (TRCD)............. 5
RAS PRECHARGE (TRP)......... .......... 5
PRECHARGE DELAY (TRAS).............. 10
REFRESH CYCLE TIME (TRFC)........... 30
WRITE RECOVERY TIME (TWR)......... 4
WRITE TO READ DELAY (TWTR)........ 4
ACT TO ACT TIME (TRRD)............... 4
READ TO PRECHARGE (TRTP)............12
COMMAND RATE....................... - 2T
PCIE Root Port Function............ - V1.0A
PEG FORCE X1....................... - DISABLED
INIT DISPLAY FIRST................. - PCIEX

ADVANCED BIOS FEATURES / CPU FEATURES:
THERMAL CONTROL.................. - ENABLED
C1E FUNCTION....................... - DISABLED
EXECUTE DISABLE BIT................ - DISABLED
VIRTUALISATION TECHNOLOGY.......... - DISABLED
EIST FUNCTION...................... - DISABLED


CPU temp now detectable in abit guru at 8 Deg and vapo now reading -39.1 at 70% on both fans so heaps to go yet, will set to heatsink at this for a couple of hours to bed it in and then go again

system temp 41 with closed case and PW temps are 46 at moment

[supershanks]

Great looking rig m8

be interesting to see how it goes

[nbat58]

Hi everyone, pulling my hair out here, never had so much troubles with a mobo before.
When the machine boots up, it's rock solid @ 3.6 (Q6600) and no ram errors (G Skill pc2 8000) but my problem is getting it to boot up.

I have to keep on switching it off and rebooting and hoping that it'll boot but mostly it keeps rebooting and sometimes it just stays on but just black screen, at times to get it going I have to clear cmos and off I go with trying again.

I have flashed the latest bios last week 12b09 all went well, cleared cmos, took battery out but made no difference to reboots, this mobo shipped with bios 11. I wonder whether I will be better off with the 12b08.

I have downloaded 12b08 from this site and wonder if this file is a .Bin as the file extention is .B08 and I am not sure how to flash this file, do I need to change the file extention to .Bin?

I would appreciate all the help.

[supershanks]

When you say rock solid what tests have you run ??
What vtt volts are you running ?? Sometimes to higher value can cause issues.
What drives have you connected ?? is it hanging on drive detection.
I'd suggest booting & watching the LED post codes & see if it sticks or hangs on any stage, You can check the reference here :-
POST STAGE-GURU CODE

You need to rename the bios file from .B08 to .Bin for any more info on flashing see 1st post in Other Links: in post#1

luck