Abit iX38 QuadGT - Living Review.

[Rofor]

Hi Clunk,

Originally Posted by Clunk

Welcome to the forums

At the moment, I cannot recommend the QuadGT because its BIOS is bad, and it really shouldn't have been released to market in this way (In my opinion) - I don't believe that mine is faulty, as I have been reading of similar problems with past Abit boards.

Unless you need the extra 16x slot, go for a P35 board, or wait for X48.

Hmmmmm, i have no plans for crossfire or sli - i'm already waiting vor a evga 8800gt superclocked. As the card will be avaiable soonest in late november/early december here in vienna, i will have a look at your upcoming reviews of the ix38 (and hopefully it's bios-updates) and if it won't get better, i will take your advice and get the IP35-Pro!

Again - many thanks!

[glowball]

Clunk, can you recommend any modifications to the boards cooling parts before the board is initially run and TIM starts to harden making removal more difficult later.
Do the (plastic?) fixings look secure enough to hold the heat-sinks down and flat to the chips or would you recommend a similar mod to IP 35 boards?
What are the oblong lugs with holes for on the side of the NB heat-sink?
Many thanks and do keep your findings coming.

[lethial]

OMFG I am gone for a week and I miss this!!!! OMG!!!!

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by Rofor

Hi Clunk,



Hmmmmm, i have no plans for crossfire or sli - i'm already waiting vor a evga 8800gt superclocked. As the card will be avaiable soonest in late november/early december here in vienna, i will have a look at your upcoming reviews of the ix38 (and hopefully it's bios-updates) and if it won't get better, i will take your advice and get the IP35-Pro!

Again - many thanks!

I think, by then, the BIOSes should have matured enough for the X38 boards to be stable. Failing that, the X48 should be out, and the whole cycle starts again

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by glowball

Clunk, can you recommend any modifications to the boards cooling parts before the board is initially run and TIM starts to harden making removal more difficult later.
Do the (plastic?) fixings look secure enough to hold the heat-sinks down and flat to the chips or would you recommend a similar mod to IP 35 boards?
What are the oblong lugs with holes for on the side of the NB heat-sink?
Many thanks and do keep your findings coming.

Unfortunately, all the boards fittings are different to anything that I have, so I don't have any plans to fit any aftermarket cooling at the moment.

That's the reason that I havent removed the NB cooler, as I have nothing to replace it with, so I have no idea how difficult it is to remove

[Clunk]

Left the battery out overnight, and reflashed the BIOS, on the offchance that the last flash didn't work properly.

Finished the flash, it restarted, entered the BIOS and......frozen again

Hit reset, back to the BIOS....frozen again.....
Hit reset, back to the BIOS.....frozen again.....
Power off/on, back to the BIOS.....it let me into the guru section...froze again...grrrrr.
Power off/on, back to the BIOS.....frozen again.
Power off/Clear CMOS/Back on, back to the BIOS....back in, loaded the saved settings, saved and exited, changed mind on settings, went back into the BIOS to change some settings...frozen again.

[supershanks]

I've got mine have had the freeze you described in bios. It's happened once after i had shut down.

I managed to use usb drive to flash bios to 11.

atm i'm trying to repair xp install which was x38 already which has got screwed up.

Tried my stock settings 3.6k with 1.40vcore wouldn't have anything, looks like i'll be upping vcore , so far i'm totally underwhelmed.

[Clunk]

Sorry to hear that yours is a duffer too.

[supershanks]

Well I've not tried doing that much with it yet but it ain't looking good. Just going to restore My raiid image from last night & see if i can try again. I 1st booted from my small xp installation I use for recovery. That updated fine. As i didn't have photoshop & msn etc., installed I decided to plug in my raid. , which then got screwed.

[Clunk]

Anyone else got one of these? Has anyone got one that is working well?