Abit IX38 Quad GT - Living Review II

[Tomsen]

ABIT IX38 QuadGT

OC GURU:

CPU OPERATING SPEED................ - USER DEFINE
EXTERNAL CLOCK..................... - 320MHz
MULTIPLIER FACTOR.................. - x 10
ESTIMATED NEW CPU CLOCK.......... - 3200MHz
DRAM SPEED (CPU/DRAM)........... - DDR2-800
PCI EXPRESS CLOCK.................. - 100MHz

VOLTAGE CONTROL:

CPU CORE VOLTAGE................... - 1,325V
CPU Core Voltage Offset............ - V
Target CPU Core Voltage............ - 1,350V
DDR2 VOLTAGE....................... - 2,2V
CPU VTT VOLTAGE.................... - 1,23V
MCH 1.25V VOLTAGE.................. - 1,30V
ICH 1.05V VOLTAGE.................. - V
ICHIO 1.5V VOLTAGE................. - V
DDR2 REFERENCE VOLTAGE............. Default
CPU GTLREF 0+2..................... - %
CPU GTLREF 1+4..................... - %

ADVANCED CHIPSET FEATURES:

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

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

[supershanks]

As we've said elswhere 1.25 strap isn't too clever.
see olliewbnn posts# 95~97

You might be better trying 333x10 @ 1:1.20 = 800

luck

[Tomsen]

I´ll try it, thanks!

[olliewbnn]

Originally Posted by Tomsen

I´ll try it, thanks!

The 1.20 setting work perfectly. Im still running 8 * 450 = 3.6 ghz @ DDR1080 4-5-4-18 @ 2.4v.

Vcore = 1.4375 in bios with a 0.2 offset.
vmch = 1.62v
vichio = 1.55v
vich = 1.10v
GTL REF 0&1 = 68 %
GTL REF 1&3 = 67 %

Max temp with prime 66C. PWM temps up to 93C. Need a pwm fan so this week im going to use some paperclips and a 40mm fan.

The 8*450 setting seems te be faster. The system feels more smooth. @ this time anything above FSB 450 is a no go. In fact anything above 3.6 ghz is a no go.

[Optimus]

Well my board is back to its usual state of affairs. I didn't mention this earlier because I thought I solved the problem for good. It's the common refusing the POST issue, where fans spin up and switch off every time I try to boot. Often hangs for minutes at a time with no signs of life. Doesn't matter if the power is disconnected or not, it still won't POST without hammering the CMOS clear, then waiting for it to resolve its issues with the fans blaring out loud.

I have replaced the battery using the jumper CMOS clear, leave overnight etc.
Checked every DIMM slot, played around with voltage/timings (although I dare not touch the voltage for my Q6600 being the auto setting must be so low its a typo - how crazy is that?!?) I have even underclocked!
I would love to check what uguru tells me but since I decided to return to Windows XP I can't install that because it just BSOD after the CD drivers load. Hell, it wouldn't even boot with the CD until I forced it to by deleting my RAID volume. The boot priority is broken.

I want a computer this Christmas and I've run out of time waiting for Abit to get their arses in gear with BIOS.
If your outside the box like I was, reading about this board, waiting for reviews. Don't even bother, despite what you read everywhere, and even if you think "well, that probably won't happen for my setup" - it will, believe me. I have all the top reviewed parts installed, should have been the perfect setup. That issue with the PSU for one user resulting in the common issue I mentioned? he solved it by getting a HX620... I already have that PSU. RMA time for me.

[Clunk]

You seem to have all the problems that I had, but I was on the shipping BIOS.

I fixed the driver/guru problem by disabling the drivers at startup, because I wasn't using RAID, it was the Abit installer that decided to install those.

Good luck with the RMA, I think they must get a lot of these back for similar reasons.

[supershanks]

Optimus yare you still running with the

4x1GB PC6400C4 GEiL DDR2-800

you might need to go through the same process as Ademcg, try & stabilise on 2x1gb.

Hell, it wouldn't even boot with the CD until I forced it to by deleting my RAID volume. The boot priority is broken.

I was puzzled why my cd wouldn't boot in raid mode, I had selected Sata CD expecting that to work. It was only when i scrolled down i found my cd named , i selected that & it worked.

As you can see my dvd/cd is shown as P5-HL-DT-S, selecting SATA-CD doesn't work

Another thing on this board there is no [esc] key [f8] option to bring up a boot menu. I use this boot order, which saves going into bios when you want to boot from CD. All i need do is insert a Cd when i want to boot from it.

[Tomsen]

My computer is stable now with 333x10 and 1.25!
But how is Dual Channel working?? I have one ram in slot 2(blu) and one ram in slot 3(black)! How could this be?!

[supershanks]

But how is Dual Channel working

Quite simple it won't be
Open CPU-z & select the memory tab. You will see in the top right the channels# it will be single rather than Dual

Alll motherboards will do this, single channel works but not with the same bandwidth as dual.

[supershanks]

@olliewbnn

PWM temps up to 93C

How are you finding your case temps??

Whilst running prime :-
8x465 15Hr Prime Stable

I ran the last couple of hours this am with the PWM fan turned off. Guru Shows Max Pwm of 93C. Case is closed. Below the Guru Box is the Tbalancer software showing the temps from the digital sensors attached to a memory module & a 2nd on the side of the Pwm heatsink. I don't appear to be experiencing any extra heat than when running the Asus p5k or Gigabyte X38 DQ6.

What's your take, do you find you have excess heat, any hotter than your previious mobo??

I'm wondering if it's just a thing that we're not used to seeing on chip pwm/mossfet temps and that overall there's no extra heat over other mobos.