Abit IX38 Quad GT - Living Review II

[olliewbnn]

Well I'm on the new bios , but the problem with frozen keyboard in bios continues. Could well be the reason but is still ongoing.

What about those of us still without.

Abit Eu said the freezing will be adressed in the 12 or 13 final. To bad i dont have it, so the problem is consistent. They gave me 12B02 to test and check if the board would perform better. For me it did slightly, i now can run DDR800@3-3-3-10.

But sill running 9*490@DDR980 4-4-4-15 with the OLD E6600.

This board is FSB1600 ready. Hopefully the new Penryn's work on this thing.

Did any of you try to adjust the CPU GTL Ref or whatever it does ?

[supershanks]

Note: usual disclaimer - Use of multimeter incorrectly can have severe health risks to you and/or your equipment. If unsure on what you’re doing - DON’T

Vcore, Vdimm & VTT

Results:-
1) VCORE
Bios Setting:-
CPU Core Voltage.......... 1.400V
CPU Core Voltage Offset .0.150v
Target CPU Core Voltage.1.550v
Multimeter
Idle.............................1.553v
Load............................1.506v
Droop...........................0.047v

2) VDIMM
Bios ............................2.2v
Multimeter
Idle.............................2.20v
Load............................2.24v

3) VTT
Bios ............................1.20v

Multimeter
Idle..............................1.214v
Load.............................1.227v

So the values look pretty much as expected , leaving the issue why does it take so much voltage to get clocks which on other boards take far less.

Is it a Q6600 issue, i can get 3.6k @1.40v bios on p5k & Gigabyte X38 dq6

[supershanks]

Did any of you try to adjust the CPU GTL Ref or whatever it does ?

I've been wondering if this would mean that vcore would be reduced, though any increase of VTT which works in conjunction with GTL Ref would lead to an increase in PWM temps

But there seems to be something fundamentaly wrong with vcore here.
Your E6600 Needs a higher Vcore to get 3.6k than a Q6600.

On my p5k 9x400 Results where:-
E6600 - 1.525v (bios) 12Hr Prime Stable
Q6600 - 1.375v (Bios) 13Hr Prime Stable

The vcores on the p5k show the anticipated vcore results.

Now we have a situation where your E6600 is at 3.6 with 1.4v Your Results
I'm at 3.4 but with 1.55v

[supershanks]

Thought i'd rebuild my raid array, which I had to delete on the original install. So connected the 4x80gb drives and saw:-


Nowe if you look at 1 & 6 they have the same reference. Now that's odd as i have only 1 seagate 500gb drive,

Sata Port connections at the time were:-
Port

1. Hitachi Sata 2 80gb
2. Hitachi Sata 2 80Gb
3. Hitachi Sata 2 80Gb
4. Hitachi Sata 2 80Gb
5. Seagate Sata 2 500GB
6. Sata CD/DVD

Jmicron E-Sata - Seagaste Sata 2 320GB

I clered cmos to try & force a DMI Update which resulted in this:-


As you can see again, my seagate 500 appears twice.

As all the hard drives are needed to reconstruct 4x hitachi to raid, (seagate 500 has an os on it & seagate 320 holds Acronis Partition images.) I unplugged the Sata DVD.

I then selected the 1st seagate hd to boot from, which failed, as it was accessing one of the 80gb hitachi, changed boot drive to the 2nd seagate 500 & got into xp.

Re initialised the hitachi drives
Ran the matrix raid manager which thankfully saw the 4x80gb drives & created raid.

Have now plugged in again, the sata dvd, everything seems normal.
So I'm not sure if the detection issue is caused by:-
Using all Sata Ports
or
Using Sata DVD

[supershanks]

Not sure if this was present in the early bios, but using the beta 12 bios I get this:-
When selecting CAS a broken screen appears. You can tab to the other items, with the result shown on the screen

[Clunk]

That is terrible.

I don't know why you are still bothering with it

Unless it is going to end in a pyrotechnics extravaganza with an accompanying Youtube video?

[supershanks]

It's just an abit

[supershanks]

I know from using my p5k that playing with CPU PLL Voltage & CPU Voltage Reference gave a bit more stability and occasionally enabled vcore to be lowered.

The Abit equivalents are CPU VTT voltage and GTLRef 0+2 & GTLRef 1+4
(if you really want to get serious check out freecableguy's great article

I started with a vcore of 1.4v bios, this being the same as i
Gigabyte X38 DQ6 9x400@2.66 VC=1.40v(Bios) This lets us see any difference in Mhz.

OC GURU:
 
CPU OPERATING SPEED................ - USER DEFINE
EXTERNAL CLOCK..................... -    356 MHz 
MULTIPLIER FACTOR.................. - x 9 
# ESTIMATED NEW CPU CLOCK.......... -  3204 MHz 
DRAM SPEED (CPU:DRAM) 1:1.50....... - DDR2- 1068 
PCI EXPRESS CLOCK.................. - 105MHz 
 
VOLTAGE CONTROL:
 
CPU CORE VOLTAGE................... - 1.40V 
CPU Core Voltage Offset............ - 0V
Target CPU Core Voltage............ - 1.40V
DDR2 VOLTAGE....................... - 2.175V 
CPU VTT VOLTAGE.................... - 1.50V In retrospect a bit High :D
MCH 1.25V VOLTAGE.................. - 1.35V 
ICH 1.05V VOLTAGE.................. - 1.12V 
ICHIO 1.5V VOLTAGE................. - 1.50V 
DDR2 REFERENCE VOLTAGE............. - Default 
CPU GTLREF 0+2..................... - 63%
CPU GTLREF 1+4..................... - 63%
 
ADVANCED CHIPSET FEATURES:
 
DRAM TIMING SELECTABLE............. - BY SPD -Not really interested yet:D 
CAS LATENCY TIME (TCL)............. - Auto
RAS# TO CAS# DELAY (TRCD).......... -   Auto
RAS# PRECHARGE (TRP)............... -  Auto
PRECHARGE DELAY (TRAS)............. -  Auto
REFRESH CYCLE TIME (TRFC).......... -  Auto
WRITE RECOVERY TIME (TWR).......... -  Auto
WRITE TO READ DELAY (TWTR)......... - Auto
ACT TO ACT TIME (TRRD)............. -  Auto
READ TO PRECHARGE (TRTP)........... -  Auto
COMMAND RATE....................... - Auto
PCIE Root Port Function............ - V1.0A 
PEG FORCE X1....................... - DISABLED 
INIT DISPLAY FIRST................. - PCIEX 
 
ADVANCED BIOS FEATURES / CPU FEATURES:
 
 C1E FUNCTION....................... - DISABLED 
 EXECUTE DISABLE BIT................ - DISABLED
 VIRTUALISATION TECHNOLOGY.......... - DISABLED 
 EIST FUNCTION...................... - DISABLED

1) Prime started 11 Min in - No active cooling on pwm
Phase 1 98C
Phase 2 103C
Phase 3 102C
Phase 4 101C
Phase 5 98C
71A


2) 21 Minutes In - Guru Alarms Trigger
Phase 1 106C
Phase 2 113C
Phase 3 112C
Phase 4 110C
Phase 5 106C
80A


Add the fan:-


3) 25 Minutes In
Just to show you active cooling does the job, if only i had the clips might work in the case

Phase 1 64C
Phase 2 68C
Phase 3 68C
Phase 4 68C
Phase 5 65C
87A


Sadly whilst browsing xp froze primed for 1Hr 47M

CPU Temps (taken from coretemp)
Looking at temps May manage 3.4k before it tops out @65C average, which is my usual air cooling ceiling. No chance of 3.6k on air here i think.



Vcore Measurements:-
Idle

Load


Vdroop= 0.040v
Nice to see Guru Vcore is pretty accurate.

[supershanks]

Scotland were robbed 1-2 but i've got some good news
9x400 with 1.4125VC

Moving on from 9x356 tried

ABIT IX38 QuadGT

OC GURU:
 
CPU OPERATING SPEED................ - USER DEFINE
EXTERNAL CLOCK..................... -  400 MHz 
MULTIPLIER FACTOR.................. - x 9 
# ESTIMATED NEW CPU CLOCK.......... - 3600 MHz 
DRAM SPEED (CPU:DRAM) 1:1.25....... - DDR2- 1000 
PCI EXPRESS CLOCK.................. - 105 MHz 
 
VOLTAGE CONTROL:
 
CPU CORE VOLTAGE................... - 1.4125 V 1.40 bsod in XP 
CPU Core Voltage Offset............ - 0V
Target CPU Core Voltage............ - 1.4125 V
DDR2 VOLTAGE....................... - 2.175 V 
CPU VTT VOLTAGE.................... - 1.42 V 
MCH 1.25V VOLTAGE.................. - 1.35 V 
ICH 1.05V VOLTAGE.................. - 1.12 V 
ICHIO 1.5V VOLTAGE................. - 1.50 V 
DDR2 REFERENCE VOLTAGE............. - Default 
CPU GTLREF 0+2..................... - 69%
CPU GTLREF 1+4..................... - 69%
 
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).......... -  30
WRITE RECOVERY TIME (TWR).......... -  3
WRITE TO READ DELAY (TWTR)......... -  3
ACT TO ACT TIME (TRRD)............. -  3
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:
 
 C1E FUNCTION....................... - DISABLED 
 EXECUTE DISABLE BIT................ - DISABLED
 VIRTUALISATION TECHNOLOGY.......... - DISABLED 
 EIST FUNCTION...................... - DISABLED

Not a clue re stability but at least it's within spitting distance of the Gigabyte X38 DQ6 vcore.

This is probably the only good news but is a pretty big leap in the right direction.

[supershanks]

To compare PWM temps Load/Idle 62C / 36C With 80mm fan.


Not bad temps on air, Cpu Temps from coretemp log over the 12hrs. Decent results for the Thermalright Ultima90.

Might be a bit warm for some but I usually run to 65C, will switch back to water for much higher.

Have active cooling on both the NB & PWM, Had increased MCH from earlier post , but think it's overkill. All i have to do now is to think of a way to fasten fans on when in case.


VDroop At 0.03v is looking pretty much on a par with Gigabyte X38 DQ6. Not sure if this is an improvement over the IP35-Pro ??
Load


Idle


Am quiiet pleased with this, temps are looking good etc.,
Only main isssue now are the HD/sata DVD issue. I posted it here yesterday. Hard Drive Detection While testing yesterday i had 2x freezeups in xp. Have run since with only 2 hard drives connnected no raid. Will add them back & see if i lose stability.

If anyone wants a detailed explanation of GTLREF & VTT see QuadCore Ocing although written for the DFI UT P35-T2R, both boards have identical VTT & GTLRef bios settings.

ABIT IX38 QuadGT

OC GURU:
 
CPU OPERATING SPEED................ - USER DEFINE
EXTERNAL CLOCK..................... -   400  MHz 
MULTIPLIER FACTOR.................. - x 9 
# ESTIMATED NEW CPU CLOCK.......... -  3600   MHz 
DRAM SPEED (CPU:DRAM) ................ -  1:1.25 DDR2- 1000 Mhz
PCI EXPRESS CLOCK.................. - 105MHz 
 
VOLTAGE CONTROL:
 
CPU CORE VOLTAGE................... - 1.4125V 
CPU Core Voltage Offset............ - 0.0100V
Target CPU Core Voltage............ - 1.4225V
DDR2 VOLTAGE....................... - 2.175V 
CPU VTT VOLTAGE.................... - 1.33V 
MCH 1.25V VOLTAGE.................. - 1.45V 
ICH 1.05V VOLTAGE.................. - 1.15V 
ICHIO 1.5V VOLTAGE................. - 1.50V 
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)............. - 4 
RAS# TO CAS# DELAY (TRCD).......... - 4  
RAS# PRECHARGE (TRP)............... -  4
PRECHARGE DELAY (TRAS)............. -  12
REFRESH CYCLE TIME (TRFC).......... -  30
WRITE RECOVERY TIME (TWR).......... -  3
WRITE TO READ DELAY (TWTR)......... - 3
ACT TO ACT TIME (TRRD)............. -  3
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:
 
 C1E FUNCTION....................... - DISABLED 
 EXECUTE DISABLE BIT................ - DISABLED 
 VIRTUALISATION TECHNOLOGY.......... - DISABLED 
 EIST FUNCTION...................... - DISABLED