# XFX 790i - FIRST LOOK



## Tatty_One (Apr 5, 2008)

*XFX 790i Ultra - FIRST LOOK*

I have just received my spanking new XFX 790i board although sadly I cannot set it up yet as I am still waiting for my DDR3 memory and a Q6600 with a 1.150v ViD from Malaysia.  So in any case, as a couple of TPU members have now got this fledgling chipset I though it might be a good idea to do a mini "Amateur" review.

So this will be Part 1 which is the spec and cosmetics, my intention being to run many benches once I get it setup probably next weekend.  Some of the exciting things about this boards BIOS is that I can disable as many of the cores on the Quad as I want (although it's not advisable to disable all 4 ).  This way I can do some benches on 1, 2, 3 and 4 cores on popular games and apps to perhaps finally add a little sceince to all those flambait threads matching Wolfdales against quads and the value of multithredded games blah blah.

You will be aware that the 790i chipset was only released last month and is heralded as "NVidia's saviour" in the S775 chipset wars, a war that has seen it lag behind Intels P35, x38 and more recently x48 chipsets.  Until a few weeks ago, if you wanted to run SLi with an Intel CPU you had only the now ageing 680i/650i chipset, more recently the 780i/750i has been released, some would say as a "stopgap" for the 790i.  General opinion of the 780i was that it was just a stutter forward from the 680i with the same age old issues that it had but it was the only real option if you wanted to run a 45nm quad.  The 750i was actually seen as the better option from the reviews I read, much cheaper, slightly better at overclocking (especially the MSI Platinum derivative) but no Tri SLi.

So here we finally have the 790i, one thing that is for sure with recent NVidia chipsets is that they are damn expensive!  too expensive in my opinion, this board cost me £222 in the UK or around $440 US and is the most expensive board I have ever bought   Initially the only 790i boards available to the retail market are variations from Anus, EVGA and of course XFX.  The EVGA and XFX boards are NVidia Reference designs where the Anus is their own design.  There are a number of reviews already out on the net for the chipset and XFX specifically, for a fledgling board they suggest a lot of promise where across the board they can easily compete against the x38 and x48 and some of the boards have shown overclocking to FSB's of upto 570mhz......we will see later!  When I do test them for overclockability I intend to use the Q6600 of course,by disabling two of it's cores I will turn it into an E6600 plus a friend has promised to lend me his E8400 Wolfdale for a day to give that a few runs.

Links to a couple of reviews are here:

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ3NiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=538


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## Tatty_One (Apr 5, 2008)

*Specs*

SATA Speed  
3.0 Gb/s 
Audio  
8-Channel High Definition Audio 
USB  
(10) USB 2.0 ports (6 Rear + 2x2 Onboard) 
Native Gigabit Ethernet Connections  
Dual 
SATA/PATA Drives  
6/2 
SLI Techonology  
3 x16 (3-Way SLI) 
Socket  
Intel Socket 775 
System Memory  
Dual Channel 240-pin DDR3 up to 2000MHz w/ EPP 2.0 
LAN  
Dual Onboard LAN Supports 10/100/1000 Mb/s 
IEEE 1394 (Firewire)  
(2) 1394a @ 400 Mb/s (1 Rear + 1 Onboard) 
Front Side Bus  
1600 MHz with supporting CPU 
Supported CPUs  
Intel Penryn, Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Pentium 
Chipset  
NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra MCP 
PCI-E  
(2) PCI Express 2.0, (1) PCI Express 1.0 
PCI Slot  
PCI-E 2.0 (2), PCI-E 1.0 (1), PCI-E x1 (1), PCI (2) 
RAID  
0,1,0+1,5 
Highlighted Features 
SLI-Ready Memory with EPP , NVIDIA LinkBoost Technology , NVIDIA MediaShield Storage Technology , TCP/IP Acceleration , Windows Vista Ready , NVIDIA FirstPacket Technology  


Features 
Designed for NVIDIA SLI technology
NVIDIA SLI technology is a revolutionary platform innovation that allows users to intelligently scale graphics performance by combining multiple NVIDIA graphics solutions in a single system with an nForce SLI MCP. Available on nForce 680i SLI and nForce 650i SLI MCPs

High Definition Audio (HDA) 
High definition audio brings consumer electronics quality sound to the PC delivering high quality sound from multiple channels. Using HDA, systems can deliver 192kHz/32-bit quality for eight channels, supporting new audio formats. 

Networking with NVIDIA nForce
NVIDIA networking delivers the highest network throughput at the lowest CPU utilization. The manageable and stable NVIDIA networking solution results in better networking management and a lower total cost of ownership. Only NVIDIA integrates this level of networking features to allow you to take your online experience to the next level. 

NVIDIA FirstPacket technology 
Be the 'King of Ping' with NVIDIA FirstPacket technology. Get the crystal-clear phone conversations and online gaming performance you expect. NVIDIA FirstPacket technology assures your game data, VoIP conversations, and large file transfers are delivered according to preferences set by you in an intuitive wizard. 

NVIDIA LinkBoost™ Technology
NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP automatically increases bandwidth when select NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards are detected

NVIDIA MediaShield™ Storage
Suite of features that safeguards your most important digital media assets; always reliable, scalable, and accessible. Includes RAID and SATA drive support. 

NVIDIA Native Gigabit Ethernet
The industry's fastest Gigabit Ethernet performance eliminates network bottlenecks and improves overall system efficiency and performance.

NVIDIA SLI Certified Components
Look for other components including select NVIDIA GeForce GPUs and system memory that automatically increase system bus speeds when paired with NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI motherboards.

PCI Express
Designed to run with PCI Express bus architecture. This bus doubles the bandwidth of AGP 8X, delivering 4GB/s of upstream data transfer and 4GB/s of downstream data transfer. 

USB 2.0
A standard plug-and-play interface that provides easy-to-use connectivity for USB devices. 

Windows Vista™ Capable
NVIDIA nForce®-based motherboards are perfect for Microsoft® Windows Vista™ when coupled with an NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU and 512MB of system memory.


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## Tatty_One (Apr 5, 2008)

*Packaging*

Firstly, please excuse the quality of the pics, my Olympus is in for repair so I have had to use my daughters cheapo camera, I will replace these once I get mine back from the shop, I have placed these as thumbnails so as not to take up so much space.


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## Tatty_One (Apr 5, 2008)

*Contents*

Heaps of stuff....more than I will even need!


*YOU CAN EXPAND THESE PICS ONCE YOU HAVE OPENED THEM UP*


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## Tatty_One (Apr 5, 2008)

*The Board!*

I like the colour scheme....very similar to EVGA's offering also.

Watch out for part 2 next week when I can take a closer look at the BIOS which incidentially is supposed to make the Gigabyte x38 DQ6's BIOS look like a 1999 Asrock BIOS!


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## Gam'ster (Apr 5, 2008)

Looking good so far tatty im eagerly awaiting pic of the board 

Edit: there they are right after my post


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## tzitzibp (Apr 5, 2008)

look like you are on your way of building a super high end rig....
board looks great, with so many goodies!!!

out of curiosity, what are temperature like on this board? (no OC)


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## Tatty_One (Apr 5, 2008)

tzitzibp said:


> look like you are on your way of building a super high end rig....
> board looks great, with so many goodies!!!
> 
> out of curiosity, what are temperature like on this board? (no OC)



Well I have not got mine up and running yet but according to reviews, even overclocked just slightly warm to the touch, there is also a custom fan that is in the packaging that you can add to any one of the sinks but in the reviews it was felt that it was not needed......but when I put her to the test I will specifically check for heat.


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## tzitzibp (Apr 5, 2008)

I really hope nvidia boards are beyond their overheating days and this board is as good as it looks.... and to be honest I prefer to hear from you, than most reviews...


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## nikos18382 (Apr 5, 2008)

για σου πατριδα
απο κατερινη ειμαι


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## nikos18382 (Apr 5, 2008)

εχω βρει ενα συγκριτικο σκληρων δισκων στο Tom's hardware και βλεπω κατι Barracuda 750 GB me 32 mb cache kai kati allous na ksepernane tous raptors se Average read and write times ektos apo to seaq time.telika an 8eli kapoios na stisi ena grigoro PC ti apo ta dy prepei na koitaksei??


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## Judas (Apr 5, 2008)

That looks exactly like the EVGA version, which i will be taking the plunge with LOL!


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## Judas (Apr 5, 2008)

nikos18382 said:


> εχω βρει ενα συγκριτικο σκληρων δισκων στο Tom's hardware και βλεπω κατι Barracuda 750 GB me 32 mb cache kai kati allous na ksepernane tous raptors se Average read and write times ektos apo to seaq time.telika an 8eli kapoios na stisi ena grigoro PC ti apo ta dy prepei na koitaksei??



I'm sorry but could you please try and write in English .......thanks


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## nikos18382 (Apr 5, 2008)

ok sorry wait...


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## nikos18382 (Apr 5, 2008)

i have found at tom's hardware page HDD tests that shows HD 750GB 32Mb cache having better scores at average read and write times than raptors except the seek times.
if someone wants to built a fast PC which of the 2 factors must consider???
thanxs


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## Tatty_One (Apr 5, 2008)

Judas said:


> That looks exactly like the EVGA version, which i will be taking the plunge with LOL!



Any reason the evga?  The XFX is cheaper and in the one review I read, at least as good if not better!


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## Judas (Apr 5, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Any reason the evga?  The XFX is cheaper and in the one review I read, at least as good if not better!




No real reason, ill see if i can find an XFX over here


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## trt740 (Apr 5, 2008)

great board but out of my price range


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## Tatty_One (Apr 5, 2008)

trt740 said:


> great board but out of my price range



Yeah, it would seem that going Sli these days is a much too expensive option and Crossfire is def cheaper, because I sold the GTS along with the Xeon, memory and Black pearl the money from that just about stetched to this, the new Q6600 and the DDR3 memory, in fact I got a really good deal on the memory but these are way too expensive, I got it really because now I possibly could get a Q9450 to 4 gig with a 570fsb!


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## btarunr (Apr 5, 2008)

Why don't you talk to W1z and work on a full-fledge review? 

Glad you spelled colour the way it's meant to spelled. 

When doing extreme-closeups, disable the cam's auto-focus and do it manually.


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## trt740 (Apr 5, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Yeah, it would seem that going Sli these days is a much too expensive option and Crossfire is def cheaper, because I sold the GTS along with the Xeon, memory and Black pearl the money from that just about stetched to this, the new Q6600 and the DDR3 memory, in fact I got a really good deal on the memory but these are way too expensive, I got it really because now I possibly could get a Q9450 to 4 gig with a 570fsb!



hows thw Q6600 overclocking, and man this MF is a great board and will do over 500 FSB but it is so complicated to overclock the best I can do for now and boot is 480 FSB. stable 473. I'm gonna buy the e8500 (if my E3110 sells it's a good chip best Wolfdale I've had) if I cannot have the top quad then the top dual will do. This MF will let my ram do almost DDR2 1300 at 2.2v mt P5k-e would only do about DDR2 1216 or so but it did 500+ fsb with very easily. I'm gonna crossfire two video cards aswell.


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## Tatty_One (Apr 5, 2008)

trt740 said:


> hows thw Q6600 overclocking, and man this MF is a great board and will do over 500 FSB but it is so complicated to overclock the best I can do for now and boot is 480 FSB. stable 473. I'm gonna buy the e8500 (if my E3110 sells it's a good chip best Wolfdale I've had) if I cannot have the top quad then the top dual will do. This MF will let my ram do almost DDR2 1300 at 2.2v mt P5k-e would only do about DDR2 1216 or so but it did 500+ fsb with very easily. I'm gonna crossfire two video cards aswell.



Q6600 has not arrived yet, it's coming from Malaysia and is the last piece of the jigsaw so to speak.  I am looking forward to this ram running at some decent +1600mhz speeds


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## trt740 (Apr 5, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Q6600 has not arrived yet, it's coming from Malaysia and is the last piece of the jigsaw so to speak.  I am looking forward to this ram running at some decent +1600mhz speeds



Great did the ram cost some serious money ddr 3 is expensive here. Atleast the good stuff is.


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## Tatty_One (Apr 5, 2008)

trt740 said:


> Great did the ram cost some serious money ddr 3 is expensive here. Atleast the good stuff is.



Well this is midranged stuff, pretty fast....Judas has some, it will do 1800mhz but on very loose timings, 1600mhz on pretty tight timings (for DDR3), they cost me £105 but to relate to DDR2 AxeRam, the DDR3 was only £15 more so not too bad.  The really cheap stuff for 1333mhz and lower speeds quite often comes CL9.....not good!


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## Tatty_One (Apr 5, 2008)

nikos18382 said:


> i have found at tom's hardware page HDD tests that shows HD 750GB 32Mb cache having better scores at average read and write times than raptors except the seek times.
> if someone wants to built a fast PC which of the 2 factors must consider???
> thanxs



Well of course, for a strong all round PC then every component is important if you want the ultimate in speed, of course some things are more important than others, like CPU, Graphics card etc, I personally would rather have a faster CPU than HDD but we all make our choices!


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## Exavier (Apr 6, 2008)

woah, tatty- if I had any real cash I'd be pursuing this route myself 
What's the deal with the "Q6600 with a 1.150v ViD from Malaysia"? That's all that confused me 
Can't wait to hear more.


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## DaMulta (Apr 6, 2008)

I have the ASUS one specs in the side.


I have not found a program that will read - temps in windows yet.

In bios I was down to -29c, which is cool that it will even read it.


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## WarEagleAU (Apr 6, 2008)

I like the COLOR!!!! of that board too. Cant wait to see what you can achieve with the OC there Tatty.


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## tkpenalty (Apr 6, 2008)

Exavier said:


> woah, tatty- if I had any real cash I'd be pursuing this route myself
> What's the deal with the "Q6600 with a 1.150v ViD from Malaysia"? That's all that confused me
> Can't wait to hear more.



A higher quality fab Q6600 that runs at a default vcore of 1.150v.


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## DaMulta (Apr 6, 2008)

Total stock on everything


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## DaMulta (Apr 6, 2008)

Tatty_One can you use Ntune for your motherboard?




It won't let me change any settings on my board.


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## tzitzibp (Apr 6, 2008)

DaMulta.... I know for sure that ntune is very picky.... to some boards it gives full access and to some boards it gives access only to some features.... I gave up using it.


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## Tatty_One (Apr 6, 2008)

Exavier said:


> woah, tatty- if I had any real cash I'd be pursuing this route myself
> What's the deal with the "Q6600 with a 1.150v ViD from Malaysia"? That's all that confused me
> Can't wait to hear more.



Yeah, as TK said, I have a contact in the US who does a little business with someone in Malaysia who is linked to the Company, usually I can get CPU's (desktop not server)a bit cheaper than competative retail prices and thats including shipping, I was looking at the Q9450 as this board supposidly will clock a 45nm quad beyond 550mhz FSB, he put me on to this Q6600 with an extremely low Vid so I grabbed it, I had to pay a little more for it than I normally would (but still less than UK retail) because in his words "it's so special, almost 1 in 5000"....we will see, low Vid does not always guarentee huge overclocks but normally it gives you much more headroom, a Q6600 with a Vid of 1.3V (about average for a Q6600) will default to 1.3V in BIOS for stock speed of 2.4gig, this one I am getting will default at 1.150V at 2.4gig.....hence more headroom.


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## Tatty_One (Apr 6, 2008)

DaMulta said:


> Tatty_One can you use Ntune for your motherboard?
> It won't let me change any settings on my board.



Dont know yet m8 as it's not installed but I will let you know once it is, still waiting for the quad to arrive from Malaysia, I might have more luck with it than you as my board is NVidia reference......hopefully!


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## Tatty_One (Apr 6, 2008)

Reading up a litle more on this board it has tons of overclocking friendly options, such as, when you set an FSB speed in BIOS you can let the BIOS select automatically the required voltage for that speed, if it gets it wrong it reboots and increases it automatically!  of course you can turn that feature off but it does seem to work!


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## trt740 (Apr 6, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Yeah, as TK said, I have a contact in the US who does a little business with someone in Malaysia who is linked to the Company, usually I can get CPU's (desktop not server)a bit cheaper than competative retail prices and thats including shipping, I was looking at the Q9450 as this board supposidly will clock a 45nm quad beyond 550mhz FSB, he put me on to this Q6600 with an extremely low Vid so I grabbed it, I had to pay a little more for it than I normally would (but still less than UK retail) because in his words "it's so special, almost 1 in 5000"....we will see, low Vid does not always guarentee huge overclocks but normally it gives you much more headroom, a Q6600 with a Vid of 1.3V (about average for a Q6600) will default to 1.3V in BIOS for stock speed of 2.4gig, this one I am getting will default at 1.150V at 2.4gig.....hence more headroom.



Old Army buddy I bet. Hey tatty I love the 790 boards. I cannot believe no one has made one a little cheaper. I was looking at the MSI 780 board which physically should be great but it have all kinds of bios issue. I wanted the same 790 you bought but even after a freaking 30.00 rebate it's 408.00 shipped and it's the cheapest one made.  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141009  XFX makes great stuff. Has 2 year warranty I thought it had this warranty but thats only video cards still two years is good.



Here’s the deal: We will repair and service your 6, 7, 8 and 9 Series Graphics Card for as long 
as you live. Even for those of you who know how to push our cards to the limits, if anything goes wrong, we’ll service it free of charge. All you have to do is register the card with us online. If you ever decide to sell or give the card away to someone, we’ll still honor the protection plan for the second owner as well. They just need to register the card with us. You get the protection AND the added value of being able to pass along a full warranty. 

Warranty Details


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## Tatty_One (Apr 6, 2008)

trt740 said:


> Old Army buddy I bet. Hey tatty I love the 790 boards. I cannot believe no one has made one a little cheaper. I was looking at the MSI 780 board which physically should be great but it have all kinds of bios issue. I wanted the same 790 you bought but even after a freaking 30.00 rebate it's 408.00 shipped and it's the cheapest one made.  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141009  XFX makes great stuff. Has 2 year warranty I thought it had this warranty but thats only video cards still two years is good.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Very nice, I might just register this board on-line now!  yes they are far too expensice IMO, if you were looking at the MSI, I would still try the MSI 750i platinum, it overclocks better, you just wont get tri sli with it.


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## warhammer (Apr 8, 2008)

Welcome to the XFX club I have had mine about 2 weeks now there are a lot of good thing's about the MOBO and then theres the bad regarding Q6600.( I have a ticket with XFX support day6 now still waiting)
I have updated the bios and even using a beta bios that was supplied to reviewers.

I can not OC my Q6600 QDR1600 refuses to boot its a hit and miss some people can hit 3.6 and theres a lot who strugle past 3.2Ghz.

If dinamic bios does not work in ntune try 6.10 download --> nForce nTune System Tools ESA version 6.10 http://downloads.guru3d.com/nForce-nTune-System-Tools-ESA-version-6.10-download-1869.html 

Good source of info regarding this issue is EVGA forums.
read the following..

790i will not OC past 1600 QDR with Q6600 http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=300437

Q6600 FSB above 1630 issue (JacobF)  http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=316620


> We are still working on correcting this, I do not believe that it is a hardware issue.
> 
> Thanks,


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## Tatty_One (Apr 8, 2008)

warhammer said:


> Welcome to the XFX club I have had mine about 2 weeks now there are a lot of good thing's about the MOBO and then theres the bad regarding Q6600.( I have a ticket with XFX support day6 now still waiting)
> I have updated the bios and even using a beta bios that was supplied to reviewers.
> 
> I can not OC my Q6600 QDR1600 refuses to boot its a hit and miss some people can hit 3.6 and theres a lot who strugle past 3.2Ghz.
> ...



Thanks for that, very strange though, I have an ex army friend who like you got the board a couple of weeks ago, I was talking to him on the phone last night, I am not sure what BIOS he is using but he has a Q6600 running at 3.8Gig????  He did mention he couldnt overclock it very well on a 9 multi but dropped it to 8x and got the 475mhz FSB.  Very strange, also in the reviews I posted in an early post with retail boards they got Q6600's beyond 400mhz FSB.

I am wondering now if there are already a couple of different board revisions that may account for this, I'll check out the links you provided thanks.


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## Judas (Apr 8, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Well this is midranged stuff, pretty fast....Judas has some, it will do 1800mhz but on very loose timings, 1600mhz on pretty tight timings (for DDR3), they cost me £105 but to relate to DDR2 AxeRam, the DDR3 was only £15 more so not too bad.  The really cheap stuff for 1333mhz and lower speeds quite often comes CL9.....not good!



Lol ....tatty seem our little talk on the OCZ ddr3 memory has been delete


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## warhammer (Apr 8, 2008)

The thing is I have tried 9,8,7 and 6 multi, and I know from my 680i mobo my CPU can sit on 3.6 and 3.8 24/7. theres is a VDROPof about .5v I suspect it may goes as high as 1v.

I will send off an email to CORSAIR see what they say I am running 2x2Gig sticks.
Also if you plan to run raid repage 15 in the XFX book its wrong sata ports are in this order sata1 2 3 4 5 and 6.

As far as ram goes use the black slots for OC, I have found them to be more stable than the blue. need to know anything else just ask.

Not being able to OC the Q6600 is very frustrating, theres a shortage of QX9650 at the moment


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## Tatty_One (Apr 8, 2008)

Judas said:


> Lol ....tatty seem our little talk on the OCZ ddr3 memory has been delete



deleted? that talk was in my for sale thread wasent it?

@ Warhammer......VDroop @ 1V!!! that would mean that the chip was only getting 0.150V at stock with the one I have coming when at load??


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## Judas (Apr 8, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> deleted? that talk was in my for sale thread wasent it?
> 
> @ Warhammer......VDroop @ 1V!!! that would mean that the chip was only getting 0.150V at stock with the one I have coming when at load??



Ahh so it was. Must getting blooming old lol!


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## tzitzibp (Apr 8, 2008)

hi, Tatty....
how are things coming along?


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## Tatty_One (Apr 8, 2008)

tzitzibp said:


> hi, Tatty....
> how are things coming along?



Still no quad from malaysia yet so not up and running, shipping is 7-10 days so hopefully before the end of the week.


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## tzitzibp (Apr 8, 2008)

I can imagine how anxious you must be feeling....
I just hope you get the best chip available... and it will be worth waiting for


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## warhammer (Apr 8, 2008)

VDROOP Mod EVGA and XFX
http://www.411overkill.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=1146


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## Judas (Apr 13, 2008)

Any new updates Tatty?  my XFX is on order 2-3 weeks my OcZ ddr3 1600 mhz  has been RMA'd and on its way back


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## Jikiri (Apr 13, 2008)

Im also going with a 790 board I'm curious about the low Vcpu could anyone get one if they knew where to look? or is this a total inside thing? Lookin for a e8500 
Im a noob so pour knowledge on me please


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## warhammer (Apr 14, 2008)

I have a installed QX9650 now at 3Ghz 1.125v OC to 3.5 @1.24v ram at stock voltage of 1.5
all setting left on auto. 

EVGA forums are saying new bios come out this week.


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## Tatty_One (Apr 14, 2008)

Mines in!  Finally got the quad but volts are low....temps are high, maybe needs re-seating.  Will update you in a bit.


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## tzitzibp (Apr 14, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Mines in!  Finally got the quad but volts are low....temps are high, maybe needs re-seating.  Will update you in a bit.



how high do you mean?


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## DOM (Apr 14, 2008)

I think the Q's are just hot, IM at stock at 1.064v F@H SMP hottest core in speedfan 4.34 beta 51 is 52c and everest 57c its the same in core temp, everest and core temp


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## Tatty_One (Apr 15, 2008)

tzitzibp said:


> how high do you mean?



Idles at 36C on all 4 cores at stock....way to high, especially as stock votages are only 1.15V!!  I have had two Q's before and they dont get near these temps with a TRUE and with dual fan setup, I will re seat and re apply paste tonite, if it still stays that high the chips going back!


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## Tatty_One (Apr 15, 2008)

DaMulta said:


> Tatty_One can you use Ntune for your motherboard?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Forgot to mention D.....yes I can use NTune, it's all there and actually very nice!  I got a Bete edition on the driver CD with the board.


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## trt740 (Apr 15, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Forgot to mention D.....yes I can use NTune, it's all there and actually very nice!  I got a Bete edition on the driver CD with the board.



Well if a true cannot cool it then I don't know what can.


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## tzitzibp (Apr 15, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Idles at 36C on all 4 cores at stock....way to high, especially as stock votages are only 1.15V!!  I have had two Q's before and they dont get near these temps with a TRUE and with dual fan setup, I will re seat and re apply paste tonite, if it still stays that high the chips going back!



true... these temps are on the warm side with tendency to become hot on full load...Let us know after reseating...good luck, man


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## tzitzibp (Apr 15, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Forgot to mention D.....yes I can use NTune, it's all there and actually very nice!  I got a Bete edition on the driver CD with the board.



you must be in luck...it just doesn´t work for everyone...


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## Tatty_One (Apr 15, 2008)

tzitzibp said:


> you must be in luck...it just doesn´t work for everyone...



It may be that the XFX is NVidia reference and the Anus isnt.  Bare in mind, those idle temps are at 2.4gig stock, if I raise her to just 3gig the BIOS will auto raise the voltage needed and it works! trouble is the idle temps then shoot up to 42C!!!!


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## DaMulta (Apr 15, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Forgot to mention D.....yes I can use NTune, it's all there and actually very nice!  I got a Bete edition on the driver CD with the board.



Hmmmm I wonder where I can download this beta.


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## Tatty_One (Apr 15, 2008)

DaMulta said:


> Hmmmm I wonder where I can download this beta.



Seeing as I know you, have just found the latest March 2008 version supporting the 790i 


http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_system_tools_6.01.html


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 16, 2008)

Does it work for you D?


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 16, 2008)

Right, the quad is going back to malaysia   I upped it to 3gig on just 1.2V which sounds nice but the fookin idle temps were 46C!!!  Now I have re-sat that damn CPU and cooler 4 times and I have had enough.

My contact is going to send me a Q9450 at no extra cost for my trouble so I will give that a go but by the time this one is returned and that one gets here it's going to be almost 3 weeks so I have bought myself a cheap E8200 that I am going to overclock the hell out of until the Q9450 arrives and then fleabay the E8200.............I should have just gone for the Yorkfield in the first place :shadedshu  even though the Q9450 only has an 8 multi, this board supposidly can hit FSB's of 520mhz with a Yorkfield so 4.16gig will do me!

The 8200 will be a nice litle overclocking project for me, early results from the 790i Ultra show possibilities of near 600mhz FSB's with duellies.......now that sounds nice!


----------



## tzitzibp (Apr 16, 2008)

Shame....

btw what north and southbridge temps did you get while cpu temp was 46C ?


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 16, 2008)

tzitzibp said:


> Shame....
> 
> btw what north and southbridge temps did you get while cpu temp was 46C ?



NB 32C.....SB 29C I think it was but that was with pretty high ambients, not even warm to the touch though under all that heatpipe cooling


----------



## tzitzibp (Apr 16, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> NB 32C.....SB 29C I think it was but that was with pretty high ambients, not even warm to the touch though under all that heatpipe cooling



these are really good...... shame about the cpu...


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 16, 2008)

tzitzibp said:


> these are really good...... shame about the cpu...



yeah but the real test will be when I take that FSB to 550+mhz with the E8200, with all the voltages she will need it will be interesting to see how the cooling handles it, especially on the NB/SB.


----------



## tzitzibp (Apr 16, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> yeah but the real test will be when I take that FSB to 550+mhz with the E8200, with all the voltages she will need it will be interesting to see how the cooling handles it, especially on the NB/SB.



agree. at least you have a good starting point.
better than I have seen in a nvidia mobo for a while...


----------



## warhammer (Apr 17, 2008)

Some helpful info for OC the 790i from 
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2924728&postcount=4



> first of all you have to run RAM in black slots
> 
> in terms of volts please leave all on Auto except for Vcore and vdimm. I assume you are trying to do 450*9 = 4050
> 
> ...


 


Also any one intrested in the better bios get it here (use at own risk)  http://www.wright-gaming.com/790P03R2.rar
It is slowly disappearing .....


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## trt740 (Apr 17, 2008)

*this is a kick in the sack*

 http://www.techpowerup.com/58065/NVIDIA_Admits_to_Data_Corruption_Issues_with_790i_Chipset.html


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## Jikiri (Apr 17, 2008)

Hmmm  guess i'll sit on my CC a little while longer maybe with any luck the e8600 will show its face by the time they get this sorted out


----------



## DrPepper (Apr 17, 2008)

nice looking rig you got there tatty  good luck with oc'ing it, its just a shame about the quad


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## Tatty_One (Apr 17, 2008)

trt740 said:


> http://www.techpowerup.com/58065/NVIDIA_Admits_to_Data_Corruption_Issues_with_790i_Chipset.html



Fortunatly, no data corruption for me, couldnt cope with that on top of the problems I have had with this Q6600   the E8200 interim solution has arrived, just gotta be patient for the Yorkfield to finally get here, sent the Q6600 back today.

Thing is, the 790i is the only solution on the market for low multipliers IMO, results so far show it can hit FSB's near to 600mhz without mods on a duellie, and 560fsb's with Yorkfileds, intel chipsets just cannot do that.


----------



## trt740 (Apr 18, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Fortunatly, no data corruption for me, couldnt cope with that on top of the problems I have had with this Q6600   the E8200 interim solution has arrived, just gotta be patient for the Yorkfield to finally get here, sent the Q6600 back today.
> 
> Thing is, the 790i is the only solution on the market for low multipliers IMO, results so far show it can hit FSB's near to 600mhz without mods on a duellie, and 560fsb's with Yorkfileds, intel chipsets just cannot do that.



My M/F will hit 570 or so but my ram cannot keep up. I have seen MF/RF hit 600fsb. They can do that look on the extreme forum.


----------



## tzitzibp (Apr 18, 2008)

any results with that E8200 ?


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 18, 2008)

trt740 said:


> My M/F will hit 570 or so but my ram cannot keep up. I have seen MF/RF hit 600fsb. They can do that look on the extreme forum.



I was not including "extreme" examples just normal everday use, in Extreme systems they have had the XFX 790i Ultra to 690mhz!  I know what you mean on the ram, thats why it's not sensible IMO to have a 1600FSB capable board with only DDR2 support, hence the 790i is DDR3 which in my case, was not expensive (I pad £15 more than DDR2 Axeram would have cost me)and the ram will do over 1800mhz.


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 18, 2008)

tzitzibp said:


> any results with that E8200 ?



It's going in tonight, will post a couple here before the nights out.


----------



## warhammer (Apr 18, 2008)

Well I am having a bitch of a time at the moment I run a game for about 15 to 20 min and it locks up.
I finaly started to make some progress with the OC. next step tweek the mem and crack the 20.000+ marks, left for work came back home turn on the PC and some one reset my bios..


----------



## warhammer (Apr 18, 2008)

Forgot to press the upload button


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## trt740 (Apr 18, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> I was not including "extreme" examples just normal everday use, in Extreme systems they have had the XFX 790i Ultra to 690mhz!  I know what you mean on the ram, thats why it's not sensible IMO to have a 1600FSB capable board with only DDR2 support, hence the 790i is DDR3 which in my case, was not expensive (I pad £15 more than DDR2 Axeram would have cost me)and the ram will do over 1800mhz.



cool great deal . I wanted a 790 board for sure but it was about 100.00 more than a Maximus formula so I bought it and am very happy so far but I will say if a XFX 790 board dropped to 250.00 . My MF/RF would be on ebay. Unless of course a killer ATI video card would appear (which for what I hear is going to). However, the 790 board are between 320.00 and 400.00 here right now. 

cheapest one I could find Bastards. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141009 .Highest price one( they have lost their freaking mind) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131274


----------



## Judas (Apr 18, 2008)

Well i should be picking my new xfx up to day,  what's the newest bios for the board ?


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 18, 2008)

trt740 said:


> cool great deal . I wanted a 790 board for sure but it was about 100.00 more than a Maximus formula so I bought it and am very happy so far but I will say if a XFX 790 board dropped to 250.00 . My MF/RF would be on ebay. Unless of course a killer ATI video card would appear (which for what I hear is going to). However, the 790 board are between 320.00 and 400.00 here right now.
> 
> cheapest one I could find Bastards. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141009 .Highest price one( they have lost their freaking mind) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131274



Yeah I know, prices for these muvvaas are far to high, if it wasnt for sli I would have stick with the Gig x38 DQ6 TBH.....I loved that board!


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 18, 2008)

Judas said:


> Well i should be picking my new xfx up to day,  what's the newest bios for the board ?



P3....official, new one due in next week I am told.


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 18, 2008)

*First Boot Of The E8200 Baby Wolfdale*

Just threw her in, first boot no messing, guessed settings  hopefully, more to come!


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 18, 2008)

*LoL 2ND BOOT....THIS IS TURNING OUT TO BE FUN!*

2nd boot, no tweaks not even playing with memory but this time it's unlinked, idle temps at 29c and 31c on the cores, thats enuff for tonight....it's late, more to come tomorrow.  Neither the mobo or chip seem to be breaking into a sweat yet!


----------



## DOM (Apr 18, 2008)

Nice oc now wheres the bench scores


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 18, 2008)

DOM_ATI_X800XL_PCI-E said:


> Nice oc now wheres the bench scores



patience, wanna get her to at least 4.5gig stable first, but I will do the suite tomorrow if all goes well.


----------



## twicksisted (Apr 18, 2008)

wow just saw this thread now... looking farking nice 
hmmmm.... i wonder if i need to try a new board and chip or should i play with this setup more hehe


----------



## trt740 (Apr 19, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> 2nd boot, no tweaks not even playing with memory but this time it's unlinked, idle temps at 29c and 31c on the cores, thats enuff for tonight....it's late, more to come tomorrow.  Neither the mobo or chip seem to be breaking into a sweat yet!



very nice


----------



## tzitzibp (Apr 19, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> 2nd boot, no tweaks not even playing with memory but this time it's unlinked, idle temps at 29c and 31c on the cores, thats enuff for tonight....it's late, more to come tomorrow.  Neither the mobo or chip seem to be breaking into a sweat yet!



nice and cool... keep it up!

looks like you are getting you moneys' worth...


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 19, 2008)

Booted to 4.5gig into windows, not really stable enough to consider an "honest" clock, I did that on 1.5V but I booted into windows on just one core at 588mhz FSB.......4.7gig in plain speak on 1.525V, if I can get that one core stable I am going to try a SuperPI run with memory at 1800mhz and see what she can do.

I dont want to do much too soon as I do actually beleive in letting a chip and paste bed in a bit so I will give her a day or two then see what max speed I can do a 3D Mark 2006 run in to get an idea of scores for these SLi, ATM I am at 4gig 24/7 on 1.3V


----------



## tzitzibp (Apr 19, 2008)

what paste did you use.... some give better results as they get the heat... so, I agree is best to let it settle for a couple of days, or more.


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 20, 2008)

tzitzibp said:


> what paste did you use.... some give better results as they get the heat... so, I agree is best to let it settle for a couple of days, or more.



Just AS5.


----------



## warhammer (Apr 20, 2008)

EVGA have released a new BIOS P04 lets hope XFX releases one soon.
I flashed my bios with the EVGA one system is very stable now cranked up to 3,825Ghz

EVGA bios  17155    
XFX bios    19139

The only diffrence is the video drivers same ram speeds


----------



## Judas (Apr 20, 2008)

Any good software for reading the temps on the XFX 790i  board?  Everest says mother board temp 80C, the heat pipes are only warm to touch


----------



## warhammer (Apr 20, 2008)

I have the same temp even with speed fan still comes up as 80c actual temp on heat pipe is 32c.


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## Tatty_One (Apr 20, 2008)

Judas said:


> Any good software for reading the temps on the XFX 70i  board?  Everest says mother board temp 80C, the heat pipes are only warm to touch



NTune...there is a new Mar 2008 version out that supports the 790i....I posted the link on previuous page for DaMulta.


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## Judas (Apr 20, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> NTune...there is a new Mar 2008 version out that supports the 790i....I posted the link on previuous page for DaMulta.



System temp 32 c  sounds a lot better


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## Tatty_One (Apr 20, 2008)

Judas said:


> System temp 32 c  sounds a lot better



It does dont it!   Hows she going?


----------



## warhammer (Apr 21, 2008)

XFX have released new P04 Bios


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 21, 2008)

warhammer said:


> XFX have released new P04 Bios



Thanks, I will give it a go tonight, hopefully I will be able to hit 4.5gig stable now with this baby wolfdale!  What improvements have you seen so far?


----------



## warhammer (Apr 21, 2008)

I loaded the EVGA bios stability has improved for me not happy about the poor 06 results it has been sitting on 3.6 for the last 12 hours with out freezing up. 
Will load the XFX bios and see if theres any difference.


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## jonmcc33 (Apr 21, 2008)

Do not get motherboards with nVIDIA chipsets! Here's a valid reason why! 

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/chipse...a_Corruption_During_Overclocking_Company.html


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## Judas (Apr 21, 2008)

jonmcc33 said:


> Do not get motherboards with nVIDIA chipsets! Here's a valid reason why!
> 
> http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/chipse...a_Corruption_During_Overclocking_Company.html



There are the words  "May receive data corruption "  this does not mean you will


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 22, 2008)

jonmcc33 said:


> Do not get motherboards with nVIDIA chipsets! Here's a valid reason why!
> 
> http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/chipse...a_Corruption_During_Overclocking_Company.html



Old hat, mine didnt have any corruption and today BIOS P04 has been released that sorted the problem......when I got my Gigabyte x38 DQ6, the early BIOSes kept re-setting and not saving the settings, continual crashes but I didnt stop buying Intel chipsets, sometimes these things happen with all manufacturers hardware.........here is a reason to get an NVidia chipset..........


----------



## jonmcc33 (Apr 22, 2008)

Judas said:


> There are the words  "May receive data corruption "  this does not mean you will



Why should you have any to begin with?


----------



## Judas (Apr 22, 2008)

jonmcc33 said:


> Why should you have any to begin with?



I have not had any lol   this is a great board


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## jonmcc33 (Apr 22, 2008)

Judas said:


> I have not had any lol   this is a great board



Play with fire and risk getting burned. I've tried one nVIDIA chipset and it gave me so many problems...never again will I get another.


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 22, 2008)

jonmcc33 said:


> Play with fire and risk getting burned. I've tried one nVIDIA chipset and it gave me so many problems...never again will I get another.



Of the last 4 boards I have owned in this order......................

Asus P5N-E Sli 650i
Asus P5K premium Wifi Black pearl Special Edition
Gigabyte x38 DQ6
XFX 790i Ultra

They were ALL fantastic boards, the only 2 however that didnt cause me ANY problems out of the box were the 650i and the 790i so we all have different experiences.....when you have one Intel chipset board problem,what are you going to do?......go Via!!  

I just read an entire thread at Anandtech relating to teething issues with your motherboard on it's release, clearly your experience of the board is different because you have kept it.....just like my expereince of the 790i Ultra chipset , as I said before, issues that other people are having is fairly immaterial IMO if they dont effect me.....just my thoughts, an issue aint an issue if I dont experience it!


----------



## Judas (Apr 22, 2008)

Have had plenty of Nvidia chipset boards and have not been burnt yet, even though some have ran rather hot.  

The  Gigabyte P35T DQ6 was my first Intel  board had a nice experience with this board also


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 22, 2008)

Am up to 4.45gig now bench stable, not orthos yet though.  How you getting on with yours Judas?


----------



## Judas (Apr 23, 2008)

Just a thought Tat  what mem slots are you using ?  its just i noticed some thing strange 
when had my modules in the black slots i had poor memory performance, my Everest read was just slightly over 4400 mb/s  even though i was running it at ddr3 1800 mhz  at 7-7-7-20 1t 
then i put them in the grey slots and it jumped up to under 9000 mb/s (Everest read )


----------



## Judas (Apr 23, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Am up to 4.45gig now bench stable, not orthos yet though.  How you getting on with yours Judas?



For me it was a bit of a bumpy start lol...   First when i booted into bios for the first time  all my voltage settings weren't on Auto  some were way off  ... then  Vista would not let me in lol
So i had to reinstall  and even though i had reinstalled it kept on bsoding  most likely bios issue. 
Been stable since latest bios upgrade.

The XFX bios is way better than the  Gigabyte, the multi threading tab is quite good, can turn off all 3 cores. Being able to unlink the memory is also great can just set it to what you want
only thing with my processor is it an older version  1066 fsb so i lose a bit on mem performance
(have to think about new processor)

Been mostly playing around with the memory    

Damn nice oc you got there Tat  is that with both cores?


----------



## jonmcc33 (Apr 23, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Of the last 4 boards I have owned in this order......................
> 
> Asus P5N-E Sli 650i
> Asus P5K premium Wifi Black pearl Special Edition
> ...



I've had numerous Intel chipset motherboards and never seen data corruption from them by overclocking. That does go back to the days of the P4 Northwood, Xeon Prestonia and now Core 2 Duo. They all overclocked like crazy and never gave me problems. 

My Asus A8N32-SLI gave me problems from the start and didn't really do well until I flashed the BIOS to the last release. The odd part is that Windows XP SP2 still wouldn't boot properly if I disabled the floppy controller. I had to enable it and then boot into Windows XP SP2 and just disable the floppy controller while within Windows. Sure, it's a Windows XP SP2 thing I guess. 

Go to the original Amdmb.com forums (now pcper.com) and you'll read of plenty of problems with nVIDIA chipsets. I was very pleased when Intel released the Core 2 Duo so I could switch back and have a better option for a motherboard chipset as nVIDIA pretty much rules the AMD world.


----------



## mlee49 (Apr 23, 2008)

I like what I hear on this thread!!  Nice oc tatty, I would love to see some benching!!  Btw how about the first review link you posted, 110 hours on Orthos  OMG!!    What does that say, the hardware in the board or the board is freakin solid?  Either way I havn't ran Orthos for longer than 6 hours and cant even load my ipod when it is running!! 

I like the help on the mobo suggestion, if I dont need tri sli yet then the MSI 750 Platinum sounds right for me.  

Damn nice boards, even for XFX or EVGA (usually considered cheapies)!!  Keep crankin out the OverClock, you'll hit 4.5 soon!!!


----------



## trt740 (Apr 23, 2008)

*Here is my Max /Ramage Formula X38/X48 Crossfire Board*



Tatty_One said:


> Old hat, mine didnt have any corruption and today BIOS P04 has been released that sorted the problem......when I got my Gigabyte x38 DQ6, the early BIOSes kept re-setting and not saving the settings, continual crashes but I didnt stop buying Intel chipsets, sometimes these things happen with all manufacturers hardware.........here is a reason to get an NVidia chipset..........



for comparison with Tattys awesome XFX 790I sli board the first one is using memory speed DDR1200 5 5 5 15 t2 1gb of ram  because one of my sticks went  bad.
The second one is using 1 gb of ram set at DDR2 1114 5 5 5 15 t2.* I for one love the 790I and want one but I have a Max /Ramage formula because of the price difference when I bought my board,* but if I had a choice I would take the 790I at it's current price, and for the future DDR3 2000. Right now DDR3 doesn't make a giant difference as you can see, but in the future it will. I do like my MF/RF it is a good board. I just like the 790I board a little better.  

after thought: I'm not sure what effect the 1 gb of DDR2 played against your 2gb of DDR3.

1. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




2.


----------



## trt740 (Apr 23, 2008)

*Nice overclock bro thats giant even more so because*



Tatty_One said:


> Old hat, mine didnt have any corruption and today BIOS P04 has been released that sorted the problem......when I got my Gigabyte x38 DQ6, the early BIOSes kept re-setting and not saving the settings, continual crashes but I didnt stop buying Intel chipsets, sometimes these things happen with all manufacturers hardware.........here is a reason to get an NVidia chipset..........



it's a e8200 mines a e3110.


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 23, 2008)

Judas said:


> Just a thought Tat  what mem slots are you using ?  its just i noticed some thing strange
> when had my modules in the black slots i had poor memory performance, my Everest read was just slightly over 4400 mb/s  even though i was running it at ddr3 1800 mhz  at 7-7-7-20 1t
> then i put them in the grey slots and it jumped up to under 9000 mb/s (Everest read )



I went to 1828 in the black slots and was getting a fair bit higher than that (perhaps the secret is over 1800mhz), I think if you use the black it does cut back on performance unless significantly higher speeds are used to compensate, so that you can run stabily at plus 1800 speeds, go for the gray slots and keep memory at 1790 unlinked or any other speed below 1800 linked and you should see improvement, thing is, with an 8x multi, in many respects I have less flexibility linked but I suppose my 3:2 divider is going to be that much higher.


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 23, 2008)

Judas said:


> For me it was a bit of a bumpy start lol...   First when i booted into bios for the first time  all my voltage settings weren't on Auto  some were way off  ... then  Vista would not let me in lol
> So i had to reinstall  and even though i had reinstalled it kept on bsoding  most likely bios issue.
> Been stable since latest bios upgrade.
> 
> ...



Yes both cores, cannot get it stable enough to run any benches with just one core although it will go into windows no probs, have done one core into windows at 590mhz FSB, that over 4.7gig!!  thing is if I double click on CPU-Z to bring that up she crashes, have not tried a bit less yet, no time at moment.


----------



## trt740 (Apr 23, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Yes both cores, cannot get it stable enough to run any benches with just one core although it will go into windows no probs, have done one core into windows at 590mhz FSB, that over 4.7gig!!  thing is if I double click on CPU-Z to bring that up she crashes, have not tried a bit less yet, no time at moment.



still very nice  overclock


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 23, 2008)

jonmcc33 said:


> I've had numerous Intel chipset motherboards and never seen data corruption from them by overclocking. That does go back to the days of the P4 Northwood, Xeon Prestonia and now Core 2 Duo. They all overclocked like crazy and never gave me problems.
> 
> My Asus A8N32-SLI gave me problems from the start and didn't really do well until I flashed the BIOS to the last release. The odd part is that Windows XP SP2 still wouldn't boot properly if I disabled the floppy controller. I had to enable it and then boot into Windows XP SP2 and just disable the floppy controller while within Windows. Sure, it's a Windows XP SP2 thing I guess.
> 
> Go to the original Amdmb.com forums (now pcper.com) and you'll read of plenty of problems with nVIDIA chipsets. I was very pleased when Intel released the Core 2 Duo so I could switch back and have a better option for a motherboard chipset as nVIDIA pretty much rules the AMD world.



Noone is denying that users have not had issues with NVidia chipset boards, the contrary, I know there is lots of evidence to support that, point is, lots of people have had issues with Intel chipset boards and there is plenty of evidence to support that as well, my point is, I have never had any issues with Nvidia chipset boards so of course, I will continue to use them when they meet my needs because my experience is good, it's irrelivant what others experience is cause that dont matter hence my reference to teething problems with your board, if you had read all that stuff would you have bought the board, probably not but it obviously does a good job for you.  In reference to the data corruption thing, it's not an issue if it does not affect me, and any past issues with Intel chipset boards may not be ones of data corruption, but hey, issues are issues.


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 23, 2008)

trt740 said:


> still very nice  overclock



Thanks, I have seen the scores your hitting in SM2.....very nice!  I have another one to post on the puter but I am reformatting my Vista drive, the best I can get is just over 2600 so I think I am near the limit of the 8200 although TBH there aint many 8200's that will bench stabily at 4.45gig!


----------



## trt740 (Apr 23, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Thanks, I have seen the scores your hitting in SM2.....very nice!  I have another one to post on the puter but I am reformatting my Vista drive, the best I can get is just over 2600 so I think I am near the limit of the 8200 although TBH there aint many 8200's that will bench stabily at 4.45gig!



I'm not sure it's the chips as much as it is your board those 790I boards are stable as hell. Hey tatty why doesn't the 790I pull ahead of my board more. The ram is alot faster? Whats the deal. I'm scratching my head, is it drivers or cpu memory controller cannot handle the bandwith? With ram that high and FSB that high, it should pull away big time. I can run mine at 560FSB but my ram cannot hit full potential it would be down in the 1150 range because of the divider. If I had DDR1300 I could use that FSB but I cannot yet performance would take a hit..thats why I used a x9.


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 24, 2008)

trt740 said:


> I'm not sure it's the chips as much as it is your board those 790I boards are stable as hell. Hey tatty why doesn't the 790I pull ahead of my board more. The ram is alot faster? Whats the deal. I'm scratching my head, is it drivers or cpu memory controller cannot handle the bandwith? With ram that high and FSB that high, it should pull away big time. I can run mine at 560FSB but my ram cannot hit full potential it would be down in the 1150 range because of the divider. If I had DDR1300 I could use that FSB but I cannot yet performance would take a hit..thats why I used a x9.




I think you will find, if we both set our CPU's to the same speed, lets say 4.4gig ad we both pushed our memory to the max, and we both managed to get the best strap/divider then you would see a better score from mine but I am guessing not by a great deal.....why? because the memory speed is probably only a fifth of the overall test so it only plays a small (ish) part, if you think of the test, the 1st is memory and asts all of 3 seconds, the other 4 minutes or so is all CPU, yes the memory linked with CPU speed will still have a positive effect but not sure that it would be a big amount.....would be nice to try really.....what you think?

It would be even more accurate if you could get 4.4gig on an 8 divider also.


----------



## trt740 (Apr 24, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> I think you will find, if we both set our CPU's to the same speed, lets say 4.4gig ad we both pushed our memory to the max, and we both managed to get the best strap/divider then you would see a better score from mine but I am guessing not by a great deal.....why? because the memory speed is probably only a fifth of the overall test so it only plays a small (ish) part, if you think of the test, the 1st is memory and asts all of 3 seconds, the other 4 minutes or so is all CPU, yes the memory linked with CPU speed will still have a positive effect but not sure that it would be a big amount.....would be nice to try really.....what you think?
> 
> It would be even more accurate if you could get 4.4gig on an 8 divider also.



Okay . the problem is they won't match up because at a 8x my ram won't reach it full potential on the low strap 1160 maybe high strap 1400+ which won't boot. I really need 9x for my ram to hit 1200+ If i use say 8.5x or 8x I cannot get it high enought to compete. If you try it and pretend you have DDR1200 you will see what I mean. Now if you had a E8400 we could do it. We could bench them at say 8.0 x550 and see that lets me hit DDR2 1200


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## Tatty_One (Apr 24, 2008)

trt740 said:


> Okay . the problem is they won't match up because at a 8x my ram won't reach it full potential on the low strap 1160 maybe high strap 1333 which won't boot. I really need 9x for my ram to hit 1200+ If i use say 8.5x or 8x I cannot get it high enought to compete. If you try it and pretend you have DDR1200 you will see what I mean. Now if you had a E8400 we could do it. We could bench them at say 8.0 x550 and see that lets me hit DDR2 1200



or, if the max on an 8x multi you can get out of your memory is say.....80mhz below it's potential, I will run mine unlinked 80mhz below its potential, the highest I have had mine is 1828 mhz so in my case I would run at 1748mhz and I would probably get 6-6-6-18 at that speed without having to get shakey over the voltage, i could probably do that on 2.0V, I have got tighter timings at those speeds but needed at least 2.1V and thats dodgy ground for DDR3  

You know, I keep forgetting I am supposed to be "retired"!!


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## trt740 (Apr 24, 2008)

*here is DDR2 1333 this might work?*







but I need 9x to get there


I delete my posts it was taking over your thread. They just don't match up right unless you had a E8400. I can see already the benefit of DDR3. it gives you more strap options. This is more complicated than it seems.


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## Tatty_One (Apr 24, 2008)

Judas ya Monkey, you have "receive PM's from other members" disable!!!!! I cannot answer your question.......so........have you flashed BIOS to P04???


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## Judas (Apr 25, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Judas ya Monkey, you have "receive PM's from other members" disable!!!!! I cannot answer your question.......so........have you flashed BIOS to P04???



Lol look who's talking   Yes i  had a look it was disabled   Yes i have flashed it to p04
took board out yesterday ....had enough  windows was so buggered had to reinstall again
all it did was boot bsod and reboot, been like that since i bought it. There is some thing wrong with it  not sure what but ill Rma the board. Lucky i had not sold my old one lol


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## Tatty_One (Apr 25, 2008)

Judas said:


> Lol look who's talking   Yes i  had alook it was disabled   Yes i have flashed it to p04
> took board out yesterday ....had enough  windows was so buggered had to reinstall again
> all it did was boot bsod and reboot, been like that since ibought it  there is some thing wrong with it  not sure what but ill Rma the board. Lucky i had not sold my old one lol



Sorry to hear that, I did hear when they first came out that a few had a problem with the BIOS Rom chip......maybe that had something to do with it......no consolation to you but mine is going very smooth, not a single issue to date


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## trt740 (Apr 25, 2008)

*resisted again fighting the speed addiction.*



Tatty_One said:


> Sorry to hear that, I did hear when they first came out that a few had a problem with the BIOS Rom chip......maybe that had something to do with it......no consolation to you but mine is going very smooth, not a single issue to date



Almost bought this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188025

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227244 


 but am gonna give the ballistix ram you recommend ago first if it sucks say good bye friend rampage. The ocz crap i bought won't even do stock and I am spoiled from the transcend I had before. FSB has alot to do with your ram.


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## tzitzibp (May 1, 2008)

Tatty_One said:


> Sorry to hear that, I did hear when they first came out that a few had a problem with the BIOS Rom chip......maybe that had something to do with it......no consolation to you but mine is going very smooth, not a single issue to date



glad to hear you have no problems with bios chip.... and I must say that is impressive fsb you got there....


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