abit AB9 QuadGT

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: khurios2000

Originally posted by: Gary Key
E6600 Testing Update

gary,

on memset the mem freq read 687Mhz? bugs?

Yes, Memset has been showing several of the 680i/650i boards at 298Mhz when they are actually at 400Mhz.

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: Binky
Can't take the hissing. It's going back. Seems like a really nice board otherwise.

just seems to be a few boards, maybe try another?

Although...uGuru...what a pain in the ass. They really need to make a proper uninstall for this POS software. If you happen to get the install fubar'd, you are screwed. Never did get the fan control working properly. Made me really miss speedfan (which doesn't work much at all on this board).

uGuru usually works quite nicely, I miss it when I go to an Asus, Gigabyte etc.
The 3.101 installer appears to have an error in it though.

 

[cyburzaki]

I asked abit why they didn't seem to be supporting the QuadGT, suggesting that a problem-plagued but high-potential board having just one official BIOS over three and a half months didn't make sense. Their answer:

• The upcoming BIOS update is still in the beta stage at this time. Our BIOS development team is still working on it. We will post it on our website as soon as it is ready for release.

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: cyburzaki
I asked abit why they didn't seem to be supporting the QuadGT, suggesting that a problem-plagued but high-potential board having just one official BIOS over three and a half months didn't make sense.

It's not been out for anything like 3 months & I think that calling it problem-plagued is a bit of an exagerration (particularly as there are betas available that resolve virtually all of the problems).
Yes, it's not 100% perfect but show me a board that doesn't have complaints?

 

[cyburzaki]

Originally posted by: Heidfirst

Originally posted by: cyburzaki
I asked abit why they didn't seem to be supporting the QuadGT, suggesting that a problem-plagued but high-potential board having just one official BIOS over three and a half months didn't make sense.

It's not been out for anything like 3 months & I think that calling it problem-plagued is a bit of an exagerration (particularly as there are betas available that resolve virtually all of the problems).
Yes, it's not 100% perfect but show me a board that doesn't have complaints?

I agree, all boards exhibit problems, and many of the QuadGT's have already been addressed by beta BIOS releases. And I will also add that I'm not even qualified to discuss the board on an experiential level, since I don't own one. But I've considered getting one, except for what I still perceive as a paucity of rigorous up-front OFFICIAL support for the board. Maybe I'm just being overly critical, but when I see the one and only official BIOS for the QuadGT is dated December 11, 2006 (which prompted my time reference), I can't help but get the feeling that abit's BIOS coding team could be working on a more accelerated basis to resolve issues. By contrast, the Gigabyte DS3 got 10 official BIOS updates in its first five and a half months. The Asus P5B-E got five over the same time frame. And my impression is that neither of those boards was plagued by the same severity or number of central issues that initially afflicted the QuadGT.

 

[Heidfirst]

The boards didn't hit Europe until right at the end of January & several weeks later before the US.
I think that Gary Key would confirm that a lot of the issues are actually common across the boards mostly stemming from the JMicron.
& the Gigabytes certainly had problems as I had a DS4 (which imo the QuadGT is better than).

Currently abit do seem to have an engineering team that is producing excellent hardware but the BIOS team aren't keeping their end up.

 

[jzodda]

so are we going to make this the "official" Abit AB9 QuadGT Thread? I didn't see one and it seems about time to make one as this board is maturing to the point its ready for gametime

 

[Heidfirst]

if we do I know a good starter guide that I'm sure that i can get permission to copy & post.

 

[jzodda]

Originally posted by: Heidfirst
if we do I know a good starter guide that I'm sure that i can get permission to copy & post.

You should go ahead, since this seems to be the only thread out there for this MB.

I'll start with some little things:

How to boot an Abit board from a USB flash drive

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=121953

ABIT AB9 Quad GT F.A.Q

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=120225

Quad GT Thread at Xtreme Systems.org (600+ posts)

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=132392

 

[LiQiCE]

B07 BIOS has been released in the wild. Doesn't sound like its as good as the unofficial B06R BIOS, but incase anyone wants to try it out here's the URL...

http://forum.hardware.fr/hfr/Hardware/C...topic-unique-quadgt-sujet_762369_4.htm

 

[Binky]

I need a link for complete removal of uGuru and AbitEQ. Mine are totally hosed and neither one works.

 

[humanure]

I'm really tempted to order this board, even with the issues it has. Between this and a p5b deluxe.

 

[LiQiCE]

Originally posted by: humanure
I'm really tempted to order this board, even with the issues it has. Between this and a p5b deluxe.

I bought the P5B Deluxe, and I'm not 100% sure what went wrong but I got two bad boards in a row. I decided this time to get the Quad GT from newegg hoping that the hardware is more solid and in time the BIOS will get better.

Hopefully I won't regret the decision! From what I understand though the B06R BIOS is really good, and the OC'ing stability with this board is second to none.

My board should arrive sometime this week, so I'll see.

 

[gorka]

Maybe we get an official BIOS now with a few more fixes, as CeBit is over and Abit can dedicate more time to the BIOS.

Really....with the right BIOS on this mobo....This board will sell itself!

 

[Heidfirst]

yes, more & more people are realising that this really is an excellent mobo

B08 courtesy of Gary Key, usual caveats apply - use at your own risk as universal abit won't be liable/responsible.
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/motherboards/abit/ab9-quadgt/M621E_11.rar

 

[LiQiCE]

Got my QuadGT on Friday. First impressions are this is an extremely well built motherboard. The quality of the hardware is top notch. Had some minor problems upgrading to the B08 Beta BIOS -- Apparently the awdflash.exe shown on abit's website is too old to flash the QuadGT. I had to go onto abit's ftp server and get a much newer version than the 8.23 that they constantly link off their website ( Link for reference: ftp://ftp-usa.abit.com.tw/pub/download/utilities/award_flash/859e/awdflash.exe ). After I got the board flashed things are running great! No problems like I had with the P5B Deluxe so far. Running a Conroe E6600 (Week 39, 2006) @ 3.2Ghz rock solid with Orthos, air cooling (Scythe Infinity w/ dual 120mm fans). Hoping to hit higher speeds as I tweak the system more and more. But so far I like this board much better than the P5B Deluxe. Can't wait for the final v1.1 BIOS to come out -- Maybe it will be even better for me for OC'ing.

Overall even though my OC isn't as high as I'd like (was shooting for 3.4 or 3.6Ghz) -- I'm still happy!

 

[humanure]

I got my board up and running yesterday, seems to be working fairly well, haven't tried to OC yet. Which of the beta's is better b06 or b08?

 

[imported_yes]

So how are OCs going for folks on this board? Will there be a BIOS release soon to bring together all beta revisions?

 

[humanure]

Highest oc so far is 3.6, I have to keep increasing the vcore to go any higher.

abit

 

[LiQiCE]

B08 seems to be the most stable right now. Its rumored that B08 will be released as v1.1 this coming Tuesday, with a Release Candidate version of B08 even being released, but it remains to be seen if this will become v1.1...

Unfortunately for me, my E6600 doesn't overclock well, I'm told after week 29 the Conroe chips don't seem to be as overclock friendly. I have an L639 chip, so I'm not even close to week 29.

I'm running @ 3.2Ghz stable though with nice and low temps (Scythe Infinity), under 90 degrees F at idle, and not over 120 degrees F with load unless its Orthos then its around 130 degrees F. To be Orthos stable I have to raise the vCore up to 1.48v, but I can run at 100% CPU with less intensive CPU testing programs at 1.42v with no problems.

 

[humanure]

Do they have the RAID issues fixed with b08 using a SATA dvd drive? I tried the b06 BIOS, seemed to lock the multiplier at 6, so I switched back to 1.0.

 

[khurios2000]

Originally posted by: humanure
Do they have the RAID issues fixed with b08 using a SATA dvd drive? I tried the b06 BIOS, seemed to lock the multiplier at 6, so I switched back to 1.0.

b07 beta is the best raid bios for my setup.
in my experience b06r wont even boot when optical sata and raid running at the same time.

 

[imported_yes]

humanure did you get a chance to test with an E6600? I guess that might get you higher for the same voltage you use now.

LiQiCE too bad for you. I've got a L29, but my P5WDH & P5B before that, are awful in the droop.

I notice from screen shots, this board is ~0.04 droop on load. Has that been your experience or better/worse?

 

[LiQiCE]

Originally posted by: yes
humanure did you get a chance to test with an E6600? I guess that might get you higher for the same voltage you use now.

LiQiCE too bad for you. I've got a L29, but my P5WDH & P5B before that, are awful in the droop.

I notice from screen shots, this board is ~0.04 droop on load. Has that been your experience or better/worse?

Yeah I've been looking to aquire a lower week from eBay or looking on the For/Sale forums here.

At load, vCore droops about 0.02 for me, so if I have a 1.4850v vCore, uGuru reads 1.46v (doesn't get anymore precise than 0.00). I haven't really checked carefully with any of the other voltages -- although I'm pretty sure memory tends to be 0.01 lower under load. Not nearly as bad as my P5B Deluxe which usually had a 0.04 or more vdroop on the vCore.

 

[humanure]

Originally posted by: yes
humanure did you get a chance to test with an E6600? I guess that might get you higher for the same voltage you use now.

LiQiCE too bad for you. I've got a L29, but my P5WDH & P5B before that, are awful in the droop.

I notice from screen shots, this board is ~0.04 droop on load. Has that been your experience or better/worse?

I don't have another processor to test with, my xeon is an L631f. Droop seems to be about .02, and ~.04 if I set the vcore above 1.5.