Initial Impression: Abit IC7 & 2.4B SL6EF

[maxSe]

Had to jump on the band wagon...

The board has the most impressive packaging Abit has to offer so far... Everything is neatly boxed up, and VERY well organized... I'm thinking they could've brought down the price a bit more if they went with conventional packaging... lol.. By now, all you guys know this regular IC7 comes with 2 SATA cables & power converters. It also icludes nice set of black rounded floppy & PATA cables.

Setting it up was a breeze. As with ALL of my Abit boards, I replaced the pink gunk under NB HS and replaced it with AS (more like force of habit....). I initially had little problem with my Radeon9500 softmodded to 9800... Rather than dealing with it, I just replaced it with GF4 Ti4200. (Anyone wanting to trade my Radeon for a Ti4600, step right up~ )

Installation went fine. I did a fresh install of Win XP SP1. Didn't bother with DX9, as my card doesn't support it.

OC'ing is a bit less than my IT7 Max2 V2 or BH-7. Thinking something to do with dual channel? Need to play around with it some more.

System spec:
IC7 & 2.4B (SL6EF)
2x256MB Kingston Hyper-X PC3500's
XFX GF4 Ti4200 (128MB)
Intel PCI NIC (it's been a loooong time since I had to put in one of these... )
Samsung SM-348B DVD/CDRW
WD 800JB
ThermalTake AquariusII H2O kit with Koolance waterblock
Everything onboard ON

Here're some initial screen shots for your pleasure:

>>2.4B@3.410 (189fsb) - 1.55v | vdimm 2.6v (2-2-2-6)<<
@189fsb: I need to do more benches here, but initial feel is that it's quicker than my 845PE setup, but bit less stable...
AIDA Read
AIDA Write

Gotta run out to run some errands, but will post some more results tonight.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Lookin' good, and thanx for the screenshots! much more entertaining that way :beer:

 

[Technonut]

Nice...... I am glad to see someone getting 189FSB out of the IC7 with the 2.4B and have impressive memory benchmarks.... How much is your OC reduced at the moment compared to the BH7? When I finally purchase an IC7-G, I want to be able to push my 2.53B past the current 184MHz FSB and turn it into an ICEE7-G with my Prometeia.

 

[lupohki]

Hey Maxse,

I'm going from a BH7 to IC7 too. Do you install the same drivers: AA, USB2, and INF?

 

[maxSe]

Thanks DP and Sonny.

I'm typing this at my g/f's work. I briefly ran @189fsb and 190fsb (1.57v), but both times 3DMark & Prime crapped out on me... Before I left the house, I set it at 185fsb and started HOT CPU, so I should have something about stability @185fsb when I get home. Overall feel is quite swift, and it feels faster than my BH-7 at higher fsb. Can't complaint about the performance boost for a board that's cheaper than most Granite Bays (or my IT7 Max2 for that matter.. :Q).

lupohki, I installed the latest INF from Intel website. They don't have IAA for 765P listed, and when I tried to install the one they have, it just wouldn't ("chipset not supported, etc..). SP1 takes care of USB2.0 drivers.

 

[oldfart]

Good stuff. It looks like some 875 boards are good for 533 MHz FSB P4 overclocking, and some are not. Asus and MSI dont look too good so far, Epox only has +.05 Vcore increase available. The Abit and Aopen seem to be doing well.

The Radeon thing is disturbing though. I have a 9700 Pro and am not going back to a GF4. What problems did you have with it? Did you use PCI/AGP lock only, or did you try a divider as well?

How does the overclock compare to the BH7? Can you get the same FSB @ same vcore?

 

[THUGSROOK]

the write scores are way up!
300+mb/s above mine.

could this be the problem? overaggressive cas writing?

 

[oldfart]

The Intel infs work, but there is no IAA available for non RAID setups which is odd to say the least.

 

[human2k]

Did the radeon 9500 work at stock speeds unsoftmodded?

 

[maxSe]

oldfart, I really didn't test it that thorough... I only played with AGP/PCI locks (which is locked @68/34 right now). I couldn't even begin to compute the way they put the divider options (8:4:3:1 <- something like this...). I have hard enough time trying to figure out how much $$ I have in my checking account.. The IC7 has vcore up to 1.9v! :Q overkill? YES.

Basically, I just couldn't boot with Radeon... I finished the WinXP installation with it, but once I installed INF file, it'll jet get stuck on logon screen and wouldn't go much further... I'm thinking it "might" work if you set up the AGP option to 8X in the bios (now that I think of it...). It didn't pop into my head until I swapped the cards out, since I know my Radeon isn't 8X...

THUGS, I think you might be right (big surprise...). I'm back home and I found out that HOT CPU failed one module (it passed all the other ones...). It looks like 2.7v is the sweet spot for Hyper-X (I ran the failed HOT CPU @2.6v), AND I backed down the timing to 2-3-3-6 in the BIOS, BUT DID I?? This is pretty interesting... More testing to come.

human2k, yeah.. I couldn't even get up to the part to soft-mod the Radeon...

 

[THUGSROOK]

Available settings at each N/B Strap Setting:
400 - 3:4, SPD
533 - 1:1, 4:5, SPD
667 - 5:4, 1:1, SPD
800 - 3:2, 5:4, 1:1, SPD

use the 533 strap for fast cas settings
use the 667 strap for med settings
use the 800 strap for slow settings

confused? :Q
try it out using cpu-z

 

[oldfart]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK

Available settings at each N/B Strap Setting:
400 - 3:4, SPD
533 - 1:1, 4:5, SPD
667 - 5:4, 1:1, SPD
800 - 3:2, 5:4, 1:1, SPD

use the 533 strap for fast cas settings
use the 667 strap for med settings
use the 800 strap for slow settings

confused? :Q
try it out using cpu-z

They are still off. "Fast" set to 2,6,2,2 is actually 2.5,6,3,3. I would call that slow.

 

[THUGSROOK]

well yea, but right now hes looking to go slower cas ~ and cant :Q
(needs to use the NB strap)

 

[oldfart]

Oh, slower. Ok (read the post oldfart)