Official - ABIT AT8 Crossfire Thread -

[Luiboy]

Originally posted by: Gary Key

Originally posted by: DJJ

Originally posted by: Budarow
I see the BIOS dated 2-13-06, but I still don't see a newer BIOS at Abit-usa.com. Before I buy this mobo...I absolutely need a better BIOS which fixes the issues raised by AT.

Yep can't seem to find this bios update anywhere?

If you need the one we are testing currently, please email me. Abit was going to put it up but decided to wait on our test results.

I have AT8 too, but can`t work optimal with Mushkin 2x1Gb XP4000! I don`t want to oc now but if I want to use DVD Workshop 2, (Everest memory read-write tests=bluescreen) playing with Spell 2 Demo, after 10-30m I got "bluescreen"! My AT8 unstable without oc too. Can somebody help me?


x2 3800+
Abit AT8
2x1Gb Mushkin XP4000
ATI X1800XT
Thermaltake TR2 500W PSU
.......

 

[Luiboy]

I got it! Thank you very much Gary!

 

[pascall]

<Note> This post is a copy of a post I made in the General Hardware forum. Didn t think of looking in this MB forum first. Sorry about that </Note>

Several points I d like to stress out regarding this board. Some points I mention in this comment may be due to my misunderstanding or mistakes, so I m open to corrections and discussions.

To make a long story short, I upgraded an old comp. by changing MB, CPU, mem, HD and graphics card (and power supply). Wanted to go ATI (1900XT) so I decided for a crossfire board with a decent set of features : Abit AT8. Received it like 2 weeks ago, and assembled without any problem. AT8 package is great, and everything is included in the nice boxes. Some remarks to begin with : ATA cables could have been rounded and not flat cables which would have made for a cleaner machine interior.

Concerning the board design, huge disappointment. If you use a large graphic board (ie 2 slots), you are supposed to have 1 PCI slot left. But the Ventirad of the XT1900 is flush with the PCI slot. So if you want to plug like let s say a sound board - as suggested by anand - with any electronic component on the reverse side, you can t.

In the BIOS, uGuru section, multiplication factor is limited to 11x for my processor 64X2 4400+, which is already the factor used by this CPU (11x 200). So just able to upgrade the bus speed, not the multi. factor.

Regarding the software package, two remarks : there is no live-update for this award bios (u got to flash it from DOS), and driver CD does not include the Microsoft fix for Intel HD Audio on x64 : you have to download and install it prior installing the realtek sound driver.

And finally, there are those memory troubles : BIOS doesn t recognize the memory correctly. And there I d like to ask a question : for this rig I bought a Corsair TWINX 2048 (basic one, not C2). After 3 days of testing and gaming, one of the memory stick died completly, which, according to Corsair, happens very rarely. At this point, I don t want to think that this may be correlated with the board problems regarding memory. But I will keep an eye open on this issue.

Don t get me wrong, this board appears solid and from anand benchs, seems to be a very good performer against other corssfire and even against top Nvidia-chipset boards. But I have mixed feelings towards this board.

I d like to hear from other owners of this board, to know if they have the same experience that I have with this one.

 

[n7]

I'm going to address each of your points.

ATA cables rounded?
You got a value mobo; fancy cabling isn't generally included. (Same story for my Asus A8R-MVP.)

PCI/PCI-e 1x/4x slots blocked by dual slot graphics card?
Also very common with any dual graphics card motherboard, sorry to say.

Of course you cannot raise the multiplier. On A64s, you overclock by raising the HTT. Only way you can raise the multi is if you bought an FX series CPU; they have the multi unlocked.

No auto update utility?
That's disappointing, i'd agree.

No driver for x64?
Exactly why would that be included?


Bios doesn't recognize memory?
Ah, finally, something really worthy of complaints. According to the recent AT review, this is an issue with this motherboard. There is supposed to be a 1.1 bios released shortly.
Email Gary; it sounds like he is willing to send you that newest upcoming bios now.

 

[pascall]

n7, glad you put some value on my comments...

Didn t know that the multi. factor on X64 CPUs was locked. Lack of knowledge on this point from my part.

Concerning the Intel HD Audio fix for x64 OSs, this fix was released by m$ for all MB using the Intel HD Audio codec. And the Realtek audio driver asks for it during installation. It would have been a nice touch to have it on CD.

As I was saying, I just wanted to put some comments regarding this board. I m not totally disapointed by it, just to let others know about my experience with it. Sorry if some comments sounded too naive to a diamond member...

 

[DJJ]

Originally posted by: pascall

Regarding the software package, two remarks : there is no live-update for this award bios (u got to flash it from DOS),

I d like to hear from other owners of this board, to know if they have the same experience that I have with this one.

That is incorrect as well..You can flash the BIOS via the FlashMenu within Windows.

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: pascall

ATA cables could have been rounded and not flat cables which would have made for a cleaner machine interior.
Depending upon case design & how good you are flat cables can actually be made to disappear better than round.

I've got more than enough IDE cables as it is.
It's a cheapish mobo & they are "free".

Concerning the board design, huge disappointment. If you use a large graphic board (ie 2 slots), you are supposed to have 1 PCI slot left. But the Ventirad of the XT1900 is flush with the PCI slot. So if you want to plug like let s say a sound board - as suggested by anand - with any electronic component on the reverse side, you can t.
Actually I think that this is an ATi flaw.
On SLI boards the top slot is the default 1 used when using only a single gfx card whereas on Crossfire it's the bottom 1.
Reaching the ClearCMOS jumper on this board with a dual=slot gfx card or PCI cards installed could be a royal pain.

In the BIOS, uGuru section, multiplication factor is limited to 11x for my processor 64X2 4400+, which is already the factor used by this CPU (11x 200). So just able to upgrade the bus speed, not the multi. factor.
You will have to take that up with AMD.
As mentioned by n7 that's how they ship CPUs (except FX)

Regarding the software package, two remarks : there is no live-update for this award bios (u got to flash it from DOS), and driver CD does not include the Microsoft fix for Intel HD Audio on x64 : you have to download and install it prior installing the realtek sound driver.
FlashMenu certainly has an auto-update in 32-bit (not sure about 64-bit yet for this version).
However, it is recommended that you download the file locally & run it from there rather than 1-click.
Kind of moot at the moment as there isn't another official BIOS to update to.

Don't know about the HD audio as I have no intention of running x64 before Vista.

 

[Budarow]

Originally posted by: Heidfirst

Originally posted by: pascall

using only a single gfx card whereas on Crossfire it's the bottom 1.
Reaching the ClearCMOS jumper on this board with a dual=slot gfx card or PCI cards installed could be a royal pain.

So...if I picked up the AT8 mobo and installed my X850XT card (2 slot design) I just bought, I may have problems installing a PCI sound card (or other PCI card like a tv tuner/caputure card) or clearing the CMOS due to very little "clearance"?

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: Budarow
So...if I picked up the AT8 mobo and installed my X850XT card (2 slot design) I just bought, I may have problems installing a PCI sound card (or other PCI card like a tv tuner/caputure card) or clearing the CMOS due to very little "clearance"?

Look at http://www2.abit.com.tw/upload/products/at8_top_500.jpg
The little yellow jumper half way up the left hand edge of the board is the ClearCMOS jumper.
You will get your cards in but whether you can then get your fingers in to grasp & move the jumper ...

edit: 1 of the nice things about uGuru though is that if you use that for overclocking you very rarely need to clearCMOS. It usually fails to default settings so a reboot is usually all that is required.

 

[Witchfire]

I'm running the AT8 with an X1900XT, and I'd have to say I could et away with running a PCI slot soundcard if I desired. The clearance may be tight, but it's a do-able thing.

And yes, the CMOS reset jumper is a true PAIN to get to if you need to, with a dual slot vid card installed. An uGuru or no, I HAVE had to use it twice so far. My answer to this was to get the ABIT uGuru panel.

I suggest this addition to anyone who has a mobo with uGuru capability. Not only do you get uGuru Clock functionality, and additional front panel I/O's, but you get a remote CMOS Reset Button. Definately worth the price of admission to anyone who's OCed at all in the past & dealt with annoyingly crappy placed CMOS jumpers.

 

[Heidfirst]

Abit global site now listing the 1.1. BIOS here but the file server appears down
edit: seems that they've fixed the server


BIOS ID:1.1
Support DRAM ECC Function..
Modify system state error after AC power lose
Modify some USB boot and sting fail
Modify CAS Latency timing issue
Modify auto boot up when inserted USB device.
BIOS compiled date: 3/10/2006

 

[pascall]

thks witchfire for the heads up on the soundcard. Just for the sake of knowing it s doable, I ll try my old SB Live 5.1 (which I didn t use for this rig, given the fact that the Realtek codec seems to be better).

For the new bios, I ll try tonight to flash. And you guys were right, the fact I can t flash from windows with LiveUpdate seems to be due to the fact i m running xp x64 : uGuru setup didn t install Live Update utility. So I ll have to create a dos bootdisk.

 

[Gary Key]

The bios on Abit's site is newer than the 1.1 I was providing. This bios should have improved compatibility with certain Corsair modules but we are still working on the newer G.Skill modules. It appears G.Skill has optimized a couple of their modules to the edge and Abit is doing the same in the bios so we have some conflicts.

 

[Budarow]

Originally posted by: Gary Key
The bios on Abit's site is newer than the 1.1 I was providing. This bios should have improved compatibility with certain Corsair modules but we are still working on the newer G.Skill modules. It appears G.Skill has optimized a couple of their modules to the edge and Abit is doing the same in the bios so we have some conflicts.

Keep the info. coming Gary...I've been looking for a stable mobo which can OC, looks cool and I'd like to give ATI a chance so this may be the 1 Any idea if the AT8 has any "issues" with a native 20-pin ATX PS? The only mobo I've heard of which regularly is reported to have issues with 20-pin PS' are the newer DFI boards (e.g., Ultra-D, etc.).

Thanks

Bud

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: Budarow
Any idea if the AT8 has any "issues" with a native 20-pin ATX PS?

The manual says that the 24-pin connector is "compliant to the former 20-pin type".

Best to have the other 2 12V connectors plugged in if it will have similar specs to what is in your sig - A64/PCI-E seems to like Amperage.

 

[Budarow]

Originally posted by: Heidfirst

Originally posted by: Budarow
Any idea if the AT8 has any "issues" with a native 20-pin ATX PS?

The manual says that the 24-pin connector is "compliant to the former 20-pin type".

Best to have the other 2 12V connectors plugged in if it will have similar specs to what is in your sig - A64/PCI-E seems to like Amperage.

Thanks for the information...seems to further confirm DFI is the leader with "issues" and 20-pin ATX PS'. I do plan to use a similar setup to my signature except I've got an Opty 146 to OC and 1 X850XT to fire up.

 

[pdu]

Did anyone try 4x1GB memory in this board? Using Tic-tac's modified BIOS my AT8 (and XP) only recognize 3Gig though cpu-z v1.31 will recognize the full 4Gig (it even lists the serial# of each memory module). I guess the reason might be that cpu-z gets it's information from the built-in memory controller on the CPU while XP gets it's info from the BIOS. Hope this issue is fixed in the 1.1 BIOS release.

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: pdu
my AT8 (and XP) only recognize 3Gig

If it's 32-bit XP SP2 then it's quite normal to see ~3Gb, Windows reserves the rest for bits & pieces. The BIOS should see it all though.

 

[pdu]

Originally posted by: Heidfirst

Originally posted by: pdu
my AT8 (and XP) only recognize 3Gig

If it's 32-bit XP SP2 then it's quite normal to see ~3Gb, Windows reserves the rest for bits & pieces. The BIOS should see it all though.

The BIOS sees 3072MB. Unfortunately updating to the latest v1.1 BIOS didn't solve the problem

 

[Witchfire]

It's not in the BIOS, pdu... Windows XP 32-bit versions are incapable of using/allocationg more than teh amount of memory you are seeing. The 64-bit version of XP is capable of seeing/using more than that.

It is NOT a hardware issue you are seeing, just another shortcoming of Windows XP.

 

[pdu]

Originally posted by: pdu

Originally posted by: Heidfirst

Originally posted by: pdu
my AT8 (and XP) only recognize 3Gig

If it's 32-bit XP SP2 then it's quite normal to see ~3Gb, Windows reserves the rest for bits & pieces. The BIOS should see it all though.

The BIOS sees 3072MB. Unfortunately updating to the latest v1.1 BIOS didn't solve the problem

Actually updating the BIOS to v1.1 did solve the problem - the BIOS now correctly recognize 4Gig. Sorry for jumping to conclusions

 

[pdu]

Originally posted by: Witchfire
It is NOT a hardware issue you are seeing, just another shortcoming of Windows XP.

I know XP 32-bit have limitations. But "wasting" 1Gig of memory is way too much. Maybe it's time to take a closer look at the 64-bit version???

What did confuse me was the fact that Tic-tac's modded BIOS (and probably the official ABIT v1.0) only recognized 3Gigs - just like XP. After updating the BIOS to v1.1 the BIOS recognize 4Gigs while XP still only makes 3Gigs available.

 

[Budarow]

I can't find the AT8 mobo at Newegg or on Pricewatch. Are the shipments of new boards waiting for the latest BIOS update?

 

[pdu]

Originally posted by: Budarow
I can't find the AT8 mobo at Newegg or on Pricewatch. Are the shipments of new boards waiting for the latest BIOS update?

Well, that would make sense. Apart from the CAS issues and memory compatibility issues discussed here the supplied RAID driver disk does not support RAID5 and the 1.0 BIOS does not detect 4x1GB memory correctly.

There's no doubt this board has the potiential but it seems to me that Abit are trailing ASUS's RD480 offering in regards to BIOS development. Furthermore ASUS offer a driver disk download that supports RAID5 while all ABIT offers are BIOS downloads - no drivers or utilities whatsoever. However the ASUS doesn't have the uGuru and only has 3 fan headers while the ABIT has 6 fan headers. Too bad the uGuru wont allow you to adjust the fan voltages below 8 Volts. Well, maybe one day.....

 

[snor]

Originally posted by: Budarow
I can't find the AT8 mobo at Newegg or on Pricewatch. Are the shipments of new boards waiting for the latest BIOS update?

Well, that would make sense. Apart from the CAS issues and memory compatibility issues discussed here the supplied RAID driver disk does not support RAID5 and the 1.0 BIOS does not detect 4x1GB memory correctly.

There's no doubt this board has the potiential but it seems to me that Abit are trailing ASUS's RD480 offering in regards to BIOS development. Furthermore ASUS offer a driver disk download that supports RAID5 while all ABIT offers are BIOS downloads - no drivers or utilities whatsoever. However the ASUS doesn't have the uGuru and only has 3 fan headers while the ABIT has 6 fan headers. Too bad the uGuru wont allow you to adjust the fan voltages below 8 Volts. Well, maybe one day.....[/quote]

Yea i was wondering about the raid5 as well.