*** Official ABIT IC7/G (875P) Thread ***

[KillerBob]

So, with a 3G P4, air-cooling, DRAM at 5:4, and N/B Strap PSB800, what is the highest recorded STABIL FSB?

I know there are numerous other influencing factors, but in general.

 

[dwb122]

Well, for those who are interested in my dilemma, I took out my Philips Acoustic Edge soundcard and it works flawlessly with the on-board sound. Time to go burn down Philips HQ...

 

[dwb122]

.....speaking of which, how is the on-board sound for IC7? I'll be testing it out and whatnot, but how is it compared to some $30 soundcard you can buy separately? Is it good enough for listening to music (320kb/s mp3s and CDs), and DVDs?

 

[dwb122]

Also, I admit to being new to overclocking here so maybe I'm missing something, but every time I overclock (change the FSB) and restart, my computer can't find my hard drive. I'll then go back into the bios and my drive won't be "found".

My setup once again:

IC7 with v14 bios
P4 2.4C
2x256 HyperX PC3500
120gb Seagate SATA drive w/8mb cache

 

[roystarman]

Originally posted by: dwb122
.....speaking of which, how is the on-board sound for IC7? I'll be testing it out and whatnot, but how is it compared to some $30 soundcard you can buy separately? Is it good enough for listening to music (320kb/s mp3s and CDs), and DVDs?

The ouptut of the sonboard sound is fine I watch DVD and play CD's all the time. I guess if you are an audiophhile you might not think so. The big deal is running the sound consumes CPU time, a few percent but those die hard gamers want it all. So unless you are doing refcording or serious gaming I think the onboard sound is fine. I've heard that there maybe a problem with the microphione input but I haven't tried it yet.

 

[dwb122]

Hmm. I am trying to get the most framerate power out of my PC as possible, so if it uses a few percent of CPU power during heavy duty gaming I may look into an add-on sound card.

 

[acemcmac]

Since I updated to the 1.4 bios on Thurdsay, everything looks even sweeter... I did have one alarming problem at a LAN Friday night though...

my primary harddrive stopped recognizing and the bios even declared PRIMARY MASTER IDE to be disabled under some of these cases...

the drive is an older 30GB, 7200rmp, IBM Deskstar and I'm wondering which is to blame, the drive being a POS or the bios having sometimes-flaky ATA support. I really dont want to spend the money on a new storage solution unless I'm sure its the fault of the drive. Thanks in advance for the input...

 

[theanswer]

Don't know if this has been posted, Having issues getting the board to properly recongize the 3.0ghz processor as a 200mhz bus instead of 100. In the Softmenu, the CPU Operating Speed recongizes the cpu properly 3000 (200) but in the same screen for Frenquency is says 1.5ghz. Tried updated the bios, clearing cmos. Manual setting the fsb still states 100mhz bus instead of 200mhz. Any help appricated. Thanks

 

[joeryu]

i seem to have no problem running 2x512mb sticks at high fsb, and my ram isnt even rated that high.

i only have corsair xms3000c2, and im running at fsb 263 with a 5:4 ratio for dcddr 420 @ 2,6,3,2 timings with 2.8v. ran memtest all night yesterday (over 20 complete passes) and its been running prime95 all day.

 

[KillerBob]

Originally posted by: acemcmac
Since I updated to the 1.4 bios on Thurdsay, everything looks even sweeter... I did have one alarming problem at a LAN Friday night though...

my primary harddrive stopped recognizing and the bios even declared PRIMARY MASTER IDE to be disabled under some of these cases...

the drive is an older 30GB, 7200rmp, IBM Deskstar and I'm wondering which is to blame, the drive being a POS or the bios having sometimes-flaky ATA support. I really dont want to spend the money on a new storage solution unless I'm sure its the fault of the drive. Thanks in advance for the input...

I'd look to your IBMs for answers. I have returned 3 of these drives the last 12 months (to Hitatchi as they are stuck with support for 60 & 75GXPs). I only use my last 60GXP in my external USB2 HD case for backup. The issue is the turn-on time. Even IBM admitted early on that these drives are only certified for 130-150 hours weekly. So, if you have your machine on 24/7, you'll quickly recognise this limitation, and get bad sectors, crashes etc.

In the US there is even a class-action suit against IBM, with disgruntled buyers arming together. A bit extreme I think, after all buyers were warned, and if your data is that critical or sensitive, you should NEVER put it on IDEs anyway, and you'd surely have adequate backups.

 

[5150Joker]

Sup everyone,

Got my IC7-G/2.4C/XMS3500 setup going and so far the cpu is doing pretty good. I've managed to get 290 fsb stable with default voltage and memory using 3:2 divider (2.5-8-3-3):

Picture of 290 fsb on default vcore
3dMark2001 SE Score

 

[BigRigDriver]

Whats your temp readings Joker??

 

[snidy1]

I tried to overclock and it won't boot, what am I doing wrong? I changed the FSB to 225 and put the PCI and AGP to fixed. Am I missing something?

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: KillerBob

I'd look to your IBMs for answers. I have returned 3 of these drives the last 12 months (to Hitatchi as they are stuck with support for 60 & 75GXPs). I only use my last 60GXP in my external USB2 HD case for backup. The issue is the turn-on time. Even IBM admitted early on that these drives are only certified for 130-150 hours weekly. So, if you have your machine on 24/7, you'll quickly recognise this limitation, and get bad sectors, crashes etc.

In the US there is even a class-action suit against IBM, with disgruntled buyers arming together. A bit extreme I think, after all buyers were warned, and if your data is that critical or sensitive, you should NEVER put it on IDEs anyway, and you'd surely have adequate backups.

I'd agree with you, but this drive has never run in a 24/7 system... I'd say 12 hrs on weekends, 8 on weekdays tops. I am actually leaning towards the bios because in the advanced boot order where you get to use page up/page down to move around your hard drives and "add-on boot device," the problem always seems to come when the harddrive finds itself assigned to the bottom for some reason. the board just forgets that it should be at the top?

battery is fine and the system always has standby current... I await the next bios, no new hd for me.

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: BigRigDriver
Whats your temp readings Joker??

Does not go above 50C during prime95 testing at 290 fsb

 

[etrin]

Joker you said 3:2 divider (2.5-8-3-3)
can you tell me the other settings in the bios that allow you to go this high?

I am running a 2.6 and 512m 3500 corsair ram and can't get above 245 fsb.
I don't think its the memory holding me back...this is at 3:2 with 2-5-3-3

thanks big time I think there are just tooo many settings that I am not sure
how/what to do like the strap I have it set by CPU



Etrin

 

[Blargh]

Ok this might be a stupid question, so please bear with me.. but how do i get Intel Application Acellerator to work on this board? Finnaly got my new rig up and running with windows installed, but whenever i try running the install off the installation cd i get an eror saying i have incompatible hardware/chipset. Im running...

abit IC7-G
P4 2.8(c) HT (stock speed .. for now)
2 256mb sticks of corsair twinx ddr400
1x WD Raptor SATA 36gb
1x Seagate SATA 80gb
Gf4 ti 4400
Audigy
toshiba dvd
phillips cdr


Ok now im not running the SATA drives in Raid, have them on the 1st and 2nd connections on the mobo and have them set to run as single drives, with windows on the Raptor. Now i also have the other controller and its raid rom disabled. What do i have to do to get IAA to run/install?

 

[Blargh]

Hm nm.. seems i cant run IAA without running raid.


On to another question tho

What memory timings are you guys running? Im using 2 256mb sticks of corsair twinx ddr400 at 2,6,3,2, and i cant get windows to load if i try any faster timings. Any suggestions?

*edit*

Whoa wtf.... just went to run prime 95 at my 2,6,3,2 timings (the ones my memory defaults to) at default processor speed and everything... and prime95 fails in less then 2 min.

*edit*

hm seems this board undervolts quite a bit. had to set the core voltage up a little bit... running stable in prime sofar....

*edit*

or no... still fails like 5 min in... wtf

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: Blargh
Hm nm.. seems i cant run IAA without running raid.


On to another question tho

What memory timings are you guys running? Im using 2 256mb sticks of corsair twinx ddr400 at 2,6,3,2, and i cant get windows to load if i try any faster timings. Any suggestions?

*edit*

Whoa wtf.... just went to run prime 95 at my 2,6,3,2 timings (the ones my memory defaults to) at default processor speed and everything... and prime95 fails in less then 2 min.

*edit*

hm seems this board undervolts quite a bit. had to set the core voltage up a little bit... running stable in prime sofar....

*edit*

or no... still fails like 5 min in... wtf

Forget about prime, just run your usual benchmarks, applications and games for an extended period. If everything works then it's fine. Prime is just a tool that overly stresses your cpu and I've found it's not really reflective of true everyday use unless all you do is Folding with your system. Also, Super Pi is another good application to test your system stability. That said, you may want to consider using memtest to test your memory modules and make sure they aren't defective. One of my XMS3500 sticks turned out to be garbage and i had to go to a local dealer and buy a replacement.

 

[roystarman]

Originally posted by: 5150Joker

Originally posted by: Blargh
Hm nm.. seems i cant run IAA without running raid.


On to another question tho

What memory timings are you guys running? Im using 2 256mb sticks of corsair twinx ddr400 at 2,6,3,2, and i cant get windows to load if i try any faster timings. Any suggestions?

*edit*

Whoa wtf.... just went to run prime 95 at my 2,6,3,2 timings (the ones my memory defaults to) at default processor speed and everything... and prime95 fails in less then 2 min.

*edit*

hm seems this board undervolts quite a bit. had to set the core voltage up a little bit... running stable in prime sofar....

*edit*

or no... still fails like 5 min in... wtf

Forget about prime, just run your usual benchmarks, applications and games for an extended period. If everything works then it's fine. Prime is just a tool that overly stresses your cpu and I've found it's not really reflective of true everyday use unless all you do is Folding with your system. Also, Super Pi is another good application to test your system stability. That said, you may want to consider using memtest to test your memory modules and make sure they aren't defective. One of my XMS3500 sticks turned out to be garbage and i had to go to a local dealer and buy a replacement.

Actually I wouldn't run prme 95 until I thought i had a stable system. Try getting running with just one stick for now. 2,6,3,2 should work fine with the Corsair twin X memory. Alhtough the SPD also works. For make sure your gaming mode or performance mode in BIOS is either in Auto or disabled (depending on which BIOS) . Also I tink you would wnat at least 1.3 BIOS before settling in with a full installation. With all of that acomplished Prime 95 should run for several hours with no problems. Make sure RAM voltage is set to 2.7 and I jumpd the CPU one notch from standard. Unless you decidew to start OC ing the SWPD or 2,6,3,2 should work. The Memtest 86 disc will give you the a very thorough memory test although it doesn't use XP (stand alone floppy).If it doesn't run Memtest then you may ahve a bad stick. Test them one at a time.

 

[KillerBob]

...can someone please remind me:

I am running 2 SATA HDs on the ICH5 controllers in Raid0, and an IDE through the std. IDE port.

Can I attach another SATA HD to the Silicon controller and use it as a stand-alone HD, i.e. for data, or will it accept Raid0 only?

 

[thatsright]

Originally posted by: KillerBob
...can someone please remind me:

I am running 2 SATA HDs on the ICH5 controllers in Raid0, and an IDE through the std. IDE port.

Can I attach another SATA HD to the Silicon controller and use it as a stand-alone HD, i.e. for data, or will it accept Raid0 only?

If you have 3 SATA Drives, your ahead of the curve! As for using a 'stand-alone' SATA drive, i don't see any problem with that as you indicate in your SysRig that you have the IC7-G version. Yet, I don't have any SATA drives so I'm not 100% sure of how you would add a stand-alone SATA drive to an existing SATA Raid Array. Just seems like to me, you would plug it in, the BIOS & OS would detect it as a NON-Raid SATA drive. One thing you should note though, if you run you'r 3rd SATA drive off of the Silicon Controler, you'll e running this 3rd SATA drive through your PCI Bus, eating up PCI Bandwith.

 

[KillerBob]

thatsright,

So the Silicon controller would work of the PCI bus, and hence take resources?

The reason for my move from IDE/100 to SATA, is simply that I see how fast the Seagate Barracudas are in comparison to my IBM IDE/100, and that would be a huge change. I could just buy another IDE/100 Seagate Barracuda, but I don't know how it would stack up against the SATA drives.

 

[thatsright]

Originally posted by: KillerBob
thatsright,

So the Silicon controller would work of the PCI bus, and hence take resources?

The reason for my move from IDE/100 to SATA, is simply that I see how fast the Seagate Barracudas are in comparison to my IBM IDE/100, and that would be a huge change. I could just buy another IDE/100 Seagate Barracuda, but I don't know how it would stack up against the SATA drives.

Bob, after going over your SysRig specs, I must say MAN YOU ARE A SPEED FREAK!! What took you so long to join the ATF Another thing I saw, which I didn't notice last time is that you have SCSI devices. And since the IC7-G doesn't have an integrated SCSI controller, then you?re using a add-on SCSI PCI Controller card. After realizing this, whatever further drives you add will only bring down your PCI Bus performance; be it a SCSI CD drive, or a IDE PATA drive. This is all due to the fact that your ICH5 SATA controller is already maxed out with your two drive Raid array. So any future drives you add, will run through your PCI Bus.

BOTOH, I'm not really sure how the PCI Devices will suffer performance wise; it could be a minimal that you would never notice, or a lot. Thought with SCSI and then adding a new PATA drive,and all of your USB devices, your PCI Bus is pretty saturated. I'm pretty sure there is a utlilty out there that you can run which would measure your PCI Bus usage.

I hope this helps.

 

[apd]

Non system disk error when I hard boot.

I keep getting this error every time I turn the pc on after switching it off completely. But when I reset, or use restart it work fine. Any one else with the same problem?

I am at bios 14

Apd