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

[KillerBob]

What's up:

I installed the beta BIOS, and my 3DMark2001 score increase slightly (FSB at 215). My RAM timings are 2-3-3-6.

I had the Game setting at AUTO, and everything was fine. However, when I change the Game setting to Turbo, Street Racer, or F1, I get into WinXP, and I start up 3DMark2001, and it goes through the first test, but eventually I get a blue screen. NOT the usual BSOD from MS, but a solid plain blue screen.

I have had no other problems.

Is this RAM, or just plain ol' "stuff"?

 

[thatsright]

Could Someone Offer any Suggestions Here?

I am running my IC7-non-g; Kingston HyperX PC3500 512MB X 2 in Dual Channel; manual settings in BIOS with timings of 2-3-2-5 & ULTRA Performance setting; a P4c 2.4Ghz at Stock Speed with N/B Strap option to PSB800. CPU is run with HT enabled. In XP Pro with SP1a, I run Sandra Memory Bandwidth Benchmark and the highest # I got was 4686MB?s. But now I consistently get around 4630. I have the 1.13 IC7 Bios.

I?m kind of surprised/disappointed with such memory scores. I was expecting higher, or is this the norm for this Memory and stock CPU speed? I do plan on O?Cing my system this weekend, but haven?t done so yet. I hear of some people getting up to or around 5900MB Sandra Scores with their rigs, but would I only get these numbers with a higher CPU speed? Or do I need Memory timings like 2-2-2-5 to get #?s like this?

And since I?m a bit new to O?Cing as well, if I?m only getting around 4630 average now, If I O?C will that # go down as when I change the FSB divider for O?Cing?

Thanks

 

[KillerBob]

What's a good tool for testing RAM speeds, and identify the supposed speed of the RAM? I am looking for a software that'll say the RAM is running at 430MHz (2xFSB), etc.

 

[KillerBob]

I found Aida32, and I am starting to get a bit p..... of. I just realised that my RAM benchmark in Sandra, MemTest and Aida is only around the 3200MB/s mark.

The machine works fine, but the RAM score surprises me as everyone else is running 4500-5000MB/s.

First I did a selective startup, with nothing at all started during bootup. Then I played with the settings in BIOS, but 2-3-3-7 is the best my Corsair XMS3500s can do. And latest idea was to run the sticks one at a time (I have 2 x 512Mb in slots 1 and 3).

Other settings in my BIOS:

N/B Strap CPU is set to PSB800
DRAM Ratio is set to 1:1
DDR SDRAM Voltage is set at 2.6v

I'm going gagga trying to find out what is holding back the RAM.

 

[thatsright]

Could anyone help me with my Above post!!! Please. BTW, I'm Running my FSB Divider at 1:1.

Thanks a million.

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: thatsright
Could anyone help me with my Above post!!! Please. BTW, I'm Running my FSB Divider at 1:1.

Thanks a million.

Your memory scores seem about right. Maybe a little on the low side of normal, but the difference is not enough to even notice. The P4 doesn't really care that much what your memory timings are. What you wanna do is loosen them up and probably change dividers so you can overclock. That will give you WAY more performance than strict RAM timings, and since the board is dual-channel, the falloff from running a lower memory speed will be pretty small.

 

[KillerBob]

If ~4600 is on the low side, my score is a joke!

Any takers to what can slow down the Mem scores?

 

[thatsright]

Originally posted by: KillerBob
If ~4600 is on the low side, my score is a joke!

Any takers to what can slow down the Mem scores?

Well BOB, what Sandra Mem scores are you getting now? I checked out your rig, and you have Corsair XMS3500, which has a slightly tighter timing by 1 cycle than my DIMM's. While my Kingston Hyper X PC3500 is rated at 2-3-3-6, I'm running it at 2-3-2-5 with CPU speed and Memory voltages all at stock, all without any problems.

But one thing I have seen slow down my scores, is when I let my MB BIOS pick the default timings, it comes up with some really wacky times in the BIOS, like 2.5-4-4-8 in one instance. But normally, if I set it to ?Auto? it will come up with 2-3-3-7. This I guess is referred to as 'loose timings' and this did slow my Sandra MEM scores down.

 

[vailr]

KBob:
Are you sure you aren't running in single-channel mode?
You need to have memory installed in slots 1 & 3, or else 2 & 4 for dual-channel.
The boot-up screen should say "dual-channel" if it is .

 

[KillerBob]

It is definately saying "Dual Channel Mode" when I boot up, and the RAM is indeed installed in DIMMs 2 and 4. I moved them from 1 and 3, but no difference.

With only one stick of RAM the score is even lower, so it is picking up the dual channel mode.

My Sandra score is 3200-3400Mb/s, without anything else running. I have checked everything, timings, CPU, etc.

BTW, I have it set for "manual" in the timings, and then 2-3-3-6 (anything more tight crashes my PC). Man, this is driving me crazy.

 

[acemcmac]

Man, this is getting to be just stupid now.

1) These temperatures I KNOW aren't accurate... my calibrated probe reads <30 constistantly with my swiftech while winbond always says its closer to 40...

2) I still havent been reassureed that any of the N/B straps or cas settings actually affect the real timings....

3) I still havent heard anything about a possible abit replacement of my 7000rpm northbridge fan that they akgnowledge to be unacceptably loud enough to warrant replacement in the current revision?!!?

4) I WANT AN EXPLANATION of exatly WTF the performance boosting "MODES" do. WTF IS TURBO?!?! this isnt a 486 here ABIT!

<rant>
Where are these fixes?!?! I dont want to start my next round of upgrades until i get some frigging answers!!! I've had this board for more than a month and my wet trout is begging for some results. Come on ABIT, lets get the act together!
</rant>

Ammendium:

And one more note... ABIT's tech is retarded... i try asking them about some of these issues and i get a stamped auto response telling me how to flash my bios. I love this board, i hate the support its geting for a flippin' FLAGSHIP model.

 

[Blackhawk66]

I got 4500-4600 memory score with the same hardware as yours, 2.4C (not o/c) 2x2567 Corsair 3500C2PT (1:1 @ 2.5-8-3-3), when I o/c it to 250 FSB with timing 2-3-2-5 (5:4), I got 5300-5400.

 

[KillerBob]

Could my low RAM scores be a driver (WinXP) issue? I guess what I am asking, will it help if I re-install Windows, or is it HW?

 

[KillerBob]

I increased the voltage to 2.7v, and in Windows Safe Mode, Aida gives me 4836Mb/s. I can't run Sandra in Safe, but at least I know now it is not HW.

When I enter Windows (normal boot) my Aida score is back to ~3300Mb/s.

What actually gets loaded in Safe Mode? What drivers can be making that difference?

BTW, I have a lot of USB attached; scanner (USB2), XDA, card reader, ADSL modem, webcam, color printer, and MP3 player.

 

[Ketchup]

killerbob, have you tried running msconfig? It will show you what programs start up with windows. Sounds like there is a memory hog in there somewhere.

 

[KillerBob]

Someone in the Abit forums suggested looking at the USB connections.

I disconnected all my USB devices, and started adding one at a time, and found that my cardreader took 30% of the RAM bandwidth. My score with everything else connected is 4753MB/s, but connecting my UISC3SE cardreader drops that score to 3389MB/s. Hmmmmmmm.

I'll leave it disconnected except for when I need it desperately. It is funny to note that when I just connect it to a WinXP session, it doesn't affect the score. Only after a subsequent reboot does it kill the bandwidth.

 

[dwb122]

I've just finished putting my new IC7 rig together and am at a real loss at what to do in the bios.

This is my setup:

IC7
2.4C
2x256mb Kingston HyperX PC3500
120gb Seagate SATA drive
Pioneer DVD drive hooked up as primary IDE master
and others that probably don't matter at this point:
ATI Radeon 9800
Philips Acoustic Edge soundcard
Linksys NIC
all stock cooling
WinXP Home
I'll be putting on an extra IDE drive and a Sony CD-RW after I get XP up and running.

First of all, I'm kind of confused as to what I have to do software/bios-wise to get the SATA drive running. It's hooked up properly and everything. I get into WinXP setup but it tells me that no hard drive is installed. Am I supposed to use that SATA installation floppy disk that the IC7 came with? (that sounds like a stupid question I guess, but for some reason it keeps wanting to boot to the CD)

Also, what should I set my RAM timings to if I'm not overclocking at the moment? Any other settings I should change?

Thanks.

 

[dwb122]

By the way, I go into the bios and it says the CPU temp is 58' celcius. Is it supposed to be that high?

 

[mayhem316]

OMG.... I am running my 2.4c at an 290 FBS with the memory at 3/2 divider for an insane 1100 OC to 3.5 gigs. I was running the system at a nice round 300 FBS but after 11 hours of simultaneously running prime95 and hotcpu tester the system failed a hotcpu tester module, so I backed the FBS speed to 290. I did run into problems intially installing WinXP pro SP1 in sata raidO, but after raising my ddr voltage to 2.7 and relaxing the latencies to 2336 everything went well with the install. Inspite of the mysteries surrounding this board and PAT/temps/performance mode this is the most stable mobo I have ever used. A 45% overclock and memory timings of 2225 are a tribute to the stability of these ABIT boards. I was hopong to get to 3.0 with a 1000 FBS but never dreamed I would be able to benchmark it at 3600 and run into stable at 3500.

 

[thatsright]

Originally posted by: dwb122
By the way, I go into the bios and it says the CPU temp is 58' celcius. Is it supposed to be that high?

NO WAY!! For any NON-O'Ced system, this is far to high of a CPU temp. Right now, I usually get about 45 C Max, but of course I'm running my 2.4C at stock speed with a Zalman 7000-AlCu cooler at full RPM. Also, even I think that my temp reading of 45C is too high, as many seem to think that I should subtract 10 Deg Celsius due to ABIT's horrid Temp monitoring, to get the real temp. So perhaps, I'm really averaging it around 35 C. The highest I've seen so far I think was 'reported' in the BIOS as 52 C, as XP Pro was doing a lot at the time.

And that's my $0.02

 

[Tom]

45c is certainly not to high, neither is 58c according to Abit's own website. They give a figure of 75c under load as normal on the IC7.

 

[dwb122]

Could someone tell me what I should set my RAM timings to? Again, I have an IC7, 2.4C, and 2x265mb Kingston HyperX PC3500. I'm not OCing the FSB at the moment I don't know if it matters, but I haven't done the bios update yet since I'm having a strange problem with my floppy drive.

Speaking of which, do I absolutely need the floppy drive to do the bios update?

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: mayhem316
OMG.... I am running my 2.4c at an 290 FBS with the memory at 3/2 divider for an insane 1100 OC to 3.5 gigs. I was running the system at a nice round 300 FBS but after 11 hours of simultaneously running prime95 and hotcpu tester the system failed a hotcpu tester module, so I backed the FBS speed to 290. I did run into problems intially installing WinXP pro SP1 in sata raidO, but after raising my ddr voltage to 2.7 and relaxing the latencies to 2336 everything went well with the install. Inspite of the mysteries surrounding this board and PAT/temps/performance mode this is the most stable mobo I have ever used. A 45% overclock and memory timings of 2225 are a tribute to the stability of these ABIT boards. I was hopong to get to 3.0 with a 1000 FBS but never dreamed I would be able to benchmark it at 3600 and run into stable at 3500.

Have you tried 5:4 with looser timings?

 

[mayhem316]

I tried the 4/5 divider with loose timings ( as loose as the mobo will allow actually) but my memory just wouldn't run above 210 Mhz. By setting the memory down to 3/2 the system runs so much faster. I think we are overly concerned with the memory speed at the expensive of the FBS and system speeds. With the memory at 193 Mhz and a 290 FBS sandra reports my memory scores at 5622/5610. With the divider at 4/5 I was only scoring 5761/5699 which doesn't justify running the cpu at 400 Mhz slower in my mind. BTW my first cpu was a pII 400, now I'm getting almost 3 times that in an overclock. Reducing the memory to 193Mhz ( a 3.5% underclock) has allowed me to push the 2.4C ( or the IC7) to the limit with air cooling. All of my benchmarks ( especially the 3d benches) have had a huge increase with the system jacked up to 290 FBS. The memory speed seems to impact quake 3 scores at 460X320, but nobody runs games like that anyway ( I run at 1280X1024 with 4xAA and 8XAF). I am sure that my ATI 9700 is the limiting factor now, where it used to be my cpu.

 

[acemcmac]

What's the trend here? Is everyone installing the new beta or are most of us staying with 13 until a final version of 14 comes out? I just finished my dream machine for under a grand and now I want to get past 15660 3dmarks