*** Official ABIT IS7/G/E (865PE) Thread ***

[MASTERT]

thx dead parrot guy that link works

Master Tablu

 

[orion7144]

The USB drivers are at their web site in the link on the first post of this thread. Those are for 98/me however. The USB on the disk should work.

Originally posted by: TELeast
I just got the IS7-E

it has a 3Com chip on it.
I tried installing both Win98se and Win2K, the ABIT driver CD autodetects and requests to install the 3Com gigabit LAN driver.

I tried Realtek drivers in Win2K - didn't work. In Win98se, I tried both the 3Com and the Realtek drivers...neither worked.

Also, for the USB2.0, there are only Win98 drivers inclucded. I thought Win2K would have auto detect and install the USB2.0 drivers itself...but it seems not able to, yet I can't find the suitable drivers.

Please Advise on the above issues... I am in a hurry to deliver this system to my friend as I built for him.

Thanx!

 

[neutralizer]

Isn't the 3Com gigabit LAN Driver on the disk? That's how I installed mine, I ran the prog on the disk.

 

[Tom]

It definately is for XP but he is trying to install it in Win98 and/or Win2000.

 

[SuperG03]

Hi,
I just got my ABIT IS7 board today. I have a 2.8GHz 800FSB P4. I also bought the Corsair TWINX 3200LL 512MB Dual Channel (256MB x 2). I installed all the hardware and booted up. I updated the BIOS to the new 13 bios on ABIT's website. Whenever I goto RAM speeds and change the RAS to CAS to 2 from 3, the BIOS fails, and I have to clear the CMOS and start over. Now even if I leave the value to 3, whenever I try to change the "Game Accelerator" mode to "F1", the BIOS fails. This is all at the DRAM at v2.6 (default right?). I read that corsair said that boards don't like their chips to be at RAS to CAS at 2, so they now are all 3. Now for the F1, I am not sure what exactly is required to get it to run stable. It says note, this uses very aggressive timings, etc. Can anyone tell me if there is a way to get it to work at 2-2-2-5 and "F1" mode, since I have read elsewhere that people have been able to do this. Also please let me know if anyone else has succesfully used the F1 mode with this memory. Thanks.

SuperG03

 

[orion7144]

If I recall correctly there is realy no official "standard" for PC3200 and above. I am guessing that is the reason F1 is not working. I have OCZ PC3500EL memory and st 216FSB (PC3500) I can run F1 fine with 2-2-2-6. I emailed OCZ before I bought the ram and they have very good coustomer support. They said if I had any troubles running at the spec'd speed they would give me new memory. Benchmarks are better however I have elected to use the 5:4 divider and run at 275FSB and that is actually faster than with PAT enabled at 216FSB.

Originally posted by: SuperG03
Hi,
I just got my ABIT IS7 board today. I have a 2.8GHz 800FSB P4. I also bought the Corsair TWINX 3200LL 512MB Dual Channel (256MB x 2). I installed all the hardware and booted up. I updated the BIOS to the new 13 bios on ABIT's website. Whenever I goto RAM speeds and change the RAS to CAS to 2 from 3, the BIOS fails, and I have to clear the CMOS and start over. Now even if I leave the value to 3, whenever I try to change the "Game Accelerator" mode to "F1", the BIOS fails. This is all at the DRAM at v2.6 (default right?). I read that corsair said that boards don't like their chips to be at RAS to CAS at 2, so they now are all 3. Now for the F1, I am not sure what exactly is required to get it to run stable. It says note, this uses very aggressive timings, etc. Can anyone tell me if there is a way to get it to work at 2-2-2-5 and "F1" mode, since I have read elsewhere that people have been able to do this. Also please let me know if anyone else has succesfully used the F1 mode with this memory. Thanks.

SuperG03

 

[MadScientist]

Are all the new IS7's now shipping with the Gigabit LAN controller chip? And are those parallel to the PCB ATA connections as bad as most reviews say they are?

 

[TheBigWookie]

Hey,
I'm about to pull the trigger on an IS-7 board with a 2.4C. What kind of memory works best in this MB?
I'm seeing people with Crucial memory issues ... and people with OCZ having problems ...
which memory would people suggest works without much hassles .. yes I intend on OC'ing. There are so many types of flavors of these ...

2 x of:
CORSAIR MEMORY XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series 256MB 32MX8 PC-3200C2 With Heat Spreader OEM (CMX256A-3200C2 )
CORSAIR MEMORY XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, Low Latency 256MB 32MX64 PC-3200LL (CMX256A-3200LL)
CORSAIR MEMORY XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series 256MB 32MX8 PC-3500C2 With Heat Spreader OEM (CMX256A-3500C2 )

OR OCZ memory
OCZ DDR PC-3200 Performance Series Memory 256MB Model# OCZ400256R2
OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Plantinum Edition, Enhanced Latency Series, OCZ400256ELPE - OEM
OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Plantinum Edition, Enhanced Latency Series, OCZ400256ELPE - OEM
OCZ DDR PC-3500 Basic Series Memory 256MB Model# OCZ433256B
OCZ DDR PC-3500 Performance Memory 256MB Model# OCZ433256EL OCZ DDR 256MB PC-3500EL
OCZ DDR PC-3700 Performance Memory 256MB Model# OCZ466256EL OCZ DDR 256MB PC-3700EL

Or something else???

Thanks

The other MB I was intereseted in was the ASUS P4P800 .. both excellent MB's.
The mere fact that I did not choose the IC7 or teh 3.0 C CPU indicates that I would want to do this on the lower expense side of unreasonable ... however I do want to OC and I play lot's of games so I want fast and stable. Doesn't have to be the fastest kid on the block.

 

[Zap]

I'm having problems with my optical drive not reading the cd properly. When I install Windows XP Home, I get a bunch of errors about not found a certain file, but if I hit retry it does seem to correctly find them. It doesn't seem to be a problem with the CD (since it will find the file when I hit retry), and it has happened with other cd's (my ATI video card install disc.) Also it doesn't seem to be problem with the optical drive since it does the same thing with a different optical drive.

It still may be the optical drive. I've seen this problem quite a few times even on new, otherwise fine optical drives. It seems to happen more with CDRW drives. I've had the best luck with Toshiba DVD drives. At work (computer repair shop) we have a Samsung drive pulled from a Compaq that we use whenever a drive won't read a disc.

If I recall correctly there is realy no official "standard" for PC3200 and above.

I thought PC3200 was made official already... albeit at CAS3.

I'm seeing people with Crucial memory issues ... and people with OCZ having problems ...

From what I recall... Crucial LL modules have problems with 865/875 chipsets because the modules specify a lower latency than the chipset can provide (one of those secondary RAS to CAS settings or something), causing a failure to POST. OCZ is just OCZ. Some people have had bad luck with them or have had them NOT overclock past specified speeds. Other people use them w/o problems. YMMV.

 

[neutralizer]

The best I could do with Corsair XMS PC3200C2 was 2-3-3-5 with Street Racer @217 FSB, anything more than that would end with beeps. I probably can push the FSB farther but not the timings or the GAT. Since it is doing better than the speced XMS, I guess it'll be okay.

 

[SuperG03]

Hi,

Thanks for all the info about the memory thing. I am running at 2-3-2-5 at Street Racer, so I guess thats fine.

However, now I have a new problem. I have an ABIT IS7, with a 2.8GHz 800FSB, and 512MB Dual-Channel Corsair TWINX 3200LL DDR. For some reason, if I do a fresh boot, (power is off, then I turn it on), it goes through the self test, and when it comes to the boot up page, it searches for a floppy, cd-rom, and then when it comes to my harddrive it says error please insert system disc..... Now if I press reset button on my computer, the system again goes through the bios self-test, and then this time it reads the hard drive and boots into Windows XP Pro. I am not sure what the problem is, but it does it EVERYTIME with a power off to power on boot. I have an IBM 60GB 7200 ATA100, and I didn't have a problem with it on my old computer. I think it is a BIOS setting, but I don't know what setting to change? Any help would be great. Thanks.

And one more thing. After I installed all of the hardware, etc., and installed XP Pro, under device manager, I get a Other Devices "USB Controller" with a ? and a !. Where are the drivers for it, and which USB's are they for? Because under Universal Serial Bus controllers, I see listed 9 items. "Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller" - "24D2" - "24D4" - "24D7" - "24DE", "USB Printing Support", and 4 "USB Root Hub". Now I know that the IS7 is suppose to have a total of 8 USB ports. I have the 4 on the motherboard, plus the extra bracket they give you, which has 2 more on it installed. That would give me a total of 6 out of 8. Now the motherboard has another USB header on it. (FP-USB2) Now I suppose thats for a fron pannel USB, if the case had it. Well my case is an older one so it does not have it, so I am not connecting anything to it. Would that be the reason for the yellow ? with the ! USB Controller in my device manager? Thanks.

SuperG03

 

[recon6]

I have the Is7 on the way from newegg, also I ordered 1GB (2x512) Geil Golden Dragon. I'll be running a 2,4C hopefully at least at 3000. When I get every thing put together (sometime next week) I'll let you guys know about the Geil memory.

 

[orion7144]

You should be able to hit 3gig easy however you will have to the 5:4 divider unless you have some spectacular ram.

Originally posted by: recon6
I have the Is7 on the way from newegg, also I ordered 1GB (2x512) Geil Golden Dragon. I'll be running a 2,4C hopefully at least at 3000. When I get every thing put together (sometime next week) I'll let you guys know about the Geil memory.

 

[Voltaire]

I've got a pair of GeIL Golden Dragons PC3200 (2 x 256) and I've managed to run it at 3:2 @ 270 for my 2.4c on the Abit IS7.
At the moment, I'm running them at 2-3-3-6 @ 2.6v, BIOS settings: F1, Strengthened refresh cycle rates at stock CPU speed, in waiting for a better HSF. At o/c'd speed, I can only run the DDR at Street Racer mode.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Voltaire
I've got a pair of GeIL Golden Dragons PC3200 (2 x 256) and I've managed to run it at 3:2 @ 270 for my 2.4c on the Abit IS7.
At the moment, I'm running them at 2-3-3-6 @ 2.6v, BIOS settings: F1, Strengthened refresh cycle rates at stock CPU speed, in waiting for a better HSF. At o/c'd speed, I can only run the DDR at Street Racer mode.

hrm...so you run DDR360? I would think you should be able to get that memory to do 5:4 for DDR432 which is where my XMS3200 is sitting at

 

[kaiguy]

Question for anyone who has some insight...

I have my IS7 running great and stable at FSB 225 with a 2.8c and 2x 512MB Corsair XMS 3200 C2. The only problem is PAT (or GAT) isn't enabled, and I can't get it to. I've tried changing the strap to 533 and 6(something), but when I change the memory ratio to 5:4, it runs my memory at DDR400, which it seems my Corsair doesn't like too much.

And if someone has my same memory, what kind of timings are you getting stable, and with what voltage? I'm currently at 2-3-3-6 at 2.65v.

Does GAT make that much of a difference?

Thanks.

 

[cagemusic]

Maybe a dumb question..but? Is the Game Accelerator option (and all the stuff below it) in the new bios PAT or is it somewhere else in the bios?

I am running two 256 sticks of Geil DDR4300 in a IS-7 and having no problems. I think this must be pretty good ram. I have tried a bunch of combinations and it always boots no problem. I get better benchmark results by setting Game Accelerator to auto and just pumping the fsb. Is anyone else getting good results from the Game Accelerator (PAT?)?

what seems to work best so far:
IS-7 bios 13
2.4B@2.8/156 fsb/533 strap
512 geil in Dual Chan mode/ram 1:1
ram timings 2-6-2-2


My cpu seems to run around 40C whether at stock or OCed. The same cpu used to run cooler in my Intel845PE board, which alrmed me at first, but maybe this board just runs a little hotter.

Last question. Does it seem like moving to a 800bus 2.4 would be a noticeable improvement over the 2.4 533bus? My 2.4B is C1 stepping so I am hesitant to replace it.

 

[Voltaire]

cagemusic:
"Maybe a dumb question..but? Is the Game Accelerator option (and all the stuff below it) in the new bios PAT or is it somewhere else in the bios?"

From what I see, enabling anything in the Game accelerator option didn't seem to give me PAT, but once you strap your CPU to 667, you'll have the enhanced performance mode (PAT?) turned on automatically... you can use CPU-Z version 1.18 to see whether this mode has been enabled.

The pair of GeIL Golden Dragon that I have is very sensitive to overclocking... they don't seem to do too well if I start fiddling with the Game Accelerator mode. Even at stock CPU speed (2.4c), I need to turn on the street racer mode, refresh cycle rates=strengthened, & then F1 mode sequentially ie rebooting each time each of them is enabled.

Does anyone have any similar experience as I do?

cmdrdredd:
"hrm...so you run DDR360? I would think you should be able to get that memory to do 5:4 for DDR432 which is where my XMS3200 is sitting at "

I've tried running them at DDR432 @ 5:4, but no boot at all. The best that my rams can do is DDR428 ie 265 or 266 at 5:4. Even that, I can't run my GeIL DDR with any of the Game Accelerator thingy turned on. I even had my rams running at 2.7v, which worried me a lot. I guess I should have gotten those Kingston HyperX kits... dammit!

Any advice?

 

[Tom]

"Does anyone have any similar experience as I do?"

I do. I get better performance at higher FSB and forgetting about game mode settings, than I do at lower FSB where I can get game mode to work. I hadn't tried that "strengthen" setting so I might give that a try. Thanks for the info.

 

[emjem]

Originally posted by: SuperG03
Hi,


And one more thing. After I installed all of the hardware, etc., and installed XP Pro, under device manager, I get a Other Devices "USB Controller" with a ? and a !. Where are the drivers for it, and which USB's are they for?
SuperG03

Go here and download the USB2 drivers file at the bottom of the page. Install that to get rid of the yellow problem markers.

 

[kaiguy]

Actually, you don't want to install those drivers. If you're running XP, just download SP1, as their included with that. You can't get any third-party USB 2 drivers...

(The one's on Abit's site are for Win9x).

 

[KashGarinn]

I'm wondering about this board, hopefully someone can answer my questions.

1) what is the general difference between the IS7 board, which is 865PE, and 875 boards ?

2) should I be worried about upgradability with this board (like taking on a new CPU, the prescott for instance)? How does it differ from upgradability of the 875? Which would last longer?

3) how big a problem is the tight-fit of the AGP slot? I'm thinking about buying ATI radeon 9800, wondering how difficult this is.

4) what kind of memory should I get with this board?

5) I'm thinking that the thermaltake 92L would be a cool solution if I will be attempting to overclock, but how can I be sure that the 92L and the IS7 and my Dragon case will all fit together?

6) How horrible is having the IDE and S-ATA slots sideways?

7) Could anyone point a link to me which explains the 2-6-2-2 RAM-timing numbers and how to use 'em?

8) How likely is it that overclocking either burns the CPU or the mobo? is there a safety system present against at least heat?

Thanks for any replies.

K.

 

[TheBigWookie]

Hey,
Is anyone running the IS 7 with Win98SE? I see there are drivers available from ABIT. If so are you having any stability problems.

Thanks

 

[neutralizer]

Originally posted by: KashGarinn
I'm wondering about this board, hopefully someone can answer my questions.

1) what is the general difference between the IS7 board, which is 865PE, and 875 boards ?

2) should I be worried about upgradability with this board (like taking on a new CPU, the prescott for instance)? How does it differ from upgradability of the 875? Which would last longer?

3) how big a problem is the tight-fit of the AGP slot? I'm thinking about buying ATI radeon 9800, wondering how difficult this is.

4) what kind of memory should I get with this board?

5) I'm thinking that the thermaltake 92L would be a cool solution if I will be attempting to overclock, but how can I be sure that the 92L and the IS7 and my Dragon case will all fit together?

6) How horrible is having the IDE and S-ATA slots sideways?

7) Could anyone point a link to me which explains the 2-6-2-2 RAM-timing numbers and how to use 'em?

8) How likely is it that overclocking either burns the CPU or the mobo? is there a safety system present against at least heat?

Thanks for any replies.

K.

1) At this point, there isn't much difference between the i865pe and i875 because the IC7 with bios 13 has PAT enabled so its basically running as if it were a i875 chipset.

2) i875 and i865pe have the same upgradability since the i865pe is only a crippled version of the i875. As for upgradability to Prescott, I doubt it because Prescott will have more pins and an entirely new socket. The only upgradability you can expect is for the socket 478 chips.

3) The IC7 has an AGP and memory real estate problem in that it will be hard to take out the RAM in DIMM 1 with the AGP card in.

4) DDR400, perhaps XMS3200C2 or HyperX.

5) I have no clue... I guess as long as it fits in the hsf area for the CPU, which it usually can as long as you don't have one of those huge hsfs. Actually OCing with the retail HSF is fine. And your dragon case should fit fine as long as the connectors for a P4 mobo.

6) Not so bad, but I can deal with it.

7) Change them in the BIOS by setting RAM timings to manual.

8) OCing will not burn your P4 as they throttle down then they get too hot. There is a warning system for failing fans, high cpu temps and when the cpu gets too hot, it can shut off as well.

Hope this helps.

 

[RIGorous1]

Originally posted by: neutralizer

Originally posted by: KashGarinn
I'm wondering about this board, hopefully someone can answer my questions.

1) what is the general difference between the IS7 board, which is 865PE, and 875 boards ?

2) should I be worried about upgradability with this board (like taking on a new CPU, the prescott for instance)? How does it differ from upgradability of the 875? Which would last longer?

3) how big a problem is the tight-fit of the AGP slot? I'm thinking about buying ATI radeon 9800, wondering how difficult this is.

4) what kind of memory should I get with this board?

5) I'm thinking that the thermaltake 92L would be a cool solution if I will be attempting to overclock, but how can I be sure that the 92L and the IS7 and my Dragon case will all fit together?

6) How horrible is having the IDE and S-ATA slots sideways?

7) Could anyone point a link to me which explains the 2-6-2-2 RAM-timing numbers and how to use 'em?

8) How likely is it that overclocking either burns the CPU or the mobo? is there a safety system present against at least heat?

Thanks for any replies.

K.

1) At this point, there isn't much difference between the i865pe and i875 because the IC7 with bios 13 has PAT enabled so its basically running as if it were a i875 chipset.

2) i875 and i865pe have the same upgradability since the i865pe is only a crippled version of the i875. As for upgradability to Prescott, I doubt it because Prescott will have more pins and an entirely new socket. The only upgradability you can expect is for the socket 478 chips.

3) The IC7 has an AGP and memory real estate problem in that it will be hard to take out the RAM in DIMM 1 with the AGP card in.

4) DDR400, perhaps XMS3200C2 or HyperX.

5) I have no clue... I guess as long as it fits in the hsf area for the CPU, which it usually can as long as you don't have one of those huge hsfs. Actually OCing with the retail HSF is fine. And your dragon case should fit fine as long as the connectors for a P4 mobo.

6) Not so bad, but I can deal with it.

7) Change them in the BIOS by setting RAM timings to manual.

8) OCing will not burn your P4 as they throttle down then they get too hot. There is a warning system for failing fans, high cpu temps and when the cpu gets too hot, it can shut off as well.

Hope this helps.

This post wasn't for me, but damn that was awesome... you answered every question. Its great to know people like you here are willing to help. Keep up the spirit of AT!