Sapphire PURE Crossfire Advantage

Nirach

Senior member
Jul 18, 2005
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I got my sapphire board on monday, after setting it up, I discovered that the IRQ numbering was completely out, and the serial bus was on the same as multimedia device, while a few others were on the same IRQ. I wasn't concerned that the USB controllers were set a 10 and SATA raid (Set as other mass storage) were both on 11.

I've tried a minimal install, IE, hard drive, CD drive with nothing that the system doesn't need, and the problem persists.

Is it a case of a bios update?

I'm completely stumped, a family member is going to come and have a poke around tonight, but any assistance would be greatly apreciated. The model number on Sapphires support page is "PC-A9RD480Adv" there are some updates and drivers available, but if they'd have any effect I don't know.
 

ionoxx

Senior member
Jan 18, 2005
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Where did you buy that Sapphire board?

BIOS update sure can't hurt if there is one available.
 

LTC8K6

Lifer
Mar 10, 2004
28,520
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IRQ sharing is perfectly normal with modern mobos and OS's.

Unless you have a problem you are certain is an IRQ conflict, don't worry about this.
 

Nirach

Senior member
Jul 18, 2005
415
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Normally I wouldn't worry about it, but the blue screen during install comes out with "IRQ_NOT_EQUAL_TO_OR_LESS_THAN"

Which concerned me some.

I bought the board from Overclockers.co.uk
 

rise

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2004
9,116
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91
Originally posted by: Nirach
Normally I wouldn't worry about it, but the blue screen during install comes out with "IRQ_NOT_EQUAL_TO_OR_LESS_THAN"
i've got that error with an overclock gone bad though. i think thats more generic like the stop errors.

you memtested at stock?

a bios update wouldn't hurt and you may want to poke around xtreme systems as there is alot of ati support there. "ugly n grey" is an ati support guy and "big toe" although i think he changed his name to just "tony" wrote or had alot of input into the bios for these boards.
 

Nirach

Senior member
Jul 18, 2005
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Not done any overclocking, it's all stock straight out of the box, so to speak. I'll check it out, thanks for the pointer :D
 

rise

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2004
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yeah, i assumed you were at stock but i typically memtest/stability test right out of the box at stock anyway to be sure things are kosher.

good luck with it :)
 

Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
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Originally posted by: Nirach
Normally I wouldn't worry about it, but the blue screen during install comes out with "IRQ_NOT_EQUAL_TO_OR_LESS_THAN"

Which concerned me some.

I bought the board from Overclockers.co.uk

That's not an "IRQ conflict", that's just a random crash that happened to occur while the CPU was executing driver code.

 

Nirach

Senior member
Jul 18, 2005
415
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I did answer the question, Overclockers.co.uk :D

Okay, I worked it out. It was the RAM. The one stick of the dual channel wasn't playing ball, not sure what was going on, but going to speak to the store I bought it, and get something sorted out.

The motherboard itself is working just fine, I'll be posting a basic review later tody with any luck.
 

Budarow

Golden Member
Dec 16, 2001
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As far as color goes, how does this mobo look? Are the "whites" and "reds" REALLY vibrantly colored or does the underlying PCB color show through (i.e., some of the "closeup" pics I saw made the white board look kinda "spotty").

I ask because I'll be using this board with a windowed case and LOTs of lights:)

Thanks,

Bud
 

HendrixFan

Diamond Member
Oct 18, 2001
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Originally posted by: Budarow
As far as color goes, how does this mobo look? Are the "whites" and "reds" REALLY vibrantly colored or does the underlying PCB color show through (i.e., some of the "closeup" pics I saw made the white board look kinda "spotty").

I ask because I'll be using this board with a windowed case and LOTs of lights:)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Sapphire.html

He has the crossfire version of the board, which doesnt have the fancy color scheme. You can see for yourself at the link above.
 

Budarow

Golden Member
Dec 16, 2001
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Originally posted by: HendrixFan
Originally posted by: Budarow
As far as color goes, how does this mobo look? Are the "whites" and "reds" REALLY vibrantly colored or does the underlying PCB color show through (i.e., some of the "closeup" pics I saw made the white board look kinda "spotty").

I ask because I'll be using this board with a windowed case and LOTs of lights:)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Sapphire.html

He has the crossfire version of the board, which doesnt have the fancy color scheme. You can see for yourself at the link above.

Gotcha...that's 1 of the pics I was refering to. See how the "white" looks kinda "greenish" or "blueish" near the chipset/fan? I was wondering if that's what the actual mobo looks like in "real" life as opposed to a photo?

 

Nirach

Senior member
Jul 18, 2005
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Budarow: http://www.sapphiretech.com/en/productfiles/117image3.jpg Sapphire photo of the board, but yeah, I have the crossfire edition which has no lights, and is pretty black :D

Warning, this is a tad long, but as promised here's my basic review of the motherboard:

System:
Sapphire PURE Crossfire Advantage
512mb Corsair low latency RAM (Would have preferred a gb, but it?s not possible at the moment)
AMD 64 S939 3000+
Sapphire X800GTO
Western Digital 80gb SATA
Maxtor 160gb SATA
Water cooled

Warning: This board has issues with certain SATA hard drives, details available in the bios update readme.txt and inf files, predominantly Seagate drives

The first thing you?ll notice about the board is the box, it has that ?Sapphire? feel to it, very much a piece of stylish design in its own right. Insides are organised well, while there is no anti-static bag containing the motherboard, adequate protection has been provided. All the basis are included, cables for IDE, floppy, the onboard firewire, SATA, along with all the usual bundled items.

The board itself is large, perhaps an inch wider and an inch and a half longer than most boards, but it still fitted snugly into the case. The board layout is well considered, nearly all the sections that require access have ample space for a hand. I say nearly, because the CMOS jumper is tucked neatly away under the SATA ports, which while neat, could lead to a little inconvenience in clearing the CMOS. The standard securing clips for the PCI-Express cards are also slightly harder to get at, assuming you have a full card cooler, which I happen to have. It?s not impossible, but a lot more problematic that it could have been. The power plugs are in relatively easy to access places, the four pin additional plug up in the top left of the board while the main 20 pin plug is mid board on the far right, just below the floppy. However, the pictures available on Sapphires website show the layout more than adequately.

The initial problem came with my own RAM, one stick of it was causing problems, unfortunately this affects later testing somewhat, I?d have preferred a full gig for the 3DMark tests and graphics overclocking. A bios update would be recommended, the menus changed significantly between the two versions. The bios number is harder to find, however, they should probably have all shipped with 20050811, yes, that is a date in American format. The newer version is 20050930, available from Sapphire techs website. The bios, Phoenix Award, has some differences to the bios I?m used to, but it?s easily negotiated none the less. Most users will want to change at least one setting in the bios, turning off the fullscreen ATI Xpress logo that overlays the usual test screen. I?ve yet to try and overcclocking, but the bios appears to be bale to handle voltage regulators, and other such useful items. It may be advisable to make the SATA controller treat the SATA drives as IDE drives, JBOD essentially, in the integrated peripherals, it increases the boot time some.

Back to the board, namely, the northbridge. The heat sink certainly takes the heat off it, but I?m willing to bet that it needs some active cooling, perhaps even a section of a water loop, because the heatsink gets too hot to touch within a matter of minutes during stress situations such as 3DMark, and one can only assume this will extend to games too.

The board has so far lived up to the expectations I have of Sapphire, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they don?t make the boards. The board is visually identical to both the board with SATA2 (I?m certain the Southbridge is the same, too), and not just the other Sapphire board, it?s practically identical to the PC Partner board, even the silk screen appears to match, all that appears to be different is the branding, this board doesn?t have the same style stamp on the underside as the Sapphire Gruber board, it?s almost a generic board with some branding. Who actually makes it, I have little clue.

The board uses the same brand of components as the Gruber, Teapo capacitors and mosfets, which is, as a review from AnandTech on the Gruber board state, an unknown company. We will have to wait to see if this affects performance or life of the board.

A general overview of the board is about all I can provide, I haven?t the technical know-how to do any further testing and investigation of the board. When I can, I?ll post some overclocks on the CPU.
 

Budarow

Golden Member
Dec 16, 2001
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Nirach...thanks for providing the "clean" photo. This boards looks really good and would have looked GREAT with my color scheme and lighting. It's too bad Sapphire took so long to ship'em. I ended up with the EVGA 7800GT and mobo combo cause I just couldn't wait any longer for the Pure.
 

Nirach

Senior member
Jul 18, 2005
415
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I know how you feel, I had originally pre-ordered the other crossfire board, with SATA II, but that was so long in the coming I switched to this one as soon as this one was released, I'd been waiting since the 18th of september..
 

HendrixFan

Diamond Member
Oct 18, 2001
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Im still waiting for the board to show up here in the States so I can order it.

Interesting note about the problem with Seagate drives. I was considering either a Seagate or Hitachi, now I know which way Ill go.
 

Nirach

Senior member
Jul 18, 2005
415
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Yeah, the files mentioned have much more detail about which ones are known to cause problems, so if the one you were looking at isn't one of the ones mentioned, they're identified by serial number, so you might get away with it.
 

mrclunk

Junior Member
Nov 15, 2005
2
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0
Nirach, where did you find the info on Seagate drive problems with the
pure advantage? I can't find any infs or txt's in the updates with stuff on HD probs.
I just ordered the mobo and a Seagate SATA so....
cheers
 

nRollo

Banned
Jan 11, 2002
10,460
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Hmmm. Didn't you basically say I was wrong when I tried to warn people about Crossfire motherboards last weekend?

And now you're posting about your problems? :confused:
 

vorda

Junior Member
Nov 12, 2005
4
0
0
you were wrong...the problem you were referring to was not the same as the one nirach is having...he can boot up the board with no problem...so stop gloating on every ati problem...havent been here long, but already dont like you :)
 

nRollo

Banned
Jan 11, 2002
10,460
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Originally posted by: vorda
you were wrong...the problem you were referring to was not the same as the one nirach is having...he can boot up the board with no problem...so stop gloating on every ati problem...havent been here long, but already dont like you :)

Oh....no.....you don't like me?!?!?!?





<BANG>



Thud