ABIT Quad GT or AW9D-Max

[Blitzen]

Hi fellas
I really need some advice. I am dying to buy one of these 2 boards.

Ideally the Quad GT but this bios problem is really putting me off. Is it guaranteed that the IDE wont work if using RAID 0 or 1?

This is why the AW9D-MAx looks so appealing. Is that also Quad core compatible and are the bios revisions good so there will be no problems?

Its definitely going to tbe one or the other but i am desperate for advice.


Thanks

[BUFF]

Ideally the Quad GT but this bios problem is really putting me off. Is it guaranteed that the IDE wont work if using RAID 0 or 1?

fixed in beta BIOS.
Ask Richh as that's how he's running.

[Richh]

Hi fellas
I really need some advice. I am dying to buy one of these 2 boards.

Ideally the Quad GT but this bios problem is really putting me off. Is it guaranteed that the IDE wont work if using RAID 0 or 1?

Far from it. As BUFF suggests, I'm running a two disk RAID 0 array on the ICH8R (plus some single disks), as well as three parallel ATA optical drives, two on the JMB363 and the third connected via a Serillel II to a Silicon Image PCIe add-in controller. It all works perfectly.

There are a couple of things to avoid when setting it up, and you will, at time of writing, need the 11beta6 BIOS, but it's perfectly doable, and once the 11 BIOS is released officially, should quickly cease being a topic of conversation.

[Nelly.]

There are a couple of things to avoid when setting it up, and you will, at time of writing, need the 11beta6 BIOS, but it's perfectly doable, and once the 11 BIOS is released officially, should quickly cease being a topic of conversation.

Hi mate, any chance you could send me the latest 11beta6 Bios, would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

[Blitzen]

Far from it. As BUFF suggests, I'm running a two disk RAID 0 array on the ICH8R (plus some single disks), as well as three parallel ATA optical drives, two on the JMB363 and the third connected via a Serillel II to a Silicon Image PCIe add-in controller. It all works perfectly.

There are a couple of things to avoid when setting it up, and you will, at time of writing, need the 11beta6 BIOS, but it's perfectly doable, and once the 11 BIOS is released officially, should quickly cease being a topic of conversation.

But i dont know how to get the Beta Bios. I also dont know how to put it on if i had it

I really want the board but dont want to arse it up in the process.

[BUFF]

we can link you to the beta & that's assuming that abit don't have a final up shortly.
Flash from a floppy (or Windows with FlashMenu).

[Blitzen]

we can link you to the beta & that's assuming that abit don't have a final up shortly.
Flash from a floppy (or Windows with FlashMenu).

Any proper links to how to do this?
I have read the instructions on the ABIT website and its blatantly obvious they were written by someone from the far east as its all in Pigeon English

[BUFF]

http://www.lvcoyote.com/biosflash.htm

written for another mobo but the methodology is the same.
I use the driver free DRDOS bootdisk fom www.bootdisk.com when I don't use FlashMenu.

[Blitzen]

So...last question then (i appreciate the advice and links).

Can i flash this bios without having hard-drives installed etc?

I dont want to install, then flash, then go back again and start over.

I have 2 x SATA HDD's but unfortunately also 1 x DVD RW (IDE) and a floppy drive.

WHat do i need to plug in.

(Any chance of the Beta Bios link btw)

Cheers for this.

[BUFF]

"Can i flash this bios without having hard-drives installed etc?"
yes
You should be able to flash it just with CPU/HSF, gfx, memory, floppy & PSU plugged in.

I've only got B02 as I'm not using RAID.
I'm sure that Richh or someone else can PM it to you if I can't dig up the link shortly.
http://www.rarhost.com/download-lf3l9c.html but server currently down
try http://putstuff.putfile.com/51265/3377026

oh & to answer an earlier question the QuadGT is currently the better overclocker with a quad core running into the mid 400s stably.
There are still some minor niggles to do with power management & multis on quads but it's still very early in terms of BIOS development for the board.

[Firebar]

I'm still awaiting a BIOS update to fix the Quad Xtreme and Vista hangs

[BUFF]

I'm sure that someone on abit-USA was running a QuadGT/quad on Vista?

[Firebar]

I'd love to know how lol
Perhaps they enabled "limit CPUID Val' or whatever to only use 2 cores, but thats no good to me. Getting impatient now

[Firebar]

A small update. Having REflashed the Beta 06 bios onto the board I can now install Vista. The only thing now is that I have the stuck multiplier issue, its jammed at x6. I was wondering why bf2142 was running pretty poorly in Vista

[BUFF]

The only thing now is that I have the stuck multiplier issue, its jammed at x6.

You can run RMclock or crystal? for that.

[Firebar]

Thanks for your reply Buff. The problem is that both of those apps require unsigned drivers, so I'd have to f8 each time and load up that way.