AB9 QuadGT reviwed at *n*ndt*ch

[ABIT Sean]

No beta bios for the AB9 quad GT yet. I will let you know when I receive it.

[Richh]

Eh? You need to tell Abit central to keep you updated better Sean, as BUFF linked to the beta BIOS days back:

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=119222


More to the point, when are Scan getting their stocks?!!!

[ABIT Sean]

Why is it that abit USA always get the updates before me?

Scan should have the motherboard in stock very soon.

[Richh]

Why do they get that stuff before you? Well, everyone who's seen Team America: World Police knows that the USA is the centre of the universe, so that must be it.

As for "very soon", are we talking minutes, or hours, or...?

[ABIT Sean]

I think the shipment was sent a few days ago. Your best bet is to contact scan to see if they can give you an update.

[Richh]

Quick update on this one - according to Scan, their supplier hasn't even sent stocks of the AB9 QuadGT yet. Can you confirm/deny this one way or the other Sean? Need this order urgently now and if it's going to be another week before Scan get their stocks in, I'm going to have to order elsewhere.

Scratch that, couldn't wait any longer, found one elsewhere.

[ABIT Sean]

I work in the technical department so im not 100% sure but I thought there was a order already made. I could be wrong, if scan say they have no stock then they no reason to lie.

[BUFF]

Quick update on this one - according to Scan, their supplier hasn't even sent stocks of the AB9 QuadGT yet.

that's weird because they had it on Today Only the other day & they don't do that without stock ...

[Richh]

Indeedy - but even the Today Only entry had "Pre-Order" next to it! As you say, it seems bizarre putting it on a today offer when they don havel stocks to send out, but I guess the recent warehouse weirdness has messed things around a tad.

[Richh]

Right, finally got my hands on one and had a little time to play with it. First impressions back up the Anandtech review - very good physical layout, far improved over the AB9 Pro.

If I was being picky I'd have hoped that Abit would have provided an alternative to the JMB363, as its IDE ports still seem to be somewhat, well, picky, but getting Windows installed was possible after a little experimentation with BIOS settings. Haven't checked to see whether it's possible to burn a DVD yet, time will tell.

When I powered it up, the first thing I noticed was the, erm, pimp LEDs. They may have seven flashing modes, but thankfully, they can also be disabled.

The digital PWM appears to give very good core voltage control, and uGuru also allows the temperature of all five phases to be independently monitored - and have a fan slaved. One slight downer that the C1E active voltage management option is missing from the 1.1 beta BIOS and appears to be disabled by default. This was present in version 1.0 and hopefully will come back in the release 1.1 as it drops the idle temperatures significantly.

On my system at least, I've also found that the speed control on the CPU fan channel seems a little finicky. It'll control an OEM Intel four wire fan, but not the CoolerMaster or Zalman four wires I've tried, nor any three wire fan - all these run at full speed all the time. Not sure whether this is the fans' fault or the board's - will find out tho.

Beyond that, the behaviour mentioned in the Anandtech review where the vDIMM parameter in the BIOS "disagreed" with the uGuru application seems to have been fixed in uGuru 3.101.

Ran straight up to 350MHz FSB with a 6600 on stock voltages and cooling, so will be interesting to see where it goes when pushed a little.

[BUFF]

It'll control an OEM Intel four wire fan, but not the CoolerMaster or Zalman four wires I've tried, nor any three wire fan - all these run at full speed all the time. Not sure whether this is the fans' fault or the board's - will find out tho.

as far as I can see the board only uses PWM control on the CPUFan header & as such isn't going to control any 3-pin fan.

[Richh]

Indeed, I wasn't surprised to see the three wire fans not working, I was a little more surprised to see that only the Intel four-wire fan could be controlled.

I've also just butted heads with the RAID issue - and found that this is also brought on by the presence of an add-in PCIe SATA controller, as well as the JMicron, but not by an old PCI PATA card. Annoying as I want to install a RAID array on it. Hope FAE are on top of things...

[b00sfuk]

On my system at least, I've also found that the speed control on the CPU fan channel seems a little finicky. It'll control an OEM Intel four wire fan, but not the CoolerMaster or Zalman four wires I've tried, nor any three wire fan - all these run at full speed all the time. Not sure whether this is the fans' fault or the board's - will find out tho.

Any more news on this? I've got a QuadGT + AC Freezer 7 on order and am hoping the fan control works with this combination.
If not I guess I can wait for a BIOS update (?) or plug the 4pin AC7 into a 3pin AUX Fan header and use DC fan control (while turning the fan monitoring off on the CPU header). I pretty certain this will work as the AC7 does work off a 3pin header (confirmed on AC website for other older S775 motherboards).

[BUFF]

doesn't the Freezer 7 have a PWM controlled fan as standard?
Will be interesting to see if that works fine.
I don't foresee getting a BIOS update for it but you can certainly run it off a 3-pin header (& turning off CPUFan monitoring).

[b00sfuk]

doesn't the Freezer 7 have a PWM controlled fan as standard?
Will be interesting to see if that works fine.
I don't foresee getting a BIOS update for it but you can certainly run it off a 3-pin header (& turning off CPUFan monitoring).

Yes it is a 4pin PWM controlled 2500rpm fan but I'm not hopeful as all others fail to work - anyway I'll find out in a few days when it arrives. I'm assuming this problem is unique to the QuadGT (and maybe AB9?) and that other P965 boards with PWM CPU fan control work OK? Did I read on another forum/post that the problem is with fans with a spec of <3000rpm (stock Intel works as it is much more than this)? If so then there must be a chance that it is possible to fix if ABIT were motivated.

Looks like it is voltage control off the 3-pin AUX3 fan header and hope that at 8V the fan is quiet.

[Richh]

Yes it is a 4pin PWM controlled 2500rpm fan but I'm not hopeful as all others fail to work

I wouldn't be quite that pessimistic, I've had a good look round the Abit USA forums and it appears there are plenty of folk who do get this working fine.

I'm assuming this problem is unique to the QuadGT (and maybe AB9?) and that other P965 boards with PWM CPU fan control work OK?

As things stand it may well be that the problems I experienced on the fans here are problems with those specific fans rather than the QuadGT itself.

Did I read on another forum/post that the problem is with fans with a spec of <3000rpm (stock Intel works as it is much more than this)?

Well that comment is incorrect on its own terms, as the Intel fan runs at under 2000rpm flat out.

Looks like it is voltage control off the 3-pin AUX3 fan header and hope that at 8V the fan is quiet.

You can set the Aux2,3 and 4 headers down to 6 volts via the in-OS utility, so even via this route you should be able to quiet your fan sufficiently. Hopefully though you won't find it necessary.