Abit Fatal1ty

in a word. No.

i cant get my board past 375 FSB stable with an E6400. We are still waiting for a new BIOS but currently i could not recommend this board for overclocking an E6300.

id get a QuadGT, or maybe even an ASUS P5N-E SLi
 
Go for the Asus if you want a 650i. Or if you don't mind an Intel chipset then a DS3/DS3P. I had a nightmare with my Abit and swiftly returned it. It has too many bugs and should'nt have been released until they had a proper stable bios.
 
Abit Quad GT is one of the best 965 boards at the moment - but you need to upgrade to the Beta BIOS. The overclocking capabilities of this board is awsome and will become better with more BIOS releases! Plus it has a Clear CMOS switch on the back so no need to open the case and reset when Overclocking goes wrong. It will also allow you to set your RAM timings to 1T if you so wish which is not available on other 965 boards.

I think the Abit Fatal1ty will become a great board - once the BIOS has been sorted. But its like most new boards - first release BIOS's are rubbish. My Gigabyte DQ6, Asus Asus A8R32-MVP etc were all rubbish at first - but turned out great after a few BIOS releases.

If you are buying now and want a 650i board - prob stick with the Asus.
 
ryansm said:
Abit Quad GT is one of the best 965 boards at the moment - but you need to upgrade to the Beta BIOS. The overclocking capabilities of this board is awsome and will become better with more BIOS releases! Plus it has a Clear CMOS switch on the back so no need to open the case and reset when Overclocking goes wrong. It will also allow you to set your RAM timings to 1T if you so wish which is not available on other 965 boards.
Totally agree with you, I would love to see how the Abit AB9 Quad GT fares against the Gigabyte DS3/4, Asus Commando/P5B series etc, if its better I can laugh at all the users of those boards because everyones boring & buys the same motherboards! :p
 
They released it when it wasn't quite ready. Unless you're prepared to cross your fingers and hope their BIOS team all come back from CeBit ready to work, then I'd go with the ASUS. It's just that little bit more mature at the moment. And Abit are now saying that their 650i board is not intended for overclocking, but just for gaming. In other words, it's not a good clocker, so don't come looking for a refund if it won't get you as good a clock as the other 650i boards.
 
WJA96 said:
And Abit are now saying that their 650i board is not intended for overclocking, but just for gaming. In other words, it's not a good clocker, so don't come looking for a refund if it won't get you as good a clock as the other 650i boards.

tssk, tssk :p, what they are saying (& have been saying for over a year) is that the Fatal1ty line is aimed at gamers & not designed for max overclocking (which is where the MAX series is now positioned) but they should still overclock.
I don't think that any mfr would ever refund you for a mobo if it didn't overclock - afaik they all only guarantee stock performance.
 
BUFF said:
tssk, tssk :p, what they are saying (& have been saying for over a year) is that the Fatal1ty line is aimed at gamers & not designed for max overclocking (which is where the MAX series is now positioned) but they should still overclock.
I don't think that any mfr would ever refund you for a mobo if it didn't overclock - afaik they all only guarantee stock performance.

Actually you're not entirely correct on a couple of points.

Firstly the Scottish Court of Session and Inner House of the Scottish Court of Session ruled that a motherboard manufacturer and their agents had to warranty all available options on a motherboard (MacPherson vs. Perfex Ltd.). This ruling resulted from a claim that a user had overclocked a motherboard which had subsequently failed. The supplier said they would not replace the board as it was overclocked. However the court ruled that the motherboard had those options available to the user and it was the motherboard that had failed, not the overclocked CPU. So, if the option is available in the BIOS, the motherboard should be able to run at that, if the user could prove the other components were capable of it (in another motherboard, for example).

And secondly, EVGA are actually replacing all their 680i boards that won't overclock Quad-cores, so at least one motherboard manufacturer takes those 'overclocking enthusiast' board claims seriously. Good for EVGA I say!

Just as a side issue - do you know if the IN-9 MAX overclocks quad-cores beyond 333MHz or do you need to increase the multiplier like on all the other 680i boards?
 
I'll take your word on the court case, of course it's only valid for those of us in Scotland.
Have you got a link as I would be interested in reading (esp. as I'm sure that Perfex Ltd. terms of sale would have specified English law)?

WJA96 said:
Just as a side issue - do you know if the IN-9 MAX overclocks quad-cores beyond 333MHz or do you need to increase the multiplier like on all the other 680i boards?
afaik it's like other 680is.
The best boards for quad fsb seem to be the likes of the QuadGT & P5B Deluxe from what I've read hitting 450+ .
 
BUFF said:
I'll take your word on the court case, of course it's only valid for those of us in Scotland.

Technically that is correct, but I think they do use example cases from across the border both ways.

BUFF said:
Have you got a link as I would be interested in reading (esp. as I'm sure that Perfex Ltd. terms of sale would have specified English law)?

I'll have to ask my sister (she's the legal beagle). It's a funny thing about an English company selling stuff to a Scot, all that English Law doesn't mean a great deal if you bring the case in Scotland. It's unreasonable to expect a Scot to go to an English court for a consumer issue. Whether a Scottish court can enforce a judgement in England is something else again (I don't know if MacPherson ever got his/her new motherboard :rolleyes: ).

BUFF said:
afaik it's like other 680is.
The best boards for quad fsb seem to be the likes of the QuadGT & P5B Deluxe from what I've read hitting 450+ .

But you take my point - some companies do print claims on the box and some of them even stand behind those claims, although I dread to think who's actually paying for all those refurbished EVGA 680i's. Right now it suits Abit to say the 650i isn't a clocker because it doesn't clock and the other Fatal1ty board doesn't clock very well either, but they've now got to bring out decent overclocking boards or those MAX claims look a bit hollow. The QuadGT (is it a MAX) is a very good board, but it's only at it's best with a beta BIOS and the IN9-MAX patently isn't worth the extra over the EVGA/MSI/Biostar/BFG/Foxconn boards in terms of overclocking at least.

Anyway - I will try to get a scan of that legal judgement for you.
 
RaiderX said:
so the Asus P5N-E would be best to get?

Do you absolutely need SLi? If yes, then get the ASUS. If not then the Gigabyte DS3 has all the other features and is a much easier overclocker. The Abit P965 QuadGT is a better potential clocker, but it has some issues. The ASUS P5B is also an excellent board.
 
WJA96 said:
I'll have to ask my sister (she's the legal beagle). It's a funny thing about an English company selling stuff to a Scot, all that English Law doesn't mean a great deal if you bring the case in Scotland. It's unreasonable to expect a Scot to go to an English court for a consumer issue. Whether a Scottish court can enforce a judgement in England is something else again (I don't know if MacPherson ever got his/her new motherboard :rolleyes: ).
Aye, there's the rub - getting the adjudication & enforcing it may be 2 different things ...

But you take my point - some companies do print claims on the box and some of them even stand behind those claims, although I dread to think who's actually paying for all those refurbished EVGA 680i's.
sort of:
1.afaik eVga aren't replacing all the mobos - only those where people are actually running quads & hitting the problem (what % do you think are using quads?)
2. I wouldn't be surprised if they put a time limit on it.
3. I wouldn't be surprised if someone other than eVga was "contributing".

& Right now it suits Abit to say the 650i isn't a clocker because it doesn't clock and the other Fatal1ty board doesn't clock very well either,
They aren't saying that it doesn't overclock (it clearly does albeit not as well as the asus currently) but that maximising overclocking isn't the design ethos for Fatal1ty boards.
& the other Fatal1ty board is the best overclockng C2D mATX that there is.

but they've now got to bring out decent overclocking boards or those MAX claims look a bit hollow.
Well, the AW9D- MAX is a competent overclocker compred to other 975s & I'm sure that the IN9 32X-MAX will be too with some BIOS work.

The QuadGT (is it a MAX) is a very good board, .
No, it isn't a MAX although it surely looks like it could be.
GT seems to be a new segmentation & I haven't quite fathomed out what makes a GT yet :confused:


edit: there may also be something else at play - I've just been reading over at XS that the latest batches of C2Ds are dogs for overclocking - they reckon that either all the good process are going for quads or Intel have tweaked production for yield affecting headroom.
 
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BUFF said:
1.afaik eVga aren't replacing all the mobos - only those where people are actually running quads & hitting the problem (what % do you think are using quads?)

I'm running a solitary quad (albeit it wasn't in the EVGA as that didn't work well ;) ) and mine is with them as we speak. I think many will simply want the option for when the Quad prices do drop. As far as I'm aware the replacement boards are not new, but refurbished or modified in some way. I would agree that they are probably not actually having to replace that many boards (they are not exactly shouting this policy from the rooftops) but you have to applaud them for doing it. It'll be a while before I buy a non-EVGA graphics card from now on.

BUFF said:
2. I wouldn't be surprised if they put a time limit on it.

It's possible, but having done it in the US, I would be be very surprised if they are able to put a limit on it. Certainly, I would think there would be a rush if Intel do drop the prices of quad-cores in the near future.

BUFF said:
3. I wouldn't be surprised if someone other than eVga was "contributing".

Generally, that's how it works in business, but again, it's very interesting that the other Foxconn manufactured 680i board suppliers aren't doing this. Neither are ASUS or Abit as far as I am aware and none of the 650i or 680i boards clock well with Quad-cores but it a appears to be a tiny board design issue that is common to the NForce6 platform and is easily resolved with a hardware modification.

BUFF said:
They aren't saying that it doesn't overclock (it clearly does albeit not as well as the asus currently) but that maximising overclocking isn't the design ethos for Fatal1ty boards.
& the other Fatal1ty board is the best overclockng C2D mATX that there is.

I actually got a higher overclock from an ASUS P5L-VM 1394 (412MHzx7 using a PATA HDD). Most of the ASUS G945 chipset boards will do 350MHz, just no-one tested them because they didn't have PCI or PCIe locks. I've had almost a dozen mATX boards and the Abit patently isn't worth the premium over an ASRock which is generally why everyone is now waiting on the 'next big thing' mATX board which is a modded G945 board from our friends at ASRock.

BUFF said:
Well, the AW9D- MAX is a competent overclocker compared to other 975s & I'm sure that the IN9 32X-MAX will be too with some BIOS work.

But all the Abit boards seem to have been released with half-finished BIOS's. The delay on the IN9-MAX was supposedly so that Abit could really tweak the BIOS and make it the ultimate board, hence the enormous price tag. I bought mine on a pre-order and got it for under £200, but it stayed in the box and went straight to auction because you could palpably feel disappointment in the buyers posts when they had these boards. The only early very positive test on here was by Gilgamesh and it now appears that me's not entirely independent of Abit.

BUFF said:
No, it isn't a MAX although it surely looks like it could be.
GT seems to be a new segmentation & I haven't quite fathomed out what makes a GT yet :confused:

You and I both, and even allowing for the fact that the QuadGT is a proper overclocker, it's not that much better than a DS3P which is cheaper and doesn't need a beta BIOS to get a proper overclock.

BUFF said:
edit: there may also be something else at play - I've just been reading over at XS that the latest batches of C2Ds are dogs for overclocking - they reckon that either all the good process are going for quads or Intel have tweaked production for yield affecting headroom.

That wouldn't surprise me at all. The increasing number of 'my CPU is running hot' posts would give circumstantial support to any theory that suggested Intel had changed something. That said - I have an E4300 here in a Rev 1.0 DS4 doing 3.6GHz and it was only bought last week from an OcUK competitor, so some of them are still OK. But then, Ive always found some folks are luckier than others when it comes to working at getting good performance ;) .
 
RaiderX said:
i would prefer an SLI board although i would probably never use it

To be frank, if you're not going to SLi then I would still buy the DS3P as it's just that little bit less frustrating at overclocking time. There was a point 2-3 months back when the ASUS was £20 cheaper than a DS3 and it had SLi, Firewire and two PATA ports. The DS3P now has Firewire and that would tip me back to the Intel chipset because it's just a much simpler overclock and all your new optical drives should be SATA :) .
 
WJA96 said:
The delay on the IN9-MAX was supposedly so that Abit could really tweak the BIOS and make it the ultimate board, hence the enormous price tag.
Actually I think that it was so that they could bundle the WiFi card but that meant new packaging etc. etc. ...

You and I both, and even allowing for the fact that the QuadGT is a proper overclocker, it's not that much better than a DS3P which is cheaper and doesn't need a beta BIOS to get a proper overclock..
mine would do 500fsb + on the release BIOS ...
What the betas do doesn't affect the performance it resolves some issues, principally with the JMicron.
Having had a DS4 (not a bad board) I prefer the QuadGT for things like layout, fan header provision, uGuru for hardware/fan monitoring & control etc.
The fact that it will do 500fsb on the 1067 strap from the BIOS is icing on the cake.


Oh & coming soon for the FP-IN9 SLI:
Release BIOS M524B_11.BIN:
1. Fixing boot hang POST code 50h and 6dh.
2. Fixing Command Rate abnormal by Manual
3. Fixing the SoftMenu String
4. Fixing the Memory Timing Setting
5. Fixing the OnChip Audio/LAN select
 
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