Biostar T-Power I45

Rainmaker

Rainmaker

Rainmaker

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OK, so I'd decided to wait for the E0 stepping on the Q9550. It's hard to wait longer, but probably the best bet. I was pretty set on the Gigabyte EP45-DS3R mobo, but all the talk of the Biostar T-Power I45 got me looking into that board.

For what I want it seems pretty good, not to mention the FSB world record holder, and the audio and gigabit LAN are both Realtek (which is a bonus for Linux). I'd be running my new setup with the Q9550, 4GB DDR2 PC2-6400 (probably Corsair MX2 or GeIL) and a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme.

The only thing I'm not sure of is the board, mostly because I'd never heard of Biostar before now. I'm litearally hovering over the buy button, but the AMI bios and lack of decent documentation is putting me off a bit (I've never OCd before).

Can anyone with this board weigh in with some advice? Is it easy to use/overclock on? For example the voltages aren't set out as 1.2, 1.3 etc - they're set out as -0.1, 0, +0.1, +0.2 (above stock values). Would this be a difficult board to work with as a n00b? :o

The only other thing I want to ask is the CPU socket placement - it looks a little high on the board. Would it potentially interfere with my PSU (Akasa 500w Ultra Quiet Paxpower) with the Ultra on there? I'm thinking I should just buy it and see - it's getting mostly great reviews :D
 
Oops, this really should have gone in Motherboards - how did that happen? :o If a Don would like to move it, that'd be great. That said this thread is about overclocking this board, rather than a "what mobo" type thread, so maybe it's OK here after all :D Sorry.
 
Rainmaker said:
Bought it :D
Click to expand...
Just to answer your questions, if i can, the AMI bios is actually great on this board. It is because of the AMI bios that I have managed to recover from a borked overclock attempt on quite a few occasions.
The motherboard's failed overclock reset feature wouldn't work, no matter how many times I tried; I couldn't get the board to post. Eventually after almost giving up and thinking that the board was kaput, I was looking at the led readout on the board and kept seeing E9 appearing on every reboot attempt. E9 meant that it was trying to read from the floppy, I haven't got a floppy in my machine, but have a usb floppy drive.
Now after a bit more researching and head scratching I realised that the bios had corrupted and so I needed to reflash it blind (i.e. no monitor).
The process is explained here.
http://www.biosman.com/biosrecovery.html (please delete if link breaks any rules)

All this was new to me and after quite a worrying time, I was sure as hell pleased that the board had an AMI bos.

Now on to your other questions
The board is supposed to be easy to overclock, especially with a 45nm dual core cpu with a 65nm cpu it is no better or worse than a lot of other motherboards.
With a 45nm quad it is not so easy to overclock and will take a fair bit of trial and error, but the results I think, are worth it. I am currently up to 460fsb, this is with a 6x mutliplier and is occt stable. I have managed to boot into windows and run 3d mark at 500 fsb, but this wasn't occt stable.

Now onto the voltage question.
When you enter the voltage section of the bios, each of the main voltages are listed under the voltage settings, so all you have to do is add on the extra you are applying. e.g cpu voltage (listed as 1.10 at the bottom) and you want to add on +0.1 (easy)

Onto your last question
No idea (thank god I hear you sigh)
sorry
My psu is at the bottom of my case

Good luck with your new purchase, I hope I have helped to make you feel a bit better about your new purchase :D

(sorry for long post)
 
Thanks for that :D I might stick a E8500 in there then and see how I go. It'd save £100 but I'm not sure how much I'd regret not going quad, tbh :)
 
I am still on my overclocking adventure so not really sure how far the motherboard can overclock 45nm quads (i have a q9300)
At the moment I am just pushing the fsb as high as it will go, 460fsb is nothing to be sniffed at.

I'd stick with the quad
or get both:D

To be honest, there isn't a vast amount of options in the bios to alter, but with the 45nm quads it just takes a bit more trial and error.

Have fun.:)
 
Rainmaker,

Been reading the CPC labs test today and tbh theres little in overclocking terms between the P5Q, IP45, Rampage or Black Ops, so I've just ordered the Biostar and 2GB of Patriot RAM for £140. :D

How straightforward was it flashing the BIOS and did you need to in order for it to recognise your E8600?

Also whats the score with NB cooling? Ive read reports of a noisy 60mm fan needing to be attached?
 
mike gunnz said:
Rainmaker,

Been reading the CPC labs test today and tbh theres little in overclocking terms between the P5Q, IP45, Rampage or Black Ops, so I've just ordered the Biostar and 2GB of Patriot RAM for £140. :D
Click to expand...

You made the right decision ;) There's little in it in "day to day" terms, perhaps, but don't forget the Asus and the like bomb out around 500 MHz FSB. The Biostar has gone well past 700 MHz FSB already, and holds multiple world overclocking and FSB records :D If it weren't for the E8600's high multi, you'd have been VERY glad the I45 is so flexible FSB wise compared to the Asus and Gigabyte (or any other) boards.

How straightforward was it flashing the BIOS and did you need to in order for it to recognise your E8600?
Click to expand...

Flashing is a piece of pee :D The I45 emulates memory cards (like those you'd get in a digicam for example) and small volume USB sticks as 'floppy'; so basically on boot if it finds a BIOS image on any attached peripheral it'll be able to recognise it and use it to flash the chip. Just download the BIOS file from Biostar's Global or USA website, save it to USB key or flash card and reboot. Hit the quick flash hotkey (F11 I think, but my rig's in bits atm pending rebuild so I can't check - look at the manual). The dialog will open, showing you the available options (flash card, USB etc); just select the one with your BIOS file on it and hit enter, y for yes, enter. Done :D It only takes a few seconds.

Your board, like mine, will come with the latest (710) BIOS already. It recognises the E8600 and all 45nm CPUs out of the box :) Note that for some reason, various people are reporting better clocks after they RE-FLASH the 710 BIOS after they get their board. There's no newer version, but if you re-flash to 710 from USB when you set the system up, apparently it makes a difference. Dunno why, but I did it anyway to be safe lol

Also whats the score with NB cooling? Ive read reports of a noisy 60mm fan needing to be attached?
Click to expand...

I didn't bother with the "Cool Harbor" and fan as my 120mm Vendetta 2 hangs over and covers the northbridge. That said even when overvolted massively, the northbridge was still at room temperature so... :D If you have a smaller cooler, you'd be as well to attach the Cool Harbor copper heatsink, but just not the fan. That way you have more surface area for the heat to escape from, but not the whiny fan noise. Besides if your CPU HSF is blowing towards a rear exhaust chassis fan, your Cool Harbor would sit passively between these and get a lot of extra cooling anyway!

It's a fantastic board, and great fun. You'll enjoy it, no doubt. If Biostar could improve anything, I'd like to see smaller volt increases be possible in the BIOS. For example the jumps for CPU voltage go from, say, +0.5 to +1.0. That's not an actual real-world example but you get the idea. Finer grained control would be a huge bonus for when you hit the bleeding edge of a clock, and need a BIT more voltage, rather than a full extra half a volt (which might run too hot, or be over your personal 'comfort' limit).

Whether or not Biostar change this in future BIOS' remains to be seen. As it happens though, the TPower Utility in Windows DOES have the finer grained voltage increases available, so you could always switch to that once you're nearing the edge of your clock in the BIOS.

Have fun :D
 
Nice informative post Rainmaker. I'm really glad the Biostar came along as I've been looking for an alternative to the ubiquitous Asus brand. Cant wait to put it through its paces.

I just need to find a water block to fit the northbridge now.
 
I can't help with that one, sorry. I've never done water (yet!). There's a huge Biostar I45 thread over on XS though. Started by Ace-A-Rue and full of good stuff - maybe someone there will know?
 
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