ECS A770M-A and 8800gtx?

[DarkParadox]

Ok, im a little confuddled here on sli and crossfire, so im hoping for some clarification. im usualy pretty good with computers :P

i have ordered a bfg 8800gtx oc2, which will run in my current pc, but i have since decided to upgrade my cpu and mobo too. (current is athlon64 3800, 7900gtx).

I want to get one of those spanky new phenom am2+, the ecs board on aria says it will and it also does pcie2... but, ive looked for reviews of the board and they use ati hd cards to test them, but the description doesnt list crossfire? which i thought ati used.

so really my question is, can i use the ecs board (quickcode: 29711), with a phenom (quickcode: 30000) and also with the 8800gtx?

Cheers

Paradox

[Lynx]

That is not a crossfire board, and also, with that 8800GTX, even if the board had two slots, it wouldnt work, amd do CROSSFIRE, while nvidia to SLI neither is compatible with each other.

[DarkParadox]

thanks for your reply. i know about the two different names, sli and crossfire, and i know that board only has the one pcie2 slot.
I wasn't sure on your answer though, the 8800gtx will not work with this ecs board?

[Lynx]

Yeh it will work, pcie2 is made for HD3000 series, but its backwards compatible.

[DarkParadox]

ah right, ok.
thanks again.

*send in his order*

[Mul.]

Should be a decent build. An 8800GTX in an AMD770 based board shouldn't pose any problems. I would've probably gone for a board like the Asus M3A or Gigabyte 770 DS3 rather than the ECS. No major reason though, simply because the ECS seems to be a bit more limited on the overclocking front. I probably would've simply gone Intel Core 2 Duo with that kind of money to spend though. Fair play though, each to their own :)

Let us know what you think of the rig when it's up and running,

Mul

[tystar]

Yeh it will work, pcie2 is made for HD3000 series, but its backwards compatible.

pcie2 is for both nvidia and ati.
my 8800gt is pcie2 but works fine on my pcie1 board.

Aslong as the board supports x16 it shouldnt matter if you use a ati or nvidia card the only time it makes a difference is if your planning on using 2 x nvidia (sli) or 2 x ati (crossfire) and the board only supports 1 or the other.

bottom line is that a nvidia card WILL work on a amd board and vice versa.

[DarkParadox]

okeydoke, thats why i was confused. i thought it was manufacturer specific on cards and mobo chipsets.
lesson learnt :)
oh and i did actualy go for the asus m3a board in the end after reading reviews about it, thanks everyone.

[DarkParadox]

Well, all started out ok, but now i have problems :(

playing games, any, but ill use assassins creed dx10 as an example. Eventualy i get a bsod, anywhere between 5mins to 30mins:
system_service_exception 0x0000003b

ive also had these at various points:
0x000000101
0x00000001e
0x00000007e
A clock interval was not recieved on a secondry processor within the allocated time interval.


I usualy get the 0x07b with the desktop at idle eventualy, i think ive managed a couple of hours with it sitting there.
It also gives me the 0x07b with firefox, when downloading a file is about to finish (but not always).

Ive ran memtest86+ 2.1 for a few hours and no problems there.
Ive read that it *could* be the gfx card, but also *could* be the phenom with a faulty core, but it also *could* be faulty ram.

all drivers are upto date, bios and all.
im at a loss now, ive exhausted my knowledge at checking everything.

heres the full spec, but i doubt it will be too helpful.

9600 phenom
2x1gb ocz reaper (1066) but running at 800 as windows doesnt run with various errors too.
Xilence 700w gaming edition psu
xfx 8800gtx xxx
asus m3a mobo
250gb sata WD
vista ultimate 64bit

Ive tried adjusting everything i can think of in the bios, but still no luck.
Hopefuly someone can help me a little more here.
ive read on various boards and blogs that there are a few people with the same kind of problems.
vista gives me a 5.8 rating, which is quite nice i quess.

*screams*

[Lynx]

What voltage is the ram recieveing?

Also, what timings?

Next, are all the power connectors for the GFX connected? And drivers, are the latests drivers installed?

[DarkParadox]

cpu-z says:
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc266/Angelus2008/cpuz1.jpg
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc266/Angelus2008/cpuz2.jpg
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc266/Angelus2008/cpuz3.jpg
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc266/Angelus2008/cpuz4.jpg

Ive got all the latest drivers installed, and ive tried older ones too but no difference.
The power connectors are connected on the gfx card, the manual says it wont even power on unless they are both plugged in.

[Mul.]

Sounds like a memory issue to me. You're going to have to manually set the right memory timings and voltage in BIOS. For now, tighten it up to 5-5-5-15 and set the Memory Voltage to 2.1V (or +0.3, however it's shown).

[DarkParadox]

Hi Mul. I set the timings as to your advice, and the voltage, it was fine for a few hours but then gave me the 0x03b bsod again.
I read the specs for the ram, and it said they *can* run at 2.35v, so i upped it, and so far its been perfect, no bsods at all in the last 12 hours, and my 3dmark mark has gone up 2000 points. ive run every stress testing game, util etc i have and everything seems ok now, and the ram is working at 1066mhz.
I can definetely notice the performance difference over the 800mhz it was at, with all the bsods.
Can you see any long term problems with the sttings ive done?
oh, the amd overdrive app says it cant detect my amd cpu, any thoughts on that? it lists that it supports the phenoms on the site.

thanks
Paradox

[Mul.]

2.35V is probably the highest safe max I'd consider for DDR2 before you're seriously capping it's life expectancy. If the RAM's rated up to 2.35V at DDR2-1066 then you shouldn't have any problems in terms of getting the modules RMA'd if they ever decide to fail. I'd say you're fine really but if you're concerned, get some airflow round the RAM area.

edit- Just checked the OCZ site. The max is 2.3V for your kit but if it says 2.1V on the module, the kit isn't doing what it's rated to do.

For the CPU detection issue, I believe this is an issue with AMD Overdrive version 2.0.17. The previous versions (2.0.10 or 2.0.14) should work fine.

[compleet-is]

I have an issue with that boards too.
I have an ECS A770M-A with PhenX4 9500, 1 module 2GB Kingmax, 4x HDD Maxtor in Raid and installed Windows server 2003. After few boots the mainboards resets the BIOS on its own and we have to get into BIOS to set boot from Raid every time. Any clue why please?