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This weekend I copped a new Abit IX38 motherboard and 4 x 1GB of Ballistix Tracers. This replaced my insanely flaky Gigabyte 650i-DS4 and 2 x 1GB of Corsair XMS w/ the Knight-Rider LEDs that were failing memtest horribly.
First impressions of the board? WOW. Build quality, BIOS, features, etc blew my 956-DS3 and 650i-DS4 boards away. I have not owned an Abit since my IC7-G and its nice to have the Abit I remembered back.
I did NOT update to the new beta BIOS. Having such good luck with the shipped latest official one that I havent bothered w/ it yet. Running the CPU @ 1.3375v and the memory @ 2.0v and its Orthos stable for 24 hours. 3.3Ghz is more than I expected for 4 stix of ram installed! Im quite pleased.
I installed a CoolerMaster 40mm fan on the northbridge cooler that was laying around from some aftermarket NB cooler kit I had. Could not find the 2nd fan or I would have installed it on the other cooler with a paperclip mod. Unless you have a screwy screwdriver, dont expect to get more than one screw in. The PCI-X retention clip is completely in the way of the other screw head. Temps on this under load are around 30-33 degrees.
The onboard Clear CMOS and Power/Reset buttons and diagnostic LED are pretty cool. I like how they light up. Having a Bob Slay Im all about the xtra LEDs and lights. These wee a nice touch IMO.
My temps are not too bad in a semi-cramped Bob Slay, but not great either. In my loft office, the ambient temps are always between 75-77f degrees. I used Shin Etsu paste this time for shits instead of AS5, and my idle with all my fans on low (very quiet) is 44c. Load is hitting 60c. Most people have 5-7 degrees lower ambient temps so these are within an acceptable range i guess. I can crank up the fans and drop these temps some but I tested quiet first. I dont know how long Shin Etsu usually needs for phase change but I bet its more than 24 hours. That stuff is THICK and kind of dry.
Im interested in what anyone else is getting w/ their IX38. Post some results here if you have them, seems hardly anyone here even owns this thing yet.
Here's some more pics of my completed setup.
Powered off, I love that the buttons and diagnostic stay lit.
The CCMOS rear button lights up too. My fan controler is in the PCI slot above the video card.
Shot of the NB fan running. I think its dope they inluded the screw mounts to do this.
First impressions of the board? WOW. Build quality, BIOS, features, etc blew my 956-DS3 and 650i-DS4 boards away. I have not owned an Abit since my IC7-G and its nice to have the Abit I remembered back.
I did NOT update to the new beta BIOS. Having such good luck with the shipped latest official one that I havent bothered w/ it yet. Running the CPU @ 1.3375v and the memory @ 2.0v and its Orthos stable for 24 hours. 3.3Ghz is more than I expected for 4 stix of ram installed! Im quite pleased.
I installed a CoolerMaster 40mm fan on the northbridge cooler that was laying around from some aftermarket NB cooler kit I had. Could not find the 2nd fan or I would have installed it on the other cooler with a paperclip mod. Unless you have a screwy screwdriver, dont expect to get more than one screw in. The PCI-X retention clip is completely in the way of the other screw head. Temps on this under load are around 30-33 degrees.
The onboard Clear CMOS and Power/Reset buttons and diagnostic LED are pretty cool. I like how they light up. Having a Bob Slay Im all about the xtra LEDs and lights. These wee a nice touch IMO.
My temps are not too bad in a semi-cramped Bob Slay, but not great either. In my loft office, the ambient temps are always between 75-77f degrees. I used Shin Etsu paste this time for shits instead of AS5, and my idle with all my fans on low (very quiet) is 44c. Load is hitting 60c. Most people have 5-7 degrees lower ambient temps so these are within an acceptable range i guess. I can crank up the fans and drop these temps some but I tested quiet first. I dont know how long Shin Etsu usually needs for phase change but I bet its more than 24 hours. That stuff is THICK and kind of dry.
Im interested in what anyone else is getting w/ their IX38. Post some results here if you have them, seems hardly anyone here even owns this thing yet.
Here's some more pics of my completed setup.
Powered off, I love that the buttons and diagnostic stay lit.
The CCMOS rear button lights up too. My fan controler is in the PCI slot above the video card.
Shot of the NB fan running. I think its dope they inluded the screw mounts to do this.
