FM2 ITX

xorbe said:
I think it's always variable to meet the chip's vid, but they just don't expose any manual control from the bios.
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The MSI tech I spoke to said it was a self-regulating circuit, and as such could never be controlled by the BIOS no matter the updates to the firmware.

I can't find the email now, unfortunately. Anyway, even if it's possible I doubt it would ever be added. BIOS updates are usually just to fix bugs.
 
Moosh said:
I never thought to undervolt it to save power.
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It's kind of a mixed bag. Undervolting disables Cool'n'Quiet, which turns down the voltage and clock speed when the chip isn't in use. This means it actually tends to use more power at idle, unless you can get some MASSIVE undervolts.

Saves power under load, costs power when idling.

I'm not too worried about it though, when I was volting my APU at 1.15V (quite a low voltage) on the ASRock board, I was seeing 80W peak load, and my MSI board is doing about 80W as-is. Maybe there's more power to be saved and the MSI board just uses less power, but maybe it's just doing a better job without me having to override things :D

The power you might save is not super significant; for example cutting back power by 20W (~20% reduction) saves you about 1kWh per two days of constant, full load operation. That's $0.11, depending on where you live. It's more useful if you're having thermal problems (like I was) or if your PSU is falling on its face (like mine was)
 
Yeah I am pretty satisfied with how cool my HTPC is running. It will always be in standby/off mode if I'm not using it. I need to hook it up to my Killowatt meter one of these days to see how much power it uses.
 
xorbe said:
You don't have the large-power-draw-from-wall during bios or full load issue?
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Not at all. Might be because I have a dual core? Could be because of the bios, maybe?

I did not have the issue prior to changing bios settings. I currently have mine set at [email protected] and I do not have it set to ramp up at all, I have no need for it. I did end up enabling cool and quite which gave me a lower idle wattage, 21w now vs 30w before. Must disable other things on the board as voltage or cpu speeds are not changing?

I purchased my board from superbiiz black Friday weekend. Maybe a bad batch was going around or maybe it doesn't play well with quad cores.
 
Breathing a little life back into this thread with the discovery of the following site
Gigabyte mITX landing page

The site lists the new GA-H77TN and GA-B75TN thin form intel itx boards but it also lists a GA-F2A85XM-WIFI which just links to the general gigabyte mainboard page for now but at least we've got a model number! And an A85 chipset too! Trying to search for the model number only produces the mITX landing page for now so hopefully more information comes out soon.

EDIT: Heh googling the model number now also links here.
 
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drivers won't install, and if they do, on next reboot they stop working. while driver is trying to install it keeps reseting and upping count on the device "Atheros bla bla wireless controller 50" at one one point it got up to 100+
 
nekrosoft13 said:
drivers won't install, and if they do, on next reboot they stop working. while driver is trying to install it keeps reseting and upping count on the device "Atheros bla bla wireless controller 50" at one one point it got up to 100+
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Might want to chat w/ MSI customer support about that. What OS, what drivers? I'm using Windows 8, and whatever drivers Windows Update provided. Didn't install any wireless drivers from MSI download page.
 
The drivers from windows update wont install.

Unfortuently I made mistake of installing windows 8.
 
sliverstorm said:
It's kind of a mixed bag. Undervolting disables Cool'n'Quiet, which turns down the voltage and clock speed when the chip isn't in use. This means it actually tends to use more power at idle, unless you can get some MASSIVE undervolts.

Saves power under load, costs power when idling.

I'm not too worried about it though, when I was volting my APU at 1.15V (quite a low voltage) on the ASRock board, I was seeing 80W peak load, and my MSI board is doing about 80W as-is. Maybe there's more power to be saved and the MSI board just uses less power, but maybe it's just doing a better job without me having to override things :D

The power you might save is not super significant; for example cutting back power by 20W (~20% reduction) saves you about 1kWh per two days of constant, full load operation. That's $0.11, depending on where you live. It's more useful if you're having thermal problems (like I was) or if your PSU is falling on its face (like mine was)
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hmm i've undervolted to 1.15v and i still get CnQ. it further drops the volts to 0.9v and drops the clocks as well
 
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FM2A85X-ITX OOS already? Saw it pop up before work and was going to order after work. Guess I'll have to stay on it.
 
ya it sold out sunday i think. They only had 17 of them. I ordered one, it should come tmr i'll let you guys know.
 
Yah I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger on a Newegg mobo purchase without some feedback that all is well with this particular board.
 
xorbe said:
Yah I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger on a Newegg mobo purchase without some feedback that all is well with this particular board.
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different board. with a different set of power phases (more). I also bought an infrared thermometer. I'll let you guys know how toasty they get.
 
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How's the wall power reading while in the BIOS??? Pretty please!!!
 
got mine today too, looks good! I will put it together later.
 
nekrosoft13 said:
drivers won't install, and if they do, on next reboot they stop working. while driver is trying to install it keeps reseting and upping count on the device "Atheros bla bla wireless controller 50" at one one point it got up to 100+
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I don't use WIFI much but I have not had this issue when I did.
 
temperature seems fine, prime95 components reach 122F, i didn't try stressing the gpu at the same time yet though.
 
I've been using the MSI motherboard for my main rig the past week. I've been playing DOTA 2 and it rocks. Haven't had any issues except for some reason I cannot get into the BIOS after flashing the latest firmware (1.2). My Dell keyboard does not work during post but it works after I get into windows. Any thoughts on that one? Do I need to pull the battery to reset to default settings?
 
Annoying that you can not use coolers that needs a backplate on the ASROCK A85X

I am pretty much forced to use the Arctic 64 Plus, which I just ordered.

The stock cooler is way too loud at load.
 
Mastrhiggins said:
Annoying that you can not use coolers that needs a backplate on the ASROCK A85X

I am pretty much forced to use the Arctic 64 Plus, which I just ordered.

The stock cooler is way too loud at load.
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i'm using a corsair a50 is a node 304 case, the retention clip works fine.
 
How is everyone liking/not liking the FM2A85X-ITX?

Just ordered one for my m-ITX server/media pc build. Should get it tomorrow (pairing with a10 5800K - got it from the project eternity kickstarter grab bag hehe).

Wondering if theres any snags with it, or people are enjoying it so far?

I'm ploping the setup in a CM 120 elite and a CM geminII M4, really looking forward to the build, and hope the mobo is nice and stable
 
mine has been a little weird.

1) had trouble getting the wifi to work
2) time keeps going off wack, every coule days it jumps couple hours forward
3) sometimes after flipping switch on back of PSU, and then turning switch back on, power button on case won't work, it can take 5+ minutes before it turns on again.

weird stuff like that.
 
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