Shuttle XPC SZ68R5

Got my unit together. VERY concerned about the temps I am seeing though. SPikes to 79 degrees idle....even though it is mounted correctly with the ICE cooler and IC24.

It is not quiet either....and the Asmedia controllers do not seem to want to hold....sees my Corsair Vengeance 1866 ram as 1333MHz with no option to change it.

May have to do a rebuild.
 
Yeah you must not have something right on the cooler, mine running prime for about an hour on stock cooler would get to 79 running prime at 3.8. Memory changes in bios aren't possible at this time... hoping that changes.

With water I haven't seen it above 77 but that is with the 201 bios and not sure if it is reading the same.
 
Digikid said:
Got my unit together. VERY concerned about the temps I am seeing though. SPikes to 79 degrees idle....even though it is mounted correctly with the ICE cooler and IC24.

It is not quiet either....and the Asmedia controllers do not seem to want to hold....sees my Corsair Vengeance 1866 ram as 1333MHz with no option to change it.

May have to do a rebuild.
Click to expand...

What level of OC are you running? I had to reseat my ICE once, even though I was sure it was right, it wasn't. What are you using to monitor temps? The BIOS temp reporting is unreliable, you need speedfan or realtemp. For comparison, with an unmodified 104 bios, with multiplier set to 45, the box would only ramp up to 3.8/9 due to the unmodded TDP max in bios, and ran around 69-72c. So if you are OCing much beyond that the ICE is insufficient, as noted multiple times through this thread.

We need details...
 
simonmaltby said:
Right the things I changed deep in the bios have no effect.

then I remembered something else I tried, but had forgotten about.
When I amended the bios i set default valued for power limit 1 an 2 (in the Frequency / voltage) I set them both to 1000 for both failsafe and optimised.

I assumed they had not worked as the bios still shows the 760 and 950 values, but maybe its that which is actually working.

My only other thought is if your 2700K is hotter or your cooling lesser (i'm on water) and you are hitting a temperature throttle.
Click to expand...

Tried setting power limit 1 and 2 failsafe and optimized to 1000 along with IA current limit at 1250 but it throttles just like before in both Win7 and Linux, down to about 4.2 on prime95. Temps are not a problem, low 70s, I have the Asetek water cooler (lapped HS to mirror, Diamond ICE thermal compound). I don't think power limit 1 and 2 overrides are taking hold as it lets it run at 4.6 for about 30 sec then backs off... I guess that is the short term power limit (120W) transition to long term (95W).
 
uunut said:
What level of OC are you running? I had to reseat my ICE once, even though I was sure it was right, it wasn't. What are you using to monitor temps? The BIOS temp reporting is unreliable, you need speedfan or realtemp. For comparison, with an unmodified 104 bios, with multiplier set to 45, the box would only ramp up to 3.8/9 due to the unmodded TDP max in bios, and ran around 69-72c. So if you are OCing much beyond that the ICE is insufficient, as noted multiple times through this thread.

We need details...
Click to expand...

Sorry. No overclock at all and I use Coretemp and Realtemp to monitor temps. BIOS is the latest ( 201 )

CPU is a 2500k.

Full Specs:

Intel 2500K
Corsair Red Vengeance 1866MHz ram 16 GB 4x4GB.
XFX Radeon Double D 7970 ( I know....need a reference card. )
LG Bluray Burner 3D
2 x Intel 520 120GB SSH Hard Drives

Everything is stock right now.
 
I got almost the same setup as digikid, mine idles below 40C under load it goes upto 75C.

and FYI for anyone using the mini PCI-E port for wireless internet, you will need a almost 30cm antenna wire to reach to the back of the case.
 
79c at idle is just wrong. I would try reseating the cooler after cleaning and reapplying some new thermal paste. I used AS5 on my second attempt. Also double check to make sure you removed the mylar cover that was on top of the cpu bracket.

Digikid said:
Sorry. No overclock at all and I use Coretemp and Realtemp to monitor temps. BIOS is the latest ( 201 )

CPU is a 2500k.

Full Specs:

Intel 2500K
Corsair Red Vengeance 1866MHz ram 16 GB 4x4GB.
XFX Radeon Double D 7970 ( I know....need a reference card. )
LG Bluray Burner 3D
2 x Intel 520 120GB SSH Hard Drives

Everything is stock right now.
Click to expand...
 
And it may seem ridiculous, but also check to make sure your ICE fan is spinning when assembled. Something may be putting it into a bind or jamming it once everything is together. Fan grill or no grill, this has happened to me on several occasions.
 
uunut said:
79c at idle is just wrong. I would try reseating the cooler after cleaning and reapplying some new thermal paste. I used AS5 on my second attempt. Also double check to make sure you removed the mylar cover that was on top of the cpu bracket.
Click to expand...

Will do. I did remove the cover.

cmadki4 said:
And it may seem ridiculous, but also check to make sure your ICE fan is spinning when assembled. Something may be putting it into a bind or jamming it once everything is together. Fan grill or no grill, this has happened to me on several occasions.
Click to expand...


LOL!!! I did something similar once. Built a computer and got not get it to power up at all.

The issue? I forgot to plug the modular 24 pin into the PSU. LOL!!!!! :D
 
Also, when you take the heat sink off check where the TIM is. make sure its well squashed and gives a good covering. I apply a small pea sized blob in the centre of the CPU and let the pressure spread it out.

Finally be sure to tighten the screws gradually I move diagonally tightening each one a bit then go round again - this ensures an even pressure all round.

If its still hot. Do the heat pipes feel hot to the touch? this will tell you if thre is good contact and that heat is actually getting produced and extracted.
 
altreality said:
Tried setting power limit 1 and 2 failsafe and optimized to 1000 along with IA current limit at 1250 but it throttles just like before in both Win7 and Linux, down to about 4.2 on prime95. Temps are not a problem, low 70s, I have the Asetek water cooler (lapped HS to mirror, Diamond ICE thermal compound). I don't think power limit 1 and 2 overrides are taking hold as it lets it run at 4.6 for about 30 sec then backs off... I guess that is the short term power limit (120W) transition to long term (95W).
Click to expand...

Ok I have tested this again by flashing back to the factory 201 bios.
This makes my 4.8 overclock throttle to 4.3
All I have altered for this is the CPU Voltage to +100mv, Enabled overclocking and set 48 as the multiplier

Then I repeated with my 201 modified (including the 1000 values at default for P1 and P2)
again only set the CPU Voltage and Multiplier and again it throttled to 4.3GHz

Then I Altered the IA Core Current to 1250

and tried again. Now it maintains 4.8GHz argggg no it does not... Just tried it again and it throttles back now... bother, what ever I did before I have undone and now can't re-create :(
 
Last edited:
Hmm...did a total rebuild...idle temp max is 50c. ( Realtemp)

Somethings up.....Fans are running and Thermal paste redone. Pins are pushed all the way down as well.

This should be okay until I get the Asetek cooler. Zack said that there MIGHT be some tonight.
 
simonmaltby said:
Now it maintains 4.8GHz argggg no it does not... Just tried it again and it throttles back now... bother, what ever I did before I have undone and now can't re-create :(
Click to expand...

That answers the question... it is definately not something unique about 2700k vs 2600k with the 201 bios. I tried to revert to 104 but it came up with a message "bios write locked" when I tried to flash it. My setup did not throttle with that version. Hopefully Shuttle will allow Power1/Power2 limit "overclocking" in a future release. Moving long-term power limit to 125W would solve it for 4.6G operation where I want to run (no overvolt).
 
To flash back to 104 / 105 - I have tested using 105

You need to use the new flash tool FPT.EXT as supplied with the 201 bios file.
Boot to DOS having the 104/105 bios file available together with the FPT.EXE and FPARTS.TXT files having first edited the FLASH.BAT from the 201 with the file name of the 104/105 file.

This worked perfectly for me.
 
Just went a bit mad and decided to try flashing the SZ77R5 105 bios ont to the SZ68 LOL

Works fine. Still can't get the Multi to maintain 4.8 for longer than 120 seconds at a time.
The bios is layed out better though.

Not fully tested and is does say I need to reactivate windows.
 
LOL!!!! Cheater. :D

I did not see a BIOS chip on my motherboard. I remember when I had my old Shuttle SN45G I used a thing called a BIOS SAVIOR. Neat little devices.
 
Digikid said:
LOL!!!! Cheater. :D

I did not see a BIOS chip on my motherboard. I remember when I had my old Shuttle SN45G I used a thing called a BIOS SAVIOR. Neat little devices.
Click to expand...

These are much easier as they have a zero force socket in a little opening box by the pci-e slot. Spare bios chip was about £8
 
So I decided against the geforce 680 and canceled my order. I can't justify the price for the amount of gaming I do and the resolution at which I play. I decided on the Sapphire 7870 that [H] recently reviewed. It offers really nice performance, runs cool and quiet as well. Power draw is much lower, too. It should be here by the middle of next week.

Simon,

A couple of questions regardin the shuttle box:

I was reading the quick guide and it states that in order for dual channel mode to work with two sticks of ram, I have to use the yellow slots. Does the feature not work when using the red slots? I didn't think it mattered and always put my RAM in 0/2 or 1/3, depending on how they're labeled.

Any word from Shuttle on official XMP (1600MHz) support?
It would be pretty lame if they didn't provide an update for a feature that this chipset readily supports.
 
Supposedly in May the Ti model version of the GTX680 releases. I heard there will be two models. I'm guessing they'll do something similar like the 550Ti and 560Ti. One being weak and the other quite good. Considering I personally like the 560Ti if I was buying now a 660Ti model (or whatever it will be named) would do me just fine for my upcoming itx build(SG05 or SZ77R5 undecided).
 
Sadly....mine is going back. All was fine unless I wanted to play a game. ( Note: The 7970 was taken out because of temps ) It would hard lock with the drivers for the i5 2500K GPU installed.

Tried reverting to older drivers.
Tried ANOTHER total rebuild,
Tried all new RAM.
Tried to flash to an earlier BIOS ( you can't BTW....says that BIOS is write protected )
Tried two other 1155 "k" cpus from a store here in town. ( 2500k and 2700k )
Reformatted twice and with Vista and 7 Ultimate.

All resulted in the same failure. If you did ANYTHING that required the use of DirectX....ANYTHING....it would hard lock.

If course this would all be fixed if you put in a Video card but thats not the point. So back it goes to NCIX for a refund.

:( :( :( :( :(
 
Digikid said:
Sadly....mine is going back. All was fine unless I wanted to play a game. ( Note: The 7970 was taken out because of temps ) It would hard lock with the drivers for the i5 2500K GPU installed.

Tried reverting to older drivers.
Tried ANOTHER total rebuild,
Tried all new RAM.
Tried to flash to an earlier BIOS ( you can't BTW....says that BIOS is write protected )
Tried two other 1155 "k" cpus from a store here in town. ( 2500k and 2700k )
Reformatted twice and with Vista and 7 Ultimate.

All resulted in the same failure. If you did ANYTHING that required the use of DirectX....ANYTHING....it would hard lock.

If course this would all be fixed if you put in a Video card but thats not the point. So back it goes to NCIX for a refund.

:( :( :( :( :(
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear you had so much trouble with it. I'll admit, I had some trouble also. It would lock up (ctrl+alt+del wouldn't respond and/or BSOD), but after I updated/backdated drivers it seems to be okay. I'm still a little hesitant to say it's totally fixed, but so far several days without incident.
 
Just an FYI, this is the whip/antenna I used for my main antenna on the wifi card:

www.mini-box.com

Cable I-PEX reverse SMA 10in / 25cm: CAB-PIGTAIL-SMA-RP-Long
Wireless Antenna SMA reverse +5dBi: ACC-ANT-RSMA-5dBi

Unfortunately the 10" whip was the longest I could find quickly, if anyone finds one, please post.

Sorry to hear of the other issues, I have to say my setup, still being on the modded 104 bios is working well, though I do hope to eventually be able to get the right timings on my ram.
I have to find the screen shot, but I got great scores on 3DMARK11, not sure why DX11 was not working for digi.
 
uunut said:
Just an FYI, this is the whip/antenna I used for my main antenna on the wifi card:

www.mini-box.com

Cable I-PEX reverse SMA 10in / 25cm: CAB-PIGTAIL-SMA-RP-Long
Wireless Antenna SMA reverse +5dBi: ACC-ANT-RSMA-5dBi
Click to expand...

Thanks for that info. Right now I have the Tyco internal laptop leads, but not installed. A longer whip cable would be nice --- but it seems to be working out for you.
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
simonmaltby said:
To flash back to 104 / 105 - I have tested using 105

You need to use the new flash tool FPT.EXT as supplied with the 201 bios file.
Boot to DOS having the 104/105 bios file available together with the FPT.EXE and FPARTS.TXT files having first edited the FLASH.BAT from the 201 with the file name of the 104/105 file.

This worked perfectly for me.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that worked. I couldn't use 105 since it wound up the fan to full speed when CPU temp went above 70C, went back to 104 for the moment, I'll wait for a more stable release with official XMP support though the bios mod seemed to work well.
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
uunut said:
Nice find. I'd still like 18" to get to the other antenna holes from around the other side.
Click to expand...

12" is all that is needed to get from the mini-PCI express card to all 3 antenna holes. There isn't a lot of slack bit they make it.
 
I actually ordered double when I got antennae, so if anyone needs, send me a pm.
I have a 5db dual band with 10"whip, and a married pair of laptop type leads.

I also just setup a mid tower with a d-link extreme N, and the shuttle's wireless reception kicks the crap out of it.

The intel extreme N you have should be able to pick up wifi from the starbucks a mile or two down the road, lol!
 
Looks like shuttle took down the BIOS download tab for the sz68r5. I only see tabs for driver, manual and utilities.
 
rorrim180 said:
Looks like shuttle took down the BIOS download tab for the sz68r5. I only see tabs for driver, manual and utilities.
Click to expand...

Yes I noticed this. I got a 3770K IB today and have it running on the 201 bios.
I also tried out the SZ77R5 107 bios but found that the older version 106 or the 201 are better for me.

They have increased the power adjustments in the 107, but not far enough and i think they broke the PLL Overvoltage (hidden option)
 
Interesting info.

Just testing the SZ68R5 with a 3770K Ivy Bridge and running through my benchmarks for comparison to the 2600K

Having problems with 3DMARK11 scores, which i need to look at cos they are slower, but all other graphics tests are quite a bit faster including games.

I notice that GPUz reports that its running PCI-E 3.0 which if tru is excellent and would explain the improved graphics scores.

So I think the SZ68R5 runs PCI-E 3.0 with the IB CPU
 
Interesting indeed. Which GPU are you using again?

simonmaltby said:
Interesting info.

Just testing the SZ68R5 with a 3770K Ivy Bridge and running through my benchmarks for comparison to the 2600K

Having problems with 3DMARK11 scores, which i need to look at cos they are slower, but all other graphics tests are quite a bit faster including games.

I notice that GPUz reports that its running PCI-E 3.0 which if tru is excellent and would explain the improved graphics scores.

So I think the SZ68R5 runs PCI-E 3.0 with the IB CPU
Click to expand...
 
How is the 7970 with reference cooler in terms of temp and dB in the sz68r5? I'm stuck between this and something cooler, quieter, but huge :( Basically, i want to know if the noise is noticeable while watching a movie or gaming.
 
rli5068 said:
How is the 7970 with reference cooler in terms of temp and dB in the sz68r5? I'm stuck between this and something cooler, quieter, but huge :( Basically, i want to know if the noise is noticeable while watching a movie or gaming.
Click to expand...
I can't speak to the temps of a reference cooler, but non-reference (i.e. one that dumps the heat back into the case) will run very hot. I had to mod the case to remedy this. But seems like people are running reference coolers without any major concerns. Check out the original review.
 
rli5068 said:
How is the 7970 with reference cooler in terms of temp and dB in the sz68r5? I'm stuck between this and something cooler, quieter, but huge :( Basically, i want to know if the noise is noticeable while watching a movie or gaming.
Click to expand...

I'll see if I can quantify this for you better this weekend. I have no way of measuring noise levels, and "noticeable" is subjective. It is not silent, but very quiet at idle. You can hear the gpu fan speed up when gaming (I usually have a headset on though anyway), but with Trixx controlling it stays around 30% and is not bad at all, noticeable but not loud. Before I let Trixx do the work, it would spin up to 50% at load, and was what I would call noticeable, but not loud. My reference point for loud is my old 8800 Ultra with an Accelero Triple Dissipation cooler. I have the CPU at 4.6ghz and no OC on the GPU. Gaming @ 1920x1080/120hz, single monitor. If you are really looking for quiet at load, I'd be thinking of a system big enough to go liquid cooled on the GPU, or doing some serious case mods for air flow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top