**OFFICIAL** Abit BG7 (i845G) Thread

[jyrgen]

Originally posted by: Psy7th
Hi all ...
I am very interested in the BG7. It does/has everything I need except that it won't fit my case's IO back panel. I couldn't find out if Abit bundles one with the BG7. I see you guys have had it for quite some time ... so please tell me, does it come with the appropriate back panel ?

Yes, it does.

 

[gururu]

Yes, it comes with the appropriate back panel. Fit my case quite nicely too.

 

[MeCalvin]

My Lian Li PC65 case came with its own back plate which would not fit the BG7.

Luckily the BG7 came bundled with its own backplate so off with the Lian Li and on with
the BG7. Easy as.

Have been using my rig for editing and rendering home videos (DV).

OC setup has been 30% faster in rendering time to stock setup.

Love it.

 

[DubSlick]

The following rig tested stable with Prime95 and 3dMark2001 SE running overnight

-P4 1.8A @ 2.7Ghz, Retail HSF with Arctic Silver 3
-Abit BG7 with AS3 on the NB
-2 DIMMs of 256MB PNY PC2100 SDRAM, Samsung TCBO, C series
-Using onboard 845G graphics
-Enermax 300W powersupply
-Vcore 1.65V
-PCI/AGP locked at 33/66
-150 FSB
-Memory ratio at 1:1
-HIGH H/W strap
-37C system , 66C CPU @ full load
-34C system, 54C CPU idle

After running the Prime and 3dMark, without crashing overnight, I updated the driver for the Realtek onboard LAN chip, and started
playing WC3 over battlenet and the game would freeze on me. I stepped down to 133 FSB to run at 2.4Ghz, and it still locked up. I was even disconnected from battlet for one game.

Is it the Realtek onboard LAN that's causing this instability? Are my temps too high? (though it seems the BG7 reports 8C higher than what it should be from what I've read). Any help appreciated.

 

[Bonusguy]

Originally posted by: DubSlick
The following rig tested stable with Prime95 and 3dMark2001 SE running overnight


Is it the Realtek onboard LAN that's causing this instability? Are my temps too high? (though it seems the BG7 reports 8C higher than what it should be from what I've read). Any help appreciated.

I don't think it's the updated LAN driver. I did the update and it didn't seem to affect stability at all. Your temps do seem to be high. I'm running a 1.6A @ 2.4 (150 MHz FSB) using the on-board video and the latest AH bios and getting CPU temps of 39C idle, and 53C load. Have you tried re-running Prime95 and 3dMark after the LAN update?

 

[Lizardman]

Originally posted by: Tummy
Hi all. Well, I got my BG7 back, and sadly, it seems to suffer from the same problem as my GA-8IGX. I'm not sure why nobody else seems to have this problem but me? The BG7 is *slightly* better than my GA board using 2 dimms (if you read page 9 i post my original problem), as it lets me go to 168fsb using both dimms. Again, using each dimm individually seems to have no problem. I picked up a 512mb stick of 333 and that seems to be fine, so i may just stick with that.

One thing I notice that's different between the BG7 and 8igx is that the 8igx seems to let me get my cpu a tad higher stable than the bg7. At what should be the same cpu voltage, 15%/1.725 (i have a 2.26b), the 8igx is seemingly stable at 177 but the bg7 will only get me to 174. I've popped the 8igx back in to retest at 177 but I was sure it worked at that speed okay, but it had soft reboot issues, which the bg7 doesn't. Could this be a result of the supposedly infamous undervolting problem the abit has? Is there any fix for that, other than wire wrapping the cpu?

I tried 177 4:3 on the BG7 but locked up immediately, anybody else have this problem? I'm using the 94 bios. Also wouldn't mind being able to oget 4:5 but am worried about how lucky i will be with that, even to find ram that could do 434. I know right now my ram can't do it but am wondering about the board.

Lastly, stupid newegg didn't send me the retention mechanism, the spdif connector, or the atx backplate. anybody happen to have any of these extra they don't want/need and would be willing to part with?

Where did you buy yours?? I got mine at newegg refurb and got everything but a I/O plate for the back. If you got yours new just call up whoever you bought it from. I already talked to you about the 2 dimm stuff.

 

[DubSlick]

I tried again using 133 FSB (2.4 Ghz), 1.5 Vcore, and locking memory at 1:1 for DDR 266, and was able to play warcraft fine. When I changed the memory ratio to 4:5 for DDR333, warcraft locked up just as I started to play a game on battlenet. Again, this setup is stable with Prime95 and 3dMark.

Now I'm thinking it might be instablity of the board using 2 DIMMs. I'm going to take out 1 DIMM, and see if I can play. If that is the case, I'll sell my last stick as I would rather have a higher FSB with half the memory.

Another thing, I ran the Sandra memory bandwidth test while running at 2.4Ghz and set memory to 4:5 for DDR 333 and only scored around 1600. Will my score dramatically improve if I do not use the onboard graphics?

 

[Tummy]

*lizardman* - I actually had abit send me a replacement one - but the dummies, while nice enough to do so, sent me the WRONG one..! So I've asked them to send me the right way, again.

*dubslick* - I have heard that the onbaord graphics does do some bad things to ram scores, but by how much I don't know. At 133fsb, you'll probably end up in the 2000mb/sec range I'd wager.

 

[Bonusguy]

i'm using the on-board video and getting Sandra memory benchmark scores of arount 2725. This is with the memory at DDR375 (150 FSB, 4/5 ratio)

 

[Lizardman]

Originally posted by: Tummy
*lizardman* - I actually had abit send me a replacement one - but the dummies, while nice enough to do so, sent me the WRONG one..! So I've asked them to send me the right way, again.

*dubslick* - I have heard that the onbaord graphics does do some bad things to ram scores, but by how much I don't know. At 133fsb, you'll probably end up in the 2000mb/sec range I'd wager.

Silly abit!!


yea dubslick your scores will be shatty with onboard video on.

 

[DubSlick]

Well, I removed a DIMM, and was able to play without crashing, running at 140 FSB and default voltage. I'll bump it up once I get an Alpha. I think it was Tummy who warned me about only using 2 DIMMS at 133 or 166 FSB. Everything else is unstable.

On a different note, I purchased the board on 9/3 for $122 from Atacom. Two days later, they dropped the price to $91, and they don't have a low price gurantee! I'm gonna cry!

 

[Tummy]

Yah, I had the same problem when running two dimms. only "standard" fsb's worked for me. 1fsb off regardless of voltage said "screw you!"

 

[Lizardman]

So who has tried out the new bios yet??

Bios

I am still using the version that my board came with.

 

[Lizardman]

Just flashed to newer bios, but I havent tried changing anything. Good news is that it runs just as well as the first one.

 

[Bonusguy]

Originally posted by: Lizardman
Just flashed to newer bios, but I havent tried changing anything. Good news is that it runs just as well as the first one.

Have you noticed any difference in your temperature readings?

 

[Lizardman]

Originally posted by: Bonusguy

Originally posted by: Lizardman
Just flashed to newer bios, but I havent tried changing anything. Good news is that it runs just as well as the first one.

Have you noticed any difference in your temperature readings?

My temps are pretty much the same. Which means just as shitty as before due to stock heatsink. I get around 70C under load from winbond chip and room temp is about 25 deg C

 

[Tummy]

Ahhh... I'm tempted to rip apart my system to put my bg7 back and try this new BIOS (ax, btw, in case anybody was wondering) because they say they modified some mushkin ddr400 issue. Might it solve the problem a lot of us have been having with that stupid > 400ddr and intel inf etc. problem? ahhh... so much work to rip all my stuff out... decisions decisions

 

[Lizardman]

Originally posted by: Tummy
Ahhh... I'm tempted to rip apart my system to put my bg7 back and try this new BIOS (ax, btw, in case anybody was wondering) because they say they modified some mushkin ddr400 issue. Might it solve the problem a lot of us have been having with that stupid > 400ddr and intel inf etc. problem? ahhh... so much work to rip all my stuff out... decisions decisions

I can check for you if you want Tummy. I will just overclock my DDR and see how high I can get with two sticks. Before around 169 mhz was unstable with two sticks. just PM me and I will give it a try.

 

[Lizardman]

Where there was DDR 333 now there is DDR400. With two sticks of 256DDR ram.

Tummy time to dig that board out of the closet.

 

[Lizardman]

Originally posted by: 5150Joker
IMO the 9700 is still inadequate for next generation games (e.g. UT2003/Doom 3 engine games). If you notice the benchmarks for UT2003, if AA/AF were to be turned on at say 1280x1024x32 on some levels (dm-inferno, ctf-citadel, dm-antalus) then you'd most likely see fps dips below the 50 fps mark in heavy fighting (maybe even lower). It's very fast at all resolutions without the AA/AF but I'd expect more out of a next gen part--perhaps R350/nv35 will fill that gap. Also, id has mentioned that they just now finally got R300 to work decently at 800x600 for doom 3 due to more stable drivers. I'm beginning to doubt if this card will be fast enough to run that game at 1024x768 and max details. If you have a GF4 Ti series card then I think it'd be prudent to wait on the release of nv35/r350 before upgrading since it seems this R300 part is only really good for current games and right now the Ti4600 does a fine job running today's games with AA/AF turned on at commonly played resolutions (1024x768/1280x1024).

I just downloaded UT3 demo.I can play at 1024 X 768 with details all set to highest and still get a constant 60 plus frames per second. This is with a 8500 128mb vic card. AA off. smoothvision on.

 

[DubSlick]

I've overclocked my 1.8A to 2.8Ghz (156 FSB), but had to bump Vcore up 15% to supposedly 1.725 . However the Winbond monitor program tells me 1.68 V idle and around 1.65 under load. Is the voltage too high? Am I tempting the overvolting kiss of death?

In addition, Winbond monitor reports 59-60.5 degrees C under Prime95 load. Again, is the board reporting the temps too high? Thanks in advance.

 

[Lizardman]

Originally posted by: DubSlick
I've overclocked my 1.8A to 2.8Ghz (156 FSB), but had to bump Vcore up 15% to supposedly 1.725 . However the Winbond monitor program tells me 1.68 V idle and around 1.65 under load. Is the voltage too high? Am I tempting the overvolting kiss of death?

In addition, Winbond monitor reports 59-60.5 degrees C under Prime95 load. Again, is the board reporting the temps too high? Thanks in advance.

Your temps look good. That voltage should keep your cpu alive for a while. I wouldnt worry about it. I have heard only around 1.7 and above is dangerous.

 

[CrazySaint]

Hi, I'm trying to decide between the EPoX 4G4A(I|+) boards and the Abit BG7. I've read the entire 4G4A+ thread (I've been reading it from the beginning) and I know that at least some people have the following issues:

Problems OC'ing with more than one stick of RAM
General pickiness about RAM
Serious undervolting issues while under load on some boards

and the following pertinent facts:

You get better OC'ing success if you place your RAM in DIMM slot 2.
The 0424 BIOS is best for OC'ing.

So I'd basically like to get the same type of information about the BG7. I know I could read through this whole thread, but being slightly lazy, I'd like to avoid that, if possible Oh, and I have read the first page or so of this thread and people reported that the northbridge HS has both thermal paste *and* a thermal pad, do the newer boards still have that? Any info would be very much appreciated!

Oh btw, I'll be using this board with a P4 1.8A and a single stick 256MB stick of Corsair XMS PC2700C2 (at some point I'll probably upgrade to a single 512MB stick of PC3000/3200C2, though depending on how high my chip OC's I may use both of them together) and I would like to OC as high as I can at <= 1.6v actual, though I'll probably take it up to 1.7v to see how high it'll go.

 

[Lizardman]

Originally posted by: CrazySaint
Hi, I'm trying to decide between the EPoX 4G4A(I|+) boards and the Abit BG7. I've read the entire 4G4A+ thread (I've been reading it from the beginning) and I know that at least some people have the following issues:

Problems OC'ing with more than one stick of RAM
General pickiness about RAM
Serious undervolting issues while under load on some boards

and the following pertinent facts:

You get better OC'ing success if you place your RAM in DIMM slot 2.
The 0424 BIOS is best for OC'ing.

So I'd basically like to get the same type of information about the BG7. I know I could read through this whole thread, but being slightly lazy, I'd like to avoid that, if possible Oh, and I have read the first page or so of this thread and people reported that the northbridge HS has both thermal paste *and* a thermal pad, do the newer boards still have that? Any info would be very much appreciated!

Oh btw, I'll be using this board with a P4 1.8A and a single stick 256MB stick of Corsair XMS PC2700C2 (at some point I'll probably upgrade to a single 512MB stick of PC3000/3200C2, though depending on how high my chip OC's I may use both of them together) and I would like to OC as high as I can at <= 1.6v actual, though I'll probably take it up to 1.7v to see how high it'll go.

First of all I must say this.... your a lazy bastard for not reading the thread. And yes I replaced my northbridge's thermal paste with artic alumina.

Secondly I can go up to DDR414 with 2 x 256mb sticks of samsung with the AX bios.

I have overclocked up to 2.7ghz stable with my 1.6a. voltage at 1.62V.

Enjoy!!

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: Lizardman

Originally posted by: CrazySaint
Hi, I'm trying to decide between the EPoX 4G4A(I|+) boards and the Abit BG7. I've read the entire 4G4A+ thread (I've been reading it from the beginning) and I know that at least some people have the following issues:

Problems OC'ing with more than one stick of RAM
General pickiness about RAM
Serious undervolting issues while under load on some boards

and the following pertinent facts:

You get better OC'ing success if you place your RAM in DIMM slot 2.
The 0424 BIOS is best for OC'ing.

So I'd basically like to get the same type of information about the BG7. I know I could read through this whole thread, but being slightly lazy, I'd like to avoid that, if possible Oh, and I have read the first page or so of this thread and people reported that the northbridge HS has both thermal paste *and* a thermal pad, do the newer boards still have that? Any info would be very much appreciated!

Oh btw, I'll be using this board with a P4 1.8A and a single stick 256MB stick of Corsair XMS PC2700C2 (at some point I'll probably upgrade to a single 512MB stick of PC3000/3200C2, though depending on how high my chip OC's I may use both of them together) and I would like to OC as high as I can at <= 1.6v actual, though I'll probably take it up to 1.7v to see how high it'll go.

First of all I must say this.... your a lazy bastard for not reading the thread. And yes I replaced my northbridge's thermal paste with artic alumina.

Secondly I can go up to DDR414 with 2 x 256mb sticks of samsung with the AX bios.

I have overclocked up to 2.7ghz stable with my 1.6a. voltage at 1.62V.

Enjoy!!

First off, I'd have read the whole dang thread if I'd had to, so I'm only a slightly lazy bastard Second, thanks for the info!