Which chipset for AMD HTPC?

Spare Tire · Post by **Spare Tire** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:01 pm

Wow, the northbridge heatsink is really low profile, this thing must run pretty cool!

Mariner · Post by **Mariner** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 3:50 am

Spare Tire wrote:Wow, the northbridge heatsink is really low profile, this thing must run pretty cool!

I didn't bother posting this link before:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho ... p?t=174620

That indicates that the person overclocking the IGP was able to double the clock speed to over 1GHz (!) without requiring any additional cooling:

believe it or not,

it was done by air cooling without a fan, just heatsink......

This indicates to me that the Northbridge should run very cool at stock speeds.

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 4:21 am

Interesting, the link here shows a version of the board with a different NB heatsink:
http://www.pcinpact.com/actu/news/41515 ... 700-HD.htm

oso · Post by **oso** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 6:58 am

Looks like they packed a lot of features on that Gigabyte board. That's the first RS780 board that's really interested me.

Mariner · Post by **Mariner** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 9:42 am

Very well specified and it looks like pretty much an ideal layout for my case as well.

I don't think Gigabyte support undervolting in BIOS, do they?

Greg F. · Post by **Greg F.** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:27 pm

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/02/01 ... nd_sb700/1

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 5:23 am

Mariner wrote: I don't think Gigabyte support undervolting in BIOS, do they?

It all depends on who you are. If you run a hardware review website they will send you special version of the BIOS with voltage control so you can give their board a rave review. But if you are a mere mortal you can only get the crippled version without voltage control. To add to the confusion, Gigabyte calls both versions by the same name (ex: version F3 for the 690G mATX board).

dragmor · Post by **dragmor** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 5:56 pm

frank2003 wrote:
Mariner wrote: I don't think Gigabyte support undervolting in BIOS, do they?
It all depends on who you are. If you run a hardware review website they will send you special version of the BIOS with voltage control so you can give their board a rave review. But if you are a mere mortal you can only get the crippled version without voltage control. To add to the confusion, Gigabyte calls both versions by the same name (ex: version F3 for the 690G mATX board).

For gigabyte boards you have to press CTRL+F1 in the bios to get access to the voltage options.

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 6:42 pm

dragmor wrote: For gigabyte boards you have to press CTRL+F1 in the bios to get access to the voltage options.

Yes, I am well aware of this.

At one point in time I had both versions of the BIOS - one with the voltage control, one without. Both were named vesioned "F3a". If you search hard, you may still be able to find the souped up version Gigabyte sent to a hardware review site.

In another forum I read that the BIOS is now up to version F4, and it still does not have voltage control. Owners are hoping the next version F4a will have it. Well, good luck to them as they were hoping for the same thing in F3a.

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 7:00 pm

Found the link:
http://www.hummercommunity.com/files/hf ... 69GMS2.f3a

The MD5 checksum for this file is 5836ee111775c3ecf7a889f304029ac5.

This F3a version has voltage control and is different from Gigabyte's official F3a version. Use at your own risk.

Which chipset for AMD HTPC?

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