My Biostar TA690G Review: mATX Overclocking Gem

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:54 am

OK, I played around with the multiplier management in CCPUID, and set up my 2-state "CnQ": 1.0GHz and 1.6GHz, both at .9V.

To my surprise, the CnQ settings worked! The icing on the cake was it even fixed (more appropriately, worked around) the BIOS wake-from-sleep bug.

So it appears CCPUID cannot detect wake from sleep state change when it's using the "AMD K6/K7/K8/LX Multiplier" setting (F3), but it can when it's using the multiplier management.

Btw, for owners of this board out there: It does support undervolting and underclocking (in BIOS v >= 4/3/2007). The settings are not intuitively named (no, you don't change the vcore in the "CPU Voltage" setting - go figure); instead, you change the [/sacasm on] intuitively named [/sacasm off] "npt vid" and "npt fid" fields. But in addition, you must turn off the CnQ (no, the CnQ "auto" setting is not good enough) in order for undervolting/underclocing settinngs to take.

MC FLMJIG · Post by **MC FLMJIG** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 3:03 pm

Nice shot Prodigy and good info on this OP!

I had no clue CnQ needed to be enabled but it always works for me! I just save desktop settings and use as needed.

sun4384 · Post by **sun4384** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 3:43 am

Has anybody tried new Catalyst 7.6 driver? If so, does it still have the blinking issue like 7.4 and 7.5?

Prodigy Freak · Post by **Prodigy Freak** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 12:49 am

ive installed Vista 64bit and after 5mins of listening some mp3, sounds starts to crackle and eventually gets muted :l im using 1.70 for vista driver. under xp everything was ok.
any solution for this?

papakoo · Post by **papakoo** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:50 am

@Amourek
The power consumption for idle on this board is much more than same config than biostar 7025. The difference is just the power supply. Do you believe that PSU you had on this mobo gets more power from the wall than the others you used on 7025 system?

Also the biostar site

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/mb/ ... p?S_ID=291

says that the 690G and also the 7025 uses both mobos for audio the Realtek ALC662 6-Channel HD Audio, the same time the user manual i got from there says ALC 888 8 channel audio!!!
What is going on guys?!
I have found that T series are version 5 with better config and the sipl A (not TA) is version 6 with lower config.(a bit confusing this manufacturer is) LOL!

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:49 pm

@Amourek
The power consumption for idle on this board is much more than same config than biostar 7025. The difference is just the power supply. Do you believe that PSU you had on this mobo gets more power from the wall than the others you used on 7025 system?

Also the biostar site

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/mb/ ... p?S_ID=291

says that the 690G and also the 7025 uses both mobos for audio the Realtek ALC662 6-Channel HD Audio, the same time the user manual i got from there says ALC 888 8 channel audio!!!

For my review of the TF7025-M2 I used three different power supplies including the Fortron I used in the TA690G review.

TF7025-M2,

With Allied 320W
1.28Ghz, 0.850V: 48W idle, 57W during Orthos (Small FFT)
2.00Ghz, 1.025V: 53W idle, 72W during Orthos (Small FFT)
2.71Ghz, 1.275V: 66W idle, 112W during Orthos (Small FFT)

With Fortron 400W
1.28Ghz, 0.850V: 43W idle, 53W during Orthos (Small FFT)
2.00Ghz, 1.025V: 47W idle, 67W during Orthos (Small FFT)
2.71Ghz, 1.275V: 57W idle, 102W during Orthos (Small FFT)

With Enhance 500W
1.28Ghz, 0.850V: 34W idle, 41W during Orthos (Small FFT)
2.00Ghz, 1.025V: 37W idle, 55W during Orthos (Small FFT)
2.71Ghz, 1.275V: 48W idle, 86W during Orthos (Small FFT)

Also the link you posted is of the A690G-M2 - it is NOT the same motherboard as the TA690G. Even the colours are different - it looks like a stripped down version.

papakoo · Post by **papakoo** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 5:06 am

I had read your review this is why i asked comparing the PSU of 690G and those with 7025. Is any change that the 690PSU was so worse that all the 7025 PSU?

And the link as i said is version 6 of simple series and not the version 5 of "T" series witch is better.

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 8:50 am

I cannot think of any reason the 690G used more power than the 7025, except that the chipset is less efficient or possibly one of the onboard features i.e. ethernet or audio (unlikely). The hardware setup I used was virtually the same.

papakoo · Post by **papakoo** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 10:47 am

7025
With Allied 320W ...................With Enhance 500W
1.28Ghz, 0.850V: 48W idle .....1.28Ghz, 0.850V: 34W

48-34=14W lower consumption at idle caused by just the PSU.

690G
1.27Ghz, 0.900V, 62W idle (when 7025 with allied had 48w)
62-48=14W . So you don't think Sparkle SPI 400W PSU is not "14w" worse than the "bad" Allied 320W.

I also think like you, that 690 is less efficient than 7025. Gigabyte's S2H on a review reported working idle at 75W! Jesus! 75w idle??

If you could get some scores (everest, or pcmark or sandra or something else) from both systems with same clock-volting would be grate!
Especialy in graphics i'm very confused. I've seen in reviews of 7050 mobos giving score of 800 on integrated graphics of nv7050 with pcmark05 and about 1065 with 690G the same time that my asus 6150 mobo gives at stock freq with same proccesor a score of 1285.

I'm so dissapointed that i'm affraid that i 'll keep my second CPU (a x2 3600 purchaced 4 days ago) waiting for the new chipsets nvidia MCP78 series with HD support (November).

thank you!

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 5:42 pm

Sorry, but both boards are no longer in my possession. I built them for friend/family and wrote up quick reviews before I delivered them.

papakoo · Post by **papakoo** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:23 pm

It's ok.

Anyone have those boards can give some scores...

MC FLMJIG · Post by **MC FLMJIG** » Sun Aug 12, 2007 9:50 am

Latest bios. Still testing. I like this board so far.
http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/t-s ... hp?S_ID=17

I'm in testing phase looking for the tightest I can do with these ballistix:

I'm loving this board. I'm also using the 939 Opteron Heatsink which I'll use a nice 80mm on it. I have an Arctic Cooling 92mm and will see if it fits on it.

sun4384 · Post by **sun4384** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 12:55 pm

It looks there is a new bios (0828) released recently. Has anyone tried this one? If so, did it fix the memory timing problems? (I'll try the new bios, but probably will not overclock...)

Also the Catalyst 7.8 is out and around. Is it free from the blank screen problem? In other words, is it safe to upgrade?

From Vr-zone, I heard the recent speedfan beta version supports biostar ta690g.

Let's try these new things and report back.

Mega2007 · Post by **Mega2007** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 3:00 pm

Biostar ta690g gives blank screen lockup when you have 4gb of ram and have pci-e card installed like 8800gts 640mb in my case. I told ATi/Amd about it and told me on my customer care ticket they won't support their chipset.

Do not use the 828 bios update I updated to it and got all red errors in memtest 86+ (failed the test) reverted to 427 and it works fine again (pass all the test). I'm having strange memory problems system won't let me select anything other than 800 ddr or I get some errors in the memtest86+. Wired I test ram banks A2 and B2 they are getting errors with more settings like 667ddr and freeze at 533ddr but works with 800ddr when going beyond some ht levels. Getting bsod in windows. Wired. Might have to jump ship and send it back.

(This configuration is stable but concerned with a elusive bsod for resource that shows up but not in windows xp. Should be cleared now but need to run 24hr orthos test later)
BE-2350 @ 3ghz(Amd had 64bit for years and now they don't support 4gb)
Biostar ta690g @ 1716Mhz HT (no support for 64bit DAMMIT)
4x1gb Patriot ddr2 @ 860mhz with memory hole remapping disable for (3gb)
evga 8800gts 640mb through dvi to 42" 1080p westy.
x-fi no hardware acceleration support for vista64 + z2300
Vista 64x ultimate ( 64bit)

my review on it
Good
-its a bit energy efficient
-decent overclocking options.
-works great out of the case and laying out on the lower shelf of my desk.

Bad
- its actually has a couple hot areas for such a small board (north, south, ram, pci-e(8800gts))
- lack support and no 4gb that is usuable with pci-e graphics card.
- mAtx still lacks space for pci cards and 2slot pci-e cards. Can't fit my tv tunner card in without overheating and blocking the 8800gts 640mb.
-Where is the printer port optional purchase can't find it.
-Has a conflict memory not available for pci-e bus/pci bus 0xC0000000 - 0xFEBFFFFF in vista 64bit but not in windows xp 32bit.

I'm tried of products we buy just don't work out of the box as it suppose to. Some companies aren't testing their products.
vr-zone not accepting my yahoo account can't ever post on their forum.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 1:21 am

Mega2007 wrote:Biostar ta690g gives blank screen lockup when you have 4gb of ram and have pci-e card installed like 8800gts 640mb in my case. I told ATi/Amd about it and told me on my customer care ticket they won't support their chipset.

Do not use the 828 bios update I updated to it and got all red errors in memtest 86+ (failed the test) reverted to 427 and it works fine again (pass all the test). I'm having strange memory problems system won't let me select anything other than 800 ddr or I get some errors in the memtest86+. Wired I test ram banks A2 and B2 they are getting errors with more settings like 667ddr and freeze at 533ddr but works with 800ddr when going beyond some ht levels. Getting bsod in windows. Wired. Might have to jump ship and send it back.

(This configuration is stable but concerned with a elusive bsod for resource that shows up but not in windows xp. Should be cleared now but need to run 24hr orthos test later)
BE-2350 @ 3ghz(Amd had 64bit for years and now they don't support 4gb)
Biostar ta690g @ 1716Mhz HT (no support for 64bit DAMMIT)
4x1gb Patriot ddr2 @ 860mhz with memory hole remapping disable for (3gb)
evga 8800gts 640mb through dvi to 42" 1080p westy.
x-fi no hardware acceleration support for vista64 + z2300
Vista 64x ultimate ( 64bit)

my review on it
Good
-its a bit energy efficient
-decent overclocking options.
-works great out of the case and laying out on the lower shelf of my desk.

Bad
- its actually has a couple hot areas for such a small board (north, south, ram, pci-e(8800gts))
- lack support and no 4gb that is usuable with pci-e graphics card.
- mAtx still lacks space for pci cards and 2slot pci-e cards. Can't fit my tv tunner card in without overheating and blocking the 8800gts 640mb.
-Where is the printer port optional purchase can't find it.
-Has a conflict memory not available for pci-e bus/pci bus 0xC0000000 - 0xFEBFFFFF in vista 64bit but not in windows xp 32bit.

I'm tried of products we buy just don't work out of the box as it suppose to. Some companies aren't testing their products.
vr-zone not accepting my yahoo account can't ever post on their forum.

This is interesting...Mega 2007 picked a nice bunch of components---but ran into trouble because it's an MATX board and 8800 Vid cards are kinda like the fat lady who takes up 2 seats on the bus. A PCI slot is lost and he wanted a soundcard and a TV tuner. He picked some excellent parts---but what he wanted to do--he should have got a full ATX board.

Both the BE chips aND 690 boards are real nifty stuff. However both are pretty new----as is Vista 64. Add 'em up and all that latest-greatest tech is (as is typical these days) going to be a bit buggy untill all the drivers-bios are in synch. It WILL happen....just not right away.

Ironic,huh? Mega 2007 really did his homework-aside from realizing that 8800 cards eat up a lot of space.....but he's not gonna get the benefits for a couple of months. Later....this rig will be a beast,once they diddle all those drivers,bios tweaks. If he was running XP and a USB soundcard...he probably would be fine. He's gotta wait abit while all that new tech learns to work togather

sun4384 · Post by **sun4384** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 4:41 am

The new bios doesn't appear to change/fix a lot of things.
The website says (according to babel fish translation) it fixed wrong temperature reading problem, and supports ite8716FXS.

Strangely, recent beta version of speedfan says my board has IT8712F-J. Hmm, newer versions use different chips?
Anyhow, there doesn't seem to be a negative effect of using the recent bios. So far, so good.

sun4384 · Post by **sun4384** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 7:07 am

It's strongly recommended to update BIOS to 0828 version. It fixed manual memory timing problem (now we can set manual memory timing, and it will stay across CPU multiplier changes).

It also seems that the board reboots better. In the previous version when s/w resetting the board, often it hangs and hardware reset should be performed. Now, it's not totally gone, but seems better.

I tried to overclock/underclock integrated GPU core to 500/200 from the default 400. It seems the difference is very minimal at least according to 3DMark 2006. Hmm.......

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 1:59 pm

My bios date is 03/09/2007 (according to the bios upgrade utility). Does this mean march 9th or 3rd september - anyone know? US and the rest of the world use different date systems.
Also is there any way of upgrading the bios without a floppy? The floppy has been an antique piece of hardware for a long time; a bit incredible that biostar gives it as the only option for bios upgrading in their documents.

Deliriou5 · Post by **Deliriou5** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 8:21 pm

sun4384 wrote:It's strongly recommended to update BIOS to 0828 version. It fixed manual memory timing problem (now we can set manual memory timing, and it will stay across CPU multiplier changes).

Where did you get the 0828 BIOS from? I do not see it on this page.

Edit: OK, I found it on this page.

-Deliriou5

sun4384 · Post by **sun4384** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 4:12 am

croddie wrote:My bios date is 03/09/2007 (according to the bios upgrade utility). Does this mean march 9th or 3rd september - anyone know? US and the rest of the world use different date systems.
Also is there any way of upgrading the bios without a floppy? The floppy has been an antique piece of hardware for a long time; a bit incredible that biostar gives it as the only option for bios upgrading in their documents.

If you have a usb memory stick, make it bootable and unpack the files in the bios release file. Then, boot using the stick and simply run up.bat file. Instead, you can use the bios upgrade utility in the cdrom.

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 5:27 am

Thanks for that info!

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:22 pm

How do you make a usb key bootable? The only utilities that I can find involve having a floppy drive. (There is an HP utility I found but that doesn't work in Vista.)

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 10:48 am

OK did it by following this article:
http://www.thepcspy.com/articles/hardwa ... lash_drive
The link to the boot disk files doesn't work but search for the file name linked to find it elsewhere.
Set programs once installed to "run as administrator".
Put awdflash and the new bios on the disk.
Boot from flash and run awdflash typing the exact name of the bios file including the drive letter and extension.
All that worked for me.

sun4384 · Post by **sun4384** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:10 pm

Anybody have success connecting a monitor with HDMI input to this board? My new monitor accepts HDMI input, and I have quite a problem with any resolution. There is a black framed area around the LCD screen, leaving only a portion of the center screen used to display things. This makes the original desktop cropped. With DVI to DVI, there wasn't a problem. Is this somehow related to display driver setting?

If so, all this ATI headache makes me regret getting this board...........

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:36 pm

sun4384 wrote:Anybody have success connecting a monitor with HDMI input to this board?

I'm currently running this board as a headless PVR/file server. But I did at one time connect it to my 1080p HDTV via the HDMI connector and it worked without any problem. I even got sound via the HDMI connection.

What you are experiencing is known as underscan which I believe ATI sets as default for some reason. Versions 7.8 and 7.9 of Catalyst Control Center both give you the option to set the amount of underscan to zero so that your PC desktop occupies the entire screen. The screen is under DTV>Scaling Options in CCC.

sun4384 · Post by **sun4384** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:14 am

What you are experiencing is known as underscan which I believe ATI sets as default for some reason. Versions 7.8 and 7.9 of Catalyst Control Center both give you the option to set the amount of underscan to zero so that your PC desktop occupies the entire screen. The screen is under DTV>Scaling Options in CCC.

Actually the screen is displayed 1:1, not resized. Just upper-left part of desktop is cropped and surrounded in a black frame on the screen, like this:

, which happens on ANY resolution and CCC settings.

It's so funny that the black frame disappears and desktop is correctly shown when ATI driver is uninstalled... though I can't set 1920x1200. Is it just me, or driver issue? Another RMA time...?

buckaroo104 · Post by **buckaroo104** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 9:41 pm

I've got the TA690G as well, similar issue running Ubuntu 7.04 AMD64. At 1920x1200 the entire image appears shifted up and to the left when using HDMI.

Using the analog output to my old CRT works great at 1920x1200.

Currently running ATI's Cat Control Centre (driver 8.40.4). I'm hoping its just a driver issue that will eventually be worked out. The BIOS screen and the Ubuntu splash screen look fine. The Ubuntu sign in however has the shift, so I'm guessing drivers.

Nice little board.

sun4384 · Post by **sun4384** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 3:58 pm

It's relieving to hear that. To be quite frank, I'm very regretful that I got this board, not because of the hardware issue (I think it's a board of quality), but because of the ATI driver issue. We have already suffered the black screen problem before, and now again, this HDMI thing. Pathetic, stupid, crappy. I actually tried another ATI video card with both DVI and HDMI, and the same cropping and shifting has happened with HDMI connection in the new video card. So, it's very certain that ATI driver is the cause here.

In my board, Catalyst control center detects both DVI and HDMI connection as HDMI. How about others? Is your DVI connection detected as DVI? In case of the new video card, CCC detected DVI as DVI, and HDMI as HDMI separately.

Another funny thing I experienced was that with only HDMI to HDMI connection, nothing shows up on the screen until......... I connect whatever cable to the DVI port of the motherboard. It doesn't matter for something else to be attached to the other side of the cable. Even though it's just a dangling cable on the DVI, it's necessary for the HDMI to HDMI connection. Things are getting "interesting"..., and I'm about to RMA this board.

sun4384 · Post by **sun4384** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 4:03 pm

By the way, what the heck is the exact requirement for Catalyst control center to run? Which version of .NET? Should .NET be installed PRIOR to CCC installation?

I keep on having XXX.Implementation something something popup though I installed all the versions of .NET.

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 9:32 pm

It will install it automatically if needed. Try reinstalling catalyst?