My Biostar TA690G Review: mATX Overclocking Gem

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sun4384
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Post by sun4384 » Mon Sep 24, 2007 1:56 am

Only the latest unofficial version has the .NET checkbox in the installation menu. They now realize that .NET thing configuration is the pain, and put it into the installer. Oh well, the HDMI problem is still there even with that newest driver.

So, it looks the only feature that I might need with CCC is the full screen stretch or centered timing option. Anyway to change them without CCC? (I seem to divert too much here.... sorry all.)

frank2003
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Post by frank2003 » Mon Sep 24, 2007 3:41 am

I can think of at least 3 ways to fix the underscan problem:

1. Install the latest CCC which installs both the driver and the CCC interface. Fix your underscan in CCC. Then uninstall CCC and leave the driver alone.

2. Apply a reigstry hack.

3. Run a program called FixMyUnderscan.exe which basically does the above.

All three solutions worked me on two different mATX 690G boards (Biostar and Gigabyte). My display is a 1920x1080p HDTV.

There's also another solution which I never tried, a program called PowerStrip which allows you to set custom resolution/scan frequencies. Give it a try.

sun4384
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Post by sun4384 » Mon Sep 24, 2007 11:01 am

Well, this is not an under/overscan problem. Images are displayed 1:1, but off-centered, part of desktop is cropped, and framed in a black rectangle. I tested this with another ATI card with HDMI output, and got the same result. buckaroo104 confirmed this problem. I hope ATI fix this problem soon, but doubt they can react quickly. SO IF YOU'RE PLANNING TO USE THIS BOARD FOR HDMI CONNECTION, BEWARE (ESP. FOR HIGH RESOLUTION). Another problem I saw with HDMI connection is that red color looks pale, less saturated and blur.

Let me tell you one very funny thing with this board. My monitor accepts only HDMI, and comes with a DVI to HDMI cable. I connected DVI output of this board using that cable to HDMI input of my monitor, and guess what? I can here sounds through the monitor from DVI output! What does this mean? The DVI port and HDMI port of this board are sort of identical. That's why I had the same problem I described above even with DVI output, and that's why CCC detected DVI connection as HDMI connection. Fhew.......

Well, to some, this might be a good thing because they don't need a separate HDMI to HDMI cable to have sound in their monitor. I didn't know this before, and bought an HDMI to HDMI cable. What a waste. On the other hand, HDMI related problems are carried over to the DVI output, which I face now. Strangely, with the previous 1600x1200 max LCD, I didn't have this problem with DVI output.

Again, can anybody confirm that HDMI output of this board works without attaching a DVI cable to the board (regardless something is attached to the other side of the DVI cable)?

buckaroo104
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Post by buckaroo104 » Mon Sep 24, 2007 7:56 pm

From what I've heard ATI's drivers for Linux aren't the best, though AMD is starting to push them to fix that, so I wasn't expecting much.

Will see what happens over the next few months, apparently Ubuntu's next release will have shiny new ATI drivers...as well as built in PVR software (based on ELISA)... will see. :wink:

aticonfig might help shift the image, haven't made time to try, hopefully sometime this week.

Best of luck with your Window's boxes.

frank2003
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Post by frank2003 » Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:21 pm

sun4384 wrote: So, it looks the only feature that I might need with CCC is the full screen stretch or centered timing option
This feature was first introduced in CCC 7.8 solely to address the underscan issue and allows you to stretch your desktop to fill the monitor/TV. If you believe you don't have an underscan problem then this feature will do nothing for you.

frank2003
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Post by frank2003 » Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:34 pm

sun4384 wrote:I connected DVI output of this board using that cable to HDMI input of my monitor, and guess what? I can here sounds through the monitor from DVI output! What does this mean?
This is not surprising considering most single device DVI and HDMI have the same signal wires. A typical DVI->HDMI adapter is nothing more than a passive cable converter. The signals carried on both are the same. Whether you get audio on your monitor depends on its ability to extract the audio information embedded in the video stream.

I was able to get audio via HDMI and DVI to my HDTV on both of my 690G boards. The ability to send audio and video over the same cable was one of the reasons I chose the 690G chipset (vs the nvidia 7050 which has lots of problems with the audio).

colin2
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Post by colin2 » Mon Oct 15, 2007 6:28 pm

Having finally gotten one to work I have to say I also found the onboard video a real headache, and updating to the latest bios only made it worse. I got the latest ATI set online -- "catalyst" and drivers -- and installed them but still got blinking green horizontal lines in the display, snow from time to time, and whatnot. And that was after I RMAed the first TA-690G I got, which had the above problems plus progressively longer blinking until the video output ceased altogether, about 4 hours into setup.

Happily I have a (completely trouble-free) Gigabyte video card (GV-NX86T256H) so I'm now running both displays off that, but there goes my ambition of adding a third display by using the onboard video for one monitor plus two on the Gigabyte card. And I'm getting an error message every time windows starts, complaining that the ATI drivers don't match the catalyst version.

Can anyone report a combination of ATI drivers, catalyst version, and bios that has been trouble-free?

A couple of dumb bios questions: On every startup, I get an initial screen that reports the hard drives, and then it demands that I hit F1 before it proceeds. Is there a BIOS setting someplace that will have it go ahead and load the operating system like a normal PC? And on the other end, turning the PC off in Windows doesn't make the thing power down -- I have to wait for an "It is now safe to turn off your computer" screen, something I hadn't seen in ten years, and then manually off the power.

On the positive side yes, the board is well laid out, documentation is pretty good, and I've got it running with a BE-2350 and four Hitachi notebook drives in RAID configuration and cooling and wattage look good. The RAID installation, which I was worried about, went without a hitch. Thanks to the posters who turned me on to nLite -- not only did it handle the RAID drivers but when I had to reinstall windows a couple of times I was grateful not to be tied to the chair answering the same questions.

peterson
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Post by peterson » Sun Nov 11, 2007 4:17 am

This topic made me get the TA690G :)
And since some has noticed high temp on NB, i decided to be safe than sorry.

I haven't got the gear into the case yet, so temps are unknown to me. I only wanted to show my solution of a possible problem. A videocard may fit, but it'll be tight.
Image

frank2003
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Post by frank2003 » Sun Nov 11, 2007 4:53 am

peterson wrote: And since some has noticed high temp on NB, i decided to be safe than sorry.
Hmm, that's interesting, as I know the Biostar board is the only 690G board that does not have a hot NB.

peterson
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Post by peterson » Sun Nov 11, 2007 5:15 am

Ok. Too much cooling never hurts?

colin2
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Post by colin2 » Sun Nov 11, 2007 11:20 am

You *can* squeeze a videocard in there along with an HR-05-SLI. I tried, but went with the stock NB cooler because:

1. They'll bump, so you'll want electrical insulation to stop the cooler shorting out the card

2. If the mobo is to be mounted vertically, you need something sturdier than those pins and springs to make sure the HR-05-SLI is in good contact with the NB chip.

3. It may not be necessary. I've been running a month with the stock NB cooler and speedfan reports nothing alarming. And I'm using a Ninja for the CPU, so I have only the case fan moving air.

The Gigabyte 690G board reported excessive NB temps, and one of the great mysteries of the age is why two mobos with the same chipsets report such different NB temps, but there you are.

Judging from the sinks, the toastiest thing on my TA690G is the southbridge.

Incidentally as this excellent pic shows, the Ninja makes it difficult to use all four RAM slots, though I think you can use the near RAM slots as long as your RAM doesn't have tall heatspreaders.

The really good news is that the Ninja (which clamps to that CPU with the grip of death; no wobbly pins or springs) is more than adequate for a BE-2350 and could probably handle a warmer chip.

btw I resolved the dumb bios questions from my last post. But I'm still stymied on going to 3 displays -- AMD and Nvidia seem bent on making their drivers and software mutually incompatible.

peterson
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Post by peterson » Sun Nov 11, 2007 11:44 am

Thanks for you reply.

Who knows, maybe i'll switch back to stock HS :)

I too have the BE-2350 CPU. But i've noticed that RAM only reports to run at 349MHz. This with all settings on auto. Couldn't get it to run at 400MHz, as it's supposed to. It's a Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4DHX. CPUID reports Fxx/6 or something similar. Possible to adjust? BIOS isn't my strongest skill ;)
Anyone experienced similar problem?
I've mailed Biostar but no reply yet.

The problem seems to be the 10.5x divider. It's somehow locked and no matter if i set it to 10x in BIOS. CPUID reports 10.5. If i could set it to 10x the RAM should run at 400MHz. Should probably have bought the BE-2300 :?

JoeWPgh
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Post by JoeWPgh » Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:40 pm

I just set one of these up with a BE-2400. The shipped BIOS ( dated 3/9?) was a mess. After installing Vista, boot up would send me to a boot menu screen with the options of Vista and Vista installation. Out of frustration, I selected Vista installation, where it instructed me to select "Fix My Computer". Of course Vista install could find nothing wrong. There was no getting rid of the boot menu. Worse yet, Media Center wreaked havoc with the onboard graphics/drivers. Freeze ups were disturbingly regular. I fell asleep last night watching TV and when I woke up and shut down Media Center, I clicked through more than 20 messages that the graphics driver had failed and successfully restarted. So today, I downloaded and flashed the BIOS to the 9/13 dated update and everything is running perfectly. Boots straight into Vista and (so far) not so much as a hiccup in Media Center.

For those with memory problems, I noticed that there's a beta BIOS that says it deals with improved memory. I didn't see the point of flashing this beta, because I didn't have any memory issues.

There were some oddities with temps along the way, and I'm not sure what to make of it yet. When I first set it up, I was getting near 60c on the NB(?) SB(?) right after booting into Vista. It would hover in the high 50's at idle. After a day or so, this dropped to the low 50's and is now high 40's. I'm not sure which chipset this is though. The air around the SB feels warm, and the top of the heatsink is hot. The top of the NB heatsink doesn't feel very warm, but the base of it is very hot.

As it stands, I'm very pleased now that I've updated the BIOS. It's the only MB I've had that passes SMART data to Speedfan. And it wakes from S3 with a keystroke (or mouse click, or remote control button) straight to the desktop without stopping at a Windows is Resuming screen. Another first for me.

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Post by aristide1 » Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:22 am

peterson wrote: Image
Did you spend more on cooling than the motherboard? :shock: :shock:

pbs
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Post by pbs » Fri Nov 16, 2007 2:54 pm

frank2003 wrote:
peterson wrote: And since some has noticed high temp on NB, i decided to be safe than sorry.
Hmm, that's interesting, as I know the Biostar board is the only 690G board that does not have a hot NB.
I chose the TA690G over the Gigabyte due to the cool NB, at the cost of firewire. On first install, it really was cooler. However, on latest non-beta bios (R69AM913.BST) the temperature of the NB rose *significantly* so the heatsink is too hot to hold! Anyone with similar experience? And anyone tried the latest betabios wrt. this?

I suspect the change is caused by somehow overclocking the on-board GPU to cope with HD video, and that Biostar has just been late with this modification compared to the others like Gigabyte (where heat and added power consumption is a fact) - and not that Biostar is an engineering miracle. Any comments?

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Post by JoeWPgh » Fri Nov 16, 2007 5:37 pm

pbs wrote:I chose the TA690G over the Gigabyte due to the cool NB, at the cost of firewire. On first install, it really was cooler. However, on latest non-beta bios (R69AM913.BST) the temperature of the NB rose *significantly* so the heatsink is too hot to hold! Anyone with similar experience? And anyone tried the latest betabios wrt. this?

I suspect the change is caused by somehow overclocking the on-board GPU to cope with HD video, and that Biostar has just been late with this modification compared to the others like Gigabyte (where heat and added power consumption is a fact) - and not that Biostar is an engineering miracle. Any comments?
My initial experience was the opposite, but the temps settled down after several hours. I hate to see anything reading 60c at idle, so I was alarmed at first. I can't say that flashing to newest non beta BIOS had any effect one way or the other, as the present temps are in line with what I had after several hours on the shipped BIOS, they no where near as high as the initial readings.

All of this is leading me to a new take, which is that the reported NB temps are gibberish. I've had lower temps reported after an hour of SD TV in Media Center, than after an hour of idle. I can't find any rhyme or reason to what Speedfan reports, so I'm left to wonder if the low temps reported by some, the high temps reported by others, and the incongruities I've seen are all one and the same - that good or bad, these readings are utterly meaningless.

colin2
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Post by colin2 » Fri Nov 16, 2007 9:37 pm

As I look at my speedfan readout right now, one of the "core" temps is cheerfully reporting 8C. You do wonder if it's all gibberish. OTOH I seem to remember that the reports on the Gigabyte board's NB temps relied on more than Speedfan or equivalent.

I tried a kitchen thermometer on my actual heatsinks when I set the thing up and that confirmed the NB was OK. I have the 9/13/2007 BIOS.

Are there really beta bioses? The nonbeta ones seem dodgy enough... Maybe this is just a cultural difference between me and the pubesecent overclockers this mobo seems aimed at. I just want things to work, and it vaguely worries me when bioses, not to mention driver sets, are updated every month. But I guess younger folks like living on the edge.

peterson
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Post by peterson » Sat Nov 17, 2007 11:36 am

aristide1 wrote: Did you spend more on cooling than the motherboard? :shock: :shock:
No, absolutely not. Perhaps 2/3 of what the MB did cost. Nothing shocking at all.

sleepygenius
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Post by sleepygenius » Thu Nov 22, 2007 7:14 pm

I also got this board along with an AMD Brisbane 4000+ and a 2GB dual channel kit G. Skill DDR2 800 memory.

It's a great motherboard, but right now there are some quirks with it. First off, the memory speed is read as 349 in CPU-Z even when it's set at DDR 800 in bios. Another would be in Memtest86+ 1.70 where the memory would generate errors during Test #7 (Random Number Sequence) when both sticks are inserted in dual channel. Otherwise, there isn't any errors while one stick is inserted. Also, in memtest, the ram is displayed as ddr 838 when it is set at 800. I have the latest 913 bios they have posted on their website.

pfft
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Post by pfft » Fri Nov 23, 2007 1:27 am

I first tried the asus 690g board. Got the video corruption and the blinking. It then quit for good. I then got the biostar board. The biostar has been ok. After a boot problem due to too great a power draw from a hard drive test the blinking started as well as red and green pixels. Some reboots and a new video driver from MS update these problems have disappeared. I run 1680x1050 via dvi in xp with no overscan or resolution issues. I too think that the 690g chip needs better cooling than motherboard manufacturers are providing. Other than video glitches the board has been fine. 1080i and 720p playback is flawless. Colors are fine.

I think the 690g wasn't ready for prime time when released and the chips aren't adequately cooled. Time has passed and chipset coolers are available.

aristide1
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Post by aristide1 » Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:45 am

NB cooling is problematic because of clearances with just about everything.

My next NB cooler will be a little more sensible in this aspect.

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/encnfoconoco.html

MC FLMJIG
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Post by MC FLMJIG » Thu Nov 29, 2007 7:10 am

TH NB does get a tad too warm for me and I'm not even using the IGP. I have used the Thermalright hr with no problem. Tall but great heatsink.

dreq
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Post by dreq » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:22 pm

frank2003 wrote: I chose the TA690G over the Gigabyte due to the cool NB, at the cost of firewire. On first install, it really was cooler. However, on latest non-beta bios (R69AM913.BST) the temperature of the NB rose *significantly* so the heatsink is too hot to hold! Anyone with similar experience? And anyone tried the latest betabios wrt. this?

I suspect the change is caused by somehow overclocking the on-board GPU to cope with HD video, and that Biostar has just been late with this modification compared to the others like Gigabyte (where heat and added power consumption is a fact) - and not that Biostar is an engineering miracle. Any comments?
Hi.

I've got the same issue. My board had initially the 913 bios and thus the nb was hot. (I was sorta panicking because the cool NB was the reason for me to buy this board)

I have the tried out some other bios versions and the nb got considerably cooler.
The last 'cool' bios (->the one I'm using now) was the August release: 'R69AM828.BST'.

Despite the rumors I could not measure any additional power cousumption
when any other bios version was used.
-> Well, I won't bet my life on it, maybe 1W; I couldn't measure it that precisely...

Thus I don't think that's the reason for the ~20W extra of the Gigabyte board..

Regarding the (said to be enhanced) HDTV acceleration support... well
I dont know.. I can't really test it, since I don't have any BD/HDDVD hardware and any other format (i.e. avi, mkv files, encoded in H264, AVC or similar) are not supported; in other words, the CPU got helluva much work to do.
(Or is it just that I don't get it to work properly?)

Anyway, as long as the above mentioned formats are not supported, I'll be using the 'August' version of the bios.
Still gonna get the Zalman Chipset cooler, though.

sleepygenius
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Post by sleepygenius » Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:33 pm

I replaced the NB cooler with the Zalman NBF47 and it was one frustrating experience. It barely fits in there with the capacitors near the chip almost touching the heatsink. After some adjusting and accidentally scratching the bottom on the heatsink, I managed to squeeze it in there at an angle with just millimeters of gap between the heatsink and the nearby capacitors. I used Ceramique instead of the included Zalman thermal paste.

The board is installed inside an Ultra Microfly and it seemed that the heatsink Biostar included wasn't catching any airflow causing random black screens. I finally got my replacement memory sticks from Newegg and all seems well. I'm getting temps of 37-41C in Speedfan on where I previously got in the upper 50s and above 60C. This is just a preliminary run and I have yet to do extensive load testing to ensure stability.

Moogles
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Post by Moogles » Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:33 am

peterson: it's hard for me to tell from the picture, but would a regular HR-05 fit this board (in conjunction with a (mini) ninja), or does it have to be the SLI version?

peterson
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Post by peterson » Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:36 am

I have no idea how wide the mini ninja is, but the width of the standard one makes it impossible to fit the regular HR-05

Moogles
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Post by Moogles » Sun Dec 16, 2007 2:57 pm

I believe the mini ninja is the same width as the regular ninja. Thanks for your reply.

loaf.
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Bios undervolting and speedfan

Post by loaf. » Fri Jan 04, 2008 9:24 am

So I just got the board and a BE-2400 and figured I would try my hand at undervolting. I want to undervolt it through the bios as I'll be jumping into Linux for the first time and I don't think there's a way to do it in Linux yet. The only experience I have in undervolting is with my C2D laptop and Notebook Hardware Control. I was wondering if undervolting in the bios was the same deal, where for each multiplier you set a voltage.

Also, I wanted to see which fans were controllable so I tried using speedfan, but for some reason the only fan that I can do anything with is JSFAN1. Is this the only fan that I can do anything with?

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