**Official Biostar TPower X58 Review/Overclock/Guide Thread**

[Nelly]

Official Biostar Forums

Novatech Forum - Official Biostar TPower X58 Review/Overclock/Guide Thread**

The Rebels Haven Forum! (Unofficial Biostar Forums)- Biostar 64 Bit Intel S1366 Motherboard


Reviews

Biostar Tpower X58: the alternative! @ matbe.com

Compatable Air Cooling List (NOTE: Doesnt take into consideration case sizes)

Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme-1366 RT

Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme + LGA1366 Bolt-Thru-Kit

Noctua NH-U12P SE1366

Zalman CNPS9700 LED Aero Flower + ZM-CS4A LGA1366 Clip Kit

Compatable Ram List - Bootable with default voltage to bios

'CLICK HERE' - BIOSTAR'S Official Compatable Ram List

OCZ 6GB Platinum DDR3 PC3-1600 (3x2GB) CAS7

OCZ 3GB Platinum DDR3 PC3-1600 (3x1GB) CAS7


Corsair 6GB Dominator DDR3 PC3-1600 (3x2GB) CAS8

Corsair 3GB Dominator DDR3 PC3-1600 (3x1GB) CAS8

Official BIOS

WARNING:- DO NOT USE THE WINDOWS FLASHMENU METHOD TO UPDATE YOUR BIOS, HIGH RISK OF BIOS FAILIURE!

Biostar's Bios Flashing Procedure using a USB Data Stick OR Formatting a USB Data Stick for BIOS Flashing + How to update the BIOS via USB Flash Stick/Drive

What should I do If the system BIOS was corrupted after the flashing process ?

CPU support list

AFUDOS 4.23


BIOS ID: IX58A304

1. i7 core "D0" CPU Revision compatability.
2. Supports XMP memory and improved some memory compatibility with more memory.
3. Release Date: 4th March 2009

BIOS ID: IX58A210

1. Fix Hardware Detection to resolve FAN5 issue.
2. Release Date: 10th February 2009

BIOS ID: IX58AC25

1. Added bootflash screen prompts.
2. Release Date: 25th December 2008

BIOS ID: IX58C10

1. Adjustment 3pin/4pin CPU smart fan options.
2. Release Date: 10th December 2008

BIOS ID: IX58AC01

1. Initial release.
2. Release Date: 1st December 2008


Beta BIOS

WARNING:- DO NOT USE THE WINDOWS FLASHMENU METHOD TO UPDATE YOUR BIOS, HIGH RISK OF BIOS FAILIURE!

DISCLAIMER:
Biostar will not be held responsible or liable for any damage made with using a BETA BIOS.
Please proceed with discretion and do not attempt to use unless you know what you are doing!

BIOS ID: IX58A604 *NEW*

1. Fix XMP1 & XMP2 EX clock function.
2. Release Date: 11th June 2009

Instruction Manual

English Version (1st Edition) Dec 2008 - 3rd February 2009 *NEW*

DRIVERS - Last checked 4th August 2009.

INTEL Chipset Driver v 9.1.0.1007 for 2000 / XP / XP 64bit / 2003 / 2003 64bit / Vista 32bit / Vista 64bit - 8th December 08

RAID/AHCI Software - Intel® Matrix Storage Manager v 8.9.0.1023 for 2000 / XP / XP 64bit / 2003 / 2003 64bit / Vista 32bit / Vista 64bit - 17th July 09 *NEW*

32-bit Floppy Configuration Utility for Intel® Matrix Storage Manager - 17th July 09 *NEW*
Creates floppy disk for 32-bit OS with Intel® Matrix Storage Manager 8.9.0.1023 files - used to preinstall RAID driver (F6 during Windows* setup).

64-bit Floppy Configuration Utility for Intel® Matrix Storage Manager - 17th July 09 *NEW*
Creates floppy disk for 64-bit OS with Intel® Matrix Storage Manager 8.9.0.1023 files - used to preinstall RAID driver (F6 during Windows* setup).

JMicron SATA Driver V 1.17.49 for 2000 / XP / XP 64bit / 2003 / 2003 64bit / Vista 32bit / Vista 64bit - 24th July 09 *NEW*

Realtek 8111C Gigabit Lan V5.718 Driver for Win9x/Me/2000/XP/2003 - 21st July 09 *NEW*

Realtek 8111C Gigabit Lan V6.225 Driver for Vista 32bit / Vista 64bit - 21st July 09 *NEW*

Realtek High Audio Definition R229 Driver for 2000 / XP / XP 64bit / 2003 / 2003 64bit - 23rd July 09 *NEW*

Realtek High Audio Definition R229 Driver for Vista 32bit / Vista 64bit - 23rd July 09 *NEW*


Utilities

Biostar TPower II v0.9.5.6 for 2000 / XP / XP 64bit / 2003 / 2003 64bit / Vista 32bit / Vista 64bit - 9th April 09

BIOScreen v0.9.0.1 for 2000 / XP / XP 64bit / 2003 / 2003 64bit / Vista 32bit / Vista 64bit - 25th February 09

G.P.U( Green Power Utility) v0.9.0.5 for 2000 / XP / XP 64bit / 2003 / 2003 64bit / Vista 32bit / Vista 64bit - 25th February 09

[Nelly]

Biostar TPower X58

4ghz on Air, 1.39v idle / 1.4v load

10 Passes of IntelBurnTest v1.9

Cooling: Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme + 1 YATE LOON 120mm - D12SL-12

[Helios1234]

Hey Nelly, nice write up! What bios will you be using? I noticed Polygon on rebelshaven is modifying the latest one to get 1333mhz+ memory support.

[Nelly]

Originally Posted by Helios1234

Hey Nelly, nice write up! What bios will you be using?

Polygon has BIOS ID: IX58AC25 listed on his bios page but BIOS ID: IX58C10 i.e. the previous one is the current listed on the Biostar webpage & that is what I will initally use to make sure all my hardware is working okay before I start going crackers.

Originally Posted by Helios1234

I noticed Polygon on rebelshaven is modifying the latest one to get 1333mhz+ memory support.

I'll give the modified bios a try once I know my hardware is working at stock speeds. I've sent a reply to Biostar:USA & Biostar:Taiwan about other motherboard manufacturers having unlocked Dram Frequency, will get a reply hopefully sometimes today or tommorow.

[Helios1234]

Surprise !!!

http://www.pt1t.eu/public/X58/TpowerX58/X58AA115.rar

This BIOS can for support uncore to 4266MHz
and DRAM to 2133MHz for ''ALL 920/940 CPUs ''
1. uncore Freq must always > = 2 X DRAM Freq ( * BIOS will check your setting is >= 2X DARM Freq, otherwise need forced to 1066)
2. You need to set '' uncore Freq '' first then go for '' DRAM ratio''. (Higher DRAM Freq means higher uncore Freq)
3. For Core i7 965XE , the uncore ratio is adjustable without any problem. This BIOS will access for some '' unlock''
920/940 CPUs. But if the CPU was locked , it won't work.

From rebelshaven

[Nelly]

Originally Posted by Helios1234

From rebelshaven

I was sent this bios by Biostar Taiwan earlier this morning, I'm beginning to like Biostar more & more.

Hi Sir.
for Tpower X58, we modify a beta BIOS for you.
please test it and inform us the result
do you test Foxconn and gigabytes X58 board personally??
if you have any quesitons, contact us freely please

Regards,

carter@biostar.com.tw

[Helios1234]

AH nice one, I suppose they are really trying to out do the foxconns and gigabytes. From what I can see, the biostar ironed out the only major problem it had. The post above was from someone by the name of pt1t who's been clocking the biostar on xtremesystems. He posted this today on there and on rebels.

[Nelly]

Originally Posted by Helios1234

AH nice one, I suppose they are really trying to out do the foxconns and gigabytes. From what I can see, the biostar ironed out the only major problem it had.

I've gone mad! upgraded my order lol, did it via online chat quick & fast, love the Novatech support easy peasy, Rawrrrrr!!!

Biostar TPower X58
i7 920
OCZ Blade 6x2GB PC3-16000C7-8-7-20 @ 2000mhz
Seasonic M12D SS-750W Modular PSU

[Helios1234]

Ah the ram, just came on here to post about that, u actually went for the blades haha!1 Sweet. I had to cancel mine and ordered the 1333mhz plats from somewhere else. I saw a review of it oced to 1866 at cas 9 which should be enough for me. It does 1600mhz at stock latency and volts as well so they must be exactly the same as the plats we were gonna get. Hopefully now, my order will be in tomorrow.

Novatech support is fantastic I have to say, I kept having problems with my card but they were so patient and even phoned me to check if everything was fine. I had to cancel the cooler and ram but they didn't seemed annoyed or anything like other companies would be.

Btw do the blades use the elpida chips which appear on the dominator gt etc?

[Nelly]

Originally Posted by Helios1234

Btw do the blades use the elpida chips which appear on the dominator gt etc?

As far as I'm aware yes, as they have the exact same timings, the Corsair will be much more expensive.

[Helios1234]

I just noticed ur getting 2x6gb!! That must have cost a fair bit!

[Nelly]

Originally Posted by Helios1234

I just noticed ur getting 2x6gb!! That must have cost a fair bit!

omg! they just changed the due date on high end OCZ ram till 29th January! 2 flipping weeks!

[Helios1234]

Awww man that sucks, I'm glad I cancelled my ram order from here but I managed to score the last platinums somewhere else. I've seen the reaper on sale elsewhere though, it's in stock but at a higher price than here. Won't be anywhere as good as the blades though which I haven't seen anywhere else...

[Nelly]

Just an update, recieved a new Beta Bios today that enables more ram dividers.

Would love to test it myself, I'm waiting for my ram to arrive.

DISCLAIMER:
Biostar will not be held responsible or liable for any damage made with using a BETA BIOS.
Please proceed with discretion and do not attempt to use unless you know what you are doing!

BETA BIOS ID: X58AA115

1. Add memory 1333/1600 speed for i7 920 / 940 cpu.
2. Release Date: 15th January 2008

[Helios1234]

I noticed that for some reason when you set the ram to 1333/1600 people have been getting 22x multi. I know that happens in turbo mode but I thought that the 22x multi was limited to only one core while the 21x was for all cores...Any idea what's happening there?

[Nelly]

A new beta bios has been issued.

DISCLAIMER:
Biostar will not be held responsible or liable for any damage made with using a BETA BIOS.
Please proceed with discretion and do not attempt to use unless you know what you are doing!

BETA BIOS ID: X58AA117

1. Add memory 1333/1600 speed for i7 920 / 940 cpu.
2. Release Date: 17th January 2008

[Helios1234]

Nice thanks, installed these earlier!

[Helios1234]

4ghz... ;-)
More info to come at some point...

[Helios1234]

Right, Im still testing the chip atm because Im getting insane temps in the mid 80s at 4ghz on prime. Things I've noticed though:

If I use the new mem divider(at stock bclk) to get 1600mhz on my platinums at cas 8, memtest immediately picks up errors, but if I oc the chip to 4ghz and use the default divider, my ram is perfectly fine at the same settings. The best I've managed (havent tried for more though) was 1680 mhz 8-8-8-20 using a 211 bclk.

The main problem I seem to be having apart from temp (ill reseat the fan at some point) is that whenever I turn speedstep on to get access to better power management and turbo mode, vista bsods when loading giving a machine error. I'm not sure why it does this but it may be vista related so I'll check into it.

3.8 ghz seems pretty easy at < 1.35vcore but 4ghz seems to require around 1.4v. Ill be playing with it a lot more though to get full stability.

Results so far:

3dmark06

stock everything: 14731
stock cpu, gpu overclocked to 714/1480/1220: 14838
cpu at 4ghz and gpu at 730/1480/1225: 20106.

The shader clock seems to be the most prone to causing instability so I had to unlink shader/core. But from the result you can really see that 3dmark06 is severely cpu limited. In fact, the oc increased the fps at the very start from 70 to 120.

Overall, it's a great board, easy to work with, even the auto settings seemed pretty good but the only issues I have for now is that speedstep thing and my cpu temps. Given that a lot of people reaching 4ghz are using water cooling, it's not too shabby on the noctua but I've yet to properly test it's stability.

I'll have pics and more at some point (uni just started ).

[Mishima]

Nice one Helios. I've heard the i7 chips run very hot. I'm yet to recieve my RAM and cooler - I have the CPU and Motherboard. This waiting game is a right pain!