Seby

Also here's the bios I'm using for z790 apex encore, just to make sure it is shared, but there is nothing special about it. It is just 9905 with the ucode from 9933 so that I don't have to disable intel default and enable MCE every time, as well as cpu fan set to always ignore and armoury crate disabled. https://www.dropbox.com/s/6lzydh3a64mzwdz/z790ae9905uc129andbclkandstuffalreadyset.CAP?st=gyr6acjz&dl=0 (needs usb flashback)

Z890 Apex 0009 https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/da34meejvax2r8gm31t91/ROG-MAXIMUS-Z890-APEX-ASUS-0009.CAP?rlkey=nl4tai3zhl1etukzfa2ap7om1&st=mk8azyvl&dl=0

Latest Z890 Apex test bios: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/20fhm5ok9fh2d2hd3m7jc/ROG-MAXIMUS-Z890-APEX-ASUS-0005.CAP?rlkey=nfcu21ruvyb5rhnxbdzq66ob8&st=j9t9afki&dl=0

Blocking on ASUS is optional, worked fine without blocking on Z170-P D3 and others. Maybe it can prevent some current going where it isn't supposed to for safety I suppose.

Yep, though on the apex it is the third one up (trace is connected to 6th pin up on the nuvoton chip)

Solder a wire between the red circle and any yellow (ground) point. Easiest one is probably the biggest component: OU1C129 , which is the same place that the image in the post I linked used. Though could also do the shorted possible run by going right across to OR661.

Only need the one mod I showed with the boardview, the other is for flashing the bios, which you already did. Pretty easy thing to solder, and you can use so much better CPUs.

Yes 9350K would work and 8700K wouldn't. As for the mod: And in more detail:

Just kaby lake based CPUs, so the dual and quad core chips.

Y-cruncher failed even though benchmate says score is valid :( Will be fixed with next bm I think.

Yeah 2505, I would start on 2702 and if you have bad CB and can’t solve, try 2505 before giving up.

But I had lots of issues on LN2 with this bios, main one is that instead of the usual CBB behavior of C5 or whatever, the board just didn’t react to start button. Then also just that high memory clock on ln2 was way less stable and I could only run -88. Lastly, this cpu did -180 to -190 before and now it freezes at -110. Also got socket replaced on it since then but I need to test old bios again. Main purpose of this anyway though was to compare ambient to ln2 frequency to gauge what my ambient goal needs to be

Have Renesas PMIC? There's no OC PMIC for RDIMM, but renesas can still be hacked. My new dimms have richtek so also 1.435 :( , and on Intel they have issues with oc, not sure why.

UNOFFICIAL BIOS for Z790 APEX Encore based on 9905 that: Fixes MCE on HX CPUs Fixes Tri/Quad GPU AVX512 for Alder Lake without breaking 0x11F Microcode switcher (not bclk ucode) Disables CPU_FAN warning by default Disables Armoury Crate by default https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wo6kRuFDjjznaC6U-lrOC4fC9wxKx2ih/view?usp=sharing Need to flash with USB Bios Flashback (Rename to A5470.CAP) Change from before is that CSM now properly enables itself on its own for legacy GPUs and long/failed first boot fixed EDIT: Link updated to fix win 11 bsod

good enough?