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[RaymondCarver]

I've got one of the golden Barton2500's + an Asus A7n8x Delux + two 512MB Corsaid PC3200 + the Zalman CNPS7000A copper's on it's way.

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The question is: What voltage + incrimental steps are reccomended?

This is all in a large Antec 1110B, so there's airflow-a-plenty.

I just need a little help with the FSB, voltage, and multiplier settings.








Thanks as always, guys.

 

[Neo_ZX]

I just got this chip too. It fucked my system up GOOD.

In general, I've found most people use 200MHz FSB with 11 Multiplier and 1.70 Vcore. This is roughlt the sweet spot of 3200+ that air cooling can handle.

BUT here's what I would suggest:

- Use the chip at STOCK FSB, MP, Vcore.
- Get a fresh installation fully completed to your liking.
- Image the drive with Ghost so you can restore it if it fucks up like mine.

- Start upping the FSB in small increments (5MHz) and test each stage. I would probably start at 166MHz and work your way up.
- Adjust Vcore as required and maybe even the DDR voltage.

I stupidly jumped right in and went with 11x200/1.70vcore and it totally screwed up my XP installation. I can't even get into windows now. Lovely ain't it?

I don't know what it was but I just couldn't get it stable even with a 1.775 vcore. I've heard of a lot of success stories but I guess maybe my chip is the one that just couldn't do it.

EDIT: Forgot my specs

Originally AMD Athlon XP 2100+
Now AMD Mobile Athlon XP 2500+
Thermaltake Slim Volcano 10+ (copper)
Asus A7N8X NON Deluxe v1.04 BIOS revision 1007 (official)
2x256MB Infineon PC3200 DDR-SDRAM
Enermax 460W PSU

SB Live Value
Linksys 10/100 NIC
2x Seagate 80GB 7200.7
Pioneer 8x DVD-RW
Pioneer 16x DVD (slot load)

 

[Mrbob]

Like mentioned above, the best advice is to play it safe and slowly move your way up.

Normally that cpu should hit 11 X 200 easy. Normally being the key word. Move that FSB up slowly and go from there.

I've been thinking with faster ram I can push my system a little higher too. I have PC2700 Ram that I have running at PC3200 speeds. My mobile 2400 actually clocks at 2.4 ghz (12 X 200 @ 1.7 volts) so I may have got lucky there (All on air cooling with a Volcano 12). Anything above 200MHZ on the fsb and my ram can't handle it. I can actually post into windows with the FSB at 217 but Prime 95 always has errors. Prime 95 stress tests your hardware and if it runs for a long time with no errors then you are set and can go higher. I'm thinking about grabbing some PC433 ram and seeing how much further I can push this processor.

Anyway, go slowly, use Prime 95 to stress test your hardware. If you have a temperature monitoring program use it. It would be good if you could keep your cpu at 50 degrees celsius or lower after running the prime 95 stress test for an hour or so.

 

[Diablos]

RaymondCarver - I bookmarked this thread while I was banned, because I have some info that may (or may not) help you. If you are using the A7N8X Deluxe PCB 1.04 board, even with the latest bios (now 1008), it will not run an Athlon XP with a FSB of 400 without instability. Run Prime95 if you don't believe me, it will fail the Torture Test after just a few minutes. Games will lock up constantly. It's just a mess. If you have a newer board you should be ok... but Asus sucks anyway, t-breds and bartons run anywhere in between 35-45C in most boards, whereas it is very common for them to run at 50-55 or even 60C for most people using Asus nForce boards. Note how I said most, so don't act all hard if your Asus board runs your CPU at a pretty low temp.

See the other thread I just made. Maybe we can help each other find a good replacement board. I have read nothing but good things about Soltek.

 

[Neo_ZX]

I guess that explains why it was never stable on my board. Time to buy a Deluxe 2.0

 

[Diablos]

Asus sucks dude I might buy a Soltek mobo...

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-180-039&depa=0

 

[Neo_ZX]

Well the main draw for me would be the SoundStorm audio. That Soltek board looks pretty good too but nothing that really seperates from the other nForce2 boards other than RAID. Good benchmarks?

Also, what's the diff between the original nForce and the 200/400 etc?

 

[Diablos]

Well the main draw for me would be the SoundStorm audio. That Soltek board looks pretty good too but nothing that really seperates from the other nForce2 boards other than RAID. Good benchmarks?

Also, what's the diff between the original nForce and the 200/400 etc?

Ok, you must realize that no boards from now on will have soundstorm. Some may, but not many. Soundstorm is overrated unless you're using like 6 speakers anyway

The Soltek board is a CRAZY overclocker. People are getting their mobile athlon xp processors to like 2.5GHz with a 500MHz FSB. And the CPU still doesn't get that hot. If you aren't overclocking your Athlon XP will idle at about 30-34C if you are using a good heatsink and thermal paste. No matter what I do, this board runs my CPU at like 50-55C, even if its a barton. And yes, I know what I'm doing.

The original nForce had problems optimizing FSB400, or in my board's case, running it stable. The nForce 400FSB boards fixed that problem. Slightly different chipset.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

If you aren't overclocking your Athlon XP will idle at about 30-34C if you are using a good heatsink and thermal paste. No matter what I do, this board runs my CPU at like 50-55C, even if its a barton. And yes, I know what I'm doing.

Tell me about it...

 

[Neo_ZX]

Wow old thread back to life. Anyways I finally got my 2500+ mobile CPU going on my Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe @ 3200+ (2200MHz) and yeah it idles at 51-55° which isn't so great.

I'm using a Thermaltake Slim Volcano 10+ so I might be getting a heatsink that's a bit bigger shortly. I don't know if it would make a difference but I've seen it drop to 49° with the window open on a cool/almost cold day.

 

[Shompola]

well how hot does it get when it's stressed to the max? I don't think yoi should worry about the temperature as long as the system is stable.

 

[Neo_ZX]

I haven't seen it get past 62° I would imagine as high as 65° which is bad but I've seen worse. My old 2100+ used to top 70° using the stock HSF with stock thermal paste on the bottom. The paste actually melted off the die and almost reached the CPU socket until I discovered the problem, cleaned everything up and applied Arctic Silver which dropped the temps to 28-32° idle.

Oh and about the Soundstorm... it actually sounds great but I wouldn't recommend an Asus solution as you have to give up your Mic and Line-In to accomodate 5.1 speakers. Since I have my PS2 and DC connected to my PC I am now pretty much forced to either add another sound card just for those functions or buy a set of Logitech Z-680s for the Line-In although I'll still be missing a mic.