OC'ing A7N8X Deluxe

DonnegalDonnegal Calgary, Alberta CANADA
edited March 2004 in Hardware
Hello all,

This is my first post, so please bear with me if some of these things have already been addressed or commented on.

I am currently running a new custom water cooled setup on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe and an Athlon XP 2100+ CPU with 2 x 512MB PC2700 DDR.

As far as the "best" way to set this up, this is what I've done so far... I have the CPU running at 166MHz, using the theory that the board runs the RAM in a Dual Channel Mode, which I think (not sure though) is at that speed as well. I have the multiplier set to 13, giving me roughly a CPU speed of 2158MHz. I don't know if that's enough, but seems pretty good so far. I've increased my voltage to 1.700 on the CPU and to 2.7 on the RAM.

Guess I'm wondering if I should be changing these to maximize the components. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated. :D

Comments

  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited February 2004
    Sounds to me like you are starting off pretty good, Donnegal, and welcome to Short-media.:) It looks like you have the basics down. I have an older A7N8X and one problem I've into in the past with my board is that it has the 12.5 multiplier barrier, where if you have a proc with a multi higher than 12.5 you can't run less than a 13 multi and vise versa. So you will most probably be stuck with a 13 multiplier unless they've changed the boards up since my rev 1.94 board was made. You didn't list what brand pc2799 you are running but if it's some quality stuff like Corsair XMS or Kingston HyperX, you should be able to push the fsb speed even higher than 166 with no problem. BTW, your board should tell you if it's running in DC mode at the bootup screen.

    The XP2100 I have would run around 2300 MHz stable, so you stand a decent chance of getting a higher overclock than your present speed.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    I had really great luck doing just what you've done: leaving the multi stock and bumping the FSB up to 166 - basically it makes the XP2100 into an XP2700 for free.

    Welcome to S-M!
  • DonnegalDonnegal Calgary, Alberta CANADA
    edited February 2004
    Thanks for the welcome :)

    The RAM I'm running is just basic generic stuff at the moment, but it's on my wishlist of things to upgrade.

    So, if I understand you correctly, I should leave my multiplier lower, and subsequently raise my FSB speeds higher than 166MHz, as long as she's stable. Will that affect that PC2700 DDR running in the dual channel mode?

    ** EDIT **

    At my present settings, the memory is running in Dual Channel Mode.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Your best bet would be to drop the PC2700 in favor of some PC3200 or PC3500. With 400 MHz capable RAM, I also got 2.3GHz out of my XP2100+ at 11.5x200. But you can't hope for too much more FSB with the PC2700 you've got, unfortunately.
  • DonnegalDonnegal Calgary, Alberta CANADA
    edited February 2004
    Welp, I've decided to bite the bullet and I bought the Corsair TwinX1024-3200LLPT memory kit ( 2 x 512MB ) and will install them tonight.

    Now, from the Corsair site, they say the memory timings are to be 2-3-2-6, 1T. As I read through thread after thread of NForce2 board and memory stuff, should I set the timings to 2-3-2-11, 1T?

    Given this ram, what should I expect to set that XP2100+ to and run safely? I'm thinking 200 x 11 or so with 1.8v?
  • DonnegalDonnegal Calgary, Alberta CANADA
    edited March 2004
    Installed the ram, and they work fine. Still can't get my CPU to run stable at 200 FSB yet. It doesn't seem to even like being in the 180's. The XP 2100+ CPU is a "B" processor.

    Any ideas? Should I just simply ditch the 2100+ for a M-2600 or something, or is there some settings I may be over looking?
  • ketoketo Occupied. Or is it preoccupied? Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    Suggested: Post ALL of your bios settings and let others who have this mobo look them over. Could be 1 simple small setting, I know with my Asus P4 board the setting "legacy USB" has to be disabled to overclock - who woulda guessed?
  • DonnegalDonnegal Calgary, Alberta CANADA
    edited March 2004
    Thanks Keto, I'll do that when I get home late tonight and post everything I can get my hot little hands on.

    Last night I messed about with my system for some time, and this is basically what I've come to the conclusion of:

    CPU will run at 200 FSB no problem, posts, gets into windows, runs fine.
    RAM is designed to run at 200, so even I couldn't mess that up.

    Only issue is when I set it to 200 FSB, with the 1.800v on CPU and 2.9v on RAM, graphics like games and 3Dmark2001 don't run worth beans. The screen on 3Dmark goes mostly black, with hardly any colour blocks, and eventually locks or restarts.
  • DonnegalDonnegal Calgary, Alberta CANADA
    edited March 2004
    OK, this is what I've got so far.... if anyone has some comments on what things here should be changed, please let me know... honestly, some of these things I don't have a clue what their effect is. (ugh... I'm such an uber-noob :( )

    ** ASUS A7N8X Deluxe ACPI BIOS Rev 1007 **

    ADVANCED BIOS FEATURES
    Boot Virus Detection - Disabled
    CPU Level 1 Cache - Enabled
    CPU Level 2 Cache - Enabled
    Quick PowerOn Self Test - Enabled
    Gate A20 Option - FAST
    Typematic Rate Setting - Disabled
    APIC Mode - Enabled
    OS/2 Onboard Memory > 64M - Disabled
    Speech POST Reporter - Enabled
    POST Complete Report - Enabled

    ADVANCED CHIPSET FEATURES
    CPU External Freq. (MHz) - 200 MHz
    CPU Frequency Multiple Setting - MENU
    CPU Frequency Multiple - 9.5x ** I know... not so good **
    System Performance - User Defined
    CPU Interface - Aggressive
    Memory Frequency - 100%
    Resulting Frequency - 200 MHz
    Memory Timings - User Defined
    SDRAM Active Precharge Delay - 11
    SDRAM RAS to CAS Delay - 3
    SDRAM RAS Precharge Delay - 2
    SDRAM CAS Latency - 2T
    FSB Spread Spectrum - Disabled
    AGP Spread Spectrum - Disabled
    CPU Vcore Setting - Menu
    CPU Vcore - 1.750v
    Graphics Aperture Size - 256MB
    AGP Frequency - Auto
    System BIOS Cacheable - Disabled
    Video RAM Cacheable - Disabled
    DDR Reference Voltage - 2.8v
    AGP VDDQ Voltage - 1.5v
    AGP 8x Support - Enabled (although my card isn't 8x)
    AGP Fast Write Capability - Enabled

    INTEGRATED PERIPHERALS
    Primary VGA BIOS - PCI VGA Card
    USB Controllers - V1.1 + V2.0
    USB Keyboard & Legacy Support - Disabled
    USB Legacy Mouse Support - Disabled
    Onboard AC97 Audio Controller - Auto
    Onboard AC97 Modem Controller - Auto
    Onboard Lan (nVIDIA) - Auto
    Onboard Lan (3COM) - Auto
    Onboard 1394 Device - Auto
    Floppy Disk Access Controller - Enabled

    POWER MANAGEMENT SETUP
    ACPI Suspend to RAM - Disabled
    Video Off Method - DPMS Support
    HDD Down in Suspend - Disabled
    PWR button < 4 Secs - Soft Off
    Power Up On PCI Device - Disabled
    Wake / Power Up on Ext. Modem - Disabled
    Automatic Power Up - Disabled
    AC Power Loss Restart - Disabled
    Power On By PS/2 Mouse - Disabled
    Power On By PS/2 Keyboard - Disabled

    PnP/PCI Configurations
    Resources Controlled by - Auto(ESCD)
    PCI/VGA Palette Snoop - Disabled

    That's all the stuff I can think of that may be relevant to what I'm trying to accomplish here... thanks again everyone for all your help and support so far. ;D
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited March 2004
    I would change the CPU interface to default or auto or whatever the standard setting is (I haven't used my A7N8X for a long, long time)
  • DonnegalDonnegal Calgary, Alberta CANADA
    edited March 2004
    Also I was wondering if the AMD Wire Trick should be something I should be doing?
  • DonnegalDonnegal Calgary, Alberta CANADA
    edited March 2004
    gratuitous bump to see if anyone has any thoughts on this... :D
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited March 2004
    Which wire trick? There are 2 or 3...
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited March 2004
    Donnegal, is your A7N8X letting you change the multiplier down below a 13 on that 2100 you have? If so, that's a new one on me. My older A7N8X won't let a 2100 go below a 13 multi and won't let a proc with a default multi of less than or equal to 12.5 go any higher than 12.5. Are you sure that it is actually booting with that 9.5 multi that you set in bios? Check it with xcpuid or cpu-z when you get it booted up on a 200 fsb to make sure your board is letting your molti go down to 9.5.

    BTW, if you want to spend the $104 on a 2600m, it's money well spent. I presently have mine at 2589 MHz and folding like a mofo. Just be aware with the mobile XP that you have to set your multi in bios because a desktop board reads the multi as a 6.
  • DonnegalDonnegal Calgary, Alberta CANADA
    edited March 2004
    The wire trick I was thinking of is the one that you put a single copper strand bridging two of the holes in the actual CPU socket... don't know of any other ones.

    Muddocktor, yeah, my board let's me boot at lower than the 13 multiplier, but it's very, very flaky at 200 x 9.0 or whatever I had it set to. I was running in windows fine, but anything graphics related was terrible.

    I gave up on it and am running it back at 166 x 13.5 (currently, WCPUID says my clock is at 2255.11MHz). I think I'll just have to spend the cash and get one of those 2600m CPU's you all are raving about. :(
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited March 2004
    One other thing you might try on the 200 fsb is to up the AGP volts to 1.6 or 1.7 and see if that helps and also you might try setting the AGP to 4X since your vid card is a 4X card.
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited March 2004
    Donnegal wrote:
    CPU will run at 200 FSB no problem, posts, gets into windows, runs fine.
    RAM is designed to run at 200, so even I couldn't mess that up.

    Only issue is when I set it to 200 FSB, with the 1.800v on CPU and 2.9v on RAM, graphics like games and 3Dmark2001 don't run worth beans. The screen on 3Dmark goes mostly black, with hardly any colour blocks, and eventually locks or restarts.

    Hey there, I see up there somewhere you are using the 1007 bios. I would highly recomend the 1004uber bios. It has done wonders for a lot of people including myself. 1004 was the only way I could get to 200fsb on the v1.4 of that board. with 1007 my oc would crap out at 188fsb. Heres a good link to start your reading. http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40077&highlight=1004uber
  • mluke24mluke24
    edited March 2004
    I have an A7N8X - Deluxe revision 1.4. I was wondering which uber bios version I should use with the board (having problems getting over 200fsb without gfx problems). Sorry to steal the subject, just a quick reply will suffice!

    I'm not sure which ones to try on the list on that site.
  • DonnegalDonnegal Calgary, Alberta CANADA
    edited March 2004
    As I do run 2 of those WD Raptor 36.7GB SATA HDD's in a RAID-0 array, I'm going to try to install the 1007 uber bios.

    Thanks again everyone for all your suggestions... I'll keep you posted. :)
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited March 2004
    mluke24 wrote:
    I have an A7N8X - Deluxe revision 1.4. I was wondering which uber bios version I should use with the board (having problems getting over 200fsb without gfx problems). Sorry to steal the subject, just a quick reply will suffice!

    I'm not sure which ones to try on the list on that site.

    heres a link http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=123445#123445

    1004uber is what you want. If you look around somewhere I posted some pics of my oc's on my v1.4

    BTW Donnegal I was using 2 rapters on my asus in raid 0 also. with the 1004uber you get it with the stable sata SATA bios that the 1007 uses.
  • mluke24mluke24
    edited March 2004
    Thanks, I appreciate you clearing that up Komete! Now I'll fire'm up and see how they work!! Wish me luck :celebrate
  • mluke24mluke24
    edited March 2004
    Oops...another question. Do i need to make a floppy with the uberbios 1004 and the awdflash utility on it also? and boot from floppy?

    **EDIT**

    Ok I figured it out (had to download the board manual) thanks again!
  • KaluMinatiKaluMinati Calgary Alberta Canada
    edited March 2004
    Just read this thread... and i cant figure out why you cant oc higher... ive got a 2100+ AIUHB stepping and i can run solid at 11x216 with a 1.775vcore, what board revision do you have? is it the pcb v2.0? ( in real tiny letters right beside the A7N8X screen printing on the motherboard ) i'll post my system specs so u can compare your current system to my set up

    CPU: 2100+ TBredB (2.37ghz) w/V9
    MOBO: A7N8X Deluxe rev 2.0 (stock bios)
    RAM: Crucial 512mb pc3200 7-3-3-3
    PSU: 550w Antec
    VID: ASUS Ti4200 128mb
    HDD: 2x80gig Maxtor

    also... i had noticed that your CPU interface was set to aggresive... off the top of my head i set mine to optimal as the aggressive would tend to cause instability
  • DonnegalDonnegal Calgary, Alberta CANADA
    edited March 2004
    I have a rev. 1.04 board.... my CPU is a 2100+ AIUHB stepping as well, but no luck getting 200 solidly. Haven't put in the 1004 uber bios yet, but I will when I finally get some time to :)
  • KaluMinatiKaluMinati Calgary Alberta Canada
    edited March 2004
    gl with the BIOS flash.. i remeber my first bios flash... i was nervous as hell.. but as far as it goes for reaching 200... i know how u feel... im pulling my hair out trying to find a way to crack 2.4
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