2500+ at 400?

[cralston]

I've been contiplating buying the 2500+, the A7N8X Deluxe, and either PC 2700 or PC3200 for a while now. I've been seeing some people posting about this combo (PC3200) running at 400 fsb, synched. How can this be done when the fsb of the 2500+ is only 333? Assuming this can be done, which is better, everything running at 333, or the mobo and the memory at 400 while the cpu is at 333 (or would it also be at 400?)?

 

[pspada]

You get much better performance when you sync the memory speed to the FSB speed. And if you set the FSB to 200, I don't think you'd be able to run the RAM at less than that, so get PC3200, as PC2700 might not be able to handle it. And if you run the 2500+ at 333, and change the RAM to 400Mhz, you will induce additional wait states, and that's why performance will be less than if you run the RAM at 333 also.

A 400Mhz FSB Barton has just been unveiled by AMD, the 3200+, but I know of no one who has it yet.

 

[cralston]

Yeah Isaw it is out, but it's too rich for me right now. But on the otherhand, I might not get around to doing this upgrade for at least a month, xo maybe I could afford it then. How do you set a 333 mhz cpu to 44 mhz? is this a bios setting with this board?

 

[pspada]

it's generally setting within the BIOS - and you best know what your doing, or you may burn out stuff or cause the system not to run. Some older board have jumper or dip switch settings to accomplish this, but I hope you m/b is not that old.

 

[cralston]

I would be going with the revision 2 Asus A7N8X Deluxe.

 

[gramboh]

There are two clock frequencies you are setting, the FSB -front side bus (I believe you meant this by the mainboard) and the RAM. PC3200 should run at 200MHz (400 DDR) and the FSB (CPU) defaults to 333MHz. You must overclock the FSB to 200 (400 double pumped) if you want to run it in sync with 400 DDR ram, lots of people have been having success with this but there is no gaurentee, not sure if AMD is going to release 400MHz FSB chips at slower clock speeds, hopefully

 

[cralston]

Setting the 2500+ fsb to 200 is done in the mobo bios settings I assume. What are the dangers involved and how are they avoided?

 

[pspada]

Well, the worst is that the system does not even post. I can not get my Barton 2500+ running at any FSB seriously over the default 166Mhz, on my FIC AN19E. Probably the m/b is most to blame, in my case.

 

[MachoDonut]

Originally posted by: cralston
Setting the 2500+ fsb to 200 is done in the mobo bios settings I assume. What are the dangers involved and how are they avoided?

With a quality motherboard such as the Asus, you should have no problem hitting 200mhz FSB, espescially with the lastest revision. Just drop your multiplier down a little and work the FSB up. Once you get there, start working your multiplier back up. You may need to add a little Vcore, but just go in little steps and test for stability with each change that you make. My 2500+ hit 200mhz without breaking a sweat. Make sure you have the latest bios revisions, too. PC2700 memory would be fine if you plan to leave the FSB at default, but I would strongly urge you to get quality PC3200 if 200mhz is your goal.

Good luck.

 

[Shimmishim]

here's the deal though

i dunno if it's just with the abit board nf7-s

but a lot of the 333 fsb processors can't seem to hit the 200 fsb mark due to some issue the board has with these chips..

(rev 2.0 and higher boards)

you have to cut the 3rd L12 bridge i believe if you can't get it to 200

a lot of people are getting into the 180 mark ... after doing the mod, they are getting well over the 220 mark...

 

[cralston]

If I go ahead and get the PC3200 ram, but decide I do not want to up the fsb of the cpu will I loose any performance since the ram is not synched with the cpu? Or can the PC3200 synch with the 333 mhz fsb? If it can then getting the PC3200 will give me more flexibility.

 

[pspada]

It should run just fine at 333, no worries - assuming of course that it can indeed run at 400 (just because it's called PC3200 does not make it so, some RAM is labelled PC3200 but is only overclocked 266 or 333).

 

[MachoDonut]

Originally posted by: Shimmishim
here's the deal though

i dunno if it's just with the abit board nf7-s

but a lot of the 333 fsb processors can't seem to hit the 200 fsb mark due to some issue the board has with these chips..

(rev 2.0 and higher boards)

you have to cut the 3rd L12 bridge i believe if you can't get it to 200

a lot of people are getting into the 180 mark ... after doing the mod, they are getting well over the 220 mark...

This is true. It seems to be luck of the draw. I know from my personal experience that I had no issues with the Abit board getting to 200mhz. Prehaps it may have something to do with the date of the processor. Mine is a week 15.

 

[gramboh]

Anyone here running a 2500+ at 200 with an A7N8X (rev 2.0?) I've heard of no-post problems when an OC attempt fails (e.g. not enough voltage or the chip will not handle the higher speed). How do you solve this problem of no-posting? Do you have to take the CMOS battery out for a while? I'm just trying to see what's going to be involved in OC'ing my machine (hoping for 11 x 200 with an SLK-800A + Panaflo L1A and Corsair TwinX 512LL PC3200)

 

[Jeff7181]

I'm using an A7N8X Deluxe and having no problem hitting 200 Mhz FSB with my XP2500... in fact I'm running at 221 right now with my memory a-sync at 166. But my PC3200 is coming soon, so if that won't run at 221, I'll probably back the FSB down to 200 so I can run them in sync.
If you buy the XP2500 and A7N8X, DEFINATELY get PC3200 RAM. The temptation to overclock will get the best of you, and you'll be a lot more sucessful with PC3200. If you don't want to overclock, get the PC3200 anyway, then run it in sync and you'll probably be able to lower the timings to 2-2-2-5 easily.

EDIT - By the way, I didn't have to do any modification at all to overclock.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: gramboh
Anyone here running a 2500+ at 200 with an A7N8X (rev 2.0?) I've heard of no-post problems when an OC attempt fails (e.g. not enough voltage or the chip will not handle the higher speed). How do you solve this problem of no-posting? Do you have to take the CMOS battery out for a while? I'm just trying to see what's going to be involved in OC'ing my machine (hoping for 11 x 200 with an SLK-800A + Panaflo L1A and Corsair TwinX 512LL PC3200)

If it's the result of selecting a FSB too high, turn the power off, reset CMOS using the jumper, and turn computer back on

If it's the result of changing too many things at once, hard power off, power on, and it should boot fine. More simple solution would be to change only one thing at a time, reboot, enter bios, change one more thing, reboot, etc.