nForce2 Boards...

[hoebowl]

Im really looking into getting one of these for my new system, but there seems to be alot of things that arent so nifty about alot of them. I was really looking forward to the EPox one, but after today, i kind of given up hope on the board. The lack of a PCI lock, and being unable to unlock tBreds, and many other things thats been stiring up lately.

Im now looking at the Asus A7N8X Deluxe board, they're known to be stable right? Only thing im worried about though is being able to overclock, the main reason why I was looking forward to the Epox board. Im trying to be able to overclock a 1700 tbred to break 2000mhz.

These are the other things thats already on my to-get-list.

Corsair 3200 cas2 512
sk-7 w/ Vantec Tornado

Iv read where people have been able to break the 2000 mark, but the ones i've read were useing Epox Boards...

 

[John]

You might want to browse the Motherboards forum since there are several threads devoted to the Asus & Epox nForce2 motherboard.

 

[Insane3D]

I keep hearing people say the Asus has a PCI lock, but I've see no proof of this in their bios or in reviews. Both the Epox and Asus do allow AGP speed locking, but as far as PCI, I have yet to see confirmation that the PCI is locked on the Asus...or any other NF2 board for that matter.

From the posts of Epox Tech over at the AOA forums, it appears this is a chipset limitation of the NF2, and no boards have PCI locking.

and being unable to unlock tBreds

First of all, no board "unlocks" the Tbreds. The Tbreds come unlocked, and the NF2 and KT400 boards just allow full range of multiplier adjustment. The Epox NF2 is one that allows full multiplier changing on Tbreds, not sure where you heard otherwise..

and many other things thats been stiring up lately.

Which are? The boards been out for less than a week...jeez.

Anyways, I just got my 8RDA+ for a measly $102 @ Mwave, and I should be building this week.

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

Originally posted by: Insane3D
I keep hearing people say the Asus has a PCI lock, but I've see no proof of this in their bios or in reviews. Both the Epox and Asus do allow AGP speed locking, but as far as PCI, I have yet to see confirmation that the PCI is locked on the Asus...or any other NF2 board for that matter.

From the posts of Epox Tech over at the AOA forums, it appears this is a chipset limitation of the NF2, and no boards have PCI locking.

Anyways, I just got my 8RDA+ for a measly $102 @ Mwave, and I should be building this week.

what im wondering is if the pci is calculated from agp

before it was pci*2 = agp

so maybe now if agp is locked, its agp/2 = pci but since agp is fixed so is pci??

 

[AbRASiON]

I haven't seen an official mention of the PCI lock on the Asus board, but I know it does AGP no problems - so one would like to think they were clever enough to do PCI!

Someone should look into this, before people get one hoping for 200mhz FSB speeds (ram and cpu) and find they fry their HDD?!?!!?

The Asus does look like a good board - as for "magically unlocking cpu's" I heard somewhere (I think on anandtech) that someone speculates it's ONLY for higher end cpu's not lower end ones (or vice versa)

I'm hoping to run a 1700+ tbred A around 1850mhz on one,... but if I can unlock it, 9.5x200 = 1900 true mhz - be quite nice for 58$ US cpu.

 

[Insane3D]

Someone should look into this, before people get one hoping for 200mhz FSB speeds (ram and cpu) and find they fry their HDD?!?!!?

Not always. I run 24/7 on my Epox 8K5A2+ (KT333) with my XP 2400+ @ 2.2ghz, 200mhz FSB/Memory...no problems. My PCI is @ 40mhz...but that is really not a big deal with the right components..over that can be dangerous..

what im wondering is if the pci is calculated from agp

before it was pci*2 = agp

so maybe now if agp is locked, its agp/2 = pci but since agp is fixed so is pci??

That may be the case, and if it is, the Epox has the same AGP lock as the Asus...so it would have the same feature...


One interesting thing I found in my 8RDA+ manual...it mentions CPU throttling... That is the first I've seen such a feature mentioned on a AMD board..

 

[AbRASiON]

Not always. I run 24/7 on my Epox 8K5A2+ (KT333) with my XP 2400+ @ 2.2ghz, 200mhz FSB/Memory...no problems. My PCI is @ 40mhz...but that really not a big dealwith the right components..over that can be dangerous..

Sorry I have to disagree with you.
Some of us "enthusiasts" have had enough over the years of "strange bull@#% little problems" (I'm one of them) - if I'm gonna overclock I'll do PCI / AGP no more than 5% out of spec - RAM I''ll keep in spec, only things I overclock is CPU / GPU and Video ram.

either way, I (and others) refuse to run some things out of spec, so if it doesn't do it - bad luck to them, no sale!


I like a "modest simple" overclock which ensures stability.
Much like a 300A -> 450.

One interesting thing I found in my 8RDA+ manual...it mentions CPU throttling... That is the first I've seen such a feature mentioned on a AMD board..

That is very interesting!
Does the A7N8X read the on die cpu thermistor btw?

 

[Insane3D]

Some of us "enthusiasts" have had enough over the years of "strange bull@#% little problems" (I'm one of them) - if I'm gonna overclock I'll do PCI / AGP no more than 5% out of spec - RAM I''ll keep in spec, only things I overclock is CPU / GPU and Video ram.

Hey, I thought all those little problems were just Via's fault right?

either way, I (and others) refuse to run some things out of spec, so if it doesn't do it - bad luck to them, no sale!

To each his own. However, if none of the NF2 boards have a PCI lock, oh whatever will you do?

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

Originally posted by: Insane3D

Some of us "enthusiasts" have had enough over the years of "strange bull@#% little problems" (I'm one of them) - if I'm gonna overclock I'll do PCI / AGP no more than 5% out of spec - RAM I''ll keep in spec, only things I overclock is CPU / GPU and Video ram.

Hey, I thought all those little problems were just Via's fault right?

either way, I (and others) refuse to run some things out of spec, so if it doesn't do it - bad luck to them, no sale!

To each his own. However, if none of the NF2 boards have a PCI lock, oh whatever will you do?

i suspect a "go intel" response here lol

 

[AbRASiON]

Hey, I thought all those little problems were just Via's fault right?

Well they no doubt caused their own set of problems... but that's another story.

To each his own. However, if none of the NF2 boards have a PCI lock, oh whatever will you do?

I won't buy an nf2 and I'll wait for a hammer.
P.S reading on the ocworkbench forums it appears it has a lock - thank god.
I can't stand out of spec hard disks or scsi gear - can be a real bastard to work with.

 

[Remedy]

Some of us "enthusiasts" have had enough over the years of "strange bull@#% little problems" (I'm one of them) - if I'm gonna overclock I'll do PCI / AGP no more than 5% out of spec - RAM I''ll keep in spec, only things I overclock is CPU / GPU and Video ram.

In the other thread from last week you said "IT". So which one is it?

We also find it quite amusing that you haven't mention any of the current VIA chipset Problems of today. Like KT333 and 400. Which problems do those 2 chipset exhibit that you seem to keep thinking exist?

So much for being an enthusiast, oh i'm sorry. "IT"

Well they no doubt caused their own set of problems... but that's another story.

But then again, that was 2 years ago right?

And the chipset has been discontinued right?

 

[RanDum72]

I keep hearing people say the Asus has a PCI lock, but I've see no proof of this in their bios or in reviews. Both the Epox and Asus do allow AGP speed locking, but as far as PCI, I have yet to see confirmation that the PCI is locked on the Asus...or any other NF2 board for that matter.

The Asus A7N266-E and C boards based on the nforce1 do have PCI/AGP locks but they are fixed at 33/66. They go in lock-step 1:2 ratio. The funny thing is they don't show the AGP being locked at 66 but they do show the PCI locked at 33 (setting the FSB always gives you a choice of 136/33, 138/33, 141/33, 150/33 etc... with the 33 being the PCI clock). With the nforce2-based A7N8X, the PCI/AGP lock is adjustable and gives you choices besides 33/66 but this time, they only show the AGP setting.

 

[AbRASiON]

In the other thread from last week you said "IT". So which one is it?

We also find it quite amusing that you haven't mention any of the current VIA chipset Problems of today. Like KT333 and 400. Which problems do those 2 chipset exhibit that you seem to keep thinking exist?

So much for being an enthusiast, oh i'm sorry. "IT"

Errr are you totally lost?
This is an Nforce 2 thread discussing the Nforce 2 - speculating about it's potential.
I referred to IT as in INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - the sector / industry - go re-read my posts.

Why would we be discussing VIA chipsets in an Nforce 2 thread? - hello? Mc Fly.

But then again, that was 2 years ago right?

And the chipset has been discontinued right?

It's obvious that my previous posts against via have rubbed you the wrong way, and since you (obviously) have purchased their chipsets you need to defend your purchase.
If you want to troll me about Via - do it somewhere else - I have no time for a Via fanboy who hasn't even even interpreted my posts correctly!

This is an Nforce thread, I haven't brought up via here,... so please get back to your homework or something.

 

[AbRASiON]

Hexus Abit Nforce 2 review PCI issues @ 200mhz FSB?

With that in mind, and the ABIT NF7-S completely unlocking our XP2400+, I used a single module of Corsair XMS3200 that has seen 225MHz+ at weak timings and 2.7v. Even though I could boot into BIOS perfectly at 212FSB (10x212), the motherboard steadfastly refused to boot correctly into Windows XP above 188FSB. It wouldn't even get to the Windows XP splash screen. Considering that entering BIOS can be done without having a hard drive installed, I have a sneaking suspicion that the PCI bus is unlocked above 166FSB. I also tried 205FSB in the hope that a 6:1 FSBCI ratio was present. No go there either. I'm a little disappointed due to the expectation of benchmarking at 10x200+ with dual-channel DDR400. This will need further investigation. It looks like a PCI-related limitation, as BIOS is fine at 200FSB+. Here is the BIOS at 212FSB. Note that it has actually booted in at those speeds shown below.

I certainly hope this is incorrect or ABIT specific...........

 

[vicvon]

I have my Asus A7N8X and 1700+ tbred running at 9 x 200 (1.8ghz) and am having no problems with stability. I even had it running at 8.5 x 211 (1.8) and saw no problems at that fsb. So I think it must lock the pci along with the agp.


Hope this helps someone.

 

[AbRASiON]

Originally posted by: vicvonglahn
I have my Asus A7N8X and 1700+ tbred running at 9 x 200 (1.8ghz) and am having no problems with stability. I even had it running at 8.5 x 211 (1.8) and saw no problems at that fsb. So I think it must lock the pci along with the agp.


Hope this helps someone.

Yeah thanks for the information - it's good, however strange that the ABIT would perform differently
Where'd you get the CPU / board and ram/ - what ram is it?
Cas 2 ram?
Sync mode enabled on the board?
How'd you unlock the cpu?