Hey Greebe (and other Athlon experts), I need some "help"

[Muad'Dib]

I can only oc to 750 with fsb tweaks only. I'm at 107 right now. (sys specs below). I tried upping the voltage from 1.6 to 1.65 to 1.7 in my bios, but (since I flashed it to the latest version) I can't even post at 1.7. My screen goes blank and I have to reset my bios to get anything back. At the 1.0 bios I could go to 110 fsb at 1.65, but it would freeze during the windows boot up..... Do you think this might be my generic pc 100 ram holding me back? I'm sorta at a loss as to what's going on with the blank screen deal.....

Thanks for your advise.

Dimitri

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Athon 700 @ 750
MSI K7-PRO (110 version)
G400 MAX
128 Megs PC100 RAM (gave the rest to my grandma)
20 gig Maxtor
6 gig WD
DVD-ROM (2nd gen)
RealMagic Hollywood + DVD decoder
Toshiba CDRW CRW8424E
SB Live! X-Gamer (ALMOST went for the platinum, but....)

Ok people, keep those UT excuses to suck rolling in. I need all the "help" I can get...

New Excuse: My computer runs it too smoothly. I can't figure out what I'm doing without the choppyness....

[RAB]

Hi Dimitri,
I'm not up to the Athlon level yet, but here are two suggestions:

1) If the last number on the individual memory chips is 8, your memory should get you to about 110 to 115. PC133 is 7 or lower. Mine end in 8 and I can get 112, but not 125 on my K6-3.

2) To be safe, its best to flash your bios at 100mhz FSB. Don't try it at a higher setting or it might not work.

Good luck!

RAB

[Dyre]

Dimitri:
Its a problem with all current Althon Chipsets. they just dont o'c well. The best my friend could get withis 650 was 110 fsb which is 715. He has 133 ram, so that wasent a problem, neither was the CPU. Right now he's running the SAME system plus a Goldfinger device at 824-840, depending on how hot his room is. 845 is completely stablem while 840 will run for about 2 hours on a cool day.

Sorry, looks like youll need a GFD to see some better results.

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PIII 450 @ 504
generic BX motherboard
G400 MAX : )
GlobalWin VOS32!
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 33
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 66
Creative 36x CD-ROM
96 megs PC100 RAM
128 megs PC133 ECC RAM
NetGear 10/100
Soundblaster 32 AWE
Diamond SupraExpress 56k
Logitech Wireless Desktop (best $50 ive ever spent)
1 92mm Sunon Fan
4 80mm Sunon Fan's

[Wombat]

It might be the RAM, but it might also be the motherboard. That bridge can only go so fast, and 107 isn't bad.

Try to turn the CAS latency up, in case it is the RAM, though.

Greebe will tell you to color the MSI heatsink black with a little spraypaint or permanent marker, and that helps. MSI already puts thermal grease in there, so that should be okay.

[Muad'Dib]

Ok, the ram runs at both CAS 2 & 3 although it's supposed to be CAS 3. I don't notice a difference though. It will run CAS 2 with super bypass enabled at all fsb speeds that I can get.... I have spread spectrum disabled (not that I know what the hell it does) because I've heard it's better to have it off if you're overclocking. What really confused me is that at first it would post at 110, but now it won't. I suppose I'll try to get 110 with a lower voltage cause I didn't think of that til now. Hmmmm. ??? I know several people that have been able to run this board at 119 and a lot who run usually above 110, which leads me to think it is something else. Granted, I know not all boards are created equal, but I'll be pissed if I got a lemon... Grrrrr.

Thanks for your help.

Dimitri

[Greebe]

Dimitri, sorry for the no responce, but the fori has been wacked everytime I attempted to post today.

The 751 northbtridge does run hot and keeping it cool is also neccessary (unlike BX chipsets). If you would try flipping your fans around so they suk instead of blow that might help. And yes, a light coat(!!!) of flat black spray paint or use of a permanent marker would help here (believe it or not

Typical 8ns sdram normally won't do above 124 mHz (do the math people
I'd suggest getting Crucial PC133 "7E" sdram as it is awsome sheet (can you believe 165 mHz is possible)!

Bus OCing on the Athlon has never been what the BX chipset is, so please don't expect awsome results. Most that I've seen won't do more than ... you guessed it 107mHz. Even with the best of ram installed.

If you want more, go get yourself a GFD (perferably one with L2 control)... also it's rather safe to go as high as 1.9 Vcccore (typical sweet spot), with excellant cooling of course.

[RAB]

Greebe,
I did the math. 1000/8=125 so I know this is the theoretical max. But some 8ns does better than 125 on BX boards. Likewise, 1000/7=142 and you are getting 165, so ram isn't always just what's marked on the chip. The number is supposed to be the guaranteed speed, but not necessarily the actual speed, which can often be better.
RAB

[Greebe]

RAB, not to be a smart ass here, but Duh! I said 124 due to the fact MB's don't have a 125 setting and was simply responding to your mention of using 8ns sdram and were limited to 110-115 with it. In stating that, it's not simply the #'s on the chips that make a difference, as the PCB factors into this equation.
Secondly, concidering I've been OC'ing as long as some of these kiddies have been alive, don't you think I know that it is possible to run beyond a given parts spec? Also I'm not running my mem any faster than 100 as my 6167 doesn't do more than that. I simply mentioned 165 cause I know someone that has run it stable at that speed.

------------------
Designer of the first commercial Athlon mod.
Anyone up for an Athlon800+? Email me (epc@netdirect.net) for more information

3000 mips, 1.172 gflops @ 900 mHz 1:3 latency w/ active cooling
CPUmark99 75
FPU Winmark 4890

3Dmark 99 Max (8x6 16, 16, triple) PD5.41, Athlon@850mHz
8000
15181

[DentyCracker]

I had a 700 running stably at 7x113 (791) at 1.7V. I never touched the BIOS and in fact never checked what version it was. I was using generic PC-100 SDRAM.

[Jorden]

Had, Denty? So what happened to it then? Burned out, or what?

[Muad'Dib]

Well for now, I managed to boot at 108 with 1.65. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully well.... A strange thing though. Whenever I go into my bios, if I change something, it doesn't restart. I can leave and save changes and all, but then I need to power off and then power on again and it will work. Any ideas on that? BTW, Greebe, I haven't painted my northbridge yet, but will get around to it later.

Thanks again,

Dimitri

And it seems to like it!!!

[This message has been edited by Muad'Dib (edited 10 April 2000).]

***Update***
It likes it until I get to a 3d app. Sandra Benchmarks run great, Seti Runs, explorer of all sorts works. When I ran 3dMark2000, I got some weird lines (the "Now Loading" image got screwed up and distorted with the lines sort of "breaking" it up - best explanation I can give) and it crashed. I went back down to 107 at 1.65 V (in bios) now and everything should be fine. Does this confirm your ideas that it is my mobo or does it give you another clue maybe?

[This message has been edited by Muad'Dib (edited 10 April 2000).]

[Greebe]

Ya, it's buggy... drop MSI an email

[RAB]

Sorry Greebe, I didn't mean to insult your intelligence. But I felt like you didn't know that I had done the math! I think we both know better. Sorry if I offended you. I'll try to choose my words more carefully next time.

RAB

[Greebe]

RAB, NP

[Muad'Dib]

do you guys think that forcing agp 1x will help with the frozen corrupted 3d apps? Just a thought when I saw paul did it with his cumine. BTW Greebe, I just realized I'm using a beta bios so that could be why it's funky. lol

Dimitri