I got my A7V and t-bird 700 :)

[Helevitia]

Alfie,

Nope, didn't get the thermister yet. Actually I haven't even looked. It appears to be working but makes me nervous. Part that bums me out is, I heard the Asus rev 1.02 board will come with a built in thermister. That would be much better I think. btw-Glad to hear you got your CPU up to 900MHz! woohoo! What 3dmark2k scores do you get?

Joel, Thanks for the info.

Dave

[Alfie]

Sorry for not getting back sooner,
Thanks for the info,Joel,set the memory to 133 cas2,it's 100mhz memory,but know it'll go to 150mhz,so no problems.
Dave,
I'm downloading 3dmark now and as soon as I can will benchmark with it.
In that way you'll feel better as I'm sure your results will be higher
This board is cool,despite the few shortcomings.
I agree having the temp monitor onboard is far more convenient,I haven't looked under the cpu but, there's a good possibilty a thermosistor could be soldered in there and then wires run to the underside posts of the 2 prong attachment on the motherboard,or just looped over the motherboard and connected.
Should be getting the temp thingy in a day or 2 and will let you know if it's worth the $15.00.Temperature is a concern,wish there was a way for instant shutdown if the temperature should go past a certain point,but I guess we'll just have to stay on our toes!
I keep a bucket of water next to the computer,just in case

[Alfie]

3dmark results.
Duron 600@900mhz.
Asus a7v motherboard
Matrox g400 SH,16 megs.

Vsynch disabled,
default benchmark.
2718.
That should make your day,Dave!
Compared it to an Athlon classic oc to 800mhz,blew it away!

[Alfie]

Hey forums are back up!
Installed the temp probe,works great!
Cut a rectangle in one of my spare front covers,and set it up with ribbon thermistor flush against cpu.
It has a digital led interface,so you get constant reads on cpu temp accuracy is +\-1c.
For $15.00 it's worth it!
Dave,if you worried before,this is the thing for you!
I've hit peaks of 74c!
Current temp is 44.1c
Here's a kick in the head,I chose to use cpu cooling in Asus probe.
Set it to always on.
Temp rose!
Just enabled it again and temp rose to 64.8c
What the heck kind of cpu cooling is that!
So if you have it set to always on,change it!
Latest 3d mark is
2728.
It appears the g400 is the thing causing the slower benchmarks.
Still love it,so I'll wait for the g800!
Then we'll be hearing more of this sucks and that sucks

[TheDarkHorizon]

how do you disbale vsync? i never remebered disabling vsync, but when i ran 3dmark2000, it claims my vsync was already off... also, what kind of cooling do you have on your duron? im a little scared of overclocking my cpu, so im doing it little by little everyday. right now its 750@787. the temperature rose 2 degrees (from 33 to 35). what is a safe average temperature for a cpu? (my cpu doesnt get any warmer when im playing games, or at least the program doesnt say it is...)

[Alfie]

I disabled it by using the registry hacks(you can find them on the opening page of the site,under downloads or utilities,etc.
I have a heatsink from TiaSol,it's on the AMD's approved heatsinks list.
It does a pretty good job.
Modified it by adding 2 small fans to either side of it,and use Artic silver thermal compound.
Overclocked it by closing the L1 bridges on the cpu and used the onboard multipliers and voltage settings.
The AMD cpus have a range from 0-90c
Anything under 70c is considered safe.
Naturally the cooler the better!

[Joel]

Are the L1 bridges the only ones that have to be fixed to overclock the Thunderbird CPU?

Joel

[UncleJoe]

Yep !
They are the only bridges needed to connect to get TB unlocked ... (Unless AMD haven't made changes)

-J-

[Alfie]

That's it Joel,
Spent 2 hours getting perfect little drops of conductive paint to close them,so proud!
Looks like perfect little soldering points.
After all that,it was discovered a pencil does the same thing!
Mechanical pencil by choice,don't have to sharpen it!
20 to 30 strokes over each L1 bridge and thats it!
Duron 600@900mhz!Can do a gig,but need more cooling!

[Seaspray]

I'm sorry to say this but it seems to me that the Coppermine scores better than the Athlon in 3dmark.

My best default score is 3114. That was with the G400 core clock @315 or thereabouts (I think)but my processor is less MHz than I have seen Athlon people only getting ~2700 or ~2800.

This is not meant to be a 'my processor is better than your processor' post, I am interested in others experiences of 3dmark though.

Whats anyone's best score with a G400/MAX?

I want to know if its worth me upgrading my CPU. I hate to say this but I was very tempted Monday when I saw a retail GTS2 MX for only £130. Thats about the same price as an OEM 32Mb G400.

A retail GTS2 is only £200. How much longer can we all wait for the next new card from Matrox? I know I know its not all about fps. Matrox image quality is fantastic and dualhead is very useful for watching DVDs but I could buy a MX and a hardware MPEG2 decoder for not much more than a retail G400MAX.

From what I have read the G450 will not improve on the (gaming) performance of the G400MAX, is this true?

Does anyone think the G800 (or whatever they call it) will be here this side of Christmas?

Sorry I got on to a whole new topic there but I'm a little worried, I'd hate to think my next vid card won't be a Matrox.

What are all your thoughts?