How high can you go?

[rickT]

210mhz on 6ns SGRAM is just a fluke.

My memory can run at 200mhz in 2d, but craps out when in 3d. So far the sweet spot is 177mhz mem/133mhz core. I dont like matrox's way of setting core - must be their way of preventing overclocking.

[Mr Roboto]

Back to cooling again for a second. I have the mother of all (bad & lazy) case coolers, A small table fan blowing into the side of my open case. Everything (hard drives, vid card, cpu) is very cool to the touch. Ok, but obviously my problem is dust. The tops of my cards are fairly dusty, amongst other things. I do a thorough case dusting about once every 3 months.

Am I asking for it? I am working on the premise that heat will ruin my components before dust does. What could dust do, worst case scenario? Anyone have any damage to components based on dust?

I've been looking into rigging up some internal fans as shown by some people here but just haven't built up the incentive yet... Maybe some computer horror stories would do the trick...

J

[rickT]

Dust doens't harm components by itself, but if it does start building up on components then it can hinder heat disappation.

[cswan]

Hate to revive an old thread here...

But in everyone's opinion, is it _worth_ getting the G400Max? Can the G400 can be clocked up to the levels of the Max, or not? What do the benchmarks show? Seems that people think, so far, that the core speed cannot get over 133 or so, so is this a limitation of the current software for overclocking, or a hardwire builtin to prevent less-reputable dealers from selling their G400s as G400 Maxes?

I'm looking into buying at some point in the future, and if the G400 can be pushed past the level of the Max, I may just go for it. Any info on how far the Max can be pushed?

[GehRehmee]

Don't think for a minute that just because the G400 can be overclocked, that the MAX isn't worth buying...
If you're going to overclock, overclock. The G400 may overclock by 50 Mhz... but then again, if you pick you a MAX, you'll overclock it too, right?

Pay as much as you want. You'll get whatever performance you can afford.

[Electric Amish]

Also, don't forget that the MAX has the 350 RamDac whereas the vanilla has only a 300. It really only matters in 2D, but it's just a thought. I'm wavering on the same decision you are. To MAX or not to MAX. I just don't know.

Paul

[rickT]

Well, I picked up a bulk G400 Dualhead 32MB for $165 USD and I thrilled with it. Core speed seems less important on G400 than your CPU. Mine runs fine at 145core/194memory.

[Kruzin]

The MAX's RAMDAC is in fact 360 (not 350) compaired to 300 on the vanilla. But to say "only 300" makes it sound like thats weak or something It's still on of the fastest RAMDACs around at 300MHz, and looks great on my 21" monitor at 1600x1200x85Hz.

However, the card has an internal RAMDAC (similar to the G200s), and for those of us who re-did our G200s PINs, we know that the speed of the RAMDAC can easily be changed. So It's entirely possible that if someone (HELLO GBM?) comes out with a way to redo the PINs of the G400, that the RAMDAC will also be overclockable

As far as the MAXs go, I guess we'll just have to wait and see how far they o/c, when people start getting them...but if I where buying, I'd definatly consider the vanilla 32meg over the MAX...I don't personally feel that the differences in hardware justify the difference in price...



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P2-350(@103*4=412), Asus P2B(1009), 128meg PC100, MillG400 32meg(PD5.20.???), CL SB Live!Value, CL PC-DVD, Mitsumi CD-R, WD UDMA 8.4&6.4 gig, (2)USR 56k(multilinked), 3Com 905B-TX, etc...

[voyager]

rickT:

I see you've figured out that you have to use something other than powerstrip to get 140/190+Mhz. G200clk works OK for me.

My G400 was a bit unstable until I put a fan
on the heat sink. It really didn't help the
heatsink temperature, but seemed to cool the back of the PCB a lot, which was very hot, as has been reported elsewhere here. I think the glue they use is not that thermally conductive and/or it is applied too thick and insulates the G400 chip. Thus with an insulator instead of a heat sink, the heat is leaving through the bottom of the chip carrier and through the pins that attaches it to the PCB.

Greg

[rickT]

Yup, I use g200clk as well. I just put a shortcut in my startup folder.

I put a pentium fan on the heatsink. I did notice that thermal epoxy they applied looks thick and looks like it has air bubbles - I will probably end up redoing it.

[ALBPM]

Here's an article about cooling a TNT but it has some good ideas which can be applied to the G400.
2cooltek.com/tnt2.html

That Global/WIN FA420 looks like a nice heatsink and fan combo.

I wonder if putting heatsinks on the memory chips will help that much.

Paul