A7N8X Deluxe CPU and memory combination

[Doink]

A few months ago I aquired one of these mobo's and dropped my old Athlon
1100 (200 FSB) on it. I also bought 2 256mb sticks of PC3200 RAM knowing
that someday I'd upgrade my proc. I just dropped in a 2800XP Barton, set
the bus to 166MHz and let the BIOS set the multiplier to 12.5. The POST
says Athlon XP 2800 but the memory still shows 200MHz.

All of that said - what should I be setting this beastie at to get the most
out of it?

TIA

Don

 

[callsignviper]

A few months ago I aquired one of these mobo's and dropped my old Athlon
1100 (200 FSB) on it. I also bought 2 256mb sticks of PC3200 RAM knowing
that someday I'd upgrade my proc. I just dropped in a 2800XP Barton, set
the bus to 166MHz and let the BIOS set the multiplier to 12.5. The POST
says Athlon XP 2800 but the memory still shows 200MHz.

All of that said - what should I be setting this beastie at to get the most
out of it?

Ummm...........did you change the jumper on the motherboard for the higher
FSB of your new processor????



--
callsignviper


The truth is out there. You just have to look in the right places and ask
the right questions.

 

[Ed]

A few months ago I aquired one of these mobo's and dropped my old Athlon
1100 (200 FSB) on it. I also bought 2 256mb sticks of PC3200 RAM knowing
that someday I'd upgrade my proc. I just dropped in a 2800XP Barton, set
the bus to 166MHz and let the BIOS set the multiplier to 12.5. The POST
says Athlon XP 2800 but the memory still shows 200MHz.

All of that said - what should I be setting this beastie at to get the most
out of it?

TIA

Don

If it's an unlocked Barton, for starters I'd start with...,

CPU External Freq. MHz [200]
CPU Frequency Multiple Setting [Menu]
CPU Frequency Multiple [10.5x]
System Performance [User Defined]
CPU Interface [Aggressive]
Memory Frequency [100%]

Ed

 

[Doink]

I've tried the jumper in both possitions - I've never been able to get the
memory speed to report faster than 200MHz.

 

[Ed]

I've tried the jumper in both possitions - I've never been able to get the
memory speed to report faster than 200MHz.

PC3200 only runs at 200MHz by default,

PCxxxx / DDR / MHz
PC1600 / 200 / 100
PC2100 / 266 / 133
PC2700 / 333 / 166
PC3200 / 400 / 200

FOR EXAMPLE....
CPU External Freq. MHz [210]
Memory Frequency [100%]
Ram would run at 210MHz.

Ed

 

[Doink]

Thanks Ed!

Based on your comments it appears that I'll never report more than 200MHz
even though it's a 333MHz proc. Would I be better off chasing down some
PC2700 RAM?

Don

p.s.: I appologize for the "dumb questions" Staying up 'til 2:30am pounding
my head on this hasn't helped the thinking process too well! <grin>

I've tried the jumper in both possitions - I've never been able to get the
memory speed to report faster than 200MHz.

PC3200 only runs at 200MHz by default,

PCxxxx / DDR / MHz
PC1600 / 200 / 100
PC2100 / 266 / 133
PC2700 / 333 / 166
PC3200 / 400 / 200

FOR EXAMPLE....
CPU External Freq. MHz [210]
Memory Frequency [100%]
Ram would run at 210MHz.

Ed

 

[Doink]

Ed,

I tried these settings - it didn't like the multiplier settings at all.

A few months ago I aquired one of these mobo's and dropped my old Athlon
1100 (200 FSB) on it. I also bought 2 256mb sticks of PC3200 RAM knowing
that someday I'd upgrade my proc. I just dropped in a 2800XP Barton, set
the bus to 166MHz and let the BIOS set the multiplier to 12.5. The POST
says Athlon XP 2800 but the memory still shows 200MHz.

All of that said - what should I be setting this beastie at to get the most
out of it?

TIA

Don

If it's an unlocked Barton, for starters I'd start with...,

CPU External Freq. MHz [200]
CPU Frequency Multiple Setting [Menu]
CPU Frequency Multiple [10.5x]
System Performance [User Defined]
CPU Interface [Aggressive]
Memory Frequency [100%]

Ed

 

[Ed]

Ed,

I tried these settings - it didn't like the multiplier settings at all.

Must be a locked CPU then?

 

[Ed]

Thanks Ed!

Based on your comments it appears that I'll never report more than 200MHz
even though it's a 333MHz proc. Would I be better off chasing down some
PC2700 RAM?

Don

Well if it runs stable with ram out of sync (ram @ 200MHz/FSB @ 333Mhz)
I don't know if I'd bother changing the ram, you could always use the
PC3200 @ 100% setting and raise the FSB from 166 to say 180 or more and
over clock the CPU. ;p

Ed

 

[Doink]

It must be locked...

I thought Barton's were all unlocked. I grabbed ClockGen from cpuid.com and
it won't let me change the FSB - the FSB slider is "greyed out".

Should I get some PC2700 RAM, or will my current PC3200 be OK?

 

[Ed]

It must be locked...

I thought Barton's were all unlocked. I grabbed ClockGen from cpuid.com and
it won't let me change the FSB - the FSB slider is "greyed out".

Should I get some PC2700 RAM, or will my current PC3200 be OK?

I wouldn't downgrade the ram!

You can change the FSB in the BIOS, if you raise the bus in Windows I'd
try Nvidia'a utility instead, but you'll probably need to raise the
vcore to keep the CPU stable anyway in the BIOS.

My week 7 Barton 2800+ will run at 2.2GHz at 1.675V, not stable at that
speed at the default vcore of 1.65v.

Ed

 

[Cybrow]

A few months ago I aquired one of these mobo's and dropped my old Athlon
1100 (200 FSB) on it. I also bought 2 256mb sticks of PC3200 RAM knowing
that someday I'd upgrade my proc. I just dropped in a 2800XP Barton, set
the bus to 166MHz and let the BIOS set the multiplier to 12.5. The POST
says Athlon XP 2800 but the memory still shows 200MHz.

All of that said - what should I be setting this beastie at to get the most
out of it?

TIA

Don

Hey Don,

Set your memory frequency to "100%" and not 'By SPD. These boards will
run best when the memory is in sync with the CPU. Although this is a
slower mem setting, the system will run faster and be more stable. If
you have a Rev 2 MB the system will most likely run with the FSB and
the memory both at 200. In this case you would need to lower the
multiplier, say to 11, which would give you 3000+ performance. I have
a 2500+ running at 200 FSB and standard Vcore which runs cool and
entirely stable. Overclocking may not be worth the risk to you for the
marginal gain but I thought I would mention it.

 

[Ed]

Hey Don,

Set your memory frequency to "100%" and not 'By SPD. These boards will
run best when the memory is in sync with the CPU. Although this is a
slower mem setting, the system will run faster and be more stable. If
you have a Rev 2 MB the system will most likely run with the FSB and
the memory both at 200. In this case you would need to lower the
multiplier, say to 11, which would give you 3000+ performance. I have
a 2500+ running at 200 FSB and standard Vcore which runs cool and
entirely stable. Overclocking may not be worth the risk to you for the
marginal gain but I thought I would mention it.

Nice going, those 2500+'s *are* nice, even when locked, they have the
perfect multiplier for over clocking on a 200 bus!

btw, 200x11 would be a 3200+, but whose counting?
DAMN Model numbers! ;p
Cheers,
Ed

 

[Doink]

Cybrow,

Thanks for your perspective! I left the multiplier on Auto, the FSB at 166
and set the CPU interface to "aggressive". It posts as a 2800+ running the
memory at 166. I've gotta say - it's fast! And for what I've been able to
tell, it's stable (VERY). I tried changing the multiplier to 13, leaving
the bus at 166 - the darn thing wouldn't even post. I had to jumper clear
the CMOS in order to get it back.

I think I'll go grab a beer and enjoy...

Thanks again!

Don

 

[Doink]

Thanks Ed - your patience with me is appreciated. See ya in the bitstream!

Don

 

[Ed]

Cybrow,

Thanks for your perspective! I left the multiplier on Auto, the FSB at 166
and set the CPU interface to "aggressive". It posts as a 2800+ running the
memory at 166. I've gotta say - it's fast! And for what I've been able to
tell, it's stable (VERY). I tried changing the multiplier to 13, leaving
the bus at 166 - the darn thing wouldn't even post. I had to jumper clear
the CMOS in order to get it back.

The A7N8X can not change the 5th bit of the multiplier, this means
depending on the default multiplier of the processor installed you will
have a choice of multipliers of "up to 12.5x" or "13x and greater.

So up the bus and lower the multiplier! ;p

Ed