OCZ Memory on A7n8x Deluxe V2 Mobo

[Guido]

My system is:

My system is:

a7n8x Deluxe V2.0 / Uber bios R1005 sata enhenced
Barton XP 3200+ @ 2400 (200x12) `Very Stable'
OCZ PC3500 EL Dual Channel DDR 2x256 set
Thermaltake VOLCANO 9
300 watts power supply. Plenty of case cooling.
Randon All-In-Wonder ATI 9800 Pro
WinXP Pro SP1
CPU temp runs constantly between 40c and 45c

OCZ recomends the following settings:

http://www.ocztechnology.com/support/motherboard/43

"Recommended settings for the OCZ PC3500 EL Dual Channel DDR is with
the FSB set to 166 and the memory asynchronous at 217Mhz ( 217x2 =
434Mhz ) with the timings of 2-3-7-3."

But, on another page of thier web site, they recomend this:

http://www.ocztechnology.com/support/performance/

"PC3500 EL-DDR 2 3 3 2 (217MHz)"

They are posting thier #'s in reverse, so the last # is the CMD Rate,
first # is the CAS.

Thier site states that I should be able to do this with the a7n8x
mobo. But for the life of me, I can't. I spend a whole night and
part of a day trying.

If I drop the fsb to 166, there is no way to get back to 2400MHz. The
closest I can get is 14x166=2324MHz. A 14.5 multiplier is not
available (I'm being nit-picky here). And what in the world is a
multiplier of 7.0x/15.0x, 8.0x/1600x, or 8.5x/16.5x? All of these are
multiplier options;does this mean I can choose one or the other? I
tried the 7.0x/15.0x multiplier, and it multiplied by 7.0x. Is there a
way of choosing the 15.0x mulitiplier?

My bios settings are below. I have posted all the settings in the
"Advance Chipset Features", because, if I leave something out, someone
is sure to ask for it.

CPU External Freq......................................200MHz
Multiple Setting.............................................Menu
CPU Multiple.................................................12.0
System Performance.................................User Defined
CPU Interface...............................................Optimal
Memory Frequency....................................By SPD
Resulting Frequency.................................200 MHz
Memory Timing...........................................User Defined
SDRAM Active Percentage Delay.......6
SDRAM RAS to CAS Delay...................3
SDRAM RAS Percentage Delay.........3
SDRAM CAS Lantency..........................2T
FSB Spread Spectrum...........................Disabled
AGP Spread Spectrum..........................Disabled
CPU VCore Setting.................................Menu
CPU VCore ..............................................1.675v
Graphics Aperture Size.........................64mb
AGP Frequency.......................................Auto
System Bios Catchable........................Disabled
Video Ram Catchable..........................Disabled
Chip Voltage Control.............................+1.6v
AGP Fastwrite..........................................Disabled

What am I missing here?
Thanks for any help.

 

[Guido]

Yes, but I doubt that a new PS will solve the posted problem.

 

[S.Heenan]

My system is:

My system is:

a7n8x Deluxe V2.0 / Uber bios R1005 sata enhenced
Barton XP 3200+ @ 2400 (200x12) `Very Stable'
OCZ PC3500 EL Dual Channel DDR 2x256 set
Thermaltake VOLCANO 9
300 watts power supply. Plenty of case cooling.
Randon All-In-Wonder ATI 9800 Pro
WinXP Pro SP1
CPU temp runs constantly between 40c and 45c


CPU External Freq......................................200MHz
Multiple Setting.............................................Menu
CPU Multiple.................................................12.0
System Performance.................................User Defined
CPU Interface...............................................Optimal
Memory Frequency....................................100% or Sync
Resulting Frequency.................................200 MHz
Memory Timing...........................................User Defined
SDRAM Active Percentage Delay.......6
SDRAM RAS to CAS Delay...................3
SDRAM RAS Percentage Delay.........3
SDRAM CAS Lantency..........................2T
FSB Spread Spectrum...........................Disabled
AGP Spread Spectrum..........................Disabled
CPU VCore Setting.................................Menu
CPU VCore ..............................................1.675V
Graphics Aperture Size.........................64mb
AGP Frequency.......................................66MHz
System Bios Catchable........................Disabled
Video Ram Catchable..........................Disabled
Chip Voltage Control.............................+1.6v
AGP Fastwrite..........................................Disabled

Try those settings and see if it's any better. Also, your power supply seems a bit underpowered.

 

[Guido]

Mike Gorman and S. Heenan

Mike Gorman, my settings were already at 200x12 for 2400 with core
voltage at 1.675. The problem I was having was trying to get the OCZ
sticks up to thier rated 217x2 = 434Mhz. I can see what you mean
about the power supply. A few people have suggested I get a new one.
And, I know that upping the memory timings is not going to give me a
big performance increase, I'm just trying to push it. And I will
check out the site you suggested.

S. Heenan, I was able to up the fsb and decreased my multiplier to
218x11 = 2398 following your suggestion of changing the Memory
Frequency to 100% instead of SPD, and the AGP Frequency to 66MHz
instead of auto. Now, the Resulting Frequency is at 218 MHz, 218x2 =
436. This works, and I'm running stable. Can you guys explain what
changing the AGP Frequency to 66MHz does? How is this affecting the
aiw 9800 pro graphic card? I think I may be able to push the
multiplier more, but I'll wait until I get a better ps.

Last thing, can you guys suggest a power supply. There are too many
on the market right now, and the research will take days.

As it stands now, here are my new settings:

CPU External Freq......................................218MHz
Multiple Setting.............................................Menu
CPU Multiple.................................................11.0
System Performance.................................User Defined
CPU Interface...............................................Optimal
Memory Frequency....................................100%
Resulting Frequency.................................218 MHz
Memory Timing...........................................User Defined
SDRAM Active Percentage Delay.......6
SDRAM RAS to CAS Delay...................3
SDRAM RAS Percentage Delay.........3
SDRAM CAS Lantency............................2T
CPU VCore Setting.................................Menu
CPU VCore ..............................................1.675V
AGP Frequency.......................................66MHz
Chip Voltage Control.............................+1.6v

thanks for all your help.

 

[S.Heenan]

I am a work in proccess, so excuse me if I ask a stupid question.
After reading the site that Mike suggested, http://www.rojakpot.com/ ,
I have the following questions, is the "AGP Clock / CPU FSB Clock"
that they talk about on the site the same as the AGP Frequency in the
bios? Does this have anything to do with the 128MB of double data
rate sdram that the ATI aiw 9800 pro has? Do all the newer cards
still have to be between 66MHz and 75MHZ.

Thanks again for any help!!!!!

The ratios the article refer to do not apply to the Nforce2 chipset. That is
the beauty of the Nforce2 chipset.

For example: Let's say you have an unlocked XP2100+, 13x 133MHz stock speed
in a motherboard using the KT333 chipset. At stock speed the PCI divider of
1/4 will keep the PCI bus at 133.33 divided by 4 or 33.33MHz and the AGP bus
at double that or 66.66MHz. Let's now raise the front side bus to 154MHz
while leaving the multiplier at 13x. Now, the PCI bus is at 154 divided by 4
or 38.5MHz and the AGP bus at double that or 77MHz. Since the PCI bus has a
standard speed of 33MHz and the AGP bus 66MHz, the PC may or may not boot
since both are out of spec due to our overclocking. If the chipset has a 1/5
PCI divider, we'll be fine. If not, we'd have to resort to using a higher
multiplier and a slightly lower FSB to keep the PCI and AGP buses in check.
Perhaps 14x 150MHz=2100MHZz, which isn't a bad overclock from the stock
speed of 1733MHz. Here is where the Nforce2 chipset shines; no PCI divider
to hold us back.

The standard AGP bus speed is 66MHz. The speed of the GPU and RAM on the
video card are independent of this. Several utilities exist to overclock
video cards.

 

[S.Heenan]

Mike Gorman and S. Heenan
S. Heenan, I was able to up the fsb and decreased my multiplier to
218x11 = 2398 following your suggestion of changing the Memory
Frequency to 100% instead of SPD, and the AGP Frequency to 66MHz
instead of auto. Now, the Resulting Frequency is at 218 MHz, 218x2 =
436. This works, and I'm running stable. Can you guys explain what
changing the AGP Frequency to 66MHz does? How is this affecting the
aiw 9800 pro graphic card? I think I may be able to push the
multiplier more, but I'll wait until I get a better ps.

Last thing, can you guys suggest a power supply. There are too many
on the market right now, and the research will take days.

As it stands now, here are my new settings:

CPU External Freq......................................218MHz
Multiple Setting.............................................Menu
CPU Multiple.................................................11.0
System Performance.................................User Defined
CPU Interface...............................................Optimal
Memory Frequency....................................100%
Resulting Frequency.................................218 MHz
Memory Timing...........................................User Defined
SDRAM Active Percentage Delay.......6
SDRAM RAS to CAS Delay...................3
SDRAM RAS Percentage Delay.........3
SDRAM CAS Lantency............................2T
CPU VCore Setting.................................Menu
CPU VCore ..............................................1.675V
AGP Frequency.......................................66MHz
Chip Voltage Control.............................+1.6v

thanks for all your help.

That looks very nice.
I suggested setting the AGP to 66MHz as opposed to Auto to know it was
locked at 66MHz. I've found the BIOS for the A7N8X Deluxe has several small
quirks and that's one of them. Setting the Memory Frequency to 100% or Sync
in older BIOS versions was something I'd read about before ever laying hands
on the motherboard.

Since you have a high end PC it seems a shame not to have an equally good
power supply. Add to that the fact that a failed PSU often means damaged
hardware, I'd look into a 400-500W model from PC Power and Cooling, Antec,
or Enermax. Prices range from about $90-180US.

See if your machine remains stable at the above settings. In the interest of
lower CPU temperatures and perhaps greater overclocking, you could try
reducing Vcore to 1.650V or maybe even 1.625V. OTOH, stability often depends
upon the slightly elevated CPU voltage. No hard and fast rule here, since
overclocking is largely a matter of experimentation. Good luck.