Q. Award BIOS -- Optimising chipset setup ?

[Mr. X]

Hi.

One of my PCs is an oldie and I want to get the maximum speed out of
it without upgrading the HW. I could use some advice about tweaking
the chipset settings...

Hardware
========

Mobo: ASUS TX97_XE (built-in L2 cache: 512K Pipelined Burst SRAM)
CPU : AMD K6 233 MHz (L1 cache: 64K, L2 cache: none)
BIOS : Award v4.51PG 11/24/98-82430TX-TX97_XE
Chipset: Intel Corporation 82439TX 430TX System Controller
Bus(es): ISA PCI USB i2c/SMBus
Maximum FSB Speed / Max Memory Speed : 1x 66MHz / 1x 66MHz

RAM : 256M -- 2x DIMM:
Micron 16LSDT1664AG-662C7 2016E104 128MB 16x(8Mx8) SDRAM
PC100-333-7512 (CL3 upto 100MHz) (CL2 upto 67MHz)

System SMBus Controller 1
Model : Intel PIIX4 SMBus / compatible
Speed : 16kHz

Main OS: Win XP SP1


Current chipset settings:
========================

Auto configuration : Disabled
DRAM Read Burst Timing : x222
DRAM Write Burst Timing : x222
DRAM R/W Leadoff Timing : 10T/6T
DRAM RAS# Precharge Time : 3T
Refresh RAS# Assertion : 4T
Fast EDO Lead Off : Disabled
Speculative Leadoff : Disabled
SDRAM RAS# Timing : 3/4/7
SDRAM CAS# Latency : 2T
SDRAM Speculative Read : Enabled
Passive Release : Enabled
Delayed Transaction : Disabled
16-bit I/O Recovery Time : 4 BUSCLK
8-bit I/O Recovery Time : 8 BUSCLK
Video BIOS Cacheable : Enabled
Memory Hole At Address : None


What values will get me the maximum performance while keeping the
system stable?


Or perhaps there's a prog like Sandra out there which could suggest
values based on my HW; or like RAMSETUP in PC-DOS, which tries all
configurations in "learning" mode and picks the best one
automatically?

.... or is this too much to ask? 0)


Any assistance appreciated.


Thanks.
===
Mark T.

 

[SPS 700]

About the only thing you can do if set the bus speed to 75 and see if it
works. I have had good results in the past running AMD chips at 75mh bus
speed. You could also try upping the multiplier to 4. Have not had too much
luck with this in the past. Good Luck
..

 

[Darkfalz]

Hi.

One of my PCs is an oldie and I want to get the maximum speed out of
it without upgrading the HW. I could use some advice about tweaking
the chipset settings...

It's as optimised as it's going to get. Did you expect to run Doom III on
that?

 

[Mr. X]

No, not Doom III, Midtown Madness or even the Simms...

But I can't add more RAM (already at 256M max), and the only thing I
could replace is the current CPU (AMD K6 233MHz) for an AMD K6-3 400
MHz (fastest that runs on mobo); but I haven't been able to find one
yet...

So tweaking the chipset is about all I can do to squeeze the most
power (if you can call it that) out of that sys.

But thanks anyway.

M.T.