NForce2 steppings?

[bigben2k]

The NForce2 has steppings?

Apparently so! (http://www.vr-zone.com/#2931)

Now how am I going to get a good Asus A7N8X?:shrug:

[bigben2k]

I've been over the AMDMB forums, Asus section (nice!).

The NVidia NForce2 chipset appears to exist in no less than three revisions:

A2, A3 and lastly, A1, also known as C1.

I've confirmed that the A7N8X mobo exists in rev 1.04, 1.06 and 2.0, the last of which has that last stepping.

In short, many people report having a hard time OC'ing on older revisions, even being limited to an FSB of 185, while the latest chipset, which appears to primarily be designed/tweaked to support AMD's Barton, will very easily do 200 FSB, and then some.


Check out Solofly's thread, if you wander over there: he just hit 225.

[Blackeagle]

Hi Ben,

I read that there are a couple differant stepings (NB) of the Epox as well. And I read in a thread on a differant board of a Epox revision to come out later this month, that will involve more than just the NB this time.

Going to have to check steppings on both CPU's and MB's both now. Bit of a strange situation.

Have you purchased a Barton core Ben? If so which one?

[bigben2k]

Not yet, but I'll follow OC's advice, and wait until the cheapest Barton drops to ~$100.

I'll probably end up getting a TbredB in the mean time, because I want to overclock that sucker way up there!:cool:

[Blackeagle]

Found some good info on the upcoming 8rda3+ board.

www.tbreak.com/forums

Check the thread titled 8RDA3+. The thread has the list of specs along with a link to a pic of the new revision. It'll have a fair number of improvements, but they downgraded the sound chip which is a negative.

I may end up buying this one.

Ben, I see the Barton XP2500+ is down around $170 now, I'd say when the XP 3200+ comes out you'll get prices more to your liking.
:D

[pHaestus]

I dont understand why more people aren't using the beefy NVIDIA sound on their boards. Not needing a sound card, a NIC, or my firewire card is actually a big deal to me.

[bigben2k]

Right on, pHaestus.

With this A7N8X deluxe, all I need is a VC. Really, I can't even think of a peripheral card I'd add, except for a SCSI controller, and the odd electronic project interface.:shrug:

(music)
I like it like that!

[Mark Larson]

So what happens if i want a 200Mhz Barton with my current 8RDA+? Will Epox release a BIOS that supports Vdd adjustments?

[bigben2k]

You shouldn't have any problems running it at 2ooFSB, *IF* your NB has an A1/C1 stepping. On an Asus board, it's clearly marked as rev "2.0".

[jtroutma]

.....or do a Vdd mod. My Epox 8RDA+ would not go over 180FSB untill I kicked my Vdd up to 1.82V from 1.55V. Now I am hitting 215FSB.

[airspirit]

The current 8RDA+ boards can easily do 200FSB and higher, but it requires a better chipset cooler. The stock one is absolute garbage. I'm using a Vantec Copper Iceberq on the ORIGINAL revision chip/board and I've had my PC2700 up over 215, and I also added a copper sink to the SB. That is without a volt mod, mind you.

Those of you that want to do 200FSB on the stock cooler, however, have a learning experience ahead of you regardless of the stepping. In reality, it was the HS that is holding these boards back more than anything.

FYI: The newest 8RDA+ boards from Newegg are all C1 stepping.

[Blackeagle]

Yeah pHastus I wish they'd kept the sound storm on the up coming 8rda3+ boards. I would have used that gladly & been willing to pay extra for them to have kept it on the board. I guess they thought they had to cut cost somewhere else to cover adding the SATA ect.

[bigben2k]

Tom just posted an article about the CPU load of soundcards vs on-board sound. The NForce2 is right at the top (best), beating an Audigy2.

[airspirit]

Um, I have SATA on my 8RDA+ ... what exactly is the advantage of the 8RDA3+? I don't get it. You get the C1 stepping either way, but you lose the good sound on the new board ... all for a second NIC? I'd rather get the good sound and buy another NIC for my system.

[Blackeagle]

As I understand it the currant 8rda+ supports SATA that can be added as a option, while the 8rda3+ has enabled SATA already on board including SATA Raid.

The board also has.

Bios vdd increases without any board modding. I know this isn't a big deal to you Airspirit but is a plus to me. I've done a bit of soddering before but grit my teeth when I have. I'm glad to see this.

extra 12v plug in. Could it be Nvidia added this to allow for the needs of the NV35 perhaps???

1 less PCI slot, which just crowded things before.

Like I posted before, I really, really do wish they would have left the high grade sound on board. Would have made this a better board without question if they had. A bit dissapointing this upgrade took away a good feature of the board, while adding others that are also nice.

[bigben2k]

*UPDATE*

The NForce2 400 Ultra is a BIOS UPDATE!!!

check it out (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=9171)

The puzzling thing is this statement:
Some of the boards shipped in the last week or so will have the same revision of chipset as Ultra 400 ones but it's unlikely that they will be able to be upgraded to the "new" Nforce 2.

Does that mean that there's going to be yet another stepping?!?:shrug:

[satanicoo]

where can i find how to make the mod to 8rda? (not the plus one)

[MadDogMe]

There was supossed to be a BIOS update so that both chipset revisions(I only know of 2 BB2K) suport 200FSB processors 'out of the box'. Whether they will run @ 200FSB is another matter(I'd imagine it's just to 'detect them correctly' as 200FSB CPU's). There are LOTS of people stuck at around 185FSB with original revision chipsets (not all of them are user error either :D ), Abit NF7 rev1,rev1.1, and rev1.2's regardless of NB cooling had '185 cases'. Where as the new 'C1' seems to do 200 out of the box at default settings (mine does) and 220seems to be the 'common~lower' limit with 230 being the upper, and above the exception...

Why are you sold on Asus BB?, Abit seem to have the OC'ing edge at the moment...

[bigben2k]

Originally posted by MadDogMe
Why are you sold on Asus BB?, Abit seem to have the OC'ing edge at the moment...
I use to distribute Asus in Canada, exclusively. I know how the boards are designed, and what to expect from Asus.

Epox is starting to look better though. the Asus support is dismal, at best.

[JokerCPoC]

Well the numbers on My NB are:

G34596.1 0309A1

The one I saw in a review that was an Ultra 400 said this:

G34613.1 0310A1

From what I've been told on the AMDMB forums, They are both Crush 18D chipsets and both motherboards have the same SB part number: FB2632.1 0307A3. If there are only two then maybe I have one of the two already. I'll find out as soon as I put It in and install the heatsinks on the mosfet chips, I'm not taking any chances there nor on the NB or SB, I have two Zalman heatsinks for there, That and the SLK-900 for the moment, Water cooling will take a while to get as I still need 4 blocks and a 12vdc water pump.:drool::drool::drool:

[MadDogMe]

I found that the soundstorm(anolog) on my rev2.0 was worse than my 5.1 :shrug: . It may be better using the optical/digital but 5.1 anolog(sp?please!) sucked. There were pausing, static/crackle issues as well sometimes even after I updated my 98SE wdm.aud.driver (which caused massif problems until I did)...

It may be better on newer platforms though. W2K or XP but XP blows for gaming and 2K is top dollar from what I've seen :( ...

I discovered a fix for making the gameport work on soundcards as well. Basicly you have to reserve the I/O address range from 0200~0207 in device manager(right click on 'Computer' and select properties then reserve I/O range that your SC uses). So you can use the Midi/15pin gameport now ;) ...

[bigben2k]

Originally posted by zoom314
Well the numbers on My NB are:

G34596.1 0309A1

The one I saw in a review that was an Ultra 400 said this:

G34613.1 0310A1

From what I've been told on the AMDMB forums, They are both Crush 18D chipsets and both motherboards have the same SB part number: FB2632.1 0307A3. If there are only two then maybe I have one of the two already. I'll find out as soon as I put It in and install the heatsinks on the mosfet chips, I'm not taking any chances there nor on the NB or SB, I have two Zalman heatsinks for there, That and the SLK-900 for the moment, Water cooling will take a while to get as I still need 4 blocks and a 12vdc water pump.:drool::drool::drool:
Close enough: that's a C1/A1, and you're all set.