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Unread 04-15-2004, 03:49 PM   #1
y371
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NF7-S as bottleneck?

:shrug:
Hello all,

I have 2 256mb sticks of corsair xms pc3500 v1.1 with the bh-5 chips...

Can any of you confirm that my wall I am hitting is mobo bios or board related?

I can do dual channel at 2-2-2-10 with 2.7v @ 440fsb. In single channel mode, I likewise top out at 220fsb, and each stick tops out around 220fsb.

With the additional volatge to 2.9 (overvolted to 3.04 by nf7-s) I can only get to 225fsb at all configurations. Likewise I can get to 225 with 2.5-3-3-7 single channel timings... but any looser timings or any higher than 225fsb I get no post.

I am using 12 as multiplier and I know its not cpu headroom I am limited by. I test prime95+3dmark01 at same time stable after 5 hours at 2.7Ghz @ 1.875v 46C load... (waiting on fans to install water setup).

I read somewhere that there seems to be 2 batches of the boards.. some that do 215-220 and no more, and others that can go far beyond.

Is there a bios for the NF7-S that I can try to get better bandwidth? I am using a sata boot drive so... I know that limits my options.

In case I wasn't very clear my relevant specs are:

Abit NF7-S v2
AMD Mobile Barton 2600+ (my 2400 also capped at this fsb on this mobo)
Corsair XMS pc3500 v1.1 BH-5 2-2-2-5(10 if dc)
PC P&C 510 Deluxe (rails are 3.31, 5.08 12.11 rock solid)
Chipset has stock active cooling, no other heatsinks yet (i don't wanna add $40 in BGA and mosfet sinks on a 220 max board)
Chipset voltage at 1.6 and 1.7 same results.

All these results were in open air on desktop. Currently using a well mounted Alpha Pal 8045 and 80mm 83CFM Tornado. A 2nd 80mm Tornado blowing across the ram and chipset.

I currently don't have another board to test either the ram or cpu's fsb capacity

Any suggestions will be appreciated!
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Unread 04-17-2004, 03:02 PM   #2
Boli
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PC3500 RAM though is rated at 433 (216mhz) so the fact you are running faster than that says much for the quality of the RAM. I have PC3700 ram and although I to cannot break the 230 FSB, (post at 228 was my best, 225 into windows and 220 "stable"... 214 rock solid).

Without a voltmod to the memory rail (which it sound like you have done) better than 230 is VERY rare the stock NF7-S peaks there. a DFI LANparty board though can go that extra mile and 250FSB speeds have been thrown around. Though I doubt you'll be able to do much better on that board I would say it is your RAM holding you back.
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Unread 04-17-2004, 03:38 PM   #3
y371
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Boli
PC3500 RAM though is rated at 433 (216mhz) so the fact you are running faster than that says much for the quality of the RAM. I have PC3700 ram and although I to cannot break the 230 FSB, (post at 228 was my best, 225 into windows and 220 "stable"... 214 rock solid).

Without a voltmod to the memory rail (which it sound like you have done) better than 230 is VERY rare the stock NF7-S peaks there. a DFI LANparty board though can go that extra mile and 250FSB speeds have been thrown around. Though I doubt you'll be able to do much better on that board I would say it is your RAM holding you back.
My specific mobo overvolts the ram and slightly undervolts the cpu. I have not done any volt mods on it yet... I will when I have the time, and after I borrow a fluke multimeter from a friend again. Testing to see if the ram can go higher in my dad's system tonight.

Thanks for the input.
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Unread 04-17-2004, 05:32 PM   #4
y371
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Hrmm I am posting this from my dad's pc... I am running 2-2-2-10 dual channel 2.92 bios read volts, 230fsb in bios.. 458Mhz cpuz... So my bottleneck is something on my NF7-S... It won't boot at 232fsb at these timings I will set them to rated 2-3-3-XX and see how high they an go.

Any idea where I can find a 235-240fsb+ stock (bios set 2.9v 1.7v chipset) capable NF7-S? I paid $92 for my current board I would be willing to fork about $120 shipped to 74133 zip code in US.

I don't feel comfortable adding all the mosfet/pll/southbridge sinks on a board that could perform much better without anything...

Advice?

Regards,
Mike Davis
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Unread 04-17-2004, 06:06 PM   #5
Boli
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NF7-S board don't go that high really unless you volt-mod them... you need ~ 3.1v to get above 230mhz. regardless of bios... it just needs the extra volts - there may be a cracked BIOS that allows higher voltage settings but there isn't an offciial one. Besides you need BIOS 19 on the machine just to get the bootable SATA raid thing working properly.

NB: this is NF7-S v2.0
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1800+ @ 2247 (214x10.5) - STABLE, 512MB PC3700 TwinX Cosair RAM, NF7-S v2.0, GeForce3 Ti200
Parallel BIM, 120.1 Thermochill, Eheim 1048, Maze 3, Maze4 GPU, "Z" chipset, 1/2" tubing, PC-70: 5x120mm & 9x80mm fans.
Internet Server & second machine (folding 24/7): 512MB DDR RAM, XP2000+
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