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airspirit · 12-12-2002, 03:51 PM

My board became infinitely more stable when the Vantec Copper Iceberg cooler was installed. I thermal taped a copper heatsink onto the southbridge for good measure, as well, though this wasn't a problem ... I just was feeling froggy and had an extra one laying around.

I am currently running my AGOGA/XMS2700 512MB at 10x188 at Cas2-2-2-5 at 1.9V/2.9V with no stability issues.

A new BIOS was released today allowing FSB speeds up to 250. This release and the 2C06 releases make the board infinitely more stable, with many of the no POST errors resolved.

I'm going to have to give a recommendation to this board. While the original BIOS is absolute crap and should be instantly flashed into oblivion, the latest ones seem to keep the thing stable. I'm using the onboard sound and it is lovely, even compared to Audigy 1/2 solutions. The onboard LAN is also superior to most LAN cards I've used.

One cautionary note: runninig a multiplier of less than 10 causes this board's memory access to dramatically reduce in speed. It is unknown whether this is the case with other boards, but you are better off with this board on a Palamino to run 10x18# FSB than you are to run 9x2## FSB.

That said, I've had my XMS up to over 215 FSB on this thing at 9x multiplier, and it ran sweeeet. Since over 200 FSB has little to no gains, stick with the 10+ multiplier.

I would highly recommend the NForce2 platform to anyone who is looking for a new board. $120 for a new EPoX + $20 for a chipset cooler gets you one hell of an overclocker. This also will get you a significant boost in your 3dmarks, which just blew my old ones away (I gained 500 points). The layout of this board is good, as well, with plenty of room around the ZIF and NB for cooling applications. The SB is cramped, only allowing for smaller heatsinks, though as I said, it is really not necessary unless you have a stick on model handy.

BEN: the EPoX 8RDA+ board will get you the 233+ FSB you crave, if you don't mind the NB cooling.

If you have any questions about it, just let me know.

Further: there are no 1/5 or 1/6 mults on this board. The PCI is locked at 33.3r Mhz, even if you change your AGP out of spec for some reason (benchmarking?). Voltage on CPU goes to 2.2V (calls out for a Prometia), RAM to 2.9 (dissapointing), and AGP to 1.8. This board should satisfy the most ardent overclocker among us.

Even though I had severe problems with mine at first due to a bitch of a BIOS, the new BIOSes are finally mature enough to use. I have swapped from an AVOID rating to a RECOMMEND.

[edit]: bad grammar

12-12-2002, 03:51 PM	#108
airspirit Been /.'d... have you? Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Moscow, ID Posts: 1,986	My board became infinitely more stable when the Vantec Copper Iceberg cooler was installed. I thermal taped a copper heatsink onto the southbridge for good measure, as well, though this wasn't a problem ... I just was feeling froggy and had an extra one laying around. I am currently running my AGOGA/XMS2700 512MB at 10x188 at Cas2-2-2-5 at 1.9V/2.9V with no stability issues. A new BIOS was released today allowing FSB speeds up to 250. This release and the 2C06 releases make the board infinitely more stable, with many of the no POST errors resolved. I'm going to have to give a recommendation to this board. While the original BIOS is absolute crap and should be instantly flashed into oblivion, the latest ones seem to keep the thing stable. I'm using the onboard sound and it is lovely, even compared to Audigy 1/2 solutions. The onboard LAN is also superior to most LAN cards I've used. One cautionary note: runninig a multiplier of less than 10 causes this board's memory access to dramatically reduce in speed. It is unknown whether this is the case with other boards, but you are better off with this board on a Palamino to run 10x18# FSB than you are to run 9x2## FSB. That said, I've had my XMS up to over 215 FSB on this thing at 9x multiplier, and it ran sweeeet. Since over 200 FSB has little to no gains, stick with the 10+ multiplier. I would highly recommend the NForce2 platform to anyone who is looking for a new board. $120 for a new EPoX + $20 for a chipset cooler gets you one hell of an overclocker. This also will get you a significant boost in your 3dmarks, which just blew my old ones away (I gained 500 points). The layout of this board is good, as well, with plenty of room around the ZIF and NB for cooling applications. The SB is cramped, only allowing for smaller heatsinks, though as I said, it is really not necessary unless you have a stick on model handy. BEN: the EPoX 8RDA+ board will get you the 233+ FSB you crave, if you don't mind the NB cooling. If you have any questions about it, just let me know. Further: there are no 1/5 or 1/6 mults on this board. The PCI is locked at 33.3r Mhz, even if you change your AGP out of spec for some reason (benchmarking?). Voltage on CPU goes to 2.2V (calls out for a Prometia), RAM to 2.9 (dissapointing), and AGP to 1.8. This board should satisfy the most ardent overclocker among us. Even though I had severe problems with mine at first due to a bitch of a BIOS, the new BIOSes are finally mature enough to use. I have swapped from an AVOID rating to a RECOMMEND. [edit]: bad grammar __________________ #!/bin/sh {who;} {last;} {pause;} {grep;} {touch;} {unzip;} mount /dev/girl -t {wet;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} {fsck;} echo yes yes yes {yes;} umount {/dev/girl;zip;} rm -rf {wet.spot;} {sleep;} finger: permission denied Last edited by airspirit; 12-13-2002 at 11:59 AM.