I had posted some other questions at "Motherboards" per this amazingly inexpensive (el cheapo) mATX motherboard -- the Gigabyte (Geforce 7050/nForce-610i) GA-73VM-S2.
The board has limited over-clocking options in the BIOS. The major limitation is an inability for the user to manually change the VDIMM or memory voltage setting. On the "up" side, I cannot remember for sure where I read or heard indications that the board "automatically" adjusts that parameter, but I've had stable memory configurations running for the good part of a day under PRIME95 with Everest reporting a voltage of 1.84V. In comparison, I've had to set the memory voltage to 2.125V and above for some of these configurations.
The board has no feature that adjusts or fixes the PCI-E bus speed or MCH speed.
The board is spec'd for C2Q, "Extreme," and a range of C2D, Pentium D and other earlier processors.
The board is spec'd for CPUs with 800 Mhz FSB, 1066 Mhz FSB, and . . . 1,333 FSB (OC). This is explicit on the box, in the manual and in other documentation.
The manual has a "warning" statement specifically in regard to the "CPU host-frequency" setting -- once called the "external frequency" -- the frequency which determines CPU speed as a multiple of the CPU multiplier, and the FSB speed at quad-data-rate. The manual says:
"Set the CPU host frequency in accordance with the CPU specifications. It is not recommended that the system bus frequency be set beyond hardware specifications since it does not meet the standard requirements for the peripherals. If you wish to set the frequency beyond the standard specifications, please do so according to your hardware specifications including the CPU, graphics card, memory, hard drive, etc."
But the motherboard is spec'd to run processors over a range of host-frequencies or FSB settings.
I cannot see therefore how OC'ing an 800 Mhz-FSB processor to the 1066 spec endangers anything more than the processor, and I cannot see how -- for instance -- running processors spec'd at 1066 or 1,333 OR processors spec'd at the lower FSB (i.e., 800) to the 1066 or higher spec would have any implications for other hardware than the CPU. I cannot see how running an 800 processor at 1,066 would be any different than running a 1,066 processor at 1066, other than to push the processor exclusively beyond that spec.
Does my reasoning make sense? I think the warning in the manual is constructed for legal reasons, or to inform noobies that there is "risk" associated with changing the host-frequency. Comments? I think I got this little worry on my aging mind this morning because the board doesn't have a facility for fixing the PCI-E bus speeds.
The board has limited over-clocking options in the BIOS. The major limitation is an inability for the user to manually change the VDIMM or memory voltage setting. On the "up" side, I cannot remember for sure where I read or heard indications that the board "automatically" adjusts that parameter, but I've had stable memory configurations running for the good part of a day under PRIME95 with Everest reporting a voltage of 1.84V. In comparison, I've had to set the memory voltage to 2.125V and above for some of these configurations.
The board has no feature that adjusts or fixes the PCI-E bus speed or MCH speed.
The board is spec'd for C2Q, "Extreme," and a range of C2D, Pentium D and other earlier processors.
The board is spec'd for CPUs with 800 Mhz FSB, 1066 Mhz FSB, and . . . 1,333 FSB (OC). This is explicit on the box, in the manual and in other documentation.
The manual has a "warning" statement specifically in regard to the "CPU host-frequency" setting -- once called the "external frequency" -- the frequency which determines CPU speed as a multiple of the CPU multiplier, and the FSB speed at quad-data-rate. The manual says:
"Set the CPU host frequency in accordance with the CPU specifications. It is not recommended that the system bus frequency be set beyond hardware specifications since it does not meet the standard requirements for the peripherals. If you wish to set the frequency beyond the standard specifications, please do so according to your hardware specifications including the CPU, graphics card, memory, hard drive, etc."
But the motherboard is spec'd to run processors over a range of host-frequencies or FSB settings.
I cannot see therefore how OC'ing an 800 Mhz-FSB processor to the 1066 spec endangers anything more than the processor, and I cannot see how -- for instance -- running processors spec'd at 1066 or 1,333 OR processors spec'd at the lower FSB (i.e., 800) to the 1066 or higher spec would have any implications for other hardware than the CPU. I cannot see how running an 800 processor at 1,066 would be any different than running a 1,066 processor at 1066, other than to push the processor exclusively beyond that spec.
Does my reasoning make sense? I think the warning in the manual is constructed for legal reasons, or to inform noobies that there is "risk" associated with changing the host-frequency. Comments? I think I got this little worry on my aging mind this morning because the board doesn't have a facility for fixing the PCI-E bus speeds.