AMD Sempron Processor 3100+ & ECS NFORCE3-A Motherboard for $80 at Outpost.com

[furballi]

Shut down PC. Pull AC plug from the wall. Reset CMOS jumper for about 30 seconds. Reboot PC. Too much overclocking can create similar shutdown problem. Backoff to 225MHz FSB and retest. If okay, then bump back to 250MHz FSB with Vcore at +3.4%, 166 RAM with 2.7Vdimm and 2.5-3-3-8-1T timing.

Pull the MB from the case and retest if you still have the beep issue AFTER clearing CMOS.

 

[pixelnate]

Thanks. That helps. I'll be troubleshooting this during this weekend.

 

[furballi]

I'd also run Memtest86 with your Corsair VS RAM. The latest batches should do 235MHz, but you never know with ValueRAM.

I've assembled nine of these combos. There was a learning curve with the 1st build. Once I have a good MASTER image file of the OS, I simply restore the image file to a blank HDD, enter a new windows registration key (no warez software), confirm the PC is stable with Prime95 n Memtest86, and ship out the PC.

So far, all units are stable at 2.25GHz. Unless you have a bad chip, I suspect that you should also be able to achieve stability at 2.25GHz.

Folks spend way too much $ on Opteron 144/939 combo ($180 minimum) with little return on their investments. I doubt that the transcode time for an average 2 hr movie will drop by more than 30 seconds. Gaming should not be a factor if you have a high quality AGP card. Most add-on devices are still PCI based.

If you want to see a huge boost in performance, then put the $100 saved in the bank, and use it to build another value rig in 2008. The most expensive rig today will still be much slower than a $100 2008 VALUE RIG.

 

[furballi]

These four new Semprons are not that great...2.32GHz to 2.4GHz at 1.52Vcore.

 

[Zap]

furballi, I think that makes them "normal" for Paris.

BTW, what's hotter, this Paris/mobo combo at Outpost for $80 or the Paris Hilton video I downloaded for free?

 

[furballi]

Gimme the Hilton XXX workout!

Per this article, we may be able to upgrade the ECS NF3 with a Sempron 4000 in 2007. The chip designer will probably manage to include dual channel DDR for future 754 Sempron processors.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=1554

 

[altonb1]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: Flatpicker
Those "round" components are inductors.

I've always called them coils. *shrug*

Originally posted by: altonb1
If I put the original board in, I get the symptons I had once the 1st board failed: everything spins, but no POST.

That tells me some other component is causing the problem. What CPU/mobo is the original, and what PSU are you using? If the PSU was older or lower quality/output, perhaps it died trying to power the first Sempron setup. Sometimes "dead" PSUs can still put out power, just not good enough to power up a board.

Well, all of the equipment should be returned to Outpost on Monday. We shipped it all back on Thursday. In any case, the PSU is a 580W Demon from NewEgg about a year ago. I put my original board/CPU (AMD 2400+) and it has been running fine and stable since I gave up on the ECS boards. I REALLY don't think my components were the cause.
1 GB Corsair Value, ti4200 128mb 8x agp card. Round IDE cables. the HSF came from Outpost, too, and was brand new. I really think I got 2 bad boards, as unlikely as it sounds....

 

[duhh]

Got mine, love it, bought a second...

 

[Showtime]

What kind of oc's are you guys getting with the 3100 combo and also did you bench it? I am thinking of ugrading an athlon xp 2500+ because it lags a little in games. If anyone has some benchies, include basic systems specs plz.

TIA

 

[tuffgong]

also on the oc'ing...im going to be doing it with my stock venice 3000+ hsf...how much juice can i expect from it?

 

[furballi]

2.32 to 2.51GHz, depeding on CPU (have built nine ECS NF3/Sempron 3100 combos).

Been testing one of my new combo. This unit can do 2.41GHz at +1.7% Vcore! Yes, it's prime and memtest stable. Increasing Vcore to +3.4% will only bump the speed to 2.43GHz. Need to do more tests with several other boards and sticks of RAM to find out if I can go higher.

I use Super Pi version 1.4 to test for speed and stability. Best 1M digits SP time is 36.844 seconds @ 2.5GHz (5:6 memory divider with 2.5-3-3-6-1T timing). Performance wise, this is somewhere between a stock A64 3500 939 and A64 3700 939.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: altonb1
the PSU is a 580W Demon

PSUs to avoid... Demon is on list

 

[chhenry]

Ive never overclocked anything before thought id give it a try. Ordered this combo and OCZ 2GB DDR PC-4000 (500MHz) OCZ5002048ELGEGXT-K, 3-4-3-8, Dual Channel (2x1gb). Does anyone know if this memory will handle the combo's OC potential? Thanks in advance.

 

[freshspace]

Originally posted by: Melectricus

Originally posted by: ToneLoc
im one of the many who got this...gonna set it up with that ebay hs/f, 1gb corsair value ram, 9800 pro, wd 200gb 7200 for a decent little system...so how to overclock it? just go to the settings and change the multiplier and voltage? i havent oc'ed since my celly 300a went to 450 lol...:beer:

There is a lot of good oc info if you read all of this thread. Also really good guide here.

If you just want the shortcut without any work
frequency = 250 assuming your pc3200 can function at 410mhz at 166 setting otherwise about 244
set to htt3 - htt4 at 250 puts you out of spec
1t memory - memory should handle this otherwise at 2t you loose advantage at this level of oc.
memory at 166 - could leave at 200 and see where your memory goes -see guide
voltage at +1.7 % - may or may not have to bump.

If you want to go higher you need clockgen program available here, but you probably want to study more to go there.

Thank you for the OC help! My system is up and running, thanks to ZAP and Furballi. Now, thank YOU Melectricus for the OC info.

 

[CuriousMike]

I just got in on the deal and the machine went straight to 2.25ghz no probs.

For the life of me, I can't get the NIC to work.

(I've tried the NVIDIA nforce install, and the REALTEK download from ECS site, but it's dubious what to install with the realtek-nic install from ecs.)

 

[furballi]

Download and install RealtekAUDIO.zip from the ECS website. Reboot PC. Go to the Nvidia website and download the NF3 suite driver (nForce 5.11 winxp2k). Launch this application and uncheck the IDE driver AND the audio driver. At the end of the installation, you will see a prompt to install the firewall. Ignore and reboot PC.

Ran more test with the new combos. I have another 2.51GHz CPU. Not sure why this chip didn't do 2.5GHz before. So we have two chips at 2.5GHz, four chips at 2.43GHz, and three chips around 2.35GHz. It appears that the average overclock speed for 3100 Palermo is around 2.5GHz (a tad shy of the 3000 Vennice).

Don't know about OCZ but Corsair VS (2 x 512) works great in this board (2.5-3-3-6-1T with at least 236MHz speed).

 

[furballi]

You need a decent PSU with this combo. This system is very inexpensive, but its performance and power requirement is on par with an A64 +3200 939 combo. DO NOT use a crappy PSU.

The Antec 350 SmartPower available at Fry's for $18 AR is a solid buy. This dual-80mm fan PSU (push-pull configuration) has two 12V rails (10A and 15A) with 340w max combined output (3.3, 5, and 12V rails). That's more than enough to drive this combo at 2.5GHz (150 watts actual load under Prime95). An extra optical drive and HDD will add another 50watt MAX. It also comes with a fan rpm plug, 6-pin PCI-E, SATA, and detachable 24-pin plug.

The 12V rail drops from 12.21V to 12.10V between idle and full-load state (reported by fluke true rms meter). The cooling fans are quiet at 150 watts load. Didn't check the efficiency but I suspect that it's better than the advertised 70% since the unit is only warm to the touch at medium load. Are wires are 18 gauge except for the fan rpm monitor plug.

A modern PC does not place excessive load on the 3.3 and 5V rails. Therefore, with a light to moderately loaded rig, this PSU should be able to deliver 10A AND 15A at the 12V rails...enough to power two HDDs, two optical drives, and one quality AGP video processor.

 

[CuriousMike]

furballi,

How are you getting beyond 2.25ghz on this setup ?

I'm coming from a AXMP @2.2ghz; I set the FSB to 200 * 11x multiplier and that easily derives 2.2ghz.

This mobo is using some strange lingo that's hard to determine how fast the CPU is going.
9 * 250 = 2.25ghz --- but there's no way my memory is running @250mhz; I have everything set to AUTO. How do I know how fast my memory is running? (@boot, I see the 333 2t thing).

On my previous box, my Kingston Valueram 512*2 sticks never liked going over 202mhz.

My Sandra results said CPU arithmetic on the new Sempron was faster than my axm, but the memory throughput was slower...

I see peeps talk about the "5/6" divider, but there's nothing in the BIOS that shows what that is. I'm pretty sure the bios is the 1.0F.

 

[CuriousMike]

Oh, and I got a Paris variant --- what might be a realistic top end for the CPU ? (2.4?)

 

[deadken]

MAN!!! I HATE THIS THREAD!!!!

I am trying SOOO HAARRRDDDD not to buy this combo! I actually have it in a shopping cart on my desktop waiting to go... $92.98 for the Combo (I added a HS/F) and $8.10 for S+H. So hard to resist. Just $101.08 away from another sweet rig. Sheesh...

My main problem is that I have 4 rigs running in my house. All four Fold 24/7/365. Two Barton 2500+'s @ 3200+, one 2400+ (non-mobile) @ 11.5x200, and then my rig S754 A64 3000+ @ 3400+ (2.4Ghz (9x266)). I am not sure what rig I would get rid of if I bought this. I do have enough parts to put together another rig (new cases/hd/ps/+ 'spare' 1gb memory/AGP video/optical/etc...), but I hate to have 5 PC's around. When the PC's outnumber the people in my house, things are a bit off balance .

So, how many people have gotten 64-bit capable CPU's? I don't think that I need yet another 32-bit PC. But I might spring for it, IF I am fairly certain that I would get a 64-bit. Call it wierd, but that is the way I could justify it to myself.

So, how many people have gotten 64-bit capable CPU's???

 

[Mephistokur]

Okay, so it's been folding nicely for a few days now, no problems. I bought the combo, the 12.50 Radeon 9200's from Mwave (I bought 3, I plan on two more of these things), a 1GB (2x512) pack of Corsair VS, only one stick of which is in use in the machine.

I am very happy with this setup. Because of my need to keep power consumption as low as possible, I did not tweak voltages or anything. I'm not satisfied with my OC (I'm at 2GHz), but it's a decent folding machine, and is cranking out very nicely. Total cost:

So for 150 bucks, I have a more than capable addition to my garden.

Deadken, mine is a 64bit Paris core. I was under the impression that all 754 and 939 chips are 64bit - when did that opinion change?

 

[Mephistokur]

Okay, I just tried the OC again. 250 (2.25GHz) wiht no issues. No Vcore bump or anything. I wonder if I missed a setting last time I tried...

 

[Radmo]

For CuriousMike, Look in the bios for the LAN, mine says Nforce. So instead of using the realtek drivers, I used the latest Nforce driver. Works great.

 

[furballi]

I use Clockgen version CG-NVNF3 and a batch file to auto load the FSB setting at windows startup. Per my previous posts, all my 3100 Paris will do at least 2.3GHz with Vcore at 1.55. The average is around 2.4 with the better chip @ 2.5GHz (1.6Vcore).

If you see 333 at boot, then the memory is set at 166MHz (5:6 memory divider). Actual speed of RAM is around 208MHz. Download CPUz to confirm. You will not be able to run at 1T with Kingston VR. On page 33 of manual, look for MAX MEMCLOCK. This is where you adjust the memory speed. Default/AUTO is 200MHz. My memory bandwidth at 2.44GHz is around 3600MB/sec.

All nine of my 3100 Sempron Paris are 64 bit enabled.

If you want to reduce power, then use Cool n Quiet. Bump Vcore up to +1.7% and you should be able to run at 2.25GHz as long as the memory divider is set at 166 speed.

 

[CuriousMike]

Can't find a copy of CG-NVNF3;
will this work?

http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php

NM - i found a direct link to CG-NVNF3...
:light: