Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2

[tj99]

Hi guys.


Just to let you all know - couldnt get my sapphire 3870xt to run on this board. It had the same pcie2.0 issue that the nvidia owners are having with the 8800gt. Only difference is , there is a patched vga bios for the 8800gt that turns it into a pcie1.0.

No such luck with ati.

I jumped and changed mb to gigabyte ga-p35-ds3

running e4500 at 3.0ghz ( runs higher but temp/noise level is fine for me at this level )
3870 stock 777/1126

3dmark06 = 10224



If anyone gets this vga card to run on an asrock sata2 let me know as i still have the board.

 

[fritzfield1234]

I'm not an inveterate overclocker. I only overclock if it is simple and I don't have to buy anything extra for the machine. My last overclock was a Celeron 300 run at 450 on an Abit BX-6. A long time ago.

Everything I have in my computer is really about 4 years old except for the CPU. So that includes a 4 year old PSU, AGP, RAM, ZIP Drive, DVD -ROM, etc.

Again, my CPU is an E6600, not a Q6600.

In the BIOS, I set the Host Frequency to Manual and Actual Frequency to 305. If I try 306 or higher, OCCT and Orthos lock-up. MAX CPUID is Disabled and No Execute Memory is also disabled

All the RAM settings are at Auto. DRAM FREQ is 166 (DDR333). Bus Selection is Dual Channel.

So, I wonder if I upgraded my RAM to DDR2, I might DOWNGRADE my overclock.

I think this board is really a legacy board for running Dual Core CPUs and made to run other older equipment better than updated components like DDR2, PCIe, SATA optical disks, etc. And I don't think it likes Quad Core chips, like the Q6600. I don't feel, by all the posts that I've read, that it is a dependable upgrade path if you have new hardware for your system. I had tried to add a PCIe video card and it ended up being really crap. So I sent it back and am running my old AGP card instead.

This setup will tide me over for another 4 years. I'm not bleeding edge.

BTW, I also don't have any RAID and I have disabled the SERIAL, GAME, and MIDI ports.

 

[NerzalXFS]

Hi, I'm new to the forums.. but I'd like to have some input about overclocking on this board as well.

I just bought this board, the 4CoreDual-SATA2
>2GB DDR2-800 http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231098
>e2160 proc (1.8Ghz / 9x200)

I put it all in and fired it up stock and everything works fine, and I've seen people have successes with getting it to 3ghz with other boards and this as well.

My attempts to overclock this board are as follows:
233x9 ~ 2ghz / Prime95 torture test comes stable, but SATA/IDE drives seem quirky at times.
266x9 ~2.4ghz / Posts fine, but flickery when it comes to load windows xp then crashes - SATA raid drives show up as a different HDDs and no raid.

Anything higher will be no POST at all.
Maybe it's because I'm unfamiliar with the AMI bios features on this board or it just quirky, but I'd like to get some extra mhz out of this chip.

I have an AGP X1650 if that helps at all.

 

[chemchris]

I know this seems to be a 'spec' thread but I need some help with my mobo and this seems to be used often.
I just bought this and everything worked great out of the box. The only problem I have is it wont recognize 2 sticks of ram. I first put in 2 sticks of ddr and it only recognized one stick. I then removed them and tried using the ddr II ram I had. Again, only one stick was recognized. I pulled the Ram out of the slot that was recognized in BIOS and tried to boot off the ram that wasnt recognized.... no boot. So i moved that stick to the 1st slot and then it booted fine. So it appears to recognize ram put in slots 1 and 2, but not 3 and 4. The ddr II is 677 mhz, and they are both the exact same model.
Im thinking it must be either some setting in bios I havent set, or the board is faulty. Before I pack it back up and ship it off, i wanted to see if anyone else had this problem. I see on this thread that people have adjusted some timing settings in bios and that produced some results, but im not sure where to do this. Anyone?

 

[BAUBAU]

4CoreDual-SATA2 + E2180 + 7600GS AGP
Before I had 2x256MB DDR Kingmax PC3200U
- I overclocked without issues to 290FSB with ram using 4:3 at 217Mhz (2-3-3-9 1T). Rock stable. Did not test further, wainting for DDR2.
Now I've got 2x1GB DDR2 Geil 4-4-4-12 800Mhz
- Same 290FSB with ram using 1:1 at 290Mhz (3-3-3-9-21 1T). Rock stable.
- Everything over 290FSB I have to loosen ram timmings to 4-4-4-12-28 2T.
- I think I could do 330FSB if I'll do some volt modding, cause I can boot that high but it freezes from lack of voltage to the CPU.
2900Mhz seems to be my sweetspot as I have maximum memory perfomance, but I'll try to get to 3000Mhz with same ram setting.

I have replaced the boxed cooler with a Scythe Mine, and just for fun, even if I did not have issues like the others, I tried to do the BSEL mod. But where I live I cannot find Window Defrozer Repair Kit nor conductive tape. So I went to the kitchen, took an chocolate, eat it, and with a scissor cut a small part of staniol from the chocolate package in a U shape, and pressed it with the fingers to the CPU. No adezive, no nothing. I've installed the CPU, the cooler, and powered up. Surprise! It worked, I boot with 266FSB by default now
If i could do it, with my rather large fingers, anybody can do it.

To those that have problems.
- First, if you have PCIE VGA & also DDR2... find another suitable board, this board was meant to be run with old AGP card and DDR1, just in transition, so that you can buy at a later time DDR2, at a later time PCIE VGA and finally to replace the mainboard.
- For all others that are stucked with this board, consider to do the BSEL mod (proper, not like me )

- Some Bios options to consider:
* Flexibility = disabled highly recommended.
* Dont leave Memory speed on auto (select DDR-266... /DDR2-533....).
* Dont leave Memory timmings on auto if you know them (5-5-5-18 etc..).
* Leave PCIE, AGP & PCI Frequency at default (100, 66, 33).
* vRAM & vAGP = High
* V-link = Normal
* V-link Auto Disconnect = Enable
* Ide-Drive Strenght = High
* PCI Delay Transaction = Enable
* PCIE Downstream Pipeline = Disable
* Pipeline DRQCTL = Enable
* Fast writes can be disabled without sacrificing substantial performance
* Safe bet is to use 2T Command on RAM, but memory bandwith on read mostly will decrease
* Sometimes setting PCI Latency to 64 (default 32) helps.
* For AGP VGA users, PCI Latency tool for windows is a must...if the VGA latency is 256 by default, change it to 64. Helps in overclock, in problems with sound cracking etc.

 

[bigsnyder]

Originally posted by: chemchris
I know this seems to be a 'spec' thread but I need some help with my mobo and this seems to be used often.
I just bought this and everything worked great out of the box. The only problem I have is it wont recognize 2 sticks of ram. I first put in 2 sticks of ddr and it only recognized one stick. I then removed them and tried using the ddr II ram I had. Again, only one stick was recognized. I pulled the Ram out of the slot that was recognized in BIOS and tried to boot off the ram that wasnt recognized.... no boot. So i moved that stick to the 1st slot and then it booted fine. So it appears to recognize ram put in slots 1 and 2, but not 3 and 4. The ddr II is 677 mhz, and they are both the exact same model.
Im thinking it must be either some setting in bios I havent set, or the board is faulty. Before I pack it back up and ship it off, i wanted to see if anyone else had this problem. I see on this thread that people have adjusted some timing settings in bios and that produced some results, but im not sure where to do this. Anyone?

I assume your memory sticks are =/<1GB? If so, sounds like a bad board. Experimenting
with voltage to the memory might help, but you shouldn't have to go that route.

 

[cammell]

Originally posted by: chemchris
I know this seems to be a 'spec' thread but I need some help with my mobo and this seems to be used often.
I just bought this and everything worked great out of the box. The only problem I have is it wont recognize 2 sticks of ram. I first put in 2 sticks of ddr and it only recognized one stick. I then removed them and tried using the ddr II ram I had. Again, only one stick was recognized. I pulled the Ram out of the slot that was recognized in BIOS and tried to boot off the ram that wasnt recognized.... no boot. So i moved that stick to the 1st slot and then it booted fine. So it appears to recognize ram put in slots 1 and 2, but not 3 and 4. The ddr II is 677 mhz, and they are both the exact same model.
Im thinking it must be either some setting in bios I havent set, or the board is faulty. Before I pack it back up and ship it off, i wanted to see if anyone else had this problem. I see on this thread that people have adjusted some timing settings in bios and that produced some results, but im not sure where to do this. Anyone?

It seems you are using different MOBO since 4coredual-sata2 has only two DDR2 slots. Or maybe you were "succesful" inserting DDR2 memory in DDR slots ... :/

 

[cammell]

OVERCLOCKING STORY CONTINUES...
Have solved some HSF installing problems on different topic, now CPU is 30-32 C idle @2900.
Unfortunatelly - when comming to stress (ORTHOS or even Cinebench9.5) its reseting. Have noticed that temp went @44 C when comp went reboot.
Im using TAT for measurment.
It seems that something else make comp unstable, not CPU overheat

 

[bigsnyder]

Originally posted by: cammell
It seems you are using different MOBO since 4coredual-sata2 has only two DDR2 slots. Or maybe you were "succesful" inserting DDR2 memory in DDR slots ... :/

I believe he has both DDR and DDR2 to try.

 

[NerzalXFS]

I'm clueless on what else to do now on the bios.. I'm really considering the bsel mod on my e2160. I cant seem to ramp the fsb up to anything higher than 240 or so without it being quicky and unstable

Just for kicks.. I put the fsb to 333 once, and it POSTed as something around 2.1ghz instead of 3ghz(expected)

 

[cpmee]

But where I live I cannot find Window Defrozer Repair Kit nor conductive tape.

I always got mine at Pep Boys, but Advance Auto and Auto Zone usually have it too. Its also available from Amazon.com . The formal name of the stuff is "Quick Grid" and is made by Permatex.


Also, in case anyone is interested, **YES** the gameport header on the 4CoreDual-Sata2 works. I used an gameport DB15 plug from an old multifunction ISA card to plug into the header.

 

[Javver]

See below Info from recent Newegg review posts for this motherboard from a Gentleman that doesn't speak English too well. Looks like it might be useful for OC's/Problems ...but, possibly someone here with more Tech understanding could explain this better ?

TECH AND TEST

Pros: IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH THE BORD TRY F9 DEL AND THEN LET THE BORD RUN A TEST WITH WILL TAKE ABOUT 2 HOURS ON A PENTIUM 4.1GHZ AFTER THE TEST THE BORD WILL ADJUST ALL THE SETTINGS WITH YOU'R SYSTEM --WARNING IF YOU RUN THE TEST AND NOT COMPLETE IT IN THE CON DOWN TIME AND YOU SHUT OFF THE SYSTEM YOU'R BORD WILL BE FRY'T BEFORE RUNNING THE TEST GO TOO BIOS AND FOR BOOT CHOICE NOTHING IT'S NO CD NO FLOOPY NO DVD NO HD DISK AND KEEP TRYING TOO RESTART THE SYSTEM AND PRESS F9 AND DELL KEY IF IT FAILS AFTER TRYNG IT MORE THEN 2-3 MINNUTES HIT THE F9-AND TAB YOU WILL GET IN A VIA BIOS NOT THE F2 BIOS THE VIA BIOS IT'S HIDDEN BIOS BUT CAN NOT BE ACCESS EASY IT TAKES TIME IT CAN TAKE HOUR'S PLESE DO NOT ADJUST ANYTHING IN THE VIA BIOS ONLY RUN THE AUTO TEST VIA BIOS HES LOT'S OFF FUTURES AND VOLTAGE ADJUSTMENT'S AND LOCKING FUTURES FOR F2 DO NOT OVERCKLOCK THE VIA BIOS DO NOT TRY TOO CHANGE ANY NAMES IN THE VIA BIOS LIKE THE MODEL NUMBER OR THE IBC NUMBERS OR THE SPCIPPNS VOLTAGE OR AGP

Cons: YOU CHOICE ALL ATT YOU'R RISK

Other Thoughts: IN THE VIA BIOS YOU MAY CHANGE THE FSB-1066-OR-800-533 AND YOU CAN ADD MORE FSB LIKE 1666 FSB OR MORE AND AFTER YOU ADD MORE FSB PLESE ADD THE MHZ FROM CPU AND THE MB SO THE PROCESSOR SUPPORT IT HIH GEEKS AND TECH AT ---NEWEGG,COM

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BORD TECH

Pros: BORDS PERFECT 4 OVERCKLOCKING SUPPORT'S ALL PROCESSORS SOCKET 775 TESTED WORKS PERFECT THER IT'S A TRICK IN THE BIOS AND F9-AND DEL BUTTON WHER USERS CAN OVERCKLOK VIDEO MEMORY VIDEO VOLTAGE THER ARE MORE OPTION'S ON THIS MOTHERNBORD JUST CHEAK IT OUT CHANGE THE clrs TOO CLR AND PRESS THE START BUTTON AND PRESS TAB AT STARTUP AND UNLOCK THE WORLD WARNING OVERCKLOCKING THE VIDEO FROM 64MB TOO 10 GIG WILL FREY THE DDR OR DDR2 MEMORY SOO YOU CAN USE THE INTERNALL VIDEO MEMORY AND OVERCKLOCK IT TOO 1GIG SHARE MEMORY CLICK IT TICK IT

Cons: BORDS PERFECT 4 OVERCKLOCKING SUPPORT'S ALL PROCESSORS SOCKET 775 TESTED WORKS PERFECT THER IT'S A TRICK IN THE BIOS AND F9-AND DEL BUTTON WHER USERS CAN OVERCKLOK VIDEO MEMORY VIDEO VOLTAGE THER ARE MORE OPTION'S ON THIS MOTHERNBORD JUST CHEAK IT OUT CHANGE THE clrs TOO CLR AND PRESS THE START BUTTON AND PRESS TAB AT STARTUP AND UNLOCK THE WORLD WARNING OVERCKLOCKING THE VIDEO FROM 64MB TOO 10 GIG WILL FREY THE DDR OR DDR2 MEMORY SOO YOU CAN USE THE INTERNALL VIDEO MEMORY AND OVERCKLOCK IT TOO 1GIG SHARE MEMORY CLICK IT TICK IT

Other Thoughts: BORDS PERFECT 4 OVERCKLOCKING SUPPORT'S ALL PROCESSORS SOCKET 775 TESTED WORKS PERFECT THER IT'S A TRICK IN THE BIOS AND F9-AND DEL BUTTON WHER USERS CAN OVERCKLOK VIDEO MEMORY VIDEO VOLTAGE THER ARE MORE OPTION'S ON THIS MOTHERNBORD JUST CHEAK IT OUT CHANGE THE clrs TOO CLR AND PRESS THE START BUTTON AND PRESS TAB AT STARTUP AND UNLOCK THE WORLD WARNING OVERCKLOCKING THE VIDEO FROM 64MB TOO 10 GIG WILL FREY THE DDR OR DDR2 MEMORY SOO YOU CAN USE THE INTERNALL VIDEO MEMORY AND OVERCKLOCK IT TOO 1GIG SHARE MEMORY CLICK IT TICK IT CPU OVERCKLOCKT FROM 3.2 GHZ TOO 4.2 GHZ VIDEO FROM 64 TOO 776MB BIOS CHANGET FROM PCCHIPS TOO MOTHERNBORD.

Above is exactly how it was posted ...which is confusing. Could someone here possibly clarify to help me & others that own/use this motherboard ?

 

[cpmee]

SOO YOU CAN USE THE INTERNALL VIDEO MEMORY AND OVERCKLOCK IT TOO 1GIG SHARE MEMORY

I dont think he's even talking about the same motherboard, as the 4coredual-sata2 doesnt have onboard video. I'll have to look into the "F9 DEL" deal though.

 

[NerzalXFS]

Anyways I decided to pop the fsb a little to "stable" zone
and I found this >http://i58.photobucket.com/alb...XaixFireye/problem.png

Notice that the agp/pcie/pci speeds are running out of spec.
I put set the lock on the bios where its supposed to keep it 66/100/33, but it appears that it doesnt do it.. thus all the instabilities for anything over like 240fsb; maybe for some boards it is able to lock the speeds.

I am currently using the third-party 1.60A bios


Some people mentioned that with AGP cards, people were able to get higher FSB vs. PCIe
I suppose this is true since AGP cards can tolerate the higher bus speed.. along with an increase in voltage

Oh btw, cpu-z reports my memory speed to be running

DRAM - 388Mhz
FSBRAM - 3:5

with PC2-6400 (DDR2-800)

 

[cpmee]

Notice that the agp/pcie/pci speeds are running out of spec.

My experience with SiSoft Sandra is to take their info with a grain of salt. Its not always accurate.

Also, I dont trust the voltage readings either, they seem to be a little off no matter what program I use. I think the problem stems from most programs think the measurement chip is a W83697HF. What I have on my board is a W83697HG, which may account for the difference. Most programs show my 12volt rail as 11.80, while my VOM reads 12.33 at the same time. :roll:

 

[scintion]

Originally posted by: Javver
See below Info from recent Newegg review posts for this motherboard from a Gentleman that doesn't speak English too well. Looks like it might be useful for OC's/Problems ...but, possibly someone here with more Tech understanding could explain this better ?

TECH AND TEST

Pros: IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH THE BORD TRY F9 DEL AND THEN LET THE BORD RUN A TEST WITH WILL TAKE ABOUT 2 HOURS ON A PENTIUM 4.1GHZ AFTER THE TEST THE BORD WILL ADJUST ALL THE SETTINGS WITH YOU'R SYSTEM --WARNING IF YOU RUN THE TEST AND NOT COMPLETE IT IN THE CON DOWN TIME AND YOU SHUT OFF THE SYSTEM YOU'R BORD WILL BE FRY'T BEFORE RUNNING THE TEST GO TOO BIOS AND FOR BOOT CHOICE NOTHING IT'S NO CD NO FLOOPY NO DVD NO HD DISK AND KEEP TRYING TOO RESTART THE SYSTEM AND PRESS F9 AND DELL KEY IF IT FAILS AFTER TRYNG IT MORE THEN 2-3 MINNUTES HIT THE F9-AND TAB YOU WILL GET IN A VIA BIOS NOT THE F2 BIOS THE VIA BIOS IT'S HIDDEN BIOS BUT CAN NOT BE ACCESS EASY IT TAKES TIME IT CAN TAKE HOUR'S PLESE DO NOT ADJUST ANYTHING IN THE VIA BIOS ONLY RUN THE AUTO TEST VIA BIOS HES LOT'S OFF FUTURES AND VOLTAGE ADJUSTMENT'S AND LOCKING FUTURES FOR F2 DO NOT OVERCKLOCK THE VIA BIOS DO NOT TRY TOO CHANGE ANY NAMES IN THE VIA BIOS LIKE THE MODEL NUMBER OR THE IBC NUMBERS OR THE SPCIPPNS VOLTAGE OR AGP

Cons: YOU CHOICE ALL ATT YOU'R RISK

Other Thoughts: IN THE VIA BIOS YOU MAY CHANGE THE FSB-1066-OR-800-533 AND YOU CAN ADD MORE FSB LIKE 1666 FSB OR MORE AND AFTER YOU ADD MORE FSB PLESE ADD THE MHZ FROM CPU AND THE MB SO THE PROCESSOR SUPPORT IT HIH GEEKS AND TECH AT ---NEWEGG,COM

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BORD TECH

Pros: BORDS PERFECT 4 OVERCKLOCKING SUPPORT'S ALL PROCESSORS SOCKET 775 TESTED WORKS PERFECT THER IT'S A TRICK IN THE BIOS AND F9-AND DEL BUTTON WHER USERS CAN OVERCKLOK VIDEO MEMORY VIDEO VOLTAGE THER ARE MORE OPTION'S ON THIS MOTHERNBORD JUST CHEAK IT OUT CHANGE THE clrs TOO CLR AND PRESS THE START BUTTON AND PRESS TAB AT STARTUP AND UNLOCK THE WORLD WARNING OVERCKLOCKING THE VIDEO FROM 64MB TOO 10 GIG WILL FREY THE DDR OR DDR2 MEMORY SOO YOU CAN USE THE INTERNALL VIDEO MEMORY AND OVERCKLOCK IT TOO 1GIG SHARE MEMORY CLICK IT TICK IT

Cons: BORDS PERFECT 4 OVERCKLOCKING SUPPORT'S ALL PROCESSORS SOCKET 775 TESTED WORKS PERFECT THER IT'S A TRICK IN THE BIOS AND F9-AND DEL BUTTON WHER USERS CAN OVERCKLOK VIDEO MEMORY VIDEO VOLTAGE THER ARE MORE OPTION'S ON THIS MOTHERNBORD JUST CHEAK IT OUT CHANGE THE clrs TOO CLR AND PRESS THE START BUTTON AND PRESS TAB AT STARTUP AND UNLOCK THE WORLD WARNING OVERCKLOCKING THE VIDEO FROM 64MB TOO 10 GIG WILL FREY THE DDR OR DDR2 MEMORY SOO YOU CAN USE THE INTERNALL VIDEO MEMORY AND OVERCKLOCK IT TOO 1GIG SHARE MEMORY CLICK IT TICK IT

Other Thoughts: BORDS PERFECT 4 OVERCKLOCKING SUPPORT'S ALL PROCESSORS SOCKET 775 TESTED WORKS PERFECT THER IT'S A TRICK IN THE BIOS AND F9-AND DEL BUTTON WHER USERS CAN OVERCKLOK VIDEO MEMORY VIDEO VOLTAGE THER ARE MORE OPTION'S ON THIS MOTHERNBORD JUST CHEAK IT OUT CHANGE THE clrs TOO CLR AND PRESS THE START BUTTON AND PRESS TAB AT STARTUP AND UNLOCK THE WORLD WARNING OVERCKLOCKING THE VIDEO FROM 64MB TOO 10 GIG WILL FREY THE DDR OR DDR2 MEMORY SOO YOU CAN USE THE INTERNALL VIDEO MEMORY AND OVERCKLOCK IT TOO 1GIG SHARE MEMORY CLICK IT TICK IT CPU OVERCKLOCKT FROM 3.2 GHZ TOO 4.2 GHZ VIDEO FROM 64 TOO 776MB BIOS CHANGET FROM PCCHIPS TOO MOTHERNBORD.

Above is exactly how it was posted ...which is confusing. Could someone here possibly clarify to help me & others that own/use this motherboard ?

Think it's bullshit. Won't even bother trying this

 

[fritzfield1234]

F9-DEL only loads OPTIMAL SETTINGS. Bogus, IMO.

 

[Spicedaddy]

:|

Intel E2180 (default voltage is 1.325V)
4coredual-sata2 mobo
2x512MB OCZ PC3200
ATI 9700Pro vid card
Antec Truepower 550W (older model, but has 24A on the 12V rail... should be enough??)
1 SATA hard drive
1 IDE DVD-RW

Anyways, I couldn't get it to OC higher than ~250FSB, so I did the BSEL mod to make it use the 266FSB strap, and that didn't work either. Mod works fine, BIOS sees it as a 2666MHz CPU, but it reboots when loading Windows XP at 266FSB...

I can POST fine even at 300FSB, but it always reboots while loading Windows. At 255FSB it goes into Windows but reboots if I start Prime95 stress test. Only problem I can see is the CPU voltage drops from ~1.31V at idle to ~1.28V under load... Temps are excellent, ram isn't overclocked, I've been playing with BIOS settings for 2 days and nothing helps.

So it's either a voltage problem or I got the worst E2180 I could get. Is it normal for these chips to POST at 3GHz, yet be unstable even at 2.5GHz???


edit- Is there any way to verify AGP/PCI/PCIe speeds? I have a feeling they're not being locked to 66/33/100 like they're supposed to...

 

[brokencase]

Sisoft Sandra will display the agp/pci speeds in one of it's hardware screens.

I know how you feel. I keep trying different settings in the BIOS and I can't get past 280fsb with my Q6600. When I hit the limit the symptom is the Windows logo just begins to display during boot and then freezes.

I though it might be an AGP issue but I played with all the AGP settings to no avail.

Some of the oc settings that others have mentioned in various forums
You can take these with a grain of salt, I have tried them and didn't see any improvement
YMMV

"Disable V-link auto disconnect & set v-link to normal"
"Set AGP & IDE drive strengths to high and memory voltage high."
"Set AGP and PCIe clocks to the fixed settings"

Be careful if you set memory voltage to high, it could cook your memory.

 

[Spicedaddy]

Alright, did more testing and I'm pretty much convinced the AGP/PCI/PCIe frequency lock doesn't work on this motherboard. (tried Auto, Sync and Fixed settings in BIOS)

Without BSEL mod on E2180:
If I overclock the FSB to say 220, then Sandra tells me that AGP/PCI/PCIe clocks are going up as well. (1/3 for AGP = 73MHz, 1/6 for PCI = 37MHz and 1/2 for PCIe = 110MHz)

With BSEL mod on E2180:
FSB set to 220 again (an underclock since CPU is now using the 266FSB strap), AGP is now 55MHz, PCI is at 28MHz and PCIe at 83MHz.


This would explain why people are hitting a wall at 240-250FSB, and doing the BSEL mod enables them to go past that. If the board thinks you have a 266FSB CPU, then it lowers the AGP/PCI/PCIe dividers and you're good for 300+ FSB or whatever until your AGP/PCI speeds get too high again...


Anyways, I'm back to 100% stock until I get a better mobo. My E2180 doesn't want to do 2.66GHz on stock voltage, so the BSEL mod is pointless in my case as it makes my AGP/PCI/PCIe and RAM run under specs if I use a FSB lower than 266. And overclocking with the 200FSB strap makes them run over specs, which is even worse.

 

[cpmee]

Originally posted by: Spicedaddy

This would explain why people are hitting a wall at 240-250FSB, and doing the BSEL mod enables them to go past that. If the board thinks you have a 266FSB CPU, then it lowers the AGP/PCI/PCIe dividers and you're good for 300+ FSB or whatever until your AGP/PCI speeds get too high again...

Anyways, I'm back to 100% stock until I get a better mobo. My E2180 doesn't want to do 2.66GHz on stock voltage, so the BSEL mod is pointless in my case as it makes my AGP/PCI/PCIe and RAM run under specs if I use a FSB lower than 266. And overclocking with the 200FSB strap makes them run over specs, which is even worse.

You may be on to something with the AGP/PCI/PCIe since you did notice changes before and after the mods. The only thing is, I dont completely trust Sandra, the old girl has given me bad info many a time.

You may want to consider doing a vcore mod to 1.45v or so . Heres one interesting site :
http://www.tipidpc.com/viewtopic.php?tid=98439&page=1

He has an interesting technique for doing the mods. He uses aluminum duct tape (not the silver/gray plastic stuff, but the quality real aluminum duct tape that should be used on heating/cooling ducts anyway) and/or electrical tape.

Its important to do the vcore mod that corresponds to your starting VID for your processor.

 

[Spicedaddy]

For 200FSB strap:

DDR266 = 2/3 of FSB
DDR333 = 5/6 of FSB
DDR400 = 1/1 of FSB
AGP = 1/3 of FSB
PCI = 1/6 of FSB
PCIe = 1/2 of FSB


For 266FSB strap:

DDR266 = 1/2 of FSB
DDR333 = 5/8 of FSB
DDR400 = 3/4 of FSB
AGP = 1/4 of FSB
PCI = 1/8 of FSB
PCIe = 3/8 of FSB


I don't like Sandra too much either, but if it's right then the AGP/PCI/PCIe are NEVER locked like they should be, no matter what you set in the BIOS.

 

[cpmee]

Another option besides the vcore mod may be get a stick of ddr2, its cheap. Then you could go 1:1 with the bsel mod.

 

[Spicedaddy]

Sandra's probably wrong, I'm stable at 240FSB so if the buses weren't fixed I'd be running 80/40 AGP/PCI, which I don't think would run too well...

My E2180 isn't stable @ 2.5GHz with stock vcore (wasn't either at 2.66GHz with BSEL mod, so I removed it). So 240FSB it is, with DDR333 ram divider (5/6 of 240 = 200MHz).

I should be getting 2GB of DDR2 soon, we'll see if that changes anything. Might try giving it more juice in this board, but I'll probably wait until I get an Abit IP35...

 

[brokencase]

I don't think that Sandra is wrong I think that when the BIOS says that the AGP is fixed it really isn't.

Right now I am at 277 fsb, I set the bios both ways (AGP fixed, AGP sync with cpu)
In both cases Sandra reports 68mhz. Seems to me that should be 66 or 67 if it were fixed.

I think it may that when you select fixed, the BIOS TRYS to keep it near 66mhz.
So as you go up in fsb, it keeps a fixed divider over a small range of fsb values. Once the fsb hits a certain point it increases the divder again for the next range of fsb values..and so on.. Sort of quantitized.

It's either the above OR that the fixed setting in the BIOS is really bogus.

I am going to perform some more tinker & reboot experiments to see if that is indeed the case.

This could be good news for me. Maybe I am hitting the wall because of AGP bus speed. I may find an fsb sweet spot further up that will be stable.