Going to A64 . . .

[XMan]

Got the Newcastle core 2800+ and a VNF3-250 coming my way to replace my 2500+/NF7-S.

I know I should just read the manual when I get it, but hey, I'm excited. I'm not sure well my memory will overclock (2 x 512MB CH-5 Buffalo PC3200), so do the NForce 3 boards offer different memory ratios to keep memory in spec while you pump up the FSB?

I've got my fingers crossed to get at least 2.2 GHz out of the 2800+, but I don't know if that's realistic or not . . . time will tell, I guess. Any pointers, folks?

 

[charloscarlies]

Originally posted by: X-Man
Got the Newcastle core 2800+ and a VNF3-250 coming my way to replace my 2500+/NF7-S.

I know I should just read the manual when I get it, but hey, I'm excited. I'm not sure well my memory will overclock (2 x 512MB CH-5 Buffalo PC3200), so do the NForce 3 boards offer different memory ratios to keep memory in spec while you pump up the FSB?

I've got my fingers crossed to get at least 2.2 GHz out of the 2800+, but I don't know if that's realistic or not . . . time will tell, I guess. Any pointers, folks?

Yes the Chaintech has mem ratios. Good choice on the board.

You should get 2.2 ghz with ease. A lot of them are doing 2.4-2.5+ with decent cooling.

 

[BW86]

great choices, probably the best mobo/proc bundle out now.

 

[Childs]

I have that same CPU/mobo for my PVR system. Its been rock solid, recording two shows at the same time 24/7 for about a month now. No overclocking, but for the price, they were great.

 

[cbehnken]

I got 2.2 out of my 2800 and I thought it to be a poor overclock, you should have no problem hitting that unless you get a very old cpu.

 

[htmlmasterdave]

I'm running at 2.2 as well right now, and was a bit disappointed that I can't seem to get much higher... I was hoping for the 2.4-2.5 ghz region.

 

[imported_Peppe]

You guys with the 2800@2.2 did you buy recently and get the AX model? or is the older AR i believe?

 

[cbehnken]

AX

 

[dguy6789]

The gigabyte nf250 board is better then the chaintech one.

 

[justinian1978]

I've got my A64 2800+ up to over 2.0GHz, but I haven't dared to go higher yet. My rig is still a work in process, and I've got more stuff to cram into it before I want to look into serious overclocking.

My experience with the older nForce3 boards is they don't like ram overclocking much, but I've heard it's a lot easier now on the nForce3 250's. I haven't looked at them yet. The VIA K8T800 chipset is great with OC'ing in my experience so far. No messed up dipswitches or weird jumper combos. The BIOS is really good about resetting itself if you go a bit too far, too

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
The gigabyte nf250 board is better then the chaintech one.

Better how? Shrug. I've got the Chaintech being shipped and it was 71 bucks. That's hard to beat!

 

[charloscarlies]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
The gigabyte nf250 board is better then the chaintech one.

Yeah....how do you figure? The Chaintech is a great board, and on top of that it's one of the cheapest A64 boards you can find. Overclocks like a champ too.

 

[charloscarlies]

Originally posted by: justinian1978
I've got my A64 2800+ up to over 2.0GHz, but I haven't dared to go higher yet. My rig is still a work in process, and I've got more stuff to cram into it before I want to look into serious overclocking.

My experience with the older nForce3 boards is they don't like ram overclocking much, but I've heard it's a lot easier now on the nForce3 250's. I haven't looked at them yet. The VIA K8T800 chipset is great with OC'ing in my experience so far. No messed up dipswitches or weird jumper combos. The BIOS is really good about resetting itself if you go a bit too far, too

You won't get much past 2 ghz with that board. The K8V does NOT have a PCI lock, and upping the HTT much higher could result in a corrupt OS install.

I have read where once you get to a certain HTT frequency, a PCI divider is implemented...but you'd have to read up as I have no idea what that number is.

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: charloscarlies

Originally posted by: justinian1978
I've got my A64 2800+ up to over 2.0GHz, but I haven't dared to go higher yet. My rig is still a work in process, and I've got more stuff to cram into it before I want to look into serious overclocking.

My experience with the older nForce3 boards is they don't like ram overclocking much, but I've heard it's a lot easier now on the nForce3 250's. I haven't looked at them yet. The VIA K8T800 chipset is great with OC'ing in my experience so far. No messed up dipswitches or weird jumper combos. The BIOS is really good about resetting itself if you go a bit too far, too

You won't get much past 2 ghz with that board. The K8V does NOT have a PCI lock, and upping the HTT much higher could result in a corrupt OS install.

I have read where once you get to a certain HTT frequency, a PCI divider is implemented...but you'd have to read up as I have no idea what that number is.

I see that you're doing 250 HTT bus . . . is that still at 4X? If so, would you think that 2.25 @ 250 HTT x4 is better than say 2.40 @ 300 HTT x3? I'm thinking that if there's a 3:2 divider, I can run my memory in spec and hopefully drop my multiplier to 8X . . .

 

[charloscarlies]

Originally posted by: X-Man

Originally posted by: charloscarlies

Originally posted by: justinian1978
I've got my A64 2800+ up to over 2.0GHz, but I haven't dared to go higher yet. My rig is still a work in process, and I've got more stuff to cram into it before I want to look into serious overclocking.

My experience with the older nForce3 boards is they don't like ram overclocking much, but I've heard it's a lot easier now on the nForce3 250's. I haven't looked at them yet. The VIA K8T800 chipset is great with OC'ing in my experience so far. No messed up dipswitches or weird jumper combos. The BIOS is really good about resetting itself if you go a bit too far, too

You won't get much past 2 ghz with that board. The K8V does NOT have a PCI lock, and upping the HTT much higher could result in a corrupt OS install.

I have read where once you get to a certain HTT frequency, a PCI divider is implemented...but you'd have to read up as I have no idea what that number is.

I see that you're doing 250 HTT bus . . . is that still at 4X? If so, would you think that 2.25 @ 250 HTT x4 is better than say 2.40 @ 300 HTT x3? I'm thinking that if there's a 3:2 divider, I can run my memory in spec and hopefully drop my multiplier to 8X . . .

Clock speed seems to be THE most important factor with these babies. You're right I am at 3x LDT. It boots into Windows at 4x, but I get some weird instabilities so I just dropped it to 3x. From your examples...the 2.4 ghz will definitely be better. I can't think of a lot of boards that will do 300 HTT though other than the DFI. Mine topped out around 280-285ish no matter what multi I used.

Btw...my ram is running 1:1...which is the reason for "only" 250 HTT.

 

[XMan]

Good to know.

What other memory ratios does the VNF3 have? I've never overclocked my RAM much so it's pretty much an unknown quantity.

 

[XMan]

Wow, what a great CPU!!!!!

I've got this thing running at 245 FSB, memory at 408 by way of the 166 setting, for a CPU speed of 2214 MHz, at 1.6V! Completely stable . . . makes me wonder how much headroom I've got. Think I could do 8x300 with a 3X HTT?

 

[Zebo]

Your memory is going to be a serious issue if you overclock anyway high at all.

Say 2500Mhz

That mean you HTT aka FSB is set to 278 Mhz

Buff CH-5 won't run past 218 in that board. Meaning you will have to set mem setting to 133 giving mem bus of only 184Mhz crippleing system


166 or 1:1 definity anit going to work. You need this samsung TCCD which will run 278Mhz 2.5-3-3 1T
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=20-141-194&depa=0

Best you can hope for with your current mem is around 250 FSB running memory setting @166 giving 2250Mhz and 220mhz repectivly.

Make sure you run 1T command rate. Huge performance hit if not. Give CH-5 full vdimm. It can handle it easy.

 

[Zebo]

xtre

Originally posted by: charloscarlies

Originally posted by: X-Man

Originally posted by: charloscarlies

Originally posted by: justinian1978
I've got my A64 2800+ up to over 2.0GHz, but I haven't dared to go higher yet. My rig is still a work in process, and I've got more stuff to cram into it before I want to look into serious overclocking.

My experience with the older nForce3 boards is they don't like ram overclocking much, but I've heard it's a lot easier now on the nForce3 250's. I haven't looked at them yet. The VIA K8T800 chipset is great with OC'ing in my experience so far. No messed up dipswitches or weird jumper combos. The BIOS is really good about resetting itself if you go a bit too far, too

You won't get much past 2 ghz with that board. The K8V does NOT have a PCI lock, and upping the HTT much higher could result in a corrupt OS install.

I have read where once you get to a certain HTT frequency, a PCI divider is implemented...but you'd have to read up as I have no idea what that number is.

I see that you're doing 250 HTT bus . . . is that still at 4X? If so, would you think that 2.25 @ 250 HTT x4 is better than say 2.40 @ 300 HTT x3? I'm thinking that if there's a 3:2 divider, I can run my memory in spec and hopefully drop my multiplier to 8X . . .

Clock speed seems to be THE most important factor with these babies. You're right I am at 3x LDT. It boots into Windows at 4x, but I get some weird instabilities so I just dropped it to 3x. From your examples...the 2.4 ghz will definitely be better. I can't think of a lot of boards that will do 300 HTT though other than the DFI. Mine topped out around 280-285ish no matter what multi I used.

Btw...my ram is running 1:1...which is the reason for "only" 250 HTT.

3x is faster in lots of circumstnces anyway.

LDT is for the most part fluff.
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=39559

 

[XMan]

I should have updated my "config", I actually have Mushkin Basic PC3200. I forgot that I sold my CH-5 stick and bought two 512s of the Mushkin.

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: X-Man
Wow, what a great CPU!!!!!

I've got this thing running at 245 FSB, memory at 408 by way of the 166 setting, for a CPU speed of 2214 MHz, at 1.6V! Completely stable . . . makes me wonder how much headroom I've got. Think I could do 8x300 with a 3X HTT?

I'm running 250 default voltage on my 2800+ with ht 4x . Mem at 1:1 also.



Edit

I wanted to add,to get my mem to run at 1:1 at high speeds I needed to use 2T or else my 2 x 512 megs double sided crucial pc3200 sticks would not go any higher that about 240mhz... seting it to 2T solved that problem.

 

[rchiu]

I have the 2800+/VNF3-250 setup too and I've got mine running at 255 FSB, memory set at 166. That's ~2.3G at default voltage. Hopefully when I get my Kingston hyperX memory, I can run it at 200 memory setting.

VNF3-250 is a great board, but Chaintech suck big time in support and documentation. Took me 2 hours to find their documentation on flashing the bios, and the build-in AMIFLASH did not work on my board. Had to download the AMIFLASH utility from other website. There is also no documentation on what each bios setting means and what it should be set to, have to mess around to discover for meyself how to setup for example, the raid function through the bios. The bios that came with the board sucked too, had big time problem trying to install XP on SATA drive or making SATA the boot drive.

But once I flashed the mobo to the latest bios, everything is functioning great and the board is very stable.

Can't beat the value when you can get the combo for ~$200 shipped. (from mwave) You just have to be patient and be willing to spend the time to play around and figure things out yourself.

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: charloscarlies

Originally posted by: dguy6789
The gigabyte nf250 board is better then the chaintech one.

Yeah....how do you figure? The Chaintech is a great board, and on top of that it's one of the cheapest A64 boards you can find. Overclocks like a champ too.

The gigabyte board for one, is from a trustable company that has been around alot longer then chaintech, for 2, it is also an nforce 3 250 chipset, for 3, it has a superior sound system built in, and for 4, it is usually cheaper then the chaintech.