Got my Epox 8KTA3 (KT133a) Mobo today! =)

[G3DN]

I don't think Epox is going to help me out...after all what I'm trying to do is not exactly something supported. I ended up selling my board to someone local who's not into overclocking. I have a Abit KT7A-Raid on the way....however I did order another Epox board for my son's computer, but that hasn't shown up. I'm going to try that board and see if I can get it to work at 133...I'll also try using my Son's T-Bird 900MHz that's coming with the Epox board, and if that don't work, I 'll grab my brothers Duron 700 to try. I also just got my Hedgehog cooler today, so I'll try all those CPU's with that instead of my Alpha Pal35. Oh yea, I tried uping the voltage to 1.85 when I was testing that board...heck I tried just about every FSB and voltage setting I could.

 

[Davegod75]

what you mean you clocked down to 550mhz..did you change the multiplier?

 

[G3DN]

yes I changed the multiplier..I think it was 5.5...I even loaded into windows and varified with CPUID that it was running at 550/100...then I restarted the computer and switch the FSB to 133, and I'm not able to boot. I tired just moved the jumper to 133 and just changing the FSB to 133 in the bios...both ways, the same results.

 

[Mustanggt]

Geist3 That dosent make any sense. IM sure when your KT7A comes you will have no trouble getting to 145 FSB.

 

[Crashedout]

I must say I am having better luck, 136x7 and 100% stable. Boots at 150x7 but does not load windows. On a side note: I checked to see what week my chipset. Its a 51 so I should be good but two interesting points: The heatsink on my southbridge was attached with thermal compound and the chipset looks very different. It has a sliver insert and does not resemble the one pictured on via's site. Very cool. Once my articooler gets here I will see if I can get a gig. Very impressed with Epox at this point.

 

[Geist3]

Mustanggt:

What doesn't make any sense?



<< Geist3 That dosent make any sense. IM sure when your KT7A comes you will have no trouble getting to 145 FSB. >>



In the &quot;Best KT133A mobo&quot; thread, I passed some OC Workbench info re VIA chip pre Week 50 hitting 145 MHZ FSB max; and post Week 50 hitting 160.

I'm actually waiting for my Soltek SL75KAV order to arrive.

 

[Davegod75]

hmmmm so epox has the option to lower the multiplier below the default. My K7T Pro2-A doesn't have the option as of yet and I hope MSI will include it in the bios shortly

 

[fergus]

Crashedout, you're having better luck than others. You mentioned &quot;Need to close the l7 bridges for 1.85......&quot;. Are you talking about 1.85 voltage? I thought the bridges controlled the multiplier. Was I totally wrong about that?

I have an newbie question, sorry for my ignorance. If the board has adjustments for voltage and multiplier, and you want to tweak your settings, does the board's settings override the CPU's locked l7 bridges? Or do you still have to unlock them if you want to increase multiplier and voltage?

 

[G3DN]

I read in a review that the Epox board chipset didn't have any thermal paste between the heatsink and chip...however when I check mine it did. I took it off and applied Artic Silver for a little extra cooling.

 

[tran1981]

i think you should up ur voltage by l7 bridges and also up ur mobo to the same voltage. Anyone confirm this?

 

[Technonut]

So far I have tried 2 retail 900 T-Birds, and the current OEM 1100 that I am running now, and have had no problems doing between 145-146 FSB (underclocking the multiplier &amp; raising the FSB) on my KT7A RAID.

 

[tran1981]

The sad thing is I already have the epox and no chip. Can't wait to try it out.

 

[G3DN]

yea, when it didn't work the first thing I tried was closing the L7 switches and upping the voltage to max in the bios...that didn't help either.

 

[Crashedout]

I had made a mistake when I set the board up the first time, I did not see that you could set the voltage to 1.85v in the bios, I assumes it topped out at 1.8 so I closed the l7's to force it to default to 1.85. That is as high as it will go, bios setting will not push it higher.

G3DN: When you took off the heatsink from the chipset what did it look like? I think they really changed the production at via after week 50. My chipset does not resemble those pictured in the reviews on the net. I mean its a 133A just with a silver metal insert. Just curious as to what yours looked like.

 

[whitey]

Anyone have the raid version of this board they want to sell?

 

[tran1981]

Crashedout. Mine has a fan on top. Yours only have a silver metal?

Here is what mine looks like.

 

[Crashedout]

I looked at HardOcp, HardOCP , and that is what mine looks like, with the core being silver. I have the fan as you do I just wanted to look at the chipset itself to see what week mine was. I was not expecting it to look the way it does, I though it would look like an Intel BX or the via ones shown on their site. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[fergus]

Interestingly ocworkbench.com got the new Iwill KK266R, a KT133A mobo, to 163mhz with a week 47 chipset. So I wonder how valid the theory is about only week 50 or later being the better oc'ers. The site also quotes a manufacturer as saying
&quot;We now know why xxxx can overclock higher.
VIA improved their manufacture process.
The KT133A chipset of week 50 and later can reach 160+ FSB
while other batches before week 50 can only reach 145 FSB&quot;.

Q about the votage. If I need to increase the voltage, will I have to unlock the cpu's L7? Or does the mobo's votage tweak override the cpus locked L7?

 

[tran1981]

Crashedout, so you took off the fan? I haven't take out the fan yet. Let you know when I get home. How do you look for the week of the chipset?

 

[bupkus]

Has anyone taken the time to wonder how a chipset that is just being utilized can have a date of week 50?
We are of course talking about the KT133A northbridge since that is the only part of the chipset that is unique to these new boards?

 

[G3DN]

I didn't take a close look at the chipset, but when I cleaned off the old thermal paste, I noticed it has a shiny silver circle that took up much of the chip.

 

[xraymongral]

Mine has the silver circle on the north bridge. I was able to get my Duron 650 up to 910 by just upping the FSB to 140, and the voltage to 1.8. But my voodoo3 got to hot, so I am back to stock until I get a fan to put on the voodoo heatsink.

 

[fergus]

Bupkus, I did wonder! If it means the way it sounds, it would mean they have been making these chips since around the 1st of Jan 2000. Maybe the 1st chip they make off the drawing board is week 1. Then it went thru mod after mod, week after week, then they finally got to production in the late 40's. Maybe I'll ask the question in a forum at ocworkbench and someone will know.

 

[fergus]

sound like it's not the 50th week of production, but is week 50 of the calendar year.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Fergus - you wrote

Q about the votage. If I need to increase the voltage, will I have to unlock the cpu's L7? Or does the mobo's votage tweak override the cpus locked L7?

You answered it yourself. It's the voltage that you set in BIOS that counts. Off course you need a MB that supports manually setting the voltage otherwise you have to close the L7-bridges, but which MB doesn't have voltage settings today??