Run: Fry's e4300 OEM + ECS Mobo - $149+ tax

[Zap]

Originally posted by: El Norm
Anyone having problems overclocking at all on this motherboard? i know it can do 266fsb no problem, but if i set it to 266fsb it does not respond to the changes ( they stick in bios but don't show up in cpuz). Anyone else find this to be a problem?

You have to pin mod it (BSEL). Check the thread under CPUs.

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: superHARD

Originally posted by: TrojanAaron

Originally posted by: MustangSVT
how much o/c is it possible with this mobo??

Put it this way, you'll be lucky if your mobo lasts more than a few months running at stock speeds.

Not true...

ECS is one of the largest mobo makers in the world. Sure their boards may not be the best quality but the only reason you hear a lot of failure stories is because there are that many ECS mobos out there. Larger numbers = more failures, even if relative failure rates are similar.

 

[beckonyes]

I purchased this combo, ditched the ECS board, and placed the cpu on a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 board.

However, I am having the same problems as those installing on an ECS board(no POST, no beep, fans working).

Do I need to get the BIOS flashed(noticed e4300 needs F7 version or higher)? What's going on here?

 

[foofoo]

Originally posted by: beckonyes
I purchased this combo, ditched the ECS board, and placed the cpu on a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 board.

However, I am having the same problems as those installing on an ECS board(no POST, no beep, fans working).

Do I need to get the BIOS flashed(noticed e4300 needs F7 version or higher)? What's going on here?

You seem to be doing the same thing that I am. my gigabyte s3 shipped today from newegg. i've got another processor to use for the bios flash if needed, but i'd be interested to hear how yours turns out.

 

[Rio Rebel]

You guys who are buying the S3, here's a tip in case you haven't seen this in other threads:

If you are going to increase the FSB significantly, there's a bios setting which lets you cap the frequency of the pci-e slot. Cap it at 100mhz. It can mean a huge difference in how high you can go.

I was only going about 350 stable on the fsb until I changed that setting. Now I can go over 400 easily. I was stopping at 2.5ghz until last night, where I was able to run windows at 3ghz. I'm not sure where my ceiling is now, but it is much higher.

 

[foofoo]

Originally posted by: Rio Rebel
You guys who are buying the S3, here's a tip in case you haven't seen this in other threads:

If you are going to increase the FSB significantly, there's a bios setting which lets you cap the frequency of the pci-e slot. Cap it at 100mhz. It can mean a huge difference in how high you can go.

I was only going about 350 stable on the fsb until I changed that setting. Now I can go over 400 easily. I was stopping at 2.5ghz until last night, where I was able to run windows at 3ghz. I'm not sure where my ceiling is now, but it is much higher.

Excellent tip - thanks.
I hope to be using it to reach over 400 myself...

 

[nomadh]

Any advice on overclocking on the cheap? I want to keep my ddr400 and agp video for now but want more than the ecs provides. That seems to leave me with the p4m800 series. I think asrock has one that allows both mem types and both video types but not carried by frys. If I can get frys to work a deal (or not). What do you think about the similar spec'ed gigabyte p4m800 MB? I know someone with a d915 likes it but he isn't overclocking even though it seems to support it well. At frys they are both $59 regular price.

 

[Rio Rebel]

I haven't seen many options for keeping your DDR memory and AGP cards. I think the AsRock has a small following right now, but I think they're struggling to get it higher than 300mhz.

You would think they could come up with a board that could run the memory at a lower ratio to allow us to use DDR. I guess there's just not that big a market for overclockers with older memory and video cards.

 

[VooDooAddict]

For those with 2x1GB DDR400 or 2x512MB DDR400 probably best going with something like this ...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127017

Yes, you'll need a PCIe Video card ... but if you are gaming you'll probably want to move to PCIe Video anyway.

 

[apexi350z]

Originally posted by: foofoo

Originally posted by: beckonyes
I purchased this combo, ditched the ECS board, and placed the cpu on a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 board.

However, I am having the same problems as those installing on an ECS board(no POST, no beep, fans working).

Do I need to get the BIOS flashed(noticed e4300 needs F7 version or higher)? What's going on here?

You seem to be doing the same thing that I am. my gigabyte s3 shipped today from newegg. i've got another processor to use for the bios flash if needed, but i'd be interested to hear how yours turns out.

according to Gigabyte website, you will need F7 bios to use the e4300. I just ordered the Gigabyte S3 motherboard as well, guess I need to find a P4 with socket 775 to flash it first. Just hope the new motherboard from Newegg is preflashed with F7.

Btw, I ordered the e4300 boxed version from Newegg, since I returned the one from Fry's.

 

[colossus]

Don't know if this helps any, but I bought an open box S3 last week from Newegg and it shipped with a F4 BIOS. It was open box, but those are taken from customer returns - so be prepared to flash the board before cranking up thee E4300.

 

[SPARTAN VI]

Originally posted by: colossus
They're going to have a Vista sale next week and you should see a better E4300 combo and E6300 combo at that time (friend works at City Of Industry here in SoCal) - if you can hold off a week.

Now the Pentium D 925 combo in the San Jose ad for $99, that's a nice price.

Hey, that's the Frys I go to.

How much is the combo deal you're talking about?

 

[foofoo]

Originally posted by: SPARTAN VI

Originally posted by: colossus
They're going to have a Vista sale next week and you should see a better E4300 combo and E6300 combo at that time (friend works at City Of Industry here in SoCal) - if you can hold off a week.

Now the Pentium D 925 combo in the San Jose ad for $99, that's a nice price.

Hey, that's the Frys I go to.

How much is the combo deal you're talking about?

He must mean this one
Text
but it shows 119, not 99.

 

[VinceDee]

Has anyone who got this e4300 combo overclocked it yet? And I mean with the ECS board. If so, how high were you able to go and what were your settings?

I have my board set up in a HTPC box and it's a royal PITA to have to crack it open to reset the BIOS whenever I foul up the oc.

Core 2 Duo e4300
ECS p4m800pro-m v2.0
2x1gb OCZ Gold 4-4-4-12 (DDR1)
BFG OC 6800gt AGP

Any suggestion as to what I might be able to get out of this configuration?

Also, I'm thinking about keeping this 925D combo and turning it into a webserver. Think it's worthy?

Vince

 

[nomadh]

A friend passed these on to me to check but haven't had time yet.
ASUS P5PE-VM ( intel 865G)
ASUS P5VDC-MX (VIA P4M800 Pro)
Both for $54.99 at new egg.

As for overclocking on the frys setup:
I'm running FSB at 250 and locking my ddr400 at 200. I also had the agp voltage at +.05 by accident. My 5200 video card didn't like the overclock but I switched to an AIW8500 along with my tv tuner and it ran overnight, defragging without probs. I checked the temp and it was 10c. Thought it was nuts so i unplugged the fan and it shot up to 40c in 10 min. Using 111 watts of power in win at idle, 115 playing a video. My d805 test was running 170 minimum (220w overclocked) and could shoot to 260 or so on usage wit htemps > 70c. I'm using an aftermarket thermaltake on the 4300, single speed, mid size, reverse fan model $20 at frys. Bit too loud because no pwm. So I guess I'm running from 1.86 up to 2.25ghz
Seemed to lag but I realized I only had my 256 meg in there for testing. The 768meg should do better.
BTW when it won't boot because of a bios setting just hold down the PGup key when you power on. it clears the bios to default.
I posted this.

 

[dokomo]

I'm expecting the Gigabyte s3 and e4300 from Newegg any day now, and I'm wondering how I can update the bios to a e4300 compatible version without an older chip laying around?

 

[R64]

Originally posted by: VinceDee
Has anyone who got this e4300 combo overclocked it yet? And I mean with the ECS board. If so, how high were you able to go and what were your settings?

I have my board set up in a HTPC box and it's a royal PITA to have to crack it open to reset the BIOS whenever I foul up the oc.

Core 2 Duo e4300
ECS p4m800pro-m v2.0
2x1gb OCZ Gold 4-4-4-12 (DDR1)
BFG OC 6800gt AGP

Any suggestion as to what I might be able to get out of this configuration?

Also, I'm thinking about keeping this 925D combo and turning it into a webserver. Think it's worthy?

Vince

If you power on with pageup key depressed, this board will boot with default bios settings. You don't have to reset this every time.

 

[dwcal]

Originally posted by: R64
If you power on with pageup key depressed, this board will boot with default bios settings. You don't have to reset this every time.

Cool! Does that work with USB keyboards or PS2 only?

 

[R64]

Originally posted by: dwcal

Originally posted by: R64
If you power on with pageup key depressed, this board will boot with default bios settings. You don't have to reset this every time.

Cool! Does that work with USB keyboards or PS2 only?

I have a PS2 keyboard. So no idea about USB. AFAIK, the manual does not specify PS2 only. So try it and see.

Added a page scan

Look under Over clocking section

 

[apexi350z]

Originally posted by: dokomo
I'm expecting the Gigabyte s3 and e4300 from Newegg any day now, and I'm wondering how I can update the bios to a e4300 compatible version without an older chip laying around?

AFAIK, you need to find a socket 775 cpu to flash to F7 Bios. Or else it will be just like the ECS motherboard from Fry's. No post

I'm waiting for my S3 from Newegg as well

 

[Cruisin1]

Whats a cheap proc I can buy at Frys to update the BIOS with on this mobo?

 

[nomadh]

805 or 820 work 915 was troublesome on this mb but the other 9xx seem ok but cheapest should be a 5xx or 6xx series pentium. Print out the compatability sheet off the web at ecs. Best is to make frys do it. Many are now.

 

[Cruisin1]

I bought the cheapest celeron socket 775 chip at frys (was like 35 bucks) and plugged it in updated BIOS and all was well when I put the e4300 in just need to return this chip.

 

[vailr]

???
ECS removed the P4M800PRO-M2(V2.0)'s December bios update:
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Downlo...ailDesc=&CategoryID=1&MenuID=6&LanID=9
Latest one listed is now the previous version, dated 2006/10/04.

 

[Cruisin1]

No they didn't

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Downlo...d=673&DetailName=Bios&MenuID=6&LanID=9