Duron 750@900 1.675 KT7, but no higher?

[arsenius]

I've got my Duron 750 running at 900MHz with 1.675 volts with a chrome orb. after prime95 for a few hours, it is 52*C and its totally stable. The weird thing is i can't get it to go higher without upping the voltage a whole bunch, like to 1.775 or so, which makes it very hot and not terribly stable. I can't do 1Gig regardless of the voltage. Should i get myself a different HS/F? This just doesn't seem right to me

also, does anyone know where i can find the latest KT7 bios? And I saw somewhere that there is a better hardware monitor than the VIA one that comes with the board, any suggestions?
thanks

[Eriksson]

The VIA monitor is quite good, mbm 5 is too. Your temps are high, and you need to improove case cooling and/or get better hsf. This voltage situation is normal too. If you can get your comp to cold boot at 1000 with max voltage I say you can get the gig with massive cooling.

And if you are willing to do the voltage mod for your board, you got very good shot at the gig no matter what.

[ChapFou]

duron 800@1000 1.85 KT7
duron 700@945 1.85 KT7
with a silver orb and artic silver (46°C on full load)

your temps are way to high, change ur hsf (get an alpha or a fop) and u'll reach the magical gig ! Don't forget to use some thermal paste (get the artic silver if u have some money to spend).

[arsenius]

hmmm, i don't think i'd be willing to modify my motherboard, its not that important to me

i dont know what else i can do to get better case cooling, i have an intake and an outtake. I could get one of those cyclone things, would that help? Its running at about 28*C right now BTW, is that very high?

One interesting thing that i noticed was that even if i put two case fans blowing straight at the COrb, it didn't drop the temperature. Same with having them suck air away.

something else that has been bothering me, is why the measured voltage is always ~.025 V higher than what i set it to. is this normal?

[Rob Cork]

The chrome orb is not a great hsf, the best way to drop your temps would be to get an alpha PEP66 or globalwin FOP38 - I think the PEP66 won't fit on the KT7 without a smaller fan though, which reduces performance, so the FOP38 would be your best bet. It is loud though, so if you're particularly worried about noise you could go with the alpha PAL6035 - it's still a great performer. If you want to try and drop temps with the orb in the meantime though, you could try lapping the base - sand it flat with progressively finer grades of sandpaper on a flat surface (a sheet of glass is best). The more metal to metal contact the better, the thermal paste is only to fill in tiny gaps where the surfaces don't touch. As bulletproof said, get some arctic silver thermal paste, that'll help too.

I expect the monitoring program you were talking about is motherboard monitor - get it here: http://www.tweakfiles.com/diagnostic/motherboardmonitor.html

Go here to get the new bios files from abit: http://www.abit.nl/english/download/bios%20update/bios-kt7.htm

[arsenius]

is there a way i can remove the clip so that i can lap it? I've tried twisting, and that doesn't seem to be working.

also, my voltage is consistently .025 or more volts over what i have it set at, is this common?

[decephalus]

If you really want the last Bios update for KT7, just try this link:
ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/beta/kt7/bios
The last version is WZ (b01, not b00!!!). It is still a beta version, not yet distributed. But it solve a problem with the Turbo seting for SDRAM. I've put it on my mobo and is perfect.
Also try this link for other KT7 faq:
go.to/kt7faq
About HSF, I agree with the others about the GW FOP38. Just beware of the orbs. They are known for killing the CPUs-dangerous at putting on the core (might crack it).
And don't worry about the Vcore...

[TechnoFile]

The chrome orb, in my opinion is not even worth the trouble you'd go through to lap it. It is possible to remove the clip, but don't plan on being able to get back on perfectly. I bent mine into a pretzel. Of course that was after the HSF cracked the core on my old Duron 600(which will still get up to about 800Mhz, btw). So I trashed the HSF and made myself what is basically a monsterII cooler and got a Duron 700. With a better cooler, you should have no problem running the chip at 1.75, or even 1.85 volts. Maybe then you can hit that magic 1.

[arsenius]

well, unfortunately at the moment it doesn't matter
I haven't a clue why, but my computer no longer boots!!!
this is very depressing as it's only about 3 weeks old now
the worst thing is that it happened about 12 hours before i got my
new HS/F
dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit
i did everything that the kt7faq said to, so tonite i'm gonna
swap parts with a friend to see if we can figure out where the
problem is
dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit!!!