Gigabyte GA-7VAXP

Long time reader, first time poster..
First of all.. Thanks to all of the members here for the TONS of information that I have gleened over the years.... My humble thanks.

Now, on to my question(s)..

My system is:
GA-7VAXP Rev.1.1
AMD 2000+ w/ copper HS and a 80mm fan converter runs at 47c. stock
Corsair 2700 512Megs
ATI 9700 Pro
Sound Blaster Live Value

I have searched and searched for the info I need. Although there is a number of threads concerning this mobo, I havent found THEE answer to my specific board.

Im wanting to O/C this system but I cant get the flexability to do this.
1. Is there a 1/5 divider available on this mobo?
2. Can I run this at 200FSB??

Someone posted cool pictures of this mobo, and the place you have to connect the solder joints, but it was a different release version and its a little different. My SW1 is the system bus frequency, and its not anywhere near the PCI slots as shown in the pics. There is no dip-switch there at all. Although there are the solder pads there for dip-switches.

While using EasyTune4 Im not able to move the CPU multiplier.
I know this mobo has the multiplier on the board in a dip-switch array. Is this the only way to change it, even if its set on AUTO?
In my first attempt to change the FSB to 166 my computer wouldnt boot at all.

Is there anyone that has done O/Cing to this board, that could assist me by showing me the steps to occomplish this goal.

Thanks

Deathjester

Hi there, welcome to the forums!

Yes the switch block is the only way to change the multiplier on these boards. To support multiplier changing your CPU has to be unlocked. If your CPU is a Thoroughbred core it is probably unlocked already, if it is a palomino core it probably needs modifying to have free multiplier choice.

regards,

Road Warrior

Update, since this thread is undead: Since shortly after the original date of this post, all AMD socket A CPUs are superlocked, meaning no multiplier adjustment is possible.

Hi,

As RoadWarrior said, a Tbred is what you want to OC and the B0 stepping is the best. As for the 1/5 divider, it comes into effect when you switch your SW1 block (CPU Clock, pg. 9 in the book) to 166mhz. This will leave your AGP frequency at about 68 as I recall. Past this point, any increase in the FSB will raise your AGP and PCI frequency and should be done very carefully. I have never made 200 FSB, but then my vid card is pretty intolerant too. You can raise the FSB (after manually setting 166 via switch) through Easy Tune4 and after finding the sweet spot, fix the setting in your bios. Clock multipliers are manually set on the board (see pg. 9).

I have never had much luck with this board. The highest I got was a FSB of 180. I forget the multiplier.
See my sig for current running.
I am going to switch to a NForce board from Abit. They lock the AGP and PCI bus, helping to keep thing's more stable.
I regret buying this board.

craigiz1 said:

I have never had much luck with this board. The highest I got was a FSB of 180. I forget the multiplier.
See my sig for current running.
I am going to switch to a NForce board from Abit. They lock the AGP and PCI bus, helping to keep thing's more stable.
I regret buying this board.

Click to expand...

I don't mind this board as it is stable as sin and does what it said on the box, but I agree, on overclocker it ain't. If I was to upgrade right now, I would probably get either an Abit NF7-S V2.0 or an Epox 8RDA3+ with that wonderful AGP/PCI lock.

More questions..

Thanks a lot everyone... Help is always plentiful here.

Ok.. So I'm gathering that I need to MANUALLY drop the multiplier to say 9.5X or 10.0 X, then kick my SW1 switch to 166mhz. Then start the computer?
Is there anything else??

I agree with you on the regret thing. I wish this had the AGP bus speed lock. But at the time it was a good mobo for a great price. Im ready to upgrade soon, and I just want to try it on this system before I go OCing a new mobo and CPU.

Oh yeah.. What about unlocking the mobo and CPU. If this is a Palomino, I need to do the L1 bridge mod, correct? What about the unlocking the mobo.. Since I dont have the switch on this board like the pics I saw, how do I do mine. What info applies? Anyone got pics of unlocking the GA-7AXP.

Thanks again..

Deathjester

If its a Palomino you have then you will have to join all of the L1 bridges but that is all, the wire trick is not needed as your CPU uses the lower multi range (5x to 12.5x) already.
You have the Rev 1,1 VAXP so you should have 2 dips at SW1 so there is no need for you to do any mods to the mobo, just set SW1 to Off, On.
To see if its a Palomino download CPUz , it will tell you.

Hood

Hood said:

If its a Palomino you have then you will have to join all of the L1 bridges but that is all, the wire trick is not needed as your CPU uses the lower multi range (5x to 12.5x) already.
You have the Rev 1,1 VAXP so you should have 2 dips at SW1 so there is no need for you to do any mods to the mobo, just set SW1 to Off, On.
To see if its a Palomino download CPUz , it will tell you.

Hood

Click to expand...

Hi Hood,

We haven't chatted before, but I just wanted to say that I have admired your posts and that I have bookmarked and used your OC page with great success - simple and to the point. Many thanks.

gigabyte overclocking

Hi, lot of answers and quick responcse time. Well first of all i'd like to thank him for woning a GA-7VAXP. I know it is not a great overcloking board but stable wise i'd prefer to that one. I'm also stuck with overcloking part in this mobo, my highest fsb is 40 and it also is not very stable but i keep on multiplying my cpu nearly 13.5x with good stable condtion. Well still my ram keep me back. I got the rev 1.2 mobo.
I'd really like to thank HOOD in this time cause he keep on helping lot when i started to overclok this mobo. Man you're great! Anyway stil waiting for the coope cpu cooler to get on my hands to another adventure. let you know guys later.

hello!

I have a question to! I have this motherboard gigabyte va7xp, and there is this switch sw1, but it only can switch to fsb 100 or fsb auto, which automaticly detect which cpu you have 133 or 166! I am wondering, how could i made my Tbread work at 166. Becouse if I have 133 the fsb can only go to 165!

Help is needed

To get the FSB to 166 or more on the later VAX series mobos you need to join the 2 solder pads at the side of SW1 and also make sure SW1 is Off. You can join them by a few methods but the easiest is conductive paint. You will see the dots you need to join HERE.
Hood

BUBBLE said:

Hi, lot of answers and quick responcse time. Well first of all i'd like to thank him for woning a GA-7VAXP. I know it is not a great overcloking board but stable wise i'd prefer to that one. I'm also stuck with overcloking part in this mobo, my highest fsb is 40 and it also is not very stable but i keep on multiplying my cpu nearly 13.5x with good stable condtion. Well still my ram keep me back. I got the rev 1.2 mobo.
I'd really like to thank HOOD in this time cause he keep on helping lot when i started to overclok this mobo. Man you're great! Anyway stil waiting for the coope cpu cooler to get on my hands to another adventure. let you know guys later.

Click to expand...

How do you get 13.5 multiplier??? Stock??

woozy83 said:

How do you get 13.5 multiplier??? Stock??

Click to expand...

The rev 1.2 of the VAXP has multis up to 18x.
Hood

Bloody unfair

Do you think that my mobo might have that property "hidden"?
Haven't checked out yet, but hopefully i only have shorter shorter dip-switch panel.
I've also heard that e.g 14x might be available by using low multipliers like 5 x

Afraid not, only way you will get a higher multi than 12.5x is to wire the socket(or paint bridges) for a specific multi. If your DDR is up to it you would be much better off OCing the FSB as you will get more performance that way.
Hood

Hood said:

Afraid not, only way you will get a higher multi than 12.5x is to wire the socket(or paint bridges) for a specific multi. If your DDR is up to it you would be much better off OCing the FSB as you will get more performance that way.
Hood

Click to expand...

But what happens if i only cut the specific L-bridges (l3) and doing so enable 13---> multipliers... If i got it right it should start using 13x when i put dip-switches to auto ratio.

Would you happen to have a shot of the "operation"???

Hmm... There's a 2nd place for dip-switch panel between the 2 first pci-slots.
Is this anyway related to clk_ratio?? (it's for 5 dips and it's labeled clk_frequency)

woozy83 said:

But what happens if i only cut the specific L-bridges (l3) and doing so enable 13---> multipliers... If i got it right it should start using 13x when i put dip-switches to auto ratio.

Click to expand...

You can either cut/join L3's to set a specific muli or put wire in the socket which will do the same thing. Personally I prefer doing the bridges but most prefer the wires as its easier and easy to undo.

woozy83 said:

Would you happen to have a shot of the "operation"???

Click to expand...

What are you meaning????

woozy83 said:

Hmm... There's a 2nd place for dip-switch panel between the 2 first pci-slots.
Is this anyway related to clk_ratio?? (it's for 5 dips and it's labeled clk_frequency)

Click to expand...

Was tried long ago and didnt work
OH BTW it was thought it was for the FSB so different dividers could be used, ie 1/6th

Hood

A picture from a modified cpu

woozy83 said:

A picture from a modified cpu

Click to expand...

Will have a look and get back if I do.

Nope sorry only one I have is a Palomino with the L1 joined. If you go to www.ocinside.de you will get all the info you need on bridges to join for multis, voltages etc. You will also get the wire in ocket version there.
Hood