8RDA+ vdd mod done. results.

Oh wow, it decided to log me out while I was writing this. I had a nice thought out topic but now I guess I'll just put something down.

Before: Couldn't get past 190fsb sync. Ran the settings as seen in my sig. NB sink was lapped and has a fan on it. Mosfets are air cooled as well.

After: Can boot into windows for about 2 seconds at 218fsb sync. Lowered it to 205mhz, BSOD (irq not less than equal whatever) after 30 mins in prime. This is crap. NB stepping is A3 it seems. 2 3 3 12 ram timings at 2.9vdimm. Back to original settings.

All through the course of this: F#$%$#%@ registry keeps corrupting. I'm running on the 3rd or 4th xp install in 24 hours. Reg repair doesn't do crap. Change the FSB a few times and boom! the reg is corrupt. This last time all I did was change the multi from 10.5 to 11. I'm on brand new IDE cables, and a few month old WD hdd that has been working perfectly. Not to mention my LED debugging thing says FF ALL THE TIME. i'm afraid to change the settings now, because another corrupt/missing file error will drive me to criminal insanity. The power supply looks alright, though the +3.3 reads 3.1v most of the time (in MBM and USDM).

If anyone has some suggestions, that would be great. I'm running the newest bios btw. If something doesn't change for the good really soon, I'm getting an NF7-S v2. I'm already sick of the incompatibility problems with this and my corsair. I even get the c1 error with my kingston occasionally.

Try setting your BIOS for asynchronous FSB and memory speeds.

It sounds like you don't know whether it is cpu/board or memory that is the problem.

To determine board/cpu limits, set a lower multiplier value. Set 'Memory Frequency' to '80%'. Set 'Memory Timings' to 'Expert' and set lax memory timings such as 2.5/4/4/9. This should allow you to experiment with cpu/board FSB limits - without worrying about system memory as the limiter. This should allow you determine cpu/board FSB limits by using Prime95, adjusting Vcore as necessary as you increase FSB. When you can no longer run Prime95 stable, you've determined the cpu/board FSB limit.

To determine memory limits, run the memory speed asynchronously at HIGHER memory speed than FSB, using tight memory timings, increasing Vdimm as necessary, until you can't complete Memtest without errors. That's the limit of your system memory at those memory timings.

Having mapped the limits of cpu/board and memory independently, overclocking is a bit more logical.

Hope this helps!

Edit: My Corsair XMS PC3200C2 mem timings are 2/3/3/9, with Tras of 9 the sweet spot for best mem bandwidth.

Yep, I've done all that intensively. The corruption problem is gone now. (why, i have no clue) But, I found out a have a bad stick of kingston 3500. I previously had it at async to test max fsb, found it at 219. Max the corsair can do is like 205 so far, and the kingston brings up errors even at 190. The most ever was like over 2 million at 213fsb. o.o

Corsair XMS PC3200C2 is my limiter also, currently 205 FSB with 2/3/3/9 timings at 2.8Vdimm. 206 is right on the edge and 207 is out of the question, even with 2.5/3/3/9.

Well, after more testing I've found that the board itself is ill. I was almost sure that the kingston was bad, until the corsair started giving me errors at 190fsb+ as well. I then tried a stick of pc3200 from my other system, and that generated more errors too. I just ordered an nf-7s v2, so I'll see what the low down is. If that doesn't help anything, I'll rma the ram.

I'm honestly baffled as to why my 8RDA+ doesn't like the memory speeds at anything approaching 200. It runs fine at 166mhz, but I didn't pay all this money to run at pc2700 speed. It'll do 219mhz fsb, but the ram HAS to be 83% or less than that. I find it pretty hard to believe that all my ram is "broken".