stuck at 215?

Hey hey,

I got this new system all put together about a month ago, i've had ample time to play around with it. I've done no mods at all to the mobo, it's all stock except a sink on the s/b. I've been trying to get to 233 but i can't even get close. At 220 with 2,2,2,6 for timings and 2.9vdimm, i can pass memtest fine, and load into windows fine, but will get bsod in any intense apps(games, benchmarks). At 223 i can post but not load windows, memtest is fine at 2,3,2,6. At 225 i can not get it to post with any timings or cpu interface enabled/disabled. this is all with 1.7v to the chipset. I was hoping i could run my ram at it's stock speed of 466 with fairly tight timings at 2.9vdimm. I'm pretty sure i could get the memory there no problem but that something else is holding me back. Is there anything i could try before doing the wire trick for 333mhz default cpu, or doing a vmod for the chipset?

Just a shot, any advice would be appreciated.


J.

*edit* oh yes, i'm using win2kpro sp4, and bios 18. the rest of my hardware is listed in the sig.

J, again.

What sorta PSU are you using??

My NF7-S is unstable with some multi's. With the 9.5multi i can hit 245mhz FSB stable, with the 10 multi its only around 218mhz......

Try the 9.5multi and see what it will hit. Try disabling the Spread spectrums, increasing the chipset voltage, cpu interface enabled, loosen your ram timings and leave it @2.9v.

Actually enabling CPU Interface will cause lower possible FSB speeds for a majority of people who use the 10 or 10.5 multi with any BIOS except 10 which had SATA corruption problems though. So if indeed you are using one of those two, make sure it is disabled. It will lower memory performance though. I personally benchmark higher at 207 with it enabled than 230 without enabled. Since you've tried both, maybe your board just doesn't want to do it. Beleive it or not, others have had success lowering the chipset voltage to 1.5, give that a try.

hm, thanx guys.

I'm using a 350w fortron source right now, my 400w sparkle is on RMA. the rails all look good, but the PSU could indeed be suspect. I should have my 400 back any day and then we shall see.

I have tried with 9/9.5 multi's, normally i keep it at 12*210 for about 2.5. but when trying for some higher fsb i dropped the multi down about 9 to eliminate clock speed as a limiting factor. i know my chip is good for 2.5 @ 1.95vcore. any more than that it's iffy, and higher voltages just heat it up.

spread spectrums are disabled, cpu interface i have tried enabled/disabled, can tell absolutely no difference in top fsb speeds either way. 222 is the highest i can load windows either way, and even then i get bsod even though i can pass memtest fine.

i did indeed try lowering the chipset voltage to 1.5, it is currently 1.7. no difference. the board will not even post at 225 with most relaxed timings on the ram.

thanks for the tips guys,

J.

I'm having a similar problem. I passed Memtest at 223 2-2-2-5 but I can't pass prime95 at even 210 FSB 2.5-3-3-7!! I did the L12 mod, flashed to BIOS d10, messed with it all day. Someone help me out...

--Illah

hey Illah.

I'm allmost certain its not the ram holding me back, and you either it sounds. Memtest passes consistently at 222 for me with 2-2-2-5. I'm glad u mentioned that you flashed to bios 10. i was about to try that myself. And the L12 mod hasn't helped either eh? I do not know what else to try. It seems to me it has to be the chipset. perhaps i will try and reseat my northbridge sink with some AS3.

J.

Like tuskenraider said, cpu interface enabled will limit the FSB but IMO theres no point in having it disabled - performance wise.

Looks like the wire trick is the next point of call. Has been known to get an extra 10-15mhz FSB in some cases....

Just out of interest for ram stability do ye go by Prime95 or memtest?? Not a hope in hell of my Ram running at 2-2-2-5 even at 200mhz, but its perfect at 245mhz........

Ugh, I'm giving up. I did a battery of tests with different timings, with and w/o CPU Interface, and from 200-220FSB. CPU Interface makes a significant difference. At 200 2.5-3-3-7 with the CPU at 2GHz the difference is almost 6% between CPU interface enabled/disabled!

However, timings and FSB make much less difference. The difference from 2-2-2-5 vs. 2.5-3-3-7 at 200 FSB is 0.8%. The difference from 2.5-3-3-7 at 200 vs. 220 FSB is just about 4%.

In other words, I'm gonna stop beating myself up over a potential 3-4% gain in performance just to say I run over 220. 200 is fine for me

But definetly keep CPU Interface on! It makes a major difference, as you can see from my findings it helps more than an extra 20MHz on the FSB and 2-2-2-5 timings!

--Illah

i'm with you Illah, seems i've tried everything i can think of. Mine simply will not even post at 225 no matter what i do to the timings or other bios settings. Ah well. I sit at 215 2-2-2-5 stable as a rock with cpu interface enabled. I suppose you are right, and i should just be with that.


J.