Let me run this one past ya

[bionic]

Hehe not sure where to start on this one..

I've been trying to build a tbird system for a couple of months now, but been having all sorts of grief. Currently I've got a 1.33 AYHJA bird on an A7M. Cooling is being provided with a Globalwin FOP38 (btw - anyone know the C/W figure for that heatsink?), and power is being supplied with a 400w Leadtek model. Got 256MB of micron 2100 DDR RAM (same as the crucial stuff) in there also..

Anyway, the problem i'm having is I cant run at 133 FSB. I can run fine at 130, but there seems to be something holding me back from making 133.

likely culprits would appear to be the motherboard, the cpu cooling, or the PSU..

I dont think its the motherboard, because this is the 3rd one i've had (long story), and none would boot win2k at 1333

the heatsink doesnt feel like it's getting warm at 1300 - it doesnt make sense that it would just get overloaded in 2 minutes and crash 30 mhz higher

So that leaves the PSU by default.

incidentally, last night i booted to linux fine at 1333, but about 2 seconds after i loaded seti@home, the computer rebooted.

This sound like a PSU problem? or could it be something else?

[Trinity]

Did you try different motherboards with you setup or just the A7M all three times? Have you updated the bios? In your manual does it say anything about having to switch a jumper to get over 133 mhz bus? I am not familiar with the board, just general questions.

[krakerman]

well.... fop38.... im not familiar with the effects the other parts can have, but i will say the fop38 is kinda outdated for the hotter cpus (i mean the high speed 1.3+). i run 43-44 degrees or so idle with it. my cpu is a 1.0 overclockered to 1.3 though, so might be hotter than your normal 1.3? i dunno. i assume the chip is already unlocked... im tired and rambling. maybe somebody else will post something that makes sense for you ;-)

[Hoot]

I'm not familiar with the A7M, but my KT7A has two flavors of 133. One runs the FSB at 133 and the PCI at something like 40 Mhz. Too fast! ?The other runs the FSB at 133 and the PCI at 33 Mhz. Sweet!

Again, forgive my ignorance of your Mobo, but see if you can select PCI = divide by 3 or divide by 4 somewhere.

Hoot

[bionic]

Hmm thanks.

Still tending to think its the psu.. i'm going to try to get a 500w+ approved 1 to test it out ..

unfortunately the A7M doesn't give you manual control of the PCI divider (please correct me if im wrong! - i'd like to!)). Annoying actually. They should - what if i wanted to run at 130 / 4?? ********. It did cross my mind that it could be a windows problem with the 1/4 divider whcih just kicks in at 133 (hence works at 130 aok), but those tests with linux kinda ruled that out. ive run these componants previously in my BX system with a 167 FSB (/4 = 41).. so i think they're ok..

um yer FOP38 aint excatly ideal, but if you put the cpu speed up to 1333, and put it under 100% load, you get a reboot literally within seconds (approx 1-3 seconds). i dont think its enough time to be a heat related crash as it works fully stable 30 mhz lower.

thanks for the suggestions.. i guess the only way to know for sure is to try out more hardware. Damnit .. AMD systems may be faster but they require a hellva lot more work :(