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IS7-E : Thoughts/Hints/Recommendations

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sammy5gs

Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2003
Location
Atlanta, GA
Hey All...

I just purchased my first Abit mobo (IS7-E) ever. I have always been an Asus, Gigabyte, and Intel mobo purchaser in the past, but I have always heard great things about Abits.

Yes, I know many of you will probably mention that I should have gone the route of the IC7, IC7-Max, etc, but I do not need the best of the best, just good enough to get me by.

With that, please give me any feedback on this mobo, what to look for, prepare for, little tricks/bios tweaks, etc. HEre is the setup:

Abit IS7-E (Bios 16)
P4 2.4(c) 800 FSB w/HT
1 GB (2x512MB) Crucial DDR400 running in Dual Channel
ATI Radeon 9700Pro (Sapphire)
WD 120GB HDD (ATA100/8MB Cache)
Maxtor 20GB HDD (DMA66/2mb Cache)
Lite-On CDRW 52x24x52
Antec SmartPower 400W PSU

Let me know what I should look out for. Thanks guys...
 
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Go into the BIOS and "fix" the PCI/AGP to default 33/66. Set the N/B strap to 800 5:4 ratio. Raise the FSB to 250 MHz. Easy as pie, you are now overclocked to 3 gig. Test for stability and check temps. If all goes well and if you desire more speed, continue raising the FSB in small increments. You'll probably have to use the 3:2 ratio at some point if you go higher.
 
batboy said:
Go into the BIOS and "fix" the PCI/AGP to default 33/66. Set the N/B strap to 800 5:4 ratio. Raise the FSB to 250 MHz. Easy as pie, you are now overclocked to 3 gig. Test for stability and check temps. If all goes well and if you desire more speed, continue raising the FSB in small increments. You'll probably have to use the 3:2 ratio at some point if you go higher.

Thanks batboy. Anyone else have any tips or items to take note of with this board?
 
sammy5gs said:


Thanks batboy. Anyone else have any tips or items to take note of with this board?

Start with the GAT settings at Auto, Auto, Auto, disabled, disabled. Later try setting the first value to Turbo, Street Racer, and then F1, testing performance and stability at each step.

Make sure to max out the memory voltage (2.85). I don't know what IS7s think of Crucial, but it's a safe bet more memory voltage will be productive. I have modded my IS7-E for 2.97V on the memory, and more can be had if needed.
 
wannaoc said:


I am also new to these setups and figure I'll through this in here. What do you mean by this? Both parts please, remember I am a poor amd guy here.

This is what I said that he was referring to: Set the N/B strap to 800 5:4 ratio.

On the main BIOS CPU Soft Menu page where you change FSB, there will be a "N/B strap" feature that has the following options: 400, 533, and 800. Set this according to whether you have a 400, 533, or 800 bus CPU. All of the "C" CPUs (for example 2.4C) are 800 bus CPUs.

The other part is the memory ratio. This allows you to run the memory bus speed independently of the FSB speed. For example, 1:1 ratio runs the FSB and the RAM bus speed exactly the same. A ratio of 5:4 runs the RAM slower than the FSB. PC3200 is rated at DDR400 or 200 FSB at the 1:1 ratio. If you set the FSB to 250 FSB, then there is no way the RAM can handle running that far out of spec. The 5:4 ratio (if you are running at 250 FSB) brings the memory bus back down to DDR400. Clear as mud, huh?
 
batboy and larva are right on in thier suggestions. i concur :D

the northbridge strap has one more option tho, "by CPU". this is what
i have mine set to. it doesn't seem to matter tho. using CPUID when
set to 800 or "by CPU" yielded the same FSB frequency of 1100 Mhz
(275Mhz core frequency at the time).

the I*7 series read temps higher than most other boards. the consensus
seems to be around 10° C higher or so. the retail HS/AS3 was good
for me up to around 3.2Ghz. but this is with the case open and a
house fan sitting next to my rig. ambient temps sub 70° F and
at 3.2Ghz it would top out under load at around 60° C according
to windbond monitor. 60° C seemed to be the point when the
HS felt hot to the touch. a sign that better cooling was needed.

as larva said, i dunno how crucial chips run on the board, but i would
run them at 2.8v right of the bat. see how high you can get em to run
at 2-5-2-2 latency. when i hit a limit i found that changing the RAS to CAS
from 2 to 3 gave me the biggest boost of 18Mhz. voltage helps even
more ;). let us know how they run.

good luck with your OC.

c_h
 
Alright. Just wanted to share with you my first attempt to o'clock this puppy. I decided to put on a Cooler Master Aero 4 HSF w/ AS3, and when I followed, batboy/larva/clutch_head's guidance (FSB to 250, Strap to 800, Memory Ratio to 5:4, GAT A-A-A-D-D, DRAM Voltage to 2.7), I was able to post, and once Windows loaded (2kPro), the rig promptly shut down and restarted itself.

For the time being, I am a little wary of o'cing again, since I don't want to damage it. Any pointers, guys?
 
sammy5gs

I had to bump my CPU voltage up .025 inorder to get FBB 250 to run on my 2.4C and IS7-E. (same bios screen of the N/B Strap-very bottom)

Give that a try. May have to go .05 but shouldn't need any more than that if the memory is going OK at 5:4. Might try memory setting of 3:2 just to be sure its not memory if the volatge is upped and nothing happends.
 
Looking for help with IS7 as well

I just installed an IS7 with a 2.4C and 2x512 PC4000 Kingston, the dr is in dimms 1 and 3. I am running the stock sink fan for now.

Is there anything else to add to the above suggestions on what I should be doing to run 250 fsb to start. I am assuming I should be able to run 1:1 with this ram. Feedback welcomed

Cisco KId
 
Don't forget to set the PCI/AGP to "fix".

PC4000 should be able to run 1:1 at 250 FSB if you leave the timing at SPD (at least at first while you test the limits of your system). Might wanna increase vmem a little. Sounds like almost all the Abit mobos need the most recent BIOS update to run 1:1 ratio at or above 250 FSB.
 
So far liking the IS7 have flashed to bios 16 now time to start fiddling with settings and overclock it so be ready for all sorts of questions to come, lol...

Cisco Kid
 
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ok, im in the same kind of situation... ive tried everything that you guys have said, but ive got a 3.0c :p

ive got it to post @ 3.7 but it just blue screens me when i get into windows.... @ 3.6 it posts but its not stable and after about 10-15mins it crashes.. :( 3.4 runs like a beast..

any other ideas? ive updated to the latest bios.. and shes sweet. but still cant touch that 3.8 mark.
 
Okay I am looking for some help as well with my IS7

Here is my gear, IS7 w bios 16, 2x512 Kingston Hyper X PC4000 in dimms 1 and 3 dual channel enabled. 2.4C chip with Zalman 7000 and a Tiger 1 NB chipset cooler. PSU is Antec smartpower 400 w

I have set the
N/B strap to 800
1:1 DRAM ratio
pci to fixed,
GAT set to A,A,A, Disabled , Disabled
upped vdimm to max 2.8
and vcore to 1.575 9.50 over default
DRAM timing left at default which is below
cas latency 3
act to precharge 8
dram ras # to cas 3
dram ras# precharge 3

Upon rebooting I am getting solid beeps and no post to the LCD, I am now gonna try same settings but with 5:4 timings, but I am a bit choked as the pc4000 should run 1:1 at default tiimings, what else can I check or change


Well I just I can run the same settings above using 5:4 just gave it a whirl but I should be able to run 1:1 or is it a possibility this ram needs to be rma'd??

btw with the 5:4 I am getting 5300/5300 sandra mem scores is this in line?


Cisco Kid
 
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Cisco, sounds like you're doing everything right. Sounds like a RAM problem to me.

Kingston makes some good RAM, especially their older line equipped with BH-5 chips, but the new PC4000 has been less than stellar from what I've been hearing and reading.

The A-Data PC4000, Corsair PC4000 Pro, and the OCZ PC4000 seems to be the best PC4000 available for dual channel Intel systems.

One last thing to try if you are really hot to use the 1:1 ratio is to use the manual timing of 3,4,4,8. For some reason Abit mobos don't always like tight "dram ras to cas" timings.

In reality, using the 1:1 ratio with the 2.4C is not all that practical. Set that puppy to 5:4 and let it rip. Once you see how high your CPU and mobo can go, then you make a decision on whether to keep your RAM or not.

If you get really really lucky and approach 300 FSB (3.6 gig), then PC4000 might be ok. If you're more average and only reach 3.2 to 3.3 gig, then really nice PC3500 RAM that uses tight timings would probably be better and cheaper.

Those mem scores look fairly typical for 3 gig using the 5:4 ratio and relaxed timings.
 
batboy said:
Cisco, sounds like you're doing everything right. Sounds like a RAM problem to me.

Kingston makes some good RAM, especially their older line equipped with BH-5 chips, but the new PC4000 has been less than stellar from what I've been hearing and reading.

The A-Data PC4000, Corsair PC4000 Pro, and the OCZ PC4000 seems to be the best PC4000 available for dual channel Intel systems.

One last thing to try if you are really hot to use the 1:1 ratio is to use the manual timing of 3,4,4,8. For some reason Abit mobos don't always like tight "dram ras to cas" timings.

In reality, using the 1:1 ratio with the 2.4C is not all that practical. Set that puppy to 5:4 and let it rip. Once you see how high your CPU and mobo can go, then you make a decision on whether to keep your RAM or not.

If you get really really lucky and approach 300 FSB (3.6 gig), then PC4000 might be ok. If you're more average and only reach 3.2 to 3.3 gig, then really nice PC3500 RAM that uses tight timings would probably be better and cheaper.

Those mem scores look fairly typical for 3 gig using the 5:4 ratio and relaxed timings.


Thanks for the feedback, have increased fsb to 270 and dropped the vcore to 1.55 fropm 1.575 all seems okay will check mbm see where temps are and then run some prime to see if it is stable if so will keep upping fsb and then decide on the ram.

But what does good PC3500 normally top out at 250-260 relaxed? I had some nice OCZ PC3500 EL DDR but sold it .... for the Kingston Hyper X I now have..

Cisco KId
 
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