OCing a Biostar N7Ncd Pro...tell me..

OCing a Biostar M7NCD Pro...tell me..

Can this be correct? Seems hard to believe I am getting such good performance.
Here is the setup.
Enermax PSU 430 Watt
Tbred B 2100+
Vantec AeroFlow w/TMD fan, AS3 thermal compound
1- 256 Samsung DDR333 in slot 2, 1- 256 Geil DDR400 in slot 3
10 gig WD HDD
Multiplier is 13x and FSB is 180MHz 2345MHz overall speed (fastest I have ever had this chip)
Vcore is at 1.84, AGP voltage is at 1.6v, DRAM voltage is at 2.6v
DDR speed is matched to cpu at 180MHz
The multiplier has been kept at 13x and I started out with a FSB of 133. Then went to 166. Both worked fine so I jumped to 190. The system started and went into the OS but when I ran the burnin it gave a BSOD. Upped the voltages and set the AGP to 66 but it did not help. Same with 185 FSB so I dropped to 180.

I have run the HW doctor that came with the board, SSandraMax, MBProbe and MBM5 and all are saying that the CPU temp is about 28c at idle. Also, a thermal probe placed at the core edge is saying about 3 degrees less, which is understandable!

I ran Sandra burnin for about 15 minutes and the temp went to 45c, which is also no surprise!

Now I am fairly sure this mainboard does not read the cpu diode because those settings in MBM5 do not work. So, even in the worst case the diode would be 10 degrees higher, making the idle 38c. That seem way too low for a 35% overclock and a Vcore of 1.84v. The Vantec is good, but not THAT good!

BTW, the cpu throttling in the bios is DISABLED so that is not keeping it low.

I also noticed that when I do a restart from idle, which takes about 15 seconds till I can get into the hardware monitor in the bios, that reading is within 1 degree of what MBM5 was saying.
And, when I restart, the initial reading from MBM5 is about 30c and withing a few minutes it goes to 27c!!! What would cause that? Maybe more work being done just to get the OS started and then it goes to idle?

I had all this stuff in an ECS L7S7A2 mainboard system and could never get the cpu this high. It simply would not boot at these higher settings.

Can anyone confirm that this info is or could be correct?
It seems very stable and very fast so I am inclined to believe I got a good board here!
Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks all.

I like mine. I don't know why more people don't get this board. For the price, it is great. Why pay twice the price? $57 after rebate at newegg.

Yep, that was my deal too!

I've had some issues with it already though.

The Vcore setting does not always take and the last time I set it to 1.82v it was reported as 1.58v! Strange!

Also, just to see what would happen, I turned off the PSU switch last night and today when I tried to start it, it would not boot up. I ended up resetting the CMOS to get it to start. That should not happen if the battery is good and getting a good connection.

I will say this, it starts faster than any board I have ever had.
Also, it is unbelievably stable at a high speed setting, and it stays at a very nice temp. I am running a TBred 2100+ at 13 x 180, Vcore at 1.82 and just surfing the web the cpu stays at about 30c. When I had this cpu in the L7S7A2, I had to keep it at a speed of 1750 so it would not get too hot.

I just downloaded a bios update from the Biostar Taiwan site. 1007. Seems to be running stable so far without the vcore voltage problems but also seems to run a couple of degrees warmer. No guarantees but here's the link.

http://www.biostar.com.tw/

bk94si said:

I just downloaded a bios update from the Biostar Taiwan site. 1007. Seems to be running stable so far without the vcore voltage problems but also seems to run a couple of degrees warmer.

Click to expand...

Do you mean the Vcore voltage problem I mentioned, or is there another problem.
I'm not too keen on flashing the bios just yet, especially if it increases the temp, although I don't know why it does that!
Do you run the hardware doctor software to check the temps and voltages? If so, do yours seem to jump around a lot?

Also, when you flashed the bios, did you do it from the selection in the bios menu?

Thanks!

My vcore is set at 1.75v, sometimes (even though the bios still says 1.75), hardware doctor would show that it was actually 1.65v (and the system would be unstable so I believe it). I download the update onto a floppy, then I had to unzip it, then I ran the update from the bios menu. When you talk about things jumping around, if you are talking temps, no it does not jump around but it does go up under load. My voltages jump around but I suspect that is because I do not have the best power supply in the world (cheap newegg allied 440w).

bk94si said:

My vcore is set at 1.75v, sometimes (even though the bios still says 1.75), hardware doctor would show that it was actually 1.65v (and the system would be unstable so I believe it). I download the update onto a floppy, then I had to unzip it, then I ran the update from the bios menu. When you talk about things jumping around, if you are talking temps, no it does not jump around but it does go up under load. My voltages jump around but I suspect that is because I do not have the best power supply in the world (cheap newegg allied 440w).

Click to expand...

Yea, it is the voltages that jump around, especially the Vcore for some odd reason. The temp seems to stay stead but does, as you said, go up under load. At idle mine is about 30c but running the folding client it jumps about 14 degrees. MBM5 works on this board so I may just stay with that. I don't like the hardware doctor because the settings have to be reset each time I restart the system. So far I do like the speed and stability but I have just today gotten all my software loaded. I'll have to see how it does with about 6 apps running at the same time.

how did you guys get the multiplier to 13? mine only goes up to 12.5. did you guys do a mod? is it an easy mod? any instructions?
by the way, you can flash the bios from windows if you want with the Award Winflash utility included on the driver disk, i use this as i did not install a floppy drive on my computer.

AFAIK the available multipliers depends on the default multipler of the cpu in use.
For me, the default is 13x so I get the upper set to choose from, 13-18.
If the default is in the lower range, 5x-12.5x, that is the range of choices you have.
This is due to the absence of the mobo controlling the 8x (5th)multiplier bit, which is the one that selects the mapping of the other settings. This is done by adding, or not adding, 8 to the settings from bits 0-3.
One solution is to employ the wire trick to change the 8x bit setting. But each time you want to switch back you need to remove the cpu and the wire.
Another approach is to solder wires onto the mobo and connect them to a switch, something not many are willing to do since it will definately void the warranty.

Well folks, I think I got a winner here.
Am running at 11x and 210 FSB right now..solid as a rock too.
And the amazing part is it is at 29c idle as I am typing this.
Amazing! 2.3 gig on a 2100+ TBred.
I painted the BP_FID4 connection on the bottom of the mobo to get the lower set of multipliers.