A7V8X wont show 333mhz FSB

I have an ASUS A7V8X (NOT an A7N8X) and it has the 333MHz FSB sticker on the south bridge. However, when I flashed my BIOS to the 2 different versions that are supposed to enable support for a 333MHz FSB, it doesn't show... I tried resetting the CMOS but that didn't do anything for me. Is this because I'm using an Athlon XP (Thoroughbred A) 1700+ ? I've also got 2X 512 MB DDR333 RAM.

As a side note, I can get a stable over clock with 166 FSB X 11 multiplier or a 172 FSB X 10.5 multiplier. Is the 166 X 11 actually better for me, or would the 172 X 10.5 do better because it's forcing the RAM to act a bit faster. Default timings of 2.5-3-3-7, best I could do was 2.5-2-2-7. (Note: I didn't check to see if it was stable with the RAM OC'd.)

Thanks,
Goober

TehGoober said:

I have an ASUS A7V8X (NOT an A7N8X) and it has the 333MHz FSB sticker on the south bridge. However, when I flashed my BIOS to the 2 different versions that are supposed to enable support for a 333MHz FSB, it doesn't show... I tried resetting the CMOS but that didn't do anything for me. Is this because I'm using an Athlon XP (Thoroughbred A) 1700+ ? I've also got 2X 512 MB DDR333 RAM

As a side note, I can get a stable over clock with 166 FSB X 11 multiplier or a 172 FSB X 10.5 multiplier. Is the 166 X 11 actually better for me, or would the 172 X 10.5 do better because it's forcing the RAM to act a bit faster. Default timings of 2.5-3-3-7, best I could do was 2.5-2-2-7. (Note: I didn't check to see if it was stable with the RAM OC'd.)

Thanks,
Goober

Click to expand...

If you're currently running your cpu over 166mhz , then you do infact have support for 333mhz fsb enabled (2x166).
I would say the better setting would be 172mhz on the chip. That will give you a hair less cpu performance but increased memory bandwith.

I don't understand what you mean by 166x2. I guess I don't understand enough about motherboards and what not. If running at 166 is actually 333MHz FSB, then what on earth are all of the higher settings? (ie 210+) I thought 400MHz was the highest FSB for a non pentium system.

Goober

AMD systems run Double Data Rate = DDR, your 166 is 333Mhz effective, so that what it should run at. Anything over that is an overclock, if you have options up to 210 in the bios, that would be a theoretical 420MHz FSB if you could ever get it that high.

Howdy, A7v8x does NOT have PCI/AGP lock out, so overclocking your frontside bus can fry your agp card and ruin your hard drives, i wouldn't recommend it!

I know it doesn't have a lock for the PCI bus but it does show what it's running at for each FSB (so lazy me doesn't have to calculate each one). 172 is something like 34, I assumed anything under 37 was 100% safe. (I read somewhere that it's save as long as you keep it under 38, personally I wouldn't risk over 36 even if I could boost it that high and keep it stable.)

Goober

There was life before locked PCI/AGP busses. I have an Epox 8K3A+, which has the same KT333 chipset. I'm running it at 212 right now. Yes, my machine works fine with 42 MHz PCI.

Will you have the same luck with your Asus? I can't say. My understanding is that Radeon cards aren't as tolerant of out of spec AGP bus as Nvidia are.

Make sure you have some decent northbridge cooling, and don't be afraid to bump up the memory voltage a little.

Darph said:

Howdy, A7v8x does NOT have PCI/AGP lock out, so overclocking your frontside bus can fry your agp card and ruin your hard drives, i wouldn't recommend it!

Click to expand...

you do realize you are on an overclockers forum?