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200 Mhz on MN31N!!

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Quailane

Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2003
Hey, I plopped in a locked 2500 and two sticks of kingston value ram pc3200 256mb each, and was able to go to 200 Mhz. The computer froze after 10 minutes though. I put fsb to 199 and it has been stable since this morning running folding. I know it is my power supply that is the trouble, and I will be getting a new good one next week, and a generic codegen too. Now I'm drooling for the biostar m7ncg pro. It has fsb options past 200 and also voltage options along with multipliers. I'll put my duron back into one of those, unless I get one of those new 2500 mobiles, but that is a lot of money. I'm surprised I was able to push it this far. The ram timings are weak at 3-5-5-11, but I'll tweak them later. My barton only shows at 1.61 volts, so the power supply is crap.
 
I ran 3dmark 2001 SE, and I only got 4510. Probably because the integrated graphics use DX7 and couldn't do some of the tests. That biostar board is looking real good.
 
Congrats on the 200FSB Quailane, thats excellent for the MN31N! You must need to tweak with some more settings, both my MN31Ns get 5750 3DMarks stable. Try OCing your IGP with Riva Tuner & make sure BIOS is set to 128mb AGP buffer, 128mb AGP aperture, fastwrites enabled, both cachables disabled, AGP 8X support disabled.

Regards, Balrog
 
In cpuid it says I'm using agp 4x. I have 128mb buffer set but 256mb aperture. I'll download rivatuner and see what I can get.
 
Yeah, you are using onboard GF4mx which are 4X that why I disable 8X support just in case. 256mb is a lot for aperture, I don't think the IGP could ever come close to using that. Yeah, Riva or Coolbits, I've got cores tweaked to 275 I believe, stock is 200, I hope you lapped your NB and got that crap stuff off there. Make sure only Explorer and Systray are up when you run 3DMark, shut every other program off, make sure vertical sync is set to always off as well. Using decent PC3200 and ~200FSB you can hit 6200 scores in 3DMark properly tweaked and OC'd

Regards, Balrog
 
I got my gf4 ti4200 in. On my mn31n I went from 500 3dmarks to 12500. Got a better power supply and am doing 200 stable finally. I could overclock the videocard with rivatuner to 567 mem and 312 core last night. Today however, my brother got a pink screen. He got a blister from touching the videocard heatsink. Turning down to stock speeds didn't work. (250,512) We had to put 2 8cm fans and a 20cm people fan blowing on it to be able to work. I tried removing the heatsink but person who rma'd it must have put epoxy on the super crappy ineffective heatsink. It is a slow, tiny fan clowing onto a flat aluminum plate. Oh well, I can always lap the top of the sink without the fan and put my own on.
 
Excellent Quailane!

Is that passing Memtest?

Did you have to make any voltage mods?

Yeah my stock HSF on my ti4200 was junk so I replaced it with a modded P2 HSF after I lapped the snot outta the GPU. nVidia GPU cores have badly sunken centers which make a lousy contact area, I lapped mine down to flat, no writing or paint left. I can run 304/621 for 14K in 3DMark.

Regards, Szandor
 
Memtest was passed. That ram did 210 in my stepdad's an35n ultra. I guess what was holding me back was the power supply. No volt mods at all, but using that power supply to try to get my 8rda+ to work showed voltages above spec by a smidgen. The previous power supply ran down pretty low.
 
Damn! That is sweet!

I've gotta mess with my MN31Ns some more, both run 5750 in 3DMark on 180FSB w\Crucial PC2700. I tried my Buffalo PC3200 in one of them, it didn't do crap. Not the best stepping of Barton in that rig though, the other is a SPAW which should run better, though I hear the newer locked 2500+s run 200FSB on default VCore pretty easy, so I may have to buy another one, only $80 for retail now too.

Regards, Balrog
 
I got the card to 310 and 567 without artifacts running 3dmark 2001 at 13000. I don't know why, but with integrated graphics all I could do was 600. As long as your power supply is giving excellent voltages under load, 200 is no problem. Too bad 200 is the highest the bios allows.
 
Hey Quailane!

I OC my video card like its a MoBo (CPU & memory), first I OC the core to see how high that will run, then return it to stock and do the same for the memory, taking notes of scores so you can see what the difference each level gives you. Then try a combination of the 2, its never as fast as each will run alone but its usually pretty close. My core would run 320 and memory can do 635, I settled in for a stable 304 core and 621 memory for 14K, though I run 285/585 13.5K for day to day use.

Regards, Balrog
 
So I just ordered this board the other day along with some Corsair PC3200 RAM. I realize mATX boards are not meant for overclocking, but there's no way to get above 200mhz FSB? No 3rd party software that'll do it. I realize you can't do it in the BIOS, but there's gotta be another way right? And how many watts are your PSUs?

I'm getting this case: Athenatech A106 mATX Case

Which has a 200W stock PSU. I'm wondering, should I get this:

Shuttle 250W PSU

And do you think it would even fit? It's about 8" long, and the case is 15" deep. With the optical drive, the cables might hit...I don't know. I could probably rerout them and put some extension cables on 'em. Any suggestions for aftermarket PSUs? I'd feel more comfortable with 250W.
 
I run Fortron 300watt PN Series in both of my MN31Ns and a Fortron 350watt PN in my AN35N, no problems on any of them.

What happened to your AN35N, have you tried hot-flashing or sending your BIOS chip out for reflashing? You can always buy another BIOS chip, usually around $15.00

If you want to OC, I'd get a different MoBo or at least get a case that will hold a full-sized ATX power supply and have better ventilation. Those small cases are great for HTPC and small desktops rigs but not built for OCing IMHO. You could probably mod it to increase airflow.

Heres a small case that takes a full sized ATX MoBo and PSU, could be modded and painted up to look sweet! It even has a removable MoBo tray.

http://www.dealsonic.com/li31miatxcaf.html

Regards, Balrog
 
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About that case you linked, I'm worried about the airflow. It only has the psu's fan sucking air out and there is no room to add more.
 
Hey Quailane!

Very easily modded, notice the vent indentations in the side panels, simply cut those out and back with a grill of some type. Put a quick blowhole in the top in front of the PSU and you're set. They don't offer it in black or any decent color but the design is sweet, 14 1/2" tall and it takes a full ATX MoBo and PSU. I've worked on a rig using the same chassis but different front bezel and it was excellent, lots of room to work yet very small in appearance compared to a mid-tower. I may buy one just to have kicking around, @$23.00 delivered how can you go wrong. Paint it up in black with a UV CCFL light under those plastic covers on the right side of the front bezel, throw on a couple of LAN handles on top and you'd have a sweet looking mod IMHO

Regards, Balrog
 
I'm not really too concerned about overclocking, just whether or not I could hit an even 200mhz FSB with a 200W PSU. It's going to be cooled well, so I shouldn't have to up the Vcore too much hopefully, so ideally it won't draw too much power. But then again, I do have 2 HDs and a CDRW/DVDROM combo and a Radeon 9600XT running too. If I can't, I'll just buy the Shuttle mATX PSU. I realized though, the 3.5" drives are up top, so it should fit without any work at all. In theory. I don't want to though. I still have to buy a new heatsink before I got wasting more money.
 
200Mhz fsb is overclocking, so you are conserned with it. If the 200 watt provides stable voltages at spec under load, it will work. I doubt it though. Any power supply 250 or more will do as long as it is good.
 
Well, Pricewatch does have some 300W mATX PSUs listed, but they're Arrow brand or another generic manufacturer, so who knows if they're decent or not. I think I might end up with the Shuttle 250W even though it's an odd shape. It should fit. Too bad I should probably get a new HD first. Time to check out the 200GB drives....this is getting too expensive very quickly.
 
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