IC7-MAX3 and wall at 240FSB

I've read alot of forum posts, etc where people seems to have problem with Abit IC7-MAX3 and higher FSB 240+. And (of course with my bad luck) I'm one of these users. So this point I will need all possible help what you can give to me, and I will update first post as much as I have sparetime. I'd be thankful if all IC7-MAX3 users would post here, and let me know next few things about their systems, cause I though pretty much this is system related problem some how.

Post following info:
PSU's Vendor & Model
Mobo's version, revision and bios ver. (eg. Abit IC7-MAX3 version 1.0 revision A2 with BIOS 1.6)
reg CPU info (default info, FPO#, packdate. Both of these can be founded on your cpu box)
Memory Stick(s) (Module vendor, chip vendor, reg voltage, latencies)
Graphic card's vendor and model
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PSU:
Antec TruePower 550W

Motherboard:
Version 1.0, Revision A2, BIOS 1.6

CPU:
Intel Pentium4 Northwood 3.0C, L351B097, 03/06/04

Memory:
Infineon PC-2700 256Mb CL2.5, 2.5-3-3-7, 2.6V

Graphic Card:
Club3D Radeon 9700
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What have you tried to solve the problem? Raising voltages, changing GAT-settings? Have you disabled or enabled something from BIOS and it helped to get through this? Have you tried different AGP/PCI -settings? All kind of information is needed, and I'd be thankful if you could give me some info so I could make somekind of comparsion of this.

Need help here

Get faster memory ASAP. PC3500 preferably.

very unlikely that its the motherboard. cpu maxed?

run the ram at diff. ratios and set the GAT to AAAADD

Sjaak said:

very unlikely that its the motherboard. cpu maxed?

run the ram at diff. ratios and set the GAT to AAAADD

Click to expand...

I've tried everything, voltages, GAT-settings, mem latencies, dividers etc, no use. There's alot of people who got this same problem so that's why I need this kind of info and I could comparise them to others and see what I can get. For sure I think it's not the cpu... I've tested this memory module with 1:1 divider, FSB240 and latencies to 3-4-3-7. Was stable, then I switched to 5:4 and tried everything. FSB241 is not stable, no matter what I do.

put the cpu in a mobo that does 241 for sure to see if its just maxed. you never know. if it isnt: get better ram, and up the vAGP (1.65v, but beware of northbridge cooling)

Not too long ago I was running a Max 3 with a 2.4C and 1GB of Adata PC4000 at 275fsb with a 1:1 ratio. It ran like that for weeks before I decided to try a different board.

You do need better memory though. Well at least faster..

Almost everytime I see someone hitting a brick wall on an IC7 series mobo, it's a RAM incompatibility. Here are about 3 things to try off the top of my head. Go back to the 15 BIOS. There are enough people that are having trouble with 16 that raises a red flag. I doubt this is truly your problem, but one never knows. I don't even see the 16 BIOS on the Abit website anymore. The second thing is try disabling the last two GAT settings. I generally use auto, auto, auto, disable, disable. Last, borrow a friend's RAM if possible and see if you get the same results.

You claim to get 240 FSB with the 1:1 ratio with Infineon PC2700 RAM? That's DDR480 from RAM that's only rated DDR333. Come on, that's sort of unbelieveable. I have seen PC2700 with Hynix chips go that high and higher though, so I reckon anything's possible. If it's true, I'd like to see a CPU-Z screenshot. Anyway, you might try using the 3:2 ratio to bring the RAM back into spec (that's the "266" setting on Asus mobos). I'd also raise the vdimm to 2.7v to see what happens.

batboy said:

I'd like to see a CPU-Z screenshot

Click to expand...

And here's the screenshot

and batboy, if this really is RAM incompatibility what I'm facing here, what are good sticks of RAM to buy? I was looking for Simpletech NITRO PC-4000 sticks, should work fine with IC7-MAX3?

I was impressed with the CPU-Z screenie until I noticed you were only running single channel. Dual channel is harder to O/C RAM than single. Also look at your memory bandwidth. That's quite low compared to dual channel. You need two sticks of RAM for best performance.

I know nothing about that Simpletech RAM. It's not one of the brands that Intel overclockers usually buy. I've used Corsair, Mushkin, OCZ, Kingston, and A-Data RAM in my IC7 mobos. If you are thinking of PC4000, you might check out what A-Data has to offer. They are good overclockers.

wow thats big bandwidth


what would be the dual channel equivalent with that ram?

At 240 FSB if he was using dual channel 1:1 RAM, he should have at least 2k or more memory bandwidth.

3500 mb/s in single channel is alot IMO

batboy:
there's no need to compare single channel to dual channel It's almost same as comparing Fiat to Ferrari.
I only wanted to show that Infineon could actually do that.

As it seems there's people who don't wan't to give me helping hand :/. I'll make couple things up and change some of those stock parts another ones. Here's list what I'm going to do:

- change Abit 40x40mm-FAN from the OTES to Papst 412/2 40x40mm-FAN (18db, 5,9CFM)
- add AS5 to mosfet's heatsinks (to OTES of course) and to NB and change 'em to the cpu
- NoiseBlocker S3 80x80mm(26db/~38CFM) fan to side of the case
- NoiseBlocker SE2 92x92mm(21db/~37CFM) fan to top of the case
- Infineon PC2700 256mb stick to A-Data Vitesta 512MB DDR566 stick

If this don't give me any better results I think my head is going to blow But as I'am so lazy person, I guess it may take a week before I get enough interest to do this.