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Firestrider

Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2003
Location
Orlando, FL
Some general questions with Asus p4p or p4c motherboards:

What does sinked motherboard mean?
Why would I need to Droop mod my motherboard, I know vcore drops on load with Asus boards, but why would I need it to not fluctuate?
What does a DDR vmod or Vdimm do, I know it allows to to change the voltage on the RAM, but why would you need this, and why would you get OCZ booster if you can change the voltage in BIOS on RAM?
Is Full PAT dual bios for only p4p800 dlx or p4p800-e dlx too?
What kind of heatsinks do you put next to the mosfets?
What kind of RAM would you recommend for my motherboard/cpu; I was thinking OCZ pc-4000el but I'm not sure my FSB will reach 250 to do 1:1
 
Firestrider said:
Some general questions with Asus p4p or p4c motherboards:

What does sinked motherboard mean?

Sinked means copper/aluminum heatsinks are expoxied to the mosfets to help dissipate heat at high oc's and stablize voltages some.

Firestrider said:
Why would I need to Droop mod my motherboard, I know vcore drops on load with Asus boards, but why would I need it to not fluctuate?

Stable, non-fluctuating voltages yield higher returns. A voltage that goes up and down causes instability. The droop mod eliminates ~80% of this and thus allows oc'ers to reach higher clocks because they can use higher voltages that don't go up and down as much.

Firestrider said:
What does a DDR vmod or Vdimm do, I know it allows to to change the voltage on the RAM, but why would you need this, and why would you get OCZ booster if you can change the voltage in BIOS on RAM?

High ram voltages are/were desired with memory using winbond BH-5 chips (now obsolete and no longer in retail). Other memory chips sometimes benefit from higher voltages. By saying "higher voltages" I mean 2.9-3.4 volts, most motherboards limit us to 2.5-2.8. I need 3.2 volts to get 1:1 ratio and 240 fsb from memory that is rated at 217 fsb. The OCZ DDR booster does the same thing as a vdimm volt mod but does require soldering and tweaking resistors. It uses the 12v and 5v lines and simply plugs into an empty dimm slot, provided your motherboard is supported by the device.

Firestrider said:
Is Full PAT dual bios for only p4p800 dlx or p4p800-e dlx too?

I'm not sure of any "dual bios" on any Asus motherboard, but PAT is officially only supported on P4C's which are 875 chipset. P4P's are 865 chipset which do not support PAT. However, there are tweaks and hacked bios's that allow PAT on P4P motherboards. Real world performance is neglible with PAT disabled or enabled. Benchmarks benefit from it most.

Firestrider said:
What kind of heatsinks do you put next to the mosfets?

You actually use themal expoxy (thermal glue) and glue tiny heatsinks to the top of the mosfets. I cut up BGA ram heatsinks and did my board. Sidewindercomputers.com sells Microcool heatsinks specially designed to fit mosfets.

Firestrider said:
What kind of RAM would you recommend for my motherboard/cpu; I was thinking OCZ pc-4000el but I'm not sure my FSB will reach 250 to do 1:1

OCZ, Corsair, Mushkin, and Crucial's Ballistix are all good choices. I'd suggest spending time in the memory forums and get an idea of what others are using.
 
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