Highest fsb for 8k5a2+

it seems like i cannot hit fsb 200 no matter what..i am using a winbond pc3500 ram, but the best of what i can do is 195 and no more...I'm dyin' to know whether this board is capable of hitting 200+ stable thanz

My 8K5A3+ runs stably at 200Mhz. I think this board is about the same as yours, except for the 4 channel RAID controller on the 3+.

what kind of vcard are you running? i tried both a g3 and 9500pro and both of them wouldn't stand pci speed above 39...

I start to get artifacts at 196 on my 5a2. I thought it was because of my Kingmax pc2700 memory. Strange as it is, I was testing a stick of Micron 2100 in one of my slots with a stick of the pc2700 in the other and the limit was the same ??? Was that a rare stick of Micron or what ?

I've successfully run mine at 204Mhz FSB, The 8k5a2+ uses a 1.25 multiplier for ram speed when the Bios is set to 133 CPU:166 Memory.

as you crank up the CPU speed the board uses a 1.25 multi for ram speed..By running the CPU at 163Mhz Bus speed,(If your Vid and PCI cards can take it?) the ram is running at 163X1.25= 203.75Mhz.

It's fun to play with, but running CPU/RAM asynchronously isn't as fast as running synchronously.

To answer your question, I think your hitting the wall because your running two sticks of ram. Try just one stick and see if it makes it to 200FSB. If you have to run 2 sticks, I would make sure they are absolutely identical.

i am pretty sure it isn't my rams' fault cuz i always use one ram at the time for testing purpose. Anyway, i am 100% sure the problem is my vcards cannot stand the ultra high agp speed...for example, @ fsb 195 or above, i cannot even load into windows with 9500. swapping it with g3, i can run everything happily but 3dmark (prime95 has been running 6 hours so far no problem, but still see those dame agp tearings while benchmarking 3dmark.)

You know, AGP tearing may be a Driver issue and not an O/C issue? However...There are a couple of things you can try to get around AGP probs.

Try running 2X AGP, getting a faster FSB speed should more than make up for this if it helps.
Turn off fast writes, Most people get better scores with this off anyway, and it can cause instability.
Disable AGPMaster 0 Wait State if enabled in Bios, slightly relaxed AGP R/W timings may help.

and when you say "i am pretty sure it isn't my rams' fault cuz i always use one ram at the time for testing purpose"

Does this mean you've run either or both Ram sticks @200+FSB in some other Motherboard and Know for sure your Mem will run at those speeds ok? Just wondering? as wishful thinking ("i am pretty sure it isn't my rams") doesn't solve problems.

How about your Power supply line voltages? How do they look when CPU/Video are under load? Are your voltages being pulled down by that power sucking R9500 -lol- They use a fair amount more power than a GF3. I could see this causing similar probs to what you describe. Something to check.

Good luck reaching the magic 200fsb. ;-)


P.S. Which of the many workarounds did you use to unlock lower Multis on your CPU? 5th L3 bridge? CPU Socket Wire trick?

HardwareJedi said:

You know, AGP tearing may be a Driver issue and not an O/C issue? However...There are a couple of things you can try to get around AGP probs.

Try running 2X AGP, getting a faster FSB speed should more than make up for this if it helps.
Turn off fast writes, Most people get better scores with this off anyway, and it can cause instability.
Disable AGPMaster 0 Wait State if enabled in Bios, slightly relaxed AGP R/W timings may help.

and when you say "i am pretty sure it isn't my rams' fault cuz i always use one ram at the time for testing purpose"

Does this mean you've run either or both Ram sticks @200+FSB in some other Motherboard and Know for sure your Mem will run at those speeds ok? Just wondering? as wishful thinking ("i am pretty sure it isn't my rams") doesn't solve problems.

How about your Power supply line voltages? How do they look when CPU/Video are under load? Are your voltages being pulled down by that power sucking R9500 -lol- They use a fair amount more power than a GF3. I could see this causing similar probs to what you describe. Something to check.

Good luck reaching the magic 200fsb. ;-)


P.S. Which of the many workarounds did you use to unlock lower Multis on your CPU? 5th L3 bridge? CPU Socket Wire trick?

Click to expand...

i am currently running fsb 201 stable (prime95 = 26hrs, then i stopped it) while my board is stable, i still see agp tearings...about my voltage, ( + 5v = 5.00, + 12v = 11.92 under load, 5.02 and 12.02 load) at fsb 200, i cannot even make my system to boot with 9500, as a result, i am running g3 now...i am using a fps 350w psu, which should be fine.

i unlocked 5th L3 using an the kit.

tainice,
As you appear to have figured out, it is highly likely the video. I have a similar problem with my gf4 card (see sig below for setup). I can reach 200 without difficulty but do see tearing in bootup, after the system boots the video appears fine. I can get to 203 or 204 but video isn't all that great even after the system boots. I've changed video setting in the bios but found no real solution.

Think it is time for a nForce2 mobo, at least for me.

Good luck.

i really hate to switch mobo at the moment, 8k5a2+ is an excellent board and i love it to death!! besides, i really don't see any compelling reason to jump on nforce2 wagon, yes it got pci/agp lock, but it isn't so superior over my board, performance wise...and no on board raid is a big NO NO for me. guess i will wait til kt400a. guess now i can focus on breaking the g3 ti200 record...heheheh

tainice said:

i really hate to switch mobo at the moment, 8k5a2+ is an excellent board and i love it to death!! besides, i really don't see any compelling reason to jump on nforce2 wagon, yes it got pci/agp lock, but it isn't so superior over my board, performance wise...and no on board raid is a big NO NO for me. guess i will wait til kt400a. guess now i can focus on breaking the g3 ti200 record...heheheh

Click to expand...

All good reasons not to change.

The RAID issue was a really big one for me since I'm currently RAID0 and didn't want to change. I ended up buying a Highpoint RAID card and it picks up the RAID structure from my 8k5a2+ with no problems. I figure the card makes my RAID array more portable in the future if I want to change mobos. I would note that the RAID card does appear more sensitive to the PCI overclock than the 8k5a2 is so Epox must have worked some magic on the board. Either that or the different RAID chips 372 versus 374 have a different behavior.

Last word I heard was the KT400a won't have either a PCI or AGP lock but then you'll never know for sure till it is out the door.

Anyway enjoy and go for that record!

I run my 5a2+ at 415.23 MHz damn near all the time. It's been higher. You have to find the right combo. I like the board so much I brought another one.