8rda3+ hitting 240?

I read somewhere that the 8rda3+ will hit 240fsb out of the box , is this true?

JPetrillo has an Epox EP-8RDA3+, and he's slowly burning it in right now, but he's at 220*12.5 with 1 Gig of pc3500 EB. You could ask him to test out a higher fsb if you want to see what he'll get. I'm not sure if Epox have different memory controllers and such, but NF7's can hit 240 out of the box too. If you get one of the nice boards at least. Every once and a while a slower one comes out, which is the one that I got. Anyway, here's a thread with JP if you want to ask him.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=334435&page=1&pp=30

Use this BIOS and you will hit 250 easily http://hslab.pl/biosy/Beta/8RDA3+/8RDA3+ TaiPan 0.2 Bpl 3.19C 11.10.04.rar

jamie_bkc said:

I read somewhere that the 8rda3+ will hit 240fsb out of the box , is this true?

Click to expand...

I wouldnt doubt it. Believe it or not I never bothered to find my max FSB with this board for some reason, though I still always could I know with my RAM I was stable @ 7*243MHz when I had my Abit. I'm sure I could do it with the 8RDA3+

wild_andy_c - what BIOS is that?? Are you running it?? I might need to try that.

Are the rumors true that the newer versions of the Epox EP-8RDA3+ are limited on the VCore? And that they can't OC as Well?

uh mine topped out at 210, maybe its because i had a rev 1.1?

Well, I heard that the VCore topped out at like 1.85 or something on the newer revision. Also, what kind of FSB do you think I would get with this board and my 2600+ Mobile and Kingston Hyper-X PC4000?

I'm using rev3.2 and got 2.2Vcore MAX on mine.

Xenocide, yeah thats because you got a older one Unforunatly the rev1.x boards I read had about a 50% chance of being a good o/c'er as far as that goes, looks like you feel on that "bad side" of the 50%

Actually, I don't even have one yet. I'm actually deciding between this and an Abit NF7-S. Which one do you think would get a higher FSB w/ a modded BIOS and heatsinks on everything (no need to do a memory voltage mod)? If I ordered it from Newegg tonight, what revision would I get?

you would get at least a rev3.2 if you ordered one now.

for these newer rev's there arent any vmods i know about, but there are a ton right now for the Abit.

If you read my latest post on testing the 8RDA3+, it does seem the VCORE on the 3.2 board with 2-Buck phase system is stellar: I got a junk XP2100 to 2500 using 2.02 actual volts. I could never do this on the NF7-S, no matter the volts.

My problem is the board shows endless #5 Memtest errors above 214-216 fsb or so, with various ram when I know the ram can do much higher.

So from an overclocking standpoint, technically yes, the board can drive your CPU real high, albeit at low fsb. You'd have to use a high multi. If only the ram issue is solved, the board would give heavily modded NF7-Ss a run for the money. In my extensive testing of NF7-S boards with the L12 mod, VDD mod, modded BIOSs, APIC disabled OS, and enhanced cooling of the NB/SB/mosfets, they are not totally 3D stable at high fsb, 2x512, CPC Enabled. That don't cut it for me.

I'm not interested in Sandra Mem/CPUZ screenies and Memtest being clean at 240+ fsb unless the board can pass all four 3DMarks .

wild_andy_c said:

Use this BIOS and you will hit 250 easily http://hslab.pl/biosy/Beta/8RDA3+/8RDA3+ TaiPan 0.2 Bpl 3.19C 11.10.04.rar

Click to expand...

After flogging this board for a whole 3 days, I have come to the conclusion this indeed is not BS. Yes, you can hit 250 fsb, but 3D stability is another thing. I did hit 250 and could probably boot higher, using ADATA PC450 at 3-4-4-7, however it was not 3D stable, though it would pass Sandra Memory and Cache-and-Mem OK (3700+ buffered).

I did get my 2x512 MB XMS3500 stable at 231, 2-2-2-5, CPC Enabled, at the max 2.9 VDIMM of the board which is more like 2.816-2.83 actual. This is truly remarkable. Even on my P4 boards, I could not run DDR462 at that voltage. The board can bench all four 3DMarks here. As these are my worse pair of seven XMS3500 sticks, dare I say 235-240 is possible at that VDIMM???

Couple of tips on using this board:

1. Need the L12 mod to get any ram above 218 or so Memtest clean
2. The Merlin BIOS got my BH-5 from 223 Memtest clean to 231
3. Doesn't need an APIC-disabled WinXP like the NF7-S
4. Partitions and formats drives 3-4x faster than an NF7-S
5. Is definitely better at +2.0 VCORE overclocking than three NF7-Ss I tried
6. Board undervolts pretty severely: 2.075 is more like 2.02; similar story with the VDIMM

Ram testing, max overclocks (must bench all four 3DMarks):

2x512 XMS3500: 231, 2-2-2-5/9/11 (no diff in bandwidth)
2x512 Ballistix PC4000: 236, 2.5-2-2-5
2x512 PQI TCCD: 232, 2-3-3-6
2x512 ADATA PC450: 238, 2.5-3-3-6
2x256 OCZ PC3700 Golds, Rev. 1.0 (this is actually DS ram): 238, 2-3-3-6 (surprising)

With the Merlin BIOS, all ram tested has a 238 or so cap, 3D stable. I can run the Ballistix at 244 Memtest clean, but won't clear all four 3DMarks till 236. I know I can run most these ram much much higher, like 260 on the PQI TCCD on P4 boards.

This board is clearly superior to the NF7-S based on two weeks testing of that board. While I could run ram Memtest clean >230 fsb, and could get Sandra Mem and Cache-and-Mem screenies, the Abit would not bench all four 3DMarks till 223 or 222. I tried several modded BIOSs by TicTac, Trat, and Merlin to no avail. At best it would clear 2/4 of the 'Marks.

How well did the 8RDA3+, Rev. 3.2 overclock a stubborn XP2100? To 2500 mhz at 2.02 volts. In comparison, the NF7-S needed 2.1 volts. With a better mannered CPU, I got an XP2600-M to 2600 mhz at 1.65 actual VCORE, running 2x512 Ballistix PC4000 at 236x11, 2.5-2-2-5 at 2.77 VDIMM (3590/3390 bandwidth). Max overclock on this excellent Mobile is still to be determined. Cooling is a HC200.

I picked up another Rev. 3.2 8RDA3+ and am pretty much getting rid of all my archaic NF7-S boards.

I'm hoping something can be done to relieve the 238 fsb cap of the 8RDA3+ for 3D stability, but that may be due more to my insistence on running 2x512 MB ram with CPC Enabled.

nice work, clev....dl'ing the bios now...

Jarhead7236 said:

nice work, clev....dl'ing the bios now...

Click to expand...

Hell, you don't need to do any work with this board. Maybe the built-in L12 mod in the Merlin BIOS is enough, so just flash.

The NF7-S Rev. 2.0 on the other hand, needs the L12 mod, testing with 45-75 different BIOSs, creating an APIC-disabled WinXP, and as some people think, upgraded cooling on the NB/SB/mosfets, plus some Voodoo and Black Magic to bench all four 'Marks above 223 fsb. The VDD mod did nothing for me on the board, except with one BIOS, where it worked.

BTW, on the 8RDA3+, 1.6 VDD worked the best. Anything higher caused more Memtest errors.

I currently don't have the 8RDA3+ installed, but the OCZ Booster should work. Just take off one heatsink on a mosfet which interferes with a cap on the 8RDA3+ board. Just run a fan above the DIMMs for cooling the Booster. If Epox was generous, maybe the VTT tracks 1/2 the VDIMM when you volt mod . If my 2x512 XMS3500 can do 231 fsb 1T @ 2.816 actual, imagine what more voltage will do .

did anyone else install the mosfet heatsinks that came with their mobos? i did and i know it helped on my old rda+ rev 1 but i guess i gotta start pushing this mobo to see....

Jarhead7236 said:

did anyone else install the mosfet heatsinks that came with their mobos? i did and i know it helped on my old rda+ rev 1 but i guess i gotta start pushing this mobo to see....

Click to expand...

Nope, I never even bothered to install them when I had the board up. The stock NB cooler looks pretty decent too. You need to be careful with the mosfets near the green doughnut coils (near the CPU socket). They are real close to the coils. If you have the sink touching the copper wire of the core, not sure it will short, but it will certainly transfer heat over as the coils gets real hot. Unfortunately one of my mosfets is real close to the coil so it will be hard to put a sink on without touching it.

I never found mosfet cooling to help much with my 8RDA+ 1.1. I think it may help with the mosfets near the DIMM/AGP slot, perhaps in ram overclocking.

think i'm gonna have to L12 mod cause i can't get anything over 200 stable...

i can run the P95 small fft's torture test for 12 hrs+ but blend or in place large fft's don't last over an hour....this is @ 225x8.5...usually i test with the in place large fft's test...hmmm, i'm gonna try memtest then play some games and see what happens..

Jarhead7236 said:

i can run the P95 small fft's torture test for 12 hrs+ but blend or in place large fft's don't last over an hour....this is @ 225x8.5...usually i test with the in place large fft's test...hmmm, i'm gonna try memtest then play some games and see what happens..

Click to expand...

I don't run Prime but instead check to see if Memtest is clean in #5/6. My experience with AMD boards is if you see ANY memory-related errors here, 3D will ultimately fail. If it's clean, I bench all four 'Marks (assuming you know the CPU is stable). Maybe I'll also run the 16M SuperPI, but I'm interested in functional stability (3D has been known to fail when Prime passes).

On my board, Memtest started to show incessant #5 errors above 218 or so with various ram. I knew the ram could do upwards of 250 on P4 boards. With the L12 mod, the threshold went up to 238 or so.

The stock BIOSs of both the NF7-S and Epox may not post >225 or so, even with the L12 mod. The modded BIOSs allow you to boot clear up to 240-250, but total 3D stability is hardly assured (never saw it above 223 on the NF7-S).

The NF2 boards are particularly sensitive to 3DMark2000, which nobody bothers to run anymore. Also 3DMark2005. I think the emergence of that benchmark is bursting a lot of bubbles .

I found the 8RDA3+ is simply more stable at all four 'Marks than the Abit.

The last two boards I've run are the two NF3 boards: DFI LanParty UT3 and MSI K8N Neo2 Plat. It ain't a cakewalk getting to 2500-2600 on these boards with the A64 3000-3400+ Claws, Winnies, and Newcastles. Hell most any XP2500/2600-M will hit 2600-2700 on the NF2.

at 220 fsb, i get errors in memtest after 53 minutes (that's running the default tests)...i think it made 3 passes and that was it...at 225, i was getting errors in 5 minutes.....i can't get 3D01 or 03 to finish so i'm gonna go back to 200 for a while til i get some new ram....but, i can get into windows and surf, etc. at 230 which i was never able to do before....