TBRED B 2100+ in KT7A-R updates....

Well, got my TBRED B 2100+ from Newegg yesterday. They really are great, got it in 3 days and was as advertised AIUHB.

Plopped it in the KT7A-R. I'm hoping this will tide me over for another 6 months. This chip is replacing a T-Bird 1.4Ghz OC'd to 1.6. I have a custom built water cooling unit to cool the chip and the KT7A-R has been voltage modded with the micro potentiometer allowing voltages to a little over 2.01 Volts.

I set the board back to stock voltage and began testing. I came up with about the same results as from THIS THREAD .

The multipliers I got pretty much matched the following from the KT7 thread:

500 -> no boot
550 -> no boot
600 -> no boot
650 -> no boot
700 -> 1500
750 -> 2200
800 -> 1600
850 -> 1650
900 -> 1700
950 -> 1800
1000 -> 2300
1050 -> 2400
1100 -> no boot
1150 -> 1900
1200 -> no boot
>= 1300 -> 2000 (I think the >=1300 setting corresponds to the 12.5 multiplier.)
1400/133 -> no boot

Although my differences were:
500 = 2000
1133(133) = no boot
1200(133) = no boot
1333(133) = no boot
1400(133) = no boot

One thing I did notice, when the voltage went over 1.85V the system would not boot. I'm assuming that is some safety feature of the 2100+. I've not looked at the spec sheets yet so I don't know what the max voltage is. If anyone can answer that question it'd save me the time of trying to find out.

Prime 95 would not run at any speed on my system. Although the system was running stably, as soon as I lauched Prime 95 it would lock up. Sisoft Sandra 2003 burn in would work fine, however, as well as all the benchmarks.

The max speed I attained was 2400 (1050 in BIOS), but the system wasn't stable. Temps were not the problem as I never saw it go over 40C with a reading from a digital thermometer.

Currently the system is running at 2300 (1000 in BIOS) and I've set the DRAM speed to be HSTCLK+PCI to get the RAM to run at 133 rather than 100.

I'm still not sure it's 100% stable, but I plan to continue testing.

I will say this....the system runs about 3x as fast as it did with the 1.4Ghz T-Bird. It's definitly a very noticable improvement in speed and Sisoft Sandra Benchmarks are about double or a little more what they were with the 1.4 T-Bird.

Using manual settings also worked, although using manual settings you won't get the full speed of the chip as there is no multiplier of 23. I believe the highest is 14 if memory serves so you have to use the standard settings if you want to achieve 2300Mhz.

When I have some free time I'm going to go back and double check the settings that gave no boot. I had set the voltage to 2.0 V while testing those and I believe that may have affected the results as the system won't boot not matter what speed you set it to if the voltage is over 1.85 actual.

Comments?

Congratulations on your overclock AMD Guy!

Its a great thing to see another fellow KT7 owner breathe new life into his rig. Although I have a pentium rig, I was very happy and a little shocked to see the xp 2100+ catch up to my p4 in terms of performance on sandra.

For the moment I am only running my XP 2100+ at 1.8v @ 2300mhz. At the moment I am using a SLK-900 and tornado fan as my testing cooling setup. Temps never exceed 50C under load. I have also tried getting the xp 2100+ to run over 2400mhz but I am begginning to think that this issue isn't related to voltage but rather that the via chipset is simply too old and can't handle anything more. My board goes to 1.9v

I have heard of other people successfully running xp 2100+ chips at 2.4 at only 1.9v on newer chipsets.

As for your voltage mod and with regards to anything over 1.85v, I did the ghetto power supply mod since I am running my kt7 on a cheap $10 350w raidmax. I do not think that there is safety voltage issue with the kt7 but I will try running it at 1.9v with my current 2.3ghz settings. I will post what happened in a few minutes.

=efini

update to raising vcore:

I am able to use my computer normally with a vcore of 1.89v at 2.3ghz (it undervolts slightly under load). It says 1.89v under pc health in bios and in Via Hardware Moniter.

Except for my temps skyrocketing 6C , everything seems to be running fine.

I still think its the old via chipset not being able to handle 2.4ghz. I hope some KT7 owner can prove me wrong.

I hope this helps you out amdguy,

-efini

Can you try breaking 1.90 volts. Since I have my system VModded that could skew my results.

I've tried booting at what I believe to be 2.01 Volts, which is what my old 1.4Ghz T-bird ran at while OC'd to 1.6. The system will not boot at any speed, even 1500mhz.

That is why I was thinking there was a safety in the Processor to keep it from running at too high of a voltage.

I basically had my VMod set so that .15V was added to the voltage selected in the BIOS. When I select 1.85 it goes as 2.0 volts and the system will not boot. I also noticed that lowering the voltage at time would make the system more stable.

For instance, running at 1.70 makes the system run at 1.85, however it seemed unstable at 2300Mhz and 1.85, so I dropped it to 1.80 and it seems to be more stable.

When my Weller soldering iron is returned to me, I will put back my resister on my KT7. I have no idea when though. I was able to go up to 2.15 volts (I think, don't quite remember).

Btw, I was only able to get my old thunderbird to 1533; but the issue wasn't due to voltage, more of it had to do with heat since I only air cool my KT7.

-efini

Looks like the System is stable

Prime 95 still will not run at any speed, is there some version of Prime 95 specific to Windows XP? I was thinking maybe that was the problem.

WPCPUID causes the system to reboot when ran. Not sure what's going on there.

Other than those two things the system runs 100% stable. I ran the Sisoft Sandra 2003 burn in wizard continuously for about 45 minutes and never saw temps go over 40C with my custom water cooled unit. According to Sandra that's a .10 C/W.

I also recorded straight to DVD quality MPEG2 with my ATI AIW Pro 128 Capture card. The CPU usage according to MBM never went above 86%, where as with the old T-Bird 1.4 it would hit 100%.

The system has been running constantly for about 48 hours and has not had any issues.

I'm currently at 2300 Mhz and 1.80V. Temps are never over 40C under full load. I'm running the Abit A9 bios, and will likely switch to OC-Master's modded A9 Bios soon. I set the BIOS to 1000 (which corresponds to 23x100), then set the DRAM to HSTCLK+PCICLK to get the ram running at 133.

I finally tried the resister vcore voltage mod. I ran my KT7A at 2.05vcore and prime 95 still fails at 2.4ghz. I think its my cheap power supply to blame though.

Prime 95 will still run fine for me at 2.3ghz under the 2.05vcore settings. (as reported by pc health in the bios)

My temperatures are a scorching 59C under full load. I have not run prime 95 for over an hour but it was still working when I decided to stop it.

WcpuID also runs fine with 2.05vcore.

-efini

efini said:

I finally tried the resister vcore voltage mod. I ran my KT7A at 2.05vcore and prime 95 still fails at 2.4ghz. I think its my cheap power supply to blame though.

Prime 95 will still run fine for me at 2.3ghz under the 2.05vcore settings. (as reported by pc health in the bios)

My temperatures are a scorching 59C under full load. I have not run prime 95 for over an hour but it was still working when I decided to stop it.

WcpuID also runs fine with 2.05vcore.

-efini

Click to expand...

Thanks for the test. Not sure why mine doesn't work then. Prime95 will not run at any speed, and the system will not boot at over about 1.90 volts. I may do more testing to see what I can do.

WCPUID causes a reboot.

I also have been playing with an XP2100+ on an K7RA-133R and was wondering if you guys tried the pin trick on the socket to get the higher multis:

http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=184602

I tried the remapping method last night but if I set multis 5.0-8.5 in the BIOs I get no boot. At 9.0 I get 17x, which is where I am now (139 fsbx17=2363 mhz).

I really want a 13.5 multi as I can do 176 fsb OK with my setup (my card and SBLive can handle 88/44 AGP/PCI). I have my ram set to 133 in the BIOs. AMDGuy, you say multis 7.0-8.5 work for you???

Another annoyance is my board is not vmodded so highest VCORE I see in the BIOS is 1.725. But I am doing 2363 mhz stable here so I must have a pretty good chip? Actual vcore is 1.71-ish. If I could get more vcore I'm sure I can hit 2400+.

I have an abit kt7-a pre v1.3 board, and am looking at dropping a 2400+ into it. I have read that kt7 users are finding success with this. Do you think the high multiplier stuff will work with this chip in the same way it has worked for your 2100+ chips?

Yes, I just put in an XP2400 into my KT7A (version 1.0). It is working perfectly at 17*133 = 2260 Mhz. The only problem is that it is running hot. 41 degrees idle and 50 degrees full load. You have to flash the A9 bios into your motherboard before the update. Also, you have to avoid 13 -14 multiplier range because the machine won't boot with these multipliers. The only multiplier seem to work with 133 FSB is 9x (mapping to 17x). Look at the table given by the author of this post for guidance.

Sweet!
I just received my 2100+ from Newegg. It is a JIUHB dated 0308. One guy on the newegg product forum for this chip says he has the AIHUB and a JIHUB, and his A reaches 2.3, but his J reaches 2.5
So far, I am running at 2.0G (1.70v, 39-42C) and its stable as a rock with Prime95, as well as 3dMark2002se. This is a way sweet upgrade. I can boot at 2.2 but I need 1.85v to get it stable, but I have not yet tried to test at that speed. At the time I did not turn up the memory and other cpu stuff in the bios, but now I have everything turned up, so I think I am going to try the 2.2.
I do not see a speed of 2.1G as an option in the above chart. Is this a possible speed, cause if 2.2 doesnt work for me, I want to try 2.1, ya know.
Anyway, I am very impressed with this chip so far!

OK, I upped my cpu to 2.2 (1.85v required for stability), and it ran prime95 stable for about 20 minutes, but according to my via hardware monitor, my cpu temps went up to 50-51c, which is too high for my taste. I am using a Globalwin WBK38 HS/fan. When I ease back to 2.0 (1.75) I am at 42-43c in Prime95, which is much better.
Wouldnt mind trying 2.1 if possible.

btw KT7A, does it unlock T-breds?, iam sitting here and i`cant deside what CPU i whant, XP1700+ or XP 2000+ (both T-bred)

z0diac:

If you can get a good 1700 (JIUHB, DLT3C) then you should mod it to get 13X multiplier (cut the 3rd and the 5th L3 bridge). This will turn your CPU into the the XP2100. Flash your KT7A with bios A9 from the ABIT web site. With default BIOS setting, your new CPU will boot at 20*100 = 2000 Mhz. After that you can change your FSB and multiplier. All the Tbred B are unlocked. The XP2000 is not a good CPU from what I heard. If you are afraid with CPU mod, then simply do the same thing as I did: buy an XP2400 (default multiplier 15X). I hope this will help.

ok, but Iif i take a 2000+ (t-bred), can i change the multiplier then?, i whant it to 13-13,5x, just so i reach 2,0ghz

zodiac:

Anything below XP2100 (multiplier 13X) will require mod on the CPU to access multiplier > 13. If your objective is 2 Ghz, then I recommend XP2100. This CPU is not that expensive and with proper stepping (check the overclock database) can overclock quite high (easily to 2.1-2.3 range).

so if i take a 2100+ then i could chose above 13x multiplier?, like 14,15 and so on ?. and what stepping do you recommend ?

zodiac:

With XP2100 and higher, you simply put the CPU into the socket and all higher multiplier than 13 is available. If you check the table from the beginning of this post from AMDGuy you will notice that multiplier 13X, 13.5X, 14X, 14.5X (corresponding with 5X, 5.5X, 6.0X, 6.5X in the BIOS) is not working for the KT7A. If these multiplier is important to you then you have to do the wire mod. Since your objective is 2 Ghz, the multiplier you need is 15X and this one is OK when you set 7X in the BIOS. In general, the multiplier available to you will be: 15X (7X), 16X (8X), 16.5 (8.5X), 17X (9X), 18X (9.5X), 19X (3.5X), 20X (4.5X), 22X (7.5X), 23X (10X), 24X (10.5X). Regarding the stepping for XP2100, you can go to the home page of overclockers.com, go to CPU Database, select XP2100 for AMDCPU and you can try to find the best stepping for overclcoking.

I Have asked some peploe, and iam wondering if a new mobo is more worth than a new CPU, iam thinking about Abit NF7-S or Abit KD7-RAID, i have a Duron 700@933 (it post @ 1ghz), just need more vcore and the NF7-S have more than 1,85vcore, so think i will reach 1ghz on that mobo. it costs around 140USD. what do you think?, a new CPU for my KT7A rev 1.3 or a new mobo?