A7N8X DLX--poor overclocker?

I recently bought an AMD 2100+ T-bred and one stick of 256 MB Corsair 2100 Ram. While I was waiting for my Asus A7N8X DLX to show up I stuck the above chip and Ram in my Abit KR7A-Raid and easily overclocked the chip to 2200mhz plus, using 13.0 X 175 mhz FSB. Prime 95 stable and 3Dmark loops running overnight. I think it can go higher but the Ram may be limiting me here.

When the Asus mb showed up, I put the EXACT SAME chip, Ram, and heatsink/fan combo onto the new motherboard. However, I can not overclock past 1880mhz, or 13.0 X 145 without crashing 3Dmark or prime95 failures. Lowering the multiplier and increasing FSB does not help--even with 5.5 X 150 I get crashes. I also locked the AGP bus at 66mhz.

I RMA'd the board and the new board (both were Rev 2.0) is doing the exact same thing.

The new system is running same system as Old Abit: Windows 2000.

Video cards: Radeon 8500 (Abit) vs Radeon 9500 pro (Asus)

Power Supply: El Cheapo 300W (Abit) vs Antec 330W (Asus)

Everything is air cooled similarly in both system, BTW.

I have tried changing memory timings to very relaxed timings but to no avail. I am at a loss of what to do.

Can someone post a link that will give me exact settings in the bios (version 1.03 on my board) that may help. Something has to set wrong somewhere.

Yeah someone have had problems OCing the A7N8X DLX, that is why most ppl here have decided to go with Abit NF7-S rev. 2.0 board because of its great OCing options.

I have the Asus A7N8X but its not the deluxe version but the same mb with a tbred 1700 b mushkin 3200 ddr asus v9280 ti4200 video oced to 2200+ 195fsbX11.5x right now so it may be your ram I had micron 2100 ram and it didnt want to oc too good then either I was getting around 1800 after that it was unstable hope this helps

I realize my Ram may be the limiting factor. I will eventually order some PC3200.

As per some searches on this board and elsewhere, I tried disabling AGP fast write and halfing the AGP Aperture to 64 MB. No change.

What I don't understand is why the same piece of Ram in the Abit was able to go so high (also when running the 1800+ in the original setup on the abit) but is now suddenly the bottleneck on the Asus motherboard. It seems there should be a simpler answer or does the Asus A7N8X DLX not like Corsair PC2100 very much?

Thanks in advance for your ideas.

You've got PC2100 ram - that's rated for 133MHz - you'd be lucky to get 160 something out of it. As to why it overclocked better on a different board that's difficult to say. There are so many factors involved. Maybe the other board was giving the ram a more relaxed timing that it could handle better.

Have you tried to plug the ram into a different slot on the asus board since you are only running one chip an dit is a dual ddr mobo?

That's another good suggestion - I run a single dimm on mine and I put the ram in the slot closest to the cpu.

That is a good idea moving the Ram to a different dimm slot. Right now the PC2100 is in Dimm slot 1. Unfortunately, I am away from home for a few days due to work so I will have to wait.


I've noticed almost everyone overclocking on this forum is using 2700 or above, most seem to be going with 3200 as a minimum.

In the meantime, what is the highest front side bus (FSB) anyone has been able to hit using PC2100 on the A7N8X?

I was getting 165 fsb (the most stable) out of my micron 2100 ram 256 stick in my asus a7n8x

I did 229 out fo the Box with my board, that is not poor at all

I will spare ya'll my opinion of the A7N8X, i'm sure ya'll know....

If you look at my sig..I'm getting a pretty good overclock...But this is about as high as I can get with stability..prime95, 3dmark, etc...

I'm a little disappointed, but its a good board...may not be the best OC'er, but I think its hard to say which ones are and which ones are not. I've heard the NF-7S overclocks well...but I also check out the Abit forums and some people run into the same problems as the A7N8X dlx...But I think the NF-7S is probably gonna OC higher than the A7N8X dlx most of the time.

I was thinking of getting the Abit after all the hype. There was hype for the A7N8X when it was released and I got one..but I needed a new mobo at the time anyway..... I don't need a new one now and I figured it's not worth it right now just to get a little higher FSB. I mean am I really gonna notice a big difference, day to day...I don't think so.

Benchies are cool, but I don't live by them. As long as my games and apps are running smooth..which they are, then I'm cool.

I'm running two 256 chips of Kingston I believe, kingston or generic one of the two.. And I'm at 160FSB atm.. Using the new 1004 beta bios' seemed to help stabilize my system. BTW this is on non delux 1.04.

Have you tried switching the video cards around between the systems? I have seen a few people say that their Radeon 9xxx wouldn't let them overclock as well as an 8500, for example.

Have you tried switching the video cards around between the systems? I have seen a few people say that their Radeon 9xxx wouldn't let them overclock as well as an 8500, for example.

Click to expand...

That is another good suggestion. I have ordered a stick of PC3200 from Newegg that should be here by week's end. When I get home I will try swapping the video cards as you suggest before I stick in the new Ram-- all in the interests of science, of course.

However, you would think it would make no difference what video card you have as the MB has the option to lock the AGP bus at 66mhz bus and conversely PCI devices at 33mhz bus regardless of what the FSB is running at. I have no PCI devices installed for what that is worth. I will post my results sometime this weekend.

Well, it was the Ram. I was able to hit 175FSB and stable after upgrading the Ram to the Corsair PC3200 stick. I will push it further after burning in for a while. I am happy with these (175 X 13) speeds for now.

I still find it odd that the PC2100 did so much better in the Abit. Obviously I will put the 2100 in with the Abit since it seems to like it so much.

I will still have to try swapping vid cards, all in the interestest of research. Thanks for all the suggestions.

With a stick of 256mb kingston pc2100 valueRAM and the A7N8X rev 1.04 board, i can hit 191mhz, and run prime 95 24/7. That is one hell of an overclock if you ask me. I have some PC3200 ram coming in the mail. The f***ers at excaliberpc.com sent my ram to new jersey, and I live in wisconsin. Anyway, I will let you know how that overclocks

UPDATE:
With the PC3200, I was able to hit 11.5 X 200 stable. I have cranked it back to 11 X 200 for burning in. This is with a ho-hm cooler master heatsink and Vantec 80mm stealth fan at 1.65 volts. The chip seems to not like anything over 2350mhz before not posting with my substandard cooling.

It appears you need good ram to overclock with this mb, thou Nolo has a hell of an overclock with his setup. That seems to be exceptional.

i can get mine to do 205FSB no problem, and no mods, and mine is a rev.1.04, so i am lucky.

I was getting mine to 205+ fsb and could run prime95 well..but some of my games like OpFlash Point, UT2003 were crashing after about 30 min of play...