Alrighty, I'm up and running!! finally!!

Jeez this is an all night affair everytime I do a major overhaul like this.
Stupid Win XP got some file corruption error while I was doing a clean install, and holy cow it was a bear to get it back to the reformatting hard drive stage. Finally got it done though, and I'm now up and running.
Once I got all the necessities loaded, I headed on over to the Abit site for the treasured 13bios. Flash worked like a charm, and I immediately tried out the PAT option. The splash screen made it sound risky to try the F1 setting, so I did street racer.
HUGE gain in memory bandwidth.. from around 4400 to nearly 5000 - and that's running stock everything else..
It also boosted 3Dmark2k1 a full thousand points than without PAT. -impressive..
My new CPU cooler doesn't arrive until tomorrow, so I'll wait to O/C this sucker until then. My idle temps with the stock HSF are 41c, which doesn't seem too bad for a stock cooler, but I'm expecting quite a bit lower with this Zalman beast I ordered..

Hey if anyone has any good advice, tips, or anything else, please post 'em for me, as I'm a total Intel O/C'ing noob.

Oh, I'm sold on Abit. God they put together a nice product. I'll never buy anything else.

-Here's a quick question.. For those running 250fsb and higher, what memory timings are you using? The Corsair I have run 2-2-6-1 default, but I seriously doubt they'll handle that if I push too far above 250fsb.

thanks!!

Here's my CPU code info..

L311A841 SL6WH pack date - 4/29/03

im sure you have been around the forums long enough to know where to start but if and when you have problems you will get great help.

I would put the ram to the slowest timmings possible and slowest speed so that you can concentrate on top speed of the cpu then go back to the ram once you know your chips limits.

don't say you will never buy anything but abit. Asus does make some pretty nice board too.

alittle off topic but did you register at newegg for your wedding

try changing your ram timings i heard cas to ras latency of 2 doesn't work on the new intel 800fsb chipsets. OH and abit boards read the temps higher than they really are some are out 20+C. yea when you oc change your ram to fsb ratio so the ram stays as close to stock as possible. lock the pci/agp bus speed. dats all i can think of right now basic noob stuff.

Oh..yeah, I'll be using a 5:4 ratio, so I should be good there..

I read all the posts about these new chipsets running tight timings, but I'm not having any problems (yet).. I've had this Corsair up to 213fsb at 2-2-6-1T timings, but my previous AMD cpu just couldn't hang.. I feel pretty confident that 275 should be within my reach provided I ease the timings off a tad. -I'll at least let it run @ 250 5:4 for a full day or two before I try it though.

Nox - I'd sure like to register @ newegg, but you know how it is.. Everyone would skimp out and get me all refurbed stuff LOL!!
My fiancee makes fun of me everytime I buy $350 worth of computer hardware and say "okay, after this I should be good for a LONG time".. It's all B.S. though.. muhahahaha!!

It was nice to see that the same CPU codes as mine currently has the highest O/C for a 2.6C. Schaweettt!

250fsb with 5:4 is hitting your rams rated speed so any higher of a fsb should be set to 3:2 just so we can work the chip first you can always come back to the ram.

refurb lol

Well, it's looking real nice... Now you just gotta get that HSF and start overclocking!

next time you have problems reformatting yuor hd becuase of xp..just disable the hard drive and make it boot from cd. That disables the faulty windows and lets yuo do a clean format...Works like a charm with windows xp pro

Ok, here's some initial results..

I'm currently running a 5:4 ratio with 250fsb with default vcore.
The fact that I'm still running default vcore makes me think I've stilll got a good amount of overclocking room.
250fsb is running great, now that I remembered to DISABLE hyperthreading..

My idle temp is 47c, which seems pretty warm, but the ASIII hasn't had time to settle in, so I'm hoping those drop 2-3c in the next few days..

I also get the dumb $#%@# award for today, as I did something completely stupid.. See, this Zalman heatsink comes VERY shiny - we're talking lapped shiny folks.. Well during my enthusiam, I didn't notice that there was a sheet of plastic covering the copper core, so I slapped on the ASIII and booted up. Seemed to be working just fine, but I bring up the HW monitor and I have idle temps of 48c with stock settings. <-- nope that ain't right.. so I pull the HSF off and think I'll try the ASIII again, and remount it. Well I get all the paste cleaned off, and I'm shocked to find the plastic sheeting there.. DUHHHH...helllooo McFly!!
Short story is, I fix it, remount it, and my stock idle temp falls to ~38c - much better.

I'm just now starting so burn in will be ongoing for the next few days, followed by some serious tweaking once the ASIII settles in.

I did 3Dmark just to see how much gaming performance the fsb is giving me.. Here's a link to that. This is by far the highest score I've ever gotten, and that's with stock settings on my 9700Pro.

Anywho, just thought I'd give an update.. Still loving this motherboard. Ran through Sandra memory benchmark, and got about 11000 combined.

-edit- here's some results from PCMark2002
CPU Score - 8003
Memory Score - 9642
HDD Score - 1102

I push my 2.4c to over 3.4 using a 3:2 divider, but have since rolled off a little to 3.258 using 5:4. I prefer having the extra memory bandwidth.

My FSB is 271, making my memory run at it's rated max - 217 (434DDR). I did have to increase the voltage to 2.8 to get it stable in Windows. I'm loving this set up.

Timings are 2,3,3,7 - corsair have said that RAS to CAS delay should be 3 on canterwood boards, maybe you can run a little tighter.

For now, I'm running 2-3-3-6. I'll prolly see how far I can go with that. Voltage is 2.6, but I'm sure I'll need to crank that up a little when I really start pressing the memory.

Forgot to post this above;

Congratulations!

Okay, this might seem a little strange, but I think I'm happy with these settings..

CPU FSB - 250
Default CPU voltage
Memory ratio - 5:4
Memory timings CL2 2-2-6

I know with that 13x multi that only comes to 3.25GHz, but man it's running awesome. I had it up to 3.38GHz, but then I have to lower timings, increase voltage and watch my temps increase (only somewhat though). -And these tight timings give me some very nice memory scores in Sandra.

At PC3200 with the timings listed above, I have:
RAM Int @ 5553 MB/s
RAM Float @ 5550 MB/s

Sure I was scoring higher with 260fsb, but it wasn't much higher, and I kind of like the simplicity of my overclock.

I have no doubt that getting to 265fsb will require 1.6v, because 260fsb needed 1.575.

Hmm...what I might do is see how far I can go with these timings, and stock voltage and stop there..

Hmph.. 255fsb with 5:4 divider and same timings give
RAM Int 5660 MB/s
RAM Float 5656 MB/s
3.3GHz

Oh I dunno....what to do..what to do..

Damnnn!! I broke 18000 in 3Dmark.. Stock clocks on the VC too.

And My PCmark2002 scores went up quite a bit too..

CPU score 8228
Memory score 10098

Nice scores! Get the VC oced and join the 20K club

Hi mate.

Ok i have the P4 2.4c (800fsb) cpu and i am running an easy 3.32Ghz @ 4x276 (1104) 1.6v with a 5:4 ratio with PC 3500 DDRAM running at 222Mhz (444Mhz) @ CL 2-3-3-5.
I can get it to run at 280fsb but games freeze when on full load etc and im thinking this is a memory/timing/ratio problem why i cant get 5:4 on 280fsb stable.
I have posted 3.6 but windows will not load after this and also i have had it post @ 3.5 and then come back with a windows protection error in xp to avoid damage to system etc.

Am i right in saying that lowering the ratio to 3:2 is in fact slower than 5:4 and obviously 1:1 and if so would that warrant me going for 3:2 @ 3.5/3.6 with 1200fsb with relaxed timings over the settings i have now?
Answers on a postcard please to...

Would hate to kill my system with some settings and then not be able to run what i have been doing...?

Well, you should see that CPU can do. Lower your timings to 2.5-3-3-7 and use the 3:2 ratio and shoot your CPU for the stars. Whenever you max out, you can see what's the best compromise between mem bandwidth and CPU speed.

So you think 3:2 setting at say 3.6Ghz @1200fsb with CL 2.5 3-3-7 is better than 5:4 setting @ 3.32 @1104fsb with DDR @ CL 2-3-3-5?
Could i not have the best trade off at the settings i am at now..?
Is 3:2 considerably slower than 5:4? Is there much in it as i dont know the full details of the ratio dilema i have in my head?
Sorry to be a noob at the ratio situation but we all have to start somewhere and my quest for truth shall endevour!!
My last system was a 1.2BXIA Athlon o/c @ 1.333, i guess things have moved on a little...
Thanks in advance.

It can basically be figured up like this..

1:1 means the CPU and RAM are running sync (same fsb)
5:4 means CPU is full speed and RAM is 80% of whatever fsb the CPU is using ( 250 x .8 = 200fsb)
3:2 means CPU is full speed and RAM is 66% of whatever fsb the CPU is using ( 250 x .66 = 165fsb)

I'm pretty sure that's how it works anyway.. I think I'd rather run 5:4 versus 3:2 unless I had weak memory, or I was running higher than 285fsb.. I'd think memory bandwidth would be lower, but hey I'm no pro as I'm an Intel O/C noob as well..

Now AMD I know all about!! LOL!!