I need more out of this PII x3 720

Well i cant decide if i should sit down and call it a day or if i should keep going further with this x2 720. My main problem right now after extensive OCing and talking with members here on the forums...I am positive that my mobo is my wall on my OC. I cant seem to creep an mhz past 3.4000 solid without have a reboot during a prime. Temps are good runs stable in games and everything but not during prime or SETI. Yeah some would say, "its gaming fine, so why worry"...Well thats just me... My mobo has the AMD770chipset and the SB700 which doesnt have ACC (allows me to unlock my 4th core if at all possible).As well as i'm hearing i would have better luck with the SB710 chipset when trying to OC.

I am up in the ropes between these two boards:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128395&cm_re=MA785g-_-13-128-395-_-Product

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136058&cm_re=dfi_790-_-13-136-058-_-Product


The DFI seems to have some bad reviews but i've had great luck with dfi as well as Gigabyte (gigabyte has solid review on that board) The dfi thought has teh SB750 and AMD 790GX chipset.

I figured upgrading just the board would be better as upgrading my memory to ddr3 and a ddr 3 board i wouold not gain anything special there as the margin of increase between ddr2 and ddr3 right now is minimal. I am just needing more OCing head room and ACC.

My current board isnt as stable as it could be at high clock on moderate voltages ( as soom are getting with similar boards that i'm looking into).

What does everyone think?

What are the chances of being able to unlock the 4th core with ACC any sucess stories or horror stories to go with it?

Also this new board has nother pci-e slot so i can finally run crossfire or drop my old nVidia card in there for physX for better benchmark scores, (if someone breaks the drivers to let it happen again)

Well I am willing to bet that your SB700 is holding you back... and here's a great ASUS board (I've had like 6 ASUS boards in different builds, and they are rock solid and great for OC'ing.)

ASUS M4A78-E ATX with 790GX + SB750 with 2 PCI-e 2.0 x16 slots running dual x8 or single x16 ~$110
here at NewEgg

Although that DFI LP looks good to, but the ASUS looks cooler (lol?) and is a little cheaper. And I've actually heard quiet a few success stories of people unlocking to x4 using the 720BE and OC'ing it. There's no horror stories that I know of, if your chip actually does have it's 4th core locked becuase of defect it'll just be unstable or not POST. The only concern with unlocking is stability and cooling. If you do the math, 3 cores is 100% of the stock TDP = 95watts, therefore 4 cores is 133% of stock TDP = 126watts, so you can use that math to figure OC'ing TDP's as well. Good luck =)

Thanks for the info, I like the asus board as well. I had the doo doo brown color though! LOL!! ..

So that gigabyte is amd785 and 710sb

that DFI and ASUS are amd790 and 750SB. Is there more stability and a further OC wall from amd785-790 and sb710-750?

Well I've never personally compared them... but seeing as how the SB750-790GX pair is both considered higher-end (by AMD anyways...) and is newer then the SB710-785GX pair. As far as ASUS vs. DFI I have no idea... personally I would go with the ASUS just because I've used them a lot before. Regarding the 'doo-doo' color (lol) of the ASUS boards... well I had the M3N78-VM which is the same color scheme, and the main PCB actually looks black in a case especially in low light. At any rate... the ASUS's 'doo-doo' color is cooler looking then the DFI's construction-site/tonka-truck color scheme lol.

And regarding your plans on CrossFire or SLI or whatever... the ASUS board would be much better suited because its PCI-e x 16 slots have 2 spaces between instead of the DFI's 1. So it would be much better cooling for your cards. As far as SLI/CF certification is concerned... neither of these boards say they are on the NewEgg site, so I am not positive these actually support it; although, I think SB750 + 790GX boards support CF as long as there's 2 PCI-e slots. I'll look into it a little more for you.

Well after some quick research... both are CrossFire certified and use 8x - 8x lanes in a dual GPU setup at 98% of maximum bandwidth (basically 16x = 100% and 8x = 98%-99%) so you can't get much better for 2x CrossFire. Although the DFI has only 4+1 power staging (4 digital PWM phases + 1 northbridge phase) whereas the ASUS has 8+1 power staging (8 digital PWM phases + 1 northbridge phase.) Plus ASUS has CrashFree BIOS 3 which I love... basically if your board doesn't POST, your CMOS resets to the last POST'd settings and reboots. So I'd go with the ASUS.

if you look around you can find a DFI 790FX SB750. i'm thinking about switching out my board for a DFI. for whatever reason when i raise the multiplier using the bios on this foxconn board it is unstable using IntelBurnTest but when i use AMD Overdrive or K10stat no problems with changing just the multiplier and passing IntelBurnTest.

Well I am assuming a DFI with SB750+790FX would probably be $150

Edit: found it... and it's $170 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136067

I'm an Asus user here (m4a786TD-v evo) and have successfully unlocked my 720be using ACC then unleash mode. Quiet easier than what I expected though.

I'm with sir Dooms101 for the Asus board vote, next in line is the DFI.

From what it looks like, you're going to use your former DDR2's right? or are you willing to switch to DDR3's (if so, you can have more alternatives with regards to 785 chipsets)

Im gonna stay with the DDR2 as the marginal increase between 2 and 3 right now are minimal.

Edit. Forgot my birthday is in 10 days.. So in order to be future proof(ish)

i've decided im going to jump on 4x2 Gigs of DDR3 1600(PC12800)
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131402

that ASUS mobo. Running me Less than 200 after shipping, thats a good deal. Not only will have have the SB750 if i want ACC for my 4th(if there) core. I will have a 2nd PCIE for X-Fire, so i can grab a 2nd 5770

That's awesome dude, I've been meaning to upgrade my board and ram for a while to that. I've done a lot of research on it, and it's a real winner (especially for only $120!)

Might I suggest this ram?

OCZ Reaper HPC 2x2gb 1600mhz DDR3 (7-7-7-21-1T) for $118: Link

- or -

G.Skill RipJaws 2x2gb 1333mhz DDR3 (7-7-7-21-1T) for $98 + free shipping: Link

Give us an update when you get the stuff!

You'll probably have better luck with the 790X chipset on the last board than the 790GX chipset.


And it's not the SB700 that's holding you back in the OC department (though it doesn't allow unlocking), it's the 770 NB chipset ...

There are two types of Gigabyte 770 motherboards, the GA-MA770-UD3 (rev1.0) which you have, and the GA-MA770T-UD3 which I have. I think you'll find that if you switch to the MA770T you'll have better luck overclocking, and it's still a relatively cheap but very well built board. however, if you want an SLI solution the 790 is the way to go. The SB710 is still pretty good, but my version does have the SB750.

my GA-MA770T-UD3 can also unlock the 4th core if it is unlock-able (don't forget to up the voltage!). Remember, the temp sensors always become disabled when successfully unlocking a 4th core. The only horror story I can think of is having to rest the CMOS if it is unsuccessfully posting. but even if you post, it doesn't mean the 4th core is unflawed. Some people also have everything work fine until they shut it down and try to reboot, then it won't post.

Asus has crashfree bios, but Gigabyte has dual bios which is a step up because if a bios flash somehow messes up, you won't brick your board. Although crashfree is definitely a good feature, but I had problems with it in the past. It would sometimes kick in on perfectly fine overclocks and give me the option of changing the values or setting default. using the option to change the values sent you to the bios setup menu where you would need to press F10 to save and exit and reboot, after rebooting everything would boot like it should. It would only happen every once in a while after being completely turned off. Mostly just an annoyance.

Dooms: I saw those ripjaws, i grabbed the ones that are little bit faster for the same price. They have great reviews, and the board can support it. and For the price.WOW.

QuietIce: That makes more sense, i guess the SB is only holding me back from ACC. That Asus board i linked is 790X so looks like i'm on the right track.

720x770: Thanks for the info, yeah i was one of the unlucky ones to get the MA770-UD3 Rev.1 shipped from newegg rather than rev.2 w/ the SB710. I'm gonna go ahead and upgrade my board for dual PCI-E so i can eventually xfire this 5770.

I've threw this case in there as well as my Antec300 just inst the greatest for cooling when you have 3 HDDs, a huge cpu cooler and a 2nd vid card soon to come(just wont fit,period!)
case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811517006

i'm a sucker for eye candy, but has good reviews


ill throw an update after i order the stuff probably this thursday!