ASUS A8V Deluxe Overclocking Guide -- Discussion

[RussMan113]

Hey guys, I just joined this board. Im having some memory problems here.

I have:

Asus A8V Deluxe Rev 2.0
Athlon FX60
Memory - Trying to figure this out.
PSU Antec 550 HE
VideoCard 6800gt


My problem is that, I have 2 1 gig corsair xms ddr400 c2plat sticks, and 3 512 mb xms ddr400 sticks, they are all basically the same except different sizes. Now no matter WHAT config I do, I cannot get them to run together. Now I see people running 2x 1 gig setups and 2x 512 mb setup perfectly. Everything is stock as well. Ive put the timings down on the memory though, running at 2-3-2-6 1T @ 2.6 volts with no issues (on the 1 gig chip).

Help me out please lol.... Thanks

 

[DDMan]

Hey guys, I just joined this board. Im having some memory problems here.

I have:

Asus A8V Deluxe Rev 2.0
Athlon FX60
Memory - Trying to figure this out.
PSU Antec 550 HE
VideoCard 6800gt


My problem is that, I have 2 1 gig corsair xms ddr400 c2plat sticks, and 3 512 mb xms ddr400 sticks, they are all basically the same except different sizes. Now no matter WHAT config I do, I cannot get them to run together. Now I see people running 2x 1 gig setups and 2x 512 mb setup perfectly. Everything is stock as well. Ive put the timings down on the memory though, running at 2-3-2-6 1T @ 2.6 volts with no issues (on the 1 gig chip).

Help me out please lol.... Thanks

Will the computer boot with those configurations? I know I couldn't get mine to boot if I had all 4 sticks in a certain order. I started moving stuff around (switch the 2- 1gb's, then I switched the 2-512's), and finally got it to boot.

Another thing, you cannot use the 1T command rate with 4 sticks of memory that I know of. I believe its 4 sticks at 2T, or 2 sicks at 1T. Another thing to try is to fully relax the timings to 3-3-3-8, or even 3-4-4-8, or 3-4-4-10, and see if you can get it to run that way.

Honestly, my trade off was 2gb of ram at 2600mhz (175 mem @ 1T), or 3gb of ram at 2500mhz (208 mem @ 2T), and I picked the 2gb with the 1T command rate because it was actually FASTER.

 

[Velocity]

Make sure your putting the ram in slot 1 and 3 not 1 and 2 and see if that works. Also try setting the bios to default settings.

 

[DDMan]

I know this thread is getting old, but has ANYONE been able to surpass the 260HTT barrier? I was thinking that maybe using a hardware raid card might do the trick...

Or maybe its just time to get a NF4 based MB and pray my X-Fi doesnt have the SCP (snap crackle pop) problems that its notorious for.

 

[tuskenraider]

I know this thread is getting old, but has ANYONE been able to surpass the 260HTT barrier? I was thinking that maybe using a hardware raid card might do the trick...

Or maybe its just time to get a NF4 based MB and pray my X-Fi doesnt have the SCP (snap crackle pop) problems that its notorious for.

I know I have been able to boot as high as 286 on my old board. As noted before though, there is a slowdown on the whole IDE/SATA subsystem for whatever reason at 262HTT. I moved on to an NF4 board with great results.

 

[Limey]

I hit the limits of the Via RAID controller on my A8V - it wouldn't boot up past 250MHz FSB (regardless of mem divider, multi, voltage etc) the RAID array would show garbled info even on the post screen at anything over 250

I don't recall seeing anything regarding slowing down the HT link on my deluxe v2 with the 1017 BIOS, I noticed some of you referencing X3 for that.
I'm able to do it now on my DFI Lanparty and able to hit 270 FSB - thankfully now limited to CPU voltage which has to be 1.475 (yikes) to run at load (load being recoding video using both cores 100% on the 3800 X2) - thankfully water cooled so heat isn't an issue with higher volts - going to try for 2800MHZ 1.5V today.

The RAID controller is a little slower on the NVIDIA chipset, compensated a little by loading the hitachi DOS util and sending the command to make the drives SATA 3GBPS

 

[Velocity]

Can you really overclock while using the via sata? I thought the harddrives on the via sata would get corrupted if you tried to overclock.

 

[Limey]

Can you really overclock while using the via sata? I thought the harddrives on the via sata would get corrupted if you tried to overclock.

For me, it would crap out at POST before it got the chance to try and boot and fubar the data.

It would show garbled data while detecting the RAID stripe at anything over 253MHz in my case.
the HT multi couldn't be tweaked so I went NF4 and now I'm running 270MHz with 3X HT

 

[Jack_Pepsi]

Ruddy 'ell - I've come a bit late to the party ay? All the booze gone now?

I'll really appreciate some feedback if anyone is still alive within this thread. I've just recently managed to source a A8V Deluxe which I presume is a modified rev 1 as there is a sticker over the model number saying Rev 2.00 but CPU-Z states that the board is 1.xx -

Anyroad, this is just an introductary post as I'm just about to finish work and don't have time go into details. I expect everyone has moved on from using such old school tech as 939 and AGP, but hopefully some kind soul we'll be able to help me out.

My spec's are in my signature...

Thanks,
JP

 

[KillrBuckeye]

Ruddy 'ell - I've come a bit late to the party ay? All the booze gone now?

I'll really appreciate some feedback if anyone is still alive within this thread. I've just recently managed to source a A8V Deluxe which I presume is a modified rev 1 as there is a sticker over the model number saying Rev 2.00 but CPU-Z states that the board is 1.xx -

Anyroad, this is just an introductary post as I'm just about to finish work and don't have time go into details. I expect everyone has moved on from using such old school tech as 939 and AGP, but hopefully some kind soul we'll be able to help me out.

My spec's are in my signature...

Thanks,
JP

Hey there JP and welcome to forums! Most of us are using newer hardware for our main rigs, but many of us are still using this board for secondary rigs. Right now my wife's computer is using the A8V Deluxe with a Venice 3200+ CPU and 2x512MB of Corsair VS PC3200. Let us know if you need any help.

BTW, I don't see your signature.

 

[Jack_Pepsi]

Thanks for the reply, don't understand why my signature isn't showing, that's rather lame. It's saved, either way here it is...

Lian-Li PC-A05B - ASUS A8V Deluxe Rev 2 - AMD Athlon64 X2 'Toledo' 3800+ (939) - 2GB Cruical DDR500 - 512MB Sapphire HD3850 (AGP) - 160GB Samsung SP1614N, 300GB Samsung HD300LJ - 500GB Samsung HD502IJ - Lite-On SOHW-1673 @ 1693 - 20.1" Viewsonic VX2025WM - Corsair HX520W - Microsoft Windows XP Clan BeeR Edition​

I'm probably expecting too much from this board, but my nForce3 based Shuttle SN95G with the exact same components bar the PSU completely wasted the aforementioned specification. I'm riddle with instability, albeit I do have a little bit of an OC (2.76GHz from 2GHz) but I'm not getting anywhere near the performance I did with my Shuttle at 2.7GHz.

Could it be that the A8V really doesn't like my RAM and the nForce3 in my Shuttle didn't give a rats? Or am I going about my OC in the wrong way. I could continue listing all my issues but I'm tired from work and I'll get my head together after some food a nice pint of ale. ^^

Again, thanks for replying so quickly. Hopefully I can get my signature working, oh and I'm using the 1018.002 beta BIOS seems to be more stable than the 1017. I had to drop my RAM from 2:1 (DDR400) to 5:3 (DDR333) and 1T isn't stable, well it was for a bit then it crapped out.

 

[KillrBuckeye]

Your signature appears to be working now. I found that the A8V Deluxe did some VERY strange things with the memory dividers. Basically, setting certain memory dividers in BIOS will not give you the behavior you expect, and some of them will lead to extreme instability even at stock speeds.

Please reference this thread I started back in 2005 for more details!
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=408517

This issue was confirmed with at least 2 other people; however, I still have no idea which combinations of CPUs/memory modules were affected. It's possible that your hardware may not suffer from this problem. In any case, you should be aware of the funny behavior that's possible with this board. Asus' BIOS coding team did an extremely poor job with this motherboard.

 

[Super Nade]

Did you read through this first? -->LINK

 

[Jack_Pepsi]

Did you read through this first? -->LINK

Of course I did, hence why I am here. Freaking excellent thread, shame it's out-dated.

 

[Super Nade]

Well, you do realize that after the DFI-NF4 came out the A8V slid into the background? That is why I couldn't keep the thread updated. But I do believe that I've pretty much exhausted bugs and issues with that board.

Post your settings as in the case files and I'll see what I can do.

 

[Velocity]

Ruddy 'ell - I've come a bit late to the party ay? All the booze gone now?

I'll really appreciate some feedback if anyone is still alive within this thread. I've just recently managed to source a A8V Deluxe which I presume is a modified rev 1 as there is a sticker over the model number saying Rev 2.00 but CPU-Z states that the board is 1.xx -

Anyroad, this is just an introductary post as I'm just about to finish work and don't have time go into details. I expect everyone has moved on from using such old school tech as 939 and AGP, but hopefully some kind soul we'll be able to help me out.

My spec's are in my signature...

Thanks,
JP

I'm still using it as I wait for Nehalem.

 

[KillrBuckeye]

But I do believe that I've pretty much exhausted bugs and issues with that board.

It is a great thread S-N. However, I noticed it doesn't say anything about the memory divider problems with all BIOS releases after 1009. I just re-read the thread I linked in my previous post, and there were at least 5 or 6 people who all reported the same thing (on 3 different forums). To sum it up, the 5:6 divider simply does not work right and the 3:2 divider works like a 5:6 divider.

 

[Jack_Pepsi]

Well, you do realize that after the DFI-NF4 came out the A8V slid into the background?

Damn PCI-E *shakes fist!*

Post your settings as in the case files and I'll see what I can do.

Thank you, that's highly appreciated.

As I'm at work and I'm at my girlfriend's this weekend I'm doing this from memory, but I'll edit my post about specific details such as the RAM chips et al.

System Specs:
In signature...

Symptoms/Problems:
Maybe I'm being a bit greedy, but I can't seem to get any stability once I've OC'd my CPU. The rig can be extremely temperamental, for example, say I have a mild OC of 2.2GHz the rig can be rock stable with my HTT at 1000 (16bit both ways) with my RAM set to 3-3-3-8 with 1T enabled for weeks then all of a sudden it'll crap out, games freeze, programs (such as MSN) close randomly and the infuriating BSOD, each time with a different message. win32k.sys, or IRQ not less or equal to, USB.SYS to name a few.

BIOS Settings:
These I'll update after the weekend.

FSB: 200 (stock) anything higher.
CPU Mult: 10
AGP/PCI Freq: 66.66/33.33
DDR voltage 2.8v
AGP voltage 1.6v
HT: 600, 800, 1000 (16bit both ways)
C&Q disabled

Analysis and Remedial attempts by the user:
With 2T enabled I get more stability but the same symptoms apply, even with high clocks. However, the board seems completely stable at stock speeds with default timings.

I believe my instability is a result of a compatiblity issue with my RAM. The reason why I believe this is due to the fact my Shuttle SN95G5v3 (which uses the nForce3 250GB chipset) was far more stable. I was able to run my system with 3-3-3-8 (2T) at 270MHz (CPU=2.7GHz) with complete stability, however I couldn't get passed 270. I had stock vCore on my CPU 1.3v and the RAM was 2.5. With my A8V I've tried my CPU at everything from stock to the top end of 1.4volts. I'm evening having to run my RAM at 2.8 to get stability.

Arrh crap, gotta get back to work, I'll update this fully after the weekend.

Thanks again!

 

[KillrBuckeye]

JP, you previously stated the following:

I had to drop my RAM from 2:1 (DDR400) to 5:3 (DDR333) and 1T isn't stable, well it was for a bit then it crapped out.

My thoughts: First, forget about running 1T if you want a decent overclock. My board never liked 1T. Besides, it has been shown time and time again that the difference between 1T and 2T on 939 rigs is at best 1-3% in terms of real-world performance. Second, DO NOT use the 5:3 (DDR333) divider until you verify that it is working as expected. I'm not sure how many times I have to say it, but this divider has not worked right since BIOS 1009. I have yet to get confirmation from a single person that this memory divider applies the proper memory speed. To verify, set your FSB to 240 MHz and check the memory speed in Memtest86+ or with CPU-Z. If it reports anything other than 200 MHz, than the divider is malfunctioning and will definitely lead to instability, regardless of clock speed. If you want a true 5:3 divider, then use the 3:2 setting.

 

[Jack_Pepsi]

JP, you previously stated the following:


My thoughts: First, forget about running 1T if you want a decent overclock. My board never liked 1T. Besides, it has been shown time and time again that the difference between 1T and 2T on 939 rigs is at best 1-3% in terms of real-world performance. Second, DO NOT use the 5:3 (DDR333) divider until you verify that it is working as expected. I'm not sure how many times I have to say it, but this divider has not worked right since BIOS 1009. I have yet to get confirmation from a single person that this memory divider applies the proper memory speed. To verify, set your FSB to 240 MHz and check the memory speed in Memtest86+ or with CPU-Z. If it reports anything other than 200 MHz, than the divider is malfunctioning and will definitely lead to instability, regardless of clock speed. If you want a true 5:3 divider, then use the 3:2 setting.

I must admit, I didn't exactly word that correctly. I was in a rush at work, I'll save you the boring banter. Jist is, the rig isn't exactly stable at the same settings compared to my SN95G5 which I find hard to believe considering this is a full on ATX board with a much larger PSU.

Now I know that the PSU in my Shuttle is extremely efficient and the nForce3 chipset is better... wait, am I answering my own question here? Anyroad, my Shuttle was fantastic at 2.7GHz (270MHz 3-3-3-8 2T) at stock voltage. I got 9125 in 3DMark06. With my A8V at 2.7GHz I can't even complete 3DMark06 without it crapping out. Then again, sometimes it agrees and finishes but the score I get is hundreds of marks lower. Why?

One thing I have found interesting is that Hardware Monitor reports my voltages a fair bit lower than what they should be...



... this could be the reason as to why my rig is acting so temperamental.

I've just got back from my GF's so I'm exhausted. I'll keep you guys posted and I'll finish off my previous post.