AT7-Max2

[the garynator]

overclockability

Got a ver 1.1 about two three weeks ago. I love it, very stable, good oc'er, however, i have not been able to hit over 179mhz fsb stable. previously i could only go to 169mhz fsb, than i got a tip from one of the other posts that the northbridge hsf did not have any thermal grease. put some on and wallah, 1709. booted to windows @ 181, ran sisoft mem bandwidth, and smack, crash. any suggestions for further ocing?

 

[ratts]

hfsb?

what divider are you using? is your chip unlocked? more info............quick hint........relax your ram settings...........and possibly raise ddr volts,vcore volts.......i had to raise vcore to 1.85v for me to hit 1750 without crashing......1750 was my max though for xp1900 unlocked.......set it back to 1704 (10x170) for complete stability and perfect heat ratio....(38' idle 41' load) my ram though is at cas2,4 bank, and 2t access other than that other settings at default (3t-6t-3t) 2t command. when i push those, machine locks up due to ram doesnt support 2t-5t-2t-1t command. anyhow, more info........

 

[madsam]

anyone know why my at7-max2 won't shut down? i boot ok, but when i go to shut down, it locks up on the" windows is shutting down" screen. it was suggested to me , that i should disable the APIC in the bios, but she won't boot if i do.

 

[Matrix78]

have you updated all the via drivers and others on the MoBO, i know i was having that problem, i dont remeber if it was the drivers or windows that was having a problem but i did a few installs cause i screewed up windows a few times and it fianly worked right the last time

 

[the garynator]

I know its not the ram, i have a stick of giel ddr433 cas 2, have not updated drivers, i was planning on flashing the bios, but i have not yet. Also yes i have the 5 pci diviser on. I've also not been able to break 1.5 ghz stable with my athlon tbird 1.33, it is an AYHJA. The highest I could stably do was 1,494 with a 166x9. Yes, it is unlocked, factory unlocked all i can think of about the oc on the cpu is that it might be the psu. i have a 300w antec. My 12v rail is at roughly 11.9 most of the time, but periodicaly drops to like 11.6-7. However, this is much better than the 11.55 or lower i saw with a 350w codgen psu. I saw a slight improvement in stability when i switched back to my antec from the codgen, so i think that that might have something to do with it.
oh and ratts, i have to push like 1.9 or 1.95 to get 1494 to get it stable. im also running hotter temps, it might just be because im going by the mobo temp probe, which is supposibly terrible. time for a digidoc. i dont think that the hsf is a prob, i have a dragon orb 3 with the fan taken off and a 127mm high rpm fan about 3-4 inches away blowing directly on it.
mad sam, ive had that prob in the past with other mobos, usually a reinstall fixes it. thats just the expirence i had though.
hey, without ocing, i pulled a 5900 in 3dmark 2001, with ocing cpu to 179x9, and radeon 8500le from 250/400 to 315/500 i pulled roughly a 8250. ive noticed that the biggest increases come from the fsb/ram settings. just an observation.

 

[madsam]

i did a reinstall of windows, and the lock up on shutdown was still apparent, however, i did some changes in the bios....for other reasons, and now it shuts down fine. i'm puzzled, because i'm not sure if it was a bios setting, or if was something i did in the windows settings, but either way, she's running smooth, and she shuts down fine now. we will see what happens over time.

 

[SafirXP]

Finally got the board and the media bay. Haven't tried overclocking it yet. Getting the Volcano 7+ in about two weeks, I'll have a go at it when i get it and do a little mod job on my case.

 

[NeoN068]

I shouldve got it in by now but shipping take FOREVER!!! Well maybe cause I ordered it 10 minutes ago. Oh well... haha

In the mean time... what is the best heatsink? I have a SLK-800.

 

[the garynator]

That is the best heat sink that i have come across. nothing that i have seen beats the scores from that beast. the only thing that i can think of that might be minimaly better would be a home made one or something. Pretty much when you have outgrown a slk800 its time for water cooling.

Oh, and by the way, anyone know if there could be a direct relationship with my inability to hit 1.5ghz and my psu being somewhat underpowered?

 

[walldow]

I know its not the ram, i have a stick of giel ddr433 cas 2, have not updated drivers, i was planning on flashing the bios, but i have not yet. Also yes i have the 5 pci diviser on. I've also not been able to break 1.5 ghz stable with my athlon tbird 1.33, it is an AYHJA. The highest I could stably do was 1,494 with a 166x9. Yes, it is unlocked, factory unlocked

if you are using the 1/5 divider then you are supplumenting speed for performance. you can't reach 1.5 ghz with the chip because you are running at a higher bandwith of 333mhz with the 1/5 divider . running at 333mhz@1494 is acually alot better then running @266mhz with say 1600 because with the higher bandwith 333mhz the processor is getting fead more info. if you lower the divider to 1/4 you could probly hit 1600 with the right multiplier combo. but as i said the performance is better with the 333 even if it's not running faster in mhz. although i don't know what v-core you are running. if you are running stock v-core you should be able to up it to get 1.5 ghz you are looking for or better.

 

[the garynator]

would that be a motherboard limitation that it wont run up to 1600 or whatever, or is it a cpu limitation. and i know about the whole performance is in the fsb, that is why i havent even gone with the 133.

 

[walldow]

would that be a motherboard limitation that it wont run up to 1600 or whatever, or is it a cpu limitation. and i know about the whole performance is in the fsb, that is why i havent even gone with the 133.

it's defenatly a cpu limitation. when you are running the 333fsb you are forcing the cpu to take in more data at a time. the data bandwith that the cpu recievies at 333 is around 2700 bytes per second. running at 266 the data bandwith to the cpu is 2100 bytes per second. it takes a little longer for the cpu to read the extra data you are sending it at 333, making it run at lower speeds in mhz, but on the flip side it is acualy running faster because you are feading it more data.


hope this helped?

 

[the garynator]

helped alot, thank you.

 

[ratts]

yep

runs much better at 333fsb...least with mine it does........

 

[wuzzapiman]

but 380Fsb is better

 

[the garynator]

will updating the bios and the via drivers in winxp really help me reach a 200fsb? im not having any luck. at first i hit 169 stable and found out that the hsf on the northbridge didnt sport any thermal compound or even tape, so i added some compound and i was able to hit 179 stable. Also, i was woundering if the "ddr voltage" increased the chipset voltage as well as the ram voltages. I was woundering because on the back of the box, it says that there is a chipset voltage option, but i still can not find it in the bios. As i recall, it was labled i/o voltage on the original AT7-Max.

 

[walldow]

updating to the newest drivers and bios will help! and youre dram voltage setting is in the soft menu III under the cpu voltage, you will have to set it to user define inorder to get the option to change.

and yes by uping the dram voltage it will help to achieve higher fsb don't go over 2.85v unless you have a good heatspreader an the ram. if you have good cooling for the ram you should be able to take it to 2.95v or 3v

and uping the core voltage on the cpu will help the cpu to reach higher speeds. start out in .25v steps and go up watching youre cpu temps don't let them get over 55c or you will start running in to problems.

good luck! let us know how you are doing on that.

 

[ratts]

hey walldow?

i see you have new at7....what is the difference between new and old?? i have same memory but different cpu and seems that we have achieved same fsb amount (175). does this at7 max2 support pc3200 memory?? if not, i wont buy.....also, i see some where in this post someone mentioned ps/2 ports.....they put legacy back on?? i dont want that......first at7 forced me to buy usb stuff now putting ps/2 ports back on.........heck!!!! anyhow, just wanting to know how this board is if you have played around with original at7......been hearing alot of bad things about at7 max2.....please correct rumors.........

 

[the garynator]

it supports ddr400 with the fourth pci divisor, but at the fifth pci divisor it is syncranis with your fsb. it does have the ps2s back, but it has six usb2.0s on the back so you can still use your usb keyboard and mouse. I have played around with an at7-max. they are both good motherboards and the only reason i see that you would want to upgrade is for the enhancements of the chipset, which are few. I am sure that if you want to use pc3200 with the at7 you will not be dissapointed. it will just run as fast as your fsb. so if i were you the only one that i would upgrade to is the nforce2 for the dual channel ddr.