Need help finding mobo for barton 2500+

[tenchi86]

Hello, I have been looking all night and cannot find anywhere I trust that sells a motherboard for the 2500+ mobile barton. I was looking for the Epox 8RDA3G nForce 2, or the DFI NFII ULTRA INFINITY. The only one I could find though that seems to support this CPU and be halfway recommended is the ABIT NF7-S2 at newegg.com. I was wondering if anyone could help me in finding a better motherboard for the CPU I want. Thanks for any help, tips on OCing this CPU are also welcome.

 

[rseven]

The Abit is supposed to be a good board. I have an Asus A7N8X which does not overclock as well, but is a good stable board. I have built 3 solid systems with the same board. Overclocking is pretty simple on an XP. You set your agp/pci bus to 66 to lock and the start upping the FSB. Hopefully, you have PC3200 ram so it can scale up to 200MHz without difficulty. Also, something other than stock cooling is recommended. See how high you can go on stock voltage before you consider extra juice. Some of the 2500's scale well on stock voltage. You'll need to get a download of Prime95 to check stability as you go. My 2500 can go to 11x205 MHz at 1.82 volts. I backed it off to 11x195 and 1.72 volts because it ran so much cooler.
Hey, you have plenty of fun with it. Good luck.

 

[tenchi86]

Ok thanks for the help. I may just go with that motherboard it looks like. Do you know though, does this motherboard still require the volt mod after like 12.5x multiplier? I have overclocked Intel CPUs before, but never have done a volt mod, and was a little concerned about messing up, so I was trying to avoid that since this is not my pc. One last question, is their any particular cooling you recommend for this CPU? I was looking to not spend more the 30 bucks if possible. Again thanks for any help.

 

[Balrog]

I don't believe any of the boards support multis higher than 12.5X naitively when you use a Mobile Barton - you have to add the wire in the socket to allow use of higher multis but then you're stuck with 13X+ & can't use lower ones unless you remove the wire.

A friend of mine runs his 35watt 2400+ Mobile @2.6Ghz using the wire in his Epox 8RDA3i Pro board with no problems - last I knew NewEgg sold the Epox for ~$59.00

Looks like their out now but have the 8RDA3 Pro which is the next grade up & adds firewire & gigabit ethernet for $79.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123233

Good Luck!

Regards, Balrog

 

[rseven]

Sorry, Tenchi86, it was late last night when I read your post and I saw xp2500 but did not notice the mobile. Heck, that makes a big difference in scaling. (I have a plain old Barton) I agree with Balrog that the Epox is a very good board for it. As for coolers, the best one is the TR SI97A. It's about $35 without a 92mm fan. I'm not sure of what I'd use for less money. I have a TT Volcano 12, which goes for about $25 with a fan. It's adequate, but nothing great. Good luck with it.

 

[Balrog]

Yup, SI-97 is great sink as R7 states - my friend used that on his Mobile Barton @2.5Ghz before switching to water cooling

I also have a Volcano 12 & got 2.5Ghz out of my 1700+ DLT3C cool & stable @4400rpm
They need a bit of modding to do it - lap the base to 800 grit - flip the fan to draw air through the sink & seal the top of the the sink so that all the air enters through the lower half. It runs much cooler & quieter with the fan flipped as its capable of ~73CFM at full speed - 5500rpm - & trying to force that volume of air into the 66 micro fins creates too much backpressure & turbulence which reduces its cooling efficientcy & causes excessive noise - running it with the air being drawn through resolves these issues for me.

Another sink you migh consider is the Coolermaster Hyper 6+ - you need to have the 4 mounting holes as it doesn't use the socket lugs - its also quite large so check your MoBo specs - it performs very well & runs quietly - temps can approach water cooling on air.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835103162

My friend with the Mobile also has a Hyper 6+ kicking around, though he hasn't used it yet - I'll be talking to him tonite - I'll ask him to check out his Epox to see if it will clear the caps on his board

Regards, Balrog

 

[tenchi86]

Thanks a lot for the help both of you. Last night when I posted I had a massive headache so sorry if it didn't make much sense. Anyway I am glad to hear the SI-97 may work with this. I was thinking of that or like the XP-90cu, though I have not spent much time on computers since summer started, so forgot what socket they covered. The PC is for my friend so even if I undervolted the fan I don't think he wants a delta or tornado, though I will ask him. Anyway thanks a lot and thanks in advance for any more help.

 

[rseven]

Thanks a lot for the help both of you. Last night when I posted I had a massive headache so sorry if it didn't make much sense. Anyway I am glad to hear the SI-97 may work with this. I was thinking of that or like the XP-90cu.

The xp90 c is not set up for an XP. The Si97 is pretty much the same thing, in aluminum insteaad of copper, but will clip on to an XP cpu socket.

 

[Balrog]

My friend said he dig out the Hyper 6+ (its still in its packaging) & check out the fit on his Epox - I'll let you know what he finds, otherwise the SI-97 does fit & would be a good choice & a whole lot cheaper.

Any of the Epox Pro boards should serve your friend well - not the highest OCers but quite adequate, he should get 2.3-2.5Ghz out of the Mobile Barton, The Pro boards also have naitive SATA support & NV firewall & RAID which all work well - some have firewire & giga LAN to boot.

You can run both PATA & SATA drives in a RAID array - my friend runs his OS off a baby SATA Raptor & a pair of 120G in RAID 0 for data storage - its a pretty zippy rig for Socket A

Regards, Balrog

 

[tenchi86]

Thank you both for you help. I have decided to go with the Si-97, along with the ABIT NF7-S2 normal version. They both should fit his needs nicley.

 

[rseven]

You are welcome. Good luck with it.

 

[Balrog]

That may not be a good choice

I don't believe the S2 versions supports overclocking

Mobile Bartons default to a 6X multi & 100FSB when installed in desktop motherboards AFAIK, so you'll need some kind of multi, FSB & possibly voltage to get the Mobile to run properly

Even if he doesn't want to OC much now, he may want to later & its nice to have choices w/o having to buy another MoBo

Census PC has the 8RDA3+ Pro for $72.00 + shipping or NewEgg for $79.00

Maybe you can find an 8RDA3i Pro somewhere

Otherwise try & buy a NF7-S Ver 2.0 off E-bay or somewhere

Just my $0.02

Good Luck!

Regards, Balrog

Edit: 8RDA3+ Pro is $72.00 shipping included from Newegg - comes with a boat load of brackets & 2 x rounded IDE cables - 2 x SATA cables w/ power adaptors - tough deal to beat at that price - IMHO

 

[tenchi86]

Ok, thank you very much for that information.