Oh, what a difference a motherboard makes. - X3 710 overclock

[theflyingrat]

I'll try to make the prologue short here. About a month and a half ago, I built a new system. For the CPU, I'm using an X3 710 - multiplier locked and HTT overclocking only, of course. I bought a Jetway HA-04 motherboard for it. On the good side, it worked at stock speeds just fine. On the down side, the NB multi switch in BIOS was non-functional. It limited the HTT speed to 210MHz; anything higher would cause a non-boot.

Eventually, I grew weary of such a weak piece of hardware and ordered a new board. Yesterday, my new DFI 790FXB-M2RSH showed up via FedEx. Already I'm at 220MHz HTT, for 2.86GHz. I'm Prime95-ing it at this speed (and default voltages) for the next 24 hours. I'm hoping for much more speed, as it certainly doesn't have any problems with this speed so far!

I'll update as I bump speeds and report on stability. Here's to hoping my 710 does me proud!

 

[Vengance_01]

Keep pushing. The DFI should be a very decent board.

 

[Neuromancer]

Please keep us informed of your progress.


Jetway is generally bargain basement board company except in industry situations.

Recently picked up an ITX board from the forums from them. IT arrived in pieces. I contacted Jetway about it fulling expecting to pay a repair fee. They said to send a 10 dollar check. I double checked and sent it, guessing the other shoe would drop when they received it.

They sent a new board back AND even sent the check back.

WOW


Amazing company with great customer service. Definitly going to buy from them again in the Embedded market

 

[theflyingrat]

Please keep us informed of your progress.


Jetway is generally bargain basement board company except in industry situations.

Recently picked up an ITX board from the forums from them. IT arrived in pieces. I contacted Jetway about it fulling expecting to pay a repair fee. They said to send a 10 dollar check. I double checked and sent it, guessing the other shoe would drop when they received it.

They sent a new board back AND even sent the check back.

WOW


Amazing company with great customer service. Definitly going to buy from them again in the Embedded market

When I go home for lunch, I'm going to check out 230HTT and start Prime-ing at that speed. That'd put me at right around 3 GHz; that's definitely a good start.

Oddly, with my Jetway, I'd tried contacted tech support several times about the NB multi being changeable in BIOS, but not actually changing anything at all; I never got an answer. Disappointing, because I really liked the features, layout, and its quickness at stock speeds. The MOSFET heat sinks are a nice bonus as well; the build quality of the board seems very good actually. It'd still be a great board for an unlocked Black Edition CPU or someone that doesn't overclock. But the non-functional NB multiplier setting hamstrings any attempts at HTT overclocking, apparently. Anything over 210HTT is a no-boot. Just rock stability at 210, and no-boot at 211. So the problem was pretty evident. If they'd just update their BIOS for that, I'd be back to using it in a second, but their tech support doesn't seem to respond to any amount of poking or prodding.

 

[theflyingrat]

230 HTT seemed like an easy-go. It should still be Prime-ing as we speak. 2990 thus far, compared to a 2730 before. 3 GHz seems way too easy...

 

[theflyingrat]

Just up to 240HTT right now - 3120 MHz on the CPU. Nearly 400 MHz more than what I'd gotten before. Everything is still at default voltages; I just started Prime95, we'll see how it goes.

 

[QuietIce]

From what I've read that DFI is a nice board - you should get great clocks from it ...

 

[Sgt_Pinto]

keep pushing an update us on far you got, that will give me an estimate as to what i can get.

 

[mxthunder]

Cool stuff man, Ill be looking for some solid 710 results!

 

[theflyingrat]

Well, Core #2 folded up after 3 1/2 hours of Prime 95ing at 1.33 volts and 3.12GHz. I figure the core voltage is good, but stupid me was running large FFTs, so a memory error could have caused that, as well. Memory is at 960, but only 1.8v, and it's the OCZ stuff that's rated for 1066 at 2.1. So I figure I'll bump that up by itself before moving the vCore up any more, and see how that goes.

Regardless, it's running well at over 3.1 GHz. There's hope for this CPU yet!

 

[ChanceCoats123]

Damn. I see the only limiting factor being your ram. The mobo should be good for upwards of 250, maybe more if you got a gem.

 

[Malakai]

My M3A was like 65 bucks and it can do 275fsb on my barton 2.2 if need be. The CPU holds it back but otherwise the board is quite stable at high bus speeds.
Why go with a cheap brand when giga/asus/msi/ect all have great boards for low prices!

 

[sQUiRLy]

http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/english.html?/be_cpu.html

Try S&M for stability testing. It has separate tests for memory and cpu so you can isolate your prime failure plus it takes minutes instead of hours.

 

[theflyingrat]

I'll check out S&M soon. I'm Prime95-ing right now, and you're right, it does get old quickly. Overclocking with 100% stability takes forever this way!

Speaking of which, I've bumped up to 245HTT - that's 3185 MHz. I'm 2 hours into my Prime loop, and all seems good. vCore needed a bump to 1.36v. Still not so bad. Memory is only at 980, so I'm still well in the clear for that, too. This board has definitely already made me happy, and the 710 is exemplary for a $120 CPU!

 

[theflyingrat]

Just to check in, I've been lazy lately, so I just bumped it up to 250HTT (3250 MHz) today. So far, it's got 8 hours worth of Prime stable. I'll let it go overnight, then bump it again tomorrow sometime, maybe. So far, so good.

 

[QuietIce]

Nice! Keep us posted ...

 

[Malakai]

Sounds good theflyingrat. Is your 4th core unlocked?