Oldie but goodie: NF7-S and Barton-M 2600+

[temproh]

Hi!

I'm in need of a second desktop PC and have decided to put my old NF7-S to use. I still have a Barton-M 2600+ (good stepping, iirc) and a Thermaright SI-97 laying around, so all I need is RAM. As you might have guessed, I'm planning to overclock the living hell out of this combo. Two questions:

1. What RAM do you recommend?
2. What modified BIOS do you recommend?

I know it's been a while since OC'ing mobile Bartons was up to date, but I'm sure there are still a few people in here that can help me...

Thanks in advance!

Edit: What do you guys think of these two?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231046
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231031

 

[CompuTamer]

to the forums!

I'd love to help you, but for some reason Newegg is being screwy (Read: Broken) here right now, so i can't say anything about the RAM, and i'm not an AMD guy, so i can't help on the BIOS. I can you to the forums again though

 

[RGone]

Guaranteed-compatible upgrades for your ABIT NF7-S

I would say that except on the shelves of "pack-rat" users, that 99% of the best 'clocking' ram has not been available in over 3 years for boards like the NF7-S. So the sure to work idea as linked may be a good idea for a starting point.

 

[stilup]

I loved building the Abit Nf7-S, I built for family anf friends and fried a couple up overclocking the hell and trying experimnets with them.
You should look for older BH-5 like Mushkin or Corsair.
I still have one that runs with 2 sticks of very rare Mushkin BH-5
The 2X256mb were the fastest but they were replaced with 2X512mb that slowed things down.
2X256 is not practcal any more.
the Samsung TCCD memory is great, that replaced the BH-5
That would be your best bet.
I sold my TCCD last year. Look for that type.

 

[temproh]

Thanks for the advice! (And for welcoming me, of course!)

Ok, looks like I'm in more trouble than I thought... The thing is that I'm in a hurry (I need that PC so I can finish some university project), so I have to order the parts as soon as possible. As you guys obviously know more about the whole RAM thing, I'll just show you the stuff I could order right away and let you decide:

- http://www.mindfactory.de/Hardware/...le/DDR1-400+(PC-3200).html/article_per_page/5
- http://www.alternate.de/html/product/listing.html?navId=11542&tk=7&lk=3333&size=120
- http://www.hoh.de/PC-Komponenten/Arbeitsspeicher/Desktop/Default.aspx?TY=item&ST=3&CT=183
- http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articlesearch.jsp?agid=441&search.reset=1&search.sKey=

I know, this is quite a lot to ask, but you'd do me a BIG favour.

 

[temproh]

Ok, since noone is able to recommend a specific RAM, I'm beginning to wonder: What's the worst that can happen (with the G.Skill, for example)? Could the RAM make it impossible to get good CPU speeds? Aren't the stock timings of that G.Skill good enough?

 

[TheQuadFather]

subbed because i love a good socket A overclock, and nothing really bad can happen, just keep it cool and it well balanced with the rest of the system, even the corsair value select ram in my rig ( 1333 stock ) can hold up at 1600+ so i dont think the "value" ram sticks are that bad at all.

 

[temproh]

Alright, thanks! Think I'll go with the G.Skill.

Btw, my CPU has an IQYHA stepping. Can anyone tell me if I need to do the pencil trick for high multipliers? I don't remember if all mobile Bartons are unlocked... And what FSB/multiplier do you think I should go for?

 

[temproh]

Ok, so Prime95 has been running stable for an hour with the following settings:

CPU: 13x200MHz (2600Mhz)
RAM: 2.5-3-3-5
Vcore: 1.9V (HW monitor shows 1.84V)
Vdimm: 2.9V

Temps are ok (43°C idle, 49°C load). I still have one question, though: Right now, I have the two memory sticks running in slots 1 and 2 (single channel mode). Should I rather use slots 1 and 3 for dual channel mode?

Thanks in advance!

 

[silent bob]

absolutely!!!! always run in dual channel when possible . I love that board !!! I had the 1700 DLT3C in mine and OC'd the doodie out of it iirc 2.3 or 2.4 with some mushkin promo build stuff .
Temps are real good , load is a bit high for me , I liked the 40-43 full load range myself but..
what thermal compound are you using?

Good Luck , and welcome to the right place to learn about overclocking !!!

 

[temproh]

Thanks, I'll try getting dual channel mode to work. Had to downclock to 12.5x200MHz (2500MHz) because temps went above 50°C. Vcore is at 1.8V now (HW monitor shows 1.74V), so things are running cooler. Sucks to live in an attic room if you want to OC your system... Oh, and I always use AC5 on my chips/heatsinks.

However, I've encountered another (worse) problem: I can't install Windows 7! Seems like setup isn't able to detect my SATA drive: "No drives were found." Any ideas? I really don't want to go back to XP... I'm using this modified BIOS.

Edit: I've tried copying the chipset drivers on a USB stick but setup won't recognize the stick, either.

 

[Biggerguy]

Check out my sig and even after hours of game playing the temp is about 45* and stable. I have had this setup to over 2.8Ghz OC on the CPU, but FSB has to be pretty low, so I opt to balance things with these settings.

BTW the way I worked around any SATA issues at such OCs is by using a separate SATA card, that is also faster than the board's support. I happen to have 4 more of them new in box if you are interested....was going to sell them on ebay.

Whatever memory you decide to get just make sure they have a lifetime warranty, that way if anything arises its an easy exchange. I have experience with Kingston and OCZ, both great companies, but of the two the NF7-S v2 seems to like the OCZ Platinum better....the older ones that look like this:



I did have to go through several sets to finally get one that OC'd well. OCZ was very helpful in actually testing a set on an NF7-s v2 board for me all the way up to 500Mhz...they exchanged until I got a good set.

 

[temproh]

BTW the way I worked around any SATA issues at such OCs is by using a separate SATA card, that is also faster than the board's support. I happen to have 4 more of them new in box if you are interested....was going to sell them on ebay.

The SATA drive makes absolutely no problems in XP, so I don't think getting a SATA card is going to fix the problem. Damn, I'm really desperate right here... Have you ever tried installing Win7 on your rig?

 

[Biggerguy]

No I have not tried Win 7 on the machine since there is no driver support for it. Ill be building an all new modern machine when I am ready for Win 7...though I have read some people running Vista and 7.

If you do not install the drivers when prompted by pressing F6 when installing your OS you will not have SATA support.

There are updated drivers for the SATA controls, forgot if it was on Abit's site or in SiS's site.

One thing about the SATA card I am using is that it has support for Vista, so it should be good for Win7 as well.

I was having many SATA issues at my high clock speeds, my research showed it is a common problem with this board, and that most guys that OC the NF7-S to very high numbers used IDE drives to avoid this.

 

[apenland01]

WOW

Well this is funny as hell......

I haven't been on here in a while and I just popped on to see if there is still a market for the Abit NF7-S V2 with a Barton 2500, Mushkin Enhanced Level II 2x256 system, 9700 pro video card system.

Imagine my surprise that this post is the third one from the top!

I just built my folks a new system and took this one back (which I gave them back in 05, if you're bored see my posts from 2005). I had a lot of fun with this system and I only gave it to my folks since they needed a new computer and I wanted bigger, better, faster.............

Temproh, if I had used this board/bios in the recent past, I would do my best to help you out. Unfortunately, I haven't played with it in over 6 years and I don't remember all the specifics on the board.

Good luck with everything!

 

[temproh]

Ok, thanks for all the nice words and recommendations. But right now, all I want to know is: What in god's name do I have to do to get Windows 7 installed? Do you guys think getting a new SATA controller might fix the problem? And how comes setup doesn't even recognize my USB ports? This is killing me...

 

[Biggerguy]

Ok here are few tips that might help.

I dont have Win 7 only XP, so I am basing this on its installation.

Get latest SATA drivers and nForce2 drivers, put them on a floppy.

Run Win install, when prompted hit F6 to specify additional SATA drives. Install drivers from floppy when prompted.

Let Win install, as soon as its done, install your nForce2 drivers...after that you will have sound, modem, and everything else working.

USB connections might not work until you get the nForce drivers in, so have a PS2 mouse and keyboard on hand. I keep an old keyboard around whenever I need to trouble shoot, or experiment with speeds.

If all this still wont work, then you might need to go with a separate SATA card and or stick to XP.

Oh one last thing keep your bios settings at Fail safe or Optimal until everything is installed....afterwards you can speed things up. Make sure USB is turned on in bios as well as anything else you might want like sound and LAN. Only turn on what you need so as not to use an resources unnecessarily.

 

[petteyg359]

Get latest SATA drivers and nForce2 drivers, put them on a floppy.

...

USB connections might not work until you get the nForce drivers in

A CD might be easier (yes, Win7 lets you use a driver CD during install ), since floppy drives might not be handy

 

[Biggerguy]

Don't know, in the case of an NF7-S v2, you might complicate things further by using a CD rather than floppy. I keep a floppy drive installed because when all else fails, the floppy always works.

 

[stilup]

Guys just got an old build NFS-V2.0 back after my buddy messed it up.
I built it over 5 years ago.
it has an unlocked Barton just O/C'd to 3200 11X400.was running 2500 all the time.
with mushkin BH-5 2X512. Also he gave me back the original 2X256 Mushkin BH-5
DDR2 3500 Level II you know what that is. The original bad *** of memory in my hand.
I may just keep it for a collectors item. Chances I'll never see it again.
this system was built for my wife and was never O/C'd
Primo. she wasn't impressed so I sold it for nothing well $600. back then he stole it.
setting up windows for him. Nice to see my old system again.
the Nfs-V2.0 live on.