The GA6OXET PIII-S is up and running. Come on in.

[oldfart]

Yup, another post from me. The first part here is review. The good stuff comes @ the end if you want to skip this stuff.

As you may know, my C1.0A project did not go as well as I had hoped. I worked, but needed lots of Vcore, and the best it would do is 1.4 @ 1.65 Vcore. Not bad, but not what I had hoped for. I sold the 1.0A and got a PIII-S 1.26 512K CPU.

I put my PIIIEB 1000 in while I was waiting for the new CPU. I was pretty surprised my CPU would not run 1.75 Vcore 150 FSB like it did on the CUSL2. I boosted it up to 1.8 (max Vcore on the Gigabyte board) and it worked. I was once again greeted by the hang on reboot problem (any reboot). I can understand a 1.475 CPU @ 1.65 needing a wire trick to get it to post, but a 1.75 @ 1.8?? That doesn't seem right.

I have some insight into why that happens. This is odd. If I dont overclock at all, 1GHz @ 1GHz, and use 1.80 Vcore, it will do the same thing! Hang on every reboot with no overclocking! There is definitely something wrong with the way it posts with a CuMine CPU.

My other gripe (hang on, the good stuff is still coming!!), was I could not get the 1/5 PCI to work. The PC will crash every time just before the desktop loads. The setting I used is 160 FSB PLL/16 30/60. I've tried F9 and F9D BIOS, 2 different video cards. Wont work. There is speculation it doesn't work on -C boards. I can say for sure, it doesn't work on my setup.

My frustration with the board got to me and I ordered a TUSL2-C. Its still not here. Hopefully, tomorrow. I am going to do my own little bakeoff between the two boards and keep one of them. I've run a bunch of tests and benches on the GA6OXET. I'll post em up once I get the TUSL2.

My PIII-S is here (we're getting to the good stuff now) . I have it in the GA6OXET and it.....................

FOOKIN ROCKS! This CPU is so sweet. So far, I'm running it 150 FSB, 1.425 GHz @ get this: STOCK 1.45 VCORE stock HS/Fan with ASII. I have Prime95 running for the last 1/2 hour, no errors. Also, no hang on reboot! Another little oddity I saw is the max Vcore for a CUMime is 1.800. Max for Tually is 1.825. Whats the deal there?

Things are looking up! This is the first combo I have been really happy with (thrilled actually). I'm still going to test out the TUSL2 and see how it does.

Couple of questions (if anyone is still with me).

Which BIOS is better/newer? F9 or F9D?

What kind of video card are the guys with the working 1/5 PCI divider using?

 

[Yodums]

Yup, another post from me. The first part here is review. The good stuff comes @ the end if you want to skip this stuff.

As you may know, my C1.0A project did not go as well as I had hoped. I worked, but needed lots of Vcore, and the best it would do is 1.4 @ 1.65 Vcore. Not bad, but not what I had hoped for. I sold the 1.0A and got a PIII-S 1.26 512K CPU.

I put my PIIIEB 1000 in while I was waiting for the new CPU. I was pretty surprised my CPU would not run 1.75 Vcore 150 FSB like it did on the CUSL2. I boosted it up to 1.8 (max Vcore on the Gigabyte board) and it worked. I was once again greeted by the hang on reboot problem (any reboot). I can understand a 1.475 CPU @ 1.65 needing a wire trick to get it to post, but a 1.75 @ 1.8?? That doesn't seem right.

I have some insight into why that happens. This is odd. If I dont overclock at all, 1GHz @ 1GHz, and use 1.80 Vcore, it will do the same thing! Hang on every reboot with no overclocking! There is definitely something wrong with the way it posts with a CuMine CPU.

My other gripe (hang on, the good stuff is still coming!!), was I could not get the 1/5 PCI to work. The PC will crash every time just before the desktop loads. The setting I used is 160 FSB PLL/16 30/60. I've tried F9 and F9D BIOS, 2 different video cards. Wont work. There is speculation it doesn't work on -C boards. I can say for sure, it doesn't work on my setup.

My frustration with the board got to me and I ordered a TUSL2-C. Its still not here. Hopefully, tomorrow. I am going to do my own little bakeoff between the two boards and keep one of them. I've run a bunch of tests and benches on the GA6OXET. I'll post em up once I get the TUSL2.

My PIII-S is here (we're getting to the good stuff now) . I have it in the GA6OXET and it.....................

FOOKIN ROCKS! This CPU is so sweet. So far, I'm running it 150 FSB, 1.425 GHz @ get this: STOCK 1.45 VCORE stock HS/Fan with ASII. I have Prime95 running for the last 1/2 hour, no errors. Also, no hang on reboot! Another little oddity I saw is the max Vcore for a CUMime is 1.800. Max for Tually is 1.825. Whats the deal there?

Things are looking up! This is the first combo I have been really happy with (thrilled actually). I'm still going to test out the TUSL2 and see how it does.

Couple of questions (if anyone is still with me).

Which BIOS is better/newer? F9 or F9D?

What kind of video card are the guys with the working 1/5 PCI divider using?

Glad to hear about the good news.

I guess you can say those P3-S are known to hit 150fsb with default core as 6902Kid(Something like that, sorry I mispelt your name) got it there or something near there with default core.

 

[pappypete]

THAT'S GOOD NEWS............I can't wait , PIII S on the
way. The board arrived today, I'm RTFM. Hope mine
works out as well

 

[Yodums]

THAT'S GOOD NEWS............I can't wait , PIII S on the
way. The board arrived today, I'm RTFM. Hope mine
works out as well

Hehe just stay on your feet and you'll get it soon

 

[Flu!d]

First of all....Are you using pll20 to keep your pci/agp at 30/60? (should be the 1/5th pci divider)....Because on my XET it works a treat, in fact I can run pll24 which is 25/50 and it too works very well....No problems at all even with my pci/agp devices 'well' below spec....I am currently running a GeForce 2 GTS 32MB video card, I don't think the Kyro based video cards like running below spec for some reason....

Your findings with the Cumine chip are very strange as I was running my Cumine P3 1000EB just this morning at max vcore (1.80 volts - Remember, this board is designed for maximum peformance on Tualatin processors....NOT cumine processors) @ 150 mhz FSB using PLL24 (25/50 pci/agp - well below spec just to prove a point) Just fine....No crashes and rebooting every time no problem.

You shoulden't have any problems in the resetting department as the chip is able to post just fine at 1.45 ghz using default vcore....The only time you have problems is when the chip is on the edge and has trouble posting at high speeds using the standard vcore....

F9 is the latest bios....F9d is the beta.

How's your memory bandwidth and what's your RAM timings set at?

 

[oldfart]

First of all....Are you using pll20 to keep your pci/agp at 30/60?

On which FSB? With 150, I just run out of spec 37.5/75. Never been an issue. On 160, I try PLL/16 which is 30/60. Crash city!!

I'm perfectly fine running 150 37.5/75. The 160 FSB PLL/16 30/60 is the one I want to work. Can you run that with your system? I'll try 150 FSB PLL/20 as a test

BTW, here are the rest of the system specs (that matter)

Antec 303x 300 watt PS
VisionTek Geforce 3
TB Santa Cruz
Netgear nic
(2) 256 Crucial PC133 CL2 DIMMS
IBM 60GXP 60 Gig

Remember, this board is designed for maximum peformance on Tualatin processors....NOT cumine processors)

Yes, it doesn't seem to like CuMine CPU's too much. That 1.80 bug is weird. I can reproduce it 100%.

How's your memory bandwidth and what's your RAM timings set at?

Mem BW is good. Timing is 2-2-2 5,7 Sandra always gives a different result each time I test, but they are good.

 

[Flu!d]

Yep....I can run PLL20 (30/60 pci/agp) just fine...No crashes at all in fact it's more stable!

But I am running an XET not an XET-C....I'm not to sure but mabye, just mabye there is a difference (If I could read chineese I could look it up on one of those crazy asian websites and be sure! They'd know!)

A GeForce 3 should be fine with those AGP speeds?

Mind you....I really think 160mhz FSB is a little high for a P3-S - Remember....It is still using the good 'ol P6 core!

Try PLL20 at 150mhz FSB....It 'should' work fine provided the XET-C supports it....And I think you would be better off running your pci/agp devices 'slightly' below spec than above spec.

 

[oldfart]

Whoa, now that was scary! I tried 150 FSB PLL/16 28/56 and it booted up fine. Pll/20 said it would be 22/44?? I went to 160 FSB PLL/16 30/60, set all the ram timing low 3-3-3 7,9, put the vcore to 1.6. I hung on boot this time. Power cycled, and I got a strange beep, BIOS checksum error and it was asking for a floppy!! GAAK! I cleared the CMOS (I can find that jumper in my sleep), booted back up and all is OK. WHEW! I think for now I'm happy with the 150 FSB, 1.425 setup. The 160 FSB PLL/16 thing just doesn't seem to want to fly with this board.

 

[oldfart]

Why is yours PLL/20 30/60 and mine is PLL/16 30/60???

You can do this @ 160 FSB??

That is a BIG question!

 

[6502kid]

OlFart. Glad to hear your P3-s is working in that board
at least as good, if not 2mhz faster than mine.

I also have noticed the strange values some of the options
seem to be showing with those pll's and this chip, but have
been waiting for somebody else to put a 1.26 chip in a XET-C
to confirm.

At 148-152 or so FSB, the default setting, while above spec,
should work great unless you got crap parts.

It looks like most of the other settings are way to much below
spec. I tried a couple, and my system went nuts.

Hopefully they keep on updating the bios...
We need more stability over 150.

I have had it running once or twice at the 30/60 setting, but
isnt the 37.5/78 much faster if your HD/video card like it ?

Still never had a reset problem with mine.
What kind of PSU you got with yours ? I got enermax350w.

 

[oldfart]

I'm gonna hit the hay. I'd like to see if you can run 160 FSB (I guess you would need your CuMine for that), 30/60 which is PLL/16 on my board.

Try PLL20 at 150mhz FSB....It 'should' work fine provided the XET-C supports it....And I think you would be better off running your pci/agp devices 'slightly' below spec than above spec.

I'll leave it as is. 37 PCI, 75 AGP is not a problem. I have been running this way on the CUSL2 for a year. Never an issue. In fact, one of the kids PC's is a BH6 C1000 @ 1120. It also runs the same PCI & AGP spec's no problem there either.

I just thought of something. The PLL's are probably different for a 100 Vs 133 FSB CPU. That is why we see different PLL values. Both my CPU's are 133's. With your CuMine, 160 FSB should be PLL/16 30/60.

 

[oldfart]

6502kid, yeah this setup really works well. No reset hangs, no big Vcore increases, seems very good! I like to limit a PCI over speed to ~ 37 - 38 MHz. If you get into the 40 MHz range things start to get funky. For instance, my nic wont work. You can also have HD corruption. AGP can be farther out of spec without a problem.

Your 148 MHz limit is odd. I can run 150 FSB 2-2-2 5,7 with no Prime95 errors 1.45 Vcore. I wouldn't sweat it though. A few Mhz is not even noticeable.

Look above for my specs. I have an Antec 303X 300w PS.

 

[Flu!d]

I just thought of something. The PLL's are probably different for a 100 Vs 133 FSB CPU. That is why we see different PLL values. Both my CPU's are 133's. With your CuMine, 160 FSB should be PLL/16 30/60.

Ahhh....That's what it is, i'm reading the settings off a piece of paper I wrote them on using my Celeron! I don't have my P3 in the system anymore, I removed it in disgust after seeing it's poor peformance when compared to the Celeron....Sorry....

But really, whether your agp/pci devices are in spec or not....160mhz FSB on a P3-S is a really big ask....I don't think i've ever seen one that high reliably....I think a 256k P3 would stand a better chance at this speed - If you could still buy one!

I have benchmarked with the pci/agp devices running 'way' below spec and I could not see any noticeable difference at all....And I really 'tried' to see a difference!

 

[oldfart]

I don't think this setup will make it to 160 FSB anyway. I'd have to at minimum slow my ram timings way down.

I could swear I was running Prime95 150 FSB 2-2-2 5,7 last night, but I guess not. It will error in the first pass. I have to use 3-2-2 5,7 to get it to run. This is not surprising since I had to do the same on the CUSL2.

I've settled in @ 152 FSB, 1.44 Ghz 3-2-2 5,7, 1.45 Vcore. If I go any higher, my nic stops working and I get Prime95 errors. This seems to be the sweet spot for it.

 

[ol' man]

Yep....I can run PLL20 (30/60 pci/agp) just fine...No crashes at all in fact it's more stable!

But I am running an XET not an XET-C....I'm not to sure but mabye, just mabye there is a difference (If I could read chineese I could look it up on one of those crazy asian websites and be sure! They'd know!)

A GeForce 3 should be fine with those AGP speeds?

Mind you....I really think 160mhz FSB is a little high for a P3-S - Remember....It is still using the good 'ol P6 core!

Try PLL20 at 150mhz FSB....It 'should' work fine provided the XET-C supports it....And I think you would be better off running your pci/agp devices 'slightly' below spec than above spec.

Umm dude you have got to quit spreading fallicies of which you know nothing about! Most PIII .13u chips on a 133bus will do 160+ fsb!

 

[zoopa_man]

Glad to see you finally got something to work for you. I'll be blazing the same trail with a Celeron 1.1ghz chip. My dilemma is I can't decide what board to go with. The ST6 or the Gigabyte. Both boards are good and bad. I don't know. It may come down to what is at the computer show this Sunday, Or any recommendations you guys can give me. I just can't break down and make a decision.

 

[muddocktor]

Hey oldfart,

You're experience with the P3-S is about exactly the same as mine so far with this board. I just had a couple of days to play with it after Christmas before I went out to work and I could get up to around 152-153 fsb before having problems. It will probably be a week or 2 before I have it back up and running because I'm installing a 120 watt pelt and watercooling on it. I'm also not so sure that my higher fsb speed problems might not be ram-related as I'm using Crucial Cas 2 PC133 and my experience with it on the KK266 board I used to have leads me think that 155-160 fsb is all that it will run at Cas2 before giving errors. I think that i'm going to set the ram to fsb -33 with the jumpers on the board when I get it back up and watercooled so that will take the ram out of the equation as far as stability goes. I haven't tried a Cu-mine proc in my XET though so I can't say anything on the quirks this board might have with Cu-mine procs. Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with both the board and the P3-S proc though and can't wait to see how it will perform supercooled.

 

[Rooski]

Glad to see you finally got something to work for you. I'll be blazing the same trail with a Celeron 1.1ghz chip. My dilemma is I can't decide what board to go with. The ST6 or the Gigabyte. Both boards are good and bad. I don't know. It may come down to what is at the computer show this Sunday, Or any recommendations you guys can give me. I just can't break down and make a decision.

zoopa_man,

If you're considering the Gigabyte board for the extra dividers, keep in mind that with that 1.1 you'll most likely not ever get the fsb high enough to even need a 1/5 pci.

Either board can be a good choice, or a bad choice. Flip a coin!

 

[Flu!d]

Umm dude you have got to quit spreading fallicies of which you know nothing about! Most PIII .13u chips on a 133bus will do 160+ fsb!

Ummmm....That's like saying most 1.2 Celerons will pull 1.6 gig....This is just not the case, 1.5 gig is one thing but getting to 1.6 gig is another story alltogether and the P3-S on a 133 mhz FSB is no different. You gotta remember, these chips are still based on the P6 archatecture and 160+ mhz FSB 'is' a big ask....

In fact I think you'll see 'more' 1.2 gig Celeron's pulling 1.6 gig than 1.2 gig P3-S chips pulling over 1.45 gig reliably....

I don't spread fallicies....I note the obvious....