ak 31 rev2 fsb question

[elBogg]

i have some questions about this board and the fsb. from what i've read and what i've experienced, there is a problem with raising the fsb on this board. it would only go to 139 before my usb mouse stopped working. i bought a 4-port pci usb card because i read that i could get arounnd this problem like that. however, now i can only get it to 143 fsb, at 144 the same thing happens. i guess my questions are whether this is a general problem with the kt266 chipsets or if it's just shuttle's board, and whether or not anyone has gotten around the problem in a different manner, and also whether anyone has a rev2 board that can do higher than like 140fsb while retaining it's usb functionality. tia . . .

 

[turboalpine]

What all does your cooling setup consist of heatsink wise and fans? That temp is a bit high for a XP Athlon. YOu need to get it back down into the high 30s or low 40s in degrees C. Also how much CPU voltage are you running? It might be time to do the doctors volt mod to get the CPU voltage up.

turboalpine

 

[Doctor]

elBogg,

There is a documented problem with the KT266 chipset, and USB functionality with FSB's over 138MHZ, or so. It's not just the Shuttle, but any mobo with that chipset.

This problem was rectified with the advent of the KT266A chipset which was put into the Shuttle Ak31-Rev.3.1.

You did the correct workaround using a PCI card for USB.

There are alot of things at work when trying to get higher FSB's. Most often, it's your memory, the amount, or it's timings. The quality and amount of PCI cards your running will limit it. As well, the onboard sound can be a culprit, if you're using it.

If you waould like to find the limit of your boards FSB, you need to remove all boards, except the Video, and one stick of memory.

Set the memory voltage to 2.7V, and a low divider, like 5 or somthing, so you're sure that it's not the limit of the CPU.

Now gradually start increasing the FSB until you hit the wall. This method will give you an idea how fast the mobo's FSB is capeable of.

Be carefull to back up 1st, as one of the side effects of high FSB's can be disk corruption.

I hope that this information helps you out.

Good luck,



Doc

 

[turboalpine]

Doctor,

What do you normally recommend for memory voltage and memory seetings in general with the AK31v3.1? For memory I am running a single stick of Nanya 512meg PC2700, with a Athlon XP1800. I have the FSB at 142 right now and cannot get it any higher without it becoming unstable. CPU temp is 41*C loaded. I am about to try your volt mod tonight to get the voltage above 1.8. any help you can give would be appreciated.

turboalpine

 

[elBogg]

okay, first of all, thanks for the answers . . . as far as my cooling, it's decent for the area i live in - orlando, fl. i have plenty of case fans and i use a vantec 6035, it has a 60mm delta fan on it, and a decent c/w rating on the o/c's heatsink page. i've already done the voltage mod (thanks, doctor!!!), and it's at about 2.0, that's why the temps are so high. also, i need to change my sig, cuz i finally got my xp unlocked today, and it's at 1.67 ghz for now, i'm still testing stability and such.
i understand that there is a problem with the chipset, i guess my question was whether or not anyone has figured out a workaround for the usb ports that actually works. i'm trying to find out whether or not it'd be worth it to fork over the extra bucks and try out some other usb pci cards. right now i'm limited to 143 fsb, but only because i prefer to use my usb mouse. i haven't hit any more limits yet, because of this. the pci card i use is a compusa 4-port usb card, so i don't know if it's just a cheap card and i should buy a better, more expensive one, or does everyone else with this chipset just use the usb to ps2 adapter, or what . . . i have 2 256 meg sticks of crucial, a gf3 ti200 golden sample, a hercules fortissimo 2 sound card, a linksys ethernet card, and the afore-mentioned usb card. like i said, nothing else is limiting me yet, it's just that the usb ports on the card won't work, either, when i try to get above 143 mhz fsb.
btw, turbo, definitely do the voltage mod, i know that's what was keeping me back from even getting past 137 mhz fsb(x 11) back when i had a 1.4 t-bird.

laters . . .


p.s. man, this is even confusing me. short version -----> is anyone using the ak31 rev2 with a pci usb card and able to use the usb ports past 143 mhz fsb? if so, what is your fsb set to, and what brand and type (2-port/4-port) card are you using? thanks a lot, guys . . . this place rules . . .

 

[Silver]

I'll through this in Doc for what it is worth. I could not get past 144 on my rev3 and for the life of me could not figure it out. On a off chance, I changed the first boot to the hard drive and the second to the floppy and then disabled the floppy search at startup. Now it will boot at 155. It however will only loop 3dmark2001 stable at 150. This is of course at cas 2 fastest timings.

 

[elBogg]

man, silver, that's cool . . . i wish i had waited for the kt266a chipset, but this was the first puter i ever built, so i guess that's just the way it goes. i've been eying that ak53gtr for a while now, but i don't know whether i should wait for the ak37 that doctor was talking about in another thread. i thoght he wrote that it was supposed to be out this month, but i just checked out shuttle's website yesterday and i couldn't find hide nor hair of the beast . . . i just got a new processor a little while ago and a new vid card, but the gf3 keeps overheating, even at stock speeds. i'm pretty sure it's because of the direction of the airflow in my case, but it's what works best cooling the cpu. decisions, decisions, decisions . . .

 

[Doctor]

Doctor,

What do you normally recommend for memory voltage and memory seetings in general with the AK31v3.1? For memory I am running a single stick of Nanya 512meg PC2700, with a Athlon XP1800. I have the FSB at 142 right now and cannot get it any higher without it becoming unstable. CPU temp is 41*C loaded. I am about to try your volt mod tonight to get the voltage above 1.8. any help you can give would be appreciated.

turboalpine

Hi turboalpine!

Set your memory voltage to 2.7, and use the following settings:

DRam Clock = Host Clock
DRam Timing = Manual
SDRAM Cycle Length = 2
Bank Interleave = 4 Bank
TRP = 2T
Tras = 5T
Trcd = 3T
Que Depth = 4 Level
Command Rate = 2T

Good luck

Doc

 

[Doctor]

p.s. man, this is even confusing me. short version -----> is anyone using the ak31 rev2 with a pci usb card and able to use the usb ports past 143 mhz fsb? if so, what is your fsb set to, and what brand and type (2-port/4-port) card are you using? thanks a lot, guys . . . this place rules . . .

elBogg

I used the OrangeMicro PCI, USB 2.0/FireWire-1394 combo card in my Rev-2 when I had it. It worked well at high FSB's, but I don't remember how high exactly. I know that it was in the high 150's, low 160's.

You can buy the USB 2.0 alone for @ $50.00.

I hope this helps to answer you questions.



Doc