Hey Daniel R or anyone with an Epox 8k7a

[scottC]

hey Dan i have a similar set-up to you and was hoping to get some overclocking advise as im new to this game. for dan or anyone with an Epox 8k7a, im running an AMD 1.33 Y Series, 512 mb of crucial DDR Ram, ibm 7200 rpm HDD. as for case and cooling, antec 1030 case with 2 additional 80mm panaflos for intake in the front (has 2 rear fans stock) and a taisol HSF. since this EPOX board uses jumpers and im relatively new to this, can u give me some ideas on jumper settings to start with. i'd love to get it over 1.5. thanks in advance, and please dont assume i know how to do anything, im new to this world.

 

[Daniel R]

Welcome to the overclocking community ScottC! You have picked yourself a superb motherboard for overclocking. The best advise that I can give you is for you to read your motherboard manual very carefully. In it, you'll be shown how to set the jumpers on your motherboard. You need to make sure that your DDR Adjust voltage, which is set at 2.6V at default, is set at 2.7V. The jumper settings start on page 3-5 in the Epox manual. You also need to make sure that the CPU Clock Select is set correctly. Also, what size of PSU do you have? In order to get 1.4+GHz, you'll probably need a good 350W. For help in determining your memory timings, you'll find a lot of information on Anandtech's bulletin board.

 

[scottC]

thanks for the reply daniel. right now i have the antec 300 W PS which i thought i might have to replace. i posted on ARS Technica webiste and most people thought the 300W would be enough. i was going to upgrade to the enermax 450 PS but a few people thought it might be overkill. i figure i'd give the 300W a try, if things dont work ill get the new enermax one. what are your settings at currently, jumper wise?

 

[Daniel R]

I would try the 300w PSU for now. If your system becomes unstable, and for unknown reasons, I would try using a better PSU. My settings jumperwise are this:

SW2: CPU Ratio Selection - x9.5
CPU Vcore Adjust - +0.V (default)
DDR Adjust - +0.2V
CPU Clock Select - 133MHz CPU (Pins 2-3)
Power Loss Recovery - Disabled (default)
Keyboard Power On Function - Disabled (default)

BTW - My CPU multiplier is set at 9.5 due to the fact that I'm running my fsb at 145MHz. To run your CPU at its default clock speed, set the CPU Ratio Selection to the AUTO position (all switches are off) and make sure you have the CPU Clock Select jumper set correctly.

 

[evermore]

sup guys,

just like scottc I'm practically a newbie to present day overclocking as I am still using my cel300a@464 after 2 1/2 years. So I just bought a 1.33GHz tbird and a 8k7a. First thing I notice on the cpu is that it's factory unlocked: Good! The 2nd surprise is that the highest jumper setting on the mobo is 10.5. My goal is for 1.5 GHz with this system so that would entail a FSB of 143MHz. Is there ANY way of going to higher multiplier settings (11.5?)? I am not sure how my peripherals (gf2 gts, sb live, 3com NIC) will hold up to a FSB of 143... I hope the 256MB crucial pc2100 ram I ordered will not pose a problem though I heard the newest sticks are not as good as previous ones.

PS: I am planning to run win2k again.. anything I have to watch out for? (hear of problems the via southbridge has with the sb live...)

 

[Daniel R]

Evermore, what revision of the 8K7A did you receive? In my manual, it clearly shows multiplier adjustments up to 12.5x when setting the dipswitch at: OFF, OFF, ON, ON, ON. You may have an older manual, I suggest that you try those settings. If that doesn't work, then update your BIOS to the latest 1606 or 1607 and try again.

 

[evermore]

Doh! I wasnt looking hard enough. The highest multiplier is actually 12.5, it's just not at the bottom of the chart printed on the board as I had expected.

 

[Daniel R]

Evermore, I believe that they fixed the Sb Live problems with the latest 4-in-1 drivers. With my setup, I had absolutely zero problems setting Win2k up.

If you have older PCI devices that do not like to share IRQ's, you may run into problems with Win2k. I have a Hauppauge WinTV PCI capture card which has a video & audio device listing; it causes BSOD errors when sharing its IRQ with another device.

 

[scottC]

dan, can u explain the CPU ratio selection to me, i really am a newb - actually its all the reading ive been doing, everything from ultra IDE to raid to heatsinks, lots of new info. what is the default CPU ratio and based upon the epox jumper settings what numbers do you multiply to get your overclocked speed. to reiterate, im running an ath 1.33m at 133/266 clockset and ddr ram. thanks, sorry to take a step back for a sec.
thanks.!

 

[Daniel R]

Np at all. Since you have an Thunderbird "C", your processor runs on a 133MHz Front Side Bus. Now, with DDR, this is affectively a 266MHz bus. To get your CPU clock speed, you take your FSB * Multiplier. So:

133 * 10 = 1330MHz

133= FSB
10= CPU ratio (multiplier)

The Epox will automatically detect what the CPU ratio is. You don't need to worry about that, just as long as you have it set to the default. The CPU Clock Select jumper needs to be set for a 133MHz FSB processor, which are jumpers 2-3.

 

[wild_andy_c]

Daniel R (Jun 18, 2001 10:25 p.m.):
Evermore, what revision of the 8K7A did you receive? In my manual, it clearly shows multiplier adjustments up to 12.5x when setting the dipswitch at: OFF, OFF, ON, ON, ON. You may have an older manual, I suggest that you try those settings. If that doesn't work, then update your BIOS to the latest 1606 or 1607 and try again.

As I have it there has only ever been one manual released into the public domain.

 

[evermore]

My ram finally arrived yesterday and by midnight I finally had everything installed. My result:

1.33GHz ayhja running at 1507mhz (11 by 137)
memory settings of 256mb pc2100 crucial is 8882222
My average system temperature is 43C. Unfortunately it gets really hot during the afternoon in my room so we'll have to see if it can hold up to that.