such a livley area? i need info on who owns an EP-4PCA3+

[seren]

OK 4PDA5+ arrived and is up and running sooner than I expected, no problems at all with the board booted up fist time, the only hitch was the new 2.4 c MO CPU had a bent pin only VERY slighlty but enough for it not to drop in place, I used a very fine needle just to get it straight, and it worked ok has anyone else ever had bent pins on CPU? do I have anything to worry about ?

Anyway I have set it up using a standard WD hard drive for now as I could not make my mind up which sata's to order the SP94 fits with room to spare with TT smart fan, I am also using ocz 4200, the bios will allow 3 volts vdimm not sure what you get ? not sure how you check? will leave it run a bit before I start to overclock, will keep you posted.

 

[seren]

Well had my first play with the 4PDA5+ board this afternoon have had it running 36 hours different fsb etc the burn cpu in which is still working after my scare with the bent pin, anyway started to overclock very moderate at first default voltages got to 260 fsb (1:1) memory and that was it increased vdimm still no good then vcore no good tried all other combinations no good, and this memory does 275 (1:1) on the Asus and did 270 on the 4pda2+ so changed to (5:4) and it only got to 275 fsb and no ammount of volts would help.

I was begining to think that I had done damage to the cpu even though it was hardly a bent pin just slightly out of line but enought to stop it dropping in the the socket which worried me, well I was about to give up and I tried increasing the agp as remember reading in a thread in this forum I think that the agp on Epox boards helps stabalise the northbridge and it worked 2.8 vdimm 1.550 vcore and (1:1) 275 fsb stable, I stopped there as it was very hot here today and did not want to push it, so took northbridge off cleaned off the goo applied artic silver and put a 40 mm fan on and will continue when temps cool down will keep you posted, I think it's looking good so far and is on par with the Asus except did not have to increas agp on that.

 

[oc_newbee]

Don't worry about the bent pin. I had bought previous cpu from frys and most of them came with bent pin. I use credit card to bent the pin back so it'll fit in the socket. The concern you have is not to break one of the pin then you'll be through. So bent pin is really nothing to be scare about.

 

[seren]

Thanks for that reassurance anyway as it worked first go must be ok, BUT it is not that good a cpu I thought with it being MO stepping it would be better than my D1, I hit a brick wall at 280 fsb no matter what I did no improvement, more voltage vcore agp vdimm different ratio's in memory different memory still no improvement so I thought it must be the 4PDA5+ so tried the cpu in the Asus exact same would not pass 280.

So then I tried the D1 in the 4pda5+ not very good could not get it stable above 285 and that cpu does 294 in the Asus and booted into my 4pda2+ rev 2 over 300 so not that happy with board and cpu managed to get into windows 290 but crashed in an instant with prime 95 tried everything, gues that's the way it goes.

ps. will remember about the credit card thanks.

 

[Clevor]

Yeah, regarding those bent pins on the SL6RZs, Outpost could never figure that there were notches in the plastic clamshell they shipped the CPUs in. All they had to do was press the CPU in till it locked. Otherwise it flopped around.

Had to bend maybe 20-50 pins back, no problems with the CPUs. Just don't break them.

Your results with the Epox and Asus confirms my findings exactly. One 2.40C does 293 on the Asus and maxes at 287 on the 4PCA3+. Another does 304-305 on the Abit and 301-302 on the 4PDA2+, Rev. 2.0. With the 2.40C, the limiter on the Epox depends on the CPU.

However, I have not been able to get a 2.60C-3.2 to overclock as well on the Epox as the Abit/Asus/DFI boards. I lose 5-8 mhz every time.

Seren, if you and OC-Newbie get around to doing the VDIMM mods on the Asus, tell me if it works at DC to drive your ram higher. I did the simple short of the 4 and 6 leg of the chip using Pomona grabbers I have. This gave me 3.26 VDIMM all the time (I got really good rails). Problem is the ram does not respond. I can only do 235, 1:1, 2-2-2-5 with both DS BH-5 and SS BH-6. SC I can do 250, 1:1, 2-2-2-5 3D stable, but DC sucks.

Face it, how many guys you see running 250+, 1:1, 2-2-2-5 on the P4C800-E and P4P800? Despite what some feel, I suspect the VTT is NOT tracking with the VDIMM. I get lockups in Memtest #5 very similar to the IC7-MaxIII problem. Tried disabling USB Legacy in the BIOS - nope. Malves says there's a way to measure the VTT but I have not bothered as bottom line, results are disappointing.

I have flogged the Rev. 2.00 P4C800-D with this 300 fsb 2.40C I have, and it has dampened my enthusiasm for the Asus. I see it topping out at 289-293, 5:4, with XMS3500 and OCZ PC3700 Golds Rev. 1.0 (which is the only ram that can do 250, 1:1, 2-3-3-6 on the board with maybe 2.9-3.0 VDIMM). The VDIMM mod doesn't seem to work great shakes. I get worse results at 5:4 with the mod. I will try a Rev. 1.02 board soon to see if I get better results.

 

[seren]

Thanks for the reply Clevor, I feel easier now about the bent pin got in a bit of a panic but it's still not pleased with it's performance as I thought the MO was supposed to be far superior,as for the mods still not 100% sure about them but I am going to give it a go soon, but first need to get a bit more knowledge about stuff like that and my brother is an electronics egineer so he can teach me a bit.

I am not at all pleased with the 4pda5+ performance so that's for sale it has lots on it considering it's only using ICH4 but I guess not many people use everything anyway so I would say that it's a good board for every day use and it set up very easy no snags at all and that's all I can say about it so looks like the Asus is winning at the moment for me, think I will wait now and see what happens with the new chipsets perhaps even AMD.

 

[Clevor]

I'm currently flogging a Rev. 1.02 P4C800-D right now. Same deal with the Rev. 2.00: the VDIMM mod is a bit bogus. I did the mod the correct way using a 47k pot and I see the same problem: I set the VCORE to read 3.06, 3.17, 3.26 when set to 2.65, 2.75, and 2.85 in the BIOS, but check it under load running Memtest. It drops to 3.00-3.06 despite the unloaded settings. I see the same #5 errors no matter 3.06 or 3.26. Moreover, the boards don't overclock BH-5 as well as the Epox at 3.00-3.06. I can only manage 237, 1:1, 2-3-2-5. You'd think I got crappy 2003 BH-5 or something. Same ram does 250+, 1:1, 2-2-2-5 on the Epox boards.

Now there's the droop mod, but I'm pretty sure it only helps the VCORE, not the VDIMM. I notice the VAGP on the boards droop also, and you need to run at least 1.7 VAGP on all-out overclocks to maintain stability.

I'm dumping the two P4C800-Ds I have this weekend. I may keep one P4P800-D and one P4C800-E.

Way to go is put the early Epoxs on a Prommie, which is good for maybe 20-25 mhz. That will gain back the 5-8 you lose, but you got the best VDIMM up to 3.3 on tap, with no VTT issues. I have yet to see a board outperform the Epox at VDIMM.

And oh, I got a MachII GT on order BTW .

 

[seren]

Hi Clevor well I don't know much about the mach11 GT but have just had a quick look at some reviews and it looks awesome you will have fun with that if you get time with all the boards you have as for the earlier versions of the Epox boards no chance over here can't get any stores to give me a definate revision #, and I have noticed that all the high fsb's were on earlier revisions.

As I said the 4pda5+ is going it was waste of time and money and I will keep the Asus p4c800 e deluxe my Albatron PEV845 has gone to one of my mates, so will now wait till something new comes out, but I still can't understand why the Asus boards voltages are all over the place when they cost so much sureley it should not be so?

 

[Clevor]

but I still can't understand why the Asus boards voltages are all over the place when they cost so much sureley it should not be so?

Asus typically uses 4-layer PCB (they feel there is less resistance in the traces and overclocks better), as well as 2.5 phase power system. Look at the P4P/P4C series. They only have two mosfets per phase with small caps. Hey, it's cause and effect. No wonder they overvolt on the VCORE to compensate, and that it drops under load. Another problem with the Rev. 2.00s is you lose VCORE from 1.632-1.744. I set 1.625 in the BIOS and it reads 1.744 in Windows. Under load it drops to 1.584. In the future, I will be checking with a multi.

Not surprisingly, there is no perfect board out there. The Abits are the best I've seen at ease of overclocking and stability, with only downside is the skimpy VDIMM which also performs poorly compared to the Epox.

 

[seren]

Thanks for the explanantion, keep us posted on you mach 11 have fun.