BTW, I mentioned that I ordered the A7N8X + Tbred 2400. I finally got around to installing it. Here are some experiences with it:
- A7N8X came with the weird BIOS revision that does not support any overclocking - 1001g. One version before and one after (beta - 1002) are fine.
- Before I knew about the beta, I decided to unlock the processor, hoping that unlocked processor would work with the mobo
- I went ahead with what I figured would be the the most painless and non-destructive method, which IMO is stuffing a short copper wire shorting 2 appropriate connectors in the socket. Originally I wanted to connect the pins on the CPU, but I didn't have a good copper wire that would work (thin enough but not too thin).
- The Socket unlocking proved to be a piece of cake to accomplish
- Even with the unlocked CPU, the lame 1001g BIOS did not let me change the multiplier. It just switched from the multiplier in the higher set of multiplier (15) to multiplier in lower set (7), but even if I changed the multipliers in BIOS, my changes were ignored.
- So I went on Internet, and realized that the new Bios was just released, and it is not just as good as the 1001c, but better. It completely unlocks Tbred B CPUs, no need to do anything mechanical, just as Evan at Anandtech said.
- Since I already had the wire stuck inside the socket, and the heatsink installed, I was not about to take it out to check if the BIOS really unlocks all multipliers, but from the postings on the web it does.
- With the new bios, everything was suddenly open and completely unlocked.
- so I first set the CPU to the listed 133 x 15 = 2 GHz, worked fine, reported CPU as 2400
- I switched to 166 x 12 = 2 GHz, everything worked fine, CPU reported as 2400
- I switched to 200 x 20 = 2 GHz, everything (appeared to) work fine, CPU reported as 1990 MHz. Strange, whenever you go to 1 MHz FSB increments, and set it to say 200, it really sets it to only 199. So I thought I would set it to 201 to get 200, but for some reason, that FSB is not there, only 202. I wonder if Nvidia has something planned with that FSB.
- I proceeded to boot with my existing Windows installation from A7M266 mobo. I already knew I had to remove the IDE driver, but stupid me, I forgot to force in the Microsoft one while I had the hard drive still with the original mobo, so I got into blue screen hell on the new mobo.
- I wasn't about to bring back the system on the original mobo with Microsoft IDE driver forced in, so I booted from CD and went to recovery console. The theory is that removing VIAIDE service would let me boot, but it did not. I removed AMD AGP driver, still no help. Then I noticed some Soundblaster crap installed, and I threw in a towel on that approach and went to Repair install (BTW, I am glad to be free of all VIA and Creative Soundblaster crap)
- Repair install works as if you were installing new OS. At some point during the OS installation Windows XP searches for existing installations. It found my original installation and offered Repair install.
- Repair install worked great. It basically does all the driver installation from scratch, it can fix problems with Windows itself, and it leaves all the application settings untouched.
- After repair install, I put in the Asus CD, and after installation, as Windows was discovering new devices, it found all the drivers on the CD.
- if I had to do it all over, I wouldn't even bother to uninstall the IDE drivers. I think repair install is a better solution on motherboard and CPU install.
- When all was installed, I went back to BIOS and set the multipliers to 200 x 10. I was able to work in it fine, but then I went to a game I came across recently (Europa 1400 - great game BTW), but the game is a little quirky, with 100% CPU utilization even when it is not doing anything (in the menu). The graphics started to look weird, so I remembered that nVidia had one very poor driver version for Ti-4600, version 40.72. This happens to be the latest WHQL Certified, so XP installed that.
- So I installed the latest, 41.09, went back in the game, loaded the last saved game, and I got a weird message. (later I found out that the message I got is a result of a bug in the game that it sometimes writes a corrupted save file - which is going to significantly cloud my conclusions that will follow).
- Anyway, I couln't stop the game, I alt-tabbed to Windows, went to shut down, and Windows froze during shut-down
- ok, so I thought I am getting some instability, and I tought that the very aggressive 5-2-2-2 settings at 200 MHz were too much at default voltage. So I upped the voltage to 2.8V
- went back to window, back to the game, I got the same message, couldn't stop the game, couldn't shut down, had to reset
- going back to Windows, I realized that installation was hosed. So back to repair install
- I set the CPU settings to 166 x 12, memory settings to automatic (aggressive) and everything was fine.
- I went to hardware BBSs (amdmb has a good one) and I found out that this Asus nForce2 mobo is not too thrilled about 200 MHz in dual channel mode, especially with aggressive timing, some claim success, others don't
- apparently, 200 MHz is fine with single DIMM in one channel, or even with 2 DIMMs in 1 channel
- now I am not sure how much difference there would be between higher clocked FSB and single channel or lower clocked FSB and dual channel. I left the machine at 166x12, but I will probably switch to the 11 multiplier and FSB around 190, next time I play with it.
- Asus probe was giving some unbelievable CPU temperature, some 38C, as opposed to mid 50s of my old Athlon Tbird 1.33. Probably too good to be true. I don't really trust it. The BIOS hardware monitor was saying the same thing.
- I loaded the new version of Motherboard monitor and (early support for nForce2 and Asus A7N8X) and that one was showing some 45 to 48. That seemed more realistic, since the power consumption is a bit lower compared to that Tbird, and I got a better heatsink. But I will wait a revision or 2 of Motherboard monitor to know what's really going on.
- speaking of heatsink, I got Thermalright SLK-800, which is a work of art. Definitely recommended.
- anyway, there was some talk of 2x200 support in future Barton and supposedly in nForce2. From my limited experience, I don't think it is there yet. I could try it again with less aggressive memory timing than 5-2-2-2, but I don't really want to waste too much time on this. But there is an early indication that it is not rock solid
- back to the cloud in my conclusions, I am not really sure if it was not the game with the corrupted save file that caused part of the problems, since there was a 1 to 1 correlation between problems I ran into and loading this corrupted save file. So I am not 100% sure. Now I can't go back and re-test it with less aggressive setting because I no longer have tha save file.
- anyway, with 200 MHz FSB and aggressive timing, the system got out of this world (in Athlon terms) Sandra memory scores, beating PC-800 RDRAM hands down, but still behind PC-1066 and overclocked 845 with PC-3200. Anyway, Athlon used to trail memory benchmark scores badly, but with nForce 2 and fast RAM, Athlon is now very competitive in this department.
- I did not overclock the CPU yet. I will probably play with it a bit, but in general, I don't really want to live on the edge, and will turn down the settings so that I go back to rock solid system
- The system I upgraded from was the most solid computer I ever had, which spans a lot of machines over a lot of years. It was Asus A7M266 based machine, which had the first DDR chipset - 760 on the market, made by AMD. I hope that the quality of the 760 chipset will continue and improve in future Opteron based chipsets and systems
- The reason for this whole upgrade was that I have an aging machine in the office, running Pentium 100, and Novell 3.12 (one of the gems of the history of software). Well, the hardware is dying, and I still need to run the server, in the most stable form possible, so I decided to bring from home the AMD760 based components and get the nForce2 for home. I didn't really need upgrade at this point for the home machine, since what I had was fine. But I got an opporunity to play with some new stuff, and I like what I got.
- When it comes to upgrading, I really want an Opteron (dual memory channel) workstation, and I figure that it will be a year before I can get that at normal prices. I don't really care that much about Clawhammer, so this nForce2 will make sure I will not be tempted by the Clawhammer (hopefully).
Joe |
