Overclock AXP 1.8 on A7A266

Keezah

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Mar 7, 2002
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I know the a7a266 isn't the best for overclocking, but all I'm looking to do is up the FSB a bit. However, for some reason, I can barely increase it all without having complete system instability. If I even raise it to 136Mhz I have all kinds of system errors and freezing. I previously ran an Athlon 1.13 in this same system, I was able to run @ 140Mhz FSB with no problems at all, perfect stability. Allthough I got a little greedy with that chip and just recently burnt it. That's why I now have a 1800+ in this system. In any case, I've heard that there can sometimes be problems with SCSI cards and SCSI hard drives when upping the FSB. I would believe this with no problem, but since the 140 FSB with the 1.13 worked fine for months, I'm a little confused as to why I can't even raise the AXP 1.8 by even a couple of Mhz. Has anyone else had these same problems?

Thanks



AXP 1.8+ on A7A266 1.03
Samsung PC2100 256mb
Seagate X15 on Adaptec 29160
 

madtrax

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try to take up the vcore a bit about 1.75 default is 1.725 if that doesnt work try setting it even higher

good luck
 

Keezah

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Well I fiddled around with the Ram latency times and I think I have my computer stable now while running at 139 FSB. I set my ram to 2.5/2/2/6 and jumped the core to 1.80. I'm not sure if these settings actually result in a faster computer though. I had read somewhere that it's not worth comprimising your ram timings and upping the FSB. Is this true? By the way, I'm using some el-cheapo ram with samsung chips, should this be the first thing I change? I notice that most people use Mushkin, is it that much better for overclocking?


Thanks


AXP 1.8+ on A7A266 1.03
Samsung PC2100 256mb
Seagate X15 on Adaptec 29160
 

madtrax

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no that is just B*llSH*T the differnce is so minor that it doesnt matter my msi k7t266pro v2.0 runs stable with a AMD XP1800+ oc. at a fsb 144 with only the vcore set higher and the ddrram timing set is default i score 7844 3dmark2001se with default settings and when i change the ddrram timing i score 7823 so the diffrence is just a minor 20points so its just a bedtime story!!!!!!!
have fun with your new OC. results

M@DTR@XX

my system aint running on 110/230volts it runs on nitro!!!!!

and by the way pc2400 would give you a stabeler result but if it runs fine this way I would just leave it like it is now<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by madtrax on 03/07/02 01:55 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

Keezah

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Thanks for the info Madtrax, very helpful... I think I've now perfected my overclock situation. This motherboard is basically [-peep-] for overclocking, I just found out that any bus speeds over 140 are basically useless anyways. There is a "safety" mechanism onboard which retards the DDR speeds as soon as you hit 141 FSB, and as you increase to 160 lets say, your ram speeds are comprimised by like 40%. So in short, this MB sucks [-peep-]! Anyway, to work around that, I just found a way to change my DDR voltage to 2.5, instead of default 2.7, which is apparently a good stabilty choice for the samsung ram I have. So now I'm running, 2/2/2/6 with all accelerations enabled in the bios, with 140FSB and everything is running fine, no more hang-ups etc. The voltage on my DDR really cured my problem.

I checked the DDR timing differences using Sandra, and you're right, barely a difference in speed, however I'm not sure how this really affects actual overall performance. But I'm guessing not by much, seeing that I don't notice any speed differences between mem timings.

Anyways, moral of this story, DON'T BUY AN A7A266! NOR SAMSUNG RAM! lol

Keezah

AXP 1.8+ on A7A266 1.03
Samsung PC2100 256mb
Seagate X15 on Adaptec 29160
 

girish

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well, I will change that statement to "dont buy a A7A266 if you intend to overclock"!

i have a A7A266 for about a year! I bought it because we dint have DDR-RAMs in India then, the ones available were too costly. So I decided to get this board so that I can have a hassle-free upgrade later. The other reason was it had a hardware sound chip, unlike those sucky AC97 codecs on all other boards. This board is so flexible (and its new rev A7A266-E too), but it does lack some hard core overclocking options, although they claim it could do as much as 25% ovreclock! But in its latest rev it does support a wider range of core voltage and FSB settings.

The voltage settings on all Asus boards are always bit on a higher side, especially memory and/or I/O settings so you should set them right to start with. I might add that I have had no troubles using the board since I set it up although I had to research a lot to make sure every setting is correct. I then changed the processor from Duron 750 ro Athlon 1.1 GHz, switched SDRAM to DDR-RAM and tried a overclock, 135 MHz FSB stable. I dont have a decent cooler so kept further overclock for later times.

girish

<font color=red>Nothing is fool-proof. Fools are Ingenious!</font color=red>
 

Keezah

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You're right, the a7a266 is a great board if you aren't interested in overclocking. I've had mine for over a year now, It has always worked flawlessly, my pc hasn't crashed once on me when using stock FSB. The dual ram type is cool too, allthough I'm sure most people haven't ever used Sdram on it. And ya the onboard sound is pretty decent, I've actually never bothered putting a better sound card in it since I've had it. Great board, just don't overclock the FSB to much :)

AXP 1.8+ on A7A266 1.03
Samsung PC2100 256mb
Seagate X15 on Adaptec 29160