Can PAT damage a Springdale board?

[over_c]

So I bought an Asus P4P800 last week, downloaded the 1007 Bios, and enabled the "Memory Acceleration Mode" (PAT) on startup. I set my memory timings at 2-3-3-7 and had NO overclocking.

The system ran fine for about two days. Then the motherboard just died on me. I am now wondering if the PAT might have damaged my board.

Here is my reasoning:

Intel's selection process for silicon involved a specific test to determine whether or not the chip could handle PAT. If it passed, it became a Canterwood chip, if it did not pass, it became a Springdale chip. Now all the motherboard manufacturers are creating software versions of PAT and enabling it in their Bios, despite the fact that the silicon for this chipset did not pass the Intel test for PAT.

This leads me to believe that the death of my board was due to the fact the Springdale chipset can't handle PAT enabled.

Does anyone else have anything to support or deny this line of reasoning?

Exactly what happened to my board can be seen in the string:
<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=139234#139234" target="_new">Motherboard Crash</A>

 

[slvr_phoenix]

It's entirely feasable. The thing is that I'm sure there are more northbridges that pass Intel's i875 validation testing than Intel actually uses to make i875s out of. So there are likely quite a good number of i865s that can run PAT just fine.

Still, there are inevitably the few that can't. In a perfect world Asus would test each mobo (or at least each northbridge) to ensure PAT works. In the real world, they probably don't or only vaguely test at best. It's generally cheaper to just replace the few faulty components that eventually break down than it is to test them all thoroughly.

That's what warantees are for though. RMA it. Make 'em fix or replace it. It sucks, but that's life for us consumers.

"<i>Yeah, if you treat them like equals, it'll only encourage them to think they <b>ARE</b> your equals.</i>" - Thief from <A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=030603" target="_new">8-Bit Theater</A>

 

[over_c]

Yeah, that's what I have done. Hopefully my new board, when I get it, will be able to handle PAT.

I would like hear from people who have had a similar situation to mine occur, as well as others who have PAT running without any problems. Are there any of you out there?

 

[Creator]

With BIOS v1007 I've enabled PAT without a problem, even with CPU (2.4c) overclocked 30%. However after your experience I'm still a bit nervous to keep it like that for any length of time. I've kept memory to SPD though.

 

[sabbath1]

I got my P4 2.8C and P4P800 today, will probably enable PAT since that's what I bought this board for. I'll keep you posted about what's happening with my machine.

Ok, just enabled PAT.

Update 24/6: Got one crash late yesterday after enabling PAT. So far, just one crash though, inside a game.


My system: Intel Pentium 4 2.8, 800 FSB / TwinMOS 1Gb DDR400 / ASUS P4P800 / Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro / Antec True Power 550W / Western Digital Raptor / Hercules G.T XP /
Samsung DVD / Lite-On CDRW<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by sabbath1 on 06/24/03 08:27 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[over_c]

It's been a few days. Anyone new have any experiences with the Asus P4P800 (or Deluxe) to share? Good or bad. Thanks.

 

[sabbath1]

I found it a bit unstable, both with and without PAT, so I went ahead and switched it out for a MSI 875P Neo instead, a bit crazy maybe, but now at least I can stop worrying about if PAT works properly or not.

My system: Intel Pentium 4 2.8, 800FSB / TwinMOS 1Gb DDR400 / MSI 875P Neo / Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro / Antec True Power 550W / Western Digital Raptor / Hercules G.T XP /
Samsung DVD / Lite-On CDRW

 

[peter21]

I have the Asus P4P800 deluxe.
I'm able to turn on MAM(PAT) with the timings 2-3-3-5-8. I have Corsair XMS PC3500 memory, what do you guys think? I'm curious cause in the review here they were able to get
2-2-2-5 timings with same RAM and board, i'm assuming it varies from board to board and ram to ram.

--------
The only thing that i truly know...

is that i know nothing at all.

 

[ZZSpaceman]

I have a P4C875 Delux, and when I was running BIOS 1006, the Turbo selection was not available. I just updated the BIOS to 1007 and the selection is now available again. It is a little early to say for sure but my system appeared to be more stable without the PAT enabled.

I have a 9600pro, and 3DMark03 never locked up at 526/335. Now I am down to 522/326. The difference in performance is unnoticeable. It's very fast on or off.

As for damaging the board, lock-ups are never good but I doubt the PAT is solely responsible for frying your mother board. I don't think it puts enough additional stress on the motherboard components to worry about. With or without PAT I recommend adding a fan to your northbridge heat sink. I found a snap-on P2 fan that fit nicely on the ASUS northbridge heat sink.

I’m very happy with the ASUS boards performance, if the P4P were available when I built my system I probably would have taken that path. One thing is always guaranteed if you wait a month their will be something better out there and it will probably cost less too.

ZZSpaceman

 

[ltj311]

I'm going with the P4P800 for my upgrade(which looks extremely similar to Sabbath1's first post specs). And I'm wondering if PAT is really worth it. With all the instability I'm reading about, is it really gonna give you enough to be justified?

Another question if anyone can shed some light. I'm a layman(lazy) when it comes to details. What is the difference between the P4P800 and the P4P800-Deluxe? Is it worth the extra money if all I do is surf the web, play games, and listen to music, for the most part? Why would I want the Deluxe version?

--

"<i>I'm seriously you guys.</i>" - Cartman

 

[sabbath1]

You were unable to run 2-2-2-5? But isn't those Corsair memory supposed ro tun that setting?

My system: Intel Pentium 4 2.8, 800FSB / TwinMOS 1Gb DDR400 / MSI 875P Neo / Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro / Antec True Power 550W / Western Digital Raptor / Hercules G.T XP /
Samsung DVD / Lite-On CDRW

 

[ZZSpaceman]

It has a few more options, mainly an additional HD connector. This might come in handy, but then again it may sit idle like mine. Other than that I don't see much. Neither have the AGP Pro Slot like the P4C800. You might want to go to the ASUS web page, but to really understand the difference's you will need to comb through the more detailed data sheets. The side by side comparison gives no useful information.

http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/overview_p4.htm

Until the PAT is a bit more stable I’ll keep mine off. The performance difference is unnoticeable except in bench marks. Most 3DMark tests don’t benefit either.

ZZSpaceman

 

[ltj311]

Thanks for the reply. So, being a gamer, I wouldn't need PAT because it wouldn't affect real in-game performance. Only in benchmarks? Then why bother?

So the non-Deluxe is only capable of supporting 1 hard drive?

--

"<i>I'm seriously you guys.</i>" - Cartman

 

[ZZSpaceman]

Not exactly, the P4P800 supports two ultra ATA drives (one connector), and two serial ATA drives. The latter in Windows XP only. If you are looking for the last few FPS then PAT helps, but I doubt you can tell the difference when playing a game. I can't, but I'm not a diehard gamer.

Thus I would say that the P4P800 is a good option for you.

ZZSpaceman

 

[ltj311]

Thanks for reinforcing my decision. I'll probably still mess with enabling PAT so I can get those extra points in 3DMark.

I'll never learn.

--

"<i>I'm seriously you guys.</i>" - Cartman

 

[sabbath1]

Well, PAT does increase real-world performance, I saw that the other day when I enabled it on my new MSI board, the difference is small though.

So you've got your replacement board then?.


My system: Intel Pentium 4 2.8, 800FSB / TwinMOS 1Gb DDR400 / MSI 875P Neo / Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro / Antec True Power 550W / Western Digital Raptor / Hercules G.T XP /
Samsung DVD / Lite-On CDRW<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by sabbath1 on 07/01/03 05:13 AM.</EM></FONT></P>