Explain This... Mobile Barton / NF7-S

I had a Mobile Barton 2600 in an NF7-S v 2.0 that I thought was a lemon... I maxed out being Prime95 stable at 208x11.5 at 1.82+ VCore... I have 2 XMS Corsair 3200 512MB sticks of ram running dual channel at a relaxed 3449 and 2.8 V... and my cpu is cooled by first a SLK900A and now a SP-97...

My 2nd computer has an NF7-S as well, bought at the same time, and I had a regulat Barton 2500 in there at 11.5x200 @ 1.76 VCore... I sold this Barton at a good price and bought a Mobile Barton 2500... I moved the new cpu into my 1st computer and the lemon 2600 into my 2nd rig...

When I put the 2600 into my second computer, thinking I know the CPU's limitations, I set it right away at 205x11.5 and run Prime95... [I leave the bus at 205 because I have not tested how far the Corsair value ram pc3200 can go] it runs for a few hours and does not crash... then I realize my I forgot to adjust my VCore... it is still at 1.76 [1.8 in the bios]... I bump the bus up to 210 and it still does not crash while running for about two hours... this is at 210x11.5... on my other computer, this cpu was never stable at a 210 bus... 208 was really as high as I got Prime95 stable... and that was at 1.82 to 1.84 VCore, not 1.76... and I have not lowered the VCore to see if it is still stable or raised the bus to see if it goes higher than 210...

I want my 1st computer to be my best computer; it has the RAID0 for video editing, the 9800 Pro, the full GB of XMS ram, the larger, newer hardware... this just pisses me off...

The new mobile 2500 did do betterm in my 1st computer, but I still leveled off at 210x11.5 with a VCore at 1.82 to 1.84... my power is an Antec true blue 480... my heatsink is a SP-97 with a 80mm SmartfanII running about 4800rpm... my temps have been great today...

Any ideas here... is my ABIT motherboard the lemon here... I hate the idea of having to swap motherboards... jobs like that are so hard with a new baby around and a wife that gets on me when ever I take the side of a computer off... she was out of town today...

<font color=red><b>NF7-S/MBarton 2500+
210x11.5 1.82v SP-97
1GB Corsair XMS PC3200
BBA 9800 Pro 423/369</font color=red><font color=black>
NF7-S/MBarton 2600+
210x11.5 1.76v
512MB CVR PC3200
Sapphire 9500@9700<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Titanion on 08/22/04 06:36 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Is there a connection between north bridge and increasing cpu vcore? If a cpu runs at 11.5x210 @ 1.76 on one computer, why would you need to increase the vcore to 1.82 on another to get the same speed?

<font color=red><b>NF7-S/MBarton 2500+
210x11.5 1.82v SP-97
1GB Corsair XMS PC3200
BBA 9800 Pro 423/369</font color=red><font color=black>
NF7-S/MBarton 2600+
210x11.5 1.76v
512MB CVR PC3200
Sapphire 9500@9700

But why the difference in VCore for stability...

<font color=red><b>NF7-S/MBarton 2500+
210x11.5 1.82v SP-97
1GB Corsair XMS PC3200
BBA 9800 Pro 423/369</font color=red><font color=black>
NF7-S/MBarton 2600+
210x11.5 1.76v
512MB CVR PC3200
Sapphire 9500@9700