Help me OC my abit AN-7 board if you can.

fenderltd

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - July 2007
Joined
Feb 10, 2004
Messages
2,432
Ok, I am not having the best of luck right now.
My setup is this.

Abit An-7 board latest bios installed
Amd 2800+ Barton
Corsair xms dual channel PC3200 (2x256) running dual channel mode
Seagate 120 SATA
FX5900 XT


I have cpu @ 1.75
Ram @ 2.8
and thats all I have messed with. I have uploaded a cpu-z html report
I have done lots of reading and have seen reports of basically my same system setup with the same ram stable to 220mhz fsb. I just want to atleast get my moneys worth at 200fsb.. I have read the manual for the mobo over and over trying to see what settings to adjust and did lots of reading but I decided to ask the masters @ Hard OCP
if anyone knows some where I can find detailed info on these settings in the mobo please include that as well as I am tryin to learn here! When I set it to 200fsb it goes up untill the windows xp loading screen. it shows just a blank screen.

I have got it to 191or 193 fsb at 42'C . on the way I have a Thermalright SI-97 with a Pana 92mm so cooling wont be in issue if I can over clock this rig. Thanks in advance, dont be harsh!

My cpuz report
 
What kind of PSU do you have? Also, what is the week/stepping code of your CPU? You may have one of the so-called "superlocked" procs, in which case your OC will be CPU limited.
 
Name AMD Athlon XP
Code Name Barton
Specification AMD Athlon(tm) XP
Family / Model / Stepping 6 A 0
Extended Family / Model 7 A


Is that what you needed to know?
My power supple is probally a 350 antec PSU. I can verify this once I get home.
 
that is not the info that he wanted. it is printed on the processor itself.

honestly, you should not be trying to go straight for windows while overclocking. you're likely to corrupt your install.

make yourself a memtest boot disk or boot CD, set everything down to stock settings in the bios. boot to the disk, run the test, if it passes restart, up the fsb by like 3-4 MHz, test again, repeat until test crashes or detects errors.

if test detects errors, try upping the chipset or ram voltage.
if the test crashes, try upping the processor voltage.

once it's stable, go for the same old pattern again.

once you have attained your desired FSB, and it is stable for one pass of memtest, test it for about 30 loops of memtest test 5, again adding voltage as needed to stabilize.

once it is reasonably memtest stable, try for windows safe mode, and begin testing with prime 95. once it is prime stable for at least 30-45 minutes in safe mode, go for windows normal mode and prime for something like 8 hrs straight, or one complete pass of prime (FFT size goes up to ~4MB, and then drops back down to 8KB)
 
DFI Daishi said:
if test detects errors, try upping the chipset or ram voltage.
if the test crashes, try upping the processor voltage.

I just set up an AN7 system. What I experienced was that if Memtest detected errors, I had to increase the mem voltage, and if the test froze I had to increase the northbridge voltage.

At 220mhz I can pass hours of memtest and prime95, but at 225mhz i can't get more than a few minutes into memtest, even with the northbridge voltage maxed out. Strangely I only needed 1.65v CPU to get prime stable at 12x200 on my NF7-S but I need 1.75v to get prime stable at 11x220 on my AN7.

As far as BIOS settings, check out this link. For the AN7, the fastest BIOS settings should be CPU interface enabled, enhance PCI performance enabled, CPU disconnect function disabled, FSB and AGP spread spectrum disabled, CPU thermal throttling disabled, and system and video BIOS cacheable disabled.
 
feanor1024 said:
I just set up an AN7 system. What I experienced was that if Memtest detected errors, I had to increase the mem voltage, and if the test froze I had to increase the northbridge voltage.

At 220mhz I can pass hours of memtest and prime95, but at 225mhz i can't get more than a few minutes into memtest, even with the northbridge voltage maxed out. Strangely I only needed 1.65v CPU to get prime stable at 12x200 on my NF7-S but I need 1.75v to get prime stable at 11x220 on my AN7.

As far as BIOS settings, check out this link. For the AN7, the fastest BIOS settings should be CPU interface enabled, enhance PCI performance enabled, CPU disconnect function disabled, FSB and AGP spread spectrum disabled, CPU thermal throttling disabled, and system and video BIOS cacheable disabled.

good idea to list optimal bios settings. i probably should have done that myself.

on my sister's AN7, i saw the above noted pattern in memtest, and it is the same on my lnaparty. individual variation?

for the voltages, pretty much all of the abit NF2s had saggy CPU voltages, i would think that you just had one board that sagged lower than the other.
 
DFI Daishi you are talking 220 mhz I cant get higher than like 191. Can you tell me the volatages in a list?
cpu = 1.75
ram = 2.8
insert here!
insert here!
I would test the volages, but to be honest, I am just a little scared! soo if you could tell me a rough set to try that would be helpful!
Also I dont specify my own memory timings, I have it set on agressive I think.

I will do what was said of---
CPU interface enabled, enhance PCI performance enabled, CPU disconnect function disabled, FSB and AGP spread spectrum disabled, CPU thermal throttling disabled, and system and video BIOS cacheable disabled.
THANKS A TON!!!
 
for a 2800 barton http://users.erols.com/chare/elec.htm lists stock CPU voltage as 1.65.
stock ram voltage should be 2.6
stock chipset voltage should be 1.6-1.65
put AGP voltage at 1.5 or 1.6 (stock should be 1.5, i think)

i am talking abou just starting out at stock 166 FSb and slowly working you way up from there.

it is actually pretty unlikely that you will get up to 200 FSB with a locked multi of 12.5 (or13?) like you have, unless you have a really good chip and wicked cooling.

if you are able to drop down your multi to 11, then you might make it, but it's usually only the mobile bartons that people get wicked OCs with.
 
fenderltd said:
DFI Daishi you are talking 220 mhz I cant get higher than like 191. Can you tell me the volatages in a list?
cpu = 1.75
ram = 2.8
insert here!
insert here!
I would test the volages, but to be honest, I am just a little scared! soo if you could tell me a rough set to try that would be helpful!
Also I dont specify my own memory timings, I have it set on agressive I think.

Unless you have a gimp board, it should be able to do at least 200mhz FSB. So either your CPU or your mem is holding you back. When you run CPU-Z, click on the SPD tab and post what it says in the SPD timings table. That should be what your memory is rated to do at a normal (2.5-2.8) voltage. To rule out the memory, you could set the timings to 3-4-4-8 in the BIOS (IIRC you have to choose expert to set them yourself) and see how high you can go. Since it's PC3200, it should do at least 200mhz at those timings.

The maximum safe voltage for your RAM depends on what kind of RAM you have, so you need to find out which chips are on your RAM sticks.. For example, I'm running Mushkin with UTT chips at 3.1v, which I'm assuming is safe because I've seen some people running it at 3.6v or more over at xs.

You shouldn't have to change the AGP voltage.

On my AN7, if I set the northbridge/chipset voltage to 1.60v, I can run up to 215mhz. At 1.65v I can run at 220mhz. Setting it to 1.70v or 1.75v doesn't gain any more. :(

I've seen a huge variation in recommendations on highest safe CPU voltage for a Barton. On my old NF7-S, my first XP-M lasted for 3 or 4 months at 1.8v. Now it won't run above 1.65v w/o shutting down or not even posting. The highest temp it hit was 56-57C. If you rule out the RAM, it could just be that your CPU can't clock that high.

fenderltd said:
I will do what was said of---
CPU interface enabled, enhance PCI performance enabled, CPU disconnect function disabled, FSB and AGP spread spectrum disabled, CPU thermal throttling disabled, and system and video BIOS cacheable disabled.
THANKS A TON!!!

FYI, enabling CPU interface may limit your top FSB, but it will increase performance. From what I've read at xs, you'd have to set the FSB 10 or 20 mhz higher with it disabled to make up for the performance loss.
 
his board should hit it, i think that he has a high, locked, multi that will make his processor a bottleneck.

if he is unlocked, then great, he can drop down the multi and go for the kinds of OCs that you are talking about, but that's not yet established.
 
99% sure its locked @ 12.5 let me get home and do some testing!!
 
DFI Daishi, how is your DFI hamstrung?

You might be able to hit 12.5x200 if you crank the CPU voltage up really high....from what I've read I'm assuming some chips can handle voltage better than mine did. One guy, at ocforums IIRC, claimed to have run a Barton at 2.1v on air cooling for a year w/o probs. If you do up the CPU voltage, make sure you have the money to replace it if need be.
 
feanor1024 said:
DFI Daishi, how is your DFI hamstrung?

You might be able to hit 12.5x200 if you crank the CPU voltage up really high....from what I've read I'm assuming some chips can handle voltage better than mine did. One guy, at ocforums IIRC, claimed to have run a Barton at 2.1v on air cooling for a year w/o probs. If you do up the CPU voltage, make sure you have the money to replace it if need be.

hamstrung........what else do you call a board that needs 1.9 chipset voltage to hit 200 FSB stable? gimpy? handicapped? disabled? i decided to go with hamstrung, which i think is less potentially offensive to those reading.

by the time that i knew that, i had waterproofed the board for my peltier cooling, making a RMA out of the question.

i really don't think that fender should go past 1.8 on air, unless he has a really good cooler on there(like a XP-90).
 
DFI:
it is a little bit strange that your chipset ran a 200FSB at all, I would have either expected it to manage at default voltage (since it is specced for it, after all), or not managed PERIOD, due to a defective northbridge. For me, your board is a foray into uncharted waters. (And thank you for warning me about the ratio handicap in my other thread, I am sure you saved me a lot of aggravation.)

Fenderltd:
Your chipset voltage should be left at default. As an NF2 Ultra, it should have no troubles running any frequency up to 200, inclusive. Also take your RAM out of the question by leaving its timings at default SPD. This also means returning it to default voltages. Make sure you are running a 1:1 ratio, and also update your BIOS to the absolute latest version.
If you can drop your multi to 11x, do that (as already suggested). If not, there is a good chance you are already at or near your limits. Many XP (mobile or otherwise) chips top at out 2.4'ish on air, regardless of voltage. Yours may simply have hit its ceiling at 2.375GHz.
In terms of the safe range on voltages, I draw the line at 2V for a Barton regardless of cooling- my Swiftech MCX had no problems handling it, though anything above 1.9 was unnecessary.
 
mavalpha said:
DFI:
it is a little bit strange that your chipset ran a 200FSB at all, I would have either expected it to manage at default voltage (since it is specced for it, after all), or not managed PERIOD, due to a defective northbridge. For me, your board is a foray into uncharted waters. (And thank you for warning me about the ratio handicap in my other thread, I am sure you saved me a lot of aggravation.)
if you're going to shorten my handle, please shorten it to daishi.

regarding my board: the soldering on it looks like crap, and a poor connection or two would help to expalin my board's poor performance. there is even one location where two pins on ICs are directly bridged by some SM component (likely a cap, of all things) below my ram slot. i called up DFI wheni got the thing, to ask about that one, and i eventually got routed to some engineer in chia who looked at one of their QC reference boards, and said that it was okay for that to be there.

all it all, it shows some pretty poor QC and manufacturing practices.

once i am done with this thing, i will most likely try to get some up close pics of that and other little details of this board.

all in all, i am unlikely to get a DFI again in the near future, and neither are any of my friends.
 
I am sorry about the handle, I will remember that in the future- not meant to offend!

I am equally sorry to hear about your bad experience with DFI, mine has been nothing but positive. I use the same board as you for my AXP, and I will be using the infamous UT250GB for my A64 rig just as soon as I can afford it. The only reason I am going s754, in fact, is because I am waiting for their NF3/939 board, like so many others. Consider me one of their loyal fans.

Does your board limit your overclocking? I called them about this a few months ago, and they told me to visit the forums. In case the forums were unable to help me, the person I spoke with (Frank, IIRC- very helpful!) even set up an RMA for me- again, just in case! I was perfectly honest with them and said I know my CPU is capable of 2.4GHz, but that my new board was leaving me stuck at 2.2. I found out that it was fixed by a newer BIOS, but they were willing to RMA my board because it was limiting my OC!
 
mavalpha said:
I am sorry about the handle, I will remember that in the future- not meant to offend!

Does your board limit your overclocking? I called them about this a few months ago, and they told me to visit the forums. In case the forums were unable to help me, the person I spoke with (Frank, IIRC- very helpful!) even set up an RMA for me- again, just in case! I was perfectly honest with them and said I know my CPU is capable of 2.4GHz, but that my new board was leaving me stuck at 2.2. I found out that it was fixed by a newer BIOS, but they were willing to RMA my board because it was limiting my OC!
the board most definately limits my FSB overclock, but given that my board is covered in conformal coating, the NB cooler is on the SB, there are coolers stuck to my mosfets, and there is an aftermarket swiftec chipset cooler on my NB i do not believe that they will accept my board as an RMA.

nor should they accept it. it DOES hit specified speed, just not at specified voltage. my mods could have messed things up in any number of ways, and it is entirely possible that this is all my fault.

i do not think that i messed up this board, but they are well within their rights to turn me down.
 
DFI Daishi said:
nor should they accept it. it DOES hit specified speed, just not at specified voltage. my mods could have messed things up in any number of ways, and it is entirely possible that this is all my fault.
Regarding your first statement, the board is/was marketed as an enthusiast/overclocker-friendly motherboard. Mine ran a 200FSB without any BIOS tweaks, but couldn't run a 201FSB no matter WHAT I did. I called them and said that it failed to impress me with its overclocking abilities, the very reason I chose the board.
http://www.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_product_spec_details_r_us.jsp?PRODUCT_ID=2320&CATEGORY_TYPE=MB&SITE=NA said:
O.C.ers, meanwhile, will mostly enjoy the unique O.C. solution with the DFI LANPARTY NFII ULTRA B when discovering the magic of CMOS Reloaded.
The board was specifically built and marketed to appeal to the overclocking community, and mine failed at this goal originally. This is exactly what I told them over the phone. They accepted it and did their part to resolve the problem.
Your second statement is commendable, and speaks very highly for your sense of integrity. In your position, I would probably have raised hell over, basically, the same things I did raise hell over. I am certain I would have explained that my mods were there to try to fix their mistake. Sir, I commend you for being a much more understanding person than I.
 
DFI Daishi said:
all it all, it shows some pretty poor QC and manufacturing practices.

once i am done with this thing, i will most likely try to get some up close pics of that and other little details of this board.

all in all, i am unlikely to get a DFI again in the near future, and neither are any of my friends.

I bought a DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra B last year. I had planned to pick up a new CPU on my next paycheck, so I put a working Duron 1300 in during the meantime. I figured it would work since the website and the box said it supported Durons. It refused to boot. I put the Duron in a Gigabyte KT333 motherboard and it ran fine. I put a friend's Athlon XP in the DFI and it booted fine. So the DFI went back to Fry's.

Are you going to eventually replace it with another socket A board or go 64 bit?
 
FENDER:


With the above changes, what did you end up with as far as your OC?

And yes, what I was looking for was the information printed on your processor itself, but, I am willing to bet you have just hit ceiling at 191mhz FSB. Those 2800 Bartons only had a 333mhz FSB on them, and getting them to 200 on the stock multi is a pretty big feat.
 
The best thing I ever did for my AN7 overclock was upgrade my BIOS to the 18 revision as modified by two guys named Enduracell and TicTac.
Previously I was bottlenecked at 200x11, this flash allowed me to get to 230x11 (still working on it too!)
You should still be able to get to 200x12.5, the 2800+ is the same core as my 2500+, and I can get past 2.5GHz.

The BIOS I'm talking about is mirrored here under the downloads section. Get the AN7 18DE8 1T OC-BIOS. (If you choose to do this)
 
any other suggestions on trying this bios? There is 3 versions of 18 their which one if I chose?
 
I'll try the bios out. What is really so different about this bios though? (i.e. like changes/improvements that it does over the lastest abit) thanks again!!!
 
Improved clock frequencies, updated SATA controller firmware. I believe the voltage tables have been calibrated. Whatever they did, its like magic :)
 
I hope so, I don't need a jacked up bios lol I got enough on my noobie hands! :)
 
Change Log:

1 . Changed the Optimal and Aggressive CPU Interface Table above 200 MHz FSB:
- DISABLE CPU Interface has been modified to be more user-friendly
for high FSB overclocking
- ENABLE CPU Interface now recalls the lost bandwidth when FSB
is above 200 MHz and at a multiplier that is under 10

2 . No L12 Mod needed for 133MHz & 166MHz. All CPU will be running on 200MHz CPU Profile

3 . Update DISABLE and ENABLE CPU interface define above 200 MHz to increase
3Dmark2001 performance

4. BPL Version:
- Command Per Clock Enable : BPL version 3.02 (ABIT PCR)
- Command Per Clock Disable: BPL Version 3.19 (DFI PCR)

5 . CPU Disconnect Function Patch as Recomended by nVidia Tech
6 . Alpha Timing : 2-3-3-3-3-3-4 by default
7 . Trc-Trfc : 9-12 by default
8 . Dimm Driving strength : 6 by default
9 . Dimm Slew Rate : 7 by default

Basically, they've taken some default values and tweaked them, taken some values from other boards (DFI, etc...) talked with some nVidia techs for tweaks. Biggest change is the change of the default ROMSIP table.
 
well I will give this a shot for sure man. Thanks, I will reply with my results :)
 
If it has the TicTac seal of approval on it, it isn't "jacked up"- he turns out only the best BIOSes available. Unfortunately, I don't think I've ever had a board for which he did anything, but it would've been nice...
 
mavalpha said:
If it has the TicTac seal of approval on it, it isn't "jacked up"- he turns out only the best BIOSes available. Unfortunately, I don't think I've ever had a board for which he did anything, but it would've been nice...
DFI lanparty NFII ultra B right?

he did a 3Dfire release available on dfi-street.
 
feanor1024 said:
Are you going to eventually replace it with another socket A board or go 64 bit?
s939 a64 will most likely be my next upgrade, when i can afford it.

i think that throwing more money at socketA is pretty silly at this point.

a reaasonable s939 board and chip only runs about $80 CDN more than an overclocker's socket A board and chip.

i will port my cooling solution over and OC my a64, when i can make the move up, but i expect my biggest performance gain will be the ability to drop something like a X800XL vid card in there.
 
DFI Daishi said:
DFI lanparty NFII ultra B right?

he did a 3Dfire release available on dfi-street.
Did not know that, thanks for the heads-up! It looks like my board is getting one last flash before I get rid of it forever!
 
fenderltd said:
who is TicTac?
he makes modded BIOSes and is a pretty hardcore overclocker.

he used to use a NF7-S and did some modded BIOSes for that.

a while back he went over to a DFI board, and started releasing for DFI over on dfi-street.
 
Ok, well then I have no worries now! thanks a ton... you guys are 1337! :D
 
Well I loaded the TicTac bios and I wasn't impressed. I did some more tweaking, and DAMN! It works like a charm, and I feel dumb for ever doubting!
I have posted some pics for you to check out and of the bios main settings to see if I could do anything else better. Thanks a ton, without you guys I couldn't do it! The main setting I had to really change was the cpu volt. I couldnt get it to boot windows with out it being 1.9. ram is from 2.6 to 2.8V
2.jpg


b1.jpg

b2.jpg

b3.jpg
 
what cooling do you have on there?
what are your temperatures like?
how much stability testing have you done so far?

i hope that you realize that your are drastically shortening the life of your proc if you're running such high voltages, and you're shortening it even more if you are letting your temps go above 60.
 
Ah, another loyal TicTac convert!

(Still stress-testing my DFI before TicTac for reference point, I'll post updates when available.)
 
DFI Daishi said:
what cooling do you have on there?
what are your temperatures like?
how much stability testing have you done so far?

i hope that you realize that your are drastically shortening the life of your proc if you're running such high voltages, and you're shortening it even more if you are letting your temps go above 60.

Temps are 43c right now. I just got my Thermalright SI-97 and Panaflo today which is not installed right now. 43c is with a Thermaltake volcano 11 I think. So I would say idle will change to 37c and load 44-45c. is 1.9v too much you think?
 
I'd say anything less than 2V is fine. 1.65V (default) + 20%=1.98V. Mine runs 1.875V 24/7 @ 40/45C, I ran it all the way up to 2V when I was still trying to find its cap. HSF is a Swiftech MCX462-V with a Panaflo 92mm, right under a 120mm PSU exhaust fan and an 80mm case intake.
 
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