Socket 939 – best board for max FSB?

[matt9669]

Well it’s been a while since I hit up the forums here – been a reader since, oh, 96’ or so, but I thought I’d share a few things and ask a few questions, get to be a part of the community, blah blah blah . . .

I turned 21 on 9/30 – it was a momentous event, yes, and I now get to keep a bottle of Captain Morgan handy for those late night study sessions *cough* OK well, you get the idea

After dealing with numerous issues w/ my Abit IS7 and 2.4C, I’m taking the plunge and upgrading – well, I dunno if you call it that these days, seems you move more sideways than up – managed to get my hands on the elusive Socket939 3200+. Dunno if they still have them but GameVE.com put them up @ $230 Wednesday night, for those interested, mine has shipped out already so they must have them physically in stock (you never know sometimes)

Here’s where I’m up in the air. I have a Vapochill LS mounted to a Lian Li V1000 (for details/pics of how I did this, I’ll start a new thread if there’s enough interest), and since the standard A64’s can change multipliers downwards only, I know I’m going to need a board that can produce the max available FSB (or HT clock, for the picky out there) to get the most out of my 3200+. The Abit AV8 looks good, but there isn’t a whole lot of evidence as to high FSB’s on S939 boards atm, anyone know any better/have any suggestions? I’m against the MSI K8N with the memory horizontal, I might not be able to install the LS on that board (remember the mobo is inverted in the V1000 series cases).

Also, has anyone tested the OCZ DDR Booster on the AV8? It’s not listed on OCZ’s site yet and I’d like to use it if possible . . .

Thanks, any info/linkage/opinions would be helpful!

-- Matt Davis

 

[Bop]

I have both the ABIT AV8 and the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum and with my experience the AV8 is a better board.

With the same hardware and speeds the AV8 beats out my Neo2, the only thing the Neo2 has over the AV8 is the hardware firewall which I find kinda useless. In 3dMark 2003 at the same CPU/ GPU speeds the AV8 scores about 400 points higher.(13060pts compared to 12600pts) 3dMark isn't the best comparison but my games do run faster on the AV8, I ran a couple DooM 3 benchmarks awhile back.

WIth the AV8 I get about the same overclock with the Neo2, but I need to wait for my Ballistix to get back before I can retest that.

The latest BIOS for the AV8 also increased the really slow boot time.(before it would be about 10 seconds before the BIOS would kick into windows, now its just about instant) If you go with the AV8, DO NOT use an Antec PSU as there are compatability issues.

The OCZ DDR Booster does work with the AV8, I have tried it with up to 3.2v and it works.

Also the best RAM to use with any Athlon64 motherboard is either Crucial Ballistix or OCZ EB memory.

 

[matt9669]

Thanks Bob, good to be talking to someone who has actual experience with the hardware. I had a friend with the K8N who had to RMA his board so I was definitely not leaning that way.

In your opinion, how much would I lose using the 1GB Corsair TwinX PC4000 Pro pack? I know that in terms of timings/latency the OCZ EB is the best way to go (i.e. best overall bandwidth) but I think I can manage good bandwidth using my Corsair by shooting for lesser timings and higher frequency (combined with a little help from the DDR Booster). Well, the point may be moot anyway as I'm not too keen on buying new RAM

I know the AV8 comes with a passive NB cooler, but there doesn't appear to be much room between the NB and the CPU socket for an aftermarket cooler. Let me know how high an FSB you get and how you're cooling the NB, and any other factors you find influence the max FSB (obviously you'll have to lower the multiplier to do this). I'm hoping to get a stable 3GHz with my 3200+ (default 2GHz) which means a reliable 300FSB clock, but getting close would be sufficient - I know it's at least possible with the CPU, but I'm unsure about the mobo.

Again, thanks for the info, I really appreciate the help! Lemme know what you find when your Ballistix returns.

 

[Bop]

Not many people have been able to get a 300mhz FSB overclock, you'll have to set the mem:CPU divider to 5:6 and even then you will probably not get 3ghz out of it. There is also the issue of the AGP lock failing when the FSB is too high.

I've heard some issues with Corsair memory with both the AV8 and Neo2 but I have no experience with this as I have only tested the boards with 1GB Kingston HyperX PC3200(BH-5) and 1GB PC4000 Ballistix. Suprisingly the BH5 didn't OC well with either board no matter the voltage. I'm saying don't hold your breath with Cosair memory and socket 939 boards...

You can see if there are any problems with Corsiar memory here for the AV8:

forum.abit-usa.com

and here for the Neo2

forum.msi.com.tw

I just left the stock NB cooler on, the NB doesn't really do much seeing as most of the functions have been moved over to the CPU itself so it doesn't get hot at all.

Right now my FSB(HTT) is at 10x250 but with my Kingston memory the memory divider is at 5:6. When my new Ballistix gets in I'm going for 10x250mhz 1:1

 

[IceWeasel]

i'd personally be interested in seeing a few pictures of your vapochill and li-li pc1000, i have that same case, so if you want PM me some links

and good luck on a 1 ghz overclock on an AMD, you'd probably be the first to ever accomplish it lol (with the 64s)

 

[matt9669]

http://www.overclockers.com/tips00672/

This is where I originally got the tip that 3GHz might be possible. I have the equipment and need the upgrade, and have nothing to lose, so I thought why not? If I do manage a solid 1GHz I'll be proud of it - if not, 2.75 ain't bad, right?

I'm currently working on updating my own personal webpage, I have some digicam pics of the setup (with the IS7 and 2.4C, as it is currently) that I need to post - PM me Ice, and I'll start a new thread and send over the linkage when I'm done. Hopefully I'll be able to get some commentary and up-to-date pics and info from the new setup by this weekend.

Am I totally geeky or does everyone get excited over new hardware? Thx Bop, going to order the AV8 as I write! Woohoo!!