BIOS settings for NF7S 2.0 system

[panda007]

Hi, I have recently put together a system from some old bits and pieces but seem to be having some trouble using any other bios settings other than having anything set to its standard speed.

Now the system is running windows XP, and is as follows.

Athlon 2800+ running at standard 166 x 12.5
3 x 512mb pc3200 ram
Abit NF7S motherboard.
agp leadtek 6600gt 256mb
350 pata HDD

I believe thats everything of relevance listed here, would have been an awesome gaming machine a couple of years back, and thats exactly what I want to use it for, bf2 and games of that era.

Now it took a bit of playing around to get the RAM to run at 400mhz, but that seems to be going now as it was running at 333.

The bios does have some "preset overclock" options for ram & fsb etc, for example, I have about 5 options for my ram, they are something like: Turbo, Aggressive, Optimal, By SPD or user define.

Right now that option is set to by SPD but I have a sneaking suspision that Im not using it to its full potential.

Now my CPU options in my BIOS are either user define, or 2800+

When I choose user define it reverts my ram to a speed of 333mhz for which I have no idea how to correct.

If it is set to standard speed my fsb is back at 400

Now this very chip I used to run at 200 x 12.5 or even faster, (this is by memory I COULD be a little wrong) But now Im way out of touch with overclocking as I have hardly touched a computer in years.

Any chance anyone could throw a little bit of help my way?

Thanks very much!

 

[hunter315]

Unless you overclock the hyper transport clock to 200MHz you cannot run the ram at 400MHz, you can only divide the base clock not multiply it. With your ram running at 333MHz and your hyper transport running at 166MHz that means you are already running at 1:1 which is the best you will get.

 

[panda007]

my ram is running at 400MHz and my processor is at 333MHz

Anyways, can someone throw a few pointers my way on configuring this setup?

I know that originally this board was designed for overclocking, can someone just give me a few pointers on what BIOS settings I should have for my RAM and my CPU fsb etc?

Please be as clear as you can, I will love you forever if you help me

 

[shabaa]

Unless you overclock the hyper transport clock to 200MHz you cannot run the ram at 400MHz, you can only divide the base clock not multiply it. With your ram running at 333MHz and your hyper transport running at 166MHz that means you are already running at 1:1 which is the best you will get.

There is no "hyper transport clock" on this processor. Processors based on AMD64 architecture – such as Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX, Opteron, Sempron and Phenom – have two external busses. One is used on the communication between the CPU and the memory, and it is simply called “memory bus”, and the other is used on the communication between the CPU and all other PC components thru the motherboard chipset and is called HyperTransport – being an I/O (Input/Output) bus.

This board uses a NForce2 chipset on the motherboard and the processor is the "older" Athlon XP.

At least try to have the appearance that you know what you are talking about....

As far as O.C ing the board... I had one and it was a great over clocker.... the best board for the XP processor but higher clock speeds could be realized by the use of a mobile processor or the good old 2500+ ....

All you have to do is a search on "overclocking NF7S" and you need to read the review sites to get some insight on the board...... one of the better ones that I found was : http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/motherboards/ABIT_NF7_v2.0_1.html

You need to verify the exact board and version of the board that you have for best results.... the V 2.0 was the best... good luck

 

[panda007]

shabaa thanks very much, and yeah I didnt want to argue with that first reply from that other guy as he was genuinely trying to help.

I know this setup is a little old, but as I said I banged it up out of old parts with the sole purpose of playing old games.

My board is an NF7S 2.0.... I remember it being one of the best when I bought it, I believe it was one step under the fatal1ty board.

Anyways, I will do a search and thanks for your help.

If you had one of these boards, could you recommend how I shoudl setup my ram for best performance?

I just really feel as though she is lagging a bit more than necessary

 

[shabaa]

Are you using an unlocked processor or a mobile processor?

IMHO it WAS the best board for the Athlon XP processors...... just go and look at the cpuz records.....

 

[panda007]

barton core 2800+

from what I can gather the best performance bios ram setting should be 2 2 2 10 or 11

I tried that and it started sounding like a freakin ambulance!! hahah back to stock settings.... 3 3 3.0 8 any help in this regard?

cpu is running stock too

did a check to make sure and yeah its a v2.0 board

any ideas? you seem to know what you are talking about with this particular board... although may have been to long since you did some tinkering with one

 

[shabaa]

There are a couple of things to look at before you overclock your board. First you need to look at your processor or rather the production week of it.... the numbers on the last line on the sticker on the processor denotes stepping of the processor(first five letters) and then the next four numbers is the production date. If I recall correctly the processors made after 0332 (week 32 of 2003)were locked but it should not matter with the board that you have.
The board supports dual channel memory. SO......... you should be using a matched pair of memory sticks .... in slots 3 and 2. leave slot 1 blank as if it is propagated it will not function in dual channel mode.
Memory varies from manufacturers and the specific timings can only be determined by the knowing the exact memory that you have. I have found that AMD processors "prefer" 2.5 3 3 8 but then again the exact optimum timing depends on the specifications of your memory. (manufacturer and model #)
You should be able to attain the 1 to 1 ratio of processor speed and memory speed but you may have to throttle back on the multiplier of the processor. I have found very few processors that had a 166FSB that I could bump up to 200 FSB and keep the stock multiplier. ( Although the Barton 2500+ could attain this on a regular basis)
How to change the cpu multiplier and the FSB of the processor can be found on page 3-2 and 3-3 of the motherboard manual. If you plan on bumping the FSB of the processor to 200 I suggest that you drop the multi down to 11.... as the "stock" multi is 12.5 on the "stock" Barton core 2800+ w/333 FSB. That will give you 2200 MHz on the processor. Equal to the Barton 3200+......