Can't talk my self into the Abit(HELP)

[Amd Man]

Guys, I have been spending ALOT of cash tryin to get high fsb speeds stable, right now I am only at 170-175stable, I just want more, like 195-200 or sooo.

My original setup included crucial ram Pc2100, Asus A7V333, IBM Deskstar 40gig ATA100 HD, Radeon 8500 (retail), unlocked Xp 2000+.. and with this setup I could only hit right at 170 maybe 172 and run pretty stable!

So my quest goes on, I get some Corsair pc2700 2sticks of 256, tried one stick at a time tried both sticks, diff dimm slots, diff voltages, no go same as before about 170 or sooo, So I read this article on ddr ram and the Samsung comes out on top, soo of course I go buy some samsung, this time 1 stick of 512, I think TC3 is the chip(the good stuff) and put some active cooling on it, this time I could get up to 175 or soo but not stable, started having video probs, and I read somewhere that the Radeons don't like the higher fsb speeds , so of course I go out and buy a VisionTek GeForce4 Ti 4400(AWESOME CARD), and that cleared up that problem, but I wanted more, soo I tried 180 and it almost booted into windows, tried everything to get it to boot into windows at 180fsb, but it would only do it sometimes, Soooo I decided it was my harddrive so I go out and get a 80G Maxtor ATA133 7200 HD and that helped stable things up better. I can boot into windows at 180 most of the time and run benches but its not totally stable.. ( and it don't really matter what my dram timmings are at..)

Soo now I see two boards out there that run high fsb speed the Epox and the Abit! the Epox like the Asus is Plagued with poor Sandra mem scores, but the Abit has awesome scores.. Soo what should I do, should I get the Abit, You think I am sorta guaranteed 195-200fsb or what? My current set-up is in the first sig below, only other thing I plan is a 1.8c fridge to cool my water/peltier...

Please help, what else can I doooo????

[mdzcpa]

Amd Man:

I hate to recommend to anyone to spend more money after already spending a good deal of cash. But, I must be honest and say that with the right memory the KX7 will get you where you want to go.

The memory is key, though. Using Crucial PC2700 I could not get much above 166mhz with aggressive settings, and not above 175 or so with any settings.

After slapping in the Corsair PC3000, the KX7 acted like another mobo. It goes all day long 24/7/365 at 185. She's been runnin' all week that way without a hiccup. And with only slightly relaxed settings, she'll do the 190's easy.

So, yes, the KX7 can deliver some great stable high FSB speeds, but you have to have the memory to do it. BTW, I hear that the Samsung PC2700 is a good choice for this mobo too (but it must be Samsung manufactured stuff on Samsung PCB, not just the chips).

All I know is that having a rock solid system which runs 24/7 at 185mhz, with great memory bandwidth and no PCI troubles using the 1/5 divisor is very cool. Not too mention the short bursts to above 200mhz for some benchng fun:)

These are just my experiences. I hope it helps you decide what to do.:)

[Player0]

The KX7 series is certainly nice and cheap right now. It sounds like your ram timings may be high. Try lowering them, you might beable to get a higher FSB with what you already have.

[DexterHolland91]

What voltages are you using, AMD man?

Mdzcpa - What voltages did you get those speeds with on the KX7?

[Amd Man]

2.9v-3.0v, Samsung don't like voltage...

[mdzcpa]

Originally posted by DexterHolland91
Mdzcpa - What voltages did you get those speeds with on the KX7?

I was just using the max motherboard voltage of 2.85v :).

I'm confident that with a DDR voltage mod and good memory, the KX7 will support 200+ FSB speeds with the memory set very aggressively.

[Pistol]

I just noticed that Muskin has 3200 ddr memory.I wonder how that is? http://www.mushkin.com/cgi-bin/Mushkin.filereader?3cea696b13ca27ee2741c0a8010206a 9+EN/catalogs/5384

[OPPAINTER]

Originally posted by Pistol
I just noticed that Muskin has 3200 ddr memory.I wonder how that is? http://www.mushkin.com/cgi-bin/Mushkin.filereader?3cea696b13ca27ee2741c0a8010206a 9+EN/catalogs/5384

Its probably like the Corsair 3200, good stuff for running cas2.5 2T settings, in fact I obtained my highest bandwidth scores from running at 216 fsb 2.5 2T settings. One thing about this stuff and I'm sure the Mushkin is the same as the Corsair, it can't take cas2 T1 settings at high fsb, unlike their little brother the PC3000 which is a good cas2 t1 memory up to about 200, after that you'll want to go with the 3200 mem at lower settings.

I'd like to get some Mushkin 3200 and see if it can beat out the Corsair 3200.

OPP

[Player0]

I saw the PC3000 and bought that because the PC3200 only said for Cas2.5...Hmm.

Well, i hope the new Corsair PC3000 was a good buy anyway :)

It should at least beat out the 2700 i already had, i hope.

[mdzcpa]

Originally posted by Player0
I saw the PC3000 and bought that because the PC3200 only said for Cas2.5...Hmm.

Well, i hope the new Corsair PC3000 was a good buy anyway :)

It should at least beat out the 2700 i already had, i hope.

I haven't had nearly as much experience in these matters as OPP has, but I will venture a guess that you will be pleased. :)