What highest microprocessor for NF7-S rev2 ?

[This followup was posted to alt.comp.mainboards.abit and a copy was
sent to the cited author.]

In article ApQmc.403803$Ig.138581@pd7tw2no, says...
natric wrote:
Since you have an NF7-S Rev2, if your current CPU is unlocked, simply change
the multiplier to 11x at 200MHz, in sync, and you will have the equivalent
to an XP3200+. This may require a slight increase in voltage, maybe 25mV. No
special cooling required. If the CPU is locked, you may be able to relax


Succeeded at 11*200MHz with CPU voltage as 1.725V (some intempestive
reboot and/or unhandled exceptions below). Well, now stable since some
days.

natric wrote:
Succeeded at 11*200MHz with CPU voltage as 1.725V (some intempestive
reboot and/or unhandled exceptions below). Well, now stable since some
days.


Good stuff.
Try running the Prime95 "Torture Test" [Options|Torture Test] for 12-24
hours. If it crashes, increase Vcore to 1.75V and try again. Monitor
temperatures under load.
http://mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

[Posted to alt.comp.mainboards.abit and copy sent to the cited author]

In article gl4oc.422004$Pk3.246272@pd7tw1no, says...
natric wrote:
Succeeded at 11*200MHz with CPU voltage as 1.725V (some intempestive
reboot and/or unhandled exceptions below). Well, now stable since some
days.


Good stuff.
Try running the Prime95 "Torture Test" [Options|Torture Test] for 12-24
hours. If it crashes, increase Vcore to 1.75V and try again. Monitor
temperatures under load.
http://mersenne.org/freesoft.htm



Well, ran the Prime95 2.38's Torture Test (Blend first, small FFT
second, Blen third after having increased VCORE to 2.75V) and every time
it falls down in about one hour. About temp, it's around 40°C before
running and go up to 56°C.

However, until now, all sounds good in normal usage (i.e. office
writing, graphics work, usual internet surf/email/ftp/ng, dev. and
compilations, backups and disk images every night, etc).

Then, in your opinion what's the responsible ? Memory voltage and/or
timings, cpu/chipset/agp voltages ? What ?

natric wrote:
[Posted to alt.comp.mainboards.abit and copy sent to the cited author]

In article gl4oc.422004$Pk3.246272@pd7tw1no, says...
natric wrote:
Succeeded at 11*200MHz with CPU voltage as 1.725V (some intempestive
reboot and/or unhandled exceptions below). Well, now stable since
some days.


Good stuff.
Try running the Prime95 "Torture Test" [Options|Torture Test] for
12-24 hours. If it crashes, increase Vcore to 1.75V and try again.
Monitor temperatures under load.
http://mersenne.org/freesoft.htm



Well, ran the Prime95 2.38's Torture Test (Blend first, small FFT
second, Blen third after having increased VCORE to 2.75V) and every
*****
time it falls down in about one hour. About temp, it's around 40°C
before running and go up to 56°C.

However, until now, all sounds good in normal usage (i.e. office
writing, graphics work, usual internet surf/email/ftp/ng, dev. and
compilations, backups and disk images every night, etc).

Then, in your opinion what's the responsible ? Memory voltage and/or
timings, cpu/chipset/agp voltages ? What ?




***** I assume you mean 1.75V not 2.75V

Try the following settings:

RAM Freq 200MHz| RAM Timings 11-3-3-3 | Vcore 1.775V | DDR Voltage 2.7V |
AGP freq 66MHz|AGP 8x Disabled|AGP Fast Write Disabled|

Now try Prime95 for a minimum of 6 hours.

[Posted to alt.comp.mainboards.abit and copy sent to the cited author]

In article 8ueoc.424425$Pk3.55167@pd7tw1no, says...
***** I assume you mean 1.75V not 2.75V
Of course, sorry, tired yesterday

Try the following settings:

RAM Freq 200MHz| RAM Timings 11-3-3-3 | Vcore 1.775V | DDR Voltage 2.7V |
AGP freq 66MHz|AGP 8x Disabled|AGP Fast Write Disabled|

Now try Prime95 for a minimum of 6 hours.


Well, the 11-3-3-3 timings did generated beep codes and black screen on
boot, then I've booted using the insert key and written back the
previous ones which were 8-4-4-2.

Also, in a first time (to go smoothly), I've just increased the Ram
voltage to 2.7V as you said and the rest of the settings remains the
same.

To summarize, here is the current state : FSB 200MHz, CPU Mult 11,
CPU/RAM Freq "Auto" (ie. 200MHz here), RAM timings on "Optimal" (8-4-4-
2.0), CPU Voltage 1.75V, RAM Voltage 2.7, AGP 8x 66MHz with "Fast
Write" enabled.

Not tried under Prime95 at this time... I'll be back here when done !

Well, all of this knowing the objective is to go up without unacceptable
risk about temperature during summertime with my current cooling
material which is not really overcloacking oriented (not any SLK) :
Taisol CGK760172 on CPU, Zalman ZM-NB47J Aluminium on chipset, PAPST -
8412 NGML for the case, and that all.

Soon

[Posted to alt.comp.mainboards.abit and copy sent to the cited author]

Well, step-by-step report. Here is the current status :

FSB 200MHz, CPU Mult 11,
CPU/RAM Freq "Auto" (ie. 200MHz here), RAM timings on "Optimal" (8-4-4-
2.0), CPU Voltage 1.75V, RAM Voltage 2.7, AGP 8x 66MHz with "Fast
Write" enabled.

= Prime95 (Blend Test Torture) ran 2 hours before error.

This result is 2 times prior state. Then, now I'll go to run Small FFTs
Test Torture to minimize ram impact and try to isolate if problem comes
from cpu voltage or ram voltage/timings.

natric wrote:
[Posted to alt.comp.mainboards.abit and copy sent to the cited author]

Well, step-by-step report. Here is the current status :

FSB 200MHz, CPU Mult 11,
CPU/RAM Freq "Auto" (ie. 200MHz here), RAM timings on "Optimal"
(8-4-4-
2.0), CPU Voltage 1.75V, RAM Voltage 2.7, AGP 8x 66MHz with "Fast
Write" enabled.

= Prime95 (Blend Test Torture) ran 2 hours before error.

This result is 2 times prior state. Then, now I'll go to run Small
FFTs Test Torture to minimize ram impact and try to isolate if
problem comes from cpu voltage or ram voltage/timings.


Better. Try RAM timings of 11-4-4-3.

[Posted to alt.comp.mainboards.abit and copy sent to the cited author]

In article WRroc.455031$oR5.168113@pd7tw3no, says...
natric wrote:
[Posted to alt.comp.mainboards.abit and copy sent to the cited author]

Well, step-by-step report. Here is the current status :

FSB 200MHz, CPU Mult 11,
CPU/RAM Freq "Auto" (ie. 200MHz here), RAM timings on "Optimal"
(8-4-4-
2.0), CPU Voltage 1.75V, RAM Voltage 2.7, AGP 8x 66MHz with "Fast
Write" enabled.

= Prime95 (Blend Test Torture) ran 2 hours before error.

This result is 2 times prior state. Then, now I'll go to run Small
FFTs Test Torture to minimize ram impact and try to isolate if
problem comes from cpu voltage or ram voltage/timings.


Better. Try RAM timings of 11-4-4-3.




Hummm... Just reading your last post now. Well, I agree with you that
the ram timings has to be considerated deeper than I've done (and more
since it's actually not in manual mode), but remembering my final
objective is to push up global performances : then, thinking twice for
every setting.

During last night and as said in my last post (before yours), I've ran
Prime95 two times with Torture Test's Small FFTs option, trying to see
if cpu side is right enough before to closer considerate the RAM aspect.
Here are the results*:

1) With VCORE @ 1.75V : error after 5 hours (under our 6h threshold)
2) With VCORE @ 1.775V : still running since 8 hours without error and
temp. is 55°C (around [36°C, 41°C] in usual daily use)...

Then, from this step, I'm thinking VCORE is high enough (and remembering
I'm not in a high cooling environment) and will considerate the RAM side
details and other stuff in the mobo. Well, this push toward some
question. Here they are :

1) About RAM voltage : originally @ 2.6V, now @ 2.7V, is there some risk
to go to 2.8V (not any smaller step) and does-it present some interest ?

2) About timings : actually as 8-4-4-2.0, first you preconised 11-3-3-
3.0 (but it did generated beep codes) and 11-4-4-3.0 in your last post,
then I suppose your message is to say that current CAS is too fast, that
(as I've read) the "11" is often seen for nForce2 case and two last
middle values are maybe to be privilegiated from the CAS. On my side,
I'm starting to search info about this RAM timings point and, for
example have found url like this one
http://www.frazpc.pl/artykuly_wyswietl/212_en that seems to be very
instructive... But, on your side, do you know some step-by-step guide or
valuable urls about this specific subject ? What's your own methodology
?

3) A kind of subsidiary question : what's about chipset voltage ? Does-
it has some sense to consider-it ? How ?

Soon and thanks for your opinion, Shaw.
And, obviously, everybody is welcome in the thread...

Have a good day

[Posted to alt.comp.mainboards.abit and copy sent to the cited author]

In article WRroc.455031$oR5.168113@pd7tw3no, says...
natric wrote:
[Posted to alt.comp.mainboards.abit and copy sent to the cited author]

Well, step-by-step report. Here is the current status :

FSB 200MHz, CPU Mult 11,
CPU/RAM Freq "Auto" (ie. 200MHz here), RAM timings on "Optimal"
(8-4-4-
2.0), CPU Voltage 1.75V, RAM Voltage 2.7, AGP 8x 66MHz with "Fast
Write" enabled.

= Prime95 (Blend Test Torture) ran 2 hours before error.

This result is 2 times prior state. Then, now I'll go to run Small
FFTs Test Torture to minimize ram impact and try to isolate if
problem comes from cpu voltage or ram voltage/timings.


Better. Try RAM timings of 11-4-4-3.




Prime95's Blend Test Torture has been right during 9h30 and I've stopped
it manually (since some sensible work to do in the pc).

Current stable state is : CPU @ 11*200MHz on 1.775V, RAM on 2.7V and
timings as 8-4-4-2.0, Chipset and AGP voltage stay unchanged.

Now, when I'll have time, I'll take some try around different RAM
timings to see benchmark incidence.

[Posted to alt.comp.mainboards.abit and copy sent to the cited author]

In article ,
says...
[Posted to alt.comp.mainboards.abit and copy sent to the cited author]

In article WRroc.455031$oR5.168113@pd7tw3no, says...
natric wrote:
[Posted to alt.comp.mainboards.abit and copy sent to the cited author]

Well, step-by-step report. Here is the current status :

FSB 200MHz, CPU Mult 11,
CPU/RAM Freq "Auto" (ie. 200MHz here), RAM timings on "Optimal"
(8-4-4-
2.0), CPU Voltage 1.75V, RAM Voltage 2.7, AGP 8x 66MHz with "Fast
Write" enabled.

= Prime95 (Blend Test Torture) ran 2 hours before error.

This result is 2 times prior state. Then, now I'll go to run Small
FFTs Test Torture to minimize ram impact and try to isolate if
problem comes from cpu voltage or ram voltage/timings.


Better. Try RAM timings of 11-4-4-3.




Prime95's Blend Test Torture has been right during 9h30 and I've stopped
it manually (since some sensible work to do in the pc).

Current stable state is : CPU @ 11*200MHz on 1.775V, RAM on 2.7V and
timings as 8-4-4-2.0, Chipset and AGP voltage stay unchanged.

Now, when I'll have time, I'll take some try around different RAM
timings to see benchmark incidence.


As promised, I've made some trial with ram timings and here are my
representative tests. All under a "charged" Win2K without any special
preparation (ie. a lot of things in systray, including something like
TuneUp MemOptimizer which may slow down instant perf occasionnaly) and
knowing the nf7-s is working in DualBand with 2*256MB of noname with
Samsung chips.

Here are some representative results :

timings / aida32 read & write / sandra2003 int & float

8-4-4-2.0 (SPD one) / 3042 & 1157 / 3006MB/s & 2705MB/s
7-3-3-2.0 (Turbo one) / 3070 & 1175 / 3036 & 2841 (best sandra float)
11-2-3-2.0 / beep codes on reboot
11-2-2-2.0 / beep codes on reboot
10-3-3-2.0 / 3077 & 1178 / 3037 & 2758 (globally the best)

Then, in a first pass, the two best seems to be
7-3-3-2.0
10-3-3-2.0

From this point, I'm testing the stability in both, starting with the
BIOS preset one : 7-3-3-2.0 = A Prime95 Blend Test Torture (this time,
MemOptimizer being closed to avoid any interference) has been ran during
10h without error and I've stopped it manually. About temperature : it
was 38°C before launching and has gone up to 55°C. Then, I can
considerate this config is honnestly stable.

Next steps will be to do this same Prime95 test with the 10-3-3-2.0...
And, maybe (but require lot of time), to try exhaustively all the
possible combinations (especially all the ones with the 10,11,12 tRAS as
recommended for the nForce2) :-p

And this, without to talk about another way which would be to increase
FSB again (but, surely would require to downgrade CAS). Without to talk
about the fact, I should, certainly, be inspired to decrease VCORE and
RAM voltage, for the purpose to find the minimum stable one in final
state. Without to talk about the possible importance around chipset
voltage. Without to talk about the pertinence of my, finally, reasonable
cooling elements.

Well, awaiting next torture on 10-3-3-2.0 (maybe next night if I'm here
for launching it).

However, a real and strong methodology around ram timings choices
remains welcome if you have one !!! Let me (us) know