AI, you are right...

[CiKoTiC]

This Epox board is a total piece of crap. It wont boot if I set the CPU to a 2800.

Time to RMA this sucker. :mad:

[accurateimage]

Ouch sorry dood :( not fun, I would go with the asus and buy it local if ya can, I will never buy a mobo online, only local so I can throw it at the sales guy if it does not work hehe. I know it is not his fault but makes me feel better!

[eviltechie]

whats the fsb and multi you have set it to?

what does it go to when at default?

[eviltechie]

thinking about it
it might be the corsair

people on AMDMB.com forum has turned ugly on the Corsair PC3200 xms

check this page out for a "special" bios if ram is the problem
http://members.cox.net/8rda/bios.htm

[BobyJo]

You are correct. I read some on the AMDmb.com/forums/epox and they are hard on Corsair xms memory.
Beginning to get down on the hi end Radeon cards.
This was a pattern back in the KT266a days.
Some memory just does not run well on the Epox mobo.
I suggest the Muskin memory for the Epox mobo's.
I think the Muskin is just as high quality as Corsair.
A lot of persons brag on the Corsair for high mhz.
Muskin will go as high IMO::
Samsung also works for a lot of systems.

[accurateimage]

mushkin will go as high but you do not get near as good timing settings :)

[eviltechie]

no one has directly compared OCZ with Corsair
nor anything in the same class

it would only be fair to say which one is better after lots of benchmarking using the same setup except different ram

[CiKoTiC]

Yea, I thinks it's the memory. Gixxer is bringing over some pc3200 memory later so we can give that a shot.

I went ahead a ordered an Asus last night and will send the Epox back for credit.

[Marine]

stop guys don't say that i got 512mb of corsairpc3200 xms :cry: so don't say that!

[CiKoTiC]

Man, do I feel like a complet moron. :nod:


Gixxer came over tonight and we worked on my system. After trying everything we could think of twice... We decided to take off the Vantec CPU temp probe from the CPU. As it turns out, the probe was laying accross one of the resisters. After removing the probe, the system is now working fine. :P

As of right now, I've got it up to 200 FSB and still tweaking it. I'm in the high 17K range in 3dMark and will post my final score when I get everything maxed out.

[accurateimage]

sweet are ya stable all the way through 3dse..?? I sure hope you score better than my $95 chip *LOL*

[CiKoTiC]

Yes it is stable. No I can't score any better.


Yet :confused:

[eviltechie]

and to think, you were about to start some dirty talk on epox?
lol
j/k

i did warn you though
it either doesnt work or works very well

but its the general nforce2 boards that have issues
Asus has issues too

its not uncommon for nforce2 boards

but yeah
glad the problem is solved
what heatsink fan are you using on it?

[accurateimage]

what do you have the vid card overclocked to..?? what mhz..?? also what are your ddr timings..?? do you have fast writes on or off..?? what slots are you running the ddr in ect....

[eviltechie]

turn fast write off if you want higher scores in 3dmark

but does that effect normal gaming too?

[Omega]

I think it's dumb if you alter your 3dmark settings from the default to get a higher score. It is supposed to be used as a reference tool to compare your system to other systems. If you're going to do something to make your score artificially higher, why not just lie?

Oh yeah, by the way, I got 12,000,000 on my 3dMark03.

[eviltechie]

no no
not 3dmark settings

video fast write is a setting in bios for AGP

i would considering changing settings in 3dmark2001se itself, cheating
i always do 1024x768, 32bit
non antialiasing, double frame buffer, compressed texture format, 24bit z-buffer depth, D3D Pure Hardware T&L

so the default in another word
i dont think changing settings in bios is considered cheating
because it effects the whole system probably
not just to get a better score... although ppl do it just to get a better score

im still not sure if fast write is beneficial in normal gaming
is it?

[Omega]

Oh, sorry for the misunderstanding.

Idunno. If I get ambitious I might try running a few timedemos to see the results.

[eviltechie]

its alright :)

good idea omega, timedemos in UT2003 might show if it is necessary...
who wants to give it a try first?

ive got quite a bit of work to do now
ill try later when i get the time

[accurateimage]

fast write do not affect scores in my testing on or off but does make the ddr noticably more stable at lower timings.

[CiKoTiC]

Sorry for the delay... after two days, I had to take a day off of working on it. :nod:

Lets see.. memory timings are: 2, 2, 3, 4 (banks 1 and 2)

Multiplier is 12 @ 200FSB = 2400Mhz
Vcore = 1.9
Mem voltage =2.9

9700 pro is at 378/620. Card gets pretty hot during testing. I'm gonna work on it this week to see if I can get it cooler.

3dMarks are between 17.1 and 17.3K.

[accurateimage]

coo, awsome you can hit cas 2 on that board at that timing :) I am still working on that part!

[CiKoTiC]

Yea, runs fine with those memory settings. Am I correct in assuming the lower the numbers on ALL the setting is good?

[accurateimage]

Yes that is correct.

[CiKoTiC]

I thought so.. I'm trying 2,2,2,4 right now.

[accurateimage]

that is pretty insane timings :) I can only go to 2.8V which is the warrenty limit for corsair :) would be nice to go higher for benchmarking though...

[CiKoTiC]

Wasn't able to get 2,2,2,4 to work but 2,2,3,3 seems to work fine.

[accurateimage]

check to see if you can run 3dmark all the way through, that means it is stable..

[accurateimage]

Dood you sure your in dual channel??? I have not seen a dual channel board run dual channel in slots 1 and 2... usually 1 and 3 or 2 and 3... I can run those timings if I have them both in slot 1 and two on my board for I would not be in dual channel.

[CiKoTiC]

Directly from the manual...

"Dimm 2 and 3 shares same memory bus and dimm 1 is dedicated for 2nd channel memory bus.

For one dimm memory configuration, the dimm can be located on either of dimm 1 to dimm 3 in 64-bit mode.

In two dimm memory configuration, the dimms can be located on dimms 2 or 3 and dimm 1 in 128-bit mode. and keeping these two dimms in the same type and same size configuration."

I ran 3dmark twice. One half way through and the other all the way through with memory timings at 2,2,3,3 and with agp fast writes on. my score was only 17377.

I dont get it. I would think my score should be much higher.

[accurateimage]

ouch... seems like it should be higher. I have no idea what would be the hold up... can ya up the mult anymore..?? 2300mhz off that chips seems pretty low... what are your memory scores in sandra..??

[CiKoTiC]

Actually, that post was incorrect. My speed is 12x @ 200FSB = 2400. I was copying from a notebook I keep on what settings I've tried and didn't notice I was looking at the wrong settings. I edited it but you had already posted.

[accurateimage]

does the 9700 pro crap out on ya..?? I can run mine all the way through on 3dse at 418 / 702 hehe :) I saw you only were running 620 on the memory on the vid car..?? why have ya not overclocked it..?? it should run at least 688....

[CiKoTiC]

It wont do any higher. I dunno why. It has a huge HS and fan on it.

Also, could the problem be that I installed the nforce drivers before SP1?

[accurateimage]

possibly, just reinstall the nforce drivers... but 620 is stock man.. that is sick lame, I would send the card back.. if you up it what does it do..??

[CiKoTiC]

tearing and artifacts. I did remove the HSF when I got it and applied AS3 to the VPU. I wonder if maybe I didn't get something back in it's proper place. :confused:

what do you use to OC the vid card?

[accurateimage]

I use the radeon tweaker v3.7 or somthing like that... also I have a zalman heat pipe with dual fan cooling for the chip and I have individual heatsinks for the ram, but my card could make it to 344x2 without the sinks and 391 without the chip cooler so I think you may have a bum card ...

[CiKoTiC]

It's starting to look that way. :(

The heatsinks on the card use thermal pads to make connection with the memory. If I remove the pads then the HS wont touch the mem because of other componets on the PCB so using thermal paste is out of the question.

However, I could cut some copper "plates" the same width and thickness as the thermal pads and use thermal glue to attach them so I can replace the pads. This would give me a much better thermal connection except for behind the VPU because the copper plate would lie directly on the PCB.

[accurateimage]

to be honest with ya man that whole design is bs.. see the core of the 9700 pro gets sick hot and the ddr gets allot less hot so connecting all the sinks only heats up the ddr!!! that is why I run all seperate heatsinks... I would return it and get a oem sapphire 9700 pro like mine, they are some of the top overclockers :)

[CiKoTiC]

I don't think I can return it because technicly there is nothing wrong with it. It just wont do the advertised clock settings. :(

[accurateimage]

ask for an exchange... were did ya buy it from..??

[eviltechie]

perhaps GPU shim is too thick?

[CiKoTiC]

I just re-installed XP and I must say, this computer is the fastest I've ever seen. :)

XP installed without a hitch using 12x multiplier @ 200FSB and memory timeings of 2,2,3,3. If those were not stable settings, I don't think XP would have installed so I think my bottleneck is the video card right now.

[accurateimage]

the shim would not affect the ram overclock, but heavily affects the chip overclock...

[Marine]

lol AI how come your always online when i am look at the post times.this has happened the past 3 days lol.

[eviltechie]

so cik can OC his GPU but not ram?

hmm
what ns is the ram?

[CiKoTiC]

ET, I have no idea what the vid card mem speed is.

[eviltechie]

so you can NOT oc your GPU?

[CiKoTiC]

Not as much as I could with the Sapphire 9500.

AI, what are you using for ram sinks on your video card?