Good news about the nf7

[Hognert]

Ive had a nf7-s v2 now for a week or so and until just now its been a real disappointment . It could do decent FSB at a low multi but as soon as I increased the multi the max FSB dropped down... a whole lot.
However, today I decided to add some capacitators to the board and see if that might help. The results is nothin but amazing.

This board can now do 250MHz DC with the standard nb cooler and _1,8_V Vdd at just about any multi and with any Vcore I can possibly throw at it :). Totally wicked if you ask me :D.

My memory however (1 stick bh-6 and one bh-5) can only do light benches at 250MHz DC so ill have to stay at 245MHz for now. The board will do that solid at 1,7V Vdd :).

So around the socket theres five 6,3V 3300uF rubicon caps. I had a couple of spare 2200uF lying around so I simply added one to each cap on the mobo. Thats the whole trick :). I suppose if you got some bigger quality caps you can just replace the original ones. I just might do that myself. I doubt this is somethin that only works good on my specific board and Im sure that you will see some great results if you try it out.

And finally I did a sandra run just to show off ;).

http://home.no/deadeye/250_2750_sandra_cpuid.jpg

[beatnic]

got pics of the mod?

[Hognert]

Nope, I do got a crappy webcam here though... can take a pic if you really want one. Anyway its just 5 caps soldered to the backside of the mobo :). Cant be mounted on a ordinary mobo tray like this, thats why it might be better to replace the original caps with bigger ones.

[IamAnoobieCheez]

Now, that's what I call some serious FSB overclocking.

Absolutely fantastic work, Hognert. Good job. Your score is sick high.

The max I've gotten so far is almost 3700 mark on a rev1.2. :)



http://portfolio.iu.edu/skrska/238FSB_4-2-2-2.5.png

[TheDude]

Great Mod! Where and which caps should I get to replace original ones? I have often wondered what replacing some components with really high quality ones would do. Thanks :D

[Ewok]

and what kinda soldering iron do people use on mb to remove and add these things?

i got one but its kinda old and likes to burn things.

now if thats gonna get me 250fsb ill go buy a soldering iron and some caps and do it.

[bito]

Great results there!!!
So what uF and voltage caps would i need to buy to totally replace the originals to see ant benefits.....also, i wonder if its worth changing the caps near the mosfets???

[Hognert]

If you are going to replace the original caps with new ones I suggest you scout for caps rated 6,3V and nothing more. The higher voltage rating the bigger the cap will get, and if its to big it simply wont fit on the front of the mobo. Even if they are rated for higher voltage they will of course work just as well.. but size mathers ;). Capacitivity should be as high as you can find as long as the cap got the same diameter as the original ones.

[taco]

i have to see this.. post some pics if you could.

[Hognert]

Ill snap some pics tomorrow with a real camera, no point trying with this worthless webcam. Got the beast to pass superpi and pifast at 250 btw... 3dmark is a no go at this speed for now :/.

[Ewok]

hognert any chance you could look on this site

http://www1.rswww.com

and point me at some capacitors that would do the job nicely?

[PCGenious]

Damn dude that is definitely sweet. :)

[youthemandan]

Can u post a radi shack line or part number?

[youthemandan]

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F010%5F002%5F015%5F002&product%5Fid=272%2D1048
Will this work??? I don't see the two pins on the bottom?
All i can find is 35v ones.
Edit:
Sratch that. i found these
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4662&item=2526083838&rd=1
Can i get them at radio shack?? Cause i really hate to wate for shipping.

[BrainStorm]

Hognert, if this works for everyone, we'll have to nominate this for mod of the year! :D

Hurry up and get some pics! Also, what could you do FSBwise before and after the mod. We need to have some idea of how much improvement we might expect.

[CodeRed]

Mod of the year for sure.

If it works for me I'll name my next child after you ....



well maybe not :D:D:D

[BrainStorm]

Originally posted by CodeRed
Mod of the year for sure.

If it works for me I'll name my next child after you ....



well maybe not :D:D:D

rotflmfao!!! :D

[CodeRed]

Hognert,

I was thinking of using the Rubycon ZL series Ultra Low Impedance caps. The diameter is nice and small so they may fit on the underside of the mobo, they also have a very high max ripple current ... dont want exploding caps.

specs
2200uF, 6.3V DC, 2150 mA max ripple, 0.022ohms, -50 to 105 deg C, length 23 mm, diameter 10 mm

Farnell part no 768-005

Do they sound alright to you?

[Ragnarok]

Cant wait for the pics, definately a mod to try on my NF7-S 1.2

[deathstar13]

dang i can stop blaming my cpu for being a wuss!
well im not gonna do the mod as im a wuss also.but ive had this issue and talked about it many times at least now i know the true answer.

[WildKard]

That is quite interesting indeed! I am wondering now if possibly people with boards that clock low, have lower quality caps, and people with extreme clocking boards have great caps...it sounds very possible!

[LORD]

LOL, last time I added caps on a board was on an KT7A v1.0. I ended up taking them off all the same cause the cpu didn't really increase in speed which is what I was after at the time.

Just didn't think of trying far higher fsb speeds back then.:rolleyes:

[Hognert]

Good morning everyone ;). Will get you some pics later today.. need to rip the board out and bring it over to some friend with a camera...

Last thing I did last night were to replace the 2200uF caps with some 10V 4700uF. These suckers are pretty big and the board is actually a little more stable now. Not much at all though so adding some 2200uF ones should do the trick quite well.

Edit: This board could at a very low multi do about 240 before. That with water cooled nb and 2,3V vdd. Actually posted at 250 with a pelt on the nb but could not boot. At a multi like 11 (the one I use now) I guess it could do just over 230 ... and that with a very high Vdd. With only 1,8V (no need to go any higher now) I doubt it could do more then 220MHz.

[Hallowed]

Thats very trick.

I will definately do this, and a photo shot would be excellent confirmation.

Thnx for the heads up Hognert, and one excellent mod. :toast:

[Ewok]

i cant seem to find any 4700uF ones that are at least the same size as the ones already on there. it looks like the ones already there are 8mm diamater. all the 4700uF ones i can find are at least 12.5mm and most are 16mm so they not going to fit because 4 of them are right next to each other on the board. :confused:

[JCviggen]

thats it im going to try this :)

I can do about 230-233 with 236 posting but not much more and only at very high Vdds... even 230 needs 2.15-2.20 Vdd.
I'm happy with the CPU overclock though, no problems there, although it does overvolt quite heavily, my NF7 V2.0

I have added caps to a P4T533 in the past, and if the caps dont fit the board, you can always solder wires to them and run them to the board like that... may look crappy but it works ;)

[CodeRed]

Originally posted by Ewok
i cant seem to find any 4700uF ones that are at least the same size as the ones already on there. it looks like the ones already there are 8mm diamater. all the 4700uF ones i can find are at least 12.5mm and most are 16mm so they not going to fit because 4 of them are right next to each other on the board. :confused:

I checked with heaps of manufacturer's and the smallest diameter for 4700uF was 12mm even for 6.3V parts.

[Ewok]

i also need to get a soldering iron. do i want some sort of low power 15w one for soldering mb stuff?

like this one http://www.maplin.co.uk/products/module.asp?CartID=03050112464921&moduleno=4052&modulecode=

I think for caps im gonna get 16mm diamater ones such as part no. 315-0287 from www1.rswww.com. rated as 6.3v, 12.5mm, 4700uF, 0.025 impedance, 2310 ripple and 5000 hour lifetime at 105c.

could get even better ones but the next ones up are 16mm.

[MrLavender]

Originally posted by Ewok
i also need to get a soldering iron. do i want some sort of low power 15w one for soldering mb stuff?

like this one http://www.maplin.co.uk/products/module.asp?CartID=03050112464921&moduleno=4052&modulecode= That will be fine, I have the 18W version. Make sure you get a 0.5mm or 1mm bit as well, part nos FT03D and FR05F are suitable for that iron.

I like JC's idea of attaching the caps via wires, sounds a lot easier than replacing the current ones.

This is going to be incredible if it works for other ppl. I'm not brave enough to try without more confirmation so hurry up and post your results all. :D

[Hognert]

http://home.no/deadeye/mobo_cap_small.jpg

Not that good lookin but it works ;). Three 4700uF 10V caps and four 2200uF 6,3V in pairs. Guess ill clean it up sometime but for now this will do :).

[Major]

I think it good that I keep most of my blown up mb's around ! hehe

I'm going to try this next week, I'm just going to cut out the mb mounting panel underneath the cpu and around the caps so I can still mount it in the case.

I don't remember if it was Charlie or not that had added caps to an Asus P4G8X in the same way.

[w1per]

I'm gonna try this on my rev1.2 :)

[ctgilles]

Let us know :)

[m0rm0r]

can i use only 10v caps? because 10000uF 10v is easy to find

[LORD]

I scrounged around the drawers and found an assortment of SAMXON 2200 16v and 25v it doesn't really matter.The 16volters are fatter than the 25 volt ones too.

The wire method added to the caps sounds good also. Or else I've got to find some skinnier ones. I don't have any stilts to mount the motherboard on the case tray. :D

Or I'll try and find some higher rated than what is on the board now. Maybe even replace the ones on there now.

I wonder what most of us will be doing shortly?:rolleyes:

[LORD]

Originally posted by m0rm0r
can i use only 10v caps? because 10000uF 10v is easy to find

Yes you should be able to.......

[QuadDamage]

That's simply amazing! My nf7-s died some time ago but i got two EPoS mobo's now... what the heck, i'll try it on Epox.

[Ewok]

caps can be soldered on any way around right?

what id like to know is WHY this would help anything going from 2200 to 6900, since i know very little about this stuff but i like to know the theory behind what i am doing :D

[JCviggen]

Originally posted by Ewok
caps can be soldered on any way around right?

what id like to know is WHY this would help anything going from 2200 to 6900, since i know very little about this stuff but i like to know the theory behind what i am doing :D

yes DEFINATELY get the polarities right. they are marked clearly on each cap (well they mark either the + or - side, typically the -)
If you mount them the wrong way they can explode, and could damage your mainboard

basically its all about more stable, cleaner currents. For example, when your FSB is too high and it crashes, it means a huge amount of errors were created due to the signals not being clear enough. reducing the amount of "interference" will get you higher clocks ... thats just a basic explanation im no expert and could be wrong here and there

[MrLavender]

Any results yet chaps? :D

[Walrusbonzo]

I've seen mods like this done before, a guy did it to his MSI 745 Ultra on OCWorkbnch several months ago, if not a year ago.

but definitely a good mod!

I'll have to give it a go sometime :)

[Ewok]

once ive decided what caps to get what i might try is a temporary mod and maybe try to just tape the new caps on the back just to see the effect before i solder anything. it would also be interesting to see if its any 1 particular cap that solves the fsb problems or whether is all of them so i plan on testing them 1 at a time (i assume this is safe to do or must i do them all at once?).

[taco]

omfg..

thats insane. do you just leave your board out, or where do u keep it? those caps look extemely huge for some reason.. am i seeing them bigger then they really are?

does radio shack carry those? where to get em.

[Ruantic]

Essentially what the capacitors do as stated previously is they filter voltage running trhough them, but more importantly in this case they also Stabilize the voltage, The higher the Capacitance the longer they are able to hold the voltage stable, a low capacitance might be able to hold the voltage for a few milliseconds, a high value Cap might be able to hold voltage stability for .5 seconds, possibly even more depending upon the current demand. So when voltage demand exceeds supply the capacitor takes up some of the slack. Then when demand falls off the capacitor is recharged.

[Ewok]

ok so whats this 'ripple' rating?

[Ruantic]

ok so whats this 'ripple' rating?



Basically whats a ripple? A small change in voltage in this case.

[Jason]

Well this is my first post at this forum. Basically it's all thanks to Hognert.

I've done the mod and she is running beautiful at FSB 250MHz.
3D running ok at 240.

Well you can see it here:
http://www.slapps.com/morro/250fsb/250cpu-z.gif



I used wires on my five 6,3V 3300uF rubicon caps that I took from an ruined KR7A:
http://www.slapps.com/morro/250fsb/mod_fremme_nf7_20.jpg

And attached to the MB:
http://www.slapps.com/morro/250fsb/mod_bak_nf7_20.jpg


Once again: Thanks a lot Hognert


For more take a look at slapps.com (http://www.slapps.com)

[Tweaked!]

Jason, Welcome to Xtreme:D

Nice work there, you'll fit in just fine ;):cool:

[JCviggen]

Originally posted by Jason
Well this is my first post at this forum. Basically it's all thanks to Hognert.

I've done the mod and she is running beautiful at FSB 250MHz.
3D running ok at 240.



most importantly though, how much did it manage (3D) before the mod...? We're all interested in the difference/gain in all this :)

Also, what cooling, vdd... etc :)

cheers

[Jason]

Well, here it is then JCviggen:


The rig is watercooled both on cpu and nb.

3D no good at anything above 220 before the mod.

vdd: 1,6V :D


And as you can see at
slapps.com (http://www.slapps.com) Twinmos 3700 running at 2,8V

I think I've covered it all then;)

[m0rm0r]

Jason:
vdd?
1.2 or 2.0?

[Jason]

The 250 is sc: Twinmos PC3700, set at 8, 2, 2, 2.5

Before the mod I could do dc at 245MHz FSB with 2x256 Twinmos PC3200 w/winbond

This has dropped to dc 235MHz after the mod, and I really don't know why. Anybody?

[Jason]

Originally posted by m0rm0r
Jason:
vdd?
1.2 or 2.0?


vdd: 1,6V

It's a v2.0

[m0rm0r]

i wonder if i would gain some fsb on my v1.,2

[wolfgang]

maybe some more caps for the ram too

[CodeRed]

Originally posted by Jason
The 250 is sc: Twinmos PC3700, set at 8, 2, 2, 2.5

Before the mod I could do dc at 245MHz FSB with 2x256 Twinmos PC3200 w/winbond

This has dropped to dc 235MHz after the mod, and I really don't know why. Anybody?

Just a thought but it could be the length of the wires u used. The extra inductance of these wires wont help with the voltage stability.

[Nohto]

I have a few boards that I can steal caps off of. I just want to make sure that I am doing it correct. Do I just solder the + side of the cap to the + side of the existing cap. ( I am going to go from the back side of the board like Jason did. Do those caps even have a +/- side? Should I only add caps to the 6 by the socket (in red) or are there any other recommended caps I should try? Thanks in advance,
Nate

[Ewok]

what id like to know is IF this is working for people, why the F****** HELL dont abit put these decent caps on the boards in the first place?!?!!??! i mean its going to cost them what? an extra 5 cents/3pence per board by the time they buy in bulk some decent caps. shows lack of quality to me that we need to do this crap when its so easy for them to do it.

looks like im off to get me a soldering iron and a few caps tomorrow from halfords.

p.s. why dont you up the vdd to at least 1.8 and see if that now helps some more?

[BrainStorm]

Originally posted by Ewok
what id like to know is IF this is working for people, why the F****** HELL dont abit put these decent caps on the boards in the first place?!?!!??! i mean its going to cost them what? an extra 5 cents/3pence per board by the time they buy in bulk some decent caps. shows lack of quality to me that we need to do this crap when its so easy for them to do it.

looks like im off to get me a soldering iron and a few caps tomorrow from halfords.

p.s. why dont you up the vdd to at least 1.8 and see if that now helps some more?

Abit and the other manufacturers don't do it because of the cost, pure and simple. They go with the cheapest materials they can that will meet the spec - and the spec doesn't call for 250 mhz FSB.

I wish Abit and Epox would consider putting out a real Cadillac of an overclocker's board - something that costs maybe 50% more, but uses the very best of materials and performs like it. It would be interesting to see if it would sell well.

[XtremepH]

Originally posted by BrainStorm
Abit and the other manufacturers don't do it because of the cost, pure and simple. They go with the cheapest materials they can that will meet the spec - and the spec doesn't call for 250 mhz FSB.

I wish Abit and Epox would consider putting out a real Cadillac of an overclocker's board - something that costs maybe 50% more, but uses the very best of materials and performs like it. It would be interesting to see if it would sell well.

if only i could design my own motherboard :D will this work for any other nforce2 boards?

[Ruantic]

will this work for any other nforce2 boards?


It will work on ANY supply/regulation circuit, nothing new here except the specific application....


Edit:

Nforece2, Canterwood, 845, your power supply, whatever will work on any of them, beneficial or not is the real question....

[Hognert]

Jason: Thats great news :).

I'm not done with this mobo just jet though. 3d at 250 would be sweet and thats what Im aiming for :).

[Penti]

Very nice Hognert. I knew that it could help clock the cpu higher. But i had never though about that it could increas the fsb :D I'm going to do this with an old kt333 board have though to do it for some time becuse some caps begining to get bad. But havn't had the energi to remove the board yet.

[Hognert]

Originally posted by Jason
The 250 is sc: Twinmos PC3700, set at 8, 2, 2, 2.5

Before the mod I could do dc at 245MHz FSB with 2x256 Twinmos PC3200 w/winbond

This has dropped to dc 235MHz after the mod, and I really don't know why. Anybody?


Thats odd.. No idea whats that all about :/. The length of the wires will have a impact, keep em short and thick. But in any case the board should never perform worse with them attached imo..

I can do everything besides heavy 3d apps at 250 3-2-2-2 DC with my board. Takes 3,45V Vmem but my ram aint the best there is either.

btw: The numbers Ive seen in lobby with this board are still stuck behind my eyes ;). No problem doing drago and nature but completing both car and lobby at the same time will not happend atm :/.

[Nohto]

Hognert



Do I just solder the + side of the cap to the + side of the existing cap. ( I am going to go from the back side of the board like Jason did. Do those caps even have a +/- side? Should I only add caps to the 6 by the socket (in red) or are there any other recommended caps I should try? Thanks in advance,

[Hognert]

Originally posted by Nohto
Hognert



Do I just solder the + side of the cap to the + side of the existing cap. ( I am going to go from the back side of the board like Jason did. Do those caps even have a +/- side? Should I only add caps to the 6 by the socket (in red) or are there any other recommended caps I should try? Thanks in advance,

Yea these caps do got a + and a - side. Other types do not. And yes you must mind polarity + goes to + and - to - :).

Adding caps to the "12V-side" might help even though i seriously doubt it will do that much. Feel free to try it out though.. let me know how it works :).

Other caps.. Well at this point I really dont know. What I would like do is to really examine this board with a oscilloscope to find out. Only problem is that I dont got of them atm.

Edit: The six by the socket are the ones I changed on my board yes. The five to the left are the "high-side" or 12V.

[DarKcyde]

I'd just like to note that THIS is why I frickin love this place. No where else on the net does this kinna extreme hardcore stuff happen. This stuff blows my mind. I wub you guys.

Hognert and whoever else tried this: Please specify which PSU you're using as well. I'd bet that this will help alot more on mediocre PSU's than say a top-end PC Power & Cooling. But I could be wrong, need more results I guess.

I'll prolly try this on my rig later (abit NF7-S v2, PC Power 400W), but I'm having compressor problems right now, so it won't be for a while yet.

[BrainStorm]

Originally posted by Nohto
Hognert



Do I just solder the + side of the cap to the + side of the existing cap. ( I am going to go from the back side of the board like Jason did. Do those caps even have a +/- side? Should I only add caps to the 6 by the socket (in red) or are there any other recommended caps I should try? Thanks in advance,

Nohto, let us 8RDA owners know if it works or not!

[JCviggen]

Originally posted by Hognert
Yea these caps do got a + and a - side. Other types do not. And yes you must mind polarity + goes to + and - to - :).

Adding caps to the "12V-side" might help even though i seriously doubt it will do that much. Feel free to try it out though.. let me know how it works :).



All I could find in town are some 16V 2200 ones. Better than nothing I guess.

but I'm puzzled wether they have a positive and negative side...

the - side IS marked on the cap itself, but there doesnt seem to be a "side"... there's a wire at one end and a wire on the other end instead of 2 wires @ one end. So I have no clue what is + and - in this case :(

the cap is marked like < - < - . am I to assume the - side is on the left ? or on the right of this ? Or could I put this cap either way? please give me a clue on this, I'm not going to just "guess" here ;)

[MrLavender]

You have axial caps (wire at each end). The ones with the wires at the same end are called radial. Same things apart from that.

Yes, the < - < - means that end is -ve (points to -ve, left side in this case).

[JCviggen]

Thanks, I had figured it out myself already, I saw a pic of a cap and noticed the + side is the side where the cap has a small ring in it.

Anyway the rest is a dissapointment, and I'm bloody annoyed with my NF7

I soldered the 5 2200 caps neatly onto the board, they were too big to fit but I raised the mainboard a cm or so higher in the case to compensate. The board works fine, but nothing has changed.
I was stuck around 230 before, I'm stuck at 230 now. Literally ZERO effect :mad: :(

still the same problem too that I can get slightly higher FSB at 2.03 Vcore than at 2.06.
I need 2.30 Vdd still to get into windows at 233, which I cannot get stable at any voltage. It'll freeze at some point or another.

I guess things didnt get any worse, but I was hoping for at least a few MHz extra.

I would have to say now that I dont recommend this mod in general..... it wasnt worth the 5 euro worth of caps, not the fuss of dragging everything out of my case and soldering it on either...

Im pissed now, I want a better board :(

[Hognert]

Sorry to hear that JC, obviously these boards are "crippled" in different ways :/

[JCviggen]

it appears so :(

I threw 2.50 Vdd at her right now... just to hurt it.
230-231 is not reliable at high speeds, it needs loads of Vdd, but I didnt really gain anything over 2.40

[Hallowed]

Originally posted by JCviggen
it appears so :(

I threw 2.50 Vdd at her right now... just to hurt it.


You sadistic beast! :eek:

[Ragnarok]

Well JC i hope u dont treat ur wife/gf like u treat ur mobo!.. :D

[TheDude]

Originally posted by Ragnarok
Well JC i hope u dont treat ur wife/gf like u treat ur mobo!.. :D

Yeah but I bet it wasn't volts:D

[Dane]

15000uF 6.3v are good for this job?

:D

[QuadDamage]

I did it on 8RDA. i took 2 caps from A7V333 and another 4 from A7N8X. it booted fine and voltage rails were very stable for the first time i saw something like this on this POS board. However, when i set the fsb to 210 (it could do 217fsb at 1.8VDD before) It froze and now can't get past "0D" code.... friggin POS, i got one more mobo, so i'll re-do the mod later.

[Nohto]

Originally posted by BrainStorm
Nohto, let us 8RDA owners know if it works or not!
I'll probably do the mod this evening, so I'll let you guys know how it works out.

[Mister420]

sorry if this is a little off topic....

but after reading this thread i learned alot more about capacitors and thus my fear of them was reduced. So i took out my broken KT7A that had blew a capacitor like a year ago and i fixed it.

i just removed the popped cap, then soldered on some big fat brown cap from radioshack. My board is now running perfectly fine, i just need a HD for it and its back in action.

It is just incredible some of the things u learn to do thnx to the internet. As long as educated ppl like you guys keep sharing knowledge freely on forums, peasants like me who dont go to college still have hope to learn a few things.

cheers :toast:

[TheDude]

Welcome to Xtreme Mister420

Well done!:D

:toast:

[Goldlocke]

Hi to all rev2 owners!

Do u think that soldering those caps is the only way to use vcores over 2.1V?

I cannot use vcores higher than 2.1V at ANY FSB speed!!! :(

my rev2 will not boot at higher vcore than 2.08V at any cpu or fsb setting! I can set 133x10 @ 2.125V -> no boot.
also 210x12 @ 2.1V -> boot and completely prime95 stable for hours.

So I increased 3.3V, 5.0V and 12V lines on my Antec PSU with adjustable VRs.
Now the multimeter reads 3.53V, 5.25V and 12.02V directly from the PSU. BUT! No improvement here! :(
Still stuck @ 2.1V.

Do I really have to solder those caps on?

[siefer]

Hello everybody. This is my first post here, just wanted to say i have been looking forward to a modd like this to appear. Have myself a Abit NF7 and due to an little accident with me trying to Vdd mod it, it died. But anyway, i could run 217 fsb with a Vdd voltage of 1.7. And if this mod actually can make it possible for me to run higher fsb's, i'm gonna do it =) Now to the problem, which of the components listed on this page is suitable for this modd ?

http://www.elfa.se/elfa/produkter/en/2012731.htm

/siefer

[MrLavender]

Welcome to xtremesystems siefer! :toast:

Are you intending to replace the existing caps or solder them on the back? If the latter then the third one down (4700u 25v) is suitable. Note that those caps are designed for mounting directly on circuit boards, they have very short leads (you could always solder some wire).

I'm still waiting to see if this works for anyone else, like Hognert said above it might be a board specific thing. Three negatives so far...:(

[BrainStorm]

Originally posted by QuadDamage
I did it on 8RDA. i took 2 caps from A7V333 and another 4 from A7N8X. it booted fine and voltage rails were very stable for the first time i saw something like this on this POS board. However, when i set the fsb to 210 (it could do 217fsb at 1.8VDD before) It froze and now can't get past "0D" code.... friggin POS, i got one more mobo, so i'll re-do the mod later.

That sucks...been able to re-do yet and did it help any?



Originally posted by Nohto
I'll probably do the mod this evening, so I'll let you guys know how it works out.

Nohto, what about your results? Anything? Or can we take the lack of a post as bad news?

[TheDude]

What would you use to replace existing ones? 2nd one down?
Thanks:D

[MrLavender]

No, the top one. Existing caps are 3300u + 4700u (add capacitance in parallel) = 8000u, so 10000u should be OK (I think, somebody correct me if that's wrong :)).

30mm wide is way too big for replacements though, the existing caps are only about 10mm.

[Nohto]

Nohto, what about your results? Anything? Or can we take the lack of a post as bad news?

I haven't had a chance to do it yet. I am running 2 new 20A circuits for the computer station from the sub panel. I had to add a chamber inside my 5 cu ft frezer, because it was leaking a little, and I am exhausting my 8000 btu/hr air conditioner so it won't heat the room up.
I am also adding duct system for the air cond. to go to the server and to the tower that has the Prom. in it. I had to run #3 to my subpanel that I installed in the garage because of the extra load the 60A circuit wouldn't be enough so I upped it to a 100A. Needless to say I've been a little busy.

[TheDude]

Originally posted by MrLavender
No, the top one. Existing caps are 3300u + 4700u (add capacitance in parallel) = 8000u, so 10000u should be OK (I think, somebody correct me if that's wrong :)).

30mm wide is way too big for replacements though, the existing caps are only about 10mm.

Thanks:D

[BrainStorm]

Originally posted by Nohto
I haven't had a chance to do it yet. I am running 2 new 20A circuits for the computer station from the sub panel. I had to add a chamber inside my 5 cu ft frezer, because it was leaking a little, and I am exhausting my 8000 btu/hr air conditioner so it won't heat the room up.
I am also adding duct system for the air cond. to go to the server and to the tower that has the Prom. in it. I had to run #3 to my subpanel that I installed in the garage because of the extra load the 60A circuit wouldn't be enough so I upped it to a 100A. Needless to say I've been a little busy.

Damnation...sounds like you got quite a setup there. I'm just in my bedroom "computer room" upstairs. *lol*

[LORD]

I have now tried the capacitor mod as well. I used caps rated at 4700 uF and 25 volts. They're approximately 16mm in diameter 33mm long. A little large for replacing on the board itself. They were all that was available locally. The electronics shop swindled from my pocket, approximately $2.80 US for each individual cap. Motherboard makers know what they are doing, when they use components that you can't source easily....:)

My method involved attaching wires to the caps and then soldering to the underside of the board. That way I was able to place the board in the case and have the caps showing at the top of the board. I tried to keep the wires as short as possible for my application but it did not help me.

My results were less than stellar. Infact I lost about 3mhz fsb speed. I run this board 24/7 at 233.86 fsb and seem to be able to hit into the low 240's but with a higher Vdd. This could be ram related or a chipset issue. The North Bridge is cooled by a Copper thin fin design Sockat A cooler with a 60mm Global Win fan with a "3DfxCool" sticker on there! Bit of free advertising for Bart at 1coolpc. :)
Initialy it did not seem less stable. However once you pushed your fsb to high and reset, the board did not seem to be able to come out of this state and increase the Vdd voltage again. Instead it made the annoying beeping and siren sounds.
I'm certain you all have seen that when you change settings in bios the board overides your original modded Vdd. And uses a low setting. Then increases it again when booting at your overclocked settings.

I didn't try soldering the actual caps without wires to the back of the board and that more than likely may have helped, but I'll leave it for now. Really I can't recommend anybody do the mod the way I tried however there may still be variables I didn't take into account such as capacitor quality etc.

Shot of cap next to a new and unused T-Bird 1.4 to give an idea of size.

[LORD EDIT: IN OTHER WORDS IT SUCKED BIG TIME] :stick:

[siefer]

MrLavender:

Thank you for your help. I was planning on just adding capacitors on the existing ones.

/siefer

[Hallowed]

Not all caps are the same people.

Bolting on just any cap with high fahrad capacity wont exactly help stability, and I guarantee wires will kill most gain in most applications.

Get low impedance high-grade caps... Panasonic, Rubycon... should do. This is not a smoke and mirrors mod. The only possible reason it could have a negative outcome is if the filtering capacity or quality has been reduced.

Solder in something that could be construed as an improvement, keep the leads short, and there should be a stability gain.

[Hognert]

What can I say... Im actually starting to really disslike this board. Seems there are lots of different things preventing a high and stable FSB.

Adding the caps did two things on my board. I can use a 250MHz FSB at multi 5-11, and there is no longer any use in upping the Vdd over about 1,8V at any multi. Thats all fine and dandy but this board is still a pain in the ass...

At a higher multi the max FSB still goes down... I thought the caps fixed this but after further testing its clear that they didnt.

At 11,5 the max FSB I can even boot at is 236 and its very unstable
12 - max boot 225 (unstable).
12,5 - boot 216 (stable) - will not POST at 217.....
13 - boot about 213 (unstable)
14 - fails to post at 200MHz....

These are the exact "limits" i experienced before the caps mod.. only difference is that I now dont need a very high Vdd. So there is no doubt that after multi 11 some new problem kicks in and spoils everything... Tried all bios settings there is of course.. changing Vcore, Vmem, Vdd and so on.. nothing helps. Guess next time ill go epox ;).

edit: One more thing. My board actually perform better with the cpu being detected as a 166MHz model. Got my 1700+ detected as a 2700+ now and that is more stable then 1700+/2100+. But then again all these boards seem to suffer from different problems so...

[Marquzz]

Hognert: What's the top that cpu reach? All those multipliers and fsb's is about the same speed, from top:
2714
2700
2700
2769
2800

Have you ever considered that's about what that cpu ca handle? But then ofcourse, if you'd been up in the 3g'ish with that cpu I can understand it.

[spaceboy]

we need a 2.1 :(

[Ewok]

what people need to realise is this mod is NOT going to help get any faster fsb if your memory wont physically go any faster in the first place. all this mod will do, assuming it does actually work, is remove the problem with the board itself refusing to go to higher fsb.

how do u tell? easy. if your max stable fsb on tightest 7/2/2/2 timings is the same as your max stable fsb on 7/3/3/3 timings then in theory your memory is NOT whats holding you back and this mod might well help. on the other hand if 7/3/3/3 gives you a lot more on fsb than fast timings, then your memory just wont go any higher and this mod is probably pretty useless to you. The theory behind this is if your mb limited and NOT memory limited, then timings will not make any difference to how high you can get since memory isnt whats limiting the fsb. Thats my theory on it anyway.

i can do 223fsb on 4/2/2/2 and 223fsb on 8/3/3/3. upping vdd doesnt help much, so im assuming this mod should help me gain more fsb because it doesnt apear to be my memory limiting it.

[JCviggen]

Ewok

my rev 1.2 board would do 222 cas2 , 250 cas2.5 slow timings.
this rev 2.0 board goes as far as I want on cas2 ... 230, 233, 236 with lockups from NB ..... I can relax the timings, it will NOT do 1 MHz more than with max timings.... yet the mod yielded me absolutely nothing, so that's another theory shot to pieces.

[Ewok]

doesnt mean my theory is wrong, especially as you only used 2200uf caps and hognert used ones more than twice that. just wanted to point out that if it doesnt gain anything, people should make sure their memory isnt maxed out before they can say the mod didnt work.

obviously your memory will go higher so maybe it needs higher quality/capacity caps? or maybe it was the wire you used taking away any benefit they might have given?

certainly doesnt look like its helping many though, other than hognert only 1 other person seems to think its helped and the same person also experienced it making things worse so something strange is going on. i dont think ill bother with it anyway, from the success rates so far i dont think its worth the hassle trying it, especialy as knowing my luck ill just fry the board.

speaking of which i fried something on a fan header when i was trying to measure voltages and i touched 2 pins at once with the voltmeter, it sparked but nothing else happened. cant see anything wrong with it, but plugging a fan into it no longer works, im wondering if i fried the tiny cap thats next to the fan header? it LOOKS ok though, so maybe something else is fried. board works fine still, other than being stuck at 223fsb.

maybe you should try sticking the caps on the ones near the mosfets and see if that helps instead?

[Hognert]

Originally posted by Marquzz
Hognert: What's the top that cpu reach? All those multipliers and fsb's is about the same speed, from top:
2714
2700
2700
2769
2800

Have you ever considered that's about what that cpu ca handle? But then ofcourse, if you'd been up in the 3g'ish with that cpu I can understand it.

I dont really know how far the cpu can go since Ive only tested it on this somewhat unrealiable board :/, It ran 3dmark at 2780MHz though and since 11*250 boots up fine I really cant see why the ****ing board refuses to even post at 12,5*217+.
Messed around with the board the whole bloody day today.. didnt learn much... Its like the board actually got a mind of its own..
Why do 250MHz easy as pie to multi 11 and then all the sudden turn into a pile of crap?... Sounds bios related to me...
Cant figure out what more to do with the board atm.. guess ill just wait for a proper bios realese, v11 sucks pretty bad.

[JCviggen]

its an issue ALL Nforce boards seem to have. 8RDA is the same.

If you want to get good overclocking, you need multipliers 11 , 13 or 15.
My CPU will not even POST at 3 GHz if I use multiplier 14 for example. both 8RDA and NF2. 13x and 15x will POST at 3150 MHz+ no problem... I dont get it, its a fact you have to live with on the NF2 ...

[Ewok]

it does sound like its some sort of bios problem but the fact its happening on all the boards suggests otherwise.

what irritates me most is im stuck at 223fsb with memory i just tested will do 458 at 7/2/2/2 DC using async, so i should be able to get 229 with these settings, and it wont even boot at that, infact it probably wont even POST.

[Marquzz]

Originally posted by Ewok
it does sound like its some sort of bios problem but the fact its happening on all the boards suggests otherwise.

what irritates me most is im stuck at 223fsb with memory i just tested will do 458 at 7/2/2/2 DC using async, so i should be able to get 229 with these settings, and it wont even boot at that, infact it probably wont even POST.

That's what I had before vdd-mod, now I'm at 232 with 1.85V, don't dare to go higher cause running it on air still waiting for som money for a block. It's running very cool though so maybe I'll try 1.9V. But I'm waiting for a 2500+, should arrive tomorrow, then I'm going to BMAO (bench my ass of :D)

[IamAnoobieCheez]

Also, don't forget.. Just shoving more Vdd voltage doesn't necessarily help to get you X number of FSB @ X level of stability in 3D games. You will get worse result with some of the boards. Do not abuse the Vdd voltage. Use it just enough to run it at certain speeds. Supreme level of Vdd voltage and high FSB will also cook eggs on the SouthBridge also. Also try supercooling the SouthBridge and use the right amount of Vdd to maintain superb stability in games. ;)