LardArse
11-18-2003, 08:59 AM
I've had an Albatron KT800 replacement board come in. Ran some tests for a review and it was fast, faster than the MSI KT800. 280FSB with a 5900 FX was 3D benchable.
Anyways, the Vmods went on and then the insulation and then I ran the waterchiller on it. Popped in the R9800P at the same time. Tweaked the pot for the Vcore mod bit by bit and went up to 2.16v and all the while I was waiting for OVP to kick in but it didn't. That was lovely I thought so I went on to give 3D mark some runs. Couldn't get 260+ FSB to work on the Radeon at first, but using clockgen, I set it to 250 first and then 255, and then 260, and then 265, then 270. That would make it 3D benchable while a straight boot up at 260FSB with the Radeon doesn't work. It seems to be switching dividers in between those FSBs there. Anyways, with Vdimm at 3.5v I was benching 3D mark at 270 x 10, the first time I'm running 2.7Ghz in 3D. That is due to the 2.16v vcore while I was limited to 1.95v on the Shuttle NF3.
Proceeded to bump up the Radeon clocks and I was expecting overclocking to drop a lot due to the overclocked AGP bus, but surprisingly I was able to retain my VC clock speeds. So in other words, it was running 270 x 10 1:1 fastest timings and maximum AGP settings in bios AGP 8X and Fastwrites and stuff. I've had LDT modded to 1.5v, perhaps this was giving some support. I was getting pretty excited and the first few scores were besting my Shuttle NF3 benches. But around this time I was smelling some burnt smell, I sniffed around, thought that it was my compressor getting warm since the 3D was still running. Then after moving onto the 4th test, the whole rig shut down. Tried to turn it back on but it wouldn't even power up. I knew I fried something so I felt around the mosfets and then touched the Vcore regulator and it felt pretty damn hot even though I had a fan blowing on it. Must have killed the Vcore regulator. It just couldn't take 2.16v.
So anyways, I decided to type up this long story because I find the Albatron board unjustly reviewed in some reviews such as the one in HardOCP which said that it wasn't an overclockers board. Out of the box it was the best overclocking KT800 board I've tried, among MSI, Abit and Epox, offering options for almost every voltage, even seperating NB and SB voltages, and the highest Vcore available stock of 1.9v. After the mods its just insane, 270 FSB 1:1 fastest timings on a KT800 with a R9800P without having to sacrifice any AGP settings or speed. And it might go even higher, 270 was the maximum I tried on the Radeon before I killed the board. Only shame is that it had such a "weak" Vcore regulator. I guess sometimes the OVP does have its use :)
Anyways, the Vmods went on and then the insulation and then I ran the waterchiller on it. Popped in the R9800P at the same time. Tweaked the pot for the Vcore mod bit by bit and went up to 2.16v and all the while I was waiting for OVP to kick in but it didn't. That was lovely I thought so I went on to give 3D mark some runs. Couldn't get 260+ FSB to work on the Radeon at first, but using clockgen, I set it to 250 first and then 255, and then 260, and then 265, then 270. That would make it 3D benchable while a straight boot up at 260FSB with the Radeon doesn't work. It seems to be switching dividers in between those FSBs there. Anyways, with Vdimm at 3.5v I was benching 3D mark at 270 x 10, the first time I'm running 2.7Ghz in 3D. That is due to the 2.16v vcore while I was limited to 1.95v on the Shuttle NF3.
Proceeded to bump up the Radeon clocks and I was expecting overclocking to drop a lot due to the overclocked AGP bus, but surprisingly I was able to retain my VC clock speeds. So in other words, it was running 270 x 10 1:1 fastest timings and maximum AGP settings in bios AGP 8X and Fastwrites and stuff. I've had LDT modded to 1.5v, perhaps this was giving some support. I was getting pretty excited and the first few scores were besting my Shuttle NF3 benches. But around this time I was smelling some burnt smell, I sniffed around, thought that it was my compressor getting warm since the 3D was still running. Then after moving onto the 4th test, the whole rig shut down. Tried to turn it back on but it wouldn't even power up. I knew I fried something so I felt around the mosfets and then touched the Vcore regulator and it felt pretty damn hot even though I had a fan blowing on it. Must have killed the Vcore regulator. It just couldn't take 2.16v.
So anyways, I decided to type up this long story because I find the Albatron board unjustly reviewed in some reviews such as the one in HardOCP which said that it wasn't an overclockers board. Out of the box it was the best overclocking KT800 board I've tried, among MSI, Abit and Epox, offering options for almost every voltage, even seperating NB and SB voltages, and the highest Vcore available stock of 1.9v. After the mods its just insane, 270 FSB 1:1 fastest timings on a KT800 with a R9800P without having to sacrifice any AGP settings or speed. And it might go even higher, 270 was the maximum I tried on the Radeon before I killed the board. Only shame is that it had such a "weak" Vcore regulator. I guess sometimes the OVP does have its use :)