MSI K7N2-L Overclocking 2400+@266

[hollywood]

Hey all, just Hollywood from ( www.xlii.com ) dropping in to get some info.

I'm upgrading to the MSI K7N2-L (nForce2) Motherboard and a 2400+ @266FSB CPU. I'm curious, does the MSI unlock the lower-range multipliers like the Epox, Asus and Abit do as well? I made my purchasing decision based on your forums and belive I made a decent choice, however I HAD to get the MSI part for certain reasons...Just hoping I'm not screwed as it concerns my overclocking options. Thanks again...

-Holly

[althes]

I had one loaded up the os then it wouldnt start had to rma it.

[Liquid3D]

As far as I know it's the grounding of the VSS pin in Socket-A motherboards which unlock's all Thoroughbred-B cpu's. Unfortunately it seems MSI chose not to ground this Pin as this review by PCStats indicates they were stuck with 13X multiplier on their XP2700. Also the FSB only allowed adjustment to 200FSB max, and the Vcore was only as high as 1.8V.
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1317&page=3

[hollywood]

Thanks Liquid.....That article actually made me want the board more...Being that it's the same chipset as all the others (except sound) I'm quite confident that I'll find a way to run my 2400+ 266 @ a 333 FSB.

I'm not after a 200FSB...just wanna run 166 or 180 max.

-Holly:banana:

[zakelwe]

I find the easiest way to unlock these XP2400 chips is to link the pins on the back of the cpu. Ocworkbench demonstrated this with a small piece of wire, but I found that I kept dropping it as I have hands the size of buckets and was too drunk.

Instead I simply used conductive paint to link up the pins on the back. I put on 3 layers and it worked like a charm.

N8 does the wire trick, but he puts the wire actually between the holes in the ZIF socket. PM him if you want to learn more or he might see this thread.

Regards

Andy

[Liquid3D]

I should reiterate that I was sort of skeptical about the PCStats review, in this TBreak review they use a 2600+ and they have full multiplier capabilities (although their not sure if it's the mainboard or their engineering sample) but this might give you a better performance indicator at 333FSB. http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/article.php?cat=&id=180&pagenumber=3
EDIT: OK found another review for you at ClubOC; GOOD news, they almost hit 14K on 3DMark benchies, with a Ti4200! The board ran stable at 200MHz FSB the entire time! Another interesting MSI design implementation; the board requires both the 4-Pin utility voltage PSU line and the standard ATX line, and they have huge heatsinks on mosfetts. I'm willing to bet MSI has found the power hungry, hot running, nForce2's ideal stable operating range at approx. 200FSB (which would make sense as it's Dual DDR is rated for DDR400). If you notice people are getting all sorts of high FSB results with Epox 8RDA, while the NB is running so hot I've seen Cak38 HSF's on it! MSI seems to have found the RIGHT formula for now, and they (MSI) replied to TBreak their working on raising the FSB limits on the revisions. Finally it seems this board is capable of unlocking TBred's, their 2600+ was right out of the box version, and they had multiplier adjustment (albeit's highest value is 13x) however, that's what you want anyway with these nForce2 boards high bandwidth, not simply high clockspeed. OK theres my hypothesis. Link to ClubOC' review; http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/motherboards/msi/k7n2l/page7.htm

[hollywood]

Liquid...YOU DA MAN!:thumbsup:


I thought the PCstats review was total crap as well....Seemed to be done by a 12 year old....Again...thanks alot.

BTW..I just ordered my parts today! so I'll be in nForce2 bliss soon!

[DoGMaN]

Originally posted by Hollywood
Liquid...YOU DA MAN!:thumbsup:


I thought the PCstats review was total crap as well....Seemed to be done by a 12 year old....Again...thanks alot.

BTW..I just ordered my parts today! so I'll be in nForce2 bliss soon!

Ewwww thats a little rough :(