Abit NF7 FSB problems

[Drozdov]

I cant get over 200fsb without 3dmark crashing or restarting the system. My +5v rail is at 5v load and i put the chipset voltage to 1.7v. 12x200 is stable for me but not 11x208. I even put the timings at SPD and it still does that. any ideas how to fix this? btw im using an XP2700+ with the cut bridge

[snowsl]

What kind of memory? I have the same problem, actually I can run at 208 but 210 won't 3dmark. I have had several people say that its the NB cooling. I haven't bothered to remove the stock heat sink and check. But one person said they had an sk6 or something on their NB and theirs will do 217 dual channel at max timings.

I suspect its a combination. I have xms3200 and maybe its just too much for it to handle running dual channel at max timings or even realaxed.

Good luck.

[Drozdov]

i have 2 sticks of 256mb XMS3500...

i put some nanotherm on the NB...dunno if that will help

[IamAnoobieCheez]

snowsl, hi.
I'm [OC]_This. :) Yes you guessed it right.
You need both. Very good RAM and plenty of cooling on the NB. Both are needed for optimal stability. There is a good chance your pair of Corsair3200 is struggling@ 210FSB even though you're at 2.7v. You'll also have to remove the factory NB HS and apply ASII(or III, whatever suits you). You need to make sure there's good, firm contact between the NB HS and NB's round chipset core. Do what you have to do. Lapping maybe needed. In my situation, there is enough weight and pressure between SK-6 and NB's chipset, effectively absorbing the heat and dump out therefore I didn't have to lap the NB's plastic area around the central core. I may have to lap it later though if i decide to put my board in the case and set it up.

[snowsl]

Thanks for the tips! I had forgotten your handle or I would have given you credit. Now you have another on this forum, I'll never be able to remember. LOL!

I'll have to lap the NB HS. I need to lap the slk800 as it has very deep swirl machining marks and will do the NB while I'm at it. Now where's my dremel?

Hey have you cooled your SB. My sound will just stop after long periods(>2hrs) of running NFS6 and fah at the same time @200X11. It comes right back after a reboot but its hard to drive without the sound, hehe. I guess it could be a driver issue too. Whaddaya think?

[IamAnoobieCheez]

Originally posted by snowsl
Thanks for the tips! I had forgotten your handle or I would have given you credit. Now you have another on this forum, I'll never be able to remember. LOL!

I'll have to lap the NB HS. I need to lap the slk800 as it has very deep swirl machining marks and will do the NB while I'm at it. Now where's my dremel?

Hey have you cooled your SB. My sound will just stop after long periods(>2hrs) of running NFS6 and fah at the same time @200X11. It comes right back after a reboot but its hard to drive without the sound, hehe. I guess it could be a driver issue too. Whaddaya think?
Sorry for the late reply. I was eating. lol

yes!.. I had a sound cut off/ freeze problem too. I'll tell you what I have done and what worked for me. I had this problem at 213mhz FSB and Up. I've tried various level of AGP/PCI frequencies to see if that helps. They didn't help. The problem started to go away by upping the Vcore by increment of 0.025v on the NF7 rev1.0. Received less number of sound freezes. Raised the vcore three times(0.075v). The sound problem gone. I haven't had any sound problem since then. It seems this board is not doing such good job in putting out voltages. Based on my observation, giving enough Vcore voltage took care of the problem.

SouthBridge are less sensitive to heat and don't usually build up as much as the NB as you know. I haven't had issues with the SB overheating but it wouldn't hurt extra cooling it. I think it's up to you. Go by your preferrence. As a matter of fact, I was thinking about cooling the SB on boards such as this since we're looking at very high FSBs on the NF2 boards.

[twiggy]

hehe I must have got a good board cause I can run 217 max timings without a hitch. I didnt do anything to the board besides the vcore mod. I run 11x200 24/7 and have been doing so for weeks now, zero probs. But all this is with a 2400+.

Now yesterday I put in a 1700 tbred B and man this mobo sux with low multi chips(could this be the prob?). In no way could I achieve 200 fsb with that chip in this board. I got ~185 tops anything would give me corrupt data or just wouldnt boot up.

[IamAnoobieCheez]

Originally posted by twiggy
hehe I must have got a good board cause I can run 217 max timings without a hitch. I didnt do anything to the board besides the vcore mod. I run 11x200 24/7 and have been doing so for weeks now, zero probs. But all this is with a 2400+.

hehe.... not quite. ;) I've been using a Sound Blaster Live card on the board. Onboard sound not being used. The board itself seems good. Now the sound problem went away a week ago, it is Diamond stable@ 213mhz FSB@ 4-2-2-2.0. Can run 3Dmark all day, looped. Zero crahses. How about that? hehe...

217mhz FSB worked on the 3Dmark too. But struggled a little due to insuffient Vmem and possibly the Vdd. My score hardly improved@ 217mhz FSB so I went back down to 213 for now. I'm waiting for the vdd & vmem mod. :cool:

oh by the way, twiggy, if you have a UT2003, try playing that for hours@ 213mhz FSB.. hehehe.... see if you could run em without any crashes or/and error messages. I get none. :banana:

[impulse]

Drozdov Im in the same boat. Im unstable at anything ~203. I can boot into windows at up to 225 but benches fail quickly. Can bench sandra at 217. 3dmark is only able to bench at ~203. Im hoping this vdd mod will help as much as the a7n8x vdd helped me. I have a 40 mm fan blowing over the northbridge and an old abit northbridge hsf on the southbridge. Diddnt see a noticealbe difference.

[IamAnoobieCheez]

Originally posted by impulse
Drozdov Im in the same boat. Im unstable at anything ~203. I can boot into windows at up to 225 but benches fail quickly. Can bench sandra at 217. 3dmark is only able to bench at ~203. Im hoping this vdd mod will help as much as the a7n8x vdd helped me. I have a 40 mm fan blowing over the northbridge and an old abit northbridge hsf on the southbridge. Diddnt see a noticealbe difference.
Just to avoid any confusion, are you cooling your northbridge by only using a 40mm fan to blow at the NB without a NB HS?

[impulse]

ya, I know its probably stupid and messing the airflow up but i have it blowing over the existing NB. Its about 3 inches above it.
[edit] I have the original nf7-s hsf on it. I lapped the NB and put as3 on it. also wanted to ask, do you have fastwites on and 8x agp?

[Drozdov]

right now im using the stock NB cooler on the NF7, but i cleaned off the white thermal compound and put some nanotherm xtc all over the NB. I also have a 120mm fan blowing on the video card and NB hsf.

are there any big differences between the NF7-S and NF7 besides the serial ATA?

[Drozdov]

Originally posted by impulse
ya, I know its probably stupid and messing the airflow up but i have it blowing over the existing NB. Its about 3 inches above it.
[edit] I have the original nf7-s hsf on it. I lapped the NB and put as3 on it. also wanted to ask, do you have fastwites on and 8x agp?

if ur refering to me, no i turned off fast writes

[impulse]

Not exaclty sure, but Besides the SATA I dont think theres to much of a difference, component wise. I could definately be wrong tho.

[Drozdov]

i really like this mobo so far...better than my 8RDA+ and im gonna get it Vcore modded soon (thanks twiggy ;) ) and hopefully reach 18k

[beatnic]

there's no difference between the NF7 and NF7-S in term of overclockability. i've received mails from Abit and they said all NF7 boards have the 5-bit FID..

[impulse]

Agree'd its a great board. At the moment I think the a7n8x may be a little quicker in the benchmarks tho. I was getting the same bandwidth from the a7n8x @ 211 as i get with the nf7-s @217 (3309'ish) . It is much more stable then the asus and no bios deaths yet. One quick question also, I have a goofy problem where in benches and sometimes just in windows, when overclocked, my monitor will turn off and the system will freeze. Is that normal?

[IamAnoobieCheez]

Originally posted by impulse
ya, I know its probably stupid and messing the airflow up but i have it blowing over the existing NB. Its about 3 inches above it.
[edit] I have the original nf7-s hsf on it. I lapped the NB and put as3 on it. also wanted to ask, do you have fastwites on and 8x agp?
it's not the air flow I'm concerning about. I just wanted to make sure you're using a HS on the NB and use whatever the fan you have, in this case, 40mm fan which I have no problem with.

I would suggest to you guys. The factory white goop on your NB isn't good and provide poor heat conductivity as we all know. The factory NB HS that comes with the mainboard isn't good to begin with. They're not perfectly flat and do not make good, full contact between NB central core's surface and the surface of the HS's base. You need to find a way so you get good contact between them. I would suggest you guys to use some better, heavier duty HS than the one that comes with the board. All this, if you want stable, non-stop running 3D apps even the most intensive ones. Yes, lap the HS's base. Lapping the NB's plastic around the central core maybe needed but it's your option, at your own risk. It is your option.

I have a SK-6 100% copper HS with the lapped base. NB is being cooled by it with the ASII ingredient.

After the mod, no matter what the hell I did to it, the damn system just wouldn't freeze/cause any graphical artifacts @ 213mhz+ FSB. I said, goddamn it.. freeze it!! but it won't.. I said damn... I ran 3dmarks looped, no freezes. I ran UT2003 for hours. With high grahpics setting and 14~ 17 bots, non-stop heavy action for hours and no freezes what so ever. I then approved that the SK-6 is doing the job and ended the story. Case closed.


I'm using a GeForce3 Ti200 running at 4X AGP & Fast writes all enabled. Everything is set to max. AGP is running at 99mhz & 49.5mhz PCI.

[impulse]

CHeese do you remember what fsb you could run at before the sk-6?

[IamAnoobieCheez]

Originally posted by impulse
CHeese do you remember what fsb you could run at before the sk-6?
200FSB. That was most stable setting in non-stop intensive 3D apps.


After the SK-6 NB mod, it's rediculously stable@ 213FSB. At this point, the only thing keeping me from doing a healthy 217 or higher FSB is my memory modules limitation and vdd.

[impulse]

Well I just added a vantec copper iceberg i had lying around waiting for my a7n8x, We'll see if it helps

[impulse]

no help :\

[IamAnoobieCheez]

Originally posted by impulse
no help :\
well u didn't ask anything.. :confused:

:D

[twiggy]

Originally posted by impulse
One quick question also, I have a goofy problem where in benches and sometimes just in windows, when overclocked, my monitor will turn off and the system will freeze. Is that normal?

I had that prob once. My monitor shut off and said the freq. was out of range, said it was at something like 99.xx hertz :eek:. It was my AGP being oc'ed too far. Could that be your prob too?? What video card are you using and what was your AGP freq.?

[impulse]

Originally posted by impulse
no help :\

Sorry I meant that adding the vantec iceberg didnt help my fsb any more. Im still stuck ~200. I have my agp locked at 66. Honestly Im not to worried about this as im sure as soon as taht vdd mod comes out itll help me get to the higher speeds.

[IamAnoobieCheez]

Originally posted by impulse
Sorry I meant that adding the vantec iceberg didnt help my fsb any more. Im still stuck ~200. I have my agp locked at 66. Honestly Im not to worried about this as im sure as soon as taht vdd mod comes out itll help me get to the higher speeds.
ah ok.

[Henry]

I want to buy this mobo but i heard that you can run at high fsb (200+) with "special multiplier" only (11 and 13). Is that true ?
Anyone run at 200+ FSB with 11.5-12.5 multiplier ?

Thanks !!

[IamAnoobieCheez]

Originally posted by Henry
I want to buy this mobo but i heard that you can run at high fsb (200+) with "special multiplier" only (11 and 13). Is that true ?
Anyone run at 200+ FSB with 11.5-12.5 multiplier ?

Thanks !!
hi Henry.

yes... mine's at 11.5 x 213 ~ 217mhz FSB. :)

[Henry]

Originally posted by IamAnoobieCheez
hi Henry.

yes... mine's at 11.5 x 213 ~ 217mhz FSB. :)

Thanks FrontSideButt202 ;)

I'll give this mobo a try. BTW there's any different between NF7 and NF-S in performance and ocability ? I dont need SATA, onboard audio etc...

[Drozdov]

Originally posted by beatnic
there's no difference between the NF7 and NF7-S in term of overclockability. i've received mails from Abit and they said all NF7 boards have the 5-bit FID..

[Drozdov]

ok how did u get the SK-6 on their? epoxy?

yeah i took out the white goop and replaced it with nanotherm but then again u said the NB cooler sucks...

will a crystal orb help?

[IamAnoobieCheez]

Originally posted by Drozdov
ok how did u get the SK-6 on their? epoxy?

yeah i took out the white goop and replaced it with nanotherm but then again u said the NB cooler sucks...

will a crystal orb help?
Center most part (virtually entire area of the central core surface) is applied with ASII only. Four corners of the NB blk plastic area around the central core is applied with AS Epoxy.

crystal orb is a lot better than the NB HS that comes with the board. You know that.

Some serious amount of lapping maybe needed on the orb, if its base is very roughy.

[Drozdov]

ok, my NB base is pretty smooth, and its level. the SK-6 only fits a 60mm fan right? if so what fan would u recommend (not the delta :p)

[IamAnoobieCheez]

I use a Sunon 60mm 25cfm on the SK-6 for my NB. Cools good enough.

[Drozdov]

does the SK-6 touch the mobo PCB?

[IamAnoobieCheez]

Originally posted by Drozdov
does the SK-6 touch the mobo PCB?
No. :)

There are at least 4 capacitors nearby. When the SK-6 is placed, there will be at least 50mm clearence between the SK6 and those capacitors around it.

EDIT: it's 5mm, not 50mm. I meant to type 5mm.

[Drozdov]

alright cool :D

by any chance...can you get a pic of ur NB cooling? thanks :D

[IamAnoobieCheez]

Originally posted by Drozdov
alright cool :D

by any chance...can you get a pic of ur NB cooling? thanks :D
I just got back from playing some more UT2003 and it is sooooo stable.

Unfortunately I don't have the digital camera. I would love to take pics of mine and show you. There are two SK-6's and one SLK800 in this setup. One for the video card, one for the NB, one big mutha for the CPU. Video card is totally stable. NB is totally stable. and the cpu as well. :toast:

I'll try to get a digital camera as soon as i can.

[Drozdov]

sounds great dude! looks like ill have myself a new NB cooler soon ;)

thanks

[MrIcee]

Here's my cheap and effective solution to NB and southbridge cooling: a cheap Radio Shack Socket7 HSF modded and attached via thin cable ties. The southbridge consists of the large Heatsink included in the Vantec Iceberg kit with an old ABIT northbrdge fan attached to it.:)

Randi:D

[Drozdov]

hehe looks good :D

this is how mine looks...for now ;)

[beatnic]

niiice MrIcee and Drozdov..
I have no problem with the stock NB cooler.. I'm now at 220MHz FSB @ 2-2-2-5 Dual Channel.. running mismatched rams though :D XMS3500 + OCZ EL (DC optimized).. same FSB reached when using single stick.. i can do more but too bad the voltage is only at 2.7v.. no v-mods :)
btw Drozdov, how's the Crystal Orb doing on the Raddy? How good is it compared to the stock HSF?

http://www.boomspeed.com/beatnic/DualCPUID_220_2-2-2-5.gif

[Drozdov]

got me 20mhz more than the stock

hmm some boards are just lucky ;)

[IamAnoobieCheez]

Allright.....

I'm not the type of person trying to prove who got the highest FSBs. I like to post FSBs that are totally functional and totally stable. but anyways...

Would this be betta for ya? he...he... he...

Beatnic, you said you have no problem with the NB, so you can run 3DMark all hours with that FSB of 220? I'm afraid you will not be even be able to run 3Dmark much at all.



225mhz FSB @ 6-2-2-2.0
http://portfolio.iu.edu/skrska/225mhz_FSB_memory_full.png

[IamAnoobieCheez]

You can't run 3Dmark@ 220mhz FSB even though you think the system boot up to the desktop. That's not the way to determine you don't have NB problem. The effectiveness of NB cooling determines the stability of the graphics at such FSBs while plenty of voltages(Vmem & Vdd) are provided to ensure you have sufficient power to run apps like the intensive 3D games or 3Dmark. NB cooling makes that FSB to run stably by keeping it cool, not to boost the FSBs. That's the idea of NB cooling. hehe.. :cool:

I don't really feel pride of my 225mhz FSB. Because it's not stable to run most intensive apps. I need something to be able to run 3Dmark looped none-stop and several hours of UT2003'ing with full bots for highest intensity. Until we get the vdd and vmem mod taken care of, this NB cooling is not going to get me there. It only cools and keeps my toy damn stable@ 213mhz FSB.

[Drozdov]

at stock cooling, i can get into windows at 208fsb but 3dmarks restarts my system right away. So 200 is stable for 3dmarks and other apps. Need better cooling on NB :(

[beatnic]

I am sorry NoobieCheez :(, I can run 3dmark at 220MHz. I'm currently running 220MHz single stick for everyday use.. but not for dual channel coz the OCZ ram was 'on loan'.. after a couple of hours I found it to be stable at 212MHz dual :p now where did i put the 3dmark files.. doh..
single (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5756535)
dual (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5756545) sorry

[Drozdov]

is your radeon OC'ed?

[beatnic]

only 350@340 with stock hsf :(