Value AM2 testing: Biostar Tforce 550, Sempron 3600+, Mushkin HP5300

hehe I was going to get the same stuff and oc the magic smoke outa it.
I hope the NF5 tforce clocks like the S754 one did.
http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=95441

Is it true that the nf550 only supports Semprons and no other AM2 CPUs?
Could you please mesure the NB HS holes? I am abou to get a watercooling and I want something that might fit.
Wish you good luck. I hope they clock to something close to 3ghz.
Oh just noticed you have a 3600+. I will go with a 1.6ghz one again I think.
If I want only short on money righ now ;)

Oh, that sure looks like a nice mobo, too bad i cant find it in Norway though. Lookin forward to see how well the CPU clocks.

That beats the hell out of the MSI K9N 550 board i'm using. This one can't even change the vcore at the minute, not very impressive.

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Originally Posted by Fr3ak

hehe I was going to get the same stuff and oc the magic smoke outa it.
I hope the NF5 tforce clocks like the S754 one did.
http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=95441

Is it true that the nf550 only supports Semprons and no other AM2 CPUs?
Could you please mesure the NB HS holes? I am abou to get a watercooling and I want something that might fit.
Wish you good luck. I hope they clock to something close to 3ghz.
Oh just noticed you have a 3600+. I will go with a 1.6ghz one again I think.
If I want only short on money righ now ;)

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N550 should support all AM2 cpus

btw looked in manual, that jumper that says vdimm or w/e, if you set it to 2-3 position it will lock vdimm at 2.2v. max in bios is 2.1, so you get a slight boost with jumper set. Wish it would go up a bit higher, but so far I'm really liking this board. I've started benching and have some baseline data at defaults. Not terribly impressive, but what is impressive so far is the changes just in bumping HTT to 220. You'll see in time. I also got to 230HTT and was able to run 30mins of SP2004, can't claim stability yet, but this was at the 667 ram divider, ram vdimm at 1.95v running something like 725 or 750mhz or so on this "midline" HP series DDR2. Not too shabby, approaching near 6400 performance at reasonable timings of 4-4-4-x. Right now I'm using the built in memtest to see if I can nail down some tweaks and get 235-240 stable HTT with 667 divider. If I can't I'll drop the memory or tweak some latencies ;). Right now I'd like to push 4-4-4-x as far as I can, max my ram, then know it's limits. Use that as baseline for how I can push system in future ;).

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Originally Posted by JNav89GT

w this is interesting ;), wonder what it does, will check on it later :toast:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&d=1149215835

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I think that locks the Vdimm at 2.2V. Biostar's 939-6100 has something similar that locks Vdimm at 3.2V.

yep, just beat u to it ;)

Good stuff, thanks for all the pics and information JNav. This board is so cheap! Less than $80 and it comes with all the options that made me pay so much for my DFI board...

Jesus...

I use tons of Biostar and PCChips boards in value PC's I usually make for people, and they usually have a small amount of overclocking options, but this board is definatly very surprising...

Nice Going Biostar :)

The S754 and S939 TForce boards had also nice OC options. I would even say they have the best oc capability for budget boards.

ok have baseline data to compare to my max oc so far, may be able to go higher, but not sure yet, having post issues even 1mhz htt past this.

here is my max on a 3000+ 939 stock aircooler at 1.45 or +0.1v, and even that might not be needed. Just added it b/c I thought it might need it LOL.

not shabby for a budget cpu ;)
SP2004 stable shot, 3dmark 01, and super pi 1m, the later 2 compare to benches below
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&d=1149406608
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&d=1149406608

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&d=1149406608

Default benches for super pi 1m and 3d01
I might rerun super pi 1m later as this just seems tera-bad
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&d=1149406608

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&d=1149406608

Wow, thats better than I thought it would be. 2870mhz with 1.45v is damn nice.
I need 1.65V with my S754 2800+. Have you played around with max async latency and read preamble. Helped me much on the S754 TForce, but I have no idea if those options are on the Am2 board too.

JNav89GT >> could you try max HTT on this board? Im building a budget AM2 rig and I think about getting Sempy 3000+ and Biostar, but if board doesn't like high HTT, I will go with 3400+, because of higher multiplier.

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Originally Posted by JNav89GT

ok have baseline data to compare to my max oc so far, may be able to go higher, but not sure yet, having post issues even 1mhz htt past this.

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my k9n platinum is like that too. boots at 322mhz, not at 323... but i can get up to 390mhz in windows without changing a single setting :fact:

probably crappy bios holding you back there.
I'm glad to see the semprons are doing pretty well ... judging from what I've seen so far. I'm thinking of getting a 3600 sempron...

I'm really liking this combo, I mean each part compliments the other. I've tried different ram, cpu, and in turn, have tried all other components in my MSI K9N and seriously, for a budget PC this thing is NICE. I'm able to get 2.87ghz on a total crap stock aircooler for an old 300+, the ram is running great at 700+mhz with decent timings, the board is solid as a rock at these speeds. I think with a better bios or more time to figure out more settings, I'll get higher.

So for a breakdown
Sempron 3600+=really no appreciable difference in speed from a 3500+ when oc'd to this area.

Mushkin HP5300=a great kit. Ran like 760-770mhz at default timings of 4-4-4-x at 1.95v. Not bad for midline memory. Damm nice looking in this board as well with the blue spreaders and blue board ;). Very flexible otherwise and IMO a good value. I put in my XP6400 into this system, and while slightly faster, I'd have a hard time recommending IT over this HP5300 for this biostar as I feel they just go together better. Now if your going more high end board, then yeah by all means get the XP6400 as I had awesome luck with it on the MSI K9N SLI.

Biostar TForce 550. I tell you what, one of the biggest surprises I've had in awhile. When I saw the ram timing options I bout passed out. The tweaking options are really beyond what you'd expect from Biostar. I feel this is a diamond in disguise, and while not totally flawless or perfect in everyway. I think for an $80 board give or take, man it's got all the makings of an awesome platform base.

Combination; I feel you'd have a hard time beating this. I do feel the sempron needs the multiplier >9 to be a viable part due to current boards not liking super high HTT's. That may come in time. But for now I'd error on the side of getting the higher HTT. For certain, it's more fun for me to try to take a low end part and get higher end performance out of it. Really, that's what oc'ing is all about, or at least how it started for me; as a necessity-as I didn't have the $$$ then to get the better parts. Now I can afford higher end parts, but often have the most fun banging on the cheaper stuffs. As stated above, the ram, board, cpu, see tailor made for eachother and I really can't say enough about how well they just seem to fit.

Yes, very nice. I get my 3800 X2 today, with the Asus mainboard, and some Patriot 6400LL. I will also post results on what I can do with it. Im hoping it will work good :-)

~Mike

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Originally Posted by ozzimark

my k9n platinum is like that too. boots at 322mhz, not at 323... but i can get up to 390mhz in windows without changing a single setting :fact:

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Try setting max async latency as high as you can at the frequency where you can boot. Then see whether it gets the MHz more out of the HTT.

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Originally Posted by uOpt

Try setting max async latency as high as you can at the frequency where you can boot. Then see whether it gets the MHz more out of the HTT.

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will try and report back
I think system would be stable past 2.87ghz but posting past 287htt is not happening

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Originally Posted by Fr3ak

Have you played around with max async latency and read preamble?

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If those options are present, set them to higher values. That usually helps a lot.
Furthermore have you tried booting with a lower HTT and use clockgen on windows to see if it goes beyong 287htt?

Thanks for your effort showing all this nice super cheap h/ware that goes like expensive h/ware :clap: :toast:

Where are the sandra mem benchies ???!!! :confused:

Perkam

haven't run sandra
maybe I should :)
will dl later tonight/tomorrow
thx

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Originally Posted by JNav89GT

haven't run sandra
maybe I should :)
will dl later tonight/tomorrow
thx

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Thx :D

Perkam

Very nice for a low buget system :toast:
And this MB Biostar with a lot of options :eek: like DFI MB :)

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Originally Posted by uOpt

Try setting max async latency as high as you can at the frequency where you can boot. Then see whether it gets the MHz more out of the HTT.

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msi k9n doesn't have that option in the bios.

just cas, trcd, trp, tras, trrd, trc, command rate, bank interleave and memory hole.