For Mr Icee and the others requesting some Sandra SS. First, my Mainboard Information screen.
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For Mr Icee and the others requesting some Sandra SS. First, my Mainboard Information screen.
And the System Summary screen - both with Sandra 2002, if that's important, haven't yet installed 2003.
I want to state that I really like the potential of this board. AGP doesn't start tearing until a higher FSB than any of my previous boards, a memory efficiency that was only equaled by my kr7a (on my first board lol), volts, 8x Vlink, etc. etc.
Just want more bandwidth :) Again, I'll give it a week of some gentle burnin and let you all know if the bandwidth improves.
You see my friend...your FSB and memory are in sync at 208Mhz:)
Lesson # 1: Don't believe the DDR333 on the post screen;)
The bottomline on bandwidth is to get all your memory timngs maxed out...then maybe a WPCrset tweak such as 6A=FF and you' be in business:)
Randi:D
Sorry - bzzt! - I lose. 6A=FF has been set all along. Kinda forgot about it, this is the same HD and install I was using on my original board.
And, on re-reading my post I *did* give the impression that my concern was the DDR reading on POST. It's the initial bandwidth that bothers me. My previous board topped 3k Sandra/200 FSB out of the box, so getting in the 2700 range with this one made me believe I was running async.
Hopefully I can make up the missing 10% bandwidth efficiency through some motherboard burnin.
Again, thanks for your attention Mr Icee!
Warmest regards :)
BTW, for KD7-E boards (perhaps for KD7's as well), setting the appropriate two registers at offset 60 from 00 to 10 will force Sandra to properly report DDR and to calculate DDR efficiencies. No performance gain, just that 00=SDRAM and 10=DDR.
So, if you've populated Banks 0/1 (the first DIMM slot), changing bit one of offset 60 will tell Sandra that you have DDR and not SDRAM.
Now that we have the sync vs async issue resolved I have another question about this mobo that I have yet to encounter with others.
Twice, within the past couple of weeks, my system goes into what I would call an "infinite loop mode".
Not benching or trying to run xtreme speeds, just my "normal" OC and settings. However, during a power up or restart, it boots into the "Choose Safe Mode or Start Windows Normally" screen.
Of course, I choose Start Windows Normally and it reboots and goes back to the same screen over and over. Then I'll try the different Safe options and same occurrence. It'll reboot and return to the same screen.
At this point the only cure has been to reinstall WinXP and my applications from scratch.
Thoughts? Bad memory? Mobo getting too hot? Anything I could check?
Sounds like HD corruption killing your OS.
This can be from too high of a FSB for the HDs you have. Ot too high of a FSB in general for the IDE to handle (but that is usually a bit above 200 at least).
Other times I've seen HD corruption occur when the memory is at the edge of stability...sometimes more DDR voltage can help.
Thanks Mike. At 190 I doubt it's affecting this WD 120mb 8mb HD so I think it's my memory. I'm convinced, although it runs at advertised speeds, it's right on the edge. I'll make sure I keep the volts up.
I need some help, it seems like I am not getting the bandwidth with this board that I was with the 8k3a+. Any advice on BIOS settings would be appreciated. I know Sandra is not reliable, but it can at least be used as a comparison and I am only getting about 2450 compared to the 2550 I was getting at 166MHz.
Sorry, had to mention how funny that was for me to see ;)Quote:
Originally posted by SPQQKY
I need some help, it seems like I am not getting the bandwidth with this board that I was with the 8k3a+.
What memory timings are you using?Quote:
Originally posted by SPQQKY
I need some help, it seems like I am not getting the bandwidth with this board that I was with the 8k3a+. Any advice on BIOS settings would be appreciated. I know Sandra is not reliable, but it can at least be used as a comparison and I am only getting about 2450 compared to the 2550 I was getting at 166MHz.
i feel like my KX7 is better :(
Cas 2Quote:
What memory timings are you using?
bank interleave 4
trp 2
tras 6
trcd 2
burst 4
queue 4
dqs drive strength high
auto
auto
auto
auto
dram access 2T
enhance enabled
command rate 1T
With these settings, I should get at least as high or higher bandwidth than my 8k3a+ with 2815 BIOS. The 8k3a+ was a great board, I know you Abit fanatics scoff at EPoX.
SPQQKY:
Well, you obviously have all the timings in the BIOS cranked all the way up, so I'm not sure what to make of it. Going back through my notes, I have the KX7, KD7 and KD7-E all bunched in a tight group when it comes to sandra mem benches. :confused:
The thing is, at this setting on the kd7-e, my cpu is running at 2.24GHz (166x13.5) and on the 8k3a+ is was only 2GHz (166x12 - the highest multi I could get with the unlock trick) and seeing as how Sandra kinda boosts things up the higher your cpu MHz is, it should be a little higher IMHO.
I think the true test will come when I get the time to install win2k and not run the tests on this winXP install. I did a clear memory and got 2491/2398 while F@H was running. Looks like I am going to have all day Monday to push this setup and do some serious benching. Gonna head out to the garage with it, it's only going to be -14c in the morning. :D
SPQQKY,
Let us know how you make out. Couple things...I have a KD7 here that I can't get to run 3D over 195FSB, & it doesn't appear to be any faster than the 8K3A to me @ that speed. So, I ordered better chipset cooling for it in hopes that it would help & while I'm waiting for shipment I stuck the 2400+ back in the 8K3A w/ the wire trick that you mentioned in another thread. Well, I max'd out @ 198FSB on the 2815, just can't get 3D stable any higher on that BIOS, so I thought I'd try the 2B01...the latest to my knowledge. Well, its scoring just as the 2815 did for me in 3D, yet I'm burning in right now @ 207FSB. Seems like a great BIOS so far and now this has made my hopes for the KD7 even lesser. If that KD7 won't run in excess of 200FSB for me I'm afraid I'll be going back to the 8K3A yet again. Not a good impression for me for my first Abit board, I'm sorry :(
Wanted to let you know that you have 12.5 available in that 8K3A, not just 12 :)
Set mult to 13 & the 8K3A gives you 12.5 :D
This is my kd7-e at 166. Same as my kx7. I love this board.This is on normal cpu decode.
well ive got mine today its my first abit and i must say im a bit dissapointed.. but not because of the oc options..its cause the board wont accept my soundcard..strange prob.. well i return it at monday and take another one :D
Bummer...have you tried reducing the overclock on the 9700 a little? What I did was remove the OC on the card altogether and find max stable FSB speed under 3DMark2001. Then I began applying the OC to the card....which does effect how high you can go with the FSB. Finding the best balance of card OC and FSB is the key. For 3DMark, having the core up more always seems better, but for the best balance acrossed all benches, lower the card OC just a tad for a few more mhz FSB wise is better.Quote:
Originally posted by bigdawginva
Latest benching with my KD7-E. Verified that 200 is a no go with my 9700.
The card wasn't even overclocked when I tried. Went into bios, set the fsb to 200, and the screen was full of different colored gibberish and distortion during the post sequence.
Well, I had some time yesterday to put the board to the test. I set up my system in the garage. First, the setup:
TBred 2400+ with Vantec AeroFlow HSF
Abit KD7-E (silver caps) with Vantec copper iceberg on NB
256 MB Corsair XMS pc3200 C2
Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro
Antec sx-1030 server case w/Antec 430w TruePower
I loaded win2k w/ sp2 and then the Hyperion 4in1 4.45s and dx8.1 and the Cat 2.5s. The ambient temp in the garage was -2c and my cpu maxed out at 36c. I was able to get it stable finally at 2416MHz with a fsb of 201MHz. I had to hit the reset button a couple of times after 198MHz fsb to get it to boot. I was able to run PCMark and SuperPi and those speeds, but 3DMark became corrupted at anything above 190MHz and I don't believe it was the board but probably a bad copy of 3DMark because I would reinstall it and it just wouldn't run car chase low but ran other tests. I didn't have the time to find another copy on disk and try. I tried to boot at 2429MHz (202x13) but I got corrupted files and when I tried to reboot to fix them, the system would not boot at all. I simply ran out of time to do anymore. All in all I am pretty happy with the board and I'm sure with more time, I could get more out of it.
PCMark2002 I'm really happy with this. As you can see from my HDD score, I had UDMA disabled and set to PIO mode 4 so I know that was not my problem with corruption at high fsb.
Very nice SPQQKY!
I recently bought the KD7-E and slapped it in my prommie. Taking a look at your PCMark I noticed your MHZ wasn't being read properly. Mine is the same way, is that "misreading" a problem with the board or PCMark?
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcm=1009680
It's a problem with PCMark, it did the same with my 8K3A+. It's strange, when I save the project before I submit it, it shows it correctly, but once it's submitted, it doesn't show it the way it should be.