A7N8X comparison data pool

[Another User]

Yo

I'll try to keep the intro to this thread as small as poss. It has come to the attention of many A7N8X owners that when trolling through the forums for info for help with setup and optimization of this board, info is not being provided that is essential for troubleshooting.

Hopefully, those that are keen to troubleshoot will provide the info requested within this thread. All other posts are of little use.

Claims of benchmark results are not acceptable, we need links to your comparisons etc. Could you also please state whether system is stable and provide any evidence you can when applicable.

Please, if you tweak your system after posting results and see performance gain, i.e add any hardware etc, please edit your original post. We don't want the thread to get too long, if we aim to keep things tidy then the benefits should be good

Here is a link to another thread that inspired this one. In particular - please see Mikee's posts. He explains quite clearly the problems encountered - rock on Mikee!

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&threadid=8175[/URL]

Here is another link to pictures of Nichicon cap and Rubycon Cap boards for those that have not identified which capacitators their board has

Nichicon
http://home.socal.rr.com/snkane/P1010339_s.jpg

Rubycon
http://home.socal.rr.com/snkane/P1010327_s.jpg


Requirements for your posts are listed below

Quick system spec summary with driver versions listed next to components

Deluxe vs. Non-Deluxe boards

Rubicon or Nichicon (supposedly better) voltage regulators on different manufacturing dates of the deluxe boards.

Various BIOS versions from original 1001-C, then 1001-E, 1001-G, 1002-Beta, 1002-Beta-Uber (custom edited to add in Northbridge chipset voltage adjustment of 1.6, 1.7, 1.8 instead of no adjustment in BIOS where it was fixed at 1.6v)

Various BIOS settings of RAM timings, voltages, devices disabled,

Type & amount of RAM

Type & amount of power supply

Type of CPU, & if L12 3rd bridge was cut &/or unlocked lower multipliers with various methods(including certain BIOS versions, conductive ink, wire in sockets/pins, using windshield defogger repair kits, etc.).

Type of Video Card

Type of HD for main OS

Types of cooling-air/water/refrigeration of CPU, Northbridge, Video Card chip, FSB, etc.

Volt modding of memory, Northbridge Chipset, CPU, &/or Video card chip.

POSTing-Able to Power On Self Test with a given FSB

Successfully loading into Windows

Being able to run WCupid or some simple Sandro2003 utilities

Being able to run a complete 3dMark2001 test

Being able to run & publish a complete 3dMark2001 score.

[Another User]

System Spec

Vapochill Premium ED
A7N8X - Bios 1002.001 - Rubycon Caps
AMD Athlon XP 2600+
2 x 512bm Corsair XMS pc3200 (dual channel)
Gainward GF4 Ti 4600 (detonator 40.72 - 320x690)
Maxtor 80gb 7200 HDD
Win Xp Pro SP1 and all updates - direct x 9
Enermax 550w

A7N8x = deluxe revision 1.04 driver 1002.001 - rubycon caps - Crystal Orb on Northbridge

Bios = FSB-200
Multi - 11.5
Memory @ 100%
Timings - 6,3,3,2T
Fast Write Disabled
Aperture - 128mb
Vcore - 1.800V (dunno if this works though, just set it in bios)

Type and amount of ram listed above - dual channel. Active Memory cooling kit attached

Enermax 550w PSU

CPU no mods. AMD Athlon XP 2600+. As is came in box. Bios 1002 has unlocked

Gainward GF4 Ti 4600 . Crystal orb connected

Single Maxtor HDD - 80gb - listed above

All nicely tucked away within Vapochill with 2 x 120mm fans, 1 inlet 1 outlet. Note the crystal orbs and active memory cooling kit mentioned above.

No volt modding done, although adjusting vcore to 1.800v in bios gave great system stability, so must be doin somethin

Able to power on self test at above settings and boot into windows and breeze through anything I throw at it at the moment. Not crashed or got the hiccups once!

Able to run all benchmark progs I have no problem. Can leave running continuously and has no problems, not even raising a sweat yet. Results are below

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=4623050 - mine is the 15163

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcm=1027077

Bollox - can't get my Sisoft results images within this thread, so I'm gonna have to write em. Sorry about that

CPU Arith -
Dhrystone - 6332
Whetstone - 3174

CPU Multi med
Integar - 12442
Floating Point - 14639

Mem Bandwidth
Ram int Buff - 3070
Ram float - 2907

I'll edit my post as and when. There is loadsa stuff I've probably missed so I'll edit as I find

Cheers

[CoolLight]

Nice post, here is mine. Can't OC higher, don't know which one is the bottleneck, CPU, MB, or Mem?

Reuse your format.

A7N8X - Bios 1002.001 - Rubycon Caps
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
3 x 256mb Samsung pc2100 (dual channel?triple )
ATI Radeon 9700Pro ver 3.0 (Cat 3.0 & DX9 - 365/330)
Maxtor 80gb 7200 HDD 8MB Cache
Win Xp Pro SP1 and all updates
Antec TruePower 430W

A7N8x = deluxe revision 1.04 driver 1002.001 - rubycon caps - Stock passive HS with AS3 on Northbridge (will add a crystal orb later)

Bios = FSB-194
Multi - 11.5
Memory @ 100%
Timings - 5,2,2,2.5T
Fast Write Enabled
Aperture - 64mb
Vcore - 1.850V (dunno if this works though, just set it in bios)

Type and amount of ram listed above - dual channel. Passive Memory cooling HS attached

Antec TruePower 430W

CPU unlock by copperwire. AMD Athlon XP 2400+.

ATI Radeon 9700Pro ver 3.0. Shim removed, AS3, stock ATI HSF

Three HDD - Maxtor 80gb 8MB, WD 200gb 8MB, WD 80GB 2mb

CPU cooling with Alpha Pal 8045/ Delta 400RPM fan
LianLi PC67USB with 3 Antec 2700RPM case fan

3Dmarks2001SE 16500
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5648663

CPU Arith -
Dhrystone - 8320
Whetstone - 3378

CPU Multi med
Integar - 12331
Floating Point - 13158

Mem Bandwidth
Ram int Buff - 2940
Ram float - 2755

[gimmpy]

a7n8x deluxe
sk800 cooled
xp2600/333 bridge is cut
2x256mb corsair xms 3500
leadtek ti4600 350/780
2x ibm 40 gig in raid 0
promise tx200 raid card
ttgi 550w psu
xp pro no sp installed
volt mod to mem and core voltage
run 3v on mem and 1.95v on cpu
artic silver and orb on northbridge
i have the ruby caps!
ran 1001c up to 207x12 with benches
ran 1001 uber up to 210x12 with benches
i run mem @ 100% 5/2/2/2t
sisoft scores
mem 3190/3043 @207x12
cpu multi 13683/14622 @207x12
cpu arith 9114/3717 @207x12
3d mark @207 http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5560299
3d mark @210 http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5650825
will run @ 207x12 all day every day
@ 210x12 i will get some errors at time
will post and boot into windows at 215x12 but not stable at all

i will post back with sisoft scores @210

any questions please reply!

[gimmpy]

sisoft @210 as follows
mem 3234/3085
cpu multi 13872/14820
cpu arith 9360/3768

ps.. i run my agp with fast writes enabled and agp @ auto

[Pjotr]

1)
A7N8X Deluxe rev 1.04, BIOS 1001.E
Tbred-A 1800+ factory unlocked
TaiSol copper based cooler
2x256 MB TwinMOS PC3200 TwinMOS/MHC chips
Seagate Barracuda IV 40 GB
Leadtek Ti4200 VIVO
Enermax 365 350 W PSU
RAM CAS2-2-2-6

System ran stable, even up to 180 MHz FSB, for 12 hours when a Save and Exit in BIOS killed the board. Clearing CMOS failed, even when all parts removed, battery removed, 8 hours on clearing pin. RMA.

----
2)
A7N8X Deluxe rev 1.04, BIOS 1001.G, Nichicon
Tbred-A 1800+ factory unlocked
Vulcano 9+
2x256 MB TwinMOS PC3200 TwinMOS/MHC chips
Seagate Barracuda IV 40 GB
Leadtek Ti4200 VIVO
Enermax 365 350 W PSU
RAM CAS2-2-2-6

System BIOS very bad. Changes seldom take, multiplier don't work. FSB always run 100 MHz, even if RAM can do 100 to 200 MHz.

Flashing fails most of the time with write failures. First BIOS successfully written was 1002.004 which let me boot *once* into 133 MHz FSB, after than dies often on BIOS changes, forcing clearing CMOS. Always 100 MHz FSB again.

After flashing 1002.003 booted 133 MHz FSB several times, I then increased FSB to 140, 144 and 147 MHz fine. I notice multiplier won't work! Again, board died forcing clearing CMOS, I decided to boot in 133 again, which the POST screen says it is, but when in Windows WCPUID and MBM5 now reports FSB 147 MHz, so even after clearing CMOS and BIOS showing 133 MHz, it's running 147 MHz, so I never turned it off since. I am waiting for replacement BIOS chip now. RMA already approved otherwise.