AMD wins back performance crown

Wormwood wrote:
I just ordered an Abit NF7-S ver. 2.0 & a retail XP2500+ Barton from
newegg, and I was wondering what my chances of success in using my
pair of existing PC2100 256MB sticks of (1 PNY-brand, 1 Crucial
Technologies) at the processor's default FSB 333MHz & XP2500+ clock
speeds?

Your chances are zilch unless the sticks are identical. either one will
boot default{auto} to fsb/dram of 5/4 and run the cpu/dram at correct
settings. you can verify this with cpu-z.


I'll eventually get some decent PC3200 or higher DDR RAM and
push the chip & FSB to at least XP3200 speeds but for now I'd just
like to get my new upgrade up & running stable. Would relaxed memory
timings in the BIOS do the trick? Perhaps just using the single
Micron stick? I also will soon be purchasing a Sapphire 9800Pro
video card. Any known issues with this board, cpu & video card combo?
Any input would be welcome.

I'm runnin a sapphire 9500non-pro with no problems - good luck.

--
Mark H --- Frag on !
NF7-S v2.0 Win2k-sp4
WinXp-sp1a

I currently have one stick of 128MB Micron PC2100 and one 256MB Micron
PC2100 (MT chips)clocked at 170Mhz 1:1 ratio with the CPU (1700+ A core 680
mulpi 11x AIUGA0247WDLW 1.85v 9251318_27_0645). The system is stable on
prime95. If I up the clock speed any higher than 170Mhz the system becomes
unstable on prime95 but will boot and run fine with windows. The memory
voltage is 2.7 and the timing is Tras = 11, Trcd = 4, Trp = 3, Cas = 3.0.
The memory has a spd of 7, 3, 3, 2.5 at 133Mhz with the a voltage of 2.5v.
The memory will also work at 8, 4, 4, 3.0 at 170Mhz. Use prime95 for memory
stability tests. Check the actual chip set on each stick of memory. If
they use different chips and have a different spd settings it may not be
possible to overclock the memory. If they are different, you will just have
to try it both ways (two sticks vs one) and see if the memory will stabilize
at the lower clock speeds and timings. Don't forget to up the voltage on
the memory before you try to overclock and try not to go any higher than .2v
over the specified voltage for the memory (I would consider the max memory
voltage at 2.8v). I hope this helps, good luck.

I purchased a EGA Geforce 5900 SE ($181.00 at newegg.com) because most of
the games I play are coded for the Nvidia chip set and I do not have to
worry about driver problems with the Nvidia cards. Search google for and
compatibility issues for the games you plan to play on the ATI card with the
current driver releases from ATI. Some games will have issues with Nvidia
and some with the ATI chip sets and drivers.

"Wormwood" wrote in message
...
I just ordered an Abit NF7-S ver. 2.0 & a retail XP2500+ Barton from
newegg, and I was wondering what my chances of success in using my
pair of existing PC2100 256MB sticks of (1 PNY-brand, 1 Crucial
Technologies) at the processor's default FSB 333MHz & XP2500+ clock
speeds? I'll eventually get some decent PC3200 or higher DDR RAM and
push the chip & FSB to at least XP3200 speeds but for now I'd just
like to get my new upgrade up & running stable. Would relaxed memory
timings in the BIOS do the trick? Perhaps just using the single
Micron stick? I also will soon be purchasing a Sapphire 9800Pro
video card. Any known issues with this board, cpu & video card combo?
Any input would be welcome.

-worm

Thanks, everyone, for the valuble info. :-)

-worm

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 17:21:17 -0500, Wormwood
wrote:

Thanks, everyone, for the valuble info. :-)

-worm

Update: I got the NF7-S ver. 2 w/ the 2500+ and am presently running
it with the FSB at 330MHz and the PC2100 at 266MHz (Turbo setting in
BIOS) and the SSandra 2004 CPU benchmark scores are disconcertingly
low, about 600-900 points lower than the reference 2400+, FPU rates
significently lower too. The Memory Bandwidth scores are, of course,
the same as my old KT266A since I'm using PC2100, so no surprise
there. But the Sandra scores worry me. Could it be that the BIOS
needs to be optimized, or is it the underclocked RAM (actually,
clocked at the PC2100's rated speed) that's the culprit? Is there a
better CPU benchmark that lets me compare the results to others? One
more thing. With both the CD drivers, and Nvidia's latest chipset
drivers, the Soundstorm audio when playing MP3s frequently but briefly
fades or cuts out whenever I do certain harmless things, like
right-click on a web page GIF or graphic, or bring up the Recycle bin.
Very annoying so I went back to my old Soundblaster Live, no problems
there. I'd still like to use the Soundstorm so what's up? Is a new
BIOS flash in order? Thanks for any help.

-worm

"Wormwood" wrote
Update: I got the NF7-S ver. 2 w/ the 2500+ and am presently running
it with the FSB at 330MHz and the PC2100 at 266MHz (Turbo setting in
BIOS) and the SSandra 2004 CPU benchmark scores are disconcertingly
low, about 600-900 points lower than the reference 2400+, FPU rates
significently lower too.


Hi,
Running the NF7-S using PC2100 is like giving Conan a couple of rice cakes
for dinner :P
--
Wayne ][
new specs coming soon!

On Sat, 7 Feb 2004 00:01:44 +0000 (UTC), "Wayne Youngman"
wrote:


"Wormwood" wrote
Update: I got the NF7-S ver. 2 w/ the 2500+ and am presently running
it with the FSB at 330MHz and the PC2100 at 266MHz (Turbo setting in
BIOS) and the SSandra 2004 CPU benchmark scores are disconcertingly
low, about 600-900 points lower than the reference 2400+, FPU rates
significently lower too.


Hi,
Running the NF7-S using PC2100 is like giving Conan a couple of rice cakes
for dinner :P

LOL! Well, until I get the PC3200 I thought I'd carry over my
existing PC2100. In the meantime, I went into the BIOS about an hour
ago and bumped up just the FSB to 200 MHz (RAM is still at 133 MHz
though) to see what would happen. Now the sucker benches faster than
a 3200+ according to SSandra 2004 with the CPU test! Woo hoo! Wonder
how long it will stay stable though. CPU temp is at a steady 45c with
the stock AMD retail heatsink/fan, until I run Prime95, which causes
it to shoot up to 49c. Thanks for the laugh.

-worm