had to pass this on, but I grabbed one of Asus's P5RD2-VM boards the minute it hit newegg, wanting a Radeon Xpress board that actually had SATA 300mbs support.
I coupled the motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 630,
Gskill F2-5400PHU2-1GBLA, 667mhz DDR2 4-4-4-12
Thermltake TR2-500
Zalman CNPS7700-ALCU 120mm Heatsink
The result?
With a memory time set at 3.5-5-4-15
http://www.fcs-inc.biz/saist/trg/ati.png
a stable 3450mhz operating speed. Stable as in I can loop FFXI 2 and 3 benchmarks for 8 hours each. Stable as in I can look 3dmark 05 for 10 times without a problem.
Now, I'm not much of an overclocker, but I can't help but jaw drop at a budget board... price of $72... overclocking anything. Much less a stable overclock.
okay, 2 other notes, and this is actually why I'm putting this post here of all places.
first is that when I drop the memory times or increase the bus rate any further, the CD-Rom disconnects and I get a nasty little warning in windows that a device has been unsafely removed. Any ideas on why this would occur? Known issue?
the second is that I'm pretty sure I can get the board to overclock a little more if I can get a better heatsink and/or fan, on the Radeon Xpress chipset itself. However, the heatsink that is on there happens to be mounted by clips mounted to the motherboard, rather than by clicks bored through the motherboard. Any suggestions on fans or heatsinks that could use the clip retention?
(if need be, I can snap a photo to make that clearer).
P5RD2-VM Overclock
