8rda+ and 200 bus @_@

[Peter D]

Hello all!

well my twinmos pc3200 is coming in soon and im starting to have concerns.. im worried if my motherboard will be able to run it at full 200 bus or not. im not so worried about my cpu or ram but the board is only rev 1.1 and the northbridge is A2 and some of the people i have talked to say that the a2's dont give enough voltage to run a 200 fsb on the ram. is that true? is my 1.1 not powerful enough? =\

tell me what you think!

-Peter

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I think you should have bought a board that gives vdd adjustment via the bios

 

[MrEgo]

I bought my 8RDA+ back in January and its been running at 200 MHz no problem since. (2100 tbred-b)

 

[Peter D]

Originally posted by: MrEgo
I bought my 8RDA+ back in January and its been running at 200 MHz no problem since. (2100 tbred-b)

is it rev 1.1 with an a2 northbridge? cuz if it is, maybe theres some hope for mine ^___^

 

[Ray5150Ray]

I believe mine is the 1.1 with the a2 NB. Actually, I'm sure because I put a crystal orb on it and a vantec fan on the southbridge. I'm currently running a 1700+ at 2400 (12*200) with no problems here. I just got it, so I'm letting it run Prime for a day, then I'll up the FSB! Of course YMMV.

 

[Peter D]

any more insights?

 

[drewdogg808]

i had an a2 stepping board a few months ago....would do up to 194 fsb stable. above that, started getting screen flickers...instabilites. for 200fsb with the earliers nb, it was hit or miss with default vdd. good luck...i hope you got a good one.

 

[MichaelD]

I bought my 8RDA+ in Feb 03. It is a V 1.1.

I have no idea what stepping the NB is b/c back then, nobody cared b/c it was the only one out!!! I DID remove the NB, clean of the wimpy thermal pad and slather on some AS3 on it. The HS now gets much warmer than it did before...a very good sign.

I have been running at 200MHz FSB 24/7 for months now. No probs at all.

Memory and the PS has everything to do with it.

Running single channel, Corsair XMS3200C2. 2 x512 modules at 2.63v. CAS 2.5, 6-3-3. I tried dual channel and either the memory or the chipset doesn't like dual channel @ 200MHz at any timings.

However, the performance I get at 200MHz FSB far outweighs any dual channel gains, IMHO.

 

[pspada]

Does anyone know if there actually is a revision of the 8RDA+ above v1.1?

 

[Blooz1]

No. There's a different board, the 8RDA3+.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: pspada
Does anyone know if there actually is a revision of the 8RDA+ above v1.1?

The newest Epox 8RDA+ 1.1 boards are coming with the nForce2 Ultra 400 chips on them. It is impossible to know if you have one of these boards though unless you actually pull off the NB heatsink (or you install it and boot it up with the the 3507 BIOS which will announce the nForce2 Ultra 400 chip on POST).

 

[Zarick]

To me its really cheesy that most mobo manufacturers are just re-releasing their same boards with the ultra 400 chipset whilst epox is releasing a new more expensive board.

 

[Megatomic]

Epox is doing both Zarick.

 

[pspada]

So wait - the current v1.1 of the 8RDA+ has the ultra 400 chipset already, right? Anotherwords, if I were to buy one from Newegg, it'd be with the newer chipset?

 

[Megatomic]

NewEgg does a lot of volume so it is entirely likely that they have sold all their older products and are only stocked with the newer boards. I'd feel pretty safe about getting one of the new ones if I was buying one today.

 

[Zarick]

Asus has updated their rating to say that their boards take 400mhz.
However, if you go to the epox site.. their board doesnt support 400mhz.. you have to buy their new board to get that.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: Zarick
Asus has updated their rating to say that their boards take 400mhz.
However, if you go to the epox site.. their board doesnt support 400mhz.. you have to buy their new board to get that.

That's all marketing Zarick. They WANT you to buy a more expensive board to run your 400MHz FSB Barton, but the newer cheaper 8RDA+ has the same SPP on it that the 8RDA3+ does. You can very reliably run the 400MHz FSB Barton on one without having to do any hardware hacking.

 

[Zarick]

Marketing = No Tech support.

So if you buy the 8RDA+ with the idea that you will use it with the new 400mhz athlons and it doesn't work.. your sol.

Where as if it doesn't work with the asus board.. they will get you a new one.

 

[pspada]

Nope, the manual you can download from the Epox website even states that it has the newer chipset. Whereas the spec page still shows the original chipset. Assuming I do get the newer version (or I'll damn well rma it!), I'm not worried that it won't support the newer Bartons and the 200/400 fsb speed.

Besides, I don't call tech support, I AM tech support.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: pspada
Besides, I don't call tech support, I AM tech support.

LOL!!! Isn't that the truth.

 

[Blooz1]

I bought my 8RDA+ about a month and a half ago, and it had the A1 NB. I'm sure if you bought one from almost any high-volume dealer that it would have the newer chipset!

BTW, there IS a way to check without taking off the stock NB cooler...if you look down through the fins, and only see black, it's the A1 chip. The A2 and A3 chips had the silver inset in the center.

 

[jasonStouffer]

I got the first batch of the Ultra400 8RDA+ boards... and let me tell yah.. an NF7 may out perform the other chipsets, but not this one.. it is beastily.. i put a iceberq on the nb, and stock nb cooler on the sb.

i would try to get a 8rda+ w/ c1 stepping

 

[gplracer]

I have the newer stepping of the 8RDA+ and my 1700+ is doing 215x11=2365mhz @1.7v. The two older 8RDA+ boards I had would only do 180-185fsb synch.

 

[Crucial]

It's really hit or miss with the older steppings. Mine would only run 185 with the stock cooling. I put the zalman cooler on the NB and SB and it would boot at 200 but 3d apps would crash. Did the vdd mod and it is now stable at 200.

 

[pspada]

Originally posted by: jasonStouffer
I got the first batch of the Ultra400 8RDA+ boards... and let me tell yah.. an NF7 may out perform the other chipsets, but not this one.. it is beastily.. i put a iceberq on the nb, and stock nb cooler on the sb.

i would try to get a 8rda+ w/ c1 stepping

Where'd ya get it from?