8RDA+ AND 400 FSB?

[Bam]

I bought the 8RDA+ in December and I am running PC2100. Will the board support the new 400 FSB in PC3200 when the AMD chips come down to earth in price? I can't find anything on the EPOX or NIVIDIA site.

The world has been upside down before, magnetically that is.

 

[Jii]

Originally posted by: Bam
I bought the 8RDA+ in December and I am running PC2100. Will the board support the new 400 FSB in PC3200 when the AMD chips come down to earth in price? I can't find anything on the EPOX or NIVIDIA site.

As far as the 8RDA+ is concerned - yes it does. For starters, flash your BIOS to get more FSB frequencies.
The 400FSB is actually 200FSB multiplied by two.

However, for reasons unknown EPoX has forgotten that both the North and South Bridges become hot under those circumstances (they get pretty warm at 166FSB already). They have included a passive heatsink solution on the NB and no heatsink at all for the SB (EPoX 8RGA(+) has a passive heatsink installed on their newer motherboards) so if you have the skill and the will to make a quick mod, replace the passive heatsink on the NB to an active one and try finding a smaller, passive heatsink on the SB. That should do the trick. 🙂

And hey, welcome to the Official EPoX 8RDA+ thread for more information and help.

 

[LuDaCriS66]

Tough to say since you bought it in December.. Download WCPUID and check the chipset info. If it says Revision C1, then your 8RDA+ can officially support 400FSB. If it's an older chipset, it's hit and miss.

 

[Zarick]

how come epox doesnt acknowledge that the 8RDA+ will support a 400fsb?
in fact they are even releasing a new board the 8rda3+ that officially does support a 400fsb

 

[Jii]

Originally posted by: Zarick
how come epox doesnt acknowledge that the 8RDA+ will support a 400fsb?
in fact they are even releasing a new board the 8rda3+ that officially does support a 400fsb

Good question. They do have support for it through BIOS updates, but the cooling technology in the board itself is insufficient for that. It is also a motherboard revision issue.

 

[Zarick]

How is the cooling technology insufficient. Even the a7n8x deluxe is using passive and it claims to hit 400 just fine.

 

[Jii]

Originally posted by: Zarick
How is the cooling technology insufficient. Even the a7n8x deluxe is using passive and it claims to hit 400 just fine.

The problem is that the 8RDA+'s North Bridge's passive heatsink's surface area is far too small for an effective cooling. It looks more like it's put there just for the looks and nothing more. Looking at the A7N8X, I can see that the passive heatsink on this North Bridge is very well designed. The surface area covers the whole chip, whereas the heatsink on the 8RDA+ does not. With the "show-off" heatsink, the North Bridge gets extremely hot at 166FSB. That's why I'm complaining. Changing the 'sink may kill your warranty, but stability has always been my goal.

They claim that 8RDA3+ hits 400 without problems, too.

If your board hits 400 FSB without problems, good for you. I'm using such an old CPU that it doesn't utilize 400 FSB so I'm not having problems - yet. 😉

 

[screw3d]

I really doubt that an 8RDA+ bought in the December would run 200MHz without any kind of mod.

 

[J1600B]

Just update the BIOS and if it is the revision that supports it, you will see "Ultra 400 Support" or something like that at boot. Mine does, but I bought it in April.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

its not necessarily a cooling issue with the 8rda+.

I've seen c1 stepping 8rda+'s (they're looking like the serial numbers say they were made toward the end of march 03) make 200+ fsb with the stock heatsink. yes, hte contact area sucks, but wtih a c1 revision nforce 2 spp, tehy are hitting 200+ with that heatsink just fine.


Mike

 

[Jii]

Originally posted by: Mikewarrior2
its not necessarily a cooling issue with the 8rda+.

I've seen c1 stepping 8rda+'s (they're looking like the serial numbers say they were made toward the end of march 03) make 200+ fsb with the stock heatsink. yes, hte contact area sucks, but wtih a c1 revision nforce 2 spp, tehy are hitting 200+ with that heatsink just fine.


Mike

So, the newer revisions of the board have things fixed afterall. That's good - no, terrific news for me!! I'm planning on getting one of those 8RDA+'s shortly. Intergration is great thing (until someting breaks up 😉). For me, this motherboard is just what I need to dump all extra cards out of my system, plus it has DC-DDR capability. My older EPoX motherboard is lagging behind. My SDRAM-memory is constantly putting breaks on my XP2000+ and GeForce3. Really annoying. :frown:

Since the C1 is apparently stable, I bet it's going to be rock-solid on stock speeds (that's my preference).