AMD Sempron Processor 3100+ & ECS NFORCE3-A Motherboard for $80 at Outpost.com

[Mephistokur]

Grrr, you guys are killing me.
Almost pulled the trigger again. You can't let me do that. Do you have any idea what my CC bill was last month because of this?

 

[deadken]

Originally posted by: Zap
Indeed it is back at $79.99 plus shipping as of right now......

Jeez! Not again!!!! Must resist buying another S754 Combo.

I REALLY need to sell off my sons old CPU/Mobo/HS+Fan before buying yet another one of these combos.

Well... Maybe one more.... Just one more... Then S939.

 

[homestarmy]

So yesterday I redid a friend's computer with this board. Had it running at 240 FSB, RAM at stock speeds, ran all kinds of benchmarks, various Prime95 for hours. Then I stop Prime95, and randomly while I am transferring files, it reboots. It did this only once, but I then upped the voltage to 3.4% (from 1.5 or whatever the first is) and put the memory at more conservative timings and it seems ok. If this thing isn't stable now, I'm going to schit a brick. I am glad to not be working with this board anymore - main reason is the ethernet issues that I mentioned previously.

 

[Tal]

Would I be better off using this combo (the 3100 and nforce 3) or a Dual HT-2ghz Xeon box for MythTv Backend/Frontend? I was wondering if I'd see any benefit from the HT and the dual proc even though they are slower. I'm currently running this combo for myth and it's working fine. I've got an Nvidia 6200 for the graphics card. Any thoughts?

 

[MintBoy]

The Sempron will probably run cooler and consume a lot less power than dual Xeons.

 

[sureshot005]

Anyone know of any good FORUMS for this particular ECS board?

Also, the power led pin on the board (SW1) has only 2 pins... but my case connector has 3 pins. Anyone run into this problem?

 

[Zap]

Uh, yeah a little known forum called Anandtech...

Actually there's a forum that caters to these not-so-enthusiast boards.

OCWorkbench

The two versus three pin power LED is not a problem per say, but more of a differing in "standards" of pinouts. The solution is to reposition the pins in the wiring. A less elegant but quicker solution would be to cut the middle, missing pin out of the plug, rotate the two wires 90º (one each direction) and then they plug in easily.

 

[furballi]

Use a small screwdriver to pop out the pin.

 

[deadken]

WOOT WOOT WOOT!!!! While reading up on a few other forums, I found a thread on this same ECS Combo. Inside one of them, someone mentioned a guy who says that the Biostar NF325-A7 motherboard and the ECS nFORCE3-A motherboards are the same! So, this guy flashed the Biostar BIOS onto the ECS mobo and VIOLA! he now has HTT settings up to 300FSB!

Someone else pointed out:
"Nice find, however, the newegg says:

ECS: Realtek 8201BL PHY
Biostar: Realtek 8201 PHY"

but even he replied back later to say:
"It worked great! Only one caveat, all of my motherboard drivers needed to be autodetected again, and for some reason, it had trouble with the USB controller. Make sure you have a PS/2 keyboard or mouse available so you can let it automatically search for drivers (they should already be on your system).

No more clockgen for me!

Edit2: I used the windows based ECS bios flashing tool plus the Biostar n325a826.bf bios.
Edit3: Make sure you select the following options on the left sidepanel if you use WinFlash:

Update All, Clear CMOS, CMOS Default."

Here is the post with the links:

A couple people over at the fatwallet forums have reported that the biostar nf325-a7 motherboard is the same as this ecs nforce3-a board, and that the biostar bios will work on the ecs board. The biostar bios allows FSB selections up to 300MHz. I think I'm going to try it this afternoon. If I don't report back today that probably means it didn't work.

Fatwallet thread:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/message...hp?catid=18&threadid=561014&lastpage=1

nf325-a7 bios:
http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdownloads.asp?model=NF325-A7


update: Kickass!! It seems to have worked. I'm currently running with a 260MHz FSB and a 3x HTT multiplier. CPU speed is 2340MHz. An interesting(and quite helpful) side effect is that /proc/cpuinfo now shows the real cpu speed(with the ecs bios /proc/cpuinfo reported 1800MHz regardless of actual speed).

edit2: if anyone is interested, http://jpmkm.com/bootcd.iso here is the cd image I made with a flasher(actually a few of them) and the bios image. I know the awd862.exe flasher works. The new bios is n325a826.bf. The old ECS bios is nf3916.bin, just in case.

edit3: sorry, I forgot to post an md5sum for my image
29c17ecc85a4c1eb3042d4ecd5c9e406 bootcd.iso

I have downloaded his ISO, but I don't have the time to try it out now. Does someone else (Cough.... Cough.... Furballi.... Cough... ZAP.... Curious Mike.... Cough...) have the time to try this out? Please, if anyone tries this, post back and give a straightforward list of steps that you did, and how things went and worked out. Also, please let us know if any other options (Vcore, Vdimm, Etc...) are now available in BIOS.

THANKS in advance for anyone who can help me verify this new information. I might get to try this myself on Thursday.

-Ken

 

[Zap]

I'll leave it up to someone else who has time and a better CPU. Finals are coming up in two weeks and my Sempron will barely do over 250MHz HTT anyways (tested on Biostar Tforce).

 

[kaborka]

Deal is back, at B&M Fry's today and tomorrow, for $79.99

 

[soccerballtux]

Bought mine friday....its been delivered, but I'm waiting for my Campus post office to process it and send me an email so I can go pick it up. GRRRRRR the suspense.........

 

[furballi]

Where's the awd862.exe flasher? I see AWD826g.exe. I don't think the ECS can be flashed within the CMOS.

Will the awardflash_826g_dos.exe at the BIOSTAR website run the BIOS update utility?

 

[deadken]

Originally posted by: furballi
Where's the awd862.exe flasher? I see AWD826g.exe. I don't think the ECS can be flashed within the CMOS.

Will the awardflash_826g_dos.exe at the BIOSTAR website run the BIOS update utility?

I don't know at all. I was gonna try it out when I had the time (Thursday, I hope), but I am not %100 familiar with the different processes. I had done a few BIOS Flashes from a floppy, then through Windows, and then after my first 'Bad Flash' within Windows, I went back to Floppies. I really don't know which this method is. I figured that with the 'awd862.exe' name that it would be a floppy flash... What am I missing? Ohhh yeahhh... I remember flashing within CMOS on my Gigabyte Motherboards. Hmmm... The plot thickens...

I really hope to be able to post a 'Step-By-Step' process (or even better yet, follow someone elses) after Thursday.

If this works, it will eliminate the need for 'ClockGen'. Then I will start playing and see how far I can get while staying at +%3.1 Vcore.

 

[furballi]

1. Create a boot floppy.
http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/flashAward.html

2. Download awardflash_826g_dos.exe and N325A826.BF from BIOSTAR.
http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdownloads.asp?model=NF325-A7

3. Run and extract awardflash_826g_dos.exe. Copy AWD826g.exe and N325A826.BF to the floppy.

4. Set BIOS to boot from floppy and type A:\ awd826g.exe n325a826.bf at the prompt. Follow the instruction to backup and flash BIOS.

5. Shutdown PC after hitting F1. Disconnect power. Reset BIOS and reboot.

FSB is now adjustable up to 320MHz. Need to reload windows. Will lose SMART fan with this new BIOS.

 

[Powermoloch]

This deal is going on still?? dayum lol

 

[Zap]

furballi, how's the overclocking?

I'm going to do the drive to Fry's tomorrow - today's ad finally has the Sempron with NFORCE4-A754 board. I also need to run some errands out that way so the hour and thirty minute drive would only be about thirty minutes out of my way.

 

[soccerballtux]

YAY I just got mine. I'm at 2250 now, but am struggling to get my ram at 1T. Currently I'm priming with 3-4-4-8, custom torture test using 752MB of ram. Is this an acceptable way to test RAM? ie, when I want to bump up my RAM speed, I have to do that in windows, and they don't make Memtest to run in windows.

Strangely, I had my ram at 2.9V and it wouldn't even go to 2.5-4-4-8. One stick is rated at 3-3-3-8, the other at 2.5-4-4-8. Those are pretty lax timings, I just hope I can jump up another 16Mhz. Probably not going to happen. Perhaps if I get to 2.3ghz (210fsb), then I can say I have a what, 3300+? 3400+? What is a 2.25Ghz rated at in Athlon64 terms?

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Probably not going to happen. Perhaps if I get to 2.3ghz (210fsb), then I can say I have a what, 3300+? 3400+? What is a 2.25Ghz rated at in Athlon64 terms?

The actual nature of how AMD "rates" processors is a bit iffy because a "set" difference sometimes "rates" at a different rate. For instance:

socket 939 512k cache
1.8GHz 3000+
2.0GHz 3200+
2.2GHz 3400+ Newcastle
2.2GHz 3500+
2.4GHz 3800+
See, originally 200MHz equaled 200+MHz, but then they changed it somewhere along the Winchester line (or maybe Venice). Perhaps they felt the enhancements (improved memory controller, SSE3, whatever) gave it just enough to be the next even 100MHz higher. Don't know for sure.

socket 939
2.2GHz 512k cache 3500+
2.2GHz 1MB cache 3700+
socket 754
2.4GHz 512k cache 3400+
2.4GHz 1MB cache 3700+
Here we see doubling the cache gives socket 939 "only" 200+MHz more while in socket 754 gives a whopping 300+MHz more.

socket 754
1.6GHz 128k cache 2600+
1.6GHz 256k cache 2800+
1.8GHz 128k cache 3000+
1.8GHz 256k cache 3100+
Here, we see that as MHz goes up, benefit from cache goes... down?

Of course you can't quite compare Sempron to A64 because...
socket 754
A64 1.8GHz 512k cache 2800+
Sempron 1.8GHz 256k cache 3100+
IIRC the Sempron is rated against the Celeron while the A64 is rated against the P4.

Being that doubling the cache gets anywhere from 100+MHz to 300+MHz... let's just average it to 200+MHz. Thus Sempron @2.25GHz would roughly be an A64 at 2GHz, or a 3000+ for socket 754.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

 

[deadken]

Originally posted by: furballi......FSB is now adjustable up to 320MHz. Need to reload windows. Will lose SMART fan with this new BIOS.

Why would you need to reload Windows?!?!?

 

[furballi]

Had to redetect some drivers. I have USB mouse, so I figure it would be faster to clean install WXP Pro in about 13 minutes. Currently testing at 270MHz FSB with 166 RAM speed at 2.5-3-3-6-1T. So far, my only gripe is the lack of the SMART fan feature found in the ECS BIOS.

Had some problem overclocking the NF3 board with the Sempron 2800 over 262MHz FSB. Perhaps I will retest with this new BIOS although I don't believe there will be any improvement. The ECS NF4 754 was able to load at 289 (Prime95 and Super Pi stable). There's a bug in the BIOS that prevents PC boot above 289MHz. However, I was able to push the overclock further in Windows with Clockgen. Best stable speed for Super Pi is 301MHz.

@ Zap,

See if you can flash the BIOS of the NF4 754 using the floppy. Mine would only flash in Windows. Also check to for boot issue above 289MHz FSB and the USB 2.0 lockup. I don't have a high-speed USB HDD.

TIA

 

[deadken]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux.... Perhaps if I get to 2.3ghz (210fsb), then I can say I have a what, 3300+? 3400+? What is a 2.25Ghz rated at in Athlon64 terms?

Then it would be best to say 'I have a Sempron 3100+ @ 2.3Ghz'.

Put simply, the 3100+ Semprons that most all of us are getting with this combo are 'Paris' cores. Comparing Paris core to other cores doesn't make for a exactly even comparison. Look HERE for a basic chart with some different core + clock speeds. Unfortunately, that list only shows the one 'Paris' core. The other cores are all 90nm which most certainly have a better memory controller and most offer SSE3 which both should have mild performance improvements. If you simply wanted to go by clock speeds and Cache size, then you could easily say that yours blows away a Sempron 3400+. Quite frankly, even with whatever gains the different cores offer, I can't imagine a stock 3400+ outperforming this 3100+ @ 2,250 Mhz.

Confusing enough? That is why we never state "I have a (insert claim 'here')". It's best to call it what it is. Just know in your heart that it spanks other 'stock' Semprons and even some A64's.

@ Furballi: Thanks for the update/info/help. I am not entirely unfamiliar with flashing a BIOS with a Floppy. I just was confused by the names that were being used. I will let you know how I make out after Thursday. I can live without the Smartfan feature since my rigs run F@H 24/7/365 and so that most likely wouldn't come into play too much. I am most interested in seeing what my CPU can do. I really am confused as to why I had so many issues getting ClockGen to work. Perhaps my CPU is pretty maxed at 250FSB and this BIOS will be a total waste of time.... But, only time will tell.

BTW: Are you using the onboard LAN with the 'Biostar' BIOS? Any problems with that?

 

[furballi]

It appears to be functional with the clean install of WXP.

 

[homestarmy]

Allright! That is really awesome that you guys found out about flashing the BIOS. It had to happen sooner or later...

But I have a question. Has anyone been able to make their systems built with this board wake from sleep with USB? There is a setting in the BIOS for it, but even with it turned on, it does not work.

Or could someone try and let me know if it will work with the new BIOS? If that would fix the problem, then I am sold on these motherboards again...

 

[soflawill]

Powermoloch stated:
"This deal is going on still?? dayum lol"

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This deal may never die. not when there are folks like me who ordered a month ago and haven't had time to even install the goodies yet