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

[CuriousMike]

What program are you using to monitor the CPU temperature ?

 

[Salvador]

Can someone please tell me if this would be an upgrade to an Asus A7N8X Deluxe and XP 3000+ Barton? If it's not an upgrade, how would the two systems compare with the same ram, hdd, etc..?

 

[themorningbells]

Ordered. I'll try benchmarking some games with my current setup (Athlon XP @ 2.2ghz) to compare just how much faster this setup is.

 

[furballi]

Everest Home for temperature.

You should be able to hit 2.3GHz with 1.54Vcore (+3.4% setting). This rig at 2.25GHz is equivalent to a stock A64 3200 Venice.

Here's a good rule of thumb...the Sempron on 754 platform is about 150MHz slower (core speed) than it's cousing A64 939.

 

[Thump553]

Has anyone been running these boards for a while, and if so, how is their reliability? The reason I ask is about 2-3 years ago the ECS K7S5A was all the rage for building a cheap but good performance system. A lot of people complained about it at the time-with motherboards arriving DOA or partially DOA. I was a stout defender of them at the time and built about 4-5 systems. However, within 2 years all of systems ultimately had motherboard failure in whole or in part.

I know this is a completely different motherboard, but I'm wondering how much ECS has improved.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Salvador
Can someone please tell me if this would be an upgrade to an Asus A7N8X Deluxe and XP 3000+ Barton?

My belief is that it would be a measurable upgrade, but probably nothing you'd notice without running benchmarks. However, you may be able to sell your old board and CPU for as much as or if lucky, more than what the replacement costs. Such is the wonder of eBay.

 

[freshspace]

I have worked with Furballi's suggestions and I am indeed at 250, 2.25gig. I have a question, though.

As the "chart" in one of the articles about this chip says, if you go to 250 at 166 memory speed, you are actually getting only 209 speed at 200 memory speed. I am currently running my gig at 215 or 430DDR speed (with 200, 1T spped), but the over all gigahertz is only 1932 MHZ, instead of 2250 with 166 memory speed. In other words, I am getting what should be more, but indicated for less. I'm not sure if everyone will understand what I'm trying to say.

Here's the final question: Which is faster/better? While I'm squeezing more from the memory, the total Gigahertz is less. You computer gurus out there, please speak out loud. (Yeah, I'm talking to you Zap, Furballi and all the other guys out there who made this thread quite informative)

 

[Zap]

Those K7S5A boards were made during the time that the crappy capacitors were being used.

As for this board, there has been a few reported DOA, but not in the numbers that I recall the K7S5A had. Besides immediate DOA there were some that died after short periods of time - mine included. This ECS board seems to be better initially than the K7S5A, but only time will tell if it lives longer than a year or two. I do know that the BIOS has improved much since BITD and these boards are now actually quite overclockable without resorting to hacked BIOSes and such.

 

[freshspace]

Okay, now I am getting 220 with 200, 1T speed. I have a 2x512 Kingmax set. I bumped the Memory dimm to 2.7v. I have the CPU Vcore as default. Everest has my chip as Newcastle?! Is this because of the OC?

 

[CuriousMike]

Using clockgen, I get about 2280 before my system hard locks.

Might this be related to my Kingston Valueram ?

Forcing the RAM to 133, when I boot, 2.25ghz = 160mhz the ram runs out, but the system is unstable.

 

[furballi]

They are very stable. However, I've only had them for about 3 months.

What was the failure mode of those K7S5As?

 

[furballi]

With 200 speed or 1:1 divider, 215 x 9 is 1935 for the CPU core speed. The RAM speed speed should be the same as the FSB speed of 215.

I'd go with 5:6 memory divider, increase Vcore to +1.7 or 3.4%, then gradually increase the FSB from 240MHz to 280MHz. Go in 5MHz step. Test with Super Pi 1M digits. If it fails Super Pi, then back-off 5MHz FSB.

2.28 is about right at stock voltage. Increase Vcore to +3.4% and retest. You may need to use 133 speed since Kingston RAMs are not 100% compatible with this board (only 2T with two modules).

 

[daid]

I know this has been answered already, but I must have missed it. How do you tell if it is a Paris or a Palermo? Also, how do you tell if it is 64-bit or 32-bit?

 

[furballi]

Download and run CPUz.

 

[freshspace]

Hey guys,

My system just locked up after posting. I gives me the posting, says that my chip is the Sempron 3100, but then, nothing else, no HDs or optical drives listed. I tried to push delete button, but obviously, since it is "stuck" after posting, nothing works. I tried clearing the bios, I also tried switching the memory sticks around (I don't know why, but wanted to do something), but nothing happens. Help!!!

Hey Furballi, I have Kingmax, not Kingston. I am running it at 220 1:1 at 1T, 4x. Can you tell me if this is better or worse than running it at 250 5:6 at 1T, 3X? Thanks.

 

[furballi]

Hmmm...not good. Pull the plug from the AC outlet and reset CMOS. Reseat all boards, connectors, and RAMs. Now reboot PC. Still no go? See if you can load WXP in a CLEAN HDD.

Last resort is to strip the MB clean. Remove from case. Attempt to POST will only mouse and keyboard connected to PC. If okay, then add HDD and optical drive.

250 at 5:6, 3x, 1T would be faster.

 

[xSeongminx]

Pull the cmos battery out and wait like 5 minutes to ensure that it has been reset. Stick it back in and you will be good to go. Also, the reason why no optical drives are displayed is because you are running the fsb too high. The odd thing is, you must have a POS board cause almost everyone is getting the 250 (that have some idea of what they are doing).

Running at 5/6 at 250 will show a bigger increase than running 1/1 at 220mhz. Since the ram will be operating at roughly 208 fsb, you can use a third party program such as Clockgen to raise the fsb within windows. If it crashes, it'll be fine, because the changes are not saved, resulting in a reset to the origional 250fsb.

 

[freshspace]

Thanks. I'll try pulling the battery out for 5 minutes first. I'll post back in 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, I did try to run xp install, but since no optical drives are "listed" and the system is stuck after displaying Sempron 3100, it is a no go. I do have another harddrive. I'll keep that as the last resort trial.

 

[freshspace]

Okay, the battery-out trick did not work. I hear the HDD spin, but no drives get listed on the post screen. The computer was working just fine, and I just went to restart so I can set the computer back to 250 5:6 at 1T, 3x. The saying that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is soooo true!

 

[furballi]

Probably a connection or wiring issue. Did you change the jumper on any drive?

Can you access the BIOS upon power application?

 

[ice2882]

Just got through installing everything (hsf finally arrived from SVC) and I noticed a pin is missing from the floppy connector. I'm probably never going to use a floppy in the darn thing, so I don't really want to have the hassle of RMAing it, but at the same time it is really bothering me now. I'm wondering if anything else is missing too. Worth the RMA?

 

[altonb1]

Originally posted by: freshspace
Okay, the battery-out trick did not work. I hear the HDD spin, but no drives get listed on the post screen. The computer was working just fine, and I just went to restart so I can set the computer back to 250 5:6 at 1T, 3x. The saying that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is soooo true!

Similar issue to what I had while installing XP. It was fine, then >BAM< it died. Good luck with your system. I know how discouraging something like this can be....

 

[freshspace]

Furballi,

That was exactly what I was trying to tell you..., I just could not get to the BIOS! Ha!, but it is now fixed. I dont' know what made me do this, but when it was stuck, I just control-alt-delete, and it "unfroze" the start up! I am typing this on the computer. My setting is 166 at 5:6, 250 fsb 1t at 4x. I've raised Vcore to 1.7% and memory to 2.7. I am never touching this setting again, until I change the mobo and cpu

Ice2882,

Not worth the rma, although with proof, Outpost will reimburse you your return shipping. My board kept on giving me floppy error (40). I just disabled it. It is good to go.

 

[furballi]

Hehehehhh...I guarantee that all of these boards have a missing pin! If you look hard, you will see more missing pins on the board! Hint...USB plug.

Make sure you pull the plug form the wall before resetting CMOS.

You're getting the floppy error because you have the floppy set as 1st boot. Change to HDD as 1st boot and all others to disable.

C-A-D is a function of windows. You must have corrupted something in windows.

Use 3x. 4x can be unstable with 250MHz FSB.

 

[freshspace]

Thanks for everything.