And the price cuts reach Fry's!!

[ericlp]

This is a pretty good deal. Maybe it's time for an upgrade... I like the conroe or whatever it is from intel they say the chip runs really cool. I'm not sure if I want a 70C chip. Hopefully htne can get it to run cooler..Tho ECS is known for inaccurate temps.

 

[colossus]

Originally posted by: htne
I have applied the latest BIOS from the ECS web site, and it did not help. One of the reviews for this motherboard at Newegg mentioned that the overclocking simply did not work. And I found a thread on groups.google.com wherein the poster had the same problem with very high reported cpu temperatures.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.comp...f8f6?lnk=st&q=&rnum=1#d50636259fd8f8f6

Yeah I read 5 reviews on the board and decided to hold off on the combo. It's very stable but won't overclock at all.

Try running ClockGen and see if you can OC it.

 

[htne]

I did eventually get the motherboard to overclock -- but only a very little. The trick is to start small. Set the FSB to 205 in the CMOS setup, and then reboot. Voila! The cpu is running at 2050 mhz, according to CPUZ. You can then set it to 210, and reboot, and you have 2100 mhz. At 215 mhz FSB, the BIOS gives an error during POST and says it has reset the CPU speed (which indeed it has). If you start by overclocking at 210, it will ignore your settings, but if you start at 205, and then later go to 210, it will work. Of course, a 5% overclock (200 mhz to 210 mhz) is hardly worth the effort. There is a setting for the Vcore, but it only goes up to 1.35 volts (default is 1.30), and it simply doesn't help. Maximum overclock is still 210 mhz FSB (2100 mhz cpu speed).

I have ordered an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro from ChiefValue, and I'll see what temperatures are reported with that.

I am also thinking of buying a better motherboard, and dumping this one for $35. Anyone have a recommendation for a good AM2 motherboard that doesn't break the bank?

 

[ImDonly1]

 

[ImDonly1]

Originally posted by: htne
I did eventually get the motherboard to overclock -- but only a very little. The trick is to start small. Set the FSB to 205 in the CMOS setup, and then reboot. Voila! The cpu is running at 2050 mhz, according to CPUZ. You can then set it to 210, and reboot, and you have 2100 mhz. At 215 mhz FSB, the BIOS gives an error during POST and says it has reset the CPU speed (which indeed it has). If you start by overclocking at 210, it will ignore your settings, but if you start at 205, and then later go to 210, it will work. Of course, a 5% overclock (200 mhz to 210 mhz) is hardly worth the effort. There is a setting for the Vcore, but it only goes up to 1.35 volts (default is 1.30), and it simply doesn't help. Maximum overclock is still 210 mhz FSB (2100 mhz cpu speed).

I have ordered an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro from ChiefValue, and I'll see what temperatures are reported with that.

I am also thinking of buying a better motherboard, and dumping this one for $35. Anyone have a recommendation for a good AM2 motherboard that doesn't break the bank?

My friend just bought a M2N-E on NewEgg for $95-ish.

 

[ofacto]

Right now at Fry's, they have an AMD AM2 X2 4200+ and ECS NFORCE 4M-A onsale for $200.

I returned the AMD AM2 3800+ X2 combo I got last week for $180 (someone mentioned it above) for this one. It seems like it might have better overclocking potential (even though I probably won't overclock) and it runs slightly cooler 47 C idle vs. 52 C. Plus its a full ATX and has 4 Ram slots.

Still the temps seem a little bit high, is that normal for an AM2 X2 4200+? I have a socket 939 cooler which Thermaltake claims is compatible with AM2 which I will try later today to see if the temps come down.

 

[ofacto]

Well I checked the cpu temps in Core Temp and they are much lower (around 35C idle) then the BIOS reports. I wonder how reliable these temps are.

I was able to overclock it somewhat, right now I have it stable at 2.475 Ghz (FSB 225 mhz x11). It will post at 236 Mhz but won't load Windows, there is no setting to adjust Vcore in the bios. Maybe ECS will release a bios update with additional settings (probably not). Still its more than fast enough for my needs and pretty good deal.