C533A Owners: Is Your Slotket Holding You Back from +897MHz?

[Killer Ape]

Not sure if this is old news or not, but...

I bought a C533A, an Abit Slotket!!!, and a Golden Orb about a month ago to replace my C400, MSI 6905 v1.1 slotket, and FKP32. I chose the Slotket!!! because it got great reviews and my mobo is an Abit.

This was to run on my BX6r2/NW BIOS and Corsair 128MB PC100 CAS2 SDRAM, TNT2 Ultra 175/183. Installed the C533A and got it stable at 825/1.65v no problem. When I'd try for 112 FSB/897 she'd boot into Windows at 1.85v, but would randomly kick me out of apps back to the desktop, and was incapable of completing 3DMark 2000 (yes, AGP was set to 2/3). 1.9v didn't help and I didn't want to risk going higher. She'd POST at 936/1.9v, but not get into Windows. So I figured that was that and I settled in at 825MHz.

Then I started seeing posts where people had success with Copperons on BM6s, and one where someone used a MSI 6905 v1.1 slotket. This surprised me since I was under the impression that you needed a FCPGA compatible mobo or slotket to run the Copperons. Combine this information with Seph's notorious struggle to hit 850 with a C566, where a generic slotket was the culprit, and this got me thinking.

I dug out the old MSI slotket, set all the jumpers to default, installed the C533A and Golden Orb, plugged it in and booted. That was the ONLY thing I changed, including in BIOS. Worked fine at 825. I then tried 897. Stable at 1.85v/35C, no crashes, no app problems, completes 3DMark 2000 every time. Now it will also boot into Windows at 936/1.9v, but isn't stable. Basically, the system's stability increased by 1 FSB increment (103MHz-112MHz) using the MSI instead of the Abit slotket (897/1.85v not stable with Abit/stable with MSI; POST only at 936/1.9v with Abit, boot into Windows with MSI). I've now settled happily in at 897MHz.

Moral of the story for Copperon owners and prospective buyers: If you have a PPGA slotket you probably don't need a FCPGA slotket. If you get the feeling that the proc's got more under the hood but isn't quite stable, try a different slotket.

Looks like another Gold Star for MSI and another demerit for Abit.

 

[Eug]

She runs fine on my system (ASUS P2B) with an Abit Slotket !!!. Mine runs stably at 880 at 1.8 V, but not 100% stable at 896. However, I can run Photoshop for short periods even at 1.8 V/920 MHz. I can't use 1.85 on my motherboard but that's too high for my tastes anyway for anything other than testing. Oh, by the way, at 1.9 V she runs DOS at 960 MHz and posts at 992 MHz. In general I dislike Abit because their motherboard quality is suspect, but I'm happy with Abit Slotket !!!.

Eug
533A@840 1.7 V.

 

[Killer Ape]

Eug: That's another interesting point with the C533As, in that 110/880Mhz seems to be the hurdle in many cases. I've read alot of posts from people with BX mobos that do 110/880 getting stability at 1.75-1.85v, but not alot of people seem to be stable at 112/897 at any voltage without uber-cooling. People like me with only the 112/897MHz increment to choose from seem to get stuck back at 103/825 the majority of the time.

I still think the Slotket!!! is a good piece of hardware, there's just apparently something about the MSI 6905 v1.1 that seems to be a little more stable at higher MHz, at least in my case. May have something to do with shorter PCB traces, less crosstalk, or some other electronic effect I don't understand (which is basically all of them ).

 

[Eug]

Actually, I would have preferred an ASUS S370-133 because I dislike Abit in general like I said, but I guess in my case it's not a big deal. However, while I agree that slotket stability is important (just talk to Seph ), I think another reason is because at over 900 you're getting near the limits of the chip. If in fact that the 566's are nearly as able to overclock to 100 or 103 FSB as CompuWiz and others claim, then perhaps for you people it might make more sense to buy the 566 instead. With turbo active, you can run a nice comfortable 876 MHz.

It would be interesting if someone were to do an updated slotket test with FC-PGA processors and 3 representatives from each company.

I know for sure that Soltek has delayed releasing their latest slocket specifically because of instability issues at higher speeds.

Actually personally, in your shoes, I would probably run at 825 MHz. Call it Eug's one step down from max stable speed rule...

 

[Killer Ape]

I was thinking the same thing. Back in the days of PPGA Celerons maxing-out at 550-600MHz you just assumed the slotket could handle it. Slotket stability at speeds approaching 1GHz wasn't a big deal.

Now that many procs are capable of easily OCing to the 850-950MHz range it would be interesting to see a comparison of various slotkets' stability at high CPU MHz speeds, especially on older BX mobos. A round up of various slotkets tested on an "old" BX board like a BH6 or BX6r2, a newer BX board like a BX Master, and an Apollo Pro board would be interesting.

I'm going to stick it out at 897 for awhile to really test the stability and see if there's any real world performance improvement. I'm not happy about the voltage either, but then again there's a price drop right around the corner and the C633s - C733s coming out, so if I fry the chip I'll replace it with one that'll do +1GHz .

 

[compuwiz1]

The only thing I would add from what you gents have already said is that I seem to have a bear of a time with Abit III slotkets on MSI motherboards. Most of the time a switch to the MSI Slotket either gets me more speed or at least stabilizes the chip. Also, have better luck with just the generic on the MSI boards, even than the Abit. :Q

 

[Thorn]

Hey wiz, this is strange. That C566 I bought from you doesn't do 850 at 1.7v... it does it at 1.6 . It does 892 at 1.65v . I've been running Q3 loops all day to confirm stability. I wonder if the BM6 has anything to do with it. Some slotkets may be better than others, but I think people lose stability using a slotket no matter what they do. I'm gonna test the chip on a BH6 in another system I've got and see. Results will be reported soon.

 

[Paolo]

Speaking from my very limited experience (N=1), 533a+abitSlocketIII+
112FSB+1.8V = Stable at 898Mhz on a BH6. I am using a golden orb + 2 big case fans blowing air in and out the top.

 

[compuwiz1]

<< Hey wiz, this is strange. That C566 I bought from you doesn't do 850 at 1.7v... it does it at 1.6 . It does 892 at 1.65v >>



Really...ya don't say? Maybe somebody was just looking out for you.

Did you try going more??

Very good news Jerry!

 

[Thorn]

I've not tried over 892 yet... I think the very old PC100 128MB DIMM I have in it right now doesn't care for 112FSB, and that's the only option I have on this board after 105MHz. But hell, 892 at 1.65v is nice.

Why? How high did you get this puppy up to when you had it?

 

[compuwiz1]

It did not test it higher than that, but padded the voltage just a little for comfort.

 

[Thorn]

That's wise. I'll probably do the same... I'll run it at 1.7v at 892, .05v won't make much of a difference in temp but may make a difference in stability on very stressful apps.

I'll run UT in a loop tonight and go to bed. We'll see how it all looks in the morning.

 

[Killer Ape]

Wiz1, this post must make you happy. It's like some twisted Beauty and the Beast story - a beautiful MSI slotket married to a loathsome Abit mobo and working happily ever after . It's interesting that you note that it doesn't seem to work the otherway around.

What is the general consensus now on the Copperons? That they seem to run on all Socket 370 parts (mobos and slotkets)? This is really annoying because I wouldn't have bought the Abit Slotket!!! had I known. I remember all the BM6, and other Socket 370 mobo, owners screaming bloody murder a couple months ago. Looks like they get the last laugh and some extra MHz to boot.

 

[Eug]

I've seen reports that if the slotket wasn't FC-PGA compatible the new Celerons didn't work properly, if at all. I have no way of verifying that, but I believe it. It is a different setup afterall. But I've also seen posts that it did work for some people besides you. Moral of the story, if it works on your own old slocket, fine. But if you don't have one, buy an FC-PGA version.

P.S. I always thought Beauty and the Beast was an extremely warped story, especially for kids. Yeah, imprison a woman's father and threaten the woman to win her heart. Then live happily ever after... Weird.

 

[Killer Ape]

Yeah, as a child I found most Fairy Tales very disturbing.

I also find the basic storyline of almost every classic Disney film extremely twisted: Child (human or otherwise) is living happy life. Child's parents get murdered or killed, usually in some gruesome fashion. Child goes to live with evil realative. Evil relative plots to kill or enslave child. Child runs away and has an &quot;adventure&quot; which usually consists of a series of near fatal encounters with the pissed-off relative or their minions. Evil pissed-off relative gets killed or vanquished. Orphaned, traumatized child lives &quot;happily&quot; ever after.

In the real world this would probably result in the child turning into a complete sociopath, perhaps going on to fill the shoes of the evil relative.

Children's entertainment. Brrrrrrrrrr...

 

[Thorn]

Well, it ran flawlessly all night in UT at 892 1.65v... Here's the kicker, on my BH6 w/ ASUS slotket it will run 850 at 1.7v but not any higher, I have to turn the voltage up to 1.8v to get it stable in turbo (876MHz). True, this is only one instance and not too scientific, but it seems my theory may be right to an extent. Very interesting. I'm picking up an MSI slotket today to verify and see if there's a difference.

I'll post results tonight.

 

[Thorn]

OMG! look at my member statis! I'm shocked beyond words...

 

[Mday]

congrats thorn ... you are now a thorn at my side, as well as those who seek this status-unobtainable-except-for-a-few

i am using my bm6, so no need for a slocket... can't get mine to be stable enough that high sometimes the sucker does not even post.

 

[Killer Ape]

Congrats on achieving Eliteness Thorn .

I'm beginning to wonder if there's some redundant or additional/longer circuitry on the FCPGA slotkets that the PPGA ones don't have. The fact that you have to set a jumper on the Abit Slotket!!! to select between FCPGA-PPGA operation would indicate that there's some additional pathways that could cause instability, not to mention what happens to the signal at the jumper itself.

 

[Spikeman7]

I am one of the many BH6-300a(@450) hacks who is looking to try the 533a route. In fact I already bought a 533 (the computer shop assured me it was a 533a - wrong) that I need to exchange. At the same time I also picked up the only slotket they had which was a Gigabyte. So far I have not seen any feedback on the Gigabyte. Has anyone here used one or heard any reliable feedback?

Thanks!
(hey I graduated to Junior Member from Slug - hehe)

 

[Killer Ape]

Technically Spike, you had to graduate from Canadian, THEN to slug, then to Junior Member .

I'm kidding around of course. At least you're not English .

 

[Eug]

Killer Ape, you've got it all wrong.

For Anand, it's The Boss, but for the rest it's Junior-->Member-->Senior-->Elite-->Canadian... unless one already happens to be blessed with being Canadian.

Anyways, it would be nice to know how the FC-PGA is different. Very confusing. I'd try the PPGA setting myself, but I'm a bit chicken (despite the fact I've already done crazy things to this chip).

Thorn, I admire your persistence... spending an extra 20 bux simply to test out a theory when everything already works fine.

 

[Killer Ape]

God, I've unwittingly created some kind of Canuck magnet with this thread .

Eug, I already did that experiment for you. I found that ALL the jumper settings (FSB, voltage, FCPGA-PPGA) on the Slotket!!! make absolutely no difference, at least on my BX6r2. I tried running it in both FCPGA and PPGA mode at various voltages and it worked either way - but only up to 825MHz. The BIOS settings always overrode whatever the slotket was jumpered to. I've found this to be true with the MSI 6905 v1.1 as well. I of course can't speak for your Asus mobo however.

 

[Spikeman7]

Hey watch it or we'll send our military down there (provided they are both available).

 

[Killer Ape]

Spike!

Next on Fox: &quot;When Canadians Attack!&quot;