So I picked up the fry's e7200 + ecs gf7050vt-m for $99 deal on labor day weekend. I took it home and got it going and got it to run at 3.16ghz but I couldn't get it to go any further.
The problem is the BIOS on this board is extremely basic and has no vcore adjustment for the processor. I made a post on the motherboard forums seeing if anyone had any ideas, about all I got was a search for the pad mod reply (which I'd already done, but I'd only found any how-to guides for the 65nm chips which have much different stock voltages). So I figured I'd mess around and see if I couldn't come up with one myself. *crossed fingers*
Anyway, went to Intel's site and downloaded the data sheet for the chip. My chip's stock voltage was 1.225. Printed out the pages with relevant data...
(which are pages 15, 41, and 45 by the way, go have a look!)
Took the chip out, sectioned off some stuff with electrical tape, and then I got out my trusty old rear window defogger repair kit and went to work...
Connected VID 3 and 4 to the VSS pins next to them, respectively, with the conductive paint...Took the electrical tape off and cleaned up the work with what I like to call a "dental tool" lol.
In theory this would bring the voltage up to 1.375, in reality because the board is terrible it ends up being more like 1.35-something under load. AWFUL VDROOP on this board!
But it's completely stable at 3.6ghz. It will boot higher but prime95 errors out after a few minutes. Temps are 50-51C under full load on both cores... (Xigmatech cooler, 90mm fan version).
Anyway, just crazy how good of a deal this ended up being. I'm sure I could get the speed up a bit higher by doin a little more voltage (VID2 would be next to be brought to 0 by connecting to the VSS pin next to it) and maybe I'll mess with that later this afternoon, but honestly--what a friggin steal
Thanks to the folks here on the Anandtech forums who made me aware of this deal, and if you got in on the deal before you give up and sell that crappy ecs board bust out your conductive pen or paint!
The problem is the BIOS on this board is extremely basic and has no vcore adjustment for the processor. I made a post on the motherboard forums seeing if anyone had any ideas, about all I got was a search for the pad mod reply (which I'd already done, but I'd only found any how-to guides for the 65nm chips which have much different stock voltages). So I figured I'd mess around and see if I couldn't come up with one myself. *crossed fingers*
Anyway, went to Intel's site and downloaded the data sheet for the chip. My chip's stock voltage was 1.225. Printed out the pages with relevant data...
(which are pages 15, 41, and 45 by the way, go have a look!)
Took the chip out, sectioned off some stuff with electrical tape, and then I got out my trusty old rear window defogger repair kit and went to work...
Connected VID 3 and 4 to the VSS pins next to them, respectively, with the conductive paint...Took the electrical tape off and cleaned up the work with what I like to call a "dental tool" lol.
In theory this would bring the voltage up to 1.375, in reality because the board is terrible it ends up being more like 1.35-something under load. AWFUL VDROOP on this board!
But it's completely stable at 3.6ghz. It will boot higher but prime95 errors out after a few minutes. Temps are 50-51C under full load on both cores... (Xigmatech cooler, 90mm fan version).
Anyway, just crazy how good of a deal this ended up being. I'm sure I could get the speed up a bit higher by doin a little more voltage (VID2 would be next to be brought to 0 by connecting to the VSS pin next to it) and maybe I'll mess with that later this afternoon, but honestly--what a friggin steal
Thanks to the folks here on the Anandtech forums who made me aware of this deal, and if you got in on the deal before you give up and sell that crappy ecs board bust out your conductive pen or paint!
