How to overclock Barton 2600+ on ECS K7VTA3

[irenealan]

Hi, I am new to overclocking and just bought the Barton 2600+, ECS K7VTA3 combo from Fry's. After playing with it for few days, I have the following questions and wonder if anyone can give me some help on them:

1. I had set the JP2 & JP3 to run at 166mhz, so the system boot up as 2600+ (@ 1.9ghz). Then I change the Bios FSB value to 199 and the system won't boot or boot with error to start. I finally got it stable at around 183 which gives 2.1ghz but the system won't recognize it running as 3000+. Does it mean that I had successfully overclocked the system or there's something else I need to do? If it's overclocked, why the Bios show running at 2.1 ghz instead of 3000+?

2. With this motherboard combo, is changing FSB the only way to overclock? Is there any faster way to find out what's the best FSB value to set, rather than keep restarting and stepping down the value one by one to see if it runs stable.

3. Also I just had the system running a day and running it with regular tasks. Is there any good software I can use so I can benchmarking it and have it run heavy tasks to see if the system would run stable at overclocked speed? I want to setup a program to have it run for a few days with heavy tasks and see if the system would error out or still runs fine.

4. Now the system is running at 46 - 48 C, is that a high value? Do I need a different HSF since I am just using the stock one.

5. Also I tried swapping the 2600+ with my unlocked Duron 600 and adjust JP2 & JP3 to run at 133mhz. After changing the Bios FSB to 150mhz, the system runs at 900mhz. It seems that afterall I can still put some good use on my Duron chip but wonder if I can use my old PC133 ram with the ECS K7VTA3 motherboard? Would it be bad to run the system with external FSB set to 133, the Bios FSB set to 150, PC 133 ram and overclocked Duron 600 (@ 900mhz) on this ECS K7VTA3. If not what other board would you suggest?

Thanks for answering my such long list of questions. As I look into different places for answers and still can't find much helpful. Really appreciate your help for this newbie to the overclock community. Thanks.

 

[AkumaX]

hi! welcome to the forums (you will never leave again ) the following responses are based on my experiences w/ this board:

1) the K7VTA3 is kinda finicky on the showing of speed, because a real 3000+ is like 10.5 x 200 or 12.5 x 166, so its not really exact, but at least you got your system to actual 2.1ghz (which is around a 3000+ in our minds )

2)afaik, there's no mult adjust on the mobo, unless someone hacked it (cheepoman?) otherwise its just trial and error

3)prime95, 3dmark2001se

4)46-48c is a perfectly fine temp, the cpu is rated around 80-85c anyway, but be careful if it goes any higher than 65c anyway

5)the K7VTA3 only accepts DDR SDRAM (like your pc2100/pc2700/pc3200, etc...) if you want a cheap (but less reliable) mobo that takes SDRAM (pc100/pc133) ECS has a K7S5A (this board also takes DDR, too).

also, there might be a reason why you won't get past 183mhz w/ your 2600+ (as i didn't get past 183mhz either), i think its either a chipset limitation or that since the agp/pci bus isn't unlocked, your pci bus is slowly approaching > 37mhz...

 

[TGHI]

First, your temps aren't too high, so don't worry. For stability testing, use memtest x86 for memory stability and prime95 for system stability. And, no your PC133 RAM won't work in a DDR board - it won't even fit - I recommend an ABIT KT7 board for a Duron 600 and PC133 RAM (i have one also with the Duron 600 at 900 - works great)

 

[o1die]

Your temps are normal. This board doesn't have an agp/pci lock, so adjusting the fsb will increase your agp and pci speeds, which could shorten the life of other components. I would suggest you use sisoft sandra or some other program to check your agp and pci settings when overclocking. If you don't have alot of money for replacement components and intend to use this setup for awhile, I suggest you run at the regular setting of 166. I run my duron 1.6 at 150 (1800), so my pci is 37 and the agp is 75, instead of the normal 33/66. This combo deal is an excellent value, but the board was never designed for serious overclocking.

 

[irenealan]

Thanks for everyone's reply, sure I won't leave this forum since I have been searching for answers to my questions in different place and this place gives me all the responses I needed in the shortest time. Really thanks for the pointers.

AkumaX:

1) I used Sandra 2004 to test the CPU and it shows running with speed 2.1ghz but the chip name as 2600+, which looks weird since Sandra seems to sense the speed is overclocked but the chip still shows the name as 2600+. That's why I want to confirm if my system is overclocked or see if there's any test ware to show me that my system is running faster than it was before overclock.

3) For the test ware suggested, should I just follow the instructions posted in the main thread for test ware or is there any special tricks you guys know of to use on these test ware for testing?

4) I will be cautious to see if the temp would go higher than 50 C. If it does, is there any good HSF you would suggest for cooling? Good and low price ones of course! =)

5) It seems that with my current setup, ECS with PC3200 ram, I got to my Duron to a better use. But it seems a waste to use such setting with the Duron while I can get a Barton and get it up to a better speed. I guess my Duron should be put to trash. I have the Asus A7V board with the Duron before but I don't know how to overclock it. Anyone has a guide to it? Thanks.

Thanks to TGHI and o1die also! But how do I find out in Sandra to see if my AGP or PCI is running at risk with my overclocked FSB? I do see the info on AGP and PCI and how fast it's running but how do I know it's in bad condition? If I really want to go for the overclock option, is there any good AGP or PCI components I can get to pair up with the combo? Thanks.

In addition, do you have any suggestion on what board to use with the 2600+ Barton so I can overclock it. Also board for future overclocking to over 3200+ if I purchase a good enough ram and cooling? What ram and cooling should I use if I need to get it over 3200+ thanks.

 

[AkumaX]

1) Just use sandra and bench your cpu against the 3200+ that they have for reference, then you can see what type of performance you're getting. don't worry too much about the PR rating, just worry about what your actual cpu clock is (try using cpu-z or wcpuid if you want to see what your actual speed is, and i think there's an AMD calculator that someone made that would "calculate" your PR rating) but PR ratings don't mean anything, just actual performance oh yeah, d/l aida32, that tells you a lot about your computer too

3) Yeah, use memtest86 for ram (your ram should be fine if you have pc3200, since you're not even @ 200mhz fsb) and use prime95 and whatever you find out there

4) Cheap heatsinks? Ehhh.. i'm using an SLK900, you should try finding an SLK800A or SLK900A i guess (thermalright)

5) There should be plenty of o/cing guides w/ the A7V, you would be o/cing via the multiplier though, not by fsb if you like using your duron w/ the k7vta3 ( (kt333), just keep it there and get cheap pc2700 to use w/ it (for 6 x 150)

A good mobo for your barton get an nforce2 mobo like the NF7-S or 8RDA+, nforce2 is great!

I think the stock vcore on the 2600+ is 1.65v, you can do a wiremod by dropping 1 wire into the socket to increase it to 1.85v (search amd pin mod) if you want to see if you can get the cpu even higher (but watch the temps)