I have a Barton 2600+ but no MB...

[lupin]

Please help me up here,
I just bought a Barton 2600+ chip with one stick 512MB PC3200 kingston to go with it. Now what I need is really a motherboard.

I don't live in the states, so I don't get the selection that you guys have. However, I was offered an Elitegroup board with VIA KT chipset (can't remember if it's KT266 or some other) for about $50. The other alternative is Asus with Nvidia chipset for abou $85. Asus is definitely the more trustable brand, and I don't mind paying extra for a stable board. I'm just not familiar with the chipsets. Via or Nvidia?

I'll be using this PC for a lot of Photoshop (512MB might not be enough..), and yes I definitely want to overclock the barton.

Thanks

 

[BlueWeasel]

I'd definately go with the Nvidia board over VIA any day.

Is that the Asus Nforce2 board (A78NX)? If it is, you should be able to push it and the 2600+ to at least 2.2Ghz. If it's a mobile, you should be able to go even higher.

Some of the early Nforce2 boards don't like the FSB speeds of 200 and higher. My 8RDA (the Epox equivalent of the Asus board) doesn't like a FSB higher than 190-195-ish, but it's running at 190 x 12.5 = 2.4Ghz with my 2600+ mobile.

 

[Fern]

Yeah stay away from the via board if it's a FSB 133/266. That'l needlessly limit the cpu which runs at 166/333.

 

[ttown]

You may have already browsed around and seen this, but I'll mention that many people like the Abit NF7-S2 for OC'ing (NOT "S2").
I haven't used it, but plenty of good comments are around. It's $91 at newegg. My general impression is that ASUS is big in the OC'ing world. When you zero-in on a model, check the comments on newegg -- as OC'ers usually will post their experiences.

I'm not big on OC'ing (nor game playing) -- so I just went for a budget all-in-one biostar m7viz (for ~$50). it hasn't arrived yet, so I can't comment much. I also just recently came across a chaintech 7NIF2 -- which looks really good (for MY purposes). Both the biostar and chaintech I refer to here are mATX "all-in-one" boards.
I'm probably much more budget/feature minded than most... with my emphasis on HTPC use.

good luck

 

[Concillian]

The ECS KT600A will do 400 MHz and will be adequate for stock speeds, but the ASUS board with the nVidia chipset is much preferred.

nForce2 is VERY much preferred over any VIA chipset. nForce1 is probably preferred over KT600A, but not KT880

 

[lupin]

So what is this Ahtlon mobile you're talking about?

 

[trexpesto]

Originally posted by: ttown
You may have already browsed around and seen this, but I'll mention that many people like the Abit NF7-S2 for OC'ing (NOT "S2").

That is, the good one is "NF7-Sv2" Nice onboard sound.
DFI NFII Ultra Infinity is good.
Shuttle AN35N Ultra is good and cheap. No SATA raid, but so?

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: lupin
So what is this Ahtlon mobile you're talking about?

Athlon mobile fits into the desktop socket, and is essentially the same as a desktop processor with 3 exceptions:

1) The multipliers lower than max are unlocked (and the max multipliers are insanely high, like 14+)
2) They are picked to run as low a voltage as possible at their rated speed, which means they tend to run higher overclock speeds at normal desktop voltages
3) a Desktop motherboard will not recognize the multiplier, and will default to 600MHz, you need voltage, FSB and multiplier adjustability in your BIOS to get them to run.

They run well. The worst mobiles will run 2200-2400 at nominal voltages with stock cooling. The best will run 2.5 or so on stock cooling and up to 2.6-2.7 water cooled. It's basically a guaranteed good overclocking chip. Pop it in and set 11x200 and 1.65v and you have a 3200+ at a significant savings over an actual 3200+.

 

[lupin]

wow.
I decided to get the KT600, cause the nForce is like $40 more expensive. Anyway, so the total cost of the upgrade was like $220 for a Barton 2600, 512 Kingston Value ram PC3200 (somehow I get korean Hynix chips. should be quite good), and Via KT600 Elite, and some cheap no brand heatsink (but big).

CPU is now running at 11.5x200Mhz. I never thought I'd be so lucky. 2300MHz! Damn this is 3x faster than my cpu before this, a 733 Mhz P3. Not to mention the bus speed @ 200Mhz!! (plus DDR ram action)!!!

 

[lupin]

I actually tried 11.5x220 and the chip ran.. just crashed upon loading windows... hehehe.. greedy bastard.

 

[BlueWeasel]

What Vcore voltage are you running at? If you can boot into Windows before crashing, then just a little more voltage may make it stable at 11.5 x 220.

 

[lupin]

I can't seem to find a vcore adjustment setting on the KT600. It's currently running stock vcore. 1.60V?

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: lupin
I can't seem to find a vcore adjustment setting on the KT600. It's currently running stock vcore. 1.60V?

Tha's because there is no adjusment on that motherboard. That's one of the advantages the ASUS board would have had.

nominal should be 1.65v.

Sounds like you're doing pretty well though. Not all AXPs will run 2300 at 1.65v.

Do you know your CPU stepping?

 

[lupin]

don't know the stepping.. but it's a malay production line.