Is there any problem upgrading the Epox EP-8K5A2+ to a Barton?

[bupkus]

Is there any problem upgrading the Epox EP-8K5A2+ to a Barton?

The specs only list the following, AMD Athlon, Athlon XP, Duron.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Although it doesn't officially support it according to Epox, many have plopped it in and had it work fine. I'd limit it to the 333 bartons since there is no agp/pci lock or 1/6 divider.

I was thinking about doing the same thing, but going to a 2500+ Barton and having to keep the FSB at, or around, 166 just doesn't seem like much of an upgrade over my 1700+ at 13.5x166.

Instead, I think I would pick up the Asus Nforce2 refurb at Newegg or even the Shuttle on sale for $55 there. Sell the Epox to defray some of the cost and get the benefits of an agp/pci lock and enjoy 200fsb (sell the pc2700 and get some pc3200).

All in all, a cheap upgrade.

 

[NTB]

As much as I like my 8k5a2+, I'm seriously considering replacing it with a shuttle AN35N-Ultra (available @ newegg for $56.99). PCI/AGP lock and support for 200/400 FSB. Plunk a 333 2500+ in there and crank it up to 400 FSB & 3200+.

Nate

 

[bupkus]

Originally posted by: NTB
As much as I like my 8k5a2+, I'm seriously considering replacing it with a shuttle AN35N-Ultra (available @ newegg for $56.99). PCI/AGP lock and support for 200/400 FSB. Plunk a 333 2500+ in there and crank it up to 400 FSB & 3200+.

Nate

Which of these two would be preferable?
1. the AN35N-Ultra or
2. the AN35N400,
both for the same price form Newegg.

Is the 400 a newer model?

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: bupkus

Originally posted by: NTB
As much as I like my 8k5a2+, I'm seriously considering replacing it with a shuttle AN35N-Ultra (available @ newegg for $56.99). PCI/AGP lock and support for 200/400 FSB. Plunk a 333 2500+ in there and crank it up to 400 FSB & 3200+.

Nate

Which of these two would be preferable?
1. the AN35N-Ultra or
2. the AN35N400,
both for the same price form Newegg.

Is the 400 a newer model?

The 400 uses a single-channel memory controller; the Ultra uses dual-channel. Both officially support 400 FSB. Different people will tell you different things about whether DC is a benefit if you're not using on-board video (which these boards do not have), but since both are the same price, I'd take the dual channel board.

Nate

 

[bupkus]

Well, I guess I forgot what everyone here said about this epox and I went ahead and bought the Barton 2500+. I did it to get an unlocked version and here I am running it at fsb 333MHz and a multiplier of 13.

I flashed the bios to the 4/7/03 from the 7/23/02 but both don't have the 13.5 multiplier. At 14 it boots at 833MHz or something else.

Hmm.. I just noticed that the new bios lists it as a 2800+ which is confusing.
If you mulitiply 13x166MHz=2158MHz, which according to Newegg's listing of XP CPUs is almost a Barton 3000+(2.17GHz). So either the bios is wrong, newegg's listing is wrong, or I'm really running with a 12.5 multiplier. My best guess is the bios is mis-interpreting to 2800+.

166x12.5=2075
166x13.0=2158 //This is me now, I think.
166x13.5=2241

 

[deadseasquirrel]

my guess is yer still running at 12.5x. you could run CPUID to see for sure (or watch your boot screen before it changes).

but i really think this board will default back to 12.5x for anything you put in higher than 12.5x. as far as i know, it will NOT run that chip at 13x without doing something like the wire mod, since that chip's default multi is less than 12.5x. if it were a XP2600+, i think it would not go BELOW 12.5x (since it's default multi is above 12.5x). don't have one of those, so i can't say for sure.

take a look here. in the drop-down menu across the top, choose Socket View, Barton, skip the Vcore (adjust it yourself in bios), choose 13xfsb.

what you'll see pop up on the picture are 5 little black lines, each connecting 2 sockets on the mobo pcb together. these black lines represent the copper wiring you'll use to do it. this will force the mobo to a 13x multi. simply choose "AUTO" in the epox bios and it will go to 13. you could also force it to 13.5 and others higher as well. play with the multi drop-down menu and you will see the wire arrangement for that combination.

it's very simple. use a single strand of speaker wire, cut into 5 very short pieces that you can bend into a "U" shape. using a steady hand, put the ends of that "U" into the 2 corresponding sockets. repeat with the other 4 pieces. slap the chip in there. close it all up. reboot into bios (making sure it has AUTO for multi and the FSB you want to use). check for stability.

i got my 1700+ up to a 15x multi @166fsb into windows, but 3dmark failed. 14x multi worked fine for 3d apps, but prime95 failed after a few. so i settled with 13.5x. everything stable.