The best I could do with a 2-20-02 pack date 1.6a Malay was 144 FSB on a P4T-E and 136 FSB on a P4B266-E. I picked up another 1.6a from Newegg 2 weeks ago, this time 4-2-02 Costa Rican. Wow, what a difference the CPU makes! I cranked her up to 150 FSB from the gitgo and no problem. So I said what the heck, and cranked her up to 166 FSB next and could boot into Win98SE fine at 1.725 volts, but 3DMark2001 would kick out to the desktop. Tried max 1.775 no go, so I had to drop down to 163 FSB, 1.75 vcore to clear 3DMark2001.
In addition to 3DMark2001/2000, I also cleared CodeCreatures, X-Island demo, VulpineGL, Wolfman demo, Serious Sam 2nd Encounter demos, IL-2 Sturmovik tracks with no lockups, and played Max Payne, Ghost Recon, Alice, Heavy Metal Fakk2, NOLF, and QuakeIII OK, so this rig is stable enough for me!
At 164 FSB it would clear 3DMark2001/2000, but got a lockup in the Serious Sam demos. Dropping 1 mhz did the trick. This P4B266-E board is super stable and consistent, so you can cut things real close. I found that if 3DMark2001 kicks you out to the desktop, just increase your vcore until you can clear it. I'm pretty sure if I vidpin to get 1.8 volts I would be stable at 166. Higher and I could probably do 170 FSB. This is doable since my temps are 45 C right now on a Sunflower, and I got an Alpha 8292 sitting in a box I can use at higher FSBs.
I'm surprised the P4B266-E has done so well, since I would think all the bells and whistles and additional circuitry would bog the board down. It's got ATA133 RAID, USB 1.1 and 2.0 ports, On-board LAN, 6-Channel audio + SPDIF and gameport brackets, Asus Post reporter, and support for Asus IPanel and Smartcards. Not only that, it is a used motherboard I picked up here in Japan! It is still not available yet in the U.S.
Since I got a 1.6a that will do 2.6 gig, I think everything's falling into place for a killer rig here, since I just picked up an AMI MegaRAID Elite 1600 U160 SCSI card (bulk OEM) last weekend for $238. This card sells in the U.S. for $700-800. And I got a Leadtek Ti 4600 that will do 338/745. The current one in my P4B266-E is a PNY and only does 320/730.
My future specs:
P4B266-E, 1.001 BIOS, Rev. 1.01
1.6a Northwood at 2.606 gig, 163 FSB
1.775 vcore, 35 C idle/45 C stress with a Sunflower (soon to be Alpha)
2x256 MB original Samsung PC2700 DDR333 at 326 mhz
Leadtek 250 Ultra TD at 338/745
Elite 1600 U160 SCSI RAID, 64 MB cache (limited to Win2k though)
Two 9.1 gig (bah) Seagate 10k, 4 MB cache, 5.4 ns U160 drives (boot)
Maxtor 80 gig 740X slave drive
Kenwood 72X CD-ROM (picked up used in Japan)
Lite-On 32x14x40 CD-RW
Soundblaster Audigy X-Gamer
10-bay server case, 3-120 mm case fans
Antec 400W power supply
I'm running Turbo1 (at Normal or Turbo2 it won't even boot at 163 FSB), and DDR set to manual at 2-2-2-5.
I'm picking up a 15,000 rpm Seagate Cheetah drive in the near future, so there goes my U160 RAID, since no way I'm picking up two drives. Not sure the Elite 1600 RAID, normally for servers, will handle whatever wacky PCI bus I'm at. Obviously it's a 64-bit PCI card, but backward compatible with 32-bit slots. No drivers for Win98 or ME though.
Benches (with PNY Ti 4600 at 320/730 and a Maxtor 80 gig IDE boot drive):
3DMark2001: 12,202
3DMark2000: 15,457
Sandra Memory: 2435/2370 (2600+/2500+ with Samsung at 132, 3:4 or 176 mhz)
Sandra Arithmetic: 4889, 1553/3194
Sandra CPU Multimedia: 10,300/12,546
CodeCreatures: 20 fps at 1600x1200
VulpineGL: 52 fps at 1600x1200
Please excuse me for bragging on my rig, but I figure I better post these specs before the hardware gets obsolete!
In addition to 3DMark2001/2000, I also cleared CodeCreatures, X-Island demo, VulpineGL, Wolfman demo, Serious Sam 2nd Encounter demos, IL-2 Sturmovik tracks with no lockups, and played Max Payne, Ghost Recon, Alice, Heavy Metal Fakk2, NOLF, and QuakeIII OK, so this rig is stable enough for me!
At 164 FSB it would clear 3DMark2001/2000, but got a lockup in the Serious Sam demos. Dropping 1 mhz did the trick. This P4B266-E board is super stable and consistent, so you can cut things real close. I found that if 3DMark2001 kicks you out to the desktop, just increase your vcore until you can clear it. I'm pretty sure if I vidpin to get 1.8 volts I would be stable at 166. Higher and I could probably do 170 FSB. This is doable since my temps are 45 C right now on a Sunflower, and I got an Alpha 8292 sitting in a box I can use at higher FSBs.
I'm surprised the P4B266-E has done so well, since I would think all the bells and whistles and additional circuitry would bog the board down. It's got ATA133 RAID, USB 1.1 and 2.0 ports, On-board LAN, 6-Channel audio + SPDIF and gameport brackets, Asus Post reporter, and support for Asus IPanel and Smartcards. Not only that, it is a used motherboard I picked up here in Japan! It is still not available yet in the U.S.
Since I got a 1.6a that will do 2.6 gig, I think everything's falling into place for a killer rig here, since I just picked up an AMI MegaRAID Elite 1600 U160 SCSI card (bulk OEM) last weekend for $238. This card sells in the U.S. for $700-800. And I got a Leadtek Ti 4600 that will do 338/745. The current one in my P4B266-E is a PNY and only does 320/730.
My future specs:
P4B266-E, 1.001 BIOS, Rev. 1.01
1.6a Northwood at 2.606 gig, 163 FSB
1.775 vcore, 35 C idle/45 C stress with a Sunflower (soon to be Alpha)
2x256 MB original Samsung PC2700 DDR333 at 326 mhz
Leadtek 250 Ultra TD at 338/745
Elite 1600 U160 SCSI RAID, 64 MB cache (limited to Win2k though)
Two 9.1 gig (bah) Seagate 10k, 4 MB cache, 5.4 ns U160 drives (boot)
Maxtor 80 gig 740X slave drive
Kenwood 72X CD-ROM (picked up used in Japan)
Lite-On 32x14x40 CD-RW
Soundblaster Audigy X-Gamer
10-bay server case, 3-120 mm case fans
Antec 400W power supply
I'm running Turbo1 (at Normal or Turbo2 it won't even boot at 163 FSB), and DDR set to manual at 2-2-2-5.
I'm picking up a 15,000 rpm Seagate Cheetah drive in the near future, so there goes my U160 RAID, since no way I'm picking up two drives. Not sure the Elite 1600 RAID, normally for servers, will handle whatever wacky PCI bus I'm at. Obviously it's a 64-bit PCI card, but backward compatible with 32-bit slots. No drivers for Win98 or ME though.
Benches (with PNY Ti 4600 at 320/730 and a Maxtor 80 gig IDE boot drive):
3DMark2001: 12,202
3DMark2000: 15,457
Sandra Memory: 2435/2370 (2600+/2500+ with Samsung at 132, 3:4 or 176 mhz)
Sandra Arithmetic: 4889, 1553/3194
Sandra CPU Multimedia: 10,300/12,546
CodeCreatures: 20 fps at 1600x1200
VulpineGL: 52 fps at 1600x1200
Please excuse me for bragging on my rig, but I figure I better post these specs before the hardware gets obsolete!
