L7S7A2 and Overclocking

[Celeryman]

Hey Guys, just wondering how many of you have had luck with overclocking the ECS L7S7A2. I bought this board about a month and a half ago, along with a Athlon 1700+ that turned out to be a JIUHB DUTC3 late week, and some corsair pc3200 ram. My problem is that it will not run at 200mhz FSB not matter what I do. I tried dropping the multi, upping the vmem and downloading the hacked bios for the board. I even tried upping the AGP/PCI speed ratio as suggested by others at OCworkbench. It will post but usually stops right before the windows startup screen. My question is, could it be the chipset not be cooled enough? It still has the stock passive cooler on it right now and I was thinking that was the problem. Thoughts?

 

[Vette73]

The board only really supports 166Mhz FSB. So anything over that is really overclocking the north bridge also. The newwer 748 chip supports 200Mhz FSB, but not the 746. So run it at 166Mhz FSB and see what you can get.

I have the same board for my backup system and have it running a .18 Athlon 1600 at 143Mhz FSB. Not bad for a older chip with 133Mhz Ram.

 

[Peter]

There is a respin of the L7S7A2 coming, using the 200-MHz-capable SiS 748 north bridge. This then is called the "748-A" board.

 

[JediJeb]

I have mine running at 150mhz with a 1Ghz Tbird, am going to try going higher soon, just need better cooling as my Alpha PAL 8045 won't fit. Anyone know if the PAL 6035MUC will work on this board?

 

[Cerb]

check AMDMB.com's forums
It's not a bad OCer (but no NForce2). The first one I ever read about being used (check Killeroy's stickies) made 200/250. It isn't uncommon for them to stop around 185 or so, though typically they should make 200 with good cooling on the northbridge.
So one thing to try is to change the northbridge cooling. The current HS is on there with tape, you can easily take it off, get the adhesive junk left over off with alcohol, and put a decent HS on it, like the Zalman NB-32j.

 

[JediJeb]

Thanks for the info on the Northbridge Cerb. I did find something over at OCWorkbench that said the PAL 6035 will work ( I believe it is 60X60mm so that would fit, barely ). Last night I took it up to 155Mhz and all is working great. I can't seem to get the Multiplier selection to work with the Tbird, maybe I need to check it again to make sure I didn't miss one of the L1 bridges when I unlocked it. My memory is Crucial DDR 133, so I can't even get it to post with anything but normal timing settings :frown: but it seems to take the faster bus speeds Ok.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: JediJeb
Thanks for the info on the Northbridge Cerb. I did find something over at OCWorkbench that said the PAL 6035 will work ( I believe it is 60X60mm so that would fit, barely ). Last night I took it up to 155Mhz and all is working great. I can't seem to get the Multiplier selection to work with the Tbird, maybe I need to check it again to make sure I didn't miss one of the L1 bridges when I unlocked it. My memory is Crucial DDR 133, so I can't even get it to post with anything but normal timing settings :frown: but it seems to take the faster bus speeds Ok.

PAL6035 should manage...if a bit overkill.
I was thinking about the NB-32j, but...

 

[JediJeb]

PAL6035 for the Processor, all I have now is a cheapo Aluminum from several years ago, but the Zalman does sound nice for the NB and I will probably get one of those too. Gotta get better memory though, then maybe an T'Bred or Barton.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: JediJeb
PAL6035 for the Processor,

Oh OK...nm.

all I have now is a cheapo Aluminum from several years ago, but the Zalman does sound nice for the NB and I will probably get one of those too. Gotta get better memory though, then maybe an T'Bred or Barton.

However, you can OC w/ slower memory, even down to itty bitty differences (10:9...why bother?)