Motherboard for Core 2 Duo overclocking and 4 x DDR I

[oiges]

Hi guys,

my quest is for a motherboard that overclokcs the core 2 duo but still has DDR I
I summarised my findings in

http://users.telenet.be/oiges/

Core 2 Duo DDR I overclocking

Although ample of PC's available the overclocking virus hits me again.
I want to upgrade and overclock the core 2 duo 'on the cheap side' and reuse my DDR I dimms.

So the quest is for a motherboard that

1. Supports core 2 duo
2. Has 4 dimms DDR I (because I want to reuse 4 x 512 DDR I PC3200 2.5 - 3 - 3 - 8 Twinmoss or corsair)
3. Get that core 2 duo to 3.2 Ghz or more.
4. AGP or PCI-E is of secondary importance for me. I have a 7900 oc'ed to 7900 pro and a saphire GTO2 (398 core/ 492 memory) oc'ed to (490 / 608) with all pipelines.



Is it worth the effort?

Anandtech produced some articles on DDR I vs DDR II combined with the conroe. The Asrock boards they tested produced some very decent figures. http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2813
Anandtech also promises to investigate further some Asrock motherboards based on chipset 865

What are the motherboards up for the challenge ?

Chipsets o plenty?
The following url gives an overview of conroe capable chipsets. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=710828
Summary:

I) Chipset 865 motherboards with proper voltage regulator on board and correct bios should function.

II) chipset 915

III) VIA -> P4 Series

The current VIA chipset series for the Intel platform. Model number scheme seems to be:
PTxxx: a discrete graphics chipset.
P4Mxxx: an integrated graphics chipset.
xxx = 800: AGP only
xxx = 880: AGP + PCI Express
xxx = 890: PCI Express only
Some of them support both DDR and DDR2. They are coupled with pretty old southbridge VT8237A or VT

IV) ATI

V) NVIDIA



So where are all these motherboards?

I have been asking mb companies with as intermediate result:

Supermicro
"I am sorry and afraid not with AGP or DDR 1 memory support. We
have some of the motherboard support Core 2 Duo processors. Click on the
links below to review the motherboard information.
http://www.supermicro.com/products/m...d/PD/?chp=3010
http://www.supermicro.com/products/m...oard/Core2Duo/
Thank you,
DL "

ECS
"Thanks for contacting ECS.
865PE-A7 doesn't support E6300 CPU due to hardware limit."
getting them to answer the full question: 'what boards do you have' is sometimes difficult.

MSI: translated from dutch
"all core 2 duo mb boards have DDR II"

Gigabyte
They just answer by sending url to there core2 duo boards
I do not find DDRI capable boards there.

BioStar FoxConn etc ....
Help me out on the other ones guys.

Conclusion so far

The Asrock ASRock 775Dual-VSTA mb (VIA PT880 ultra )that Anandtech tested so far has apg/pci-e DDRI / DDRII but only 2 dimms per kind of DDR.
I want to have 4 dimms for 4 x 512 MB PC3200 2.5/3/3/8
For 4 x DDR I the Asrock Conroe865PE seems the only that is confirmed to support conroe



How to get them to overclock?

I) Volt mods on conroe?
I read that it is the fsb that keeps it from serieus overclocking, not the lack of voltage
1.4 Volt mod
http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=3904&s=1
http://sg.vr-zone.com/?i=3931
http://xtreview.com/addcomment.php?id=574&view=intel-conroe-voltage-pin-mod

III) Volt mods on motherboard?
for Asrock boards 775Twins-HDTV R2.0 (is DDR II ) and maybe also 775Dual-VSTA
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=95250

II) FSB clockgen // cpucool fsb
conroe865pe has pll winbond :
conroe865pe should have, according to systools site, http://www.techpowerup.com/wiki/doku...sd_unsupported
as clock_generator:
W83194BG-SD
winbond website:
The winbond website:
W83194BG-SD
Step-less Frequency INTEL 865? series chipset Clock Gen., Pb-free
SSOP 48
http://www.winbond-usa.com/products/...3194BG-SDc.pdf

I mailed clockgen guy and he replied (thx to Franck from cpuz) he has beta that supports similar winbond pll
W83195BG: he thinks it is close to the used pll.

Cpucool responded that it has support for W83194BR-SD and this pll (comparing data sheets) is equal to W83194BG-SD


This is a summary of my findings so far.
Online experience on the board itself not found ;-(
Let's join forces and gather our info!
I posted on www.ocforums.com : http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=473455&highlight=conroe865

 

[Votingisanillusion]

Waiting for this mobo as well.
It is an ecological choice: why throw away my DDR and buy new DDR2?
Especially when I remember that the computer industry pollutes more than any other (besides the nuclear industry).

 

[Votingisanillusion]

 

[nosliw]

Lot of legwork there Oiges!

When I look at the time I have spent trying to find this coveted mobo, vs. the money I could have made by working during that same time - it comes clear to me that maybe I'm going to let go of the concept of hanging on to my old ram. I've wanted this mobo with the additional criteria of micro atx, which just doesn't seem all that likely.

Ed

A coulple of threads asking about the predicted availability of micro-atx boards to OC Conroe, regardless of ram technology (identical question - different forums):
Tom's
Anandtech

 

[vailr]

The ASRock ConRoe865PE is being sold in Australia; some of this list of vendors ("TechBuy" is one) ship internationally and accept Paypal for payment:
Text
Prices are in Australian Dollars.
1 AUS$ = 0.75 US$

 

[hans007]

the only board with ddr1 and pci-e support i've seen is the ecs p4m890t-m2 . but it cant really o/c well and it only has 2 slots.


the intel platform has been off ddr1 for a while now. just bite the bullet and sell your ram on ebay or to some socket 939 owner.

 

[oiges]

I thought Gary Key would do a review himself and was waiting for the board. Here in Europe it is available. if we can get 300fsb out of it and then next year E4300 arrives based on 200 x 9 multiplier and higher then for peanuts a low budget mb is born.

the other asrock bord based on ati chipset with pci-e and 2 x DDR I or 2 X DDR II has been known to reach 360 fsb
775Twins-HDTV R2.0

but then I can not reuse 4 X 512mb DDRI

I have decided to wait some more. As you can see on the single page (very quick and exceptionally dirty ) website, my opteron at 2.7 should give me some time.

But for sure, the dual core bugs are biting