Official GA-8IEXP Thread !!!! Able to hit 150 FSB with 3:4 ratio STABLE!!! RMAing board b/c i found a better board !!!!

[gsethi]

Originally posted by: Rkonster
Can the old 845D handle these high speed DDR's? I want to make sure before I go and buy one again.

i dont know but i think that they can. Most of the best overclocks people have here are with the I845D chipset.

mine would go as high as 150 FSB (1.6a @ 2.4) with DDR 300 (DDR 266 memory). My memory was at its limits and so it wont go over DDR 300 on my old GA-8IRXP. the good thing with the old mobos is that you get more room to play with those. you can go to 1.850 v for the CPU Vcore atleast and i think that for the Ram, you can go to 3.0 or 3.2v. that gives you a lot of headroom.

Wish i still had my 8IRXP so that i could compare the two boards. When i had the RXP, i didnt had DDR 333 memory, and now when i have DDR 333, i dont have RXP.......grrrrrrr :|

but still, i would like to get some info from someone who is running DDR 400 @ 150 fsb using 3:4 ratio on the old I845D boards.

 

[Barrei]

The 8irxp's cold boot problem gets fixed with the wire mod, which is easy to do, I'm running my 1.8a stable at 2740 mhz , cpuv 1.825v , however my pc2700 original Samsung would not go beyond 370mhz at 3:4 memory ratio . I think the problem is the boards only allows +.3v maximum increase on the memory.

 

[gsethi]

thanks Barrei. DDR 370...hmm......do you know if its your memory limiting you there or is it the board ?

can you give me some more info about the board ? i forgot some:

how high can you go on the CPU Vcore ?
How high can you go on the DRAM Voltage ?

thanks

 

[Barrei]

cpu max voltage 1.850 , dram max voltage 2.8v , I believe the limiting factor for the ddr is the max voltage increase only to 2.8v , it needs to go to 3.0v to really achieve 400 mhz and run stable there.

 

[gsethi]

Originally posted by: Barrei
cpu max voltage 1.850 , dram max voltage 2.8v , I believe the limiting factor for the ddr is the max voltage increase only to 2.8v , it needs to go to 3.0v to really achieve 400 mhz and run stable there.

i agree, we need atleast 3.00v for the DRAM to reach DDR 400. now, i wonder if Epox 4BDA2+ has upto 3.00 v for DRAM ?

right now, i am running at DDR 370 stable now. will go to DDR 380 next and see how stable it is.

 

[Sukhoi]

Run on down to Fry's. I doubt I'll get Windows installed and entirely patched tonight.

oldfart is running DDR400 on his 4BDA2+, and I don't remember him mentioning he had to do much to the RAM voltage.

 

[gsethi]

lol Sukhoi......dont install all windows patches yet.

Again, 3rd time, i have corrupted my Win XP

first do all the tests and make sure that your system is stable where you will operate. Then do a final clean reinstall and do all the patch work.

give me your review asap........ok, going to Fry's to get the Epox 4BDA2+ now. and will post results. be back in about 3-4 hours now.....lol

 

[Rkonster]

Ahhhh, what motherboard should I buy then?!? My 1.6A is sitting on my desk and is getting all lonely.

 

[gsethi]

Originally posted by: Rkonster
Ahhhh, what motherboard should I buy then?!? My 1.6A is sitting on my desk and is getting all lonely.

dont know yet. the old I845D seem to be the best chipset yet.

The problem with the newer ones are that they are so new and not many people have them. So, lack of reviews.......plus there are many complaints if you are trying to overclock the new ones.

From the old boards: i845D:
definately Epox 4BDA2+ (damnit i drove down to Frys and they didnt had it, just wanted to compare between the two boards).

From the new Ones:
we are still testing those

Sukhoi.....how long for your review ? i am waiting man

 

[Sukhoi]

Probably tomorrow afternoon, though I have a doctors appointment at 2:30. Luckily this doctor is usually on time and doesn't take long.

Right now have Win98SE and Win2KPro installed and patched. Tomorrow I need to defrag (should be fast, only 10 GB total to do), make a drive image, install the Detonator video drivers, and start overclocking. I'll try 133 MHz FSB with the 4:3 ratio right away and see how that works. Then I'll go for 150 MHz FSB. I'll bump the RAM up to 2.8V for this testing, though I'm not going to keep it there for very long.

What temps are you getting for idle in the BIOS? I seem to be running about 43º C though I'm pretty sure I read that this board reports temps high.

 

[gsethi]

same temps here. i get like high 40s idle and mid 50s load. probably some fault with the winboard chip.

waiting for your reply now

 

[Rkonster]

Hmmm, I was doing some more reading over at hard forum also, not a single person has been able to get DDR over 350 in these boards. Hmmm, I heard the 845e is very similar to the 845D. I wonder why this is happening. I am really tempted to get one now.

 

[Sukhoi]

Nope, no luck. First test 133 MHz FSB DDR266 works great at default voltage. I know this isn't long enough, but I ran Prime95 for 10 mins with no problem. However, 133 MHz FSB DDR354 doesn't work at all. 2.5V RAM BSODs initially loading Win2KPro. 2.6V went a little farther before BSODing. 2.7V crashed loading the RAID BIOS, and sent a horrible beeping out of the little speaker. I was amazed my RAM wouldn't take the 2.7V considering it's Samsung 512 MB PC2700 I bought at Newegg that should be the original stuff.

My processor is really confusing me..I can run 2133 MHz at 1.5V, but it won't even load Win2KPro at 2400 MHz at 1.65V.

 

[gsethi]

even my Samsung PC 2700 is from newegg and it is the original stuff. Mine can do DDR 354 at 2.80v (not anything lower) at this board.

Give the Ram 2.80v and give the proc 1.70v and see it it will do 133 FSB / DDR 354. run Prime 95 for about 15 min and so if it gives you any initial errors. if not, then go to the next higher level. keep us posted.

 

[Sukhoi]

Sorry, not giving the RAM 2.8V after it just about exploded at 2.7V. I'm working on getting up to 2.4 GHz now...I'm curious what voltage I'll need.

 

[gsethi]

Originally posted by: Sukhoi
Sorry, not giving the RAM 2.8V after it just about exploded at 2.7V. I'm working on getting up to 2.4 GHz now...I'm curious what voltage I'll need.

LOL, what do you mean by exploding ? hmm........it shouldnt explode if its TRUE samsung because thats rated for 2.5v +/- 0.2v, so that makes the range of 2.3v to 2.7v.

hope that helps.

 

[oldfart]

Can the old 845D handle these high speed DDR's?

They sure can! You just have to get the RIGHT 845D board.

 

[Sukhoi]

It should be true Samsung as I bought it from Newegg. But if it is why did the computer crash on POST as soon as I raised the RAM from 2.6V to 2.7V? The little speaker went crazy when it crashed too.

 

[gsethi]

hmm.....did you remember to lock the PCI/AGP bus to 33/66 ? thats once cause

what was your FSB ?

btw....i got Dragon 478 Heatsink Fan and my temps got down by like 5C. but it is too loud. dont know if i am going to keep it or not.

 

[TuffGuy]

I have two 256MB sticks of Samsung PC2700 that I got from Newegg last week:

1) 154MHz 2-5-2-2 at 2.5V on an Abit BG7
2) 152MHz 2-5-2-2 at 2.5V on an Asus P4B266

 

[Roujin]

Well I finally got got the board. Very nice! Burnt it in with a 1.6a for the customary 72 hours at default speed. I was able to bring it up to 133mhz fsb to 2.1ghz so far. Running at default voltage with stock cooling 47C idle, 57C stressed. Same temps as normally clocked. Very stable. Still kinda high though.

The only thing that concerns me is that when I lock the PCI/AGP speeds at 33/66, Easytune 4 reports the PCI/AGP speeds at 44/88 . What gives?

Sandra does not report the PCI/AGP speeds when overclocked, so the only thing I have to go by is Easytune. I'll bring it up the fsb and memory higher but I want to get some insight on why my my PCI/AGP speeds do not appear locked. I'm still using the F3 bios. Anyone?

 

[Sukhoi]

PCI/AGP are locked at 33/66...they came that way default and I haven't had to change anything. I'm running the F3 BIOS if it matters.

I had that weird RAM problem at 133 MHz FSB with the 4:3 ratio for DDR354. My Samsung should be able to do that speed easily.

Roujin I wouldn't worry about the temps too much. From what I've read this board seems to report the temps high, some people even are saying about 10º C.

That PCI/AGP thing interests me, though I seriously doubt your PCI cards would be running happily at a 44 MHz bus speed.

 

[Roujin]

Sukhoi, I think your right. Everything would be unstable at 44/88 PCI/AGP. I think that Easytune may be using a ratio to calculate the speeds from the FSB instead of reading the actual speed in the bios. I ran sandra burn in at that speed and it was stable.

I've been reading a lot about how the motherboard exagerates the temps. If it weren't for this thread I would've bought 10 case fans or water cooling already =).

 

[gsethi]

Hello

I think that i am going to RMA this board.

I am looking at two boards now....

Epox 4G4A+ - despite its bad entrance, people have started to get some good overclocking from this board.....DDR 370+ - $138 @ newegg
Asus P4B533-V - looks like a winner from all the new boards but is way way expensive - $166 w/o RAID....no way i will be spending more than $150 for this board

 

[barmstrong]

I just bought an 8IEXP and a Antec PPlus 660 Minitower.

If the 2 USB 2.0 sockets are used by the rear USB, where would I plug in the front USB ports?

I have the same problem with the Firewire ports but it isn't that big of a problem.

Is there an internal PCI USB Card? Would I be able to replace the 4 port bracket with a 2 port bracket? I don't want it to look like 2 ports can't be used because I'm building it for someone else and don't want to confuse them. Where would I get the bracket?