PJ's ABIT BE7 i845pe

[jpetermann]

I am no Thugsrook, so I likely will not get as much out of mine as he does. But I thought I would post my adventure with this board. I am starting a new thread because THugs and I both thought that his would get to long. He has helped me through the initial setup of this board and will likely give me a few tips along the way. I would start by saying that I too was an Asus man. I love their stuff, but I am getting a little discouraged by there voltage problems. I switched form the Asus P4PE to his Abit board, and I am SO glad that I did, so far. Setup was easy. I actually just swapped the boards out, and started her up. It worked like a charm after one reboot, but I would always have the questions in my mind if I did not do a fresh install, so I did. After the 3 days it took to format my 2*80 gb raid 0 (just joking, it only took about an hour) I finally got the install done and am now tweaking and testing. First results, just to see how it might go, was to get my 2.4 b c1 up to 3.0. Booted into windows fine and all. This was at a 1-1 mem setting, I just wanted to see that 3.0 on my screen. No stability run, I will work my way up to that. These posts will go slow, since I really am a pastor and Sunday's are the only day I work --- juuuuussstt joking! Will post some now and then and update as I can.

Once again, thanks Thugs for the board recommendation and for your help! Here we go!

PJ


Here is a start:

TEST SYSTEM
P4 2.4b C1 stepping
Alpha PAL8942 / w/YS TECH Adjustable cooling fan/ ASIII
Corsair XMS3200 512mb
GF4 ti4400 / 40.72 drivers
SB Audigy Platinum
WDSE 80gbx2 in Raid 0 Setup
Highpoint 370 raid controller
Antec 480W True Blue
Windows XP SP1 / Opera 7
________________________

Remember, the C1 stepping has a default of 1.525.
________________________

Temps (at idle)
Temps starting out at default settings were: 38cpu/30board
Temps at 167fsb:420ddr are: 42/33board
________________________

Vcore & Vdimm:
Default until I got to 150
At 150fsb I raised the vdimm to 2.6 and the vcore to 5%
At 155fsb I raised the vdimm to 2.7 and the vcore to 10%
At 165 I raised the vcore to 15%
All is maxed now.

I may not have needed all that so soon. I found that I had a "bad" stick of xms, so I swapped out the ram. All was fine then.
________________________

SANDRA= memory
133fsb:333ddr = 2540/2542
133fsb:355ddr = 2709/2707
150fsb:375ddr = 2879/2879
150fsb:400ddr = 3054/3052
155fsb:392ddr = 2977/2975
155fsb:412ddr = 3163/3160
160fsb:400ddr = 3074/3070
165fsb:412ddr = 3161/3162
167fsb:420ddr = 3174/3174
cas 2-2-2-5
167fsb:420ddr = 3201/3204


3dMark 2001 se
133fsb:333ddr = 12152
133fsb:355ddr = 12236
150fsb:375ddr = 12922
150fsb:400ddr = 13098
155fsb:392ddr = 13167
160fsb:400ddr = 13382
165fsb:412ddr = 13439



Sandra File System
155fsb:206ddr = 48503:Q

 

[THUGSROOK]

g'luck PJ
we'll be keeping an eye on ya.

please LUK if you run into any dead boot issues at "known" stable speeds.

*NOTE: PJ is using a C1 stepping cpu with 1.525v default voltage.

 

[TenEgg]

Good luck! I would like to see your results too since I'm interested in the BE7 as well.

 

[Exec]

Originally posted by: TenEgg
Good luck! I would like to see your results too since I'm interested in the BE7 as well.

You might want to check out the BE7-G as well. It has many of the features BE7 lacked. I still believe this board would be on of the best without the boot problem. Nothing sucks more than having to reset the system up to 10 times or even having to reset the bios because of cold boot.

Will be ripping the mb off and swapping it for Epox 4PEA. Just have to love the 14 days no questions asked warranty / refund.

Pastorjay:

The C1 2.4Bs seem to be pretty nice oc'ers. I had mine running at 3250MHz with only 10% voltage on my good old BG7. Got error after 3 secs of Prime, but didn't crash at least

Pic http://www.hardforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=521681&perpage=15&pagenumber=2

Second post from the bottom of that thread.

 

[jpetermann]

As you can see from above, I had a failure to complete 3d mark 2001 se at 150fsb and stock vcore. Will try a couple things a little later.

PJ

 

[THUGSROOK]

checking my thread ~ i needed more vdimm voltage @ 150:400.

 

[DoobieOnline]

Hey PJ, is your 512MB a single stick of XMS3200 or 2 x 256MB? I should receive my BE7 this week, so I'll be following the lead of you and Thugs in the hope of having a quick and painless installation and OC. Thanks, and good luck with your OC!

 

[dartworth]

Nice setup PJ. I was just wondering where you picked up a C1 2.4b...

Thanks and good luck with the board.

 

[TenEgg]

hmm...checked out the BE7-G....actually the BE7 suits me better because I don't want or use all the extra features. I still have 3 weeks to make my decision though. I'm considering this board, P4PE, and the 4PEA+.

 

[jpetermann]

Doobie,
I have one stick of 512 xms 3200. I actually have two sticks of 512, but only have one in right now. Good luck on your new setup!

PJ

Originally posted by: DoobieOnline
Hey PJ, is your 512MB a single stick of XMS3200 or 2 x 256MB? I should receive my BE7 this week, so I'll be following the lead of you and Thugs in the hope of having a quick and painless installation and OC. Thanks, and good luck with your OC!

 

[jpetermann]

jfano,

Got my c1 at new egg. Where else is there to shop!!!

PJ

Originally posted by: jfano
Nice setup PJ. I was just wondering where you picked up a C1 2.4b...

Thanks and good luck with the board.

 

[jpetermann]

Ok, back at it again. I needed to up the vdimm to 2.6. Made it through 3dmark once again. Score really jumped at this level! almost 700 points!
150fsb: 400ddr up next!

PJ

 

[jpetermann]

As you can see from the main list on my first post, 3d mark failed again. THis time at 155fsb:412ddr. Not sure what is causing it. WIll up the vcore to see. I may stick in my other stick of corsair to continue testing. Maybe this is a "slow" stick... Who knows. I will continue this tomorrow eveing. I gotta get some rest!

See ya all,

PJ

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Lookin' good PJ! Keep the benchies coming, I'm interested in your results as we have the same CPU

 

[TenEgg]

Any cold boot problems with the board?

 

[jpetermann]

Just started up. Have not had any coldboot problems at all.

PJ

 

[jpetermann]

Did a file check for the fun of it, and wow! I never got this high of a score before! Look up top to see!

PJ

 

[Mikki]

Looking pretty good PJ, I was wondering if you were planning on doing some more various tests like UT benchmarks or whatever...

 

[DoobieOnline]

PJ - I have a single 512MB stick of XMS3200, too. I was hoping you did so I could compare our OC's to make sure the stick I have is up to par! Your 2.4 C1 is similar to my 1.8 C1 in the sense that both have an 18X multiplier and 1.525 default vcore. You'll probably get a much higher OC out of your's but I'm gonna push the voltage and try to beat the 2.88GHz I got out of my Epox 4G4A+. I'd be perfectly happy to stably hit 160FSB/200DDR at 4:5 and am hoping for 166/215. Thanks and keep up the good work!

 

[jpetermann]

Mikki,

I do not have UT. If there is a site to download the benchmark/demo, let me know and I could do some of that.

Thanks,
PJ

Originally posted by: Mikki
Looking pretty good PJ, I was wondering if you were planning on doing some more various tests like UT benchmarks or whatever...

 

[Technonut]

I may stick in my other stick of corsair to continue testing. Maybe this is a "slow" stick... Who knows. I will continue this tomorrow eveing.

Corsair will honor their warranty up to 2.8V on the XMS series, so you could try past 2.6V to see if that helps.

 

[jpetermann]

Thanks for the tip. I actually have it at 2.7 now, which is the furthest this board will go.

PJ

Originally posted by: Technonut

I may stick in my other stick of corsair to continue testing. Maybe this is a "slow" stick... Who knows. I will continue this tomorrow eveing.

Corsair will honor their warranty up to 2.8V on the XMS series, so you could try past 2.6V to see if that helps.

 

[DoobieOnline]

Hey PJ, for fast downloads of game demos and patches try FileShack. You'll need to create an account but it's free and painless.

 

[jpetermann]

Ok, I am back at it. After doing some ram testing, I found that one of my corsair sticks of xms 3200 cas 2 craps out right at 400. Must be bad. Anyone know how corsairs' rma is/works?

Anyways, I will have some more updates soon. Running real sweet at 155fsb:412ddr

PJ

 

[THUGSROOK]

thats 1 stick down ~ 1 to go