Those of you with Barton-M's at 2.4+ghz , does your northbridge have active cooling? (or just a heatsink?)

[Lyfer]

At such high FSB speeds of over 200MHZ, doesn't the northbridge of the NForce 2 need an active cooler w/FAN? Or will the standard heatsink most manufacturers ship with suffice? BTW I notice that alot of Nforce 2 boards lack passive cooling for the southbridge, does this effect stability at all at high oc' speeds?



BTW How is the Epox EP-8RDA3+ for overclocking a Barton XP2600 Mobile? Is it as good as what Abit/Asus has to offer? I notice that it is the only board to have a passive heatsink on the southbridge and an active cooler for the northbridge.

 

[OCDuron]

I have an XP-M 2500+ running on an Abit NF7-S 13.0 x 200 2.6GHz @ 1.8v. Using the stock Abit heatsink/fan.

 

[Lyfer]

No stability problems at all? Are you using the onboard sound aswell?

 

[myocardia]

My mobile 2600 hasn't gotten here yet, but my Epox 8RDA3+ will do up to 219mhz fsb, which I think is good and is better than most of the A7N8X-D's will do, but doesn't compare to the NF7-S's. I'll probably run my mobile at 12x210=2520, since I also ordered a Thermalright SLK-900a and a 92mm Tornado.

 

[drewdogg808]

both my nf2 boards have done 220 fsb without active cooling (using zalman nb hs). one board was a 8rda+ other is nf7-s.

sb heat doesn't affect stability too much unless you're hitting really high fsb speeds....then its usually the onboard peripherals (sound/lan) that may get flaky without better cooling.

if you're doing some serious oc'ing, go with the nf7-s or dfi infinity. they generally have hit higher fsb speeds than the epox.

 

[myocardia]

I agree that the NF7-S is better than the 8RDA3+, but I really don't think you're going to be happy spending $102 plus having to reinstall Windows, since you'll only be getting a few more fsb mhz. I think you'd be quite a bit happier spending the $100 on something else like maybe good low-latency ram, if you don't already have some, or a 160GB Hitachi hd that's spins at 7200 rpm with an 8MB cache plus 8.5 ms access time. BTW, I just noticed that you said your 8RDA3+ has a heatsink on the southbridge. Mine doesn't, but I really don't think that will affect OCing at all, unless you are using onboard sound.

 

[Insane3D]

I've got a passive setup on my NF7-S/XP-M @ 2.5Ghz...

PIC1

PIC2

:beer:

 

[Lyfer]

Originally posted by: Insane3D
I've got a passive setup on my NF7-S/XP-M @ 2.5Ghz...

PIC1

PIC2

:beer:

Swheet! Nice mod.

 

[LED]

Just to repeat what other Peeps stated...My DFI's worked fine until I started hitting over 240FSB when I noticed the chips were to hot to touch so I added some cooling. Until recently the Abit NF7's had no 10 or 10.5 multipliers but there are Mod BIOS's to correct that. I've played with all the mentioned MoBo's and IMO DFI's take the cake for OCing.

 

[OCDuron]

Yea, very stable. Just ran Prime95 for a day after running 3DMark for a day. I'm using onboard sound also. My system seems to run fine at 2.7GHz @ 1.9v, but 1.9 is a little high for my liking. I prefer to keep my CPU temps in the high 30s to the low-mid 40s. My system temps are at 26-28ºC. I've got an Antec P160 with 2 120mm fans and a Volcano 12 as my heatsink/fan.

 

[myocardia]

The Thermaltake Volcano 12 is an awesome heatsink for the price, but newegg is out of them. I found one here for a good price, but I haven't ever heard of this site, so take your chances if you want one-- link to TT Volcano 12 for $24. Also, these are even better for the price, since they are $10.50: Speeze FalconRock at newegg. There are people running mobile Athlons at 2.4ghz+ with them.

 

[Noid]

I'm using a Microcool NorthPole.
But, I had a crystal orb on it before that, and it worked just as well.
(copper is better and orb is alot less $)

 

[VisableAssassin]

NF7-S running with a swiftech MCX159...best d4mned NB sink you can buy...CPU sinks dont count

 

[Jeff7181]

My A7N8X Deluxe just has a passive heatsink... sorta... I have my CPU fan positioned on my SK-7 so that part of the fan hangs over the edge and blows down toward the northbridge. It doesn't get that hot anyway... I've run it at 233 Mhz before and it's perfectly fine... when I get my new power supply today I'll be retesting and finding the best settings for my overclock, right now I'm at 209x11.5.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

Originally posted by: myocardia
The Thermaltake Volcano 12 is an awesome heatsink for the price, but newegg is out of them. I found one here for a good price, but I haven't ever heard of this site, so take your chances if you want one-- link to TT Volcano 12 for $24. Also, these are even better for the price, since they are $10.50: Speeze FalconRock at newegg. There are people running mobile Athlons at 2.4ghz+ with them.

resellerratings.com

i ordered my mobile barton from ewiz,they are trustworthy.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

i have a DFI lanparty, at about 225mhz once i installed my volcano 12 i started noticing heat issues and instability. the volcano 12 is so large that it blocked some airflow, heh. i have a thermalright NB-1 in the mail.