Will switching from Asus A8N to DFI help with this rigs OC?

[housecat]

I'm curious on peoples opinions here.

I have this rig:
Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester@ 2.4ghz stable - Asus A8N SLI Deluxe 1004 final - Geil 1gb ultra series DDR500
2x BFG 6800GT OCs - 320GB DiamondMax Plus9 RAID-0 - 550watt BFG PSU (its a nickel plated Fortron Source FSP550-60PLN)
Antec Super Lanboy - Lite-On 52x24x52 - Dell 2005FPW

I'm running a 2.4ghz prime stable OC @1.55v (will not run stable@2.4 with any less)
1:1, default timings (7-4-4) for the ram, 1T

I can boot into Windows and run games for some time at 2.5ghz until it locks up. I cannot get an inch above 2.5ghz ever, even into the bios.
I only got 2.55ghz to boot one time.. havent been able to duplicate

going up to 1.6/1.625v is required for me to run 2.5ghz at all.
but i have never gotten 2.5 stable... i dont know what else to change other than add more vcore.
I've used all the dividers to take the ram out of the equation.. lowered multi to 9x and ran a ~265cpu freq to achieve around 2.5ghz clock.. but a lockup happens right above 2.5ghz every time.
1T or 2T does not help me get beyond this 2.5ghz barrier.

What do you guys think? Is this the CPU maxed, or is this a crappy motherboard that is limiting me, even possibly?

I was all hot on the DFI, until I got settled in with the asus.

Eager to hear what you guys have to say.

Thanks much in advance.. I've been struggling with this question. But lean towards "no" personally (otherwise I could have never gotten settled with this asus )

basically, its my assumption that the components and parts on the DFI NF4s are higher quality, and even tho it appears my CPU is maxed, that somehow magically those high quality parts and magic Oskar Wu bios will make 2.5ghz stable and maybe open up 2.6ghz?

I should add that I noticed whenever you go above 1.55v in the AI boost app it actually never goes any higher. Vcore actually DROPS and starts fluctuating madly. Dont know if anyone else has noticed this, or if I'm just a noob. So I'm now at 1.55v (1.584 solid reporting from asus probe and cpuz).
Setting anything above 1.6v causes an instant blue screen, no matter the cpu settings.

I've dropped the multi to 9x and gone to around ~275cpu freq (3X HT of course) and once I hit about anything above 2.5ghz.. blue screen.

im on stock cooling, havent seen it hit 60c yet on load and thats where i would pay attention.

im at 245x10 (4xHT) 1:1 1T (2.45ghz), its been running all night but sitting at 45C.

 

[Duvie]

It damn well could....it seems the Asus sli board has tons of quirks and limitations....

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Its possible, you will definately be able to run higher ram speed 1T. But its also very possible your CPU just won't do 2.5-2.6. The DFI offers insane voltages, so you may be able to get a bit more with higher volts, but I'd be afraid of using such high volts without alternative cooling.

 

[akugami]

Doubt it. You will be able to run your RAM at higher speeds using 1T but AFAIK all of the boards can overclock about the same cpu wise. I think you're just hitting the limitations of your particular cpu.

 

[Mrvile]

Bad week I bet. Not much you can do at this point.

 

[caboob]

I moved on to the DFI board from an already good clocking EPoX board that I had up at 320HTT. This DFI board delivers steadier Vcore voltage and now I'm Prime stable at 2.7 on this board. I wasnt at all on my Epox board.

 

[ribbon13]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=1535887&enterthread=y

 

[leedog2007]

my money is on the cpu. you could try both if you've got the cash.