I wanted board that support AGP and the Core 2 Duo CPU's, especially the Core 2 Extreme X6800 for AGP benching. Dunno if that was a good choice, but the first board I get for this purpose is ASRock 775i65G R3.0. It does not look like much: http://postimg.org/image/i2e14qssf/ http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/775i65G R3.0/ ...but it promise support for the FSB 1066 on the fast CPUs. I ordered a Core 2 Extreme X6800 ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-...119?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c93a7bad7 ), some fast rams should be moving towards me too ( http://forum.hwbot.org/showthread.php?t=95400&page=2 ), so what remain is a good cooler, PSU and let's the journey begin At first I tried a lazy old Celeron 336 (2.8GHz) and some crapy rams (2x 512MB Mushkin enhanced 2.5-4-4-9 tested at 200MHz): The board is completely stock, except that I get rid of the stickers and the "bubble gum" for the chipset cooler, replaced with AS2. There did not seems to be a way to increase Vcore in bios and using a stock Intel cooler I hit wall at 154MHz FSB (x21) pretty soon: http://valid.canardpc.com/lregg7 Now we can all quess, what that caused. Not enought Vcore? Celeron having a problem going over 3.2GHz? Poor cooling? Poor old FSP300-60NP PSU? Rams? (they should not be the case, as I tested them with the timings (except TRAS 9, this board did not let me set over 8) at 200MHz) Never the less, I started measuring on the mobo what caps I can replace with quality ones. There is the table of caps and voltages on ASRock 775i65G R3.0: Including original .ai file (Illustrator 7), if anyone want to use/print it for own moding. Surprisingly, the board have zero caps from the bottom. And since it have only 5Vcore output caps, then I have to come up with some mod that add caps to the Vcore output, as this is IMHO not enought caps for only 3 phase Vcore regulation. Still, people managed max FSB 352MHz: http://ww.w.hwbot.org/submission/2430766_ludek_reference_clock_775i65g_352.44_mhz ...max memory clock 250MHz: http://ww.w.hwbot.org/submission/2327744_chris_666_memory_clock_ddr_sdram_249_mhz ...and max CPU clock od 4.2GHz: http://ww.w.hwbot.org/submission/2339937_darkzeus_cpu_frequency_pentium_4_641_4220.4_mhz ...so I have something to look forward to Adobe Illustrator v7 file of the caps and voltages on the mobo: https://mega.co.nz/#!yJlgFKga!A5dvaxYw0I0afoa8IQ6_RTIfmpBE-6yb3AzDpWWj8tY http://www.mediafire.com/?93p87632hmxsogr http://dfiles.eu/files/65lb4f09q (no attachments possible, so...)
CalculuS - sure I will. Hopefully the progress will be good... but if not, then a documented failure still could let someone learn from my mistakes. lexer98 - thank you very much. Hopefully with some help I could manage something interesting... and if not, then at least it will be helpfull to others. Now is time to source the components So, when my Celeron 336 does not like to go higher that FSB 154, then what about my Pentium 4 650? Can it get higher? We see. First at all, puting a P4 in the mainboard "unlocked" the DDR400 settings (previously only 133 and 166MHz ram settings are available, now 200MHz is possible too, hoooray!). And another thing is, that the Intel cooler is not cooling the CPU well, when come past 3.5GHz, as there are serious thermal slow-downs... Also the Mushkin enhanced rams cannot make it stable past 200MHz (maybe not even on 200MHz, as they need the TRAS 9, while maximum setting is 8 on this board), so I replaced them with 2x1G sticks OCZP4001G that I have tested they run well at 2.5-3-3-7 1T to 232MHz with mere 2.64V Sadly it turns out, that any overclocking with this "cooler" is just a wishfull thinking, so solution is simple - get better cooling, mod the mainboard caps for quality ones, add caps, use good PSU - and possibly also use less TDP demanding CPU (P4 650 have 84W TDP, Core 2 Extreme X6800 have 75W TDP). Also I realized, that the nVidia FX 5600XT card, witch I like and moded pretty much well ( http://s18.postimg.org/g28j6c70p/Ge_Force_FX5600_XT_cooling_Accelero_Mono_Plus_5.jpg ) cannot give over 60Hz output in 1280x1024 using DVI. Crappy lame HW limits. I learn that nVidia used crappy TMDS encoders in the whole FX 5xxx line, so basically it cannot send quality digital signal of need clocks for 75Hz... damn! (hence crappy R9100 can do 75Hz over DVI, but FX 5900 Ultra cannot) Solution - get Radeon 9600XT and recap it, mod it ... I have to report a little progress: - get serious PSU - done. eVGA Supernova G2 850W might be a "bit" overkill, but it does the job done: - get serious cooling - done. Noctua NH-C12P SE14 will get the job done and keep even highly TDP demanding CPU's in reasonable temps: Also I have progress on the bios thing - using AMIBCP v3.51 ( http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/61062-ASRock-775i65G-R3-0-bios-unlock ) I opened the bios and - sadly - there is no hidden options: Damn. Nevermind - how far it will overclock now, witch good cooler? Even 218x17 (3703MHz: http://valid.canardpc.com/hrmiv0 ) does not seems to be a slightest problem. Surprisingly (there are plenty of much faster CPUs, so WTF?) I even set a SuperPi 32M record for the mobo: http://hwbot.org/hardware/motherboard/775i65g/ ( http://hwbot.org/submission/2858182_trodas_superpi___32m_pentium_4_650_31min_52sec_609ms ) ...witch is hardly any record, but currently it is So till the rams and X6800 Extreme CPU come, I could play a bit to see, how far the poor P4 650 can be pushed w/o increasing the voltage.
Well, that could clearly end bad, as the caps on the mobo are all known bad caps... but with some mods I think I could manage 3.9 or 4GHz for the P4 650 chip even w/o increasing the Vcore, witch require a mod on this board. No way to increase it in bios, sadly. A serious setback happend - rams aren't performing how they should Since the target CPU is Core 2 Extreme X6800, I need fast DDR1 rams. For P4 a 200MHz is fine (800/4 = 200), but for 1066MHz CPU is need 266MHz rams to have FSB:rams into 1:1 for the maximum speed. Therefore I started searching for rams, that can do 266MHz. A user from germany showed that his Qimonda rams, using CE-5 chips can run at 265MHz getting 2.7V (Abit IC7-Max3 with intel 875 chipset): So he sold me these and when i used the very same ram sticks (see S/N) in ASRock 775i65G with intel 865G chipset at 2.75V, I get them fail at mere 216MHz, using the very same settings: ... Sure anyone can claim, that it was because my CPU cannot handle that overclock, right? Well... wrong. Even there is no Vcore increase, my CPU can handle 228MHz FSB ( http://valid.canardpc.com/hl1nhr ) somewhat stable for CPU-Z and benchable it can handle 220MHz: So to put it short, Qimonda rams fail at 216MHz, OCZ rams working at 220MHz. Hardly this could be because of the CPU ... or can it? Who can explain me, what just happend? Same mobo, same CPU, same settings... yet so dramatically different results?! What can be wrong? Could the ASRock somewhat address the rams SO bad, that they now fail at 216MHz, when they worked on Abit at 265MHz?! ...and no... I cannot use these OCZ rams for 266MHz, as they have top frequency about 231/232MHz with reasonable timings
Maybe the memorys have different chips (batch) or the motherboard don't overclock well. BUT I remember one guy that likes play with old hardware, tell me that 865/875 can reach higher memory clock and CPU clocks running in single channel...
Could be! Record 352MHz FSB was reached with single channel: http://valid.canardpc.com/c8xylb However I aim for pure CPU speed rather that have an CPU-Z validation on semistable clocks Witch is why I opted for the Core 2 Extreme X6800 CPU Aaaargh! To add insult to injury, when Core2Duo CPU is inserted (yes, mine Core 2 Extreme X6800 made it to me from China), the mainboard completely block ALL ram clock changes, FORCING the 3:2 divider as FSB:ram locked divider...! Therefore now I do not need rams that are good in overclocking (or at least on certain HW). Now I need could get a little boost only by getting 200MHz rams (PC3200) that can do 2-2-2-5 at 2.7V (that exclude rams with BH-5, BH-6 chips). My ram is running at 190MHz now. Only. 286FSB. If by pimping the mobo with good caps I could hope to get 300MHz FSB, then I get 200MHz on the rams... default X6800: http://valid.canardpc.com/d6wa6r - 2.93GHz stable: http://valid.canardpc.com/rjg1fw - 3.14GHz benchable: http://valid.canardpc.com/i68sc4 - 3.25GHz max OC: http://valid.canardpc.com/557qcn - 3.29GHz So a 2-2-2-5 chips are the only way to slightly improve the performance... and that it is. I run my OCZ at 2-3-2-5 now, even tightening few of the advanced timings to get more out of them. Still that feels like being cheated - I expected the possibility of FSB:ram as 1:1, so a 266MHz rams should fly there... On the other hand, a R 9600XT made it too, and it is a beautifull little card: And even she is full od bad caps (small are G-Luxons and big ones are Licons), she already score some interesting scores: http://hwbot.org/hardware/videocard/radeon_9600_xt/ So I think I will like it a lot
My choice of caps will be as follows: My idea of replacement caps for the ASRock 775i65G R3.0 mainboard: ------------------- 4x Chemi-con KZG 1000uF 16V d8 -> 5x Nichicon RNU 330uF 16V (RNU1C331MDN1) (+ one empty near the PSU connector) 5x Samxon GE 1500uF 6.3V d8 -> Nichicon LG 2200uF 2.5V (PLG0E222MDO1TD) 1x Panasonic FL 680uF 4V d8 -> Nichicon LG 2200uF 2.5V (PLG0E222MDO1TD) 19x OST 1000uF 6.3V d8 -> 5x Nichicon LG 2200uF 2.5V (PLG0E222MDO1TD) -> 11x Nichicon R5 560uF 4V (RR50G561MDN1) -> 3x Nichicon R5 470uF 6.3V (RR50J471MDN1KX) 11x OST 100uF 16V d6.3 -> 8x Nichicon S8 1200uF 2.5V (RS80E122MDN1) (one empty) -> 4x Nichicon S8 560uF 6.3V (RS80J561MDNASQJT) + 11x ceramic caps on all Vcore caps + sound cap: ceramic 22uF 6.3V 1206 (JMK316AB7226MLHT) + 2-4x taltalpolymer caps on Vcore bottom near CPU: 470uF 2.5V (2R5TPF470M6L) - if I can fit them there somehow...
