KT400 boards

[Holst]

Ive been looking for some info on overclocking using the KT400.

Several manufacturers have KT400 boards on sale but ive yet to see any usefull overclocking results or information.

If you see any interesting links or reviews post them here.

Heres a lionk to a guy with a KD7 with a non working 1/6 devider, can anybody confirm this ?
http://www.overclockersforum.com/sho...threadid=22911

[sonny]

AFAIK the problem with the 6:2:1 is that it is only available/works properly if you have 2 or less memory banks filled. The guy also cant hit 200MHz/400FSB to use the divider so that might be another problem there.

[cloasters]

As there is no Jedec standard for PC-400 DDR, is it possible that any mainboard that allegedly accepts this RAM is pure hokum?

I'm just asking!

[sonny]

That's one of the reasons why VIA said it would not support DDR400 just yet & the bug of the KT400's NorthBridge being limited to just 2 banks of memory to hopefuly runn at 200MHz/400FSB. Anybody remember the KT133, what was that chipset that followed after that? The letter A might just be part of the picture again

[Holst]

Hi sonny.

There is no official DDR400 support (as far as im aware) and if you have two sticks of memory it probably wont work. (one stick will generally be 2 banks)

If anybody sees any more info post it up.

[Caffinehog]

Keep in mind that most KT400 boards only have a 1/5 pci divider, so getting past 200fsb could be an issue. Since AMD processors do not benefit from running the memory at higher speeds than the FSB, if you plan on running your memory at 200fsb, then you had better plan on running your processor at that, too. A 4:6 cpu:memory ratio is useless to an AMD.

You would probably be better off just buying a good quality kt333 board, because it is tested technology and it has the same pci dividers.

[sonny]

Originally posted by Holst
Hi sonny.

There is no official DDR400 support (as far as im aware) and if you have two sticks of memory it probably wont work. (one stick will generally be 2 banks)

Hello Holst. I was agreeing with cloasters about JEDEC not having approved any DDR400 memory as of yet & a lot of 256MB sticks are still just single bank AFAIK.

What I am interested in seeing is someone with more experience than the people in that link with quality memory to test out the board since I am in the market for a new Abit board.

[cloasters]

If the RAM has no officially agreed upon specifications, then the mainboards don't either. Personally, I'd pass on them.

Especially because chipset timing issues are a real bear with DDR.

[Holst]

What I am interested in seeing is someone with more experience than the people in that link with quality memory to test out the board since I am in the market for a new Abit board.

Thats what im looking for.

You get many threads on forums saying EPox boards are S**** when in fact the user has a homemade circa 1958 150watt PSU.

Kyle for [H] has one but hes not saying anything much about it, ive not seen very many others with them at all. You like allot of others dont want to take the risk, and I dont blame you.

[sonny]

Originally posted by Holst
Thats what im looking for.

You get many threads on forums saying EPox boards are S**** when in fact the user has a homemade circa 1958 150watt PSU.

Kyle for [H] has one but hes not saying anything much about it, ive not seen very many others with them at all. You like allot of others dont want to take the risk, and I dont blame you.

The biggest problem I have with purchasing ABIT is that the local distributor in my country has gone belly up so shipping cost & support for the product in terms of possible RMA will be very difficult. I'm not sure I like Epox, though they are OK, since I dont get as much control as I like in the BIOS but thats just me.

[drunken_master]

here ya go boys not that official, as its from me but here goes.

Using winbond ddr 400, when i first booted on unlocked t-bred on my abit max 2, it ran the ram at 200Mhz staright of with the chip at 550Mhz(unlocked, its supposed to do that). I can run at 133Mhz cpu 200Mhz ram no problems at all. Although no advantage in doing so. SO straigh tup to 166/166(can't do 166/200 ). get very, very good bandwidth, with lowish timings i get over 2500/2350 in sisoft.

I think i got it up to around 175mhz sync and got up to about 2580/2440 or something. still good. Runs fast.

Problems, trying at 200/200 i can't boot at all at the moment. I tried with the 1/6 divider twice and failed to boot when at 9x200 so at default speed. ONly thing that changed, ram at relaxed timings and no boot.

I think i tried 200/200 with 1/5 divider but still no go. THe main problem with all this is i'm running a radeon 9700 pro so can't tell if this might be to blame. ON my epox i could boot at 208Mhz with my gf3 so i will chuck that in later today and update on the 200/200 situation.

Other things that are need to know, i can't see an agpo 8x option in the bios, i suspect its been disabled to allow for stable running of the rad in this bios, that screws me over though as i want to know if my rad works right now to make it easier to RMA for a A3 stepped radeon now. No new bioses(although i don't know any good abit forums to find betas at??any help guys)).

can hit cas 1.5 with the ram at 150Mhz though, nice option but not doing anything right now at higher speeds. BTW, i'm running 2 double sided sticks of 256MB ram so will take one out later and check stability at higher speeds again aswell.

LItte irritating crap invovles the audio refused to install, still working on that, and the onboard hardware monitering appears to be getting them all mixed up, in bios it has sys temp hotter than CPU, but this board lets you read internal probe temp and socket thermister at the same time. I haven't checked that in win yet but can in bios. You also can't use the abit hardware monitering as there CD of stuff is saying the file is corrupted, so will chuck on MBM5 in a bit.

[drunken_master]

Oh yeah, and it won't let my boot if the chip is too high speed wise, this chip can hit 2.1Ghz, 2GHz at least very easily, and it craps out at 1.925Ghz, won't go any higher despite more and more voltage, way more than i tried on the epox(can go to 2.35V and 3.25V on Vdimm).

SO i'm not sure how well it clocks. WIll try overclocking at 133Mhz and see how that goes later too, wil try 133x15.

I'#m watercooled and heat is still a problem with this chip mainly as my chip doesn't make great contact.

ALso, the nuts on the nylon poles through the 4 AMD moutning holes won't fit at base of top side of mother board. CON's know if the socket has been made slightly bigger??(not possible right?) but the locking stick is plastic and is thicker than the metal pole on the Epox, and also copiule of bits in the way to stop safely using nuts to hole bolt in place, so i had to be extra careful attaching the waterblock and hole pole so it didn't spin. Just incase you do that same don't realise, unscrew the nut off the other side of mobo and have to take it all out again and try again.

[Alexandrus]

I have looked at that topic on the www.overclockersforum.com and I must say that there are a few things in the BIOS of the KD7 that really impress me.
First, the 1/6 PCI divider, although not working
Second, the ability to control CPU Command Decode, which is a GREAT feature in my opinion.
And these are the most important, but there are a few other features that are also pretty impressive.
One is the very high multipliers, although useless for some, it is nce to have up to 28X or something.
Second, the finer control for VCore, in 0.025V steps even above 1.850V, which is pretty nice, just a few more V to make the system perfectly stable, not 0.05V like on some boards.
And third, the PC Health menu in BIOS. I love the fact that the board tells you Intelnal CPU temp as well as the CPU temp from the in socket thermistor. And the I/O voltage is also nice to know.

All these features would be great to have on better boards(seems like the KD7 is not that good at OC, the guy that started that topic confessed that he had much better results on EPoX boards), say EPoX 8K9A2+ and 8RDA+. They would really make these boards even greater.

[Alexandrus]

One KD7 BIOS pic :

[Alexandrus]

And the second one :

[drunken_master]

well, i would love to agree with you but have to let you in on the way its been played.

THe 1/6 divider will never, ever work on this mobo, and the kd7 range is suffering same awful performance as the at7 max 2. ALso has a new bios that has speed it up no end though.

BUt the new bios has no 1/6 divider. There is 0.25v adjustment above 1.85v. it goes to a point(although forgot where), then it goes to .25, then .75 for each extra setting, so still .05v at a time as you get higher

The tempos also appear to be reading very wrong in the bios, in fact totally wrong. It was reading my sys temp as 71C while MBM was reading 43C(northy fan being broke raised this as its right by it). I suspect 43C is more accurate.

[Alexandrus]

OK, so no 1/6 PCI divider, that sux.
You pretty much demolished my case, but I like it this way. At least now I won't have anything to complain about when the 8K9A2+ is ready, because there will be nothing better I think.
But the idea of the two CPU temps and the CPU Command Decode control remains.
And I still think they could very well do the VCore is 0.025V steps for finer adjustment.
Anyway, I get it you have one of those boards and you know better. Any idea on where I could find a review of it just for more info ?

[drunken_master]

i think there has been one review of the abit max 2, but can't remember when, just do a search on google, or look in news archive at one of the sites ya visit that does news, shoudl be on there.


Yeah, fast decode is nice, but again its unstable at the mo, but apparently on theis board compared to the kt333 abit, the normal for this board is the same as fast on the kt333, and the fast is the same as ultra o nthe kt333 abit. SO its nothing to worry to much about, not having the ultra setting too stable.

I might have to get a replacement of this board, unless anyone can tell me when the epox is due out. If its very soon then i might get that instead, but i do get some great bandwidth out of this board. really great.

Played with a XP 2600+ at the NEC roadshow in UK today. Clocked it a littlem, only to 2.24Ghz, tried 166Mhz next but the guy at stand wouldn't do it with morte than 1.75v so it didn't post. But did the 110Mhz overclock on no extra voltage, so i think the stories of this hitting 2.5Ghz on air are true, they had a prometia set up there too, but with a p4 in. Tried to persaude them to stick the 2600+ in the prom, 2.8Ghz would be my estimate it could hit, but he wouldn't do it.

[Alexandrus]

I am actually looking for a review of the KD7-RAID, not the AT7 MAX2. I don;t like integrated stuff that uses up my PCI slots, although I only use 1 PCI slot. I just like to have 6 of them

Anyway, how come you get great bandwidth from the KD7 but you get low performance ?

[Alexandrus]

And BTW, as far as I know CPU Command Decode has three options : disabled, normal and fast, so I guess the KT33 ABIT had them as normal, fast and ultra respectively while the KT400 is missing the disabled option.