8RDA6+ Pro Romsip Mod

[rhyotte]

Has anyone here used the Epox 8RDA6+ Pro with Crucial Ballistix ram? Specifically 2*512 of it? I have an NF7-S Rev 2.0 that I simply cannot 24 hour stabilize with Prime95 due to an error that occurs and about 9 hours and 38 minutes no matter what bio or state of OC im at. I am considering Either different Ram or a Different MOBO. The really frustrating part is that I can hit 233*11 and do basic gaming ect. Still I do not enjoy re-installing windows every 4-6 months do to a corrupted install.

Thanks
Gary

[smiffy]

Hi
Havent got a 8RDA6+pro but have an 8RDA+ rev 2.2 with 2 X 512mb Ballistix in.Runs great at 232Mhz dual channel.Didn't like 2 X 512mb Corsair XL though.

Smiffy

[bionic]

Originally Posted by MietmaN

@bionic - strange ....
Have you got 6+ PRO or 3+ PRO motherboard? Should make no difference, but ....
.

I have a 6+ PRO, the diag led was showing c1, no difference however after reseating my ram

[MietmaN]

Originally Posted by Wolf2000me

Hey

I also flashed to the CPC1 bios. So far it works as stable as it used to be at the same speeds. 12x213 (which is 12x112.5).
I seem to be as fast as MietmaNs benchie on 200x11.5. Though if i check the motherboard information in sisoft sandra 2005 it reports the cmdrate as 2T. Could anyone check on that?

Makes me happy - Merlin was already in panic, since he hasn't got an Epox to test his custom bios and the others have experienced problems. I was also feeling uncomfortable about that, since I tested the bios and everything was fine.

As to 2T - check with Central Brain Identifier (great Russian stuff ) - in my case it showed 1T; I haven't installed Sandra 2005 yet - got Sandra 2004 SP1.

oh and btw, the commandline described by MietmaN has a typo. It wouldn't work with the parameter /IQ, instead do /QI

Errrrr, sorry about that - I was writting everything just from memory and made a mistake. Good you've checked the parameter - seems to have an importance during flash.

Everything fine by you? Stable? (Fast it is, so I'm not asking )

cheers

[Wolf2000me]

Well, everything is faster and i appear to be as stable as i used to be
I first tried 11.5x200 to test with the results you got, which gave about the same results for me. Then i just tried my luck and set 213x12 2.5-3-3-11. And guess what, i'm still 100% stable. That means i may even get higher. Some kickass ram seems nice at this moment too
Oh, one more thing. When i do a cold boot I have to switch off the psu first or i get no boot. I can live with that, warm reboots are no prob. Just look at it as a security feature

edit: central brain identifier tells me 1T indeed

[ebwibble]

Another here!

Tried the CPC On one, worked fine. Haven't had any time to do any in depth testing, but it seems just as stable as the latest offical BIOS, and the memory bandwidth scores do seem to be a bit better.

Thanks Merlin!

[Spionkop]

-=MERLIN=-

Many thanks for your modded bios !!!!!!!

But someone knows a solution for have the multiplicator up to 13 or 13.5 ?
The max I can have is 12.5 !!!

Many thanks for your help.
Sorry for my english, I'm french !

__________________________________________________ _____________

Athlon XP-M 2600+ @ 2725 mhz (12.5x218) Vcore 1,95v. Epox 8RDA6+ PRO GeForce FX 5950 Ultra @ 559 mhz and 1030 mhz. 2x512mo Twinmos 2.5-3-3-11 (2,77v.) Watercooling 1A-HV2. DD 120GO+80GO Maxtor SATA. Temperature : 47°C Full (Office about 25-27°C)

[Wolf2000me]

The board only supports 4 bits of multiplier information, don't really know the exact name of it. The idea is that it would support 333-400 mhz cpu's of which don't "need" higher multipliers. You can get higher by the use of pinmods or up the fsb

[MietmaN]

@ Wolf2000me :

Do you still have your L12 hard mod? I'm just wondering if it is working properly on my mobo, since there should be some difference between 2x512MB dual and 1x512MB single - unfortunately the highest stable FSB with stock bios was 222Mhz (225Mhz I could run all the benchmarks, but got some Prime95 Blend errors quite quickly) no matter how many mem sticks I used, no matter if single or dual. On my dead Abit NF7 v2.0 there had been some difference - about 10Mhz higher with 1x512MB single.

I didn't menage to check that while using Merlin's bios before I went to Germany.

Btw. I have L12 with one copper wire, as shown here :

http://www.geocities.com/trats102002/nf7sFsbsense.html

I'm thinking about removing the hard L12 to see if it changes anything - I'm going back to Polnad in 2-3 weeks for a few days.

[Wolf2000me]

MietmaN

I also have one copper wire (default to 166). The ah32 to ag31 as shown in your pic. The problem is, i don't have the means to check whether i get higher. 2.5-3-3-11 is the highest timing combination i can set without making my memory unstable. I am however seriously considering better memory. My brother, who also has an nforce2 would like some better ram so he's intrested to buy off the Corsair xms from me. That way I could get some kickass TCCD memory. Or BH-5, it seems that memory chip is back from the dead. It will be sold again in the near future.
At any rate, i appear to be "slightly" more stable with Merlins 1T CMD. But the best stable setting i can get is 212.5x12 at mentioned timings. When i go above that in fsb, i get memory instabilities. But it takes longer to crash using Prime. I used to crash within 7 minutes at 215 mhz fsb, which is now 35 minutes. And i don't think it's the controller crapping out. If i lower any timing except for tRAS en CAS i'm not able to post. Of course i'm not entirely certain about that.

edit: I've been wondering for some time. You seem to be able to do 11*220 at 1.65v. It seems to me you can get a lot higher with some more vcore. Unless your cooling is at its limit but i'd be surprised about that. I'm using the SP97 where you're using the SI97. I can do 1.9v without getting my temps higher than 50°C.

[MietmaN]

@ Wolf2000me :
As I've already written - the max stable FSB is (or was with the stock bios) 222MHz with the timings 2.5-4-4-11 (FSB213MHz 2.5-3-3-11). My memory is rated DDR500 at 2.5-4-4-10, so I should be able to reach higher FSB, but for sure with a CPC Off bios (so it was on Abit NF7, about FSB240). The chipset can't go any further, not with 1T CPC and 2x512MB dual DDR. So it is, our beloved nForce2

Corsair XMS - think they come with Hynix mem chips - should do better, but ....

As to my sig - well, my max stable OC was 12x218, at 12x220 I can't pass SuperPI 16M. My 2500+ XP-M can menage as follows :

10x200 - 1.40v
11x200 - 1.50v
12x200 /11x220 - 1.65v
12.5x200 - 1.75v
12x218 - 1.875v

and nothing more - of course I can run 3D2001SE or some other benchmarks, but my system isn't stable :


http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3416361

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8276082

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8341219

http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=486264764

For daily use I run at 11x200; the rest is just for fun

[Wolf2000me]

Perhaps something to look in to.
Since i flashed the my bios to the Merlin cpc on bios I noticed performance increase. But only marginally. I increased 3dmark01 from 17800 to 17900. Aquamark also increased about 200 points. Your performance increase was much more. I have developped a theory about it after reading the nf7sFsbsense.html page. Perhaps it's BS or perhaps it isn't.
I connected ah32 to ag31, the lower mod in the left picture. Which made me boot at 166 mhz default. I assume you did the higher one on the left picture (ah30-ah28) as described in the table below. Which makes you post at 200 mhz default. Perhaps my mod made me use the 166 mhz romsip table even if i boot at above 200 mhz. Therefore, i only benefit from the CPC on setting and that would explain the minor improvement in performance. I am on par with your benchresults at 11.5x200. That would also explain why i did perform a lot better in superpi (posted in your memory bandwidth thread). I am using winxp of course and if you did the same mod as I did my theory is down the drain

[Naibot]

Good job Merlin

I was hoping to get a modded bios for my mobo some day.
And there it is.... No need to do a hardware L12 mod anymore
Before 210 FSB was about the limit i could get my system stable
And now i'm running 220 (2-2-2-5) and even reached as high as 245 (2.5-4-4-7).
To get some higher clocks i think i need to use the cpc disabled bios though, cos i'm running 2x512.

Thanx again!

[Wolf2000me]

Hey Naibot,

Could you post some sisoft memory results? I'm intrested in purchasing some g-skill tccd memory. Then I'll know what kind of performance increase i may get doing so. What voltage are you throwing at those? Did you need to increase the vdd ?

edit: I assume the 245 fsb was in single channel and 220 in dual channel?

[MietmaN]

Originally Posted by Wolf2000me

Perhaps something to look in to.
Since i flashed the my bios to the Merlin cpc on bios I noticed performance increase. But only marginally. I increased 3dmark01 from 17800 to 17900. Aquamark also increased about 200 points. Your performance increase was much more. I have developped a theory about it after reading the nf7sFsbsense.html page. Perhaps it's BS or perhaps it isn't.
I connected ah32 to ag31, the lower mod in the left picture. Which made me boot at 166 mhz default. I assume you did the higher one on the left picture (ah30-ah28) as described in the table below. Which makes you post at 200 mhz default. Perhaps my mod made me use the 166 mhz romsip table even if i boot at above 200 mhz. Therefore, i only benefit from the CPC on setting and that would explain the minor improvement in performance. I am on par with your benchresults at 11.5x200. That would also explain why i did perform a lot better in superpi (posted in your memory bandwidth thread). I am using winxp of course and if you did the same mod as I did my theory is down the drain

Hi, this does make sense to me now : My L12 is the higher one - should simulate FSB200 - as you correctly assumed. The thing is I have no idea if it works as it should - let's assume it does.

I used to have a real low memory bandwidth, as you probably remember, but it was also an issue in some reviews of Epox 8RDA6+ PRO. Almost everybody has got an AMD XP Mobile now, so it could depend on the L12 mod. I can't recall what CPUs were used in those reviews - I don't have enough time to check'em now. On the other hand some people here don't complain on the same issue I did. Well, it's complicated, but I think in your case it really does make sense - before buying some new memory try to remove your L12 mod, since it might have an influence on your FSB (lower than mine) - assuming (once again ) your theory is correct.

As to SuperPI - it has been checked by a friend of mine - under Win2k it counts much slower, about 40 seconds or even more in comparison to WinXP SP1 (SP2 is a bit slower than SP1).

@ Naibot - I've got the same question as Wolf2000me - precisly, I'm going to buy exactly the same memory sticks you have (G.Skil PC4400, Samsung TCCD chips, Brain Power's PCB). Could you plz post some SiSoft Sandra results at FSB200 and 220 (2-2-2-5)? I'm wondering if these sharp timings are worth the money I would pay for them.

[Naibot]

Here you go...

One at 220 (2-2-2-11) and the other at 225.
An increase in bandwith of about 100 MB/s.
As for the 225 Mhz, it is about the limit for these low timings (2-2-2-11)
Vdimm needed is 2.9 and vdd default (1.6), i only needed to increase the vdd for a FSB >235.
I will post some more at higher clocks later, the one at 245 MHz was also dual channel btw.


http://www.xs4all.nl/~druite23/OC/220.PNG

http://www.xs4all.nl/~druite23/OC/225.PNG

[Wolf2000me]

Well, i don't think it has influence on my fsb. Of course when i want to (prolly when/if I get some great memory) i'll remove it. My corsair is really running on its limits. Any lowering of a timing (except tRas) gets me a no-post and upping the fsb one notch makes memtest report errors. When i raise the CAS to 3 my memory is unstable as well. Also i would like to remove the heatspreader on the memory but i'd void the warranty if i do so. So I really think it's the memory but i'll only know for certain if/when i buy some g-skill tccd stuff. Do you guys know a good place to buy it in Europe? If it's cheaper than 249€ for G-Skill PC4400 2.5-4-4-8 2X512MB LC i'm intrested

Cheers

[ConiKost]

Do I need the Hardware L12 Mod, if i use the modded Bios for 8RDA6+ Pro by Merlin?

[ConiKost]

Should I take the Bios with CPC ON oder OFF ?
Which is better?

[MietmaN]

@ Naibot :
Great Bandwidth for this FSB, sharp timings - I assume it is Merlin's CPC On bios or am I wrong? If I'm right, then it's our mem sticks, that are holding us back (I mean myself and Wolf2000me).

@ Wolf2000me : you seem to be right as to your memory sticks. I haven't got the faintest idea, where we could buy G.Skill in Europe (at decent price) - a friend of mine has imported some from the USA. The Problem is he's in Poland and I'm in Germany now.

@ ConiKost :
I think you can remove your hard L12 mod, if you want to - Naibot doesn't have one and have a look at his results.
CPC Off lowers the perfromance, but allows to reach higher FSB speeds, especially while running 2x512MB dual channel. It's up to you - here's a good explanation :