8RDA6+ Pro Romsip Mod - Page 6

MietmaN · #**101** (**permalink**) 3rd February, 2005, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barix

I saw that a problem in the Merlin's bios is that S3 and hiberanation are broken ..

Because I really need this functions (pratically I never shutdown windows, I only use suspend to disk and I don't want to abandon this way) I want to ask to Merlin if in the next 'release' he can check if this functions continues working..

By the way thanks for the great work you're doing, Merlin!!

I'm gonna let Merlin know, probably today - I think I've gathered all the information I need to write to him about. Should be fixed in the next bios release.

@Wolf2000me :
Thanx whole lot, dude!!!!

Good optimization starting at 9.5x up to the end with 12.5x multi - lower multipliers ain't for us, unless we wanted to reach FSB like 270-280MHz

EDIT : I've just sent him (Merlin) a PM - he's a busy man, so I don't know how quickly he will answer.

Áedán · #**102** (**permalink**) 3rd February, 2005, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Runnel

The only pity about the 8RDA6+ Pro is the fact that the board is not supporting the automatic fan speed control by speedfan.

From a quick check of the board, the fan connectors seem to be hardwired to the 12V line, so there's not much chance of speedfan being able to control them, unless you make some modifications to the board!

MietmaN · #**103** (**permalink**) 3rd February, 2005, 03:27 PM

@ Naibot - excellent work!!!!

It seems that :

At FSB200, according to the tests made by Wolf2000me, the higher multiplier the better memory performace, although the differences are rather small. I think this is something really good, because at this FSB people overclock only with multi (providing they have got some crappy memory sticks). This goes for both Sandra and Everest tests.

At higher FSB the diffrences remain the same and then become to be a little larger, but who of us is gonna use a multi like 8.5x ?

- Sandra 2005. On the other hand the Everest resutls (especially those of "write" and "delay") are really crazy

and I can't comment them better than you did

@ All :

I've just sent another PM to Merlin, with all the observed issues (cold boot, S3 & hibernation), all test you've done (including those of Naibot) and our expectations (our ill desire to reach higher FSB

). When he answers, I'll let you know.

MietmaN · #**104** (**permalink**) 3rd February, 2005, 04:16 PM

I've just received an answer from Merlin (I will translate, what he has written in polish

) :

"Ok, I'm gonna get to work soon - as I've already said, I can make this bios even faster. The problem is someone would have to sacrifice his time and his motherboard at the very beginning - I have to find a beta tester, because hot flash is almost sure with the pre-release alpha version.

I will let you know, I have a lot of work to do on this bios - I'm already a bit lost in all those details."

Any brave hearts here for alpha/beta testing in a couple of days????

Áedán · #**105** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 03:53 AM

I have a spare flash somewhere I can probably use for testing... It's much easier if you do have a spare flash part, as you have a known good BIOS you can fall back on.

grandmaster_b · #**106** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 06:47 AM

Hi guys I have flashed the merlin CPCon bios but I am not familair on overclocking settings can anyone help me out ?
This is my system
I have the PRO 6 version.
AMD XP 2800 333FSB version
2 * Corsair XMS3200 512MB DDR400 with Platinum heat spreader.
The highest I can go so far is 180mhz FSB which is 2250Mhz
Can anyone recomend any specific settings or tell me whats the max I can achieve ?
Or Should I be running the CPC off bios ?

danrok · #**107** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 06:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grandmaster_b

Hi guys I have flashed the merlin CPCon bios but I am not familair on overclocking settings can anyone help me out ?
This is my system
I have the PRO 6 version.
AMD XP 2800 333FSB version
2 * 512mb DDR 400 memory.
The highest I can go so far is 180mhz FSB which is 2250Mhz
Can anyone recomend any specific settings or tell me whats the max I can achieve ?
Or Should I be running the CPC off bios ?

What voltage are you running the CPU at?

grandmaster_b · #**108** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 06:55 AM

I am running default bios settings so not sure I have changed the FSB to expert so I could increment the FSB to get to the 2250ghz
I am a newbie sorry

danrok · #**109** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grandmaster_b

I am running default bios settings so not sure I have changed the FSB to expert so I could increment the FSB to get to the 2250ghz
I am a newbie sorry

You can change the vcore which is the CPU voltage in the BIOS settings. It is probably at 1.6v now.

Try a small increase on CPU voltage, e.g. 1.65v or 1.7v and then push the FSB up a little more.

Be aware that the CPU temperature will rise with voltage increases. Be sure that your CPU cooling is adequate. A good air cooler should be fine up to 1.7v or so.

grandmaster_b · #**110** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 07:03 AM

Thanks I will try that I have just edited my system to include my exact brand memory Corsair XMS3200 512MB DDR400 anyone know some good stable memory settings for that

danrok · #**111** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grandmaster_b

Thanks I will try that I have just edited my system to include my exact brand memory Corsair XMS3200 512MB DDR400 anyone know some good stable memory settings for that

The stock memory timings should be fine upto and a little beyond FSB 200Mhz. Given that you CPU is 166Mhz this is going to be your limiting factor rather than your memory.

grandmaster_b · #**112** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 07:13 AM

The pc is a windows media center pc so if I ended up not getting much more out of the current CPU what CPU would you recomend for overclocking ?

danrok · #**113** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 07:33 AM

The AMD Athlon "Mobile" XP2600-M Barton are considered to be the best overclockers.

But, I would see how well you can do with what you have first.

In the long run you would be better off upgrading both the mobo and CPU to 64-bit. The memory you have already would be ideal on a AMD 64-bit system.

ConiKost · #**114** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 09:48 AM

Does anybody has this Error too ?

My S-ATA Drives aren't recogniced at the SilImage S-ATA Raid Controller ...

MietmaN · #**115** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danrok

The stock memory timings should be fine upto and a little beyond FSB 200Mhz. Given that you CPU is 166Mhz this is going to be your limiting factor rather than your memory.

Exactly => grandmaster_b, plz make sure your CPU and your memory are both running in synchro mode; I mean plz check the memory settings in bios - memory FSB and CPU's FSB should run at 1:1 divider (or 100%). You can find the description of this setting in your manual, if you have some problems with that.

As danrok has already written - memory timings you can leave set to "by SPD". Then, if you happen to hit the wall while raising the FSB (and it must happen sooner or later), you will be sure the CPU is to blame, not your memory sticks.

@ ConiKost : did it happen after you had flashed Merlin's bios? It's important - if this is some issue related to this custom bios, I'll report it to Merlin as soon as I can.

ConiKost · #**116** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 10:22 AM

Yes, my S-ATA Drives work with the original Bios, but not with Merlins

Wolf2000me · #**117** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 10:33 AM

That's strange, my SATA drive connected to the SI chip are recognised. Perhaps you missed some setting? There are a lot of them and they confuse me too sometimes

MietmaN · #**118** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ConiKost

Yes, my S-ATA Drives work with the original Bios, but not with Merlins

Plz make sure you've done everything properly and if they still don't work, I'll let Merlin know - btw. what make are they?

Naibot · #**119** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MietmaN

"Ok, I'm gonna get to work soon - as I've already said, I can make this bios even faster. The problem is someone would have to sacrifice his time and his motherboard at the very beginning - I have to find a beta tester, because hot flash is almost sure with the pre-release alpha version.

Nice to hear he actually makes time for us

I would like to be a betatester, but unfortunately i've got only one bios-chip

Anyway, these are exciting times

Runnel · #**120** (**permalink**) 4th February, 2005, 05:20 PM

@Wolf2000me

"the end" for a not native English speaker, "my friend" automatically pops up. Yes, The Doors.

I'm quite busy these days and the following weeks. But I'll test again in single channel mode.

@ MietmaN

Thanks for your compendium. Indeed, I'm very impressed! This is really scientific research what you guys in Poland are doing. Respect! Your explanation of the bios being responsible for differences in memory-performance is quite convincing to me.

Yet one basic thing maybe I didn't quite understand: You are all testing with fix fsb and variable multi. If we would talk about Via-chipset based motherboard I could understand. Since on Via-board you can easily change the multi in Windows (with cpu-msr from your southern neighbor) but not the fsb.

On nForce-boards - the 8RDA6+ Pro is my first one - I learned that it's not possible to adjust the multi in windows. So what is that testing with different multis good for? Tests for the bios-performance or to get informations for new bios-programming?

At least in term of optimizing one's system to me it still makes sense, to find the maximum for instance of memory-performance with a fixed multi and variable fsb - since it's the fsb we are able to change and not the multi???

@ Áedán

You said: "so there's not much chance of speedfan being able to control them, unless you make some modifications to the board!"
You mean it's possible to connect the fan pin to some other place of the board instead of the plain 12 Volt line? This would be a nice project to do I've got again some more time.