Okay guys, I am runnin an athlon 1700+ on an ECS K7S5A mobo. The mobo has no controls for FSB, multiplier, or voltage. Is the any BIOS update or anything that will allow me to adjust these settings? I am currently using a utility called CPUCool to OC just a little bit (70mhz) *ugh* Is there any way to overclock this badboy more with out getting a new mobo?

Also, what is a safe PCI bus setting? CPU Cool will not allow me to adjust the FSB and the PCI bus separately.... and one more thing...

is there an easier way to tell the difference between the palomino or the t-bred than looking at the chip itself? I was told that the palomino will have the serial # on the core itself and the T-bred will have a black sticker beside the core....is this correct?

Thanks for all the help..

-Wolf

how can you overclock without being able to adjust FSB, Mult, or Voltage?

And it's best for PCI to be at 33MHz, it's the standard.

The palomino's are on brown board things. T-bred's are green. And yes, the core stepping on T-bred aren't on chip, but on a sticker. And the T-bred core size is smaller

well thats what i was trin to find out....if there was a BIOS update or sumthin that will allow me to adjust those....
right now CPUCOOL allows FSB to be adjusted, but the PCI bus moves with it....

You will most likely need to get a new motherboard. ECS doesn't support overclocking on their products.

yeah the pci moves with it. I bet your agp does do. You can lock the agp bus independantly from the rest of the system. but even with the nforce2 baords you need a higher divider to keep your pci in check.

hold on a min and i will find the info you want.

Here is the info you needed on whats safe for you pci bus (and also agp.

PCI is 33 spec, close to 40mhz and you might start having problems.

AGP is the same ratio, 66 and 80mhz.

That means that a PCI/AGP ratio of:

1/2/4 would mean a maximum safe Hclock / FSB of 160mhz
1/2/5 would be a maximum safe Hclock / FSB of 200mhz
1/2/6 would give you an astounding 240mhz.

But these are the absolute maximums that you might be able to get away with if the rest of your gear is perfect beyond luck.

I am running 175mhz with a 1/2/5 divider for 35mhz PCI / 70mhz AGP.

you can thank Icpiper for that. (in a thread called Agp Pci Bus or something similar)

and then this thread explains dividers,
http://forums.pcapex.com/showthread....light=dividers

these are some of the same questions i had when i first joined.

wow....after reading that thread, im thinkin that maybe i should read some more before trying to overclock....

So I DO need a new mobo for sure then?.....does anyone know if the ASUS A7N8X deluxe has these dividers?

on an even sadder note.... I think i have a 1700 palomino because i bought it in July of 2002 and i dont think AMD was making them on the t-bred process by then... please correct if im wrong...

To quote Clinton "I feal your'e pain" I purchased 1st mobo last Christmas at a computer show, was a good brand name, and the guy said it was good for overclocking. Even had Tom's Hardware seal of approval...
At the same time I bought it with a Xp2100, the guy unloaded an old stock Palomino on me I found out later...
Also got me on my memory purchase, he told me it was DDR333 Samsung, was months before I noticed it the sticker said Elixer....
And then there is my GForce 4 Mx420
I ended up with a stable, but overclocking limited in the bios dept. computer for under $500
With the help I have found here, endlessly reading reviews and forums, I am gonna try it again very soon.
I know what you mean, overclocking isn't as simple as it seems at first...

The biggest thing I learned for overclocking, is it all has to be a matched system: Mobo, Cpu and Ram.
1 mismatched item and it won't overclock much.

Asus A7N8X deluxe, Abit Nf-7, Epox RDA3+ seem to be among the most popular Nforce2 boards for overclocking, with tons of Bios options, try looking at those (but dont count out other brands)

MSI is great for o/c. I had an asus a7n8x, couldnt reach 200fsb with it..this msi k7n2g-l, I hit 200mhzfsb on it.

cpuz will tell you which core you have..google a search of it.

Heres a screen shot of it to let ya see.

Attached Thumbnails

 

very cool utility!

yup the bad news lingers....PALOMINO... that was much simpler than crackin my case and removing the heatsinker....thanks

o well...i think ill stick with what ive got until i can afford to buy RAM, CPU and a mobo all at the same time...(I tell myself it will be JUST prior to the release of Doom 3 and HL2 )

thanks for all the help...

-Wolf

No problem wolf..I occasionaly do help