best socket A mobo to overclock 2500-m

cokecan · 22 May 2006 at 21:33

got a little project planned for in a month or so. want to have a stab at water cooling, and though what better way than to see how high i can clock a 2500m

my old one i used to have in my shuttle was stable at 2.6 on air cooling. would post at 2.7 but restart when booting. really wish i hadnt sold that now

If your reading this (as i did sell it on here just over a year ago now) and you remember buying it from me, do you want to sell it back? its the one with the chip down one side of the core! lol

anyway, what would be the best socket A mobo to overclock this with??
a decent bios and possible volt modability would be nice

also somethin that supports sata

any ideas??

cheers

str · 22 May 2006 at 21:49

Abit NF7-S or the DFI NF2 board. You might want to try and find a 2600-M instead of your old CPU. It's about the best from what I've read with many of them running at 2.8Ghz and have seen a report of one at 3.4Ghz.

cokecan · 22 May 2006 at 23:08

oh just thought of another thing id like back...soundstorm

i knwo one of the socket A nForce 2 boards didnt have it on??

hmm, 2600-m might be worth while then?? id like to hit the magic 3ghz

str · 22 May 2006 at 23:24

IIRC it was only the Chaintech that didn't have Soundstorm although maybe theres some budget boards also that don't have it.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=77316

Have a read of that to find out what stepping to look for. I've seen a few 2600-M's on the bay for cheap so maybe you could email the sellers about steppings and pick one of them up.

str · 22 May 2006 at 23:28

Actually if you're going to buy stuff you might want to think of a Socket 754 board and one of the Sempron 64's. Would be a challenge to hit 3Ghz but would probably be a much faster system compared to an Athlon XP setup. Watercooling should keep a Sempron at 1.65v reasonably cool too.

Zefan · 22 May 2006 at 23:29

DFI LANPARTY NF2 ULTRA-B

/end thread.

cokecan · 22 May 2006 at 23:42

ive allready got a 754 rig as my main comp (3400+ clawhammer that wont clock for buggery)

besides i still retain a certain love for all things socket A, soundstorm and Athlon XP's lol

that 3.4 xp would be nice

, though the fsb is a tad low?? i was gettin 225 - 230 in my shuttle with a gig of gskill LE and my old 2500-m (that was an AQYHA stepping too)

any particular bios for the DFI NF2 ultra-B?

i know how some of the custom bioses were pretty good and gave ya loads of extra features

keef · 23 May 2006 at 13:42

bump for ya, im eagerly awaiting any responses too! doin just the same thing myself, gotta love xp!

deadeyedic30 · 23 May 2006 at 22:08

Abit NF7-S has soundstorm. Get Tic Tacs D26 Mantaray bios and away you go overclocking.

kitfit1 · 23 May 2006 at 22:32

Zefan said:
DFI LANPARTY NF2 ULTRA-B

/end thread.

Got to agree with that, have a look below.

The vast majority of NF7-s v2's will never get past 230fsb, regardless of which bios you use. The DFI Lanparty-B's and Ultra-Infinity's will do 250fsb with no problem straight out of the box. The only thing to add is that you may have a problem finding a mobo and you could have an even bigger problem finding a good 2500 or 2600 mobile, but good luck anyway

str · 23 May 2006 at 23:06

Any chance of a SuperPI 1M screen of your setup kitfit1 (the 2600-M with 250 FSB and those tight timings).

cokecan · 23 May 2006 at 23:09

yeah i figure finding the bits is gonna be the hard part

, really wish i hadnt sold my cpu now.

i am planning on gettin some old skool BH-5 to run in it, possibly with either volt mod or ram booster (booster would probs be safer lol) so i can get 2,2,2,5 out of it at anythin up to 250fsb

kitfit1 · 23 May 2006 at 23:16

cokecan72 said:
yeah i figure finding the bits is gonna be the hard part , really wish i hadnt sold my cpu now.

i am planning on gettin some old skool BH-5 to run in it, possibly with either volt mod or ram booster (booster would probs be safer lol) so i can get 2,2,2,5 out of it at anythin up to 250fsb

The OCZ booster dos'nt work in the LPB or the Infinity, but both mobo's go to 3.3vdimm. Any higher will need a vdimm mod.

kitfit1 · 23 May 2006 at 23:17

str said:
Any chance of a SuperPI 1M screen of your setup kitfit1 (the 2600-M with 250 FSB and those tight timings).

Here you go Str.

cokecan · 23 May 2006 at 23:21

hmmm, well thats good news if it will do 3.3v anyway. im sure i could get close to if not get 250fsb with that.

primarily im aiming at anythin up to 250fsb, but if it will go more then all good

whats the max vcore possible on the ultra-b?

btw, was there a pic in your last post?

str · 23 May 2006 at 23:28

Excellent. Thanks kitfit1.

kitfit1 · 23 May 2006 at 23:35

cokecan72 said:
hmmm, well thats good news if it will do 3.3v anyway. im sure i could get close to if not get 250fsb with that.

primarily im aiming at anythin up to 250fsb, but if it will go more then all good

whats the max vcore possible on the ultra-b?

btw, was there a pic in your last post?

With old school BH-5 you will need 3.4vdimm to 3.6vdimm at 250fsb with 11-2-2-2-2 1t timmings which as i said needs a vdimm mod. Max vcore is 2v.

cokecan · 23 May 2006 at 23:46

ok, vdimm mod aint a problem. did this on my old socket A shuttle to get my gskill LE to a decent speed as the shuttles bios locked out the vdimm option(obviously it will be a diff mod but similar in principle)

before i just used a POT to vary the vdimm and a multimeter to measure

lol, infact did the same mod on the NB (VDD). guess i could do the same thing here after a bit of research

oo, thats another thing, can you actually change the NB voltage, if so what max voltage can you get on the NB? as i know a small increase in this can also help to keep things stable

and last question. are there any more common alternatives to the ultra-B, just incase i find one and manage to kill it. the NF7-s maybe even though the FSB limit (not too fussed on that though as any increase in fsb will be good)

kitfit1 · 24 May 2006 at 00:02

cokecan72 said:
oo, thats another thing, can you actually change the NB voltage, if so what max voltage can you get on the NB? as i know a small increase in this can also help to keep things stable

Yes, 1.9v max. At 250fsb you should'nt need more than 1.8v though.

cokecan72 said:
and last question. are there any more common alternatives to the ultra-B, just incase i find one and manage to kill it. the NF7-s maybe even though the FSB limit (not too fussed on that though as any increase in fsb will be good)

If you want a mobo with loads of clocking options with full control over all the ram settings and that will go to 250fsb as standard, then there are only 2 mobo's to choose from, the Lanparty B and the Ultra Infinity. The Nf7-s is a good board as well it's just very rare for one to get to 250fsb without major mods on almost everything(the chipset is not as good as the DFI's).

cokecan · 24 May 2006 at 00:08

yeah thats what i was thinkin, jsut another .1 of a volt or 2.

ok, thanks for all the info. seems like i may be almost set

1 last thing lol. 2x512 or 2x256 BH-5?? i was gonna go for 2x256 as ive seen stupid results with this (less strain on the mem controller??)

before, i used a gig but that was TCCD, just slackened the timings and should get reasonable fsb's, but with BH-5 i want tight timings as well as good fsb (not to mention with 3v+ ill need a fan strapped to the top of them for a bit of active cooling lol)