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Worth upgrading an E4300 with only £100?

Big.Wayne said:
Anyway I think benlanky is probably happy with what he has and with a little research and tinkering will be able to get the older chip up to 3.0GHz without too much trouble, combined with a faster GPU should see him happy! :)
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Spot on, if I can get the overclocking working again I'll be happy for a while, then probably go for a Q6600 or similar when everyone sells theirs for i7!

Anyone have any links to easy overclocking guides so I can check I'm not doing anything stupid?
 
Alex R said:
Link
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Thanks, unfortunately I tried updating the Bios last night using the Asus windows utility (because I didn't want to mess it up:rolleyes:) and it cleared the eprom then stopped halfway through loading the new version...

I've tried moving the jumpers, taking the battery out etc but no luck so far. I've put a post up in the motherboard forum and am now looking through the Asus forums, using a mac mini :eek:
 
benlanky said:
Thanks, unfortunately I tried updating the Bios last night using the Asus windows utility (because I didn't want to mess it up:rolleyes:) and it cleared the eprom then stopped halfway through loading the new version...

I've tried moving the jumpers, taking the battery out etc but no luck so far. I've put a post up in the motherboard forum and am now looking through the Asus forums, using a mac mini :eek:
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Dead board. Never ever use the windows update. That is how it does go wrong. Always use EZ Flash and a usb stick. We would have told you this if you asked or even did a search as there have been scores with the same problem.

You have one chance. Does your board have crash free bios? If so turn the rig on and stick the driver disk that cam with the board in the dvd drive. Reboot and hopefully it will detect the original bios on the disk and rescue itself. Unfortunately it does'nt always work and it's new motherboard time.
 
Unfortunately I can't find the original disk or manual, which has made things a bit tricky. Found the ones for my ancient systems, going back about 6 years, but not the most recent one:rolleyes:

You're right, if I'd done a quick search first I'd have realised that I should avoid the windows version, but I naively believed that Asus wouldn't want to destroy their own boards.... I'll keep looking.

edit: found the disk, now I just need to put the mobo back in and try again....
 
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pastymuncher said:
You have one chance. Does your board have crash free bios? If so turn the rig on and stick the driver disk that cam with the board in the dvd drive. Reboot and hopefully it will detect the original bios on the disk and rescue itself. Unfortunately it does'nt always work and it's new motherboard time.
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Didn't work unfortunately. Tried it with PS2 mouse and KB too, one stick of ram, different gfx card but still no luck. Oh well, hopefully they'll fix or replace it quickly.

Thanks for all the help, just wish I'd asked more questions before doing the bios....
 
benlanky said:
Didn't work unfortunately. Tried it with PS2 mouse and KB too, one stick of ram, different gfx card but still no luck. Oh well, hopefully they'll fix or replace it quickly.

Thanks for all the help, just wish I'd asked more questions before doing the bios....
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Unfortunately Asus are not very quick with RMA's. Just send the bare board as well, no extra's. All you will get back is the bare board. Seem's like a good time for a board upgrade to me. :D Sell the P5B when it comes back. Have a look around for a Gigabyte EP31 DS3L. It's a fantastic board and only cost's around £50. Quite a few overclocking options too. I had a E2180 to 3.6Ghz in one.
 
pastymuncher said:
Unfortunately Asus are not very quick with RMA's. Just send the bare board as well, no extra's. All you will get back is the bare board. Seem's like a good time for a board upgrade to me. :D Sell the P5B when it comes back. Have a look around for a Gigabyte EP31 DS3L. It's a fantastic board and only cost's around £50. Quite a few overclocking options too. I had a E2180 to 3.6Ghz in one.
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Thanks, I'll have a look around. Can't have my 4870 turning up on monday with nothing to put it into....
 
e5200, or pop in MM try and get an e8400 for sub £100 with i7 rolling out, also vista affects your overclock....an OS can affect the bios ;o ?
 
Now I've blown my mobo I'll have to stick with the e4300 for a bit longer, but hopefully a new mobo will let me get it to 3ghz again. Spent too much on gfx too...

Thinking of going for the Biostar tpower p45 board, any other options?
 
Bugger! The Biostar got good reviews I think. The Giga 45s are good as well. Still at least I shouldn't think your gfx card will get to you today, unless they put snow chains on. So it's not all doom and gloom :p
 
That makes me feel better...

I can't get to work to collect it anyway, but I got the last biostar from ocuk, let's hope it's better than the asus!

Cheers
 
Just as an update, I got my Biostar mobo and 4870 yesterday and connected it all up last night. I was worried that the 'Asus incident' might have taken some other components out too or at the least I would have to re-install Vista. However, I took loads of time, did it all really carefully and the whole thing worked first time :D

No overclocking at all yet, but I'll start on that tonight.

Thanks for all the help, now I just need to get my Asus board sorted out and sold.
 
benlanky said:
Just as an update, I got my Biostar mobo and 4870 yesterday and connected it all up last night. I was worried that the 'Asus incident' might have taken some other components out too or at the least I would have to re-install Vista. However, I took loads of time, did it all really carefully and the whole thing worked first time :D

No overclocking at all yet, but I'll start on that tonight.

Thanks for all the help, now I just need to get my Asus board sorted out and sold.
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Let us know how you get on. :)
 
benlanky said:
Got it to 2.8ghz last night without a hitch, I'll try to go past 3ghz tonight but will do some serious stress testing to make sure I don't fry anything. Very happy so far :)
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What voltage are you up to now? Mine needs 1.45v for 3.4Ghz. How are you finding the Biostar?
 
benlanky said:
Haven't adjusted the voltage at all, but I'm up to 3.6ghz, after a max of 3ghz on my old Asus board. Seems to be stable and I'm well chuffed :D
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100% overclock. Very nice. Is the voltage on auto? The Biostar actually uses very good voltage settings on auto. I was reading a review last night and they found that the auto settings were the same as the manual settings they had to use for a stable clock.
 
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