Am I about to melt my PC?

[The Baron]

I've just got an AsRock K7VT4A Pro motherboard, only to find a warning sticker on the AGP slot: "Do NOT use a 3.3V AGP card on the AGP slot of this motherboard! It may cause permanent damage!"

I've just scoured through the box and manual for my graphics card and have no clue whether or not it's 3.3V card. I have a Radeon 9800 Pro, it has it's own 4-pin power connection.

If necessary I can always swap this board for my mother's ECS L7VMM2, as she only uses a WinFast A180B T GeForce MX 4000. Please advise.

Apologies for all the serial numbers, I know nothing...

[Coops]

Basically what this is telling you is that you cannot use an AGP card that is 3.3Volts. The First AGP cards that came out where 3.3v.

Current AGP standard for the 8x / 4 x slot uses 1.5v. It was supposed to be designed so that 3.3v cards would not fit in a 1.5v slot but some silly graphics card makers did not follow this properly and same 3.3v cards were made that could fit in the 1.5v slot, hence why some board makers put that sticker on.

The 9800 PRO card as far as i know were all designed for 8x AGP spec which is 1.5v so there should be no issues that i can see.
If you know the manufacturer of your graphics card you could check the card spec online.

Regards

[The Baron]

I appreciate that, man. Thankyou.

[djgandy]

Viper 330's anyone? :p

[The Baron]

If I could beg a further indulgence, my board is only reading my AMD 2000 chip as 1250. As a result I'm not meeting minimum specs for Rise of Legends. Please can someone tell me how to adjust it?

[The Baron]

I'm having the same problem with my Asus A7N8X-X board and my AMD Athlon 2200 - apparently it's only a 900.

Please advise.

[gwendes]

It is possible that you are underclocking these CPUs

Try adjusting the FSB/multiplier to those that the manufacturer specify. On older motherboards this could be a jumper setting, check the CMOS first.

[Danno]

If I could beg a further indulgence, my board is only reading my AMD 2000 chip as 1250. As a result I'm not meeting minimum specs for Rise of Legends. Please can someone tell me how to adjust it?


I'm having the same problem with my Asus A7N8X-X board and my AMD Athlon 2200 - apparently it's only a 900.

Please advise.

I think both problems will be down to BIOS settings.

At the moment the 2000 chip will be running on a FSB of 100mhz and a multiplier of 12.5.

100 X 12.5 = 1250mhz

You need to change the FSB to 133mhz.

133 X 12.5 = 1662mhz = 1.6ghz.

With most motherboards there is a setting in the BIOS to change the FSB. A few motherboard have a jumper on them to change the FSB.

The athlon 2200 is probably running on an FSB of 100mhz and multiplier of 9 (think this is the deafult setting on your board). 100 X 9 = 900mhz.

To change this go into the BIOS, and then find the advanced chipset featurers. In here set the external frequency to 133mhz and the CPU Frequency Multiple Setting to Auto. If its already auto you can manually set it in the CPU Frequency Multiple, it needs to be set to 13.5.

133 X 13.5 = 1800mhz = 1.8ghz

Once this is changed save and exit.


_____________________________________________
Below is a quick guide i put together a few years ago that shows all the correct FSB and multiplier settings for Athlon XP chips sold at the time.

This should work for most Asus boards.
---------------------------------------

Socket A
--------
You will have to go to the advanced chipset features of the BIOS.
-----------------------------
A7N8X, A7N8X-X, A7N8X Deluxe,
A7V600, A7N8X-VM, A7N8X-MX, A7V8X.
-----------------------------

CPU mhz FSB X2 Multiplier

XP1700 1470 133 11
XP1800 1533 133 11.5
XP1900 1600 133 12
XP2000 1670 133 12.5
XP2100 1730 133 13
XP2200 1800 133 13.5
XP2400 2000 133 15
XP2600 2133 133 16
XB2600 2083 166 12.5
XB2700 2166 166 13
XB2800 2250 166 13.5
XB3000 2167 166 13
----------------------------

[The Baron]

Thanks very much, guys! I have set the 2000 correctly, but am still wrestling with the 2200.

When I set the external frequency to 133mhz and the cpu Frequency Multiple Setting to Auto, I end up with a chip running at 1200.

However, when I alter the cpu Frequency Multiple to 13.5, after saving my screen dies. Upon restart it reverts to safe mode and 900 Mhz.

I note that my RAM frequency is at 200Mhz, not 400 Mhz.

Um?

[Danno]

thats a bit odd. are you 100% sure the cpu is amn Athlon 2200?

does it work if you set it to 13 rather than 13.5?

[The Baron]

Yup, definitely a 2200.

Auto is consistently choosing 9x, so I have set the Mhz to 200, giving me 1800.

My CPU FSB jumper is set to defualt, being FSB400/333/266 as opposed to FSB200.

Is this advisable, or am I about to melt my PC?

I tried running it 200Mhz at 11x, yet it remained 1800.

Is 1800 the best I can hope for from my 2200? Is the 2000 actually faster?

[Chewie]

Baron

If you look up at Danno's earlier post, look at the bottom of it.
He's kindly provided you with the chip rating/Clock speed/FSB speed/Clock multiplier in a table format.

Look at the Athlon 2000 (t-bred or palomino core i wonder), it has a clock speed of 1670 (actually around 1667 but hey, whats 3 mhz) at 133Mhz FSB. which when you factor in that it is DDR it will have one of 266Mhz FSB.
And your Athlon 2200 T-bred will only get 1800Mhz at stock speed.

WARNING, ATTEMPT THIS ONLY IF YOU ARE CONFIDENT IN YOUR COOLING AND ABILITY TO STAY CALM SHOULD IT NOT START UP STRAIGHT AWAY.

If you motherboard will allow it, and as its an nF2 ultra mobo it should, try increasing the fsb manually by 5mhz at a time in the bios, reboot, run a few benchmarks, check your temps, and see what you can get.
Make a note of the settings each time.
Should it fail to POST at startup just reset the cmos and start again, or be a lil unstable when running, up the Vcore in you bios by .125v or so, but don't go too high or you'll fry it.
NOTE
CMOS clear is your friend, when ever the pc wont start. just switch the power off when you shift the jumper to clear the cmos memory, or you'll kill the board.

When you get to a maximum (i'll be surprised if it will let you increase the FSB beyond 155mhz in the bios) drop it back between3-10mhz, and you should get a nice overclock out of it.

You should get 200Mhz clock speed out of that easily, so it will probably register as an Xp2400 if you do.
As you can see from my sig, I can get a 300Mhz *safe* Overclock from my rig which mobo and cpu wise, isn't far from yours. Its an nF2 ultra too, just made by MSI.

[gwendes]

... ABILITY TO STAY CALM SHOULD IT NOT START UP STRAIGHT AWAY.


LOL. Agreed.

[David T]

Chewie, your mb and Cpu are the same as mine (except my XP chip is a Barton core, pre week 42 production so multiplier unlocked :twisted: )

Might have a go bumping the mhz a bit also...

[Chewie]

Nice Dave.

I been watching the glut of 3200's that have appeared lately on eBay, thinking of upgrading to 1 of them, to get the most outta my system, cause i just can't justify (to myself or the missus as the system we run plays our games and apps no problems) the cost of a new build (well, MoBo cpu and VGA card. especially as i'd go M2 rather than a normal x2 a64 system, and have to get new ram too).
£100 - 110 incl shipping is far better than £200 + for extending life.

Mine and the PC's.

Specially as i bought a Maxtor USB2 300Gb ext HDD last weekend to put holiday photo's and vid footage on.

SO you got a 166 barton 2400?, that'd be a mobile processor then.
Best clocks for those is to bump to 200 and drop your multiplier (as most 2500M owners do) and see what ya get.

[djgandy]

Yup, definitely a 2200.

Auto is consistently choosing 9x, so I have set the Mhz to 200, giving me 1800.

My cpu ('http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/products/a561x1y0z1p0s0n0m0') FSB jumper is set to defualt, being FSB400/333/266 as opposed to FSB200.

Is this advisable, or am I about to melt my PC?

I tried running it 200Mhz at 11x, yet it remained 1800.

Is 1800 the best I can hope for from my 2200? Is the 2000 actually faster?

You are quite simply mistaking the performance rating with the actual cpu mhz rating by the looks of it.

If you are getting 200 x 9 out of a 2200XP you are doing very well.

[Coops]

Be careful here when lookig at FSB speeds.

Mainboard makers vary on how they show this information in the BIOS.

When it comes to DDR FSB. Some mainboard makers show the RAW FSB.

100, 133, 166, 200 mhz

However because DDR stands for Double Data Rate some prefer to show what the DDR FSB actually is so instead of above you would see

200, 266, 333 , 400 mhz

So when it comes to the RAM FSB your mainboard will use either the first method or the second method.

So thats means a stick of DDR PC2700 could either show up in your BIOS as either 166 or 333. They mean exactly the same thing.
For Example PC2700 which we know as DDR333 has a RAW FSB of 133mhz but because DDR works by doubling the data sent on each clock cycle to increase throughput it actually runs at 333mhz This is because DDR operate by operating two seperate data bursts in one clock cycle. So in the case of DDR333 there is in fact two 133mhz cycles in operation. One at the Rise and one at the fall of each clock cycle. Hence the meaning of DDR - Double Data Rate.

When it comes to CPU FSB make sure you are not mistaking Processor name for actually MHZ Speed. AMD are a large user of Processor Names

For example an AMD XP 2200+ does not mean it runs at 2200mhz. Depending on what core it has it might vary slightly but for the example of a 2200+ with throughbred core this in fact runs at 1800Mhz with a 13.5x multiplier and a FSB of 266 or 133 depending on your mainboard produces chosen way of showing FSB in the BIOS.

Obviously setting your CPU incorrectly will show wrong clock speed or will cause no POST.
If you are upgrading the CPU in your board you may also require a BIOS update for the CPU to coorectly recognise the CPU going in.

[The Baron]

So wearing the Noob hat, glasses and T-shirt...

On my inital bootup screen I get:

Main Processor : AMD Sempron(tm) 1800MHz, on the other PC it's 2000.

Are they running at 2200 and 2400 respectively, or at 1533 and 1670?

Is either one set right and can I improve either, or should I be happy with this?

Many thanks to everybody who has posted.



CPU mhz FSB X2 Multiplier

XP1700 1470 133 11
XP1800 1533 133 11.5
XP1900 1600 133 12
XP2000 1670 133 12.5
XP2100 1730 133 13
XP2200 1800 133 13.5
XP2400 2000 133 15
XP2600 2133 133 16
XB2600 2083 166 12.5
XB2700 2166 166 13
XB2800 2250 166 13.5
XB3000 2167 166 13

[Danno]

different board report different things. some report the cpu speed in mhz and others report the cpu name. if you run cpuz this should show the cpu name and the speed the cpu is running at.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

the 2200 should run at 1800mhz and the 2000 at 1670mhz.

[The Baron]

I think I'll quit while I'm a head.

Thanks again!

[gwendes]

I think I'll quit while I'm a head.

Thanks again!

A head or ahead? :)

Have you had any success?

[The Baron]

(sic) 8)

I completely missed the CPUZ link! Gah...

Running at 1804.2 and 1665.0 respectively.

Much appreciated, guys.