OC'ing the 8RGA+

[beppodmime]

Ok folks, got myself a new EPOX 8RGA+ board sitting in my computer. I replaced the Northbridge with an active chipset cooler, and I tried OC'ing this puppy a little bit to see how she'll do. My 8RDA+ was doing 183 stable FSB sync with the same hardware, however, as I updated the BIOS, the newer revisions didn't seem to help my OC'ing results in the least. Even upping the FSB to 167 would give me memory errors with my Corsair TwinX 3200 (running sync).

So, here's my setup now.

Epox 8RGA+ (2/25/03 BIOS)
Barton 2800+
1 GB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL (2,2,2,6)
Hercules GeForce3 (not Ti)
80 GB WD HDD

What I'd like to know, is what kinds of FSB speeds are people reaching with similiar equipment, and what kinds of advice can you give for helping me reach 200 MHz FSB. I played with the RAM timings, and running them at 2,3,3,7 and higher gives me better results, however this RAM is rated to run at 2,2,2,6 at 200 MHz, yet if I try over 175 sync, I get the siren at boot and no post with a memory error. I know there is a known issue with Corsair memory and the nForce2 boards (apparently a BIOS issue, and Asus and Abit are the only two manufacturers who have released BIOS' that fix this issue, whatever it is). I've tried setting the RAM to run by SPD, and upping the FSB in low increments, 2-3 MHz at a time, but I still get no boots at around 175, no matter what I set the VDD, VDIMM, and VCORE to, no matter what multiplier on the CPU. Any help would be appreciated, and now that my system us back up and running, if you need any more info, feel free to ask, I'll be checking this thread often.

I've seen people get some pretty amazing numbers with this series of boards, and I'd like to have bragging rights as well. I know no two boards are created equal, but I'd like to think that this one will do more than 175 MHz FSB.

[beppodmime]

Oh, playing around with the system some more yielded some pretty nifty little results.

I've messed around with different settings, and swapped in a stick of Kingston Value RAM PC2100 for all of my clock frequency changes, and I've actually gotten some pretty good results.

I booted into BIOS, changed FSB to 175 SYNC with RAM, powered off and inserted the stick of Kingston so I would be able to boot, and kept repeating that process 2-3 MHz at a time until I got to 200 MHz. The maching POSTed at 200 MHz at a VDD of 1.8, VDIMM of 2.77, VCORE of 1.725 and VAGP of 1.6. All timings set in BIOS to Optimal, although I can't remember what they were off the top of my head at this moment. I reinserted the Corair, and attempted to boot, but at that point it wouldn't boot into windows, NTLDR missing message at startup. Reset, but couldn't get into BIOS. Oh well, so much for the quick 200MHz. Had to clear CMOS, did the whole thing all over again and stopped at 195 MHz. Everything looks good so far, and I'm downloading 3dMark right now to test stability. I have a feeling my CPU didn't like 2.4 GHz, so I lowered the multi and I'm now at 2.25 GHz. I'm going to burn it in a bit more and then try upping it a few more MHz, provided it can run through a couple of 3dMark benchies without hiccups.

And is there any real benefit to trying to run the VDD at 2.0, or am I just looking for trouble without a more exotic cooling solution than a chipset Copper HSF?