I.nfraR.ed

This is called old-school overclocking I guess you can lower it to lowest 8x with slow-mode or with some of the options in bios, but can't adjust freely. Maybe if you disable "max-turbo multi mode" it will lower multi automatically so bclk x multi roughly matches the stock speed, but that's just a wild guess. Haven't played much yet, so I can't tell, but I've seen 8x. High BCLK doesn't seem to be a problem though, so you're mostly limited by cache, since it is always 1:1 with core frequency. Mem OC gets a little harder too, but I could still run tight timings at 125+ BCLK with 6100.

We're heavily sandbagging this year, can't even lift the bags now, so heavy... Will leave it for next year, lol.

I don't mean it is boring to bench cheap and useless hardware. That was not my point. I mostly bench this type of 'junk' myself anyway, but really agree with that last point about 10x0.1pt beat 9 top scores.

Yes, but in our case we don't even have half the participants required. Noone is interested and you can see the activity throughout the year. Not only population, but also GDP plays a big role in this. But that's the rules of the game and it is the same in every sport. I'm not completely against the current way of doing it. Nothing is just black or white.

If you do the math, then you will see you really need high-sky 8-cores WR. To compensate 80-100 points for the missing single core sub you will have to add that to your other scores. If they are not high enough you will still loose. How high should be your 8-cores WR? It should be a lot higher than what Aussies have at the moment assuming their other scores are mediocre. And if all 4 scores are equally high (in their respective category), then they can win either way. Ruling out the 1-core submission does not change much. It only gives chances to smaller countries that can't find anyone using single core cpu to bench for them. You can't skip the 2xXTU, just no way to compensate 700 points more. Well, if you don't submit with 6 or 4 cores, then you're not gonna win, because you have to compensate 2000-3000 points which is impossible. I still think the competition will be balanced enough. You will still need full set of scores to secure your first position. It can't happen with just one WR and mediocre 3 other scores. But of course, this is just my point of view.

Yes, but if you favor number of submissions instead of average score, then your team could be dragged behind even if your average score is higher than the av score of a team with full set of submissions. For example in Stage 3 Italy with a higher average score is behind Belgium which in turn has the full set of subs, but lower average score. IMO, it should be the other way around. You can't win with a single WR score anyway, because average will be very low with 4 zeros. Or in XTU stage Sweden should be ranked 5th, not 9th in my opinion. However it had always been like that in CountryCups, taking away even the slightest chance for smaller countries which can't get the full set of scores. Which is wrong to me.

Socket 2011 CPUs are soldered, lol.

Yes, lifting up the pin should be actually easier and safer!

Unfortunately you need better cpu to really get up in the rankings, no matter that your VGA overclock is top-notch as always

Updated the previous post with pictures.

Ok, guys. Sorry for the delay, but I'm too busy with work lately . I could not get good pictures and don't feel like removing my mods. But let's go. The only reliable way to mod 9800GTX+ DarkKnight (and other Asus cards with similar design) is to use VID mod. PWM controller used is ADP3290: datasheet 1. FB mod. It won't give you much, but it is good to have it to fine-tune the voltage, since VID mod allows 0.1V steps. You can skip this ofcourse, but it is the easiest one. FB is pin #4. Connect 20KOhm variable resistor to ground and set to maximum resistance. See next section for image. 2. VID mod You need 3-key dip-switch or something similar. You can use jumpers if you don't have switch. Basically anything that can "output" 1-0 logic. You need to connect pins 33, 34 and 35 (VID6, VID5, VID4) to ground through the switches. Additionally you need to cut the traces marked with red on the picture. Be careful not to cut too deep, because I don't know what else is underneath. My advice is to start carefully and check for continuity, then cut again and measure until it is disconnected. It is good to first scratch the paint over the traces, so you have better visibility. Do it only on good light (day-light). Or desolder and lift up the legs of the transistors (thanks nachtfalke for the addition). Here's how it looks on my card: After the mod and all switches turned off you will have about 1.1V on the GPU, which is enough to POST. If not, turn on the VID4 switch. It will give you about 1.2V. Table with voltages 3. Memory VDDC and VDDQ This is simple FB mod. Both use the same uP6101: datasheet FB pin is #6. Connect 20KOhm variable resistors to GND and set to maximum resistance. My card gives me 2.2V on both. 4. Measure points Link to imgur album with all images: http://imgur.com/a/8t5mX Hope that helps, but as always - you do everything on your own responsibility. Nothing too advanced, but still requires good soldering skills.

Will do, but need good light. Perhaps it has to wait for the weekend.

Ok, I have VID mod, FB mod and 2 for mem - VDDQ and VDDC, but I have no time right now to understand what I've really done to that card. Seems I haven't done OCP. OVP is eliminated with VID mod. http://imgur.com/a/HYL4s/all I can add some guidelines/explanation later, if you want. Overall the mod(s) are similar for all Asus cards (DK/TOP) based on this controller/PCB. PS: BTW, you need to also cut 2 traces on the PCB.

I have 9800GTX+ DK and can check when back home. Have it full-modded, if I remember correctly. For GPU I think it was VID mod + FB mod for fine tune. For MEM it should be just FB mod. And maybe OCP...but it was long time ago, so I don't remember http://hwbot.org/submission/2634311_i.nfrar.ed_3dmark2001_se_geforce_9800_gtx%28%29_55893_marks

About -80 for me, but it might be the board. Haven't tested another CPU to tell though... LN2 helps, but voltage does not. Colder it gets, lower voltage tolerance it has. At least my CPU.

Turrican has 800: http://forum.hwbot.org/showthread.php?t=6520, but this sub is slightly higher (~0.9MHz ) I could not get higher FSB on my board before, so I was stuck at 780, but now 800+ should be possible and I plan to try next week. Last time I was able to POST at 840MHz and boot at 810.

Yes, that should be correct, but it would be good if we have official confirmation. Technically you can submit in all stages and only your best sub will be counted in your country total. Unless the engine is broken, if anyone else from your country submits with another card different from your best, then your score with that one should not block his score. Example: 1. you submit: - 560Ti: 44pts - GTX280: 39pts 2. A fellow submits: - GTX280: 28pts Even when your GTX280 sub is better than his, your current best is with 560Ti, so your GTX280 gets invalidated for the comp and his subs count to the total. That's how the engine is supposed to work, if I'm not wrong. If points update due to other users inflating points or pushing your sub to lower place, then it should adjust itself. But...maybe we need to carefully pick manually. Honestly I don't know for sure, so an explanation would be needed. I don't think there had been such case since now and maybe it is not implemented at all...

Vantage does not matter. Stage is all about 3DMark 06. Best submission per person for a country should win as always. If you have other scores (lower HW points) with different VGA in the stage, then they should not be taken into account.

Maybe it is just wrongly named. Try to rename the "DOS" bios to AM2N3VT3.30. PS: Hmm, no..it's not. Phenom II are supported in 3.20 too, so why not flash this one and then upgrade to 3.30 after you get the board working.

You have the names here: http://forum.hwbot.org/showthread.php?t=93537 and some description from Antinomy in the next posts.

For manual screenshots I usually downclock, open cpuz, gpuz etc, make screenshot, then up again to real clocks and make another screenshot (if it doesn't crash).

I had my Gigabyte prepped, but had to remove the eraser, because I needed it for the X4 Phenom. But will try to push it to the max soon. Still have the OS installed and tweaked. Can't find a cheap K6-III+ though. I have one with stripped gold from the pins So many of these CPUs went to "gold-diggers"...

Yes, it is FSB + PCI. With that "divider" it reaches roughly the same RAM frequency, but on lower FSB. I have some Qimondas laying around and can try if it could go higher, but I think chipset/pci/agp is not able to go higher. First thing I tried was to use the modded PSU with higher 3.3V line, but it did not help. With the FSB + PCI option I could only boot at about 122MHz FSB and it stops at about 133 within windows. Which is the same SDRAM freq I could reach with 1:1, ~133*1.33 Of course performance at 1:1 is better on these platforms. At 133MHz FSB PCI/AGP should reset back to normal, but the "extra 33MHz" options is only available up to 122 in bios, then disappears. Also bios has frequency addition (up to +28). Maximum you can set is 155 + 28 = 183MHz.

I/O source is from 5V line (stock board allows up to 3.9V from bios), so I did a simple FB mod. My 3.3V-modded PSU is Fortron 400 PNF and can go higher than 4V, but for this sub I used Seasonic 1000W Platinum.

I tried chiller on NB - did not help at all. Volts helped a little. This is with 4.4V I/O. Maybe it's the mem controller, but there's no lower divider - only 1:1 and FSB + 33MHz. Second one not available at high FSB though. Theoretical maximum for this board is 183MHz. This was the first time I play with KT133(A).