Tzk

The -x will Work with a 512k bios Chip and the a7n8x (Deluxe) v2.0 bios. Else theres only trats mod bios. I've yet to try If the deluxe bios enables Dual-Channel. Post reports it, but i need to verify with benchmarks.

Wait, what? Usually you can't mix A7N8X Deluxe v2.0, A7N8X Deluxe v1.x and A7N8X-E Deluxe. -E Deluxe is a bit different to the non-E versions, v1.0 got 256kb bios rom, v2.0 got 512kb bios rom. So if: you got a A7N8X Deluxe v2.0 then use a Dlx v2.0 bios you got a -E, then use -E bios you got Deluxe v1.0 then use v1.0 bios you got A7N8X-X, then use a 512kb Chip and the A7N8X Deluxe v2.0 bios (yes, that works ) I also got a -E Deluxe which fails to reach above 208Mhz. It's a newer board made in 2005 (serial number on top of LPT port starts with 5C). In general you should be able to reach ~230Mhz of FSB without mods if the board is decent. Make sure to not use UTT Winbods sticks, but Samsung, Hynix will work great. Especially in 256mb singlesided. Avoid Infineon 1gb CE sticks, had no luck with these... Nforce 2 is very picky when it comes to ram. Besides that, make sure to keep FSB and ram on 1:1 divider and use a Cpu which isn't multi-locked (so older than week ~35 2003 or mobile). Also make sure your psu got plenty juice on 5V, at absolute minimum 20amps as the cpu runs off it. And last but not least: A7N8X Deluxe v2.0 or -E DLX usually sell for 30€ max. in germany, not much more. Those boards aren't expensive at all... I got my last board for 15€ shipped.

Make sure to use a psu with a huge 5V rail. A7N8X runs the cpu off the 5V rail... No clue why Asus thought that's a good idea. Regarding the bios: if there's a Trats bios for your board available, use it. It's way better than Uber. Also make sure the A7N8X is a v2.0. I wouldn't waste any time on v1.x boards as these won't run high fsb. And if it is, let us know. I modded a special bios for A7N8X (Deluxe) v2.0 which got tons of extra settings (Alphatimings, Drive Strength....) and tweaks in it.

I also assumed that. However there are Corsair versions which got Samsung or Infineon (3200C2 v4.3 to name an example). Corsair also mixed chip manufacturers across different capacities and the same version numbers. My guess is that corsair simply soldered (almost) random chips in 2005 and onwards. This list is accurate: https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/threads/corsair-xms-ddr1-ic-datenbank.1038384/

From the list you linked: CMX512-3200C2PT________XMS3202 v5.1 0441050-2 = Winbond -5 Rev C I also believe the list @stunned_guy maintains as he (or another users on his thread) owned the sticks which are listed there. Regarding the FireRAM: I wrote @auto660 a PM asking about costs and availability... We'll see if it's still available. Note that the OCZ booster wasn't compatible with A7N8X, but afaik worked on NF-7.

I tend to pay 10€ per 512mb stick as absolute max. However then it must be a very special dimm, in no way i'd pay more than 5€ per 512mb stick if it's CH-5. I'd say 14 bucks incl. shipping is alright for a raid controller and two sticks of CH-5. FYI: Some time ago a german 2nd hard hardware store sold Infineon 6A (relabeled Winbond BH) for <2€ (256mb) and 2.50€ (512mb) sticks. The shop had like 40-50 sticks and the guys over at hardwareluxx bought them all Needless to say that these clock very well... My two best 6A sticks achieve 257Mhz 32M on nforce2 at 3.6V which is probably the limit of the chipset.

Could be CH-5. @stunned_guy posted a huge list of Corsair XMS on the hardwareluxx.de forums. Have a look at it, even when you're not able to read german. The list is self-explanatory https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/threads/corsair-xms-ddr1-ic-datenbank.1038384/ @Sparks.nl Woah, that one looks nice. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, i might contact him for that booster. Sold my OCZ booster a while ago because i didn't like it. Voltage fluctuation was high and you couldn't adjust it that well.

Very nice collection, especially the Mushkins... ❤️ Got a question regarding your ram booster. I know the Hipro5 Booster and the OCZ one. But i've never seen "FireRAM" before. What kind of booster is this? Does it work better than the OCZ one?

Perfect. I guess you also got those extra options modded in? I found that some of these are extremely helpful when it comes to high fsb with 2x512mb sticks. Regarding the 260Mhz TCCDs: Is that (at least) 32M stable? I took tons of effort for me to get 250Mhz through 32M with my Geil Ultra-X.

The only thing that i found when using another bios is that you sometimes need to disable inboard components, else it'll hang when POSTing. Besides that, if it boots it'll mostly work.

No clue, i need to investigate if the -X actually runs in DC by benching it. At least it reports "dual channel" on the POST screen, but that migh just be due to the new bios. Ha, grats for using the ISLR bios on a 512K chip to boot the regular delta. Nice! Seems like the different versions aren't that different if you can swap the bioses around... Good to know that it works with delta-l/ISLR and a7n8x(-x).

The Deluxe BPL is from a 512kb bios and the -X BPL is from a 256kb singlechannel bios. No clue if those work on your MSI, i just uploaded these for documentation. As long as we haven't tested porting from 512kb to 256kb i'd assume that these won't work. I just booted my A7N8X-X with the 1010mod2 bios. I'll now check memory bandwidth and then try to flash a 512kb BPL. EDIT: 1. Using a 256kb Dualchannel BPL (3.09 taken from A7N8X v1.0) on the A7N8X-X Singlechannel 256kb Bios won't boot 2. Using a 512kb Dualchannel BPL (3.04 taken from A7N8X v2.0) on A7N8X-X Singlechannel 256kb Bios won't boot either 3. -X won't boot with regular A7N8X v1.0 bios. 4. A7N8X-X will boot with 512kb bios chip and A7N8X Deluxe v2.0 bios When trying 4) i was speechless... when the board POSTed... ?

It simply won't boot. I've just compared the 3.04 BPL of A7N8X Deluxe and A7N8X-X and they're almost identical. So that may (or may not) work. Here's the 3.04 BPL from A7N8X Deluxe v2.0 (stock bios) and A7N8X-X (Trats 1010-xmod2). I'm curios what those minor different values actually do... I guess i'll get my -X board and try it myself... A7N8X-X-BPL304-CPC-on BPL304-cpc-on.bpl

Perfect! I assumed that it's singlechannel... Also 245Mhz with TCCD is great. Took a lot of effort to get 250MHz stable on my A7N8X Deluxe... I can't even manage this on all of my TCCD sticks either (4x Corsair 3200XL v1.2 fail to pass 245MHz) and only my Geil Ultra-X Kit manages 250Mhz on NF2...

Can't you use the 512kb bios BPLs for 256kb bios? So just port over BPL 3.19 and done? @Sparks.nl Afaik cpu-z reports dualchannel as soon as both dimm slots are populated. Even on my A7N8X-X (singlechannel) cpu-z reports dualchannel. Make sure to test this by running 32M or a similar benchmark which scales with bandwidth. I expect that the shown "dual" ist just plain wrong.

I'd love to see the DDR stages but without allowing the obvious choices. So for example no S.939 for DDR1 but rather S462, 754 and 478.

I just had a look at the romsips in said bios. These somewhat look like DFI, but they're missing the POST fix at multi 10 and 10.5. So you might have issues coldbooting at those multis. Besides that it seems there's nothing to unhide. So that bios should work. EDIT: I did the 12V rail and Vdd mod on my -E Deluxe. Even with 1.8V Vdd it's not possible to get 225Mhz Singlechannel stable... I think that must be the crappiest A7N8X-E ever made...

Ah, well. The Delta-L ist the counterpart to the Asus A7N8X-X with singlechannel... Took me a few minutes to notice that..

Sorry, you asked about Delta2 above... Then we'll have to mod a new bios i guess.

@4n0nym0u5b3nch3r Yes there is. @digitalbath made several versions and added Alphatimings, DriveStrength, Slewrate and Romsips to the Bios. Have a look at the bierbude server: http://bierbude.spdns.org:2302/USER UPLOADS/digitalbath/MSI K7N2 Delta2/ changelog of his Delta2 DDED bios: changes made: * NVMM v4.35 1T * [DDED]; ED romsips from Merlin interface on; DD modded romsips interface off * Soft L12 Mod * AMD Athlon XP-M name * added tRC; tRFC; tREF; DIMM Drive Strength, DIMM Slew Rate, alpha timings and romsips options * for hidden options press shift+F2, then alt+F3 in main menu We can basically mod any NF2 board with Award bios. There's also new modbioses for Chaintech, Epox and Shuttle available

I've only had the board for a few minutes on the benchtable, so first i'll improve the cooling on sb and nb to check if it's a temperature issue. Then we'll see if there are other things holding me back. My other A7N8X Deluxe runs cooler at 1.9V Vdd than the new board at 1.58V Vdd, it gets extremely hot for such a low Vdd. I've already done the 12V rail mod as my psu only has 15A on the 5V rail. That gave me no improvement over stock. Same for a modbios (running @digitalbaths EBED right now). The capacitors look ok, sadly i don't have the tools to measure them. Same for ripple on the main voltages, cpu, nb and ram. I guess i'll need to buy a small DSO to check these.

I finally got my hands on a A7N8X-E Deluxe, chipset week is 47/2004. I can't get it stable at 208Mhz, regardless of modbios or ram used. However i noticed that even at default Vdd the chipset gets hot (i guess 45-50°c). Have you had such a bad clocking board before? And if so, might the high leakage of nb and sb hold me back right now? Also what's your experience when using a cold (subzero) board, does the nf2 scale well with temperature? Or in other words: might excessive cooling help reaching higher fsb?

PSU faulty? you got a electrostatic charge on you? GFX kills it? It must be something... Usually when something like this happens i get the cheapest board i got, some random ram, another PSU and start fresh. Just to make sure i stop killing hardware...

Digitalbath made a comparison of different romsips in 32M a while ago. Testing was done at 240Mhz x9, with Barton Cpu Link: https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/threads/amd-sockel-a-thread.584473/page-76#post-27461560 Performance: X1 > ED, 619XT, Trats 619r2 > EBED > D26 MantaraysXT >>> DDED However X1 to the others is a very close call. I found that max clocks ranking is: DDED > EBED > ED >>> D26 Mantarays So i'd suggest to try ED/X1 or EBED. EBED gives a bit more FSB, ED/X1 a bit more performance. So if you're looking for that last few Mhz to use a smaller multi, then go EBED. If you could use a higher multi with a bit less FSB, then go X1/ED to get as much performance as possible. We're talking about <5Mhz FSB improvement though.

Afaik the Vdimm VRM IC got overvoltage, undervoltage and overcurrent protection. Afaik that interferes with the booster when you exceed 2.8V. However Vdimm of up to 3.6V isn't an issue woth voltmod. Just note that under load Vdimm may raise even further. I've had up to +0,1V under load. So keep it at ~3.5-3.6V for 2x256mb winbond as that'll result in up to 3.7V under load. If your booster works, please let us know Datasheet of Vdimm VRM IC (RT9202) attached. DS9202-06.pdf