unlocking the CPU multiplier

[LANDSCAPE]

Hi All,
I'm a NOOB to this forum as well as OC'ing, I'm not really trying to OC but in order to get my ram to "walk like a man" I need to up my fsb, the challenge is that the multiplier is locked in my BIOS at 23x, since I have a rocking CPU, I don't want to OC it I just want to bump my FSB to 333, or 400. my BIOS is rev 1004. specs are listed below.

So if anyone can tell me how to make the multiplier in BIOS available for adjusting I will be grateful.

[phishhead]

holy crap with a rig like that I dont think you will see any improvement to a 400fsb. You might be able to open Word a fraction of a second faster

[LANDSCAPE]

That's the problem, with this rig the RAM SUX, in sandra the memory bench gives me lower marks than a P3 with pc100 ram, the memory bandwidth efficiency is 20% at best
I've tried it with timings at just about any combo I could, nothing helps.

[Big Booger]

ASUS P4G8X Deluxe offers robust overclocking options to maximize your system performance.

Flexible CPU Core Voltage Adjustments in 0.025V increments over defaults
SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection) from 100MHz up to 400MHz at 1MHz increments
Fixed AGP/PCI frequencies
ASUS propritary C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)


That is from ASUS, so it would appear that your fsb should reach 400...
http://www.hexus.net/review.php?review=493&page=11

Have a look at the site above, it states that upping the FSB is a bit of an overkill.. :P

I agree with Phish here on this one.

My question now is, what kind of ram is it?

[LANDSCAPE]

Originally posted by Big Booger
ASUS P4G8X Deluxe offers robust overclocking options to maximize your system performance.

Flexible CPU Core Voltage Adjustments in 0.025V increments over defaults
SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection) from 100MHz up to 400MHz at 1MHz increments
Fixed AGP/PCI frequencies
ASUS propritary C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)


That is from ASUS, so it would appear that your fsb should reach 400...
http://www.hexus.net/review.php?review=493&page=11

Have a look at the site above, it states that upping the FSB is a bit of an overkill.. :P

I agree with Phish here on this one.

My question now is, what kind of ram is it?

YES, I can jack the FSB up as long as I am willing to also jack up my CPU volts, I DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS,(sorry for hollering, getting tired I guess) I am happy with 3.06Ghz. If I can get the CPU multiplier lowered I can increase the fsb and keep the CPU where it is. That is my question, how can I get the multiplier to 15x???

BTW the RAM is Samsung PC3200 DDR400 512MB sticks (4 identical)

the main reason I don't want to OC the CPU is I am running stock cooling, and I want this CPU to last a while

[Big Booger]

I think then you are going to have to manually adjust the dip switches on the MOBO to coordinate the multiplier adjustment without affecting the CPU by ratioing it out manually.

which I think could be a bit risky. :P

problem is I was not able to find the schematics for your board. I got a message saying the page is being updated on the Taiwanese Asus website.
Update, I just figured out why, your board is jumper free hehehe

:P

maybe someone else can offer a better and less dangerous solution.

Have you tried a third party app, like SoftFSB?

Last thing there is a beta BIOS, but I highly recommend you not to try it:
http://www.asus.com.tw/support/downl...e=1005_001.zip

it is labeled verison 1005_001


But it is a beta and should be treated as such.

have you tried any other tests to see if there was a problem with the benchmarking tool you used? Are you noticing any kind of performance lags? Is your machine having any kind of problems? Are games playing terrible? Just wondering.

[LANDSCAPE]

yes, the games play like "poop" terrible lag and even programs open slowly. this is the reason I am looking to try to fix this, in BIOS it says that the top 4 can only be adjusted in "jumper free mode" but I cannot adjust the multiplier, I don't want to try any Beta Bios either. I have checked it on other BM programs and it tsets the same. just bumped the CPU freq to 139 and it didn't help. thinking I may need to format the drive, and reinstall Windows, & Chipset drivers, but not really looking forward to that. Oh well, I'm gonna sleep on it and try to figure it out in the morning, I'm gonna try to post a screenshot of the sandra BM's I've got so you can see. (nope can't it is too large, I don't know how to get image of just sandra info without entire screenshot )

Just read in manual that I cannot adjust the multiplier unless it is unlocked in the CPU, I guess that's not an option then

What is SoftFSB ? and where can I get it?

[Big Booger]

In your case,
I would recommend a reformat and reinstall. Also try adjusting some of the settings in XP to see if you get better performance.

I can't see how a system with all of those components would have a bottleneck. If you had another OS, you could possibly try it and see what you get.

Another thing is to use a ram tester to see if you have a problem.

I use the online test from pcpitstop:

http://www.pcpitstop.com

They offer many suggestion on improving your overall system performance. Try it out.

I wouldn't look to overclock anything now, as it would seem that your system is just needing to be tweaked.

Try tweakXP, and see if you get any performance gains...

Etc..

SoftFSB is located at the link below:

http://www.geocities.com/enigmadeads...sb.html#cpufsb

but I don't know if it will let you unlock the Multiplier.. Intel kind of screwed you in that department about 4-5 years ago.


good luck

[efc]

This 4 page article discusses the things that happen when you change memory or cpu settings.

LINK

[MSNwar]

The FSB should be running at 400 by default because of the CPU and RAM combination. The BIOS requires no special settings or changes in the default settings to attain the 400 FSB. Did I miss something?

The hard drives are ATA-133 which are also necessary to attain the throughput you desire, so I suspect the slow performance is not CPU, RAM, Hard drive specifications related. Are the hard drives on the same IDE channel or seperate channels? The two hard drives should be on the same IDE channel in this system configuration. Are the hard drives defraged? Other drives, CD-ROM, CD-Recorder, should be primary slaves.

This is a single XP system? Are you dual booting multiple operating sytems? Is the page swap file on the boot drive or the secondary master? Move it to the secondary master in this configuration. Did you perform a clean installation of XP, an upgrade, an unattended install, etc.? Install XP clean, i.e. format the hard drive and iinstall. Do not overwrite the present installation.

Run the bench marks software with only XP installed for a true diagnostic. Last, turn off any unnecessay background services. See http://www.blackviper.com for details and tweaks to XP.

[LANDSCAPE]

OK, I'm pretty sure that the problem was caused by the on board sound card, I did a reinstall, and at first I tried to let windows repair itself, I got a message that the on board sound had a compatibility problem. anyways, I have since then done a clean install on a formatted NTFS drive.

I ran Sandra after the OS was installed and have run it after every change, or new program install, I disabled the on board sound in the BIOS and so far am benchmarking like I'm supposed to. in fact I'm quite impressed with the speed of this system.

I will not be using the onboard soundcard, in the morning I'm off to best buy for an audigy2.

TY for all who provided info, I will keep you posted if anything wierd happens, BTW how can I get a screen shot of just the Sandra results so I can post them, do I need to use an imiging program and edit the whole screenshot?

oh and incidentally the FSB with this combination runs at 533 by default.

[Big Booger]

Well glad to see its working great now. That is very interesting how the onboard sound could effect your system performance in the way that it did.

[MSNwar]

Great job and great PC. Glad it worked out.

Few questions and comments if you do not mind.

Q. How much did the PC cost? It is top of the line in specs and I am just curious.

Q. The DDR RAM is 400 so you will not get a 533 FSB right? I was reading about a new type of RAM that is not RAMBUS, but results in 533.

You might want to make a web page with the PC specs for the future and put a link in your signature. I luv PC spec pages and would like to follow your PC upgrades etc.

[Reverend]

Originally posted by LANDSCAPE
BTW how can I get a screen shot of just the Sandra results so I can post them, do I need to use an imiging program and edit the whole screenshot?

When you get the Sandra results window up,press the Alt + Print Screen keys.(that combination of keys will take a screenshot of just the Sandra window rather than the full screen).

Then open Paint,then select Edit > Paste.
The Sandra screenshot will appear.Click File > Save As.
Name the file whatever you want and select jpg from the drop down menu.

To add the image to your post hit the browse button (next to Attach file) and locate the image from your hard drive.Make sure the file is no larger than 100kb.If it is too large use the crop option in Paint and resize it via Image > Attributes.

If you have any problems let us know.

[LANDSCAPE]

Originally posted by MSNwar
Great job and great PC. Glad it worked out.

Few questions and comments if you do not mind.

Q. How much did the PC cost? It is top of the line in specs and I am just curious.

Q. The DDR RAM is 400 so you will not get a 533 FSB right? I was reading about a new type of RAM that is not RAMBUS, but results in 533.

You might want to make a web page with the PC specs for the future and put a link in your signature. I luv PC spec pages and would like to follow your PC upgrades etc.

A: Since I built it myself, I was able to save quite a bit, the total spent was about $2K (I had the monitor, and other stuff)

A: The RAM actually runs at 266Mhz if I OC the CPU I can push the RAM to 400, but I do not have advanced cooling and actually, I don't need the speed. See the pic. and on PCPitstop.com it's all checkered flags.

AGAIN, TY to all who provided info, I will post a 3Dmark bench here soon.