Need Help Overclocking xp2500+

Well you shouldn't have any problems overcklocking on that board. Your board is very similar to mine. I didn't have any problems, I have PC3200. Your sig says you have PC2700 and that could be your problem. Although you can run your memory at 333 and your processor at 400 if you want.

My ram is pc3200, I forgot to update my sig. The board is rev1.04 with the latest bios. I dont get why it would run either the fsb at 200 or the ram at 400. Shouldn't it be able to do both so it can take advantage of the added bandwith and run in sync?

Which PSU are you using? A good PSU is needed when you oc your computer. And of course quality ram ect ect

The ram is Wintec and shows up in cpu-z as Nanya Technology. The power supply is a 420watt Raid Max with the followin specs:
+3.3V = 26Amps
+5V = 32A
+12V = 13A
-5V = 0.5A
-12V = 0.8A
+5Vsb = 2A
All the components should be high quality and well cooled, the only thing I'm not sure about is the power supply since that came with my case. Don't know much about power supplys so do the specs on it look good?

One more thing when I raised the core voltage to 1.7 from 1.67 my boot sector was corrupted. Easy fix but is it normal, was thinking maybe it got too much voltage somehow?

My best bet is that your PSU is a 'low' quality psu. Mostly the ones that came with the case are cheap. If you seriously want to oc I would recommend you to buy an Enermax psu.

i'd say its the motherboard. There's no reason why the psu would stop the pc running at 200x10.5=2100 when it can do 166x12.5=2075. I've seen plent of examples where early a7n8x's cant do 200mhz. I've also seen a few that have managed it only to corrupt the bios.

You couldnt buy a new psu, but i doubt that will help you. My generic 300w 'firepower' still saw my nf7-s to 240mhz fsb. It held my cpu back however.

Asy|um said:

One more thing when I raised the core voltage to 1.7 from 1.67 my boot sector was corrupted. Easy fix but is it normal, was thinking maybe it got too much voltage somehow?

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that wasn't due to cpu voltage. That was something else.

The board is rev1.04 with the latest bios.

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It's definitely your motherboard. The 1.04 rev A7N8X-Deluxe boards almost all had issues with a FSB much higher than ~185-190 MHz or so. A few people found that a modified BIOS (the A7N8X series had a set of modded BIOSes called "UB3R BIOS") increased their board's FSB overclocking potential.

For the most part though, the A7N8X series was terrible for FSB overclocking (and really not ideal for overclocking in general, compared to DFI's and Abit's nForce2 offerings) regardless of revision - my old A7N8X Deluxe Rev. 2 maxed out at a measly 211 MHz FSB with some PC3500 spec memory, even after a chipset VDD voltage regulator potentiometer mod and a hefty overvolt.

Have you tried increasing your chipset VDD voltage? If I recall correctly, the boards do have a stock chipset voltage adjustment in the BIOS.


Barring that, you can always run your FSB and memory at ~185-195 MHz, and overclock your processor via multiplier adjustments.

Your chip should do 2200 MHz easily.

Hmm.. I guess I'mn pretty lucky. I have the A7N8X-E Deluxe. I think the only difference between mine and the non E version is the proprietary Asus Wi-Fi Slot and the Gigabit LAN. I can actually boot at 2530MHz but it's not stable.:lol:

It's not processor overclockability that makes these boards bad for overclocking (although the really low stock VCore limit doesn't help at all), rather their poor FSB overclocking capabilities because of either a poorly implemented chipset/memory controller in the board design, or inferior quality chipset parts.

I still think it's weird.. His board has exactly the same chipset as mine. It should do 2.2Ghz fine. Mine does 2.3 without even touching the voltage. The reason I bought the board I have, is because every Asus board I have has overclocked so much. My P2B-F and P3B-F are both awesome overclockers for their time.

Esturk said:

I still think it's weird.. His board has exactly the same chipset as mine. It should do 2.2Ghz fine. Mine does 2.3 without even touching the voltage. The reason I bought the board I have, is because every Asus board I have has overclocked so much. My P2B-F and P3B-F are both awesome overclockers for their time.

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yes but you're not understanding what felinuz is saying. the motherboard doesnt effect the cpu overclockability unless you reach the vcore limit or the board's power stage because unstable.

Anyway bluntly put, if he's stuck at 2.2ghz then it's the cpu, not the board. If he cant reach 200mhz it's the board or ram and not the psu or cpu. It's really as simple as that unless he is a special case (which is very unlikely)


My tbred did 2.5ghz with my abit. Does that my my old abit nf7-s a better board than yours? nope - it was the cpu. Also i managed to get my abit stable at 245mhz fsb (ddr490). Better cpu than yours? nope - it was the board.

Sorry for the slow reply I was away.
I was going to try increasing the chipset voltage next and I found instructions for a VDD voltmod. Could someone post a link to a modified bios, I'd like to try that too as soon as I catch up on my work.

So in order to effectively overclock a 2500+, you need PC3200 ram??? Cuz I only got PC2700...I've never tried overclocking it to it's fullest though...I just got it up to a little above the 2ghz mark and left it alone...

Well I used to have DDR333 RAM and it ran fine at DDR400. I guess it all depends on your RAM.

Jldnr77 said:

So in order to effectively overclock a 2500+, you need PC3200 ram??? Cuz I only got PC2700...I've never tried overclocking it to it's fullest though...I just got it up to a little above the 2ghz mark and left it alone...

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Thats true IF you have a barton with locked multipliers. If you cant changte the multiplier in the bios then the only way to overclock the barton is to raise the fsb. Doing that also raises the memory speed which is why you ideally want some ram that will do 200mhz+