There's no voltage adjustments for CPU or RAM, but the addition of FSB and dividers (5:4, 1:1 etc) were able to give me a nice little overclock with my Core 2 Duo X6800.

For 1:1 divider with high FSB (250+), your options are limited to Samsung TCCD based RAM. Unfortunately only 256mb/512mb TCCD modules are available.
All 1gb modules with decent timings will require at least 2.8v for stable work, but you can try to find brandname (G.Skill, Corsair, Patriot, etc) Samsung UCCC memory.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

For 1:1 divider with high FSB (250+), your options are limited to Samsung TCCD based RAM. Unfortunately only 256mb/512mb TCCD modules are available.
All 1gb modules with decent timings will require at least 2.8v for stable work, but you can try to find brandname (G.Skill, Corsair, Patriot, etc) Samsung UCCC memory.

I found 2x1GB Redline XP4000 that I'm going to try, which has Infineon CE-6. A little tighter timings than the UCCC from what I understand but won't reach quite as high clocks. Hoping it will at least do the 250 at default voltage until I can find some UCCC. I think the CE-6's are supposed to do OK with lower voltage too. I have some old 2x512 OCZ Platinum rev. 2 which I believe had the TCCD chips... might have to see if I can find them until the Mushkins get here.

So just wanted to give a quick update on my P5PE-VM. I received my Mushkin Redline PC4000 (Infineon CE-6) RAM today, and replaced my old Patriot DDR400 (Infineon BE-5 I believe) with it. Initial findings:

• Definitely able to push the bus speed a bit more, went from (5:4) 285FSB stable to 297FSB stable, albeit with looser timings on the RAM (so far, might experiment with timings). Currently running the E7600 @3416 MHz with no additional vcore. New RAM is currently running at DDR237@3-3-2-8 vs. 220-ish @2.5-3-2-5.
• An unlocked CPU is REQUIRED in order to adjust VID/vcore voltage using ThrottleStop 6.00 (I can adjust VID with my X6800, but CANNOT with my E7600)
• 5:4 divider (low latency setting) still seems like the best bet with this board for maximum performance
• Enabling Async in the modded BIOS seems to be the only way I've been able to get stable overclocking. I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that I'm currently running a SATA hard drive, or if it's just the way that it is with this board.
• I'm curious if I modify the SPD on my RAM to change the minimum voltage from 2.5v to 2.8v, if the memory controller will feed more voltage to the RAM. It's something I might try with my old DDR and see if it actually works. I understand the DMA controller on this board is capable of delivering 2.9v, but the lack of BIOS options makes this impossible (the DDR Reference Voltage option that gets exposed in the modded BIOS is different from DDR supply voltage, which is the one we want)

These are my initial findings with better RAM and I'll definitely be messing with this some more over the weekend. I really want to break the 16 second barrier with SuperPI 1M. I might throw the X6800 back in considering I can adjust the vcore via software, else I'm considering BSEL modding the E7600.

If anyone has any insight to share on whether modifying the SPDs on my RAM to set supply voltage higher will have any effect, it would be much appreciated. My google-foo hasn't turned up anything fruitful on this.

I'm curious if I modify the SPD on my RAM to change the minimum voltage from 2.5v to 2.8v, if the memory controller will feed more voltage to the RAM. It's something I might try with my old DDR and see if it actually works.

Technically it should allow to increase voltage, but not on every board. Some boards will completely ignore any voltage from SPD and I believe ASUS boards are in that category.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

Technically it should allow to increase voltage, but not on every board. Some boards will completely ignore any voltage from SPD and I believe ASUS boards are in that category.

I actually ended up doing a VDIMM mod instead of messing with the SPD! Unfortunately it didn't help that much. Voltage was reading a bit high (~2.64) on the board already before the mod, and cranking it up to 2.8-2.9 didn't really help much. What DID help a lot was applying active cooling to the heat sink for the north bridge. I threw a 12v 40x10mm fan on it which allowed me to push up past 300MHz on the FSB (with RAM still running at 5:4). I have a few more processors on the way (QX6800, E8600) just to mess around with. I doubt I'll be able to do much with the E8600 on this board though.

I just got myself an ECS P4M800PRO-M V2.0 off ebay, came this morning with a celeron 2.66GHz CPU and cooler. Cost me £49 but it seems these 775 + AGP mobos are fetching a decent price these days and it was the best deal i could find.

I hope I bought a good one, it supports Core 2, has AGP and PCI, PATA and SATA, takes DDR 400 or DDR2 533. It seems to tick a lot of boxes, was that a good choice?

I currently have a 3.4GHz P4 in it and I'm just setting up XP and Win 98 on this rig. I also have a spare Core 2 Duo here I could fit but that is a 2.4GHz so I'm a bit confused which would be faster for XP and Win 98se? Would the raw speed give better performance than the extra core?

Rich

dicky96 wrote:

I just got myself an ECS P4M800PRO-M V2.0 off ebay, came this morning with a celeron 2.66GHz CPU and cooler. Cost me £49 but it […]
Show full quote

I just got myself an ECS P4M800PRO-M V2.0 off ebay, came this morning with a celeron 2.66GHz CPU and cooler. Cost me £49 but it seems these 775 + AGP mobos are fetching a decent price these days and it was the best deal i could find.

I hope I bought a good one, it supports Core 2, has AGP and PCI, PATA and SATA, takes DDR 400 or DDR2 533. It seems to tick a lot of boxes, was that a good choice?

I currently have a 3.4GHz P4 in it and I'm just setting up XP and Win 98 on this rig. I also have a spare Core 2 Duo here I could fit but that is a 2.4GHz so I'm a bit confused which would be faster for XP and Win 98se? Would the raw speed give better performance than the extra core?

Rich

I like that the ECS board supports DDR2, but it's still limited to max. 2GB even if using DDR2 according to the ECS website. Overclocking is also pretty limited with the via chipset. But the fact that it supports Core2 along with DDR2 makes it a pretty solid option. Just my thoughts on the research I did, never actually used this one.

The Core2 CPU will give you better performance vs P4 hands down. The processing architecture is much more efficient, giving you more computation cycles per MHz compared to P4.

Asus p5pe-vm for a good price. I paid $5 new open box for mine in a flea market but this is still a good deal @ $39.99

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-P5PE-VM-MOTHERB … f&epid=74130887

bnice7 wrote:

The Serpent Rider wrote:

Technically it should allow to increase voltage, but not on every board. Some boards will completely ignore any voltage from SPD and I believe ASUS boards are in that category.

I actually ended up doing a VDIMM mod instead of messing with the SPD! Unfortunately it didn't help that much. Voltage was reading a bit high (~2.64) on the board already before the mod, and cranking it up to 2.8-2.9 didn't really help much. What DID help a lot was applying active cooling to the heat sink for the north bridge. I threw a 12v 40x10mm fan on it which allowed me to push up past 300MHz on the FSB (with RAM still running at 5:4). I have a few more processors on the way (QX6800, E8600) just to mess around with. I doubt I'll be able to do much with the E8600 on this board though.

Havent gotten really down with my board but im finally gonna put it in a case still need a better cooler. Do have pc4200 to test but like said only 2x256mb which sucks. So purely for testing the ram will be fine. full time gonna switch to e7500 and kingston 2x1gb ddr400 value ram call it a day with my x1950xt.

bnice7 wrote:

I like that the ECS board supports DDR2, but it's still limited to max. 2GB even if using DDR2 according to the ECS website. Overclocking is also pretty limited with the via chipset. But the fact that it supports Core2 along with DDR2 makes it a pretty solid option. Just my thoughts on the research I did, never actually used this one.

The Core2 CPU will give you better performance vs P4 hands down. The processing architecture is much more efficient, giving you more computation cycles per MHz compared to P4.

Thanks for the info bnice7 and it's good to know i got a decent enough mobo for my purposes.

I had a look and can get core 2 duo E8500 3.16GHz for just a few quid, if that will work on this mobo. Basically I want this rig to be a stupidly fast win98 gaming machine. Alongside the 'period' super socket 7 AMD K6 win98 Rig that I already have I thought this would be a good compliment. Plus I want it to be a good winXP rig too.

I don't see the 2Gb limit being an issue as I have another Core 2 Duo XP rig that I want to Upgrade to the fastest Xeon on the best mobo I can find, plus fastest DX9 Crossfire or SLI I can get my hands on. That can have more DDR2 for sure 🤣 I'm hoping that these sort of lightning fast win98/XP machines may be a good investment for the future, plus a lot of fun to play with 🤑

Rich

greasemonkey90s wrote:

Havent gotten really down with my board but im finally gonna put it in a case still need a better cooler. Do have pc4200 to test but like said only 2x256mb which sucks. So purely for testing the ram will be fine. full time gonna switch to e7500 and kingston 2x1gb ddr400 value ram call it a day with my x1950xt.

Yeah I wouldn't waste time and money trying to find extreme DDR-500 RAM for this as I'm seeing little to no benefit with the Mushkin Redline XP4000 evn with the volt mod. So far anyway. Value RAM would be fine or if you want tighter timings, there's lots of "Platinum" 2x1GB's that can be had for fairly cheap that use the Infineon BE-5 dies and are usually good to around 220MHz at 2.5-3-2-5. I also want to get a better cooler so I can try to run the QX6800. Seeing that my X6800 thermal throttles under full load, I expect the QX6800 to be even hotter 🤣.

dicky96 wrote:

Thanks for the info bnice7 and it's good to know i got a decent enough mobo for my purposes. […]
Show full quote

Thanks for the info bnice7 and it's good to know i got a decent enough mobo for my purposes.

I had a look and can get core 2 duo E8500 3.16GHz for just a few quid, if that will work on this mobo. Basically I want this rig to be a stupidly fast win98 gaming machine. Alongside the 'period' super socket 7 AMD K6 win98 Rig that I already have I thought this would be a good compliment. Plus I want it to be a good winXP rig too.

I don't see the 2Gb limit being an issue as I have another Core 2 Duo XP rig that I want to Upgrade to the fastest Xeon on the best mobo I can find, plus fastest DX9 Crossfire or SLI I can get my hands on. That can have more DDR2 for sure 🤣 I'm hoping that these sort of lightning fast win98/XP machines may be a good investment for the future, plus a lot of fun to play with 🤑

Rich

I have an E8600 that I haven't had a chance to test yet, but I can post back here once I do. You're also taking a chance as to whether the ECS BIOS will recognize the CPU. I'm running a modified BIOS that supports it, not sure if something similar exists for your ECS. I also don't expect the E8600 to be able to run at its full speed. If you're looking for something fast with not as much hassle, I would go with an E7X00 instead. But again, see if you can find out if your board's BIOS supports it.

I agree, this vintage era of CPUs and boards are so fun to play with! Easier on the pockets too. I have a whole bunch of even older computers (Pentium MMX, some 486's, 286 etc.) that I haven't had much time to mess with yet. Only time will tell if any of it becomes an investment, but at least it's enjoyable in the meantime 😀

bnice7 wrote:

greasemonkey90s wrote:

Havent gotten really down with my board but im finally gonna put it in a case still need a better cooler. Do have pc4200 to test but like said only 2x256mb which sucks. So purely for testing the ram will be fine. full time gonna switch to e7500 and kingston 2x1gb ddr400 value ram call it a day with my x1950xt.

Yeah I wouldn't waste time and money trying to find extreme DDR-500 RAM for this as I'm seeing little to no benefit with the Mushkin Redline XP4000 evn with the volt mod. So far anyway. Value RAM would be fine or if you want tighter timings, there's lots of "Platinum" 2x1GB's that can be had for fairly cheap that use the Infineon BE-5 dies and are usually good to around 220MHz at 2.5-3-2-5. I also want to get a better cooler so I can try to run the QX6800. Seeing that my X6800 thermal throttles under full load, I expect the QX6800 to be even hotter 🤣.

What about the x3230? Shouldnt be as hot by a littlr bit should work as per my link in the last page. Best bet probably e5800 bsel to 1066 is the best setup for the board in my opinion as per the memory weakness. Just the 2gbs of ram max turns me off to running a 3850. Would like to use it in early dx10 titles but vista with 2gbs would be a joke.

greasemonkey90s wrote:

What about the x3230? Shouldnt be as hot by a littlr bit should work as per my link in the last page. Best bet probably e5800 bsel to 1066 is the best setup for the board in my opinion as per the memory weakness. Just the 2gbs of ram max turns me off to running a 3850. Would like to use it in early dx10 titles but vista with 2gbs would be a joke.

X3230 is next on my list! My 7800GS limits me to directx 9.0c anyway... I've been on the hunt for a 3850 or 4670, but I refuse to pay as much as they tend to go for. I'm hoping one turns up locally. But I'm pretty happy running XP on this board. I may try 32-bit Windows 10 at some point just to do a performance comparison. And you're right, there's really not much to be gained by going with these higher specc'ed CPUs. They are still fun to experiment with.

bnice7 wrote:

greasemonkey90s wrote:

What about the x3230? Shouldnt be as hot by a littlr bit should work as per my link in the last page. Best bet probably e5800 bsel to 1066 is the best setup for the board in my opinion as per the memory weakness. Just the 2gbs of ram max turns me off to running a 3850. Would like to use it in early dx10 titles but vista with 2gbs would be a joke.

X3230 is next on my list! My 7800GS limits me to directx 9.0c anyway... I've been on the hunt for a 3850 or 4670, but I refuse to pay as much as they tend to go for. I'm hoping one turns up locally. But I'm pretty happy running XP on this board. I may try 32-bit Windows 10 at some point just to do a performance comparison. And you're right, there's really not much to be gained by going with these higher specc'ed CPUs. They are still fun to experiment with.

Have you tested the 7800gs with modded drivers in 98 yet?. I lucked out locally on 3850. Someone posted it up as a 4650 for $20 🤣. Im just in a hunt for a 7800 or 7900gs cause to try out a w98/xp dual boot. Also probably try out xp64 .

I'm seeing little to no benefit with the Mushkin Redline XP4000 evn with the volt mod

Try to push it 1:1. With some luck 270-280mhz 3-3-2-8 could be achieved.

Also probably try out xp64

Not worth it.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

Try to push it 1:1. With some luck 270-280mhz 3-3-2-8 could be achieved.

The 1:1 divider in this modded firmware seems to be problematic, for some reason doesn't let me push the bus speed as high. I didn't spend too much time with it though so I'll give it another go.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

Also probably try out xp64

Not worth it.

Figured i would check out the hype on far cry 64bit is all.

Try an E6500K.. those are unlocked too

Also BH-5 ram is fun to play with on these old 865 boards if you have done the vdimm mod, but you'd be limited to 1gb

oohms wrote:

Try an E6500K.. those are unlocked too

Also BH-5 ram is fun to play with on these old 865 boards if you have done the vdimm mod, but you'd be limited to 1gb

Basically a unlocked pentium dual core interesting.