I will stay at air cooling only. I use a 80mm Delta fan to cool the CPU at OC settings.

supercordo wrote on 2026-05-30, 13:37:

My NF7-s was the same, have to use a modded bios to go higher. I use Digitalbath's ED55 bios. It can be found here. https://biosbude.de/%21%20BIOS%20VAULT/Abit/N … .0/digitalbath/

Feel free to ask if you need information to the added settings.

Will try the ED55 BIOS + these, although again I may possibly still have a locked chip in both ways (as absurd as that sounds). The 0331 one does go lower but not higher while the one I got 234FSB on won't go in either directions.

Ok, I have some BH-5, BH-6, TCCD and Crucial PC3200 (2-2-2) and PC4000 (3-4-4-8). If I want to jump on this with one of my NF2s, which kit would save me the most time in extracting best performance?

PcBytes wrote on 2026-05-30, 20:30:

Will try the ED55 BIOS + these, although again I may possibly still have a locked chip in both ways (as absurd as that sounds). The 0331 one does go lower but not higher while the one I got 234FSB on won't go in either directions.

Those chips got a good review (https://www.legitreviews.com/corsair-xms-3200 … google_vignette). I just bought some to join the competition.

Parts so far. Tried not to spend too much.

CMX512-3200XL - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/306941965407
Abit NF7-S 2.0 - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/287219383029
XP-M 2800+ AXMJ2800FHQ4C (with IQYHA) - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/188378574659

I already have a Gainward 7600GT to use.

Yeah, tried a XP-M too but that one hits a wall too, probably due to being a 2400 of all things.

PcBytes wrote on 2026-05-30, 20:30:

Will try the ED55 BIOS + these, although again I may possibly still have a locked chip in both ways (as absurd as that sounds). The 0331 one does go lower but not higher while the one I got 234FSB on won't go in either directions.

Nice TCCD sticks!

Voodoo Rufus wrote on 2026-05-30, 20:34:

Ok, I have some BH-5, BH-6, TCCD and Crucial PC3200 (2-2-2) and PC4000 (3-4-4-8). If I want to jump on this with one of my NF2s, which kit would save me the most time in extracting best performance?

Depends on the board imho. If your board is able to push the Vdimm voltage to 3V or more, I would use the BH5/6 dimms (+a fan to cool the chips). You're able to push the clocks with the lowest RAM timings (2-2-2-5).
If not, I would prefer the TCCD sticks. With a good bin you should be able to use 2-3-3-6 or 2,5-3-3-7 timings. Crucial RAM should also do a fine job. Good Ballisix (5B-G chips) are able to clock 250Mhz /2,5-2-2-9 /2,8-2,9v.

Might still have some gas in the tank still. The HD 3850 is loving this ram at 2.2.2.5!!!!

Nice Score. #1
And now for the hard part: Open the tweaker an apply the wb5 profile. The 3850 will max out at 999-MHz or so 😉

do a SuperPi 1M Bench if it works.

The Sandman wrote on 2026-05-31, 07:56:

Nice Score. #1
And now for the hard part: Open the tweaker an apply the wb5 profile. The 3850 will max out at 999-MHz or so 😉

do a SuperPi 1M Bench if it works.

Ill try the profile later. Whats the max voltage you think for a XP-M?

don't know. Our heavy overclockers from the forum say that air/water makes the silicon degrade pretty fast. 2+Volts...

The Sandman wrote on 2026-05-31, 16:23:

don't know. Our heavy overclockers from the forum say that air/water makes the silicon degrade pretty fast. 2+Volts...

Yeah, im already at 2.064 V on an IQZFA. But i do have an IQYHA on the way.

Voodoo Rufus wrote on 2026-05-30, 20:34:

Ok, I have some BH-5, BH-6, TCCD and Crucial PC3200 (2-2-2) and PC4000 (3-4-4-8). If I want to jump on this with one of my NF2s, which kit would save me the most time in extracting best performance?

Depends on the board imho. If your board is able to push the Vdimm voltage to 3V or more, I would use the BH5/6 dimms (+a fan to cool the chips). You're able to push the clocks with the lowest RAM timings (2-2-2-5).
If not, I would prefer the TCCD sticks. With a good bin you should be able to use 2-3-3-6 or 2,5-3-3-7 timings. Crucial RAM should also do a fine job. Good Ballisix (5B-G chips) are able to clock 250Mhz /2,5-2-2-9 /2,8-2,9v.

The PC4000 is rated for 2.5-4-4-8 at 2.8V but should run 2.5-3-3-8 according to reviews I've read. The TCCDs are 2-2-2-5 at 2.6V. All of these sticks are really nice so I won't push more than 2.8V through them as I want them to last.

My two available boards are an NF7-S V2.0 and my LP Ultra B.

Unless some of these kits clock past 220 with tight timings it looks like I'm better off using the PC4000 on my 875P or Nforce4 boards.

Thanks to a fellow VOGONS member here (@Socket3) I'll be getting a 7N400 Pro2, one of the only nF2 boards I know of that use 4 DDR slots instead of the usual 3.

Any specific BIOS I should go with from the modded ones? I apparently see a few choices - TicTac, official (which I assume is latest BIOS version) and digitalbath's BIOSes.

For reference, the same XP chips will be used on it as the NF7, and for RAM I will usually stick to the known working samples (TwinX, TCCCs and CTP-D43). I had to sell the X850 so for the time being a FX5900 might take its place. (7800GS refuses to cooperate and all the other cards I have are weaklings like TSOP R9550, FX5500, R9200SE)

supercordo wrote on 2026-05-31, 01:05:

Might still have some gas in the tank still. The HD 3850 is loving this ram at 2.2.2.5!!!!

Really nice! P1! Socket a benefits from low latency RAM.

Voodoo Rufus wrote on 2026-05-31, 17:16:

My two available boards are an NF7-S V2.0 and my LP Ultra B.

LP Ultra B is a really nice board. It should do a good job. Maybe a simmilar job as Sandman's board do?
It provides enough voltage for winbond RAM; the Abit board should be good with TCCD RAM.

PcBytes wrote on 2026-05-31, 17:43:

Thanks to a fellow VOGONS member here (@Socket3) I'll be getting a 7N400 Pro2, one of the only nF2 boards I know of that use 4 DDR slots instead of the usual 3.

Any specific BIOS I should go with from the modded ones? I apparently see a few choices - TicTac, official (which I assume is latest BIOS version) and digitalbath's BIOSes.

Afaik Gigabyte was the only one, who soldered four dimm slots to the board. There are limitations though!
I never did any BIOS modifications to the Gigabyte board. If I remember corectly . That reminds me, I have a 7NNXP to recap here.

_digitalbath wrote on 2026-05-31, 17:51:

I never did any BIOS modifications to the Gigabyte board. If I remember corectly . That reminds me, I have a 7NNXP to recap here.

I see your name for the 7N400 Pro2 rev2 BIOSes on biosbude.de 😀

PcBytes wrote on 2026-05-31, 20:03:

I see your name for the 7N400 Pro2 rev2 BIOSes on biosbude.de 😀

To be honest, I cant remember when I did this and who asked for it. I am getting old. Nevertheless, this mod BIOSes doesn't have the additional RAM settings. So it is a basic mod.

Traveling for work this week. So ill need you guys to post some benchmarks too help make this week go by faster for me.

I unfortunately may be unable to do any benches until at least the 10th of June, depending on when I can get some cash. After that I'll be racking up on some more GPUs hopefully, including a X1950 Pro 256M in some dire need of love.

PcBytes wrote on 2026-05-29, 15:29:

Issues - CPU-Z would freeze everytime when loading (at the Processor mark) I tried opening so I had to switch to HWINFO.

CPU-Z freezing at 15% is a known issue. possible workarounds:
1. Use CPU-Z v1.59 or earlier - 1.59 is the last version without that issue
2. reinstall windows - fresh install will load latest cpu-z until at some point it somehow starts freezing again
3. use cpu-z vintage edition - that one validates and doesn't freeze

I usually go with option 2 - i got a slim windows xp install (i call it "bench xp") and made an image of that. as soon as it startes freezing cpu-z i'll just write the image back and start over. usually that happens after a crash/freeze or when i'm booting the system at slightly unstable settings.

Voodoo Rufus wrote on 2026-05-30, 20:34:

Ok, I have some BH-5, BH-6, TCCD and Crucial PC3200 (2-2-2) and PC4000 (3-4-4-8). If I want to jump on this with one of my NF2s, which kit would save me the most time in extracting best performance?

Anything which will allow you to run low timings at high clocks. If your board is able to push 3V+ Vdimm, then i'd go with winbond based sticks (256mb - single rank) any day. Infineon AT-6 or AT-7.5 will also work.

If you’re limited to 2.8V, then you can choose TCCD, Ballistix (heavily binned micron), Hynix or Infineon BE/CE/DE (single sided 512mb sticks). Low timings at high fsb is the key.

NF2 will run double ranked sticks, but single rank will have mostly equal performance, but leave more headroom on the fsb. Make sure to use a bios with ram drive strength option and boot at low(ish) fsb. Then raise fsb in OS via the Tweaker. Drive strength will help quite a lot with micron and TCCD.

New board arrived with an Athlon XP 2800.. it goes to 2.5GHz without a hassle..

Tomorrow I'll have some time to actually tweak things..

The XP-M does not appear to like more than 2350MHz, even at higher voltages. A pity.

But there are still two 2800s, a 3000 and a 3200 waiting to get tested.

Good news: New board is able to do 230Mhz FSB. Memory tweaking will have to follow.

I thought abouth testing the maximum there with the XP-M, as i can just go low with multi and cpu clock.