geordiepingu wrote on 2026-06-30, 19:08:

Thought I'd post back in here, it's happening Probably a couple of months away from realistically posting some higher scores... […]
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Thought I'd post back in here, it's happening
Probably a couple of months away from realistically posting some higher scores...

Thats sexy!!! haha

Look what arrived today. Hopefully I can get back in the top 5 again.

I might try again sometime later today since I have a X1950 Pro (albeit 256MB...) from Powercolor too.

Not holding any hopes on the current RAM sticks (swissbit 2x1GB, basically just rebranded KVRs) or the CPU doing better than my last score but I guess I can try.

PcBytes wrote on 2026-07-03, 10:18:

I might try again sometime later today since I have a X1950 Pro (albeit 256MB...) from Powercolor too.

Not holding any hopes on the current RAM sticks (swissbit 2x1GB, basically just rebranded KVRs) or the CPU doing better than my last score but I guess I can try.

Welcome back to the competition! Looking forward to seeing the score.

I'm not having much time right now. But I got at least to try the XP-M 2400 with the HD3850 - funny things.. 235 x 10? nah - won't run.. 240 x 10? - sure thing..

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-07-03, 20:25:

I'm not having much time right now. But I got at least to try the XP-M 2400 with the HD3850 - funny things.. 235 x 10? nah - won't run.. 240 x 10? - sure thing..

The attachment barton_hd3850_1.JPG is no longer available

Top 5! I'll have to see if my thoroughbred can knock you back down.

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-05-29, 18:42:

It seems my A7N8X just decided to not do a thing anymore.. I'm a bit lost.. Nothing was changed, I just wanted to start it up to […]
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It seems my A7N8X just decided to not do a thing anymore.. I'm a bit lost.. Nothing was changed, I just wanted to start it up today.

- No beeps, nothing
- If memory is removed, typical memory beeps
- VCore, VTT, Vmem are present
- Changed CPUs (used 3 different ones), all of them get warm, none of them POST
- No obvious things to see
- Removing the GPU yields no beeps
- Removing the CPU yields no beeps

Anybody ideas? I just wanted to put on some watercooling onto it.. 🙁

In between life I got a minute to check on the dead a7n8x - it dumped the bios from the working one and flashed it to the broken one using my T48 programmer - IT WORKS AGAIN!

So I can go on - once time permits - and get both fully modded.. poly mod etc. is still missing..

I personally gave up on trying with my NF7 and the CPUs I have altogether. Unless I can find another board (an A7N8X-X that ISN'T single-channel crippled or any A7N8X for that matter, any EPoX 8RDA3/6 series, DFI (NFII Ultra-AL, which is basically the base board the Lanparty was conceived from) etc.) I'm considering the prior X850+Barton score final for the time being.

So far:
- did everything possible to get the superlocked Barton to run 234 again with the Powercolor X1950Pro 256 I have, but nothing. It'll get to Windows, start up 3Dmark, but 3DM01 will crash at random. Suspecting heavy and fast silicon degradation as I can't find any other explanation as to why it only worked ONCE.
- Thoroughbreds ALL spaz out in the weirdest way possible - you have to save CMOS twice to even get a speed to stick, or else you end up having the lowest multi on any FSB selection. None stable unfortunately no matter how much voltage I pump into them (or any other mentioned CPUs for the matter) and almost NONE reached the desktop.
- Thunderbirds, I can confirm supercordo's limit of 205 (or 210, forgot which one.) so no point on trying that one any further with the NF7. No Palomino to test as the only 1900+ I had is... dead, from what it seems (no POST on the NF7 or the KG7-RAID for that matter, nor any other board I have including a DFI AD70 received yesterday)

Before anyone mentions that I should reinstall instead of using the same install as my previous score - already done as I changed the drive I was using entirely (previously 40GB Samsung Spinpoint, now 120GB Seagate). Even went as far as using a clean XP SP3 VLK copy I had found at the bin among a few other discs (and can confirm it was a clean VLK image - no traces of any modifications present.) and the same behaviour happens.

The mobile Athlon XP-M 2400+ I have is even worse - you're lucky if you're at the desktop without the whole system restarting, regardless if nVidia or Radeon. 7600GS, X850, X1950Pro, all three do the same.

Either I got the worst NF7 possible, or the chips I have are nearing their deaths.

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-07-04, 20:08:

In between life I got a minute to check on the dead a7n8x - it dumped the bios from the working one and flashed it to the broken one using my T48 programmer - IT WORKS AGAIN!

So I can go on - once time permits - and get both fully modded.. poly mod etc. is still missing..

That’s great news. Must have been a good feeling seeing it come alive again.

I spent 7 hours yesterday overclocking (tried a ton of modded BIOS, voltages, settings and multiple WinXP reimaging) and only gained another 1000 points in 3Dmark. I realised at the end of the day that the NF7 board I was using had a bad cap which usually means there are others (I’ve recapped probably over 20 board, you would think I would check for bad caps before picking a board for overclocking). I swapped to another NF7 board but still couldn’t get it stable over 222FSB (6/6 ratio). I then realised that everyone is using 256MB memory sticks where I’m trying to get 512MB sticks stable, silly me. I wasted entire day 🤣.

So my plan moving forward is to recap one of the NF7 boards. I was going to go down the poly route but some seem to be against it for these boards https://www.badcaps.net/forum/troubleshooting … -abit-nf7-s-2-0

Was planning to use good old Panasonic FR low ESR caps https://au.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Panasonic … L6mMDojhg%3D%3D which leads me to the question, what poly’s were you planning on using?

Back in the top 5! Not bad for 512MB sticks. Sorry Tehsiggi 😉

What's strange is if I go any slower with timing (EG from 2.0 to 2.5 or 3.0) the motherboard will not post. My memory only likes 2-2-2-5 to 2-2-2-11.

Next on the to-do list:

- Recap NF7
- Use 256MB sticks instead of 512MB
- Overclock X1950 Pro

Aiming to kick paradigital out of 3rd position 😉

Nice!!! Scores updated.

zuldan wrote on Yesterday, 01:25:

Back in the top 5! Not bad for 512MB sticks. Sorry Tehsiggi ;-) […]
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Back in the top 5! Not bad for 512MB sticks. Sorry Tehsiggi 😉

What's strange is if I go any slower with timing (EG from 2.0 to 2.5 or 3.0) the motherboard will not post. My memory only likes 2-2-2-5 to 2-2-2-11.

Next on the to-do list:

- Recap NF7
- Use 256MB sticks instead of 512MB
- Overclock X1950 Pro

Aiming to kick paradigital out of 3rd position 😉

The attachment Final Result.png is no longer available

Lovely score! Good work! I'll be back in some time and see if I can push you out again 😁

tehsiggi wrote on Yesterday, 05:24:

zuldan wrote on Yesterday, 01:25:

Back in the top 5! Not bad for 512MB sticks. Sorry Tehsiggi ;-) […]
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Back in the top 5! Not bad for 512MB sticks. Sorry Tehsiggi 😉

What's strange is if I go any slower with timing (EG from 2.0 to 2.5 or 3.0) the motherboard will not post. My memory only likes 2-2-2-5 to 2-2-2-11.

Next on the to-do list:

- Recap NF7
- Use 256MB sticks instead of 512MB
- Overclock X1950 Pro

Aiming to kick paradigital out of 3rd position 😉

The attachment Final Result.png is no longer available

Lovely score! Good work! I'll be back in some time and see if I can push you out again 😁

Haha we will see 😉

What poly caps are you planning on using?

Please do not use Panasonic FR for the cpu.

Usually Kemet A750 16V 2200uF got a low enough ESR (around 10 to 20mOhms) and will fit great as a replacement for the old Nichocon HM or Rubycon MBZ. Don’t worry that the old caps are 6.3V 3300uF, the lower capacity of the Kemet is not an issue. the resistence (ESR) is the primary factor hat higher switching frequencies. A7N8X switches at about 125kHz, other boards switch even faster.

The Kemet will work on the cpu side for a number of boards, just don’t replace all caps on the whole board with Kemet.

Make sure to also replace the 6.3V 1800uF capacitor below the AGP slot on NF7. That one is dead on most boards and the one which usually keeps the board from POSTing. Also use Kemet there, as it’s very low ESR.

I have a bunch of RR50E152MDN1 from Nichicon (2,5V 1500µF) which I'll use for the CPU power, as I've got them laying around from my K7S8X recap's. for the input side of the CPU VRM, I'll go with some kemet 16V, as I'm modding it to use 12V. For the AGP slot power and memory (5V input and output) I should have some RPF0809102M006K (6.3V 1000µF) laying around as well. Used the same on the K7S8X's. I'll only focus on the VRM sections and power rails (bulk capacity for VTT and VMEM included) - the rest will just get some nice 1000µF 6.3V low-esr electrolytes and be happy with it.

The CPU power stage is very similar to my k7s8x one and it works well with the caps. The limiting factor right now is time. I need to specify my memories as well, but just didn't get to it yet 😒