CPU FSB question

[Guest Dominik Mann]

Well, as some of you might remember, I'd been planning on a computer upgrade over the past few weeks, and this morning I finally executed my plans. I am now running an Athlon XP 2500 on an ASUS A7N8X main board with 512 MB of PC-333 DDRAM. I also upgraded to Win XP Professional while I was at it.However, I believe both my CPU and memory are not running at full performance yet. According to the BIOS, my CPU front side bus is still at 166 MHz, as is my memory.Could any of you tell me what other setting I might have to change to get my system up to full power without ruining everything?Thanks!

[Guest FPSFREAK]

D.M.Theres nothing wrong. If you take your CPU's multiplier times the FSB set in your bios you'll find your right on. Also DDR runs 2 clock cycles per set. Therefore, 166 times 2 is 333.Bobby

[Guest Dominik Mann]

Oops...really? :-shy Silly me...but ya know, it was confusing to read only 166 MHz where I would have expected a figure in the range of 333 MHz. In any case, my CPU has been recognized correctly as an XP 2500+, and my Samurize interface is showing it at an effective clock speed of 1,830 MHz. I gather these are the correct readouts?Thanks!

[Guest w2sjw]

No, your XP 2500 should be running at 2100 MHz or close to that. My XP 2200 in that same motherboard is running at 1806 MHz (this is with NO OVERCLOCKING, mind you). You should have your multiplier at 16x, or close to that. I use PC2100 RAM, and the main bus speed of 133 x 13.5 on my system gives me my rated CPU speed here. I'm going to go look in my bios here just to make sure I've given you the right info.ScottNJ

[Guest Dominik Mann]

Uhm...are you sure? AFAIK, the 2500 is based on the Barton core, and thus rated at a lower MHz speed than, say, the standard XP 2400.

[Guest Kurt]

XP2500 (11X166.66=1833)http://www17.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030513/athlon_xp-08.htmlKurt M

[Guest w2sjw]

I've always been told that they run at an average 400 MHz BELOW the model number. I apologize for a minor error in my last post about what multiplier to use. I forgot you said you have 333MHz RAM. You want to set your CPU freq. on the first line in the BIOS to 166. Then set your multiplier to either of these settings: 12.5x will give you 2075 MHz as a final CPU speed, 13x will give you 2158. The first one is 'minor' underclocking, the second 'minor' overclocking. If you have a good fan on the chip (NOT the stock AMD!), go with the 13x. If you bought a good brand of RAM (mine are Crucial), set the RAM timing to AGGRESSIVE instead of OPTIMAL. Don't mess with the CPU vCore or anything else like that right now, and finally go down and set your graphics aperture to 128MB. You should be just fine with those settings. I use a PC-Toys QuietMAXX 5100 on my 2200XP, and she runs anywhere from 46C-52C. It all depends on how long I've been simming.Scott

[Guest w2sjw]

Kurt,Thanks for the correction there - I just followed your link to that URL. I can't believe that's what the Barton core's are actually running at! An XP 2500 only running at 1800 MHz? What gives? Does it perform any faster than my 2200?Scott

[Guest Dominik Mann]

Well, I'm running on Samsung RAM sticks and with the "aggressive" setting, and it seems as if my system works just fine with this. I am, however, still puzzled about the CPU thing. I, too, was told that the XP 2500 was supposed to run at 1,833 MHz sharp.Hmmm... :-hmmm

[Guest Kurt]

Sounds like your fine, for a cpu id checker go here.http://www.h-oda.com/or herehttp://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.phpKurt M

[Guest Wichita]

XP 2500 Barton runs at 1833 Mhz. Thats a multiplier of 11.009 X 166.50=1832.99 Mhz. By changing either the multiplier or the freq you can slow the CPU down or overclock and speed it up. I have an XP 2000 that runs at the speed of an XP 2200 which = 1800 Mhz with out a hitch.David

[Guest w2sjw]

If you don't mind me asking - what are you using for a fan?Scott

[Guest Dominik Mann]

Kurt,thanks for those links - tried out the tool from the second one, and it seems as if my CPU is set up correctly. I guess it is getting rather easier for somebody to be confused by all those different figures and parameters, eh?

[Guest Wichita]

Using this CoolerMaster for the Heat sink and just regualar 80mm fans (3) in the case. Combined with Artic Silver for the thermal grease it does a great job on keeping the XP2000 well below the never exceed temp but...it is a noisy HSF. My ASUS probe shows it running at around 7200 rpm.There are other fans out there that don't put out quite as much noise but this one ranks pretty high on the list for cooling.David