This was written by someone on Futuremark and helped me to overclock........if you dont want to go as high as this guide use your own discretion!.........its a good read and very informative.
Abit NF7 V2.0 Overclocking Guide (v1.0/1.2 owners see **)
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Minimum Specs:
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* Abit NF7 V2.0 series (Vanilla, S and M versions) <---------- S & M
* A good OC’ing cpu ie. Barton 2500+/2800+/3000+/3200+, 1700+ JIUHB, or 2100+ AIUHB (or any other AIUHB)
* Either 256MB (single channel) or 512MB (2x 256 DIMM's in dual channel) of GOOD QUALITY MEMORY!, I can’t emphasise this enough generic memory owners look away. Either PC3200/PC3500/PC3700 corsair/kingston/OCZ/Geil/Twinmos/Buffalo Tech/Samsung etc will do.
* A “Quality” PSU 350W or greater (however, keep reading if you have a 300 Watter )
* Good case ventilation at least 1 intake and 1 outake fan (if in doubt rip the side off and blow on it)
......er.......
Oh yeah a video card & monitor is required too
Introduction:
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Right 1st off BAH! at anyone saying a new nb cooler is required and that stock cooling is not good enough etc, stock cooling is plenty good enough. Only if your boards temp is over 40*C should you worry I've had 250FSB out of a stock cooled NF7-S V2.0, ive not even changed the compound on it .
The only thing required is good air flow in the case and a monster CPU HSF ie. Thermalright SLK900U / Vantec 92mm tornado would be the best. As for PSU’s any thing below 350W needs replacing ASAP but if its pulling 4.97v on +5v rails, high 11's on the +12v and if the +3.3's are ok it should keep you above water for now.
When I got my first NF7 max benchable fsb was 217FSB no matter what I did. The majority of the problems was the bios but lets get you off the ground without a bios flash just yet.
** Also if your and owner of a early NF7 board feel free to try these tips (just ignore the thing about bios 10 i doubt this will help a v1.2 board **
DO NOTE THERE IS ALWAYS A RISK OF YOU PERNAMENTLY DAMAGING YOUR RIG! - AND AM IM NOT RESPONSIBLE OK
This is what I did to get above a meagre 217FSB
First Things First:
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What we don't want is too much power being drawn from the PSU than necessary so disconnect CD/DVD drives from the board and power supply, disconnect any secondary HDD's if they are not required, unplug cold cathodes flashy things etc. Anything that draws power and is not required to boot into windows get rid.
Bios Time:
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Right set the memory timings as they are rated at using "Expert" and make sure the rest of the settings read ie for XMS3200C2 (as shown in the NF7 bios) 6-3-3-2:
System bios cacheable > disabled
Video RAM cacheable > disabled
AGP Aperture > 512 or 256 or 128 (i use 128)
FSB Spread > disabled
AGP Spread > disabled
CPU Therm Throt > disabled
Enhanced PCI > Enabled
CPU disconnect > disabled
AGP data transfer rate > Max rate according to card
AGP fast write > disabled
Also disable audio, Lan, Parallel/serial ports, firewire, usb etc.(unless you use them)
Now go into softmenu and enable CPU interface. Set the CPU multiplier to 9.5x (bear with me) and the FSB to *****235*****(set at your descretion /also depends on ram) and set the divider (FSB / DRAM RATIO) to 6/6.
Drop down to the voltage section and set as follows (higher voltage involves higher risk btw):
VCore: 1.8v
VCC: 2.9v
Chipset: 1.7v
AGP: 1.7v (AGP runs through the chipset don't forget)
As long as you cooling handles that VCore your ok.
Moment of truth:
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Right save settings and boot. If it doesn’t post (you just get a black screen) trip the power off via the main switch on the back of the PSU, wait 2seconds and flip it on again and power up the PC, you will find it boots with the CPU at a low clock speed ie. 1300MHz, don't worry this is a troubleshooting mode when overclocking goes wrong. If that doesn't get it to post try holding the INSERT key on bootup. If that fails clear the CMOS and try power up. If that fails your chipset may be dead lol unlikely but possible .
If it doesn't work go back and try the same settings with an AGP voltage of 1.8v, if still no luck back of the FSB (or go up , sounds odd but the NF7 doesn't seem to like some FSB settings mine hated 227FSB but loved 225FSB and 240FSB). Still no luck got back to memory timings set them lower than the rated spec (ie for CAS2 memory set to 6-3-3-2.5 (note if your using corsair 3200C2/LL it won’t help they hate loose timings). If it still won’t work flash the bios to version 10 straight off (see * below). If you have no luck then it's most definitely your PSU.
I want faster CPU speed now:
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Now if that works its a start however, if you try a multiplier of 10x it prolly won't work if you remember me telling you to bear with me when I said to use a 9.5x multiplier this is why. The only way to get round it is back-flash to bios version 10. You should use Abit flashmenu to do this.
* Direct Download for bios 10
http://fae.abit.com.tw/download/bios/nf7-s2/nf7d10.exe' ">http://fae.abit.com.tw/download/bios/nf7-s2/nf7d10.exe
Once sucessfully flashed you should be able to use the 10x multi with high fsb.
Once you've got it running steady try lowering the volts to get rid of the high heat levels if it will let you
Good luck
Ricjax99.
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xp2500@2400mhz@1.88v
slk-600 vantec tornado 84.1cfm
NF7-Sv2.0
220mhzx11 512mb pc2700@2.8v
2x120mm=252cfm
Antec truepower 430w
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10/09/2003 05:04 PM
