Slightly OT: Epox Mobo Questions

I'm considering upgrading my system to an Epox 8KHA+ motherboard and an AMD XP1800+ CPU. I see that this mobo has a 133 FSB. My present system is running a 100 FSB. I'm concerned that certain components (hard drives, sound card, video card, etc) might not run with the FSB at 133. I want to re-use my SB Live Value and my Voodoo5500 and want to make sure that there won't be any problems with them. Also, I know that there's a RAM limit for GPL before it chokes. I'd like to install 768 Megs of RAM but don't want to adversely affect GPL (or any other sims for that matter). I'd appreciate hearing from any of you who have upgraded to this board and CPU. Are my concerns legitimate? I know that some of you will advise upgrading the videocard -- perhaps in the future (limited budget, right now). Will using this chip mean patching GPL with the fast CPU patch? And what's the RAM limit for GPL? Thanks! -- Bert

Your sound card will continue to run normally on the PCI bus which regardless of FSB speeds will stay at 33 mhz, the same applies to the AGP interface which is unchanged at 66mhz. There won't be any problem at all. The ATA interface will run happily at the ATA 100 level, as the IDE drivers will auto detect the Hard Drive interface speed and run accordingly. You are not really losing out here as a single Hard Drive will never saturate the bus bandwidth. I have the board, and it's one of the best available. Overclocking features galore, stable and fast. I've had a lot less trouble with it than my previous ABIT KT7A. Good luck! Ian www.SimBin.com All your sim needs! "BRH" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> I'm considering upgrading my system to an Epox 8KHA+ motherboard and an > AMD XP1800+ CPU. > > I see that this mobo has a 133 FSB. My present system is running a 100 > FSB. I'm concerned that certain components (hard drives, sound card, > video card, etc) might not run with the FSB at 133. I want to re-use my > SB Live Value and my Voodoo5500 and want to make sure that there won't > be any problems with them. > > Also, I know that there's a RAM limit for GPL before it chokes. I'd > like to install 768 Megs of RAM but don't want to adversely affect GPL > (or any other sims for that matter). > > I'd appreciate hearing from any of you who have upgraded to this board > and CPU. Are my concerns legitimate? I know that some of you will > advise upgrading the videocard -- perhaps in the future (limited budget, > right now). Will using this chip mean patching GPL with the fast CPU > patch? And what's the RAM limit for GPL? > > Thanks! > -- > Bert > >

Well, I have this board and XP1600+ cpu, but have not put them together yet. I will be ordering a case and vid card for it shortly. You shouldn't have any trouble with the 133 bus speed as long as you have good pc2100 ram, I would go with Crucial or Mushkin. The mb will set the agp and pci bus to the appropiate speeds. Don Burnette "BRH" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> I'm considering upgrading my system to an Epox 8KHA+ motherboard and an > AMD XP1800+ CPU. > > I see that this mobo has a 133 FSB. My present system is running a 100 > FSB. I'm concerned that certain components (hard drives, sound card, > video card, etc) might not run with the FSB at 133. I want to re-use my > SB Live Value and my Voodoo5500 and want to make sure that there won't > be any problems with them. > > Also, I know that there's a RAM limit for GPL before it chokes. I'd > like to install 768 Megs of RAM but don't want to adversely affect GPL > (or any other sims for that matter). > > I'd appreciate hearing from any of you who have upgraded to this board > and CPU. Are my concerns legitimate? I know that some of you will > advise upgrading the videocard -- perhaps in the future (limited budget, > right now). Will using this chip mean patching GPL with the fast CPU > patch? And what's the RAM limit for GPL? > > Thanks! > -- > Bert > >

[email hidden] (BRH) wrote in <[email hidden]>:

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>I'm considering upgrading my system to an Epox 8KHA+ motherboard and an >AMD XP1800+ CPU. > >I see that this mobo has a 133 FSB. My present system is running a 100 >FSB. I'm concerned that certain components (hard drives, sound card, >video card, etc) might not run with the FSB at 133. I want to re-use my >SB Live Value and my Voodoo5500 and want to make sure that there won't >be any problems with them. > >Also, I know that there's a RAM limit for GPL before it chokes. I'd >like to install 768 Megs of RAM but don't want to adversely affect GPL >(or any other sims for that matter). > >I'd appreciate hearing from any of you who have upgraded to this board >and CPU. Are my concerns legitimate? I know that some of you will >advise upgrading the videocard -- perhaps in the future (limited budget, >right now). Will using this chip mean patching GPL with the fast CPU >patch? And what's the RAM limit for GPL?

Can't comment on what your Voodoo will do, and I don't recall GPL having a ram limit problem. Maybe your thinking of Windows? Here's my setup. Epox 8KHA+, Athlon 1700, 512 meg Micron PC2100, SB Live Value, Geforce3. I'm running the FSB at 140 (which has the processor at 1550 Mhz) the video card is set at 200/458 which is stock, I've had it at 215/515. In all cases, I've had no problems whatsoever, great board, highly recommended. -- Don Scurlock Vancouver,B.C. GPLRank -15.39 MonsterRank 90.86 Come see how you rank, at the GPLRank site http://newgplrank.schuerkamp.de/

This is what I posted to alt.comp.hardware.overclcoking.amd: Not an exaggeration - I STILL feel this way: ****************************************** 8KHA+ and an Athlon 1600+ (default 1400mhz) GET THIS: Stepped the FSB (yes Bill, I never unlocked L1, fan was glued on by AccessMicro) to 152,153,155,156! This thing won't quit (well, actually it did, at 158mhz) - GOT to be voltage or something. Anyway, benched it at 150mhz FSB and got these results: SisSandra CPU: 4415MIPS 2177MFLOPS SisSandra MultiMedia: Integer 8801 FPU 10093 THEN @155mhz or (10.5x155=1630mhz - about a XP<2000) SisSandra CPU: 4523MIPS 2243MFLOPS SisSandra MultiMedia: Integer 9095 FPU *10429* WooHoo! I'm sure unlocked and better cooled these suckers are good for 1700or1750mhz. Like I said in the previous post, I am hooked. Let me know if you want other benches run (don't forget I have a cheapo GF2MX though :) Parke C. Athlon XP (1400mhz) 1600+ at (1630mhz) <2000+ EPoX 8KHA+ 256M Kingston DDR2100 GeForce2MX (which is why I'm not flaunting my 3DMark2001 score :(! Sparkle 300W PSU enlight mid w/2 inboard 1 exhaust Former PIII 650@910 Abit BE6-II rev.2 512M Kingston 133 Just received an EPoX 8KHA+ combo with an XP 1600+ (1400mhz) strapped on and

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> a ThermalTake Tornado v.6. from AccessMicro.com. > Installed WinXP build 2526 @1400mhz then started bumping it up. > > I am now at 1580mhz (or XP1900+) and this thing is ROCK SOLID! Sheesh. I > was worried that since I wasn't able to unlock it (dang ditches!) that I'd > be stuck in the 1400's. Huh. I'm gonna try for 2000+! And I actually > *like* my chances! > > Not since I first o/c'ed a Celeron 266 on a BX have I felt so good about a > machine. AMD, you have a new fanboy...(oh yeah, props to EPoX too!) > > Parke C. > AthlonXP1400@1580mhz (1900+) > EPoX 8KHA+ > 256M Kingston DDR2100 > GeForce2MX (which is why I'm not flaunting my 3DMark2001 score :(! > Sparkle 300W PSU > enlight mid w/2 inboard 1 exhaust > > Former > PIII 650@910 > Abit BE6-II rev.2 > 512M Kingston 133

"BRH" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> I'm considering upgrading my system to an Epox 8KHA+ motherboard and an > AMD XP1800+ CPU. > > I see that this mobo has a 133 FSB. My present system is running a 100 > FSB. I'm concerned that certain components (hard drives, sound card, > video card, etc) might not run with the FSB at 133. I want to re-use my > SB Live Value and my Voodoo5500 and want to make sure that there won't > be any problems with them. > > Also, I know that there's a RAM limit for GPL before it chokes. I'd > like to install 768 Megs of RAM but don't want to adversely affect GPL > (or any other sims for that matter). > > I'd appreciate hearing from any of you who have upgraded to this board > and CPU. Are my concerns legitimate? I know that some of you will > advise upgrading the videocard -- perhaps in the future (limited budget, > right now). Will using this chip mean patching GPL with the fast CPU > patch? And what's the RAM limit for GPL? > > Thanks! > -- > Bert > >

BRH wrote:

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> > I'm considering upgrading my system to an Epox 8KHA+ motherboard and an > AMD XP1800+ CPU. > > I see that this mobo has a 133 FSB. My present system is running a 100 > FSB. I'm concerned that certain components (hard drives, sound card, > video card, etc) might not run with the FSB at 133. I want to re-use my > SB Live Value and my Voodoo5500 and want to make sure that there won't > be any problems with them.

The MB will automagicaly divide the FSB (CPU) bus speed by 2 or 4 to generate satndard 66 and 33 MHz clocks for the AGP and PCI buses. (Some MB's have user selectable divide ratios.) Your peripherals will never know the diference. If (when) you decide to overclock the FSB, the other bus speeds will increase by the same percent as the FSB. Most PCI and AGP cards run fine at slightly higher frequencies; if you crank the FSB beyond 145~150, they may (or may not!) begin to have problems. > > Also, I know that there's a RAM limit for GPL before it chokes. I'd > like to install 768 Megs of RAM but don't want to adversely affect GPL > (or any other sims for that matter). I don't think there is a limit for GPL. Win 95/98 does have a 512M disk cache issue. Before installing that last 256M, enter this in your system.ini: [vcache] MaxFileCache=xxxxx MinFileCache=xxxxx where xxxxx = the desired cache size in KB. The numbers must be less than 524288 (512M) or the cache program will puke. If no limits are assigned, windoze will allocate all the available memory to the cache, if more than 512M is available, it will overload and causing a crash (AFAIK). With 768M, try max=131072 (128M) and min = 32768 (32M) > Thanks! > -- > Bert -Greg ============ Anti-Spam measures have been taken! Remove duplicate letters to reply.

In article <[email hidden]>, BRH <[email hidden]> writes:

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> >I see that this mobo has a 133 FSB. My present system is running a 100 >FSB. I'm concerned that certain components (hard drives, sound card, >video card, etc) might not run with the FSB at 133. I want to re-use my >SB Live Value and my Voodoo5500 and want to make sure that there won't >be any problems with them. >

If your main concern is GPL, you will be VERY happy. I just upgraded from 900Mhz to an Athalon XP1700+, and my Voodoo 5500 took off like a rocket. It wasn't working at near its capability before. I'm now running GPL at 1600 with everything on except drivers arms and wheel. Rock solid 36 even at the back of the grid. You will need the CPU patch, but I don't know about the memory. Don McCorkle

Thanks, Don. That's good info. It's great to know that the Voodoo5500 will still be a good choice. I'm presently running a celeron 566@850, so I guesss that I'll see quite a difference. Thanks, again. Bert Woodie 83 wrote:

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> In article <[email hidden]>, > BRH <[email hidden]> writes: > > > > >I see that this mobo has a 133 FSB. My present system is running a 100 > >FSB. I'm concerned that certain components (hard drives, sound card, > >video card, etc) might not run with the FSB at 133. I want to re-use my > >SB Live Value and my Voodoo5500 and want to make sure that there won't > >be any problems with them. > > > > If your main concern is GPL, you will be VERY happy. I just upgraded from > 900Mhz to an Athalon XP1700+, and my Voodoo 5500 took off like a rocket. It > wasn't working at near its capability before. I'm now running GPL at 1600 with > everything on except drivers arms and wheel. Rock solid 36 even at the back of > the grid. You will need the CPU patch, but I don't know about the memory. > > Don McCorkle

-- Bert

This is what I've got... InWin S508 300w ATX midtower AMD XP 1800 Epox EP-8KHA+ mb 2x 256mb DDR Crucial RAM WD 60 gig HD Radeon 8500 SB Audigy X-Gamer LiteOn DVD LiteOn CDR-W AOpen FM56-PM 56K PCI Modem Samsung 19" flat screen Klipsch 4.1's Logitech Cordless keybd & optical mouse Logitech Momo wheel & pedals It screams, especially with GPL and F1 2001 all maxxed out. The only problem I'm having is the frickin computer re-boots when I try to play a game while connected to the internet! I haven't had an online GPL race for 3 weeks... I just didn't notice til now cause F1 2001 single-player was filling my time. Anyone got any ideas for me? Warlock! BRH wrote:

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> I'm considering upgrading my system to an Epox 8KHA+ motherboard and an > AMD XP1800+ CPU. > > I see that this mobo has a 133 FSB. My present system is running a 100 > FSB. I'm concerned that certain components (hard drives, sound card, > video card, etc) might not run with the FSB at 133. I want to re-use my > SB Live Value and my Voodoo5500 and want to make sure that there won't > be any problems with them. > > Also, I know that there's a RAM limit for GPL before it chokes. I'd > like to install 768 Megs of RAM but don't want to adversely affect GPL > (or any other sims for that matter). > > I'd appreciate hearing from any of you who have upgraded to this board > and CPU. Are my concerns legitimate? I know that some of you will > advise upgrading the videocard -- perhaps in the future (limited budget, > right now). Will using this chip mean patching GPL with the fast CPU > patch? And what's the RAM limit for GPL? > > Thanks! > -- > Bert

Check overclockers.com. There has been a problem with Bios that causes a boot problem. Jeff H. Warlock! <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> This is what I've got... > > InWin S508 300w ATX midtower > AMD XP 1800 > Epox EP-8KHA+ mb > 2x 256mb DDR Crucial RAM > WD 60 gig HD > Radeon 8500 > SB Audigy X-Gamer > LiteOn DVD > LiteOn CDR-W > AOpen FM56-PM 56K PCI Modem > Samsung 19" flat screen > Klipsch 4.1's > Logitech Cordless keybd & optical mouse > Logitech Momo wheel & pedals > > It screams, especially with GPL and F1 2001 all maxxed out. The only

problem > I'm having is the frickin computer re-boots when I try to play a gamewhile > connected to the internet! I haven't had an online GPL race for 3 weeks...I > just didn't notice til now cause F1 2001 single-player was filling mytime. > Anyone got any ideas for me? > > Warlock! >-snipped-

In article <[email hidden]>, "Warlock!" <[email hidden]> writes: >It screams, especially with GPL and F1 2001 all maxxed out. The only problem >I'm having is the frickin computer re-boots when I try to play a game while >connected to the internet! I haven't had an online GPL race for 3 weeks... I >just didn't notice til now cause F1 2001 single-player was filling my time. >Anyone got any ideas for me? Some sort of conflict between your modem and your display card(or sound card)? Seems strange that you only have problems during the game... Eldred -- Dale Earnhardt, Sr. R.I.P. 1951-2001 Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett GPLRank - under construction... Never argue with an idiot. He brings you down to his level, then beats you with experience... Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.