I have just recived my 2500+!
I ordered it in the hope I would get a AQXEA and overclock the hell out of it.
Unfortunatly I have recieved a AQXFA which, if I understand these letters correctly, means I have a newer revision than the AQXEA.
And the bad news? The multiplier is locked - or appears to be. Unless someone knows of something I am doing wrong then it appears that overclocking this is going to be limited to what my RAM can handle.
I have a friend with the same motherboard as me and a earlier revision 2500+ (not sure what stepping) and the multiplier can be changed no problem.
I can change the multiplier in the bios, however this makes no difference at all to the speed the CPU runs at.

Any ideas people? Im just slightly annoyed about this.

Thanks

Steg

Your ASUS A7N8X Deluxe (Rev 2.0) should unlock via the bios. Check out this article ...

Unlocking and Overclocking the Athlon XP

Its simple to unlock it m8 Thus you can change the multiplier of the CPU and you wont be limited to what your FSB will take.

Just take some conductive ink (you could get that at a arts and crafts store). Just look for silver paint in a pen, be sure it contains soulible copper. The tip on my pen was very big, so i got a tooth pick, slopped ink all over the end of it, then just made a trail of ink connecting the L3's 5th bridge.

Make sure you dont do what I did the first time, and bridge the L5's 3rd bridge :blush:

---agissi---,

He's got one of the new laminated chips (it can't be unlocked using the old conductive ink/pencil trick).

Oh... er

Btw Nic, I looked over that entire article and no where did I see it say the A7N8X can unlock the multi.

Yeh - i checked and the top is indeed lamintated - thus i need someother way of unlocking the multiplier - if there is one.

Steg

Read the entire article (link posted earlier) including the user comments near the end.

Locked: All week 43 (0343) and later Bartons and Thoroughbreds and most (but not all) post week 43 Durons and:

AQZFA 0335 MPMW
AQZEA 0338

AQXCA 0340

AQXEA 0341 MPMW and VPMW

AQXFA 0339
AQXFA 0340 MPMW

AQYFA 0340 TPMW and UPAW and WPAW
AQYFA 0341 TPMW
AQYFA 0342
AQZEA 0341 TPMW and RPMW and RPDW

AQZFA 0339 UPMW and TPMW
AQZFA 0340 XPMW
AQZFA 0341 TPMW and SPMW and XPMW
AQZFA 0342 TPMW and UPMW (multiple confirmations of both locked and unlocked chips)
AQZFA 0341 VPMW

Thoroughbred JIXIB 0339
Thoroughbred AIXHB 0340 UPMW
Thoroughbred AIXHB 0341 SPMW

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unlocked
unlocked: Most made before week 35 and:

AQXFA 0340 MPMW and TPMW and UPMW and VPMW
AQYFA 0340 UPAW
AQZEA 0339 UPMW
AQZFA 0339 VMPW
AQZFA 0339 UMPW
AQZFA 0340 UPMW and SPMW and MPMW
AQZFA 0342 TPMW and UPMW (multiple confirmations of both locked and unlocked chips)



Read this... If there's a way to unlock it, these guys will figure it out.

Good luck, and nothing wrong w/ upping the FSB to get a nice overclock

Looks like im kinda buggered - just gotta hope someone comes up with a way of unlocking them.
I would up the FSB but my RAM is 2700 - which makes 3200+ specs hard.
I did get it up to 400Mhz at relaxed latency (9-4-4-3) but i was getting wierd artifacts in UT2 - i would try uping the DRAM voltage - Corsair sticks are warrentied to 2.8v - so that should help.

Steg

So can you confirm that the A7N8X can/cannot unlock the multiplier of the new Bartons via the BIOS?

If it can't, perhaps you should flash to a later BIOS revision (unless you already have the latest one)?

According to the forum link posted by PreservedSwine, there appears to be some *super-locked* bartons floating around (so some users claim). These models are completely impossible to unlock, and can only be overclocked by increasing the fsb, which Steg has already tried (unfortunately his DIMMs are only PC2700 rated). He appears to be out of luck, for the time being at least.

One solution is to run the fsb and memory asynchronously, and hope the performance gain from OC the CPU is greater than the performance drop from running the fsb and memory at different speeds.

:grinthumb

i have the asus a7n8x deluxe board and my multiplyers are not locked, i have a barton 3200 and the multiplers are set to 200x11 i think, (have not checked for a while) but i just turn off auto and set to manual in bios if i want to change the multiplyer. i think i can put it to 12.5x at the most. fsb, cpu voltage, memory settings etc can be changed to. im not sure if this is a feture of the deluxe board or not though?

The A7N8X Deluxe WILL unlock the multiplier on the eariler revision bartons (i have seen 2500+ unlocked on the A7N8X) however on these new revisions they are 'super-locked' as Nic has said - and they CANNOT be unlocked. Fullstop. Atleast at the moment.
If you are lucky enough to have a earlier revision baron then the A7N8X will unlock it - otherwise your stuck to FSB increases.

BTW - i am running the lastest bios revision (C1007) and while it got it stable at 3200+ the latency on the RAM resulted in next to no performance increase - i will try async tonite and see if that helps. Otherwise i need to find £100+ for some new RAM.

Steg

TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 256MB w/Winbond - £27.61 inc. @ Komplett.co.uk

TwinMOS memory (winbond chip version) is rated at CAS 2.5, but actually runs at 2-2-2-5 (mine does, and without raising the voltage!), which is the same as Corsair Low Latency modules (Corsair uses the same chips, but specialy selects, tests, and guarantees operation at those speeds, whereas TwinMOS don't).

The 512MB modules run at 2-3-3-6, so are slightly slower. So for £60 inc. p&p you can get 512MB (2x256) of fast RAM with tight timings.

I have around 6 of these modules, and all will run at tighter timings than specified without problem. A bargain for top memory. Corsair charges double, but at least you won't have to mess with memory timings in the bios. Your choice.

Sounds good to me - i do like my corsair memory - but what matters most brands? or speeds?
Admidedly that is still £60 more than i have got - but it depends how much i can sell my current stuff for.
Thanks

Steg

Baeton 2500+ First or Second week chip.

I ordered this barton 2500+ when they first came out and i had to wait for 6 weeks before i got it.. I paid 225.00 for it..."crazy to see them for 75.oo now", But anyways I find out it is a rear chatch cause it is fully unlocked... I am wanting to sell it as well don't use it...

Barton 2500+ AQUCA0306VPCW...

WEEZZELBOY..:grinthumb

You might want to make a thread of this in the "Hot Deals" section or something.... not too many people will see it here.

Thank you for that great suggestion M8..

Will do.

weezzelboy.