Biostar TF560 A2+: Overclocking NVIDIA's new nForce 560
by Gary Key on August 2, 2007 12:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
AM2 Overclocking
X BE-2300 - Stock - 200x9.5
X2 BE-2300 - OC - 333x9
Our BE-2300 was able to reach a final setting of 333x9 with the stock cooler. CPU voltage had to be increased to 1.408V, chipset voltage to 1.300V, and memory to 2.15V in order to maintain full stability throughout our benchmark testing that included 24 hours of dual Prime95. We just received a new performance 0801 BIOS that allows us to reduce CPU voltage to 1.37V with the chipset voltage increased to 1.325V for the same settings. We found during testing that keeping tRC settings to 22 or less allowed us to run fairly aggressive CAS and tRAS timings with our OCZ HPC memory at both stock and overclocked settings. We were able to pass all benchmarks except for Quake 4 with tRAS set at 10 and tRC at 19 when overclocking.
X2 BE-2300 - Max OC - 350x9
We turned our stock cooler in for a Tuniq 120, increased chipset voltage to 1.325V, and CPU voltage to 1.450V to reach a final 350HTT setting that was extremely stable during testing. Of note, our processor will actually do 3258MHz (362x9) on our ASUS CrossHair board but any HTT settings above 350 resulted in benchmark errors on our TF560 sample. The board would POST and enter Vista 64 at 365HTT but was not stable in most benchmarks or stability tests.
X2 3800+ - Stock - 200x10
X2 3800+ - OC - 300x10
Although the Windsor based X2 3800+ is being phased out, the chips are still plentiful and priced at an incredible bargain of $65. We received the new F3 stepping but unfortunately we have a CCBVF 0706 lot number that did not afford us the same overclocking results we are seeing in lot numbers of CCB8F 0715 and beyond now. We just received our first CCB8F 0715 and it has already clocked to 3.4GHz on 1.475V. We will have full test results with this particular CPU in our next overclocking article.
In the meantime, our current X2 3800+ is the runt of the liter and would not even POST past 310x10. It did not matter what clock multiplier we utilized or how much voltage was pumped through this particular sample; we always ended up around 3GHz as its stable limit. With that in mind, we determined a final setting of 300x10 with memory set at DDR2-1000 offered the best overall performance. Our final CPU voltage was at 1.450V, chipset at 1.300V, and memory at 2.15V.
| Biostar TF560 A2+ Overclocking Testbed |
|
| Processor | AMD X2 BE-2300, (1.9GHz, 2x512KB Cache) AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+, (2.0GHz, 2x512KB Cache) |
| CPU Voltage | B-2300 1.40V (default 1.230V) X2 3800+ 1.45 (default 1.35V) |
| Cooling | Retail Air Cooling |
| Power Supply | Seasonic S12 II 380W |
| Memory | OCZ Reaper HPC PC2-6400 (2x1GB) |
| Video Cards | 1 x MSI 8800GTX |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital 150GB 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Buffer |
| Case | Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 |
| Maximum CPU OC | B-2300 - 333x9 (4-4-4-12, 1000MHz, 2.15V), CPU 1.408V 3003MHz (+58% CPU, +67% FSB) X2 3800+ - 300x10 (4-4-4-12, 1000MHz, 2.15V), CPU 1.450V 3003MHz (+50% CPU, +50% FSB) |
| . | |
X BE-2300 - Stock - 200x9.5
 |
| Click to enlarge |
X2 BE-2300 - OC - 333x9
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Our BE-2300 was able to reach a final setting of 333x9 with the stock cooler. CPU voltage had to be increased to 1.408V, chipset voltage to 1.300V, and memory to 2.15V in order to maintain full stability throughout our benchmark testing that included 24 hours of dual Prime95. We just received a new performance 0801 BIOS that allows us to reduce CPU voltage to 1.37V with the chipset voltage increased to 1.325V for the same settings. We found during testing that keeping tRC settings to 22 or less allowed us to run fairly aggressive CAS and tRAS timings with our OCZ HPC memory at both stock and overclocked settings. We were able to pass all benchmarks except for Quake 4 with tRAS set at 10 and tRC at 19 when overclocking.
X2 BE-2300 - Max OC - 350x9
 |
| Click to enlarge |
We turned our stock cooler in for a Tuniq 120, increased chipset voltage to 1.325V, and CPU voltage to 1.450V to reach a final 350HTT setting that was extremely stable during testing. Of note, our processor will actually do 3258MHz (362x9) on our ASUS CrossHair board but any HTT settings above 350 resulted in benchmark errors on our TF560 sample. The board would POST and enter Vista 64 at 365HTT but was not stable in most benchmarks or stability tests.
X2 3800+ - Stock - 200x10
 |
| Click to enlarge |
X2 3800+ - OC - 300x10
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Although the Windsor based X2 3800+ is being phased out, the chips are still plentiful and priced at an incredible bargain of $65. We received the new F3 stepping but unfortunately we have a CCBVF 0706 lot number that did not afford us the same overclocking results we are seeing in lot numbers of CCB8F 0715 and beyond now. We just received our first CCB8F 0715 and it has already clocked to 3.4GHz on 1.475V. We will have full test results with this particular CPU in our next overclocking article.
In the meantime, our current X2 3800+ is the runt of the liter and would not even POST past 310x10. It did not matter what clock multiplier we utilized or how much voltage was pumped through this particular sample; we always ended up around 3GHz as its stable limit. With that in mind, we determined a final setting of 300x10 with memory set at DDR2-1000 offered the best overall performance. Our final CPU voltage was at 1.450V, chipset at 1.300V, and memory at 2.15V.
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DeepThought86 - Friday, August 10, 2007 - link
elpresidente2075 is probably a 15-year old who thinks newer is better by definition. It'll be a decade or more before he learns critical thinkingstrikeback03 - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
Plus once PATA is gone maybe we can get more SATA ports. 4 is a bare minimum.takumsawsherman - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
Is that Firewire is still not standard. For the couple of bucks it costs to add it to a board, can we fricking add it already? It should have been standard years ago, and considering how cheaply one can get a card, it can't cost all that much to implement. Meanwhile, there's no apparent rhyme or reason to which systems have it and which don't. I've seen cheap HP's that have it, and expensive ones that don't. It's all over the map.strikeback03 - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
Or just eliminate it entirely. With USB2 and eSATA, is there really a need for another external interface standard?flipmode - Friday, August 3, 2007 - link
Firewire is worth keeping and making standard. It's the easiest way to network two computers. It's how almost every video camera downloads video to computers.Myrandex - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
The specs said that the chipset supported 2 PATA ports, however there is only 1 slot on the board. So it only supports 2 drives, or did Biostar decide to save $.005 in not putting the 2nd connector on the board?8steve8 - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
this is regarded as the industry's first AM2+ board, i assume this means pheonom will plop right in? so does it support HT3?... seperate power planes?how will boards do that with just a bios update?
will this, and other current boards work with phenom, but not at full potential?
Spoelie - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
Read the article instead of commenting right away.No, it is not a AM2+ board, it doesn't have any of the AM2+ features, but phenom would normally plop right in yes.
Am a bit disappointed with the feature set, my 3 years old nforce4 ultra has the same amount of sata, pata, usb, gige, etc.
shuffle2 - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
"No, it is not a AM2+ board, it doesn't have any of the AM2+ features, but phenom would normally plop right in yes."We realize it doesn't have HT3 or split power lanes, however, the question still stands:
will this board support phenom with only a bios update?
Spuke - Saturday, August 4, 2007 - link
Since this is technically NOT an AM2+ board, when are the AM2+ boards coming out? I'd like to buy one.