- Joined
- Oct 7, 2006
- Messages
- 1,338 (0.21/day)
Processor | e8200 3.93mhz@1.264v |
---|---|
Motherboard | P5E3 Pro |
Cooling | Scythe Infinity |
Memory | 4gb of G.Skill Ripjaw 6-7-7-18@1404 and 1.62v |
Video Card(s) | HIS 5770 v2 940/1275mhz stock volts |
Storage | 1TB Hitachi |
Display(s) | Acer 22" Widescreen LCD |
Case | Blue Cooler Master Centurion |
Audio Device(s) | Onboard audio :(, and Klipsch 5.1 Pro Media's |
Power Supply | 650 Watt BFG |
Software | Vista 64 Ultimate |
I knew the Phenom would not oc well when I purchased it, but expected more from the board I bought.
First off: This board has a horrible layout!
Despite photo's making them look good the NB and SB heatsinks are tiny. The northbridge runs scorching hot. In fact I have a Swiftech SB h.s. here that would make a better replacement for the oem sink. Two problems with replacement. one is that the original sink is held on with a metal clip that is a permanent attachment, I have no clips like that. The second and more major problem is the fact the NB is so close to the cpu that my Infinity cooler clamps hit it, I had to scrape across the NB cooler to clamp my Infinity down.
Layout is poor in other areas. The cpu fan socket is at the upper right hand corner, it could be a far reach for some fan cable. Even more directly above the cpu is a fan attachmetn. (where the cpu fan should attach imo) This attachment is useless for any of my fans, none will reach. The mosfets are also located near the cpu and have no form of cooling . If you use a floppy the floppy cable is going to be stretched. My last layout problem is poor location of the clr cmos jumper, I need tweezers and a steady hand to squeeze in there.
Second is performance, in fact this board has none!
I put in my 5000+BE first, in the old KA3 MVP it ran 3.15ghz, the ram ~900mhz. The KA3 was a mid range overclocker, by no means top dog. This board only reaches 3ghz and 428 on ram. I suspect the hot NB to be a partial problem. The Phenom 9600 only clocks to 2.46, the max fsb is only 214 on this board no matter what HT speed is selected. The bios lacks nearly all options including ram timings that I can only set with AOD. Unless I am missing something I see know way to get more. In fact if the BE did not have an unlocked multiplier it would have been limited to way lower!
PCI-E bus speed is locked at 100 as minimum, my other board locked at 100 period. So..that should not be a problem, but for some reason my g-card will not oc pas 823 core stable after putting this board in. On the other hand the ram of the g-card is going higher, all the way to 1250's stable. ATI tool will not work past one reboot after installing this board and I am now using RT. Is this coincidence?
So in all my pc in any benchmark is slightly slower than with the KA3 and 5000 BE. Bios updates supposedly force the TLB update and would murder performance. I will try to play around with this board a little more before giving up, see if I can tweak something, but I see nothing to tweak so I doubt anything else is there.
In all this is a poor board, and the ECS 770 would likely be a better option esp. at $70 vs the $80-90 price on the M3A. The layout makes this board a poor choice even as a budget board, and the price does not make for a budget board at all. The Phenom may be a weak quad, but the board is just crap.
First off: This board has a horrible layout!
Despite photo's making them look good the NB and SB heatsinks are tiny. The northbridge runs scorching hot. In fact I have a Swiftech SB h.s. here that would make a better replacement for the oem sink. Two problems with replacement. one is that the original sink is held on with a metal clip that is a permanent attachment, I have no clips like that. The second and more major problem is the fact the NB is so close to the cpu that my Infinity cooler clamps hit it, I had to scrape across the NB cooler to clamp my Infinity down.
Layout is poor in other areas. The cpu fan socket is at the upper right hand corner, it could be a far reach for some fan cable. Even more directly above the cpu is a fan attachmetn. (where the cpu fan should attach imo) This attachment is useless for any of my fans, none will reach. The mosfets are also located near the cpu and have no form of cooling . If you use a floppy the floppy cable is going to be stretched. My last layout problem is poor location of the clr cmos jumper, I need tweezers and a steady hand to squeeze in there.
Second is performance, in fact this board has none!
I put in my 5000+BE first, in the old KA3 MVP it ran 3.15ghz, the ram ~900mhz. The KA3 was a mid range overclocker, by no means top dog. This board only reaches 3ghz and 428 on ram. I suspect the hot NB to be a partial problem. The Phenom 9600 only clocks to 2.46, the max fsb is only 214 on this board no matter what HT speed is selected. The bios lacks nearly all options including ram timings that I can only set with AOD. Unless I am missing something I see know way to get more. In fact if the BE did not have an unlocked multiplier it would have been limited to way lower!
PCI-E bus speed is locked at 100 as minimum, my other board locked at 100 period. So..that should not be a problem, but for some reason my g-card will not oc pas 823 core stable after putting this board in. On the other hand the ram of the g-card is going higher, all the way to 1250's stable. ATI tool will not work past one reboot after installing this board and I am now using RT. Is this coincidence?
So in all my pc in any benchmark is slightly slower than with the KA3 and 5000 BE. Bios updates supposedly force the TLB update and would murder performance. I will try to play around with this board a little more before giving up, see if I can tweak something, but I see nothing to tweak so I doubt anything else is there.
In all this is a poor board, and the ECS 770 would likely be a better option esp. at $70 vs the $80-90 price on the M3A. The layout makes this board a poor choice even as a budget board, and the price does not make for a budget board at all. The Phenom may be a weak quad, but the board is just crap.