Time to tweak tha tshuttle

M@lice

It arrived afew days ago and its up and running.

Full spec.

Shuttle Xpc sn45g
amd 2500+ xp
512mb twinmos cl2.5
Saphire 9800se AIW
160gb Samsung spinpoint 8mb cache
Pioneer dvr-107d

I havn't tried any overclocking of the cpu yet. I ran prime95 all night without any errors and ran memtest as well which also passed so at the moment its a stable machine. Temps are 49 degrees idle and 53 degrees after running prime95 for half an hour (ok?). I've only quickly checked that one as it took me a while to find a prog that monitors temps within windows but now I have mbm 5.

I've downloaded the omega drivers for the gfx card and i've tried the softmod. It doesn't have any really bad immediate effects but i've been fiddling with that ati tool that came with the drivers and there are artifacts at all core clock frequencys using the find artifacts test with the softmod on but it does run that little fury box thing with 100fps more than with it off. The default clock speed are core/378 mem/338. After running the "find max core/mem" thing for afew hours it overclocked to 415/366.

I'm not sure how good an indication this tool gives for how the softmod/overclock will perform in games as i've no recent games here to test it with, only counter strike 1.6, Colin Mcrea rally 2.0 and Diablo 2 exp. I'm not sure if I want to because its a fcking huge file but i reckon i'll dl 3dmark2003 tonight to make before and after comparisons and just to see the gfx card in action.

EDIT: Oh btw I havn't found anything that lets me monitor the gfx card temps within the omega drivers or elsewhere so i take it that 9800se don't have this feature right or am i missing something?

the raven

IMO 53 degrees for load is grand and yeah you need only run Prime95 for about 15min if all you wanna do is check load temps.
but 49degs at idle? i dunno, seems a bit high...

BloodBath

Hmm your temps don't seem right unless it's a typo and you meant 39c idle or 63c load.

You only have a 4c difference between load and idle. I've never seen that even with phase change cooling. You may want to test that again.

I find ati tool is very accurate at obtaining the max overclock without artifacts. You should be fine for flashing to an xt BIOS providing you have an r360 core. You can't monitor the temps but artifacting is the sign that you are overheating. If it's not artifacting then your ok.


BloodBath

MR DAZ

Hi M@lice,

Sorry for jumping onto your thread...

Just a quick question for you...My shuttle is due to arrive monday..

I have an ordinary p4 heatsink for a ATX system, will this work in my shuttle or do I need to order a new one?

Thanks

Darren

M@lice

I've doubled checked the temps and thats wat they are. It could be that i'm just getting incorrect readings from my monitors but I reckon it has something to do with the way the cooling system works. The fan is set to spin up when the temp goes over 52 degrees. I reckon its runs pretty hot idle because its so cramped in there and it reaches equilibrium at 49 degrees but then when its under load the fan kicks in and starts pumping out more air and keeps it at 53 degrees.

MR DAZ. The shuttle comes with its own heatpipe cooling system for the cpu so extra so a cpu cooler is not required. Now I would not recommend this but it may be possible to remove the heat pipe system and leave the exhaust fan in and fit another cpu cooler in but I doubt it would fit 1st of all and i don't think you could attach it to the mother board 2nd. My advice, use the cooling that comes with it.

MR DAZ

Thanks

M@lice

M@lice

Finished downloading 3dmark2003 and I have been tweaking and benching all day. And time well spent it was! I must have run 3dmark close to 100 times!

Here's how i got on. Oh and I have no idea if any of these scores are any good by the way but there are huge differences between em.

First ran 3dmark with everything at stock speed and scored 3820 points.

Now although ati tool had calculated that i could run the gfx card at 415/366 I noticed considerable artifacting in 3dmark. So after a few changes and afew runs of 3dmark I found it ran perfectly at 405/366. Scored 4060.

Then I loaded the softmod to see how i got on but unfortunately one test, the pixel shader 2.0 test would not run properly at any core clock. I keep getting this checker board pattern artifacting. I don't know if there's a way to fix this.
At stock every benchmark seemed perfect except for the nature one where there was white speck artifacts. I scored 5583 here.
Then i reduced the core to 372 and upped the memory to 360 which is the highest it would go without artifacts with the sofmad on and every benchmark looked perfect (except that damned pixel shaded elephant and rhino pair :mad: ). I scored 5628.

Then i turned my attention to the cpu. I upped the fsb in small increments so I could check that the system wasn't overheating but to my surprise the temps never seemed to change much. Still 49 idle and 53 load. I changed the fan setting in the bios just to be on the safe side and to my delight got the fsb up to 200mhz no problem at all! didn't even have to change the voltages. I have priliminarily ran prime95 for just under an hour to check stability and so far have no errors but i'll run an all nighter tonight just to be certain. And the biggest surprise is that even with the cpu overclocked with the new fan setting the temps have gone down to 47 idle and 51 load! So now i'm faster, cooler and its not much louder than before either!

So then i ran 3dmark again with the cpu overclocked the same as before.

1st gfx card unsoftmodded at stock speeds. Scored 3919.

2nd gfx card overclocked to 405/366. Scored 4178.

Finally softmodded at 372/360. scored 5798.

And here's a curiosity for you. I loaded the 9700 softmod for the laugh to see wat would happen and i scored 5808! Weird eh! Same pixel shader problem tho.

So needless to say i'm a happy bunny! But wat next? I could try upping the fsb even more or I could try lowering the voltages to get even lower temps.

Oh I'm also thinking about putting in a 40mm fan to blow in cool air to lower the system temp but i'd have to attach it to the side of the case myself because there's nowhere made to mount one in there. The reason i say 40mm fan is because i've measure the height of the grill in the sides that lets air in and its 30mm high and spans the length of the case. What do you think?

BloodBath

Nice scores man.

The graphics card has an r350 core. This is why your getting artifacts in the pixel shader 2 test. R350 cores will always artifact in this test. This is the easiest way for somene to check if they have an r350 or an r360 core.

Your cpu temp will only increase if you raise the voltage. Raising the fsb won't affect it. You could try going higher with the cpu overclock. Your temps are still nice and low for an xp.


BloodBath

M@lice

Its an r350 core alright but the pixel shader test looks perfect without the softmod turned on so reckon some of those extra pipelines must be dodgy.

M@lice

The cpu is still stable at 200X11 at 1.45 volts which is the same coltage as the mobile chip i believe. It ran prime 95 without errors for 10 hours as well. and thats as low as i've gone it may be able to go further. Temps have gone down but once i got a warning on boot up to change my fsb settings. It hasn't happened again tho.

I'm not sure there's much point in upping the fsb anymore because with the memory set to optimal in the bios if i up it past 204 the memory timings all losen by one, ie 2.5-3-3-8 to 3-4-4-9 which i'm guessin would probably perform worse than if its left at 200. I havn't tried setting the settings manualy and upping the fsb myself yet. not sure if its worth it with my memory.

Oh and does any1 have any experiance with a succesful softmod and can comment on the artifacts with an r350 core?

BloodBath

As far as I know you can't softmod an R350 pro core to an XT without those artifacts.

Nice voltage. It should overclock a fair bit more with voltage increases but your RAM is limiting you. Try Benchmarking at 200mhz with the low timings then loosen your timings and see how far you can push the processor and RAM and Bench again. I'd say you should be able to reach 2.4-2.5ghz providing your temps don't go too mental.

Is the multi unlocked on that processor?


BloodBath

M@lice

I've tried changing the multi alright but it still reports 2.2 ghz in the system properties and on 3dmark so i'd say that means its locked.

I'll prob try upping the fsb as far as it i can push it some day. I'll let ye know how i get on.