How to Tweak and Configure the nForce2 Chipset and
ASUS A7N8X for Digital Audio Recording

©AGRONOVA/Anders Fahlén
2003-04-30 First edition

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The verdict is that once this trick is done you will be able to run the Athlon XP/333 stable at 200 Mhz FSB and you are rewarded, at last, if you’ve invested in PC3200 or faster memory modules. The trick is described in more detail at www.sudhian.com.

O/C performance:

Users’ data on stable O/C based on air-cooled heatsinks/fans is illustrated in the following table:

Tabulated data on users’ stable O/C performance with the A7N8X:

CPU	Default clock speed (MHz)	O/C CPU speed (MHz)	Multi- plier	FSB*	Memory timing	Memory modules	CPU/Case fan
Athlon XP 2100+	1733	2240	11,5	195	3-2-2-2T	Kingston HyperX PC 3500 CAS2	-
Athlon XP 2100+	1733	2186	12	182	-	Samsung PC2700	Thermalright SLK-800/80 mm Sunon fan
Athlon XP 2400+	2000	2100	10,5	200	-	Corsair CMX512 PC3200 CAS2	-
Athlon XP 2400+	2000	2158/Vcore 1,75 V	13	166	-	PC2700	No H/W modifications
Athlon XP 2400+	2000	2331/Vcore 1,825 V	11.5	202	7-3-3-2T	Corsair XMS PC3500	Thermalright SLK-800/Vantec Tri light fan
Athlon XP 2500+ Barton	1830	2375	12,5	190	-	OCZ PC3500 CAS2	Zalman Bracket/Thermaltake 120 mm
Athlon XP 2500+ Barton	1830	2255	11	205	-	Crucial PC3200	Thermalright SLK-800/70 mm Volcano fan
Athlon XP 2500+ Barton	1830	2200	11	200/ FSB 200 jumper setting	5-2-2-2T	Corsair PC 3200	Thermalright SLK 800 w/ ArcticSilver3 and Panaflo fan
Athlon XP 2500+ Barton	1830	2090	11	190	4-2-2-2T	Corsair PC3500/2.8 V	Active NB cooling
Athlon XP 2600+	2083	2125/ Vcore 1.70 V	12.5	170	7-3-3-2.5T	Samsung PC2700	-
Athlon XP 2600+	2083	2100	10,5	185	-	-	-
Athlon XP 2600+	2083	2320	12.5	185/FSB 200 jumper setting	-	Corsair Twinmax PC3200LL	Thermalright SLK-700/ TMD 70 mm 37 cfm fan
Athlon XP 2600+	2083	2323	11.5	202	6-3-3-2T	Corsair PC3200 CAS2	Volcano 9 cpu fan
Athlon XP 2700+	2167	2220	12	185	-	-	-
Athlon XP 2800+ Barton	2083	2400	12.5	180	5-2-2-2T	Corsair XMS PC3500	-
Athlon XP 2800+ Barton	2083	2332	11	212	-	Corsair XMSPC2500	Thermalright SLK-800/ Vantec Tornado

Sources: AsusBoards Forum, nForcersHQ forum, alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus
* note that some O/C examples do not run in perfect sync mode

IDE drivers:

As of this writing it is known that there are issues with the Nvidia SW (™) IDE driver. The nForce2 is equipped with a dedicated chipset that can control and communicate in much the same way as SCSI devices do if the dedicated Nvidia SW IDE driver is used. Theoretically, this gives room for improved performance and less CPU overhead compared to standard IDE drivers. However, there are known issues with the current SW (™) IDE driver and users are recommended to install the standard Nvidia IDE driver instead.

In one of the most detailed nForce2 roundup reviews done so far (nForce2 Motherboard Roundup) it was found that the HD Tech benchmark utility gave artificially high CPU loads during tests of the Nvidia SW IDE driver from the 2.03 package and the default Windows XP IDE driver (approx. 60% and 30% respectively). Real cpu peak load was estimated to not exceed 15% in any driver combination. However, it was verified that files copied and transferred via LAN and the Nvidia SW IDE driver resulted in cpu peak loads of almost 100% during the last 2-3 seconds (average cpu load was approx. 2%). This may be coupled to users’ experiences of difficulties to reliably burn CDRs with the Nvidia SW IDE driver of current versions – yet another reason to not install this driver until fixes are presented by Nvidia.

There are some user reports indicating less IDE performance with the standard MS IDE drivers in Windows 2000 compared to Nvidia’s standard IDE driver in XP (Nvidia’s standard IDE driver is currently not available for Windows 2000).

Some user reports on IDE hard disk performance vs. Nvidia IDE drivers based on the ATTO PCI benchmark utility are presented below:

(A) Asus N78X and Seagate Barracuda 80 Gigabyte hard disk

Nvidia 2.03 standard IDE driver	Nvidia 2.03 standard IDE driver; “mild” O/C
Nvidia 2.03 SW (™) IDE driver	Nvidia 2.03 SW (™) IDE driver; ”mild” O/C
Nvidia 2.03 standard IDE driver	Nvidia 2.03 SW (™) IDE driver

The conclusion from (A) is that there are no major performance differences or any performance issues when comparing Nvidias 2.03 SW (™) IDE driver with Nvidia’s 2.03 standard IDE driver. In test (B) Nvidia’s SW driver results in slightly improved PCI read specs but the difference is not really significant. When comparing tests (A) and (B) it is concluded that the performance differences related to the combined motherboard-BIOS-physical hard disk configuration overshadows any IDE driver-related differences in PCI read/write specs.

Asus A7N8X users with Windows 2000 OS can download a tweaked and re-configured XP-IDE driver at (nforce2-win2k IDE driver). This driver is reported to add ATA 133 support, reduce CPU load and to lower average seek time. Nvidia is currently working on an improved official IDE-W2K driver version.

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