KT7A BIOS Tweak Guide - ABIT KT7A Bios Tweak Guide

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ABIT KT7A Bios Tweak Guide

 

 

 

Here's a quick pic of what you'll be seeing when you enter the SoftMenu III Setup Menu.

 

 

Notice I have the CPU Operating SPeeD set to User Define. This will of course let you set your CPU to any speed you like. Considering It can handle it. Currently, you can see my 1.2GHz chip (which should be 100MHz FSB x 12 Multiplier = 1200MHz) but I have unlocked the chip, lowered the Multiplier and raised the FSB, basically running the chip as if it was a stock 1.33GHz/266 Tbird. We all know a higher FSB will get you better performance and improved benchmarks. Your Multiplier Factor is adjustable via the BIOS, but will only be useful if you have unlocked your chip yourself, bought a "pre-modded" chip, or have one of the newer, faster T-Birds that come with no Multiplier Lock.

Look closely and read everything before you attempt to unlock your chip. As long as your doing the "Pencil Trick" you shouldn't be able to hurt anything. We do suggest using a .05 Mechanical pencil as opposed to a self sharpened lead pencil however, as they are much more accurate and easy to work with.

SoftMenuIII options explained

- CPU FSB/PCI Clock Option This tells you what FSB you'll be running at, and of course the higher the better. Fortunately, your PCI OC speeds will be auto-calculated for you when adjusting the FSB. Some components are not happy running out of their "33Mhz" spec. My suggestion is to keep your PCI's as close to 33Mhz as possible, especially for any long-term type use.

- CPU FSB Plus (MHz) You can increase CPU FSB speed here. This means that you can increase the setting of the "CPU FSB/PCI Clock" item, and also independently increase the CPU FSB speed. Twenty-nine options are available: 0-28 with the default setting at 0. CPU FSB speed above the standard bus speed is supported, however, Abit does not guarantee this due to CPU specs. It's an option you'll probably want to play around with, once you find a stable speed of your overclocked CPU. As always, be careful.

- SPeeD Error Hold You'll definitely want to disable this if you plan on overclocking, otherwise, with this option enabled, it will halt your system from booting with a prompt if it notices you are running an "out of spec" speed.

- CPU Power Supply If you plan on some serious overclocking, you'll of course want to "UP" your Core Voltage. However, we suggest leaving at default as long as possible when trying out new speeds. No sense in running a higher voltage than needed. This will make your CPU run much hotter and in-turn, shorten it's life. You will also want a damn good HSF to lower the CPU's heat as much as possible. I/O voltage is for your memory. Default is 3.40v but check your memory's specsheet, it may want you to run higher, and if your getting into a higher FSB while overclocking, you might want to up it to 3.50 or 3.60 to help run those higher speeds.

- Fast CPU Command Decode This gives you the option of going with Normal (default) or Fast for improved performance. In Fast Mode, it will set your CPU decode address out 1T early. My suggestion is, if your CPU can handle it, you'll want to run in "Fast" mode.

- CPU Drive Strength This is actually one of the tweaks I have not tested. 2 is default. This option will set signal strength with data transfer from the Northbridge chipset to the CPU. I have also recently been told that upping the # to 3 will increase CPU and Multi-Media performance.

- Enhance Chip Performance 2 options are available, Disabled and Enabled. For performance purposes, you'll want to go "Enabled" as long as your CPU can handle it. What this actually does is set the Northbridge Chipset timing much more aggressively, which should in-turn, increase overall system performance.

- Force 4-way Interleave Personally, I do not see a need for this option, because in the "Advanced Chipset Features" you will have the option of going 4-way, 2-way or disabled. This may be a leftover option with other mobo's that just don't have the tweaking capabilities of the Abit KT7A or KT7 mobo's.

- Enable Dram 4K-Page Mode This was an option I never thought much about, until I began this article. As you will see later, it may make a difference when trying to squeeze that last bit of performance from your system. Enabled, it will use 64Mbit technology to increase your DRAM's SPeeD.

- DRAM Clock To break this down into layman's terms. The Host CLK option sets your Memory to run at your CPU's FSB. 100Mhz CPU = 100MHz memory. 133MHz CPU = 133MHz memory and so on. Now, with Host CLK + PCICLK, you can run your memory at a higher FSB than your CPU. For instance, I have Tonicom PC166. So I can run my Processor at 133MHz FSB and add 33MHz PCICLK and run my memory @166MHz FSB. Shweet eh? This will usually be an option for the Serious Overclocker. Try it at your own risk.

Update: Seems run 166MHz will not work after all. I have been able to run as high as 161MHz FSB and assumed my CPU or Memory could not run much higher, turns out 133 + 33MHz option is an impossibility. Thanks out to the folks bringing this to my attention.

Ok, this is the extent of tweak options you'll have in the SoftMenu III Setup Menu. Now lets take a look at the performance gains with these settings adjusted.

Here's a quick look at the 1.2GHz T-Bird running @1333MHz thanks to CPUID.

 

First, lets establish a "Base" series of benchmarking scores to start from with NO tweaks enabled. This will establish our initial benchmarking scores so that we may see what kind improvements tweaking will bring. Here are the "Base" Sisoft Sandra Benchmarks.

 

 

 

Ok, now the first thing that catches my eye is how much ass the T-Bird is kicking at a mere 1.33GHz. P4 1.6GHz you say? The P4 is not comparing too well to the T-Bird in either CPU or CPU Multi-Media benchmarks. Keep in mind, these are synthetic benchmarks and have to be taken with a grain of salt. Also notice the P4's/850 chipset with RAMBUS dominating the other chipsets. There's no doubt RAMBUS looks great in synthetic benchmarks, but it's full potential and utilization has yet to be seen in "Real World" applications. Lets checkout 3dMark2001.

 

 

3DMark2001 shows a score of 3,226. Not too shabby, but I plan on getting this mark a good notch higher with the BIOS tweaks we will outline today. Lets move on to the next page and see Quake3 performance.

Next: ABIT KT7A Bios Tweak Guide >>
 

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