BIOSTAR M7NCG 400 + Athlon XP-M 2400 (35W)

**raphizzz** · 09-30-2005, 10:24 AM

Hello,

First let me say i'm sorry for my bad english.

I would like to ask people with the same configuation of mobo and CPU if a special Wire/Pin Mod for Mobile Athlon is needed to make the motherboard recognize the processor at its correct speed?

Or is it just plug and play?

**ERIKbx** · 10-02-2005, 04:15 AM

plug n play

**240SX** · 10-04-2005, 10:02 AM

It's plug and play but you might not always have it tell you the full processor speed. The mobile processors are made to underclock themselves when they aren't needed at full speed

I ran the m7ncg once, and it's gonna be in my latest setup, same processor too. Best board for use with the xp-m in my opinion...

If you plan on using an OPUS power supply, make sure you ask for one with the m7ncg mod done to it already. I dunno exactly what it is they haveta do but there's something they haveta change.

**MatrixPC** · 10-04-2005, 11:32 AM

With that mobo, you don't have to do any pin mod. Just go into the bios and make change accordingly. Like you do with regular CPU

.

**evandude** · 10-04-2005, 11:47 AM

Originally Posted by 240SX

It's plug and play but you might not always have it tell you the full processor speed. The mobile processors are made to underclock themselves when they aren't needed at full speed

that feature still requires mobo support, and the M7NCG doesn't appear to have it. all the mobile processors have is the ABILITY to have their clock changed on-the-fly... they don't do it themselves, and unfortunately very few motherboard manufacturers offer support for that feature.

The program crystalCPUID supports the software side of the dynamic clock adjustment, however when used with my M7NCG it did nothing but freeze the second it tried to make a change.

here's the article where I got interested in it in the first place:
(that page and the next one will explain why it doesn't work with most motherboards)
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/2004...ocking-07.html

now, I'm not saying the M7NCG isn't a good board, in fact it's what I'm using in my 2nd setup which just needs to go in the car

it's even good enough that I've gotten over the inability for dynamic clocking feature, and the inability to go into standby...

**White Night** · 10-17-2005, 01:25 PM

Originally Posted by evandude

that feature still requires mobo support, and the M7NCG doesn't appear to have it. all the mobile processors have is the ABILITY to have their clock changed on-the-fly... they don't do it themselves, and unfortunately very few motherboard manufacturers offer support for that feature.

You might check out http://www.hasw.net. The table includes support for the Biostar M7NCG 400 board. I'm interested in this board so if you do try it out, please post your findings.

**evandude** · 10-17-2005, 06:47 PM

Holy crap...

Wow, I can't wait to try that out! I'll keep my fingers crossed about it working... but thanks very much for the link

**evandude** · 10-17-2005, 09:02 PM

Haven't put it through all its paces yet... but it DOES appear to be able to change the FSB on the fly!

my biostar M7NCG 400 running an athlon XP 2200+ (1667 mhz stock) is currently running at 1150 MHz. Next step is some trial and error testing with Vcore and FSB and using prime95 for a torture test, to see how low i can get it.

Edit:
well, being smart, i cranked down Vcore to the minimum (1.1v) just to see what would happen... it just froze up, black screen, and wouldn't boot again until I cleared the CMOS. oh well, back up and running, trying again a little higher

another edit:
currently have it working with auto-change FSB. under 20% load, it goes to a lower-power state (currently 1.3vcore, 133 FSB just to play it safe) and above 20% load it goes to stock speed and vcore. seems to be working fine so far. now that it automatically kicks in more power when needed I'll be able to test the low-power mode more easily for stability.

another edit:
looks like the lower limit on FSB is 110 MHz, and 1.300 for vcore... anything lower on either one locks it up. Well that's not quite as great as I'd hoped for (really would have liked to be able to drop it down to like 66 or 50mhz, and at least more than 50mV below stock core voltage)... it's still dropping it down to 66% of its normal FSB, so hopefully that'll have SOME effect on power usage. I wish I had an AC clamp current meter so I could find out, but I don't, so maybe I'll do it the hard way someday.