ASUS A7V266-E problem or fault?

[Pike]

Hi all,

A few other users and I have noticed that the ASUS A7V266-E board seems to have a problem/fault with the VCore settings.

The BIOS only allows a lowest VCore setting of 1.800v. Of course, the Athlon XP requires a VCore of 1.75v. Not only this...when set to its lowest (1.800v) the actual voltage reported in BIOS is 1.84v or more.

This is having the unwanted side-effect of making the CPUs run hot. In fact many users are finding temps of 60deg + under load.
The only way around this is to use extreme cooling...in other words an expensive and noisy cooler...all for a chip that is supposed to run cooler than the toasty thunderbirds.

It only seems to be a problem with the XP processors.

Has anyone else noticed this and more importantly, has anyone found an answer?

Pike:confused:

[brad]

I have no experience with Asus socket-a boards but I can assure you that Vcore setup wierdness is common on a bunch of socket-a boards and it is not a problem unless it exceeds the official AMD max spec of 1.85 volts. It does make the cpu run a bit warmer than it would at 1.75, but how much higher depends on the cpu cooler. 60C with the thing doing a lot of hard work is not a problem as the AMD max spec is 90C. You may be able to lower it a bit with a better HSF and better airflow through the case but I wouldn't worry about it. My 1800XP boxes idle around 49C, hit 56-57 once in a while, and I don't worry about it.

Brad