Upgraded Acer 3680 Celeron CPU to a T5300!

[OMGSnarf]

I've upgraded my T2060 to a T7200, and went from 1GB to 2GB. The only problem is the 2GB I got is Samsung PC6400, and I know the i943 should max at 667, but cpuz says that DRAM is still running at 266 (533). Anything I can do to get that up to 333 (667)?

Thanks!

[ATG]

I don't think i943 support 667Mhz FSB....

Edit:

I dont know about the motherboard, maybe it could go @667 with a 945 chipset, but the i940 and i943 are certified to run only @533. My 3680 had your same M440 and luckily it mounted the i943. In your place i would look for a T5300 or a T5200, surely compatible with i943. The performance of a 1.6 Ghz T5200 @533 is superior to a 1.66 Ghz T2300 @667, and very close to a similar C2Duo of same clock running @667. Obviously if you can experiment for free something @667, it would be very interesting knowing about the results here.

Upgraded Acer 3680 Celeron CPU to a T5300!

[OMGSnarf]

I don't think i943 support 667Mhz FSB....

Edit:

Upgraded Acer 3680 Celeron CPU to a T5300!

Fair enough, guess I missed that. Thanks!

[ellalan]

I wonder why Crucial suggests 667MHz RAM for i943 laptop.
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpar...BD4E41A5CA7304

[azl]

Hi everyone-
I’m new here, but have spent time over the last week going through almost every page in this thread and am planning an upgrade to my system based on the best info I’ve seen shared here
Not so long ago, I got a free 3680-2022 with a damaged screen. After replacing the screen, hard drive, and re-soldering the power jack to the power board, I learned about the possibility of a processor upgrade! Judging from the ram sticker code and previous posts, this version of the 3680 is based on an i940. And so, I’ll be upgrading the motherboard to a new i943 (mb.azl06).

Here’s what I already have:
3680-2022: i940 based with Celeron M 430 Processor and a new screen
- DVD-RW burner from another Acer
- 500GB Seagate, 7200rpm
- (1) 1GB PC6400 (800MHz) ram module – capable of running at 533MHz.
- (2) 512 MB PC5300 (667MHz) ram modules- capable of running at 533 MHz

Here is what is already in the mail and on its way for the project:

- Old 3680-2633 bottom assembly off ebay with what seller says is a bad or untested motherboard. I’ll just test this to see if I am lucky enough to have found a working motherboard in this $20 total cost lower housing.

- New i943-based motherboard, because I can safely assume the newly ordered 3680-2633 bottom assembly does indeed have a dead motherboard inside.

- T7200 Core2 processor – 2.0GHz, 4MB cache, 667 FSB.

- Bluetooth 2.1 module and 6 pin cable – same as the type that was or is sold on oldegg. I’ve always wanted to see the little front blue light switch do something on this acer!

- Silicone keyboard protector – I’m going to see how it works and fits, was $3 on ebay.


The next thing I need to order is another memory module to pair with my 1GB, but I’m not sure if it’d be better to go with a 1GB or 2GB module, as I’ve seen in at least a couple of posts that 3GB should be able to run on a 940 and 943 acer 3680.

Here, Andy mentioned selling a 3680 with 3gb ram: Dell coupon code
Benvaderjagt reports having a 940 running 3gb: Dell coupon code

I plan on using the system for occasional video encoding when traveling, so that extra gig of RAM could really help me out if i go 3GB. However, my concern with using a pair of unmatched modules is that I don't know whether or not they will run in dual channel mode, or perform just like single channel. I know that intel has a memory interleave method called Flex Mode which allows dual channel usage of different sized modules, and only a small cost to overall performance when compared to a matched pair of modules. From what I’ve read so far, Flex Mode has only been available on chipsets after i965 series, at least this is the case with desktops.
So far, I’ve tested my 3680-2622 with two 512MB modules, and a 512 paired with a 1GB. On cpu-z and sisoft, it appears I am running in dual channel mode with either of these combinations. The difference in memory benchmark scores is minimal on my system, but I’m thinking this may be due to my processor being single core and non-multithreaded.

My question to anyone who can help here:
On a dual core system, has anyone been able to compare 3GB (2GB + 1GB) to the same system running 2GB (1GB +1GB matched pair) ?

Thanks to everyone for making this a great thread!

[benvanderjagt]

In my experience, all of the ZR1 (3680) boards that I've bought on eBay have been perfectly fine. They either had bad hibernation data or a bad power board (or even just a bad power jack). I've gotten at least a few dozen boards this way.

As for the RAM, if you have lots of sticks to try out, you may get lucky enough to find a working combination. Also make sure that it actually -tests- good, such as with memtest86. I don't know what the magic combination of chip, order, and motherboard is, as I've only gotten it to work once or twice. If it helps anyone who knows more about it, I was able to use the same sticks to get an Acer 5315 up to 4GB. It didn't always POST, but if it did, it always tested all 4GB as good.

For encoding, the total amount of RAM will be secondary to the speed of the RAM. (This doesn't apply to most computer uses, but encoding just streams data in from the hard drive and then back out to the hard drive.) Your 500GB hard drive is going to help encoding speed a lot, but you will probably see the most speed improvement by using two hard drives. (The trick to getting good speed is to use a MiniPCI-Express to SATA+USB card, running that to a second hard drive outside of your laptop, and using USB wireless or something like that in place of your wireless card.) If the software can pull video from one hard drive and stream it through the CPU and out to the second hard drive, then the amount of RAM will not matter.

You may also see a very large increase in speed by overclocking your CPU! Your PLL should be the ICS95431BGLF. As long as you can overclock the CPU (using something like SetFSB) and it passes tests like mprime, then you should be fine. (In my experience, overclocking the CPU in a laptop results in almost no change in heat, because the voltage stays the same.)

Good luck, and have fun!

[azl]

Thanks for the reply, benvanderjagt!

It'd be great if the motherboard in the case winds up being a good one- I'd have an extra motherboard to experiment with!

For the possibility of an external dedicated capture drive, I found a $10 dual-esata pcmcia card on ebay (based on a VIA chip) which seller claims can support raid-0. I also discovered a low latency (3-3-3-8 @ 533MHz) line of kingston ram which I think is set to run at a maximum of 533MHz, and is branded Hyper-X. If a cheap 2gb module of this or something with a similarly low latency @533MHz can be found, I hope to test it in my setup. According to CPU-Z, my current memory (1gb and 512mb) is running at 4-4-4-12@533MHz.

So, I am still thinking of 3GB, but don’t know what mode this 1+2 pair would operate in. I’m not sure if the 943 can operate in flex mode, but if it does, an unmatched 3GB should be as good as matched dual channel for the first 2GB of space in the set, right? Here is a link to a nicely written guide by intel regarding memory placement and memory modes for their desktop boards:

Desktop Boards — Single / dual / flex / triple memory modes

I do see some 945 boards on the list below the guide, so perhaps the 943 and 940 can run in flex-mode even though they're pretty old? I look forward to giving FSB overclocking a try, but I wonder how FSB overclocking will be affected by running memory with a max speed of 533. Maybe it'd be better to stick with memory that can go faster just for the possibility of overclocking? I'll test overclocking with my current memory and this 940 board with Celeron first.

Thanks!

[benvanderjagt]

That sounds like a good idea. Theoretically, that card should run at a maximum speed of 133 MB/sec, so I would recommend one single 1.5TB or 2TB drive instead of a RAID. Most 1.5's sustain around 100MB/sec, and adding a second drive will just add overhead and power requirements. When possible, your input files should be on the faster drive and output files on the other.

You know, I'm not really sure if these 943's work in asymmetric dual-channel mode or not. I know that some Intel chips will, but many memory tests will not acknowledge that it's enabled.

Have fun overclocking. Those Celeron M 4x0 chips usually only overclock a little, since they're Core chips. The M 5x0 chips overclock like mad, since they're Core 2 chips. My best overclocking experience on one of these Acer 3680's (which is my best laptop overclocking experience ever, actually) was with a T5300, which I've gotten up around 2.6 GHz. ;-)

[azl]

Wow, didn't know setfsb already has support for this PLL (ICS954310BGLF)! It is so easy to FSB overclock or underclock this 940 motherboard. As I am typing, this old Celeron M 430 is running at a stable (prime95 tested) 2100MHz Now I just need to figure out how to set up something that would effectively be a setfsb profile, or need to get autotool to work- here is a link to autotool: >>> SetFSB Auto Tool v1.0 <<< - OC your CPU automatically -


OMGSnarf – Yes, I think these motherboards do support 667 for the fsb of the processor since processors with 667fsb are able to hit their rated speeds (T7200 will run at 2GHz), but the memory on these motherboards is fixed at 533 MHz, unless overclocked by using a program like setfsb. Most 667 (PC5300)or 800 (PC6400) can run at 533 mode, so it shouldn’t matter what memory you’ve chosen if it’s just for normal use. I am currently running a mix of PC5300 and PC6400, with both running at the same timing @533 .

However, using CPU-Z during a front side bus overclock, I’ve noticed my memory which is running at 533MHz keeps its factory preset timings – for example 4-4-4-12. What this should mean is that even though the memory has the same number of clock cycles per action, those clock cycles are occurring more frequently than the memory was designed to do. Benvanderjagt or anyone else out there – any luck with a particular brand or model of memory? Too bad we cannot alter memory timings in the bios.

Now that I can see how front side bus overclocking works, I wonder if it is maybe the case that the few core2-based processors which are by default set to run at 533fsb (such as Celeron M 520 or T5300) are really designed to be pushed to 667fsb? Well at least the t7200 has a 12x multiplier, but I don’t know if going to 800MHz fsb is possible using 533MHz memory timings. Has anyone had success with overclocking a 667fsb core2 on this laptop (such as T7200, T7600)?

[benvanderjagt]

That's one thing I like about overclocking the T5300. The front-side matches the memory bus. I've overclocked the T5500 a bit, but I've gone past it with the T5300 because of its high multiplier.