Will update as time allows.
Initially at stock speeds, slightly slower than Gigabyte K8NF-9
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Will update as time allows.
Initially at stock speeds, slightly slower than Gigabyte K8NF-9
I guess my first jump to a new platfrom is not going to be without it's confusion. So I guess this board has the new power connector with four extra pins? I see the separate 4 pin connector that started with P4's is separate so what gives? Do I need a converter mechanism of some sort to go 24 pin? The ATX power block fits snugly at the top of the power block. No manual whatsoever.:(
having probs scaling htt :O
you can use a 20pin plug, won't be as good, but will work.
this shipping bios suxs. No scalling of HTT allows pretty much. PCI doesn't lock until PCI express set to 103.
I can't get bus to 230 even :(
CPU Multiplier Options?
What posisiton do you put the 20 pin plug into to make it work, middle? or one side?
On a side note how does the gigabyte board overclock, I notice you can pick up that board very cheaply aswell. Lets hope theyll release a new bios soon.
Dave
220 is max postable HTT
bah, they better get new bios soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The 20pin Plug should fit to one side only
only one way you can make it work, they are keyed to only go in certain way, it sits so 4 pins are unused on one side.Quote:
Originally Posted by Feiticeira
well I'm about done with this board, lol, 1hr and it's pissed me off bad :(
Sorry to hear that m8 and cheers for the advice
hrm
trying nvidia Ntune seems better, but still not great grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
well I'm sorry to say this(at leasy my board) is a flaming turd. I am going back to gigabyte till something better comes along.
Thanks for the info on the connector. I guess the odds are stacked against me... I'll push on. My GB of BH5 needs volts to shine but I can try HTT with dividers. I'm an A64 nub but maybe I'll luck out.
I tried HTT with dividers and no luck. I have questions as to weather PCI lock properly working, or if this 1st bios is just total trash for oc'ers
I wrote tech support. should hear back by the time K12 rolls out lol!
So the chaintech board was a disappointment?
I just slapped mine together and got greeted with steady but separated beeps. Took a stick of my BH5 out and the beeping went away but the monitor stayed dormant. Tried 1 stick of different ram (Old KingMax PC2700) and beep came back. I was using a standby 350w sparkle PS, the 6800GT's minimum, as I was hoping to not break down my regular system with the luck JNav89GT is having. So much for that. Gonna go try my TruePower.
OK... phew. I won't hijack the thread when I get some results. I needed to use the converter to get PCI-express Power plug into my GT (Y connector with two molexes). One of the pins going into one of the molexes was a little ajar. Maybe the sparkle would have worked not sure when it happenned.
220*5 = 1100.. So maybe LTD adjustment is not working (if present at all). The ASUS was having similar problems I heard.
Hopefully the MSI Neo4 nf4 ultra will be much better, but then again its also $50 more.
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/atta...id=21660&stc=1
I am using my spare thermaltake xaser III 480w. it doesn't have the BTX power dongle, but it did connct fine and works perfectly. I noticed 12v rail is 11.XXv so this could be due to the lack of the extra 4 pins on the atx dongle, or it could just be a crappy psu. but all the rails are just a tad under the correct values. 3.3 rail is just under 3.3, 5.0v rail is just under 5..etc. I didn't need to press F6 for sata drivers upon windows install.
I booted into windows out of the bios @ 220x10 3x htt then used clockgen in small increments 3mhz at a time then would run a superpi 1m run each time I got to an even ten. ex. 220 run, 230 run, 240 run.etc. I ran it up to 255mhz with no problems and no errors or lockups in superpi. latest version of cpuz shows everything except my ras-cas. very strange. 260 made it fine in clockgen without lockup, however I got error in superpi. One thing I noticed was the Nf4 heatsink was really hot. I took the thermal paste off and put as5 on it, then added a 40mm fan over it, so it's cooling down much better. We really need a new bios from chaintech. I haven't given up on this board yet, it has real potential with a bios update. I plan on contacting Chaintech about the issues. I set my pcie at 101 and it still locks while using clockgen. I'm using the Nf4 clockgen and it works perfectly. gonna try lower multi and see if I can max out the htt over 250. BRB
albatron 6600gt
week 44 winnie 3200+
2x256 gskill LC
Thermaltake XaserIII 480w
WDRaptor74GB
all stock cooling
Ok, i'm back. tried lower multi absolutely no gains in htt. This is not good right now. I'm glad I didn't install this in a case, because I would've really been doing a lot of work for nothing. Time to contact chaintech and hope to get someone on the phone. There is not much support from anyone around this time of year, but we'll see. Chaintech skipped nf3 ultra 939 all together, so maybe they need to learn a thing or 2 about 939 first. I wish there was a decent PCI-e 939 board. ATI maybe holds the key to this one. Gonna just stay on the ol' DFi 754 for now until things clear up. Good luck everyone. :(
I don't know man, after 2 k8ns ultra boards and 2 msi neo2's I'm not that eager to order either of their nf4 boards. But that could change really quick if chaintech doesn't fix these issues.Quote:
Originally Posted by µnrealneo²
who the heck is chaintech? kidding....
Oh, 1 more thing. Layout is good except for stupid caps are way too close to the cpu socket. This could be really crappy for people using phase with large evap heads or very large heatsinks, but I guess phase with this board at the present time is pointless lol.
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/atta...id=21661&stc=1
I been waiting like 2 hours for windows to install. SOmething is not right. :(
Uh... hopefully I'll be embarassed and that'll be it. I just loaded optimized defaults and went on my merry way. I'll look for this option. Thanks.
Right now I got windows loaded but I'm sitting at the startup screen. Maybe in a year and a half it will get in and I can restart and try this. It has got to be something dumb on my part like this. I was just thinking once windows got on I'd be set but ... waiting...
I would think the bios would default to stuff like this. Just a regular IDE 8MB WD here. Nothing bizzare about it.
Edit: IDE DMA transfer Access = enabled. Is this it? Anyone want to shoot me a PM or anything so I dont jack the thread be my guest. Performance is pitiful. I had swapped HDDs it took so long for windows to install I thought it was hanging. AHHHH!!!
edit2: put in my pci hardrive controller card and the system is still f'ing retarded. WTF!
Dear Chaintech, Just set the board up today. I am not happy so far with the performance and overclocking options. board is unstable past 220mhz and won't boot out of bios at any higher mhz. even lowering ht link to 3x doesn't help. memory is good, psu is good, cpu is good. I have very good luck with other motheRboards except this one. My friend also has the board and new gigabyte Nf4. He gets much better results on the gigabyte. HT up to 280mhz. He only gets 220mhz on the chaintech too. We need your bios team in Taiwan to look into a better bios. So far not one bios or drivers on the Chaintech support site. This is unacceptable. Please update bios for better overclocking performance. Also pci-e voltage would be nice. vcore over 1.7v is also preffered, but not absolutely necessary. Main issue here is the low frontside bus issue. 220mhz Maximum overclock is not a good thing. Please help. VNF3 was an amazing board!! We expect the same from VNF4 Ultra. Many overclockers are buying this board due to value price. There are many options, Asus, Gigabyte, MSi, etc.. Chaintech is a good company with solid products, please keep it up!
:)
If you want to see how your board is doing, please follow this thread from top overclocking forum in the world. Many company reps come here for feedback and support, please join us on the forum. Oskar Wu(DFI, Former Abit engineer) OCZ memory reps, gskill,Top 3dmark orb scores are here. etc.
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/show...d=1#post648962
Thanks for your time.
Hopefully they will respond asap, if they pull their socks up and fix up all the negatives of this board which mainly looks like it is the bios it will be one of the top boards especially for its price.
Nice mail you have send them trans am. Hopefully they will respond.
That is what I thought. Chaintech back to their old self, in other words a crapy motherboard.
bad luck John again :DQuote:
Originally Posted by JNav89GT
I wouldnt just say that fir the time being, it might be a s simple as a bios update and you have yourself a top board :DQuote:
Originally Posted by joe2004
Just thinking back how many problems i had with the neo2 :mad:
Now everything is rock stable at high HTT and etc...
What should I do? rma board back to newegg and wait for neo4 or other pci-e 939 offerings? or hold onto it and wait for bios fix? or rma for now and order another if bios fix happens? or sell it on ebay rma = bad Karma? Either way, I'm using trusty dfi 754 for now.Quote:
Originally Posted by [ r2 ]
I thought this was funny... http://www.computerhq.com/hardware/p...id-532379.html
Well since you not planning on using it for now you have few options to take:Quote:
Originally Posted by trans am
-rma
-wait for bios update
If you do rma as it might take sometime you will receive a later release with bios update and etc...
I doubt that Chaintech will release a bios soon, they might be a beta bios floating somewhere soon though.
Look the board once it matures should run well thats the deal for most cases of new releases, however some just get lucky you know the drill ;)
My K8NXP-9 will be here on thursday. I'll post some results.Quote:
Originally Posted by µnrealneo²
No Bios update will get you from 220 to 300, that is only wishful thinking expecting unlikely. RMA it, keep in mind that in every chipset 90+ % of the motherboards are mediocre or just bad. This is just one of such boards.
I remember Chaintech for a long time, only 150 was their first exceptional motherboard. Gotta wait for DFI, Epox or new MSI to see if they make something worth spending $100+.
I been at this 8 hours and I cant even get windows to boot in under like 20 minutes.:(:(:(
Most of the time I try and switch ram it just fugging beeps at me and whatnot. ABout to throw it through the window. The newegg ad says only return for same make and model. Maybe they'll bend but man I am dissapointed.
There are ways around it. especially if you order another or different all together. Just tell em you want a different board and you are going to order another and then you want them to refund your card when they get it.Quote:
Originally Posted by texuspete2k2
For those getting pci-e boards using your current 20 pin atx cable, I just found these. they convert 20 pin to 24 so you can use your psu without any problems. 20 to 24 pin ATX Adapter
http://www.power-on.com/connectors-adapters.html
Thanks for the link. Maybe I'll try one of those. Do you know how to force 2T on this POS per chance? I don't see it in the DRAM config.
I couldn't find it either. the bios engineer must've clocked out a little early on xmas eve before finishing this bios lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by texuspete2k2
why did you get this board? was it the price? it didnt look very good to me from what i saw
i think it will be hard to top the dfi for quite some time, even when the dfi 939s come out the 754 board will be on par
when i get 939 i want the gigabyte 3d1. why did you guys get a normal 6600gt? why not sell 6800 agp for a pcie one or a x800xl? or arent they out yet? i dont know nf4 wont be out till january where i am same with the new pci e cards
Well, I'm not sure if you are refferring to me at all, but I wasn't sure the Asus wasn't going to have it's fresh out of the oven problems either and that was $250+. This is also my first A64 setup and I am not used to having all this money invested in cpu's etc. I thought it would be easier to know I didn't have over $500 in cpu and mobo under my first use of my prometia in a 24/7 rig. I dint know I wouldn't be able to get it to reasonably boot or I would have gotten anything else. I did rely a bit on the vnf250 reputation and in my A64 nubness thought I could rely on HTT multi and AMD's mem controller to take me where I wanted to go or not. My graphics is a BFG 6800GT OC.
I am going to format and try and start over with win2000 (if I can find my copy). You see my XP copy is an upgrade copy. I am just trying to get win98 minimal install going. Something that takes my AMD XP box about 20 minutes to install, whereas here 30 minutes to boot. I used delpart to whack the windows partition and formatted it into FAT and all that. I do this all the time but not working now. Yesterday was my day for messing with this. Now I have a lot of crap to do that I will probably cancel being comp crazed and all. Hope I make some damn headway. Off to work to sulk now... :(
Quote:
Originally Posted by reject
Why do you ask stupid questions?
lol
seriously, we got it cause the vnf3 was decent and figured the VNF4 might be as good, and it's cheap. 6600gt are cheap and are actually available, and they are the best cards you can buy for -$200 have you seen any great deals on x800xt pe? pci-e yet...NO! x800xl doesn't come out 'till mid Jan to Feb. look around man. I am not going to buy another 6800gt just for pci-e. I think x850 pe or x800xl is next. Oh, and the 6600gt is my wifes card.
not everyone gets products from company reps. i think 3 people on xs have neo4's and x800xt pe pci-e cards.
I remember the first A64 board in the USA it was the chaintech nf3-150 and it was an ok board 260mhz fsb and showed the world what bh-5 clocked like on a64 setups, but after a few weeks gigabytes nf3 with a crappy 5:4 ratio kicked its butt. They are OK boards and thats it there quality can't touc that of gigabyte and there overclocking can't touch that of other brands like Asus, Dfi and others..
I bet the gigabyte nf4 4x shows its power very soon as HT means jack sh*t really up to a point as we all set 3x anyways and tests show that the higher the fsb the more you need to drop ht to gain speed in select app's.. Ive seen 3x HT beat 5x HT in 2001 3dmark so HT isn't all that important. If the bus is saturated too much you don't want too high a HT bus selected.
I hate those purple cap's could you tell me what brand those are on there if you get time?
Gigabyte isn't know for making quality boards andQuote:
Originally Posted by choseone214
I can't remember the last time an Asus A64 board was really known for it's overclocking ability. :stick:
Btw, those "Purple" caps are very high quality.
it wasnt a stupid question, i was only meaning why buy now when everything is so new, i would wait till a few reviews and till the refresh cards are out
i didnt know that the x800xt pcie was any rarer than the agp one ive seen it online for aus
and you can sell your agp 6800gt and get a pcie one for litle cost i think
:confused: :)Quote:
Originally Posted by trans am
are you xxxxxxx, lol gigabyte makes some of the finest boards quality wise around. They are some of the fastest stock boards on the market and they always are top notch in the overclocking feild.Quote:
Gigabyte isn't know for making quality boards and
I can't remember the last time an Asus A64 board was really known for it's overclocking ability.
Btw, those "Purple" caps are very high quality.
The asus a8v 2.0's only fault is lack of vdimm. If it had 3.8v vdimm it would be one of the best 939 boards on the market period!!!! Ive seen the VIA chipset hold a 247mhz fsb at 1000mhz ht. The only flaw with the via chipset a8v was the lack of vdimm period. Clock for clock it still rivals the NF chipsets.
and those cap's are not that great. I can assure you and thats why I wanted the name brand I work on repairing electronics day in and day out and those look to me like a low end brand.
:) now back to the subject at hand the chaintech nf4 :)
Ok choseone. Since you work on reparing electronics all the time, you must really know what you are talking about. Sorry for the argument. I noticed you are new to the forum, welcome. Maybe you should read the socket 939 motherboards tweaks and issues thread before making those statements. You know a lot...do you know how many A64 boards I've had since AMD 64 came out? And maybe my opinions are based on actual first hand experience with the boards and not by some review. I ordered the VNF4 so I could let other members know if it was a good board. There are no reviews on the board so I took it upon myself to try it for the rest of you.
is this the whole lot:
asus k8n-e
dfi nf3
gigabyte k8nnxp-939 (sp?)
gigabyte k8ns-939
msi neo2 plat
:D
hey texuspete you sold your agp 6800gt for a pcie one?
1x k8v dlxQuote:
Originally Posted by reject
1x k8v dlx se
1x aopen AK89 max
1x msi ilsr micro atx
1x k8n-e dlx
1 x chaintech vnf3-250
1x dfi lp ut nf3250
1x asus a8v dlx
2 x giga k8ns ultra 939
2x msi neo 2 939
1xVNF4
lol, if noone tests the boards noone will know if any boards are any good, and everyone would just own dfi, how boring.
Hope chaintech reply soon to give u some joy
Thats a lot of mobos to play with.Quote:
Originally Posted by trans am
:toast:
I actually been holding onto it in case I was stuck in computer hell. Which I certainly consider myself to be in. But yeah, it's quite a strain on my wallet right now. When I get my rig running, it's certainly hitting the streets.Quote:
Originally Posted by reject
Yeah, both threads had a few wondering what we were smoking. I don't guinea pig for you guys TOO often but I got burnt on the AN7 too. I am thankful that for the 2 turds I bought, I've been steered clear of countless others. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Feiticeira
So I been waiting 2 hours+ for WIn2000 to install. I've tried different ram sticks, different hard drives, using a hard drive controller card, cable select vrs. Master on the HDD, and this thing is worse than running a 486 SX 25 MHz. This can't be a damaged cpu can it? I mean I'm having no luck with a controller card.This is just rediculous, I've never had so much trouble and the nature of it makes me sit here countless hours at a time. In my wildest dreams I could have never imagined this. A crappy OC board ok but damn, I should at least have an A64 purring along. Back to a little advice on board or cpu.... I mean a cpu either works or it doesn't right? I can't believe this isnt working with a controller card either.
I think you need to call newegg or the place you bought it and get a rma. This doesn't sound too good. I am going to wait for VIA, ATi, and more Nf4 before making another hasty decision, I suggest you do the same. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by texuspete2k2
It's just hard because all this stuff is new. The cpu and the GT included. So keep the cpu and just RMA this POS mobo you figure? Win install approaching 3 hours now. :/
did you get cpu/mobo all at once? maybe cpu needs to be sent back too. I would do it just to be safe. did you memtest your ram? is it ok? have you tried resetting the cmos jumper on the mobo?Quote:
Originally Posted by texuspete2k2
Yeah... everything at once. CPU/VideoCard/Mobo. Since 3:30 or so (5 hours ago) I've managed to install win2000, and my chipset drivers. I just kept trucking through hoping chipset drivers would breathe life into it. Nope. Memtest is running fine. I'm thinking the cpu is alright but I can't be sure. Any like Boot up CPU tester?
I think if I get this mobo RMA'd fast enough, maybe I can retest the cpu but yeah... I mean what would I get AGP or PCIe board...sucks. I did reset the cmos as well. Wish I had a friends mobo I could test the chip in... but yeah right Dell doesnt sell A64's.
We'll, there's always Gigashyte! Could it be a problem with win2k and the nf4/pcie? I wonder if os is having compatibilty issues with new chipset? Anyone with nf4 using win2k? I made a thread to address this issue. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=49124
if the board boots, cpu is in good health
sounds like
1. bad board
2. bad hard drive cables
maybe its an irq conflict no? that mb only has what 3 pci slots have you tired a differnt pci slot for that hd pci card? you probly have but i just figured id mention it... good luck man.
peace perc,
I have the board, have been fiddling with it since last night, and I am not dissapointed with the board,(except for the caps that are right next to the socket...., so difficult getting xp-90 on there). I am, however, dissapointed with the BIOS. The nTune feature that came on cd with the mobo has allowed me to go up to 250fsb 1:1 stable in everything but Prime Blend, the bios on the other hand has kept me at around 220-225, and wouldnt boot correctly with anything higher, no matter what adjustments were made. I only wish that the nTune could push higher than 250fsb, so I could find the limit of my cpu, even if it is an unworthy week 35 3000+.
Does anyone know any nForce4 compatable clockgens?
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/show...light=clockgenQuote:
Does anyone know any nForce4 compatable clockgens?
:)
Thanks choseone.
Actually I am supposed to get a Chaintech VNF4 Ultra/6600GT PCI-E combo here in early to mid January, just ordered a New Castle 3500+ and it will be air cooled review at first till I get my water setup ready for it. So it will be a a two part review with results from both cooling solutions. Probably released a week or so apart.
Here is some information on what will be used and tested in the review.
Associated Hardware:
2x512MB PC4000 Ballistix
2x120GB WD ATA100
Lite-On 8x4x12x/40x24x40x DVD-RW/CD-RW
OCZ Powerstream 520w
DD TDX A64
Maze-4 GPU (waiting to get Chromed Brass Top Soon ;-) )
Hydor L20
ModdersHQ 1x120mm RAD w/Enermax 120mm
Benchmarks:
Everest
Sandra 2005
HL2
Doom 3
UT2K4
3DMark01
3DMark03
3DMark05
Any Special Requests?
Bob Becker
www.moddershq.net Site Admin/Reviewer
Quote:
Originally Posted by khellandros66
I think it goes something like this:
-Overclocking and Conclusion
"On the default shipping bios, We were unable to obtain anything stable past 220 fsb in the bios. In order to get any sort of halfway decent overclock we had to set fsb to 220 in bios and pci-e lock to 101 and used nf4 clockgen raising fsb 3mhz at a time until we hit a massive 250mhz!!! Increasing past 250 left us high and dry with a system freeze, we are willing to take a 2nd look after a bios rev, but until that happens, we do not recommend the Chaintech VNF4 Ultra for overclockers."
Only windows XP works on this board for me. Mine is an upgrade copy so I had to go through something like a 4 hour install process for win 98 first. Both win98 and win2000 will load but your comp will be like a 486SX25 if that. At least that's what happenned with me.
And yeah... need new bios. ntune is warning me my PCI clock is set to track HTT. I tried setting to 101 and 103 on PCI-e clock. Same. I guess I will try something like 203HTT in bios, see if it locks that way. Unless ntune is messed up, it also thinks my tRCD is 6. Forced it to 2 so I'll see if my scores goes up.
Edit: Guess the settings in the bios are not sticking. I just gained 1700 3d01 points by forcing tRCD from 6 *puke* to 2 in ntune. Mind you Bios set to 2 for both tests. Board does show 6 at post but not in my manual settings. So the difference you see here is solely from tweaking ntune to 2 for tRCD.
21676->23387 Stock 3500+ clocks 2-2-2(6)-10-1T 6800GT-OC 430/1100. This is a gig pack of BH-5.
And yeah tweaking the HTT bus in the bios eliminated that warning so I guess it's locked now. Definitely could use a new bios. Amazing how much better clocks I can get with ntune but the pity is I can only raise the HTT by four or so clicks at a time. Gotta do more testing to see what I can get via bios so I don't have to start over every time. 226 or so is a go from BIOS
I finally got Chaintech on the phone. I had to tell them I was a reviewer doing a motherboard shootout on next gen 939 chipsets. I had the Chaintech support guy (Jim) overclocking his board on the phone, while I told him what to do. He had the exact same results as us. ANything past 220fsb made the bios reset itself to default speeds.. He is aware of the problem and he is going to get a hold of Chaintech headquarters in Asia for a beta bios. I also told him the gigashyte board beat it at stock speed benches and it was using the crippled 4x NF4 and it was still beating it. This really made him get his ass in gear! I said I am still gathering data on the nf4 boards and that I'll have the ati rs480 and k8t890 chipset boards later this week. I won't release the review until we get a beta bios from chaintech that fixes the issues. I told them many people bought the vnf4 ultra based on the vnf3's overclocking potential. He thanked me for being merciful to chaintech before releasing the review, and he is well aware of the issue. As soon as I get the bios, I will attach it for everyone. :toast:
Dude wow thanks for bringing this to our attention cause if I get the Chaintech VNF4 Ultra to review I will hold off till the new bios or beta is out for it to see how it fares.
~Bob
Nothing wrong with letting people know the problems. Then they will do something about it.
Overall recap - No 2t is selectable. I mean isn't that default for CG's? I know 2T is bad for performance but if nothing else we need it to trouble shoot or hell someone may need it to use the thing until they can get better ram. My board caps at 225 in bios, runs 250HTT if I go in small jumps with ntune or bigger jumps possible with clockgen. Odd it wont work in the bios though. Others have similar problems claiming as little as 220HTT(bios only). I need to use ntune even with clockgen because a tRCD of 2 gets turned into a 6 and I dont see a way to do this with clockgen. So I need two windows programs to do what the bios should. I also can only use XP, win 98 and win2000 SP4 fail to work (4+ hours for install, 100% cpu utilization doing anything, mollasses). Seems ok but I had to stomach the win 98/win2000 bit because my XP is an upgrade copy. All the while running around in circles, writing zeroes to the drive and what not. Think about it... somewhere out there some poor lost soul has spent 4 days wondering whats wrong with their comp just because... gasp... they are not using XP.
I honestly believe that alot board will have some quirks at first esp with Rev 1 bios maybe rev2 will solve like 80-90% of bugs after that its just ammater of what people claim..
I am still anxious to receive the review piece and will remain optomistic till otherwise.
~Bob
Can someone tell me that i might be making some sense....i'm actually considering buying this board beacuse its 50-60 bucks cheaper than any other nf4 ultra board. Even though I won't be able to do over 250mhz, which sucks cuz I have some nice TCCD. But instead I could spend the money I save on not getting xp-90 and good overclocking mobo, and spend it on getting a X800XL instead of a X800np or 6600GT. Even though I won't be able to get high cpu speeds, I have a lot better card, and all I care about is gaming. Won't a better card and 2.4ghz be better than decent card and 2.6ghz?
Either:
MSI Neo4 and XP-90 ($250), X800np ($200) = $450
or
Chaintech NF4 ($130), X800XL ($300) = $430
Yeah, most games now days are more dependent on video card. I would get the better card and 3000+ winnie and the chaintech. THey are going to have a beta bios sooner or later. But you may want to wait for the ati rs480 boards and the via k8t890 boards before making a decision.Quote:
Originally Posted by apu673
Well I think i'm ganna stick with nf4 because of SATA2 and some other features, but i'm still going to have to wait til the X800XL comes out...
damn ATI taking forever. Im ready to upgrade to PCI-e too. Except, it wont be with this chaintech crap. :)
Ya but all the nf4 ultra boards are 180-200 bucks which is way too much.
Quote:
Originally Posted by apu673
The Gigabyte K8NF-9 can be had for $150 or less... I know I just ordered one ;)
Thats the nforce regular chip and doesn't overclock worth crap compared to the ultra.
Hi maybe this can help. Anand Tech official Chaintec vnf-4 thread.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messagev...&enterthread=y
**Official Chaintech Zenith VNF4 nForce4 Motherboard Thread**
Alrighty but it's really just one post... and we're smarter than he is :p: Hehe... no really though... I would have liked to seen his windows overclocking results vrs. Bios. He talks about the NIC alot, really.... overclocking > *
Welcome to XS :toast:
Quote:
Originally Posted by texuspete2k2
Actualy you can install your xp upgrade copy to a clean hard drive. You dont need to install 98 first.
Just boot the xp cdrom, somewhere in the install process it will check for a previously installed copy of windows on your hard drives.
If it doesnt find one it will ask you to insert a 9x/Nt cd to confirm prior o.s. ownership. Put your 98 cd in the drive.
It will then ask you to replace the xp cd and continue the install normaly.
No need for Fdisk and Format commands, or floppy boot disks. The xp install cd will allow you to partition and format your drives.
(Forgive me if you already know this)
No I didn't know that... thanks. I had heard something like that but my CD simply wont boot up. I guess next time I'll futz with it some more. My win2000 cd boots straight up. Hmm... maybe it has something to do with the way I backed it up. I do use a backup of XP pro. I'll definitely have a look.
New BIOS available:
Version : Beta_0117
Date: 2005/1/17
Note : Solved some issues as below:
Feature :
1.S4 can not get back to winxp.
2.win2000 installation issue.
3.add 1T2T of memory setting.
4.overclocking possibility issue.
http://www.chaintech.com.tw/tw/eng/D...No=4&PISNo=318
hrm, will play tonight!
if someone can dl and host this bios that would be nice, i can't hit the chaintech site :(
The download links are:
http://www.chaintech.com.tw/tw/download/k8/VN210117.exe
http://www.chaintechusa.com/download/k8/VN210117.exe
If you can't download it I can e-mail it to you. The file is about 330 KB.
actually I got it now and emailed it to myself at home. Hope this fixes issue as I was wanting to do a small review on this board vs Gigabyte NF4 4X but the chaintech issues had forced me to box up the board and not even use it.
Oh man this is fantastic I should be receiving my review sample late this week or early next week.
I will definitely being doing as planned
Stock Air Cooling
H2O Rig (mosltly what in my sig witha few modifications)
~Bob
excellent! thanks for the update. I still have my VNF4. John I hope you have better luck this time. I just got off the phone with Jim K. from Chaintech usa. I told him to create an acct on xs so we can get better chaintech support. He was trying to clock his vnf4 while I was talking to him, but was still unable to hit 270x9 with a 166 divider. this is not good news, but maybe his ram was holding him back or something else. I am in Florida right now and can't play with the board at this time, so we are really depending on Jnav89GT for some results with the new bios. good luck. :)
Jim is that you?
Excellent! we have an official Chaintechy on XS! welcome to XS :toast:
Yeah, my VNF4 will not go past 240HTT on the original BIOS. I am hoping to get the chance to try the new beta BIOS tonight, and see if it helps. I know my CHIP will do much higher, because I can reach 290HTT stable in windows Using ClockGen, but I would much rather reach 290HTT (or higher) via the BIOS. Using ClockGen for overclocking is a pretty weak way to have to go. :( I love the board other than it's overclocking, so it is not too big of a deal if it will not get there.Quote:
Originally Posted by trans am
No problem! Just pass out the goodies, and let us worry about what happens when we use em.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chaintech_Eng
By the way, do you know if any major sites plan to review the VNF4? I cannot find reviews of this board anywhere, and I think Chaintech is missing an opportunity to get the word out about a great board!
I'm installing winxp now on this board and will try beta bios
I will report back tonight
see what happens!
ok, some good some bad!
bios doesn't fix everything, but something positive to report
After flash computer beeped the bios beep of death lol!
Luckily I just cleared cmos and it posted.
Decided to try mild oc to 250HTT at 10 multi on my 3500+ that does 2.7ghz easy.
Fail to post and get the oc failure screen, keyboard doesn't work so I hit reset and prior to getting into bios via delete key I see my settings "took" was running 2.5ghz etc...
Booted to windows and will test more. Prior to this bios I couldn't post bios over 220MHz
Cool deal, Hey Chaintech_Eng (sorry must be incogneato) I will pass along my review to it as soon as I get the board and rig up and running.
BTW I am Khellandros66 (Robert Becker) Site Admin and Reviewer for Moddershq.net any more details just email me
khellandros66@moddershq.net
~Bob
who's Jim?
Umm, I hate to tell you, but the original BIOS would do 240HTT stable. I have been running my VNF4 at 240HTT (with an A643000+, which overclocked it to 2.16 GHZ) since before new years. I am running 2GB of Kingston HyperX at 2-3-2-10 timings, at 406MHZ in dual channel. My CPU is running at 1.6V (up from 1.4), my RAM is at 1.7V (up from 1.6), and I upped the chipset voltage by .1V. I am running at an HTT divider of 3X, since the 4X divider would not let me get to 240. I have not tried the beta BIOS on the site yet, but I will tonight, and hopefully it will let me pass 240 (or at least take my ram out of 2t, since I am running 4 sticks of DDR400 in dual channel).Quote:
Originally Posted by Chaintech_Eng
Edit: And it definitely passes 3D benchmarks at this OC, I have played HalfLife 2 with it for hours this way, and benchmarked in 3dmark 03, and 05.