Gigabyte NF4-K8NF-9 arrived

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Originally Posted by choseone214

First take chipset cooling off remove that awfal pad and set HTT in bios to 3x. The board will do 270-280mhz at the "LEAST" so your missing something. Try a 166mhz ddr ratio next if you haven't already. If that ram is BH-5 your wall could be that IMO as BH-5 seems to need voltage on these boards and the chipsets that run BH-5 and or the CPU's ddr controller need VDD to match the rams low latency and the 2.8v that alot of boards give won't get you very far.

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would try 2molo.....kind of tire after bios f2 crap too...onboard gigabit fails..
ok after flash back to f1...
HTT already 3x...oh...least is 270-280Mhz ?
at 240 / 166 = 200 Ram Mhz => ok because i find that at 200Mhz stock n w divider n ram at 200 then all ok else possible failure...funny here
RAM is TCCD if not mistaken for this pair or the bios don't like my wk 49 winnie? because it can't do 166 @ 2400 with f2 bios but ok w f1....
i would take a rest and start striping it apart tomorrow...
happy new year.. :banana:

did anyone try the f3a yet? i think so far booting at higher fsb's is FAR more difficult with f2, at first i could boot fine, but now i can't boot at anything at all but 201Mhz, think its the memory "tweaking" for specific sticks, probo just taking over settings or changing something stupid in the bios. either way i'm gonna try f3a or maybe go back to f1 and see if i can boot at high htt again. can't seem to get past 270ish stable with any chip, on any multi with any divider. Only thing i haven't tried is switching to ballistixs to try 2x256 sticks instead of 2x512's.

I thought I'd join the club. Great little mainboard so far.

Maximum Overclock (boots into WinXP but not stable):

http://520048665308-0001.bei.t-online.de/CBID_2855.JPG

SuperPi 1M = 32 sec:

http://520048665308-0001.bei.t-onlin...ung_7292_a.JPG

Setup:
GA-K8NF-9, "F1" Bios, A64 3200+ Winchester week 44, 2*512MB Samsung PC3200 (TCCC), Sparkle 6600GT, air cooled by Thermaltake Silent Boost K8

Killeroy.

Very nice work there Killeroy. :)

any 3dmark work yet?

Here, with the 6600GT running at 576 core and 1150 mem stock cooler, CPU clocked slightly different from above (2726MHz):

http://520048665308-0001.bei.t-onlin...MHz_6600GT.JPG

Killeroy.

wow nice 2005 scorage :)

This time remove the nb n replace w as5.
now w this pair of xms 3200 no pass of memtest even at stock !!damn..but this pair is hot after removal...
replace w a pair of 512MB n hit 227 which is this ram limit on P4..
seems like this board/os/amd don't like 1GB as it fails on 2 modules...
anyone having same problem or only me bad luck ?

ok, flash backed to f1 and i can already boot above stock so chip didn't go bad from heat/voltage or anything, just IMO f2 and f3a(especially f3a) are crap, complete crap bios's. f3a i really couldn't boot at all above stock. f2 wasn't as bad but couldn't boot as high as f1. only advantage was working with easytune, all a bit of a pain right now. i would avoid this board as a overclocking board unless a new bios fixes booting/clocking issues . wait for and spend a bit more on a ultra version from msi/dfi/asus. Could also be the chipset is a bit difficult to work with as its a2 not a3 and other gigabyte boards will be better.

yeah I heard that from day one that the f1 shipping bios should be left alone. :)

I stuck with F1 and I find it working well, just using clockgen and booster works fine now but I am not Extreme enough yet to try higher than 3.2v :D

Also I will attempt vcore mod as I hope this chip will go higher.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ausfly/...er/27 secs.jpg
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ausfly/...27 sec mem.jpg

Wow... I guess that answers my fear that the power supply on the board is not strong enough. Why do the other Gigabyte boards have this DPS module then?

Killeroy.

THE M.
you do know your ram is only running at 223-224mhz right? Try a even multi 11/12/13/14/15 don't ever use .5x multis they slow things down alot

Quote:

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Originally Posted by choseone214

THE M.
you do know your ram is only running at 223-224mhz right? Try a even multi 11/12/13/14/15 don't ever use .5x multis they slow things down alot

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I see. Htt is the same as ram 1.1, is bios doing something that cpuz doesnt show, ill look into that.

I changed ram to a 512 kit of Hyperx BH5 and made some more adjustments in bios, 3.5v to the ram I can get better results. :D

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ausfly/...width.jpg1.jpg

Try changing your tRAS to 10 and your tRWT to 3. That's what I was doing below with my Samsung PC3200 TCCC.

http://520048665308-0001.bei.t-onlin...408_249MHz.JPG
(actually 1T command rate, Sandra is screwed)

Killeroy.

Update My GA-K8NF-9 :)

Memory Bandwidth

http://www.geocities.com/benny_nejkt/290x9_membw.txt

Super Pi 32s

http://www.geocities.com/benny_nejkt/290x9_spi.txt

couple things i wanted to check with you guys, pci-e x800xt , i'm upping core speed bigtime and seem to not be getting much increase, and i seem to be getting 585/570 at the moment fine but is not even 1k 3dmark 2k1 over stock vid card clocks, which are 500/500.

ati tool0.22, and something else, couple other programs and well, i seem to be getting an obvious increase, but its tiny, these proggies work fine on pci-e cards? wondering if the stupid gigabyte gfx overclocking from bios is messing with it, its on auto, theres no disabled. auto on the 6800gto left them at stock and seemed to increase speed fine with coolbits.

EDIT:- oi said a couple things, other thing is, are people seeing any benifit raising pci-e voltage, so you know on f2 and f3a its listed as "core power voltage", so dunno if its actually chipset voltage or both, +3 i think limited my gpu overclocks(assuming they are working). have people removed stock sink and as5'd it? i'm stuck around 270 stable with it as it came shipped. seems mighty hot though. worst heatsink design ever.

This low cost board rocks!

http://img134.exs.cx/img134/6922/CPUmark413.jpg

Update 3X HTT @ 300 MHz

http://www.geocities.com/benny_nejkt/300x8_HTT3.txt

Highest FSB 315 2X HTT

http://www.geocities.com/benny_nejkt/315x8_HTT2.txt

HI I'm french and i've got the Motherboard too but I can't Use EasyTune 5, it doesn't work ? Can you help me please ... ? :(

... And where can I dowload Smartguardian ?

thx a lot

You need to update the bios, go to Gigabyte site for download.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by the.m

You need to update the bios, go to Gigabyte site for download.

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okay thx but i'm a newbie.
Is it really dangerous to do that ??
I need explication plz :(

Is it okay from @t BIos (in CD) ?

So is this board able to reach high HTT speeds without any mods or anything?

Nope. The chipset has a problem running the HTT close to or beyond 1000MHz.
The way to keep it stable is to reduce the HT multiplier to 3x and up the HT voltage a bit in Bios. Then you can hit beyond 300MHz host clock easily and actually there is almost no performance difference between 5x and 3x.

Killeroy.

So is the Gigabyte nforce4 considered better than the Chaintech nforce4 ultra, even though the Chaintech is nf4 ultra chipset? (Better in terms of overclocking options and HTT speeds)

Is it @t BIOS stable to update BIOS on windows XP ?

OK, got mine up and running. Board won't boot if i set 2T timings to "disable" in bios. It came with Bios F2, should I try a diff bios?

F1 is the best

Thanks I'll see if I can find it and Give it a try.

That works! F1 works good :) I'd take this board over the A8V anyday!

K8NXP-SLI Proto(4x)
http://pageperso.aol.fr/misteroadster/400FsbRock.JPG

what the :banana::banana::banana::banana:? 4200+? Sweetness :)

Is 7253/7172 in sandra ok?

4200+ is done with Cbid tweak ;).
Sandra not tested yet.

d'oh.. didn't see 3000+ at top of screen.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by choseone214

F1 is the best

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agreed

Killeroy.

Think I'm gonna try F3a, somereason I can't get past 2.8ghz at any divder. Temps are fine under water, must be the chips top clocks.

Some boards were shipped with the F2 bios. This bios is garbage. Although you can change the voltage in the bios and it accepts the new voltage when you boot up and use cpu-z you see the voltage still hasn't changed from the default 1.4v. With the F2 bios i was unable to go beyond 205 Mhz.

However, when i flashed to F1, i'm able to go up to 266 so far.

Also, what memory are people using with this motherboard? I ordered some Geil memory but it's corrupted like all hell.

Uhm,
I have tried to setup a RAID0 on this motherboard... :toast:

I have configured the main BIOS correctly (IDE/SATA RAID ENABLED, etc) and setup a bootable RAID0 (with two 80gigs MAXTOR SATA) in the controller BIOS (F10 to enter).
Then I have rebooted and checked RAID0... all ok.

Ok, now I try to install Windows XP (SP2).
I boot with the CD, installation start, but I push "F6" to specify other RAID driver, then I insert the floppy with correct driver (NVRAID.SYS, etc), confirmed it and proceed with installation.
Ok, no problem... but when it's time to select the partition where to install Windows, I see TWO SEPARATED HARDDISK of 80gigs, NOT a single 160gigs partition (...RAID0...) !!!!
WTF?? :confused:

I have tried all BIOS (F1, F2, F3a), all possible RAID driver (Nvidia, Nforce4, SIL, ITE, Nforce3, etc...), all possible combination (HDD1 master on SATA1 and HDD2 slave on SATA1, HDD1 master on SATA1 and HDD2 master on SATA2, etc...), another version of WindowsXP (SP1 and unattended with RAID driver integrated)... but the problem remains :(

Someone has tried (with this motherboard or another NForce4) ?
Or can try, please?

P.S: ah, sorry for my bad english :(

did you create the array in the raid bios?

Does anyone know if the SLI version of this board uses the A3 revision chipset?

erm will have to wait to see if I get one before I can comment. I know the pre release boards were A2, but shipping boards were supposedto be A3

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JNav89GT

erm will have to wait to see if I get one before I can comment. I know the pre release boards were A2, but shipping boards were supposedto be A3

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Ahh... so the board you're using in this thread is a pre release board?

I'm tempted to pick up the SLI version and do some testing, I might.

I might should add... when you tested the XP-120, did it require any special hardware to mount it? I know the XP-90 requires an additional metal backplate as Gigabyte ships with a plastic one.

Thanks!

no you mentioned the SLI board, this is their budget NF4 board, I got it at Monarch

the XP-120 I have came with some special mounting brackets, looks like a P4 retention bracket. I don't know if you need a special back bracket as I have tons lying everywhere and never paid it much mind. Sorry!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sentenza

Uhm,
I have tried to setup a RAID0 on this motherboard... :toast:

I have configured the main BIOS correctly (IDE/SATA RAID ENABLED, etc) and setup a bootable RAID0 (with two 80gigs MAXTOR SATA) in the controller BIOS (F10 to enter).
Then I have rebooted and checked RAID0... all ok.

Ok, now I try to install Windows XP (SP2).
I boot with the CD, installation start, but I push "F6" to specify other RAID driver, then I insert the floppy with correct driver (NVRAID.SYS, etc), confirmed it and proceed with installation.
Ok, no problem... but when it's time to select the partition where to install Windows, I see TWO SEPARATED HARDDISK of 80gigs, NOT a single 160gigs partition (...RAID0...) !!!!
WTF?? :confused:

I have tried all BIOS (F1, F2, F3a), all possible RAID driver (Nvidia, Nforce4, SIL, ITE, Nforce3, etc...), all possible combination (HDD1 master on SATA1 and HDD2 slave on SATA1, HDD1 master on SATA1 and HDD2 master on SATA2, etc...), another version of WindowsXP (SP1 and unattended with RAID driver integrated)... but the problem remains :(

Someone has tried (with this motherboard or another NForce4) ?
Or can try, please?

P.S: ah, sorry for my bad english :(

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Have you tried this:
"It doesn't tell you in the manual but you have to load BOTH drivers at F6,the raid driver the the mass storage driver. You have to hit the S key again after you install the raid driver to install the mass storage driver. I had the same problem,it wouldn't show both drives as 1 large one for Raid 0 untill i installed both drivers. DOUG" From here: http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=374619

Killeroy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JNav89GT

erm will have to wait to see if I get one before I can comment. I know the pre release boards were A2, but shipping boards were supposedto be A3

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The nForce4-4x come with the CK804 A2 (mine did) while Ultra and SLI versions should have the CK804 A3 chipset.

Killeroy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Killeroy

The nForce4-4x come with the CK804 A2 (mine did) while Ultra and SLI versions should have the CK804 A3 chipset.

Killeroy.

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I was talking about the Gigabyte NF4 ultra or SLI. I know the K8N9F has A2, I took the picture on the first page lol!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JNav89GT

I was talking about the Gigabyte NF4 ultra or SLI. I know the K8N9F has A2, I took the picture on the first page lol!

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Well I checked mine as well to be sure and took the liberty of painting the bridges like on the Ultra chip :D ...didn't see any much effect though...

Killeroy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Killeroy

Have you tried this:
"It doesn't tell you in the manual but you have to load BOTH drivers at F6,the raid driver the the mass storage driver. You have to hit the S key again after you install the raid driver to install the mass storage driver. I had the same problem,it wouldn't show both drives as 1 large one for Raid 0 untill i installed both drivers. DOUG" From here: http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=374619

Killeroy.

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Uhm,
I will try next days... tnx!
:)

Well, I got rid of my Asus SLI board, and got one of these as a stop gap whille waiting for DFI.... I'm quite impressed, at what is in reality a cheap little board! Allows me to clcok my memory 15mhz higher at same timings 1T, and allows me to clock my 3500 to 2700, whereas it crapped out at 2500 with the Asus! Thumbs up from me!

hello all , i've find the way to reach high htt with this Motherboard , i can bench at more than 400 FSB , the defaults HTT timings are wrong.
Does anyone know who is able to mod them in bios ?
I'd Pmed tic-tac.
Modify them at each boot is really bad.

400 FSB Spi 32M OK with good HTT settings
Look at this database, i like it :)
If you want to share your results download OCCT.
http://www.ocbase.com/voirocctgraph_605.html

To have more than 320FSB rock try those settings with A64 tweaker 0.50 beta and use Clockgen.
Thx to codered again :toast:
6
5
4
2
2
5
2
:)

new bios :
http://pageperso.aol.fr/misteroadster/k8nf-9F3g.bin

misteroadster you tried new bios yet, any improvment over F1?

yes i can boot at 300FSB even higher :)

Has anyone had this board near 280 or 290 HTT with memory 1:1?

misterroadster, what are the voltage options on this board.

stock options is what i'm talking about, not terribly interested in voltmodding a 250$ board.

1.75 Vcore
2.9 Vddr

hmmm... you think that would be enough with a chilled water setup? -30C is what i'm hoping for res temps.

i got tccd, so that vddr is not a problem.

look at my new thread OC in Paris ;)

Is SATA locked or not, cause HERE people have problems.

Yea would also like to know that.

I can only say that Sata (Samsung 80GB Sata boot) worked fine for me at 300MHz HT (3x). I increased HT link voltage by 0.1V though.
I have another Asus board where Sata is not locked (K8V) and it would pack up at 225MHz maximum with that Samsung drive.
This leads me to believe that Sata on the K8NF-9 is locked.

Killeroy.

I'm on SATA-0, and it has to be locked.

Been clear over 300 1:1, Raptor 74GB is my boot drive / only drive.

It was very, very stable - that wouldn't happen with no lock. Likewise, PCI-E and PCI were locked right on the nose.

misteroadster,

Is that a custom or beta BIOS? I was secretly hoping you had hard-coded HTT or something. :p:

I just received all of my stuff. I am upgrading form a tbird and pci ati rage. I need alot of help in clocking this new equipment. Easytune locks up every time I try to start it up. I have what is in my sig and just got the rest today. AMD 3500winnie, XFX 6800ultra and the GA-K8NF-9.