:stick: Sorry ment Chaintech_Eng LOL
:cord: Don't want to make anyone mad or confused LMAO
Cool deal so someone out there made it to 240MHz FSB without the new bios , please let us know what you get to after the flash.
~Bob
Printable View
:stick: Sorry ment Chaintech_Eng LOL
:cord: Don't want to make anyone mad or confused LMAO
Cool deal so someone out there made it to 240MHz FSB without the new bios , please let us know what you get to after the flash.
~Bob
Jim(jimmy k.). works for the chaintechusa support. If you were to call chaintech support in US, Jim is likely to answer the phone. As for Chaintech_Eng, I'm not sure who that is. Maybe a formal introduction is in order. We like to know who we are dealing with. XS is like one crazy family of overclockers. Sorry to put Chaintech_Eng on the spot, but it would be nice to know your duties at chaintech. As far as I know the bios engineers for Chaintech are in Korea. Correct me if I'm wrong.Quote:
Originally Posted by JNav89GT
MajorPayne, how did you manage 240 out of the bios???/
I was able to get my vnf4 on shipping bios up to 250HTT using nf4 clockgen and setting ht link to 3x. THe catch was I had to do it in very careful increments of only 3mhz at a time, or else Clockgen would freeze up and I would have to start over. The main problem was most of us were only able to oc out of the bios around 220mhz. anything else and the setting would not get saved and you would get the overclock failed message upon post. Another xs member texaspete was unable to load win2k os. there are some things like pci-e voltage that would be nice in the bios too. usually agp voltage is able to give you a few more clocks, so pci-e voltage probably wouldn't hurt.
OK, I have it installed now, and the first jump I did was to 250HTT. It went fine (I am running at that now), temps are 26-33 degrees C depending on load, and I was able to run memtest through without problems, and run through 3dmark 03 and 05. It SEEMS quite stable, and I am sure I can get further with this one. Of course, I am also the only one I ever knew who got past 220HTT with the original BIOS, so maybe I got a special one? I want to run prime and pifast to see if they come up with errors, and I will push onward tonight. I am hoping to reach 290HTT, which is the limit I could push my CPU to stable using clockgen. Oh, and using the new BIOS does NOT correct my being stuck at a 2T command rate. I can now choose 1T, but it will not boot. This does not suprise me, since I am running 4 Kingston HyperX Ram Sticks at 400MHZ in dual channel -- which the spec does not support at 1T. Oh Well. So far tho, very good new BIOS.Quote:
Originally Posted by khellandros66
Quote:
Originally Posted by trans am
Transam, using the stock BIOS by itself, I got to 240HTT before hitting a wall. After 240, I had to use ClockGen. Using clockgen to bump me past 240, I hit 290HTT as my stable max with my a64 3000+. I hope to be able to hit 290 in BIOS with the new beta BIOS though, because it was a wonderful speed boost, and I hated having to use clockgen to get there.
WOW. MajorPayne, can you do a run with a divider and run something high like 270mhz+ I am just curious to see the HTT limit. I wish I was home so I could play with mine :(
On pcper.com's forums, they already have someone who has it in windows at 275! (Link is here http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.p...51#post3326351) I will try to get there soon, and I will post a screen or 2 when I do.Quote:
Originally Posted by trans am
This gives me GREAT hope for this board as an overclocker! On a side note, one thing I DID notice about the new BIOS is that the auto reset to safe-mode with a failed post is GONE! You now have to pull the BIOS reset pin if you fail to post. Maybe this is how they got around it stopping you from overclocking higher?
I nuked my OS, but not boards fault. Was trying to unlock my vanilla 6800(read dell pull) card to 16/5
OUCH> try windows 2k and see if it fixes the install problem texas pete had, unless you need winxp for review purposes, I understand.Quote:
Originally Posted by JNav89GT
What? you need to reset the cmos every time if you oc too high? that's bad..Quote:
Originally Posted by MajorPayne
Have you tried switching the psu switch directly and waiting 30 seconds?
Yeah, but this is not as bad as a mobo I had one time, where it had NO short pin at all, so to reset it, you had to pull the battery and short the connectors inside the battery compartment to drain the memory -- that sucked. Besides, I think the failsafe reboot is what stopped us from overclocking this board.Quote:
Originally Posted by trans am
I can post and boot at 300HTT by the way! I was getting nervous about temps tho, since I am stock aircooled, and so dialed it back to 275HTT until I can benchmark and test more. It does run 3dmark 03 at this speed fine tho. Seems that the OC potential of this board has been unlocked!!
I think those with more exotic cooling should be able to run to the limit of thier processors on this board with no problem now.
I can't wait to get home! THanks MajorPayne. :toast:Quote:
Originally Posted by MajorPayne
ok getting better, no need to do that reset thing every time now, seems bios is happy to save and go now
bios set at 260 ram at 1:1 HT at 4x
lower the multi and kick in some 300htt! :)
up to 275 which is about max air on my cpu.
well I must admit they fixed something :)
although my onboard NIC is flakey as hell even at 250, but my whole cable is goofy too tonight, so maybe just that.
300htt 1:1 very nice! is this higher than your gigashyte NF4 4x?
oh yeah, max on giga for me was 270 in 3d
Interesting about your NIC though. Did you by chance up the PCI-E bus any? The reason I ask if that I have heard that some of the Nforce boards run the onboard NIC off of the PCI-E bus (not sure about this one tho), so upping that bus might push you out of spec, or at least annoy other components on it. I have been at 275 for the last 2 hours now, and it is running fine this way. I am VERY happy with this board now! I just need to get some better cooling before pushing further.Quote:
Originally Posted by JNav89GT
So it looks like the verdict is out. VNF4 is the best bang for the buck.
:banana: :banana: :banana:
Nice job guys
OOOH Hurry up USPS and deliver the review sample LOL
~Bob
Sounds great!
Well, we are glad to have you here, and appreciate your help. You guys made a great board by the way.... The VNF4 was already a terrific board (low cost, great performance, very stable) before the beta BIOS, but now that the beta BIOS is out, this board is TRULY AWESOME!Quote:
Originally Posted by Chaintech_Eng
By the way, X-bit labs released a review of the VNF4 this morning at
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mai...h-nforce4.html, so FINALLY, someone in the review circles noticed this great board! It seems to be a mostly fair review, but I actually wish they had waited for the final version of the new BIOS before reviewing it.. Oh well.
After reading that review (and what happened to the guy's chipset when he OC'd too far), I am now concerned about my own board. Do any of you know a good fan, or heatsink/fan combo for the chipset on this board. I do not want to run the risk of cooking my chip, considering how hard it is to find anyone selling this board.
Also, does anyone here know if the thermalright XP-120 CPU cooler will fix on this board? I am going to replace the stock heatsink/fan with a better one, and I love the design of the XP-120, but I am not sure if it will fit. Other HSF's that I am looking at are the coolermaster Hyper48, and the Hyper6, but I am a little concerned about the weight of the Hyper6 (2+ pounds!). I do believe that both of the coolermaster's would fit though, so if anyone has used these (on any board), and has a recommendation of which would be the better (temp wise, since I do NOT care about noise) I would appreciate it.
the caps on the lower area below socket block the mount of the XP-120
I can give you recommendation for good cooler though, it doesn't look like much but I have to admit it works very well. The Evercool HPC 925, I reviewed it for Prescott and last night put it on my 3500+ and temps are great
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=get...24&articID=278
Yeah, that is what I was afraid of. I have not heard of anyone who even tried to use this cooler with this board yet, and I think this is why.Quote:
Originally Posted by JNav89GT
I appreciate the tip, I will go check this one out right now. Thanks JNav!Quote:
Originally Posted by JNav89GT
no prob,
Yeah! I have an XP-120, good sink but doens't fit on the chaintech, does fit on the Gigabyte NF4 4x though
Hi guys! Been having trouble with my account so I registered this one until it can be sorted... phew feels good to be back. Anyways.... before the beta bios I could only do 225 bios but with clockgen I could chug along at 270 no problems. 270*10 is the max of my newcastle on air (pretty damn good I think). I was going to get around to dropping the multi to max out the board but haven't been in a rush as *9 will undoubtedly leave my cpu below 2.7GHz unless my new GSKill LE's can do 300. :) But now I have this beta to try. I will be reporting!
I hope the timings stick. You know I had to change tRCD with ntune all the time, but only clockgen would let me go from 225->270 so I had to use BOTH! ARGHH! Hopefully both the timings stick and I can get more HTT loving straight from the BIOS. Wish I had more to report, I guess I was just busting to post again! There's no place like home.
oh yeah, don't set trcd or else board goes wack, leave at auto and change by A64 tweaker should u choose to do so.
Too bad about that... It is a SWEET looking HSF, but I was wondering about those caps. I may try and see if an xp-90 would work, where the 120 will not.Quote:
Originally Posted by JNav89GT
it's not an issue of the heatsink not clearing, it's the clips not being able to latch as the mount borders right on the caps and there is no room for the clips to go
Just checked the tracking number and my review sample come on the 25th I will et you all know what I initally get on air with the stock bios as it seems not all are limited to 220HTT.
~Bob
Well 300 at 1:1 seems to run ok except the onboard NIC is junk and wont run well even at 250. Oh well. Here's a screenie, enjoy all, board isn't bad for the price and hopefully chaintech bios will get a bit better. Overall, thumbs up chaintech for getting bios worked on. Too bad it didin't happen sooner b/c alot of boards would have been sold :O
I thought all the boards were sold. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by JNav89GT
Hey,
Just some general questions about this mobo.
Whats included in the bundle for cables and stuff? (How many,etc.)
And does it come with the rounded IDE cables?
And whats the onboard sound like on this, is it ok for gaming with 2.1 Speakers or Headphones.
Thanks!
erm no rounded cables. very basic one IDE cable and floppy cable. Maybe a SATA cable too. No manual printed, comes on CD, there is a sheet of paper or two to show you how to hook up mobo headers.
I dunno what I did, but last night my benches really started to take a performance hit. I'm loosing 200-300mb/sec in Sandra at same exact fsb and timings as before and my 3D scores are way off. I will clear cmos tonight and see if that helps :O
Ugh... messed the bios on a rig I'm selling. After this headache I decided to order a saviour and resume my care-free flash flash flash attitude in "4 to 5 business days."
I cleared bios and performance was same. I reinstalled vid card driver and all was better again :O. Dunno what I did, but I'm a pro at breaking stuff :).
Anyway, this is a good budget NF4 board. I applaud chaintech for putting out the beta bios to us. I wish it had come a bit sooner as this was first NF4 ultra board to come out, but floundered in performance b/c of bios limits etc.... Now it is solid, only fix required is the NIC gets wacky at High HTT speeds. Other than that great board!
Also, update!
I can run 3d totally stable with this setup for 24/7 looping 3dmark 2k1 or 2k3. This winchester was not stable on all but one MSI K8N Neo2(which died) at these speeds. I hope these NF4 cure some of the "my winchester memory controller sux" problems
more 300+ HTT 1:1 action with G.Skill LA kit :)
so when will the nic get fixed? or will it every get fixed.
on a related note, what sli boards have this feature. Im pretty sure the asus doesnt, and the gigabyte does, but have no clue about the dfi or msi.Quote:
Originally Posted by trans am
its an important deature to me cause i am sensitive to dust, and cant go into my case alot.
Hey,
So does the NIC only get screwed up when you try to overclock? Like would it be fine if no overclocking as I dont plan too?
And is there any fan that will fit right over the heatsink and bolt right on?
My board is running 270HTT with no NIC problems on orginal bios (clockgen). JNav is hitting higher so I dont know if thats it. I recently hosed the bios on my infinity so I am waiting for a BIOS savior before trying the beta on my main rig. Anyways, well first off no OC is boring :p, but you will surely not have NIC problems.
I have heard reports from some folks on other forums I browse (anandtech) that the NIC can go nuts above 250HTT, BUT I have been running mine at 300HTT for several days now without a problem... I HAVE added a fan to my chipset's heatsink tho, so if the NIC is run off of the chipset (and I think it is) then maybe they are overheating the chipset, and the NIC is the first place they see problems.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronin
Nice... so soon. And after some bad luck, I ordered a Bios saviour and am ready to join the party!
tHANKS JIM, HERE IT IS everyone! just click the link and then click download..
http://www.freefilestorage.net/view....21VN210126.zip
see above post. it's done! see if it works.
I'll give it a go tonight
Only problems I had with other beta was the nic
and also when cold booting sometimes it would default to oc safe mode, I would just need to enter bios and hit F10 to save/exit and was fine
So is this more alpha-ish than the last beta?.... just wondering because it's not on the chaintech site. Been a long time since I even flashed my BIOS in DOS. Those windows utilities worked well for me. Ah well, if I can do it to my VC's I can do it to my board.
I should give it a whirl too. I keep beating around the bush. I am back in NY now, so I should be able to play later, you know i still have to spend time with the lady, before jumping on motherboards. I want to spend time with her. It's been a while ;)
I also got some LA's to play with. will see if they are as good as jnav's
new bios broke the 1T/2T command option in bios, have to use A64 tweaker to set 1T
Otherwise the bios seems ok in the limited testing I have done so far. I am trying the onboard nic again and seems better, but can't say it's fixed yet.
YIKES! looks almost like a step backward. were you able to hit this htt clock before?
well it seems a bit more stable above 300HTT however, the 1T command is borked. The NIC still seems to need more work
Just received my VNF4 and SE6600 review samples I will finish up my current review work then this weekend I will start on the Chaintech reviews. Personally I am not to worried about onboard stuff never believed in its reliability and never used em so if I find the NIC flaking on me I'll just toss my 10/100 in there. My P4P800-D Onboard Sound and NIC are useless above 250Mhz too..
~Bob
Whos using the stock passive heatsink with this board and what are your temps like?
And is there any fan for cheap that will bolt right over the heatsink?
yeah, I have a 40 mm fan on mine. it's awesome. hook i up to a little zalman fan mate to control the whine. it is a very high rpm fan, but with a controller it's not bad at all/ definitely a must with this board. nf4 chipset is a bare core unlike nf3, if you look at it closely, it looks like a mobile chip.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronin
cool.... how's it staying on? or is a zalman fan mate have provisions for stuff like this?
i just used a rubber band under the clips and through thte fan holes. you could use zip ties also. It's works great.Quote:
Originally Posted by texuspete00
I took my heatsink off, removed the original plaste, replaced it with AS5, remounted it, and added a cheap fan that was the same size as the heatsink (I picked it up from Fry's for $10.00). I just used long machine screws to mount it, and "pinched" a couple of the vanes on the heatsink a little closer together to let the screws grip better -- worked like a charm! The chipset stays cool to the touch even at the 300HT I run!Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronin
By the way, there is someone on Ebay selling a VNF4 Ultra that he damaged while working on the chipset heatsink. He tried to remove the chipset heatsink with the board still in the case (It did not work too well that way), and knocked the tops off of 2 of the transistors (the are both detached on one side). The auction is at (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...ssPageName=WDVW), and the board LOOKS reparable to me (with a little careful soldering). But then again, I HAVE my board, so I am not looking to get another that I may or may not be able to fix. Has anyone here ever tried to repair transistors which were knocked off like this? Is this an easy to do thing, or is it one of those (more work than it is worth) type of things?
its not easy to solder, but its easy to repair with liquid silver ;)
id say give it a try... but you never know if those kicked of transistors are the only damage the board took... but hey, its worth a try!
If the price stays this low (currently $1.25) until the end, I may buy it myself, and give it a try.Quote:
Originally Posted by saaya
By the way, i think your sig is a very nice gesture. So many use thiers for rants/bragging, etc, but yours is just a nice simple tribute to those hurt by the tsunami. Very cool.
Does anyone know if something happened to the Chaintech_Eng here who was posting in this thread? As I am reading back through the thread, it appears that all of his posts have been deleted (you can still see where people were responding to him tho)? It is very odd.
On a side note, a user on another forum (anandtech) is having a problem with his voltages on this board, and I was wondering if anyone here has experienced a similar problem. His post is quoted below:
Now I DO seem to remember that when I was messing around with my voltages, the first couple of bumps to the CPU voltage did not seem to take affect, and then once I got to a certain point, it did a big jump, so maybe I have the same issue? Has anyone else out there seen this with thier board? I would test it myself now, but I am not at home with my system for another couple of hours.Quote:
I've been experimenting with my motherboard and whether I set the voltages in the bios or with ClockGen I can't seem to get ANY voltages between 1.45 and 1.6 V (exclusive). So my only voltage options that my motherboard can physically reach are 1.4, 1.45, 1.6, 1.65 (1.7? I haven't tested). Also, my CPU temps are VERY low consistently producing idle temps of 17-20 degrees Celsius on idle and 27-33 degrees Celsius on full load (Prime95) even when o/ced to 2300 at 1.6V.
That is really strange, I'll send him an email.
Please do. I tried to, but in his profile, the ability to email him is disabled also! I am starting to wonder what is going on there...Quote:
Originally Posted by trans am
I have his chaintech email address ;)
I was the one that MajorPayne was quoting. The problem seems to span across all of the bios versions available. As far as I can tell, the problem seems to even transcend the bios itself! I hope someone at Chaintech gets word of this issue, since so far everyone that I've talked to and asked to see if they have this problem actually does have this problem. Anyone know how to contact Chaintech tech support directly? I'm surprised someone hasn't noticed this issue earlier.Quote:
Originally Posted by MajorPayne
I got a response from Chaintech_Eng (Jim)
Hey Alvin,
The reason why I left the forums and deleted the posts I made is that as an employee, I need to follow a strict policy for giving out releases and leaks of information. This is under the rule which needs to be approved first before providing these to the public and as well for protecting both the company and end/power users. .
However I may participate in the forums outside of the company under a different name to post comments and may offer some helpful tips and future developments.
As for the problem, we had already informed HQ about this so we are anxiously waiting for thier next bios release to this board.
Jimmy
Ok got my review sample running but NVMonitor won't run it says not compatible with this BIOS, so what else can I use?
I was able use MBM5 but since they stopped updating it well...
~Bob
speed fan?
I know the settings for this board in MBM if you need them, but it sounds like you already have it working. Let me know if you do tho.Quote:
Originally Posted by khellandros66
The newest beta bios fixes this and runs fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by khellandros66
Ackbar, don't they have a new version of Ntune to download along with the new BIOS? I think you have to get them together, but I could be wrong, since I do not use Ntune anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ackbar
Yup, on the link to the new bios, they included a link to the new ntune you need to download to use. Works great.Quote:
Originally Posted by MajorPayne
Well I finished setting up the Chaintech review sample, man I must uv gotten Lucky with my 3500+ NC so far its capable of running 290x9=2.61GHz on stock cooling and volts, though Prime95 locks up the computer after 2hrs.
I did have to Flash the BIOS as well my maxs was 220Mhz FSB on the dot.
Anyways I will have images and more in my review once it is done.
~Bob
New bios yesterday
http://www.chaintechusa.com/tw/eng/D...No=4&PISNo=318
I think I'll be trying it out after work. LMK if any of you have tried it :)
Using it right now, don't notice any improvement in stability or otherwise. The voltage "error" still seems to exist. I can't tell that they did anything except allow the non-Ultras to use this bios.Quote:
Originally Posted by texuspete00
Well, I can't compare to the old betas as I didnt try them. But now my timings stick and I can clock through the bios finally. I guess it all worked out in the end. I am going to have to start a thread on my bios saviour issues as i kept getting unknown flash type error. Just flashed the regular chip anyways. :/
It's suppose to give you 2t 1t cmmd option and fix nic
trans am: did you ever hear back about the voltage problem? Thanks.Quote:
Originally Posted by trans am
No, but All is the latest one should fix nic and give you 1t/2t. are those issues fixed on yours?
Fortunately, I never had a problem with the NIC b/c I can't o/c past 2100 on my 3200+ Winchester. And I thought 1T/2T were options since the first beta bios.Quote:
Originally Posted by trans am
Howdy folks, finally joining the XS forums (something I should have done long ago) in the wake of my new system. Greetz to khellandros!
Here are the specs:
A64 Winchester 3500+
Chaintech VNF4 Ultra
2x256MB Mushkin LvL II PC3500 (BH-5 339WE)
OCZ PowerStream 520w
ATi Radeon X850XT-PE
...And it's all looking pretty good in my Tsunami. Anyway, the VNF4 was a little problematic at first, to say the least. Took a while to actually get it to boot, in the end finding that not only was my X-Connect dead, but that if the EMI shielded cables on the Ultra's replacement, a PowerStream 520w, are used, the system is rendered unbootable. Very odd.
I'm running 11x230 as we speak, and until I can get a replacement OCZ DDR Booster (Mine failed) or figure out a VDIMM mod for this board, I will not be able to increase the FSB any further with the mere 2.9v provided by BIOS.
I had the BH-5 I am using now in my old 2500+ Barton setup @ 275FSB CAS2 (@ 3.9v), thus why I have not moved to TCCD. Who knows what the ram is capable of on a different platform/chipset.
Thats it for now...I'll be back with pictures of my setup, screenshots, and some benchmarks. I'm aiming for 3GHz.
I have my chaintech with the new bios updated working smooth as butter. Have gotten the FSB to around 300 though, even with that passive heatsink on there. The new bios definately fixed the 220-225 liimit oc, which is nice now that clockgen isnt required for every restart. Overall I am happy that I got it and didnt sit around waiting for the MSI or the DFI.
Can't push it much farther than this without a major vDIMM increase...is there a way to enable memory dividers on this board?Quote:
Originally Posted by stelleg151
This is with Mushkin Redline
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...kinRedline.jpg
Hey there Tek nice to see familiar faces everywhere I go.
Nice rig you got running personally I am gonna hold out fot the R520 cards before I buy a new one myself.
~Bob
Hehe khellandros, great to see you here bro! Guess what I just ordered?
No, not a carton of BH5 adhered to a blow-up-bimbo so I can make love to it, guess again.
Yup! Corsair TWINX1024-4400C25...AnAndTech got this stuff to 318 1:1 with a mere 2.9v, I wonder where my RMA OCZ Booster will get me... :slobber:
Yeah i really need to snag up some TCCD before I miss the show...
~Bob
My settings are stable but if I boot from cold, my 265*10 goes into it's safe mode. I just have to go into the bios and just re-save and reboot. This is the third beta.
Review is done and up
Here is the link.
~Bob
I finally mustered up the courage and installed the OCZ DDR Booster on my VNF4 in slot four as the components on the booster take up the whole dimm slot next to it and here are my results so far:
3.2v: 250MHz 2-2-2-10 stable, pushing voltage to 3.4v and will raise memory clocks until I hit stability, wish my 339WE BH-5 luck!
An great review Khellandros! I thought it was well-written, and very fair. I agree that the "bang for the buck" quotient of this board is off the chart! I have NEVER had a "budget" board overclock this well.Quote:
Originally Posted by khellandros66
Anyone mod this thing for vcore? Seems steady but a tad low and max is 1.7v. :(
Well written review! :thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by khellandros66
I wish reviewers would look more into the fact that voltages between 1.45 and 1.6 (exclusive) are unachievable (selectable in the bios, but not functional)! Several people have this problem and I think it is a major failing point of this board. What's the point of having voltage options of 1.475, 1.5, 1.525, etc if they don't do anything?
I have same problem with G.Skill ram, but if I put in Geil(same chips and PCB) no safe mode problems.Quote:
Originally Posted by texuspete00
Also, problems running BP815 PCB TCCD modules similar to DFI board.
Yeah, just sits there no signal to monitor. Then after a few moments the bios' safe mode kicks it into life at 1.94GHz or so. If it wasnt for the little attansic chip on board I'd probably have to clear the cmos. :/
Most recent San Diego results:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...4ULTRA/023.jpg
Toledo OC:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...NF4ULTRA/2.jpg