Gigabyte k8NSNXP-939/K8NS Ultra-939 tips, tricks and guide thread

No, I didnt have a setup guide. I've been overclocking for so long I pretty much know what everything does at this point.

This thread has some good info about many of the timings.

More good info is in the A64Tweaker thread.

Some more observations,

HT: My neo2 didnt want anything to do with 5x HT above 200mhz. My giga ultra939 has no problem with 5x. (I always thought the neo2 needed a vht setting in its bios)

Prime95: My neo2 wasnt prime stable above default clocks, or with tight timings. (it wouldnt even boot @ 200mhz with trcd or trp @ 2)

This gigabyte is running my gskill le tccd @ 2/2/2/6/7/10/2/2/1/1 (212x13=2755). I just passed 12 hours of Large, in place FFT's with no errors.

Just tweaking around for a strong gaming system. Ill try to see what's left when I get a chance.

Some rave about the neo2. I guess I got a really bad one.

Thanks, I'm looking to get a stable fast, and affordable 939 system (I don't need PCI-E) to use with an Antec True Control 550W PSU in a Lian Li case. I guess this board has the 20 Pin ATX and 4 pin ATX connectors?

Roger that, the 20 pin atx and 4 pin 12v atx connectors are present. (pics on page 1 of this thread.)

The price of this board is great imo. It should fill your needs well.

Good luck.

Great! Thanks, is your vcore stable?

Vcore fluctuates slightly, but acceptably imo.

Im now priming large fft's at 2800mhz for the last hour. It would fail in under 8 minutes on my neo2. Ill see what happens, hope it passes 12 hrs.

This gigabyte appears to be stomping the crap outa' my neo2. You gotta love something that just works. lol.

edit: This gigabyte is running 2800 with 1.65v. My neo2 needed 1.75 to maintain 2.75ghz stable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lith1um

Vcore fluctuates slightly, but acceptably imo.

Im now priming large fft's at 2800mhz for the last hour. It would fail in under 8 minutes on my neo2. Ill see what happens, hope it passes 12 hrs.

This gigabyte appears to be stomping the crap outa' my neo2. You gotta love something that just works. lol.

edit: This gigabyte is running 2800 with 1.65v. My neo2 needed 1.75 to maintain 2.75ghz stable.

---

Excellent -- with your FX-55?

Yes, but it failed after 3 hours. Oh well.

still some tweaking to do.

I just bought a k8ns-939 with a 3000+
Is there anyway to force it to 1:1 ?
I set it to 200 as max but it still only does 166

Here is the highest I've gone yet, I could get more but I'm going to wait until I can get some better cooling.
http://img68.exs.cx/img68/7629/overclocked6vc.jpg

I'm using the F5 bios,
ram is running at 166 = 256mhz
cpu at 200 = 290
ldt x 3

ran prime95 for 6 hours until I shut it down... it peaked at 62°C !!
I only bumped the voltage up a few notches, I can't wait until I get some better ram and a REAL cooler instead of this stock pos!

This winnie is looking like a great overclocker!
http://img128.exs.cx/img128/4999/cpustepping1pl.jpg

Oh and by the way, I run it at 3500+ speeds for everyday use... It's fast enough for all my games.

hitek420,
what does it do at default voltage?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ArcTan

I just bought a k8ns-939 with a 3000+
Is there anyway to force it to 1:1 ?
I set it to 200 as max but it still only does 166

---

What bios are you running? Im running F5.

F6 broke the 200mhz setting for me.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hitek420

This winnie is looking like a great overclocker!
http://img128.exs.cx/img128/4999/cpustepping1pl.jpg

---

Mine is the same, except the last 3 digits.
Doesn't seem like a good oc'er though.
Can hardly pass 280, and need 1.525V, using WC.
Using F5 bios.
Something's holding me back, but haven't figured out what yet.

But hey, not every cpu clocks the same.
Nice oc, BTW.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lith1um

What bios are you running? Im running F5.

F6 broke the 200mhz setting for me.

---

is there F5/F6 bios for the non ultra board?
I just checked the australia gigabyte site and only had F2 which is what I flashed it to

Nope,
The non-ultra board has only bios F2.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jupiler

Nope,
The non-ultra board has only bios F2.

---

hmm that's what I though
oh well it isn't too much of a problem since I only have a 3000+
plus booster is working on this board so all's good so far

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard...AQ/FAQ_444.htm

Is it true that if i use 2x512 ddr400 double sided ram modules ,the board will recon it like ddr333?
I allready ordered 2 samsung modules so i hope i will not encounter such problem...

Anyone else with 2xdouble sided modules ???

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jupiler

I picked up a vanilla k8ns-939 today. The k8nsxp939 is to expensive and the k8ns ultra-939 wasn't even on their list. :stick: I wanted that one.
Will be installing it tomorrow and see how it performs vs my Neo2.

---

So there are 3 versions of this board?

the simple one, the ultra one and the XP ...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vadergr

the simple one, the ultra one and the XP ...

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Thanks, any comparisons <links> between the three models -- test of all 3 together? From reading these forums for a month now I am leaning toward getting a 939 Ultra.

Is anybody having problems with the temp sensors? If you are getting correct readings can you tell me what programs you are using!!

Thanks :)

Can someone tell me how to post images? I too (recently) built a K8NS and it's doing very well so I thought I should share.

I thought the protocol was [img][/img] but that didn't seem to work...

thanks

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by composer

Can someone tell me how to post images? I too (recently) built a K8NS and it's doing very well so I thought I should share.

I thought the protocol was [img][/img] but that didn't seem to work...

thanks

---

There's an option "Manage Attachments", located a little lower than the "Submit reply" button.
From there, you can upload pics from your HD (click "Browse">"Upload").

I am really close to buying this board also(the GA-K8NS 939 Ultra). Can anyone tell me, does it suppport Cool and Quiet? It doesn't show that in the manufacters specs. Also, I read where one guy couldn't get his firewire port to work. Has anyone tried it?

Thanks,
-Dman

i dont think it supports C&Q, that will kill your overclock anyways.

i dont have anything f/w related so i cant help you there, altho ive heard f/w-B doesnt work.

OK im new to the forums.

Just picked up this k8ns ultra 939 and a a64 3000. Have been using for a week and made a small list of my own pros and cons.

pros
koolance cpu-200g fits(if you go to site they say that it doesnt fit most a64 boards)
6 phase power scheme
motherboard layout is preety decent
silicon images sata raid(best most stable raid controller ive ever used)

cons
lacks x.5 ht settings
lacks the following memory settings that it works at
150/183(if us use a64 tweaker u can use these settings fine)
nvidia sata is right next to agp slot very hard to get at.(however in my case i always use silicon image sata controllers)

OK my sytem specs are as follows
gigabyte k8ns ultra 939
a64 3000
koolance 600 series case with cpu-200g
2x256mb mushkin black level 2 pc 3200(not the rev 2 crap either)
radeon 9800 pro( crappy r350 core and E die samsung mem with artic cooling cooler)
2 x 36 gig western digital raptors( i run in raid 0 always off the SIl raid)
antec 430 watt true power PSU
misc stuff cdrw-dvdr-cdr/floppy/dvdrw-cdrw-cdr.
p.s. I run WIN2K pro(XP sux imho but thats for another post)
that about covers it now on to my findings.

stage 1 inspect mobo out of box.
remove northbridge fan after verifying all componts are in tact and not loose
removed the stupid thermal pad off heatsink applied AS5 and reinstalled.
removed bracket area around cpu. applied AS5 to cpu installed waterblock(note the cpu-200g literally rests against the cpu fan header thats how tight a fit it is)

stage 2 playing around with bios
ran at default installed windows 2k sp4 installed drivers blah blah blah.
on to overclocking.

stage 3 overclocking
OK did exactly what i was told not to do first
and used bios's top performance option. You may wonder why i did this.
I wanted to see where my components stood on this board so i primed it for 8 hours like that.
now this told me 3 things my memory was capable of running 208 fsb at 2.6v
the cpu was capable of 1890 at default. but more importantly gigabyte overclocked the ht bus to 258x5 which means that gigabyte seems to think that 1040 is a safe range with no extra voltage.

my findings with further overclocking

v core unstable so i set it at 1.45 that seems the most stable setting.
fsb and ht like to be adjusted together in 30mhz intervals or cold boot issues occur. this is the pattern i found
200-230 with x5 230-260 with x4 260-290 with x3 290-319 with x2 any attempt to boot at 320 fsb was met with failure.

so once i learned the boards quirks i set out to see how high i could go on fsb
dropped ht to 2 dropped mem to 100 and cranked fsb to 319 was the highest fsb attainable.

290fsb 9x mutli 3xht 133 memory was the highest clock speed i could run which game me roughly 2.618 however it was not prime stable

the highest stable setting ive run at was 267x9x3xht giving me an average of 2403 mhz with 1.45 vcore. i use lower memory settings in bios and use a64 tweaker to adjust memory speed and timings.

At the time of this post i am now running at 2496mhz 277fsbx 9x with 3x ht and 208 fsb memory. in order to run past 2.4 gig i had to raise vcore from 1.45 to 1.55 and was dissapointed when while i was making this post prime 95 running a blend torture test crashed after 9 hours.

Thanks for the update -- any pics?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chew*

OK im new to the forums.

Just picked up this k8ns ultra 939 and a a64 3000. Have been using for a week and made a small list of my own pros and cons.

pros
koolance cpu-200g fits(if you go to site they say that it doesnt fit most a64 boards)
6 phase power scheme
motherboard layout is preety decent
silicon images sata raid(best most stable raid controller ive ever used)

cons
lacks x.5 ht settings
lacks the following memory settings that it works at
150/183(if us use a64 tweaker u can use these settings fine)
nvidia sata is right next to agp slot very hard to get at.(however in my case i always use silicon image sata controllers)

OK my sytem specs are as follows
gigabyte k8ns ultra 939
a64 3000
koolance 600 series case with cpu-200g
2x256mb mushkin black level 2 pc 3200(not the rev 2 crap either)
radeon 9800 pro( crappy r350 core and E die samsung mem with artic cooling cooler)
2 x 36 gig western digital raptors( i run in raid 0 always off the SIl raid)
antec 430 watt true power PSU
misc stuff cdrw-dvdr-cdr/floppy/dvdrw-cdrw-cdr.
p.s. I run WIN2K pro(XP sux imho but thats for another post)
that about covers it now on to my findings.

stage 1 inspect mobo out of box.
remove northbridge fan after verifying all componts are in tact and not loose
removed the stupid thermal pad off heatsink applied AS5 and reinstalled.
removed bracket area around cpu. applied AS5 to cpu installed waterblock(note the cpu-200g literally rests against the cpu fan header thats how tight a fit it is)

stage 2 playing around with bios
ran at default installed windows 2k sp4 installed drivers blah blah blah.
on to overclocking.

stage 3 overclocking
OK did exactly what i was told not to do first
and used bios's top performance option. You may wonder why i did this.
I wanted to see where my components stood on this board so i primed it for 8 hours like that.
now this told me 3 things my memory was capable of running 208 fsb at 2.6v
the cpu was capable of 1890 at default. but more importantly gigabyte overclocked the ht bus to 258x5 which means that gigabyte seems to think that 1040 is a safe range with no extra voltage.

my findings with further overclocking

v core unstable so i set it at 1.45 that seems the most stable setting.
fsb and ht like to be adjusted together in 30mhz intervals or cold boot issues occur. this is the pattern i found
200-230 with x5 230-260 with x4 260-290 with x3 290-319 with x2 any attempt to boot at 320 fsb was met with failure.

so once i learned the boards quirks i set out to see how high i could go on fsb
dropped ht to 2 dropped mem to 100 and cranked fsb to 319 was the highest fsb attainable.

290fsb 9x mutli 3xht 133 memory was the highest clock speed i could run which game me roughly 2.618 however it was not prime stable

the highest stable setting ive run at was 267x9x3xht giving me an average of 2403 mhz with 1.45 vcore. i use lower memory settings in bios and use a64 tweaker to adjust memory speed and timings.

At the time of this post i am now running at 2496mhz 277fsbx 9x with 3x ht and 208 fsb memory. in order to run past 2.4 gig i had to raise vcore from 1.45 to 1.55 and was dissapointed when while i was making this post prime 95 running a blend torture test crashed after 9 hours.

---

:toast:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chew*

OK im new to the forums.

Just picked up this k8ns ultra 939 and a a64 3000. Have been using for a week and made a small list of my own pros and cons.

pros
koolance cpu-200g fits(if you go to site they say that it doesnt fit most a64 boards)
6 phase power scheme.

---

Are you sure you have the right model? According to the Gigabyte web site only the GA-K8NSNXP-939 in the Nforce 3 line of motherboards have the 6 phase power scheme. It doesn't list it for GA-K8NS Ultra-939.

Was reading this at another website....

He is running a AMD64 300 at 2800 stable with DDR at 254mhz at 2-2-2-5-1t with a full 1gig of OCZ VX at 3.43v

My Board: 939 K8NS Ultra, AMD64 3200 10x276,

My questions:
How do I tweak the DDR?
As in A64 Tweak?

Also wondering, what do the following Bios settings do?

DDR Voltage Control, mine is [Normal], settings available are +.01, or +.02 volts
and what is:
MAX Memory Clock? mine is [Auto=200], options 100, 133, 166, 200.

I ask as I am at 10x277 (2.753) on a AMD 6432 and only at 38C idle temp and know I can do much better.

DDR is OCZ Plat. rev 2. 2.5-4-4-9-1T

My vCore (cpu) is 1.425

I think I can reach higher with a push to the vCore (cpu) and some sort of bios or AMD64 tweak.

Thanks again for the tips...

composer

ok open up a64 tweaker on the lower right side it shows memory clock frequency. It lists a bunch of them more importantly it lists some that can not be found in the gigabyte bios such as 133** 150 and 183. ive tested with these an they all work. basically what i do is say im using a 133 memory setting and at 277 fsb and 133 setting it gives me somewhere around 185 mhz ddr i bump the a64 tweaker to 150 and now check cpu z and it says memclock is now 208 ddr. basically i use this so as not to take a hit on memory. I've also emailed gigabyte and asked if they can revise the f5 bios and release a unsupported beta bios with only this alteration to the bios etc 150/183 memory settings. I doubt they will however if they don't ill take theyre bios apart my self and add it. Once tested i will release it to the public.

In answer to the first reply on the 6 phase power sheme yes the k8ns ultra 939 uses a 6 phase the only diff between the 2 boards is A. a revised newer nf3 chip and B. the lack of active mosfet cooling.

no pics at the moment im not done testing yet sauria once i find the max of this chip /board i will post pics of highest fsb possible highest clock possible and then followed by the max speed of bus and chip combined. I also might add i have done no volt mods to the board but have ordered a ocz ddr booster. My buddy had good luck with it and got this mushkin all the way up to 270 fsb.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chew*

ok open up a64 tweaker on the lower right side it shows memory clock frequency. It lists a bunch of them more importantly it lists some that can not be found in the gigabyte bios such as 133** 150 and 183. ive tested with these an they all work. basically what i do is say im using a 133 memory setting and at 277 fsb and 133 setting it gives me somewhere around 185 mhz ddr i bump the a64 tweaker to 150 and now check cpu z and it says memclock is now 208 ddr. basically i use this so as not to take a hit on memory. I've also emailed gigabyte and asked if they can revise the f5 bios and release a unsupported beta bios with only this alteration to the bios etc 150/183 memory settings. I doubt they will however if they don't ill take theyre bios apart my self and add it. Once tested i will release it to the public.

---

Thanks, will look into that...also, someone said I should install Multi hal instead of Uniprocessor. Any idea what that means? Benefits?

thanks

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chew*

no pics at the moment im not done testing yet sauria once i find the max of this chip /board i will post pics of highest fsb possible highest clock possible and then followed by the max speed of bus and chip combined. I also might add i have done no volt mods to the board but have ordered a ocz ddr booster. My buddy had good luck with it and got this mushkin all the way up to 270 fsb.

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Great, is that ram BH-5 single sided?

:banana:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sauria

Great, is that ram BH-5 single sided?

:banana:

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yes

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by composer

Thanks, will look into that...also, someone said I should install Multi hal instead of Uniprocessor. Any idea what that means? Benefits?

thanks

---

not sure ill look into it

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by vadergr

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard...AQ/FAQ_444.htm

Is it true that if i use 2x512 ddr400 double sided ram modules ,the board will recon it like ddr333?
I allready ordered 2 samsung modules so i hope i will not encounter such problem...

Anyone else with 2xdouble sided modules ???

---

Ever get an answer to this? :confused:

Im not sure i dont have double sided memory but i wonder how he determined that the board does not post what speed ur ddr runs at yet he says his board told him he was at ddr 333. If i had to guess he used either the eztune or nvidia utility which i found reported mem speed wrong. What i really find funny is the gigabyte reps response to the question and the link he provided.
http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard...q_amdguide.jpg

note that that is a socket 754 cpu not a 939.

Yes chew, i found that odd too -- have you run it with 4 DS DIMMS?

Nope. I think a friend of mine has some memory i can stick in though, maybe i'll get it this weekend and see.

If hes running dualsided that means hes using 1 gig. Thats bleh IMHO a true overclocker runs 2x256mb of singlesided and no more. Sometimes even one stick just for high clock purposes. Just my 2 cents its been proven that more memory isnt always better. 1 more fps in doom 3 for $150 dollars more worth of ram isnt worth it to me.

As for some pics heres a couple links to my new and old 3dmark 01 scores.

when i get my ddr booster and if i had a better yield 9800 pro i could score higher i clocked the 9800 pro at 400 core and 349 mem for these tests. however my old athlon xp 3200 score i think is default cant remember.

at 2520 mhz http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8396447

at 2300 mhz ( this is the speed i run at all the time )
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8403792

and then my old abit nf7-s /xp3200
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7681928

In other news i hit a wall at 2500mhz even at 1.7vcore it wont run prime 95 for 8 hours i always crash right around 7.5 hours lol

still cant complain though i told my friend id be happy with 3500 speeds and at 9x255 im at 2300 im using a 4 x HT which gives me roughly 1020 ht and my meory is set at 166 which gives me ddr209. once i get the ddr booster ill attempt to set memory to ddr 200 see how high it goes.

btw my mem timings are in this order if u use a64 tweaker 2/11/15/2/3/10/2/3/2/3

ill try running tighter timings once i get more volts

after a little more tweaking playing with mem timings and threatening my 9800 pro that it could be a paperweight just like my 5900se i managed to get this score.
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8403856
that puts me at second place compared to all systems at that speed with any OS installed

Great, I'd like to hear of anyone running DS RAM in all 4 slots.

I'm not really an overclocker, so if I don't overclock will I get the same performance and stability from the GA-K8NS 939 as I would from the GA-K8NS 939 Ultra? I was thinking about saveing the extra cash from the difference of the two boards and useing it toward a new video card.

-Dman

*update*

Tried changing the uniprocessor driver. *WARNING* If you are running raid do not change this driver your sytem will not boot up again and unless your good at hacking your windows you will be forced to reinstall.

2nd issue.
I discovered that the sata raid driver provided by gigabyte is junk. Using this driver will corrupt and or cause permanent damage to your hard drives. Use the silicon images driver provided by MS in they're auto update section. I have tested it and you lose minimal performance but gain maximum stability.

Example of issue with the gigabyte supplied driver. When running in raid 0 if you run sisoft tuneup wizard you will be given a BSOD right near the end of test.

I also experimented with some third party drivers for nf3. In games it would cause my game to freeze. I am now using a whql certified nvidia driver version 5.10. The driver i tested was a 7.xx series.

Will tackle the ram issue over the weekend with dualsided ddr dimms.

Great chew -- thanks for the useful info!

Dman,

Sounds like a good idea if you need a new vid card, the boards should perform equally.

There arent alot of differences. I think the main ones are lack of firewire and an active chipset heatsink. Im not sure if the 939 non ultra uses the nVidia firewall or not, but I dont think it does. The non ultra only has 2 sata ports.

I may not have this board much longer. I bought this cuz abit has had they're head up they're ass for the past few months now and via chipsets were not an option for me, however abit may save face with the fatality an8. No i'm not gonna buy the board cuz of the name but more for the quality of components used and features of board. However I'm waiting for reviews to see how it does compared to other nf4 boards. SLi is definitely out of the picture for me. When a single card can sometimes beat a dual card setup why go dual. Maybe when dual cores comeout it will improve but for now it's a no go with me. I must say my experience so far with gigabyte has been decent. I was really impressed when tech support answered my email in 2 days also. With asus i never got a reply 90% of the time, go asus.

I love my Abit nf7-s rev 2 boards -- stable quality. I wonder about the company financially!?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sauria

I love my Abit nf7-s rev 2 boards -- stable quality. I wonder about the company financially!?

---

I think financially they are fine. The problem was nvidia. Abit and nvidia had a falling out due to nvidia giving them crap nf2 chips at the start thus rev 2.0 nf7-s. If u remeber the first nf7-s boards had some small issues. abit wasnt happy about this. So abit was anti nvidia for awhile. Now i think they reconciled but also i think theyre boards are coming out late cuz abit basically told nvidia we dont want your chips till you get them right. instead of abit releasing rev 1.x then revision 2 the product the consumer receives may be bug free this way.I think this is one of abits new policies to quality control. This is why we didnt see a socket 754 till them as of late. Personally i'd like to see what abit can do with the radeon chipset but thats another thred. Sorry for hijacking this one sort of.

P.S. i love my abit nf7-s to 462 fsb sync on a board thats supposed to run at 400 stable gotta love that. http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcm04=110602

That's a great score -- what would you pick for the best video card for your k8ns ultra 939?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sauria

That's a great score -- what would you pick for the best video card for your k8ns ultra 939?

---

I'm using a ati 9800 pro. Think I hit 22k+ in 3dmark01. My scores are posted in an earlier post mind that i dont have the ultimate athlon im only stable up to 2300 mhz at 1.45 after that i need 1.6 to run at 2400 mhz and thats the highest stable clock speed i can get(thats watercooled on air i might fair worse). My vidcard isn't the overclockers dream 9800 pro either i got the crappy e die samsung/r350 core max stable 400 core 350 mem. Although the 6800gt might fair better I'm not about to shell out 400 for a card with pci express in my near future. My suggestion for someone buying a card due to the fact that they got like a 5200(poor sap)
is a 9800le and pray it has an r360 core and decent memory and either flash it to the gigacube bios or if it uses hynix memory flash it to a 9800xt.

Thanks would a 6600GT beat the 9800 Pro? :confused:

Id say it would be a toss up. halflife would go to the 9800 pro. Doom 3 to the 6600gt. Mainly would look like two cards real close to each other with no clear winner nvidia would win the usual stuff they do good in and radeon winning their usual tests. I would definitely not upgrade to a 6600 gt because its not much of an upgrade.

http://members.cox.net/wmdieselmc26/2300mhz.bmp

heres a pic i promised. This is highest stable speed at 1.45 vcore. Its a winnie yes a winner no. but still 500mhx over default im not crying.

ill follow up with highest clock possible into windows and highest bus possible when i get the chance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chew*

http://members.cox.net/wmdieselmc26/2300mhz.bmp

heres a pic i promised. This is highest stable speed at 1.45 vcore. Its a winnie yes a winner no. but still 500mhx over default im not crying.

ill follow up with highest clock possible into windows and highest bus possible when i get the chance.

---

Great, not bad for a 3000+ -- think TCCD would let it O/C more? I bet that Mushkin will fly on your next nf4 board!?

Any news on 4 DIMMS or DS DIMMS? Yours are SS?

Waiting to get in touch with my friend gonna borrow 2x512mb of kingston hyperX pc 3500. Heh not the greatest memory but it should at least verify the problem. Heres the other pics i promised. Highest speed into windows. As you can see 3dmark and super pi run fine but it crashes in prime immediately. http://members.cox.net/wmdieselmc26/2600mhz.bmp

Highest bus into windows at 2x ht i didnt bother with 1x seems pointless to have a max of 350 ht x1http://members.cox.net/wmdieselmc26/319mhzfsb.bmp

Thanks Chew -- I can't wait for your 2x512mb of kingston hyperX pc 3500 results!

yah should be interesting but not gonna be able to steal it tonight it seems.

btw for viewing fun of my past projects. nf2 home made water chilling. I hit 2750mhz on this rig when nforce first came out with a 2100xp.http://hometown.aol.com/wmdieselmc26...age/index.html

I'm working on a similar project now however gonna fix the original problems i had first etc moisture (death of my 8rda+) should be colder this time to using a bigger compressor.

cool

This is off the Si chipset?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chew*

*update*

Tried changing the uniprocessor driver. *WARNING* If you are running raid do not change this driver your sytem will not boot up again and unless your good at hacking your windows you will be forced to reinstall.

2nd issue.
I discovered that the sata raid driver provided by gigabyte is junk. Using this driver will corrupt and or cause permanent damage to your hard drives. Use the silicon images driver provided by MS in they're auto update section. I have tested it and you lose minimal performance but gain maximum stability.

Example of issue with the gigabyte supplied driver. When running in raid 0 if you run sisoft tuneup wizard you will be given a BSOD right near the end of test.

I also experimented with some third party drivers for nf3. In games it would cause my game to freeze. I am now using a whql certified nvidia driver version 5.10. The driver i tested was a 7.xx series.

Will tackle the ram issue over the weekend with dualsided ddr dimms.

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Yes but I also believe it had something to do with the gigabyte provided driver also now. However I havent had the guts to try it again.
Some interesting things I've discovered are this.
Whql driver for the sil chip is far better than gigabytes.
gigabytes nvidia chipset driver also has issues using the whql nvidia driver makes for a more stable OC.
The radeon 5.1 catylyst produces very unstable performance with the radeon 9800 pro on this board.(In some games vpu recover was engaging. I reflashed bios to stock believing that was the problem and got same issues at stock).
The 5.2 catylyst produces stable performance at the cost of performance.(3dmark score at 20,800)
Catylyst 4.12 seems to provide the most stable / best results on this board.
(score at same settings as the 5.2 catylyst 21,900)
I can confirm after severe testing with this board and mushkin pc3200 ddr lv2 running 2.8 volts ddr416 that these timings are 100% stable(refer to a64 tweaker for order of timings starting from top) 2-8-12-2-2-5-2-2-1-1-200mhz 3.9us.
Unfortunately my buddy is computer illterate and thought he had 1 gig of pc 3500 when in fact he only had 512 pc3200 so I havent been able to test the boards possible issue of 2x512 sticks of ddr 400 defaulting speed to ddr 333.
I can confirm though that this board will not run with 3 sticks of memory.
you have to use either 2 or 4.
Another problem I'm having is getting my bh5 chips to run stable above ddr416. I was 100% stable at ddr 462 with same memory in my nf7-s at 2.8 volts.

Thanks Chew! Does it pass memtest86?

Honestly i didn't try that. I will now however it passed a 3 days continuos of prime 95 blend torture test.

Ok, I've been reading about Winchesters having trouble with it or with Prime stability??

Ran memtest for 2 hours it looped 12 times pass 12 times 0 errors.
Also i made a mistake in above post but I will edit it now. My memory is running at 208mhz fsb/ddr416 not 204fsb/ddr408. The settings im using in bios now are cpu multi 9x fsb 250 ht multi 4x memory 166.

thanks, good to know with a winny 3000+?

yep same one in my pics. I'ts not a good one so i backed it off from 2300 which is stable at 1.45v down to 2250 at same 1.45v which allowed me to run somewhat tighter timings on memory. Also my ht is right at 250x4 1000htt at that speed i feel a little more comfortable running like that.
I also emailed support about a modded bios which would give x.5 multis and more memory dividers etc instead of 100/133/166/200.I asked for 100/133/150/166/183/200. They basically told me NO! I pm'ed tictac to see if he can work his magic with the k8ns ultra we shall see if he agrees. Guess I'm gonna be sticking with this awhile till I see how the an8 series of abit does against dfi. Plus i always wait for revision 2 at least before i buy. Prolly gonna buy a couple more cpu's also maybe ill get lucky and get a better one.

Great I just ordered this board and I am waiting to build it with a 3200+ -- looking for some bios setup screenshots for the f5 Bios.

I got one on the way to play with to! That and an 3200+ retail as well :) Gonna find out what that fancy looking phase circuitry is made of :D

Great jethro, let's make 'em fly!

well my camera sux for bios pics so i cant help ya there i can tell ya this.
find the max of chip first.

Before you crank the fsb set it to 201 first.
Make sure agp fast writes are off
Make sure cpu thermal throttling is off.
when upping bus 200-230 then drop ht and use this formula as u go higher up 30 mhz fsb down ht by 1

If i were you id run memory at 100 and ht at 2 and just crank your fsb to find max stable of chip then go from there.

In most cases you can go preety high with default or 1.45 volts. When you hit a wall in most cases youll have to bump voltage up quite a bit after that.
thats just the way these a64's seem to behave.

edit bios screenies its a k8nsxp but the bios is the same :)
http://www.hothardware.com/viewartic...leid=574&cid=3
unfortunately they dont show the ctrl f1 memory adjustment screen :(

P.S. before you install board you might wanna remove the chipset heatsink and take the crap thermal pad off and apply some as5.

im going to buy this board... the ultra 939...

abit av8 has some serious flippin problems thats all i want to say

http://www.hardwarezone.com/guides/a...ndex.php?pg=22

Thanks Chew -- found this for a guide also -- it's the older DPS version of the board but uses the same BIOS.

This may be due to the memory controller on your 3000+ not the board. Are you runnning BIOS F5? What is your most stable nforce / RAID driver combo on the Sil? A new NF4 board has to wait awhile for me.

Thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chew*

Yes but I also believe it had something to do with the gigabyte provided driver also now. However I havent had the guts to try it again.
...
Another problem I'm having is getting my bh5 chips to run stable above ddr416. I was 100% stable at ddr 462 with same memory in my nf7-s at 2.8 volts.

---

:confused:

Well ill have to look up the drivers but i dled them in a windows update if you use those you should be good to go mind the fact that i use win2k.

In other news it seems my cpu or maybe board is starting to cooperate more.
I'm at 2500mhz 277x9 memory at 133(changed with a64 tweaker to 150* gives me 208) ht at 3x cpu vcore 1.6

Right now I'm priming so im not sure if she's 100% stable yet after priming tonight into early tommorw morning then running mem test I'll know if I'm stable. However so far ive run 3dmark 01 and 03 without a hitch I might run 05 but i always feel sorry for my card when i run that i can just hear it screaming NOOOOO!! also ran pcmark 01 and 04 and super pi. Hit 34secs in pi
8400ish on cpu in pc mark and 11000ish in mem. heres a link to 3d01 and pc04 scores when i do an exact comparison with all OS's I'm # 1.

pc04 http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcm04=2817095

3d01 http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8425329

I always crash immediately at 2.6gig with 1.6v but im starting to wonder if the board dont like being run at 290 fsb i think im gonna drop cpu multi and run again at same bus see what happens. I shoulda bought a 3200 for the 10 mutli. :(

yes bios is f5
sil driver version is 1.0.0.51(note this is win 2k)
not sure what driver MS installed for nvidia.

Thanks, Chew. so no nvidia HD driver? W2K SP4 CD you have?

Great scores. I have a Winchester 3200+ on the way with the new board.

I really want to see the screenshots from CTRL-F1 screens.
Good to hear that your board is starting to scream!

Yah I've never used nvidia raid as long as they have made it in fact that was one reason i bought this board was to use the sil raid i have nv raid disabled in bios as do i have nv/lan disabled also.

I use win2k sp4 yes i hate xp. alot easier to tweak 2k IMHO.

Only way i know how to take a bios screenie is with a decent camera. Mine costs like $17.00 = junk

I just ran a few lines of prime to see if board didnt like 290 fsb and it was fine so its cpu holding me back.

I really have to get my chiller up and running again :/ breaking a 100f with this koolance system at 1.6vcore :(

Ok, man -- you getting a 3200+?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sauria

Ok, man -- you getting a 3200+?

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yah when i get some more cash i think ill get a 3200 also. Imma need another cpu anyway when i go for the an8 or dfi board.

did some more low level tweaks running at 2250 now cuz i have a twl match in about 20 min can't afford to bsod during that. Managed to sqeeze a bit more out of my system for this score.
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8425553 That puts me in 3rd against a exact comparison with all OS's. Hehe i still havent clocked the card cept for the bios mod which raises gpu and mem voltages and clock to 400core/350mem. Only need 200 more points and this card can go higher.

Great, I wonder of you can dlownload that Sil3512 WHQL certified driver from the MS site. I can't find it yet.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sauria

Great, I wonder of you can dlownload that Sil3512 WHQL certified driver from the MS site. I can't find it yet.

---

I dled it in a windows update so prolly.

I managed to beat(actually anhilate) the top guy btw maybe we can have a friendly challenge between us k8ns ultra users

here it is http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8425646

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chew*

I dled it in a windows update so prolly.

I managed to beat(actually anhilate) the top guy btw maybe we can have a friendly challenge between us k8ns ultra users

here it is http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8425646

---

Go after this guy!
Score: 43710 OPPAINTER,,DFI NF-4,, **Xtremesystems.org 3DTeam**
;)

Hehe. If I only had the money to buy the equipment i would.

Yep, get that chiller running! Who is challanging us Giga users?

We can take on the msi guys. :P

Yes, I bit the bullet too and ordered an FX-55

OMG all those multis :slobber:

heres a goal for you to reach once your stuff arrives. being that our hardware is almost identical you should have no problem.
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8425940
thats my max for now till i find a way to run this ram in sync and or get a better cpu and memory.

Ok, so you aren't running that BH-5 1:1? We'll see when the FX-55 gets here -- it showed in stock when I ordered from ZZF now it's still processing and everything else shipped. I will have a 3200+ this week.

Nah the max ive run the ram at is 217 but at 208 i can run tighter timings which nets better results. I'm afraid to voltmod and fry the cpu so I'll prolly buy some crucial ballistix ddr 500 for this. I planned on building a new system soon anyway case watercooling the works and since this is in an outdated koolance rig im just gonna leave this pc alone the cept for the hds and mem buy another hd for it and some memory and build another and retire my socket 462 rig.

Ok, makes a nice stable rig though I bet?

chew, have you even tried the sata ports near the video card (nforce3?) -- this a post earlier (Mucho) in the thread says that they are locked -- are yours on the Sil -- locked too?

I never tried the nvidia ones but i use the sil at 250 fsb all day long and ive had no problems running at 319 fsb on it.

Ok, great! I'm downloading drivers to make a setup CD and waiting for my new board

Dual channel means putting the RAM in like colored slots? Is one set better for ram speed?

I use the first 2. seems to work fine. i tried a single stick in every diff slot seeing if i could get a stick to 250 fsb but no luck maybe your tccd will do better than my mushkin.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sauria

Great, I wonder of you can dlownload that Sil3512 WHQL certified driver from the MS site. I can't find it yet.

---

Come to think of it i belive they used the sil 3112 chip on this board maybe thats why you couldnt find it on MS's site. Make sure you put the sil drivers on floppy from the giga CD before you tear your old sytem down. It tells you which ones youll need in manual. You can update the driver as soon as windows is done installing.

EDIT: NM i just looked in my hardware it says 5512.

Yes, its a 3512A. Thanks, I find drivers from Gigabyte's site and the SIL site -- you said the Gigabyte CD version is unstable?

"I discovered that the sata raid driver provided by gigabyte is junk. Using this driver will corrupt and or cause permanent damage to your hard drives. Use the silicon images driver provided by MS in they're auto update section. I have tested it and you lose minimal performance but gain maximum stability.

Example of issue with the gigabyte supplied driver. When running in raid 0 if you run sisoft tuneup wizard you will be given a BSOD right near the end of test.

I also experimented with some third party drivers for nf3. In games it would cause my game to freeze. I am now using a whql certified nvidia driver version 5.10. The driver i tested was a 7.xx series."

I got this 3X12 SATA driver from the Sil Website:
Driver 9/21/2004 136 KB SiI3x12A: Serial ATA (SATA) Windows RAID Driver - Released Version 10051 passed logod (WHQL certified then?)

This is the 10051 version that you have running stable with 2 x 36G Raptors? :confused:

yah thats the driver im using now 10051

got mine up and running. so far very nice! breaking it in at 250 1:1 now :toast:

Sweet wish my memory would run 1:1 :slobber:

260 1:1 now !!

what kinda memory is that jethro and whats volts timings? is it tccd?

patriot xbl 3200+ tccd im running 277 1:1 right now!!! :slobber:

holy jeepers this board is fast!@ max voltage in bios is +2 i can get +3 with gigabytes clockin tool but ive not really messed with it. what a kewl board out of the box tho not bad. i need to download the a64 tweaker me thinks :)