*****Official***** DFI NF4 ultra-D first look

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Originally Posted by D_o_S

Are you trying to insall OC'ed? Try to take the clocks back to their nominal values.

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I have tried a lot of thing and yes I have reverted to stock clocks for this one, although x64 seem to install without any problems on my solid overclocked system. Only I cannot install anything else!!!

remove one stick of mem, try a different optical drive, try different CDs... theres still a few things that I would do before I could decisively say that my mobo was the unlikely culprit.

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Originally Posted by Anakin_Skywalke

Hey guys it seems that my trouble would never end with this board. Now I can only seem to install win x64 and NOTHING else, tried w2k, sp1, sp2, nada, zip, zero. This of course happens when I try to install with my raptor on sata1. I only see the "setup is preparting etc" and then no go.

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I know with my NF3 based board i need 2000 SP4 to run the SATA controller in the chipset. I never tried the other SATA controller but i'll asume it has the same issue. What i ended up doing was building an extra 2000SP2 OS on a OLD 2gb EIDE drive that's only for 3Dmark2001.

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Originally Posted by psycho303

thats what i hope too, mine is A00 as well, do you plan to let run mem on high voltage ? i already post some pages before that one of my BH5 died at 3.4v. hope it was my fault and not the mobo. if you can, please check high voltages on your A00 rev. i'll check my VX when they come from RMA.
must send my mushkins soon for RMA, somebody have experience with their service ?

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Of course I do :D Both BH-5 and VX on stock for me and I plan using at least 3.6v on each of them :devil:

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Originally Posted by mrlobber

Good. I guess, further questions can now be delayed until the overclocking and stability of the board has been tested. Let's really hope it will be the same as R.A01 or R.A02 boards :toast:

Btw obviously, as always, EU gets more of the trash than the U.S.

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:D BTW - not even got trash - got nothing till yet............. :toast:

BTW I thought the NF4 chipset was supposed to have NCQ? Does the DFI have that? I just bought a drive with NCQ so that would be cool.

btw does the 74gig raptor support NCQ? I think the newegg specs say it does.

Finally my problems were solved with quite a... peculiar way. Enabled RAID in BIOS and let the pc think that I run the hdd in raid.. voila, it's working and I installed xp sp1... I've spend a whole day in trying to understand what was wrong...

and btw the 74G raptor does not support ncq

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Originally Posted by Anakin_Skywalke

and btw the 74G raptor does not support ncq

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but it does support tcq

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Originally Posted by goddh0r

but it does support tcq

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Yes, but TCQ and NCQ are not the same. You need a different controller for TCQ.

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Originally Posted by situman

btw does the 74gig raptor support NCQ? I think the newegg specs say it does.

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Raptors support TCQ, Tag command Queuing. But beware it is not very effective at times and can use lot's of cpu cycle to run.

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Originally Posted by LikwidKool

BTW I thought the NF4 chipset was supposed to have NCQ? Does the DFI have that? I just bought a drive with NCQ so that would be cool.

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nf4 support full set of SATA II specifications, including burst transfer rate of 300 mb/s and ncq.

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Originally Posted by D_o_S

You need a different controller for TCQ.

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Will run under windows, Drive properties activate TCQ or not. But read above about draw backs of TCQ.

But sata300 drives are not out yet, so still looking at 150 for now. maybe later this year. :)

My board is arriving tonight and I've not yet dealt with another motherboard with as many BIOS options as this has. Does anyone have a good recommendation on where to find detailed info on all the options this board has and, if possible, recommendations on the settings?

For instance, I'm going to be running Brainpower TCCD and assume I'll end up around 2/3/3/7/1T, but there's quite a few other memory settings in the BIOS also which I wouldn't know how to set.

I'm trying to get my BIOS layout prepared in advance as much as possible to get things going right away when I get home from work.

What are the steps to do a windows XP safe install? all updated, maybe:

- Install windwos xp sp2
- Install mobo drivers, graphic card drivers, mroe drivers..
- Install antivirus (norton) and firewall (zonealarm).
- Config Internet connection drivers related
- Windows update
- Install programs, tweak xp, and security copy..

Am I missing something important?

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Originally Posted by xgman

But sata300 drives are not out yet, so still looking at 150 for now. maybe later this year. :)

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These should be hitting the market fairly soon - I HOPE! Dunno' if they have NCQ or if that is default in SATA II?

300Gb Sata II http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/sit...a0466460e4f0a0

250Gb and 160Gb Sata II
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/t7k250/t7k250.htm

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Originally Posted by xavicl

What are the steps to do a windows XP safe install? all updated, maybe:

- Install windwos xp sp2
- Install mobo drivers, graphic card drivers, mroe drivers..
- Install antivirus (norton) and firewall (zonealarm).
- Config Internet connection drivers related
- Windows update
- Install programs, tweak xp, and security copy..

Am I missing something important?

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I think everything is good but ditch the Norton and ZA and go for BitDefender he does everything and really it's a good AV/FW antiSPAM program, he finds more virus than my NAV2k4 or if you like ZA go for NOD32 for AV

Ok thx for your suggestion, i'll give it a try.

which options do you use for flashing bios? only awdflash xxxx.bin or do you use any other options?

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Originally Posted by RAINFIRE

These should be hitting the market fairly soon - I HOPE! Dunno' if they have NCQ or if that is default in SATA II?

300Gb Sata II http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/sit...a0466460e4f0a0

250Gb and 160Gb Sata II
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/t7k250/t7k250.htm

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Nice specs. They say still 2-3 months off.

Maybe I am wrong, but these harddrives doesnt spin fast enough to take advantage of the SATAII. Its like a 4 lane highway with one car.

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Originally Posted by situman

Maybe I am wrong, but these harddrives doesnt spin fast enough to take advantage of the SATAII. Its like a 4 lane highway with one car.

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Indeed. Surely it's not a substitute for 10K rpm, though the performance increase it gives to 7.2K drives is noticeable.

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Originally Posted by mrlobber

Of course I do :D Both BH-5 and VX on stock for me and I plan using at least 3.6v on each of them :devil:

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ok, gimme a msg when its running :toast:

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Originally Posted by xavicl

What are the steps to do a windows XP safe install? all updated, maybe:

- Install windwos xp sp2
- Install mobo drivers, graphic card drivers, mroe drivers..
- Install antivirus (norton) and firewall (zonealarm).
- Config Internet connection drivers related
- Windows update
- Install programs, tweak xp, and security copy..

Am I missing something important?

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Me:
Windows XP SP2
Install the motherboard drivers, install graphics drivers (find out I forgot to plug in the molex, on my vid card lol)
Install AVG Free Edition (I know I'm cheap, but hey it works better than Norton in my opinon)
SpyBot Search and Destory
Connections
D2OL
Windows Update
Everything over the next...who knows how long

Then I get everything tweaked and start running 3Dmark 0x, SuperPi, Sandra, etc.

jjcom

:D Nice talk here - there's coming one more question up to my mind - the boards I purchased before all were equipped with a driver disk so that there was no problem installing XP older version (contain no SATA driver).

Does the DFI NF4 also comes with a driver disk or do I have to create one by my own using the DFI drivers?

:toast: