ultimate S939 mainboard guide - tweaking guide ,known bugs, and fixes

[ant1]

hey, I have a sucky result too from this gigabyte

30 sec superpi (will post piccy when my bench machine is back up and running), and a measly 43.38 sec pifast ..... all air cooled

Is that Bh5? 2x256?

[CodeRed]

Is that Bh5? 2x256?

yeah 2x256 BH5 @ 3.60V

the giga board can really push the mem once you do the 3.3V bypass mod (or use a booster). My only beef with this board is the lack of high Vcore ... limited to around 1.95V before it goes bang (or so Ive heard ... since I aint going to try and find out )


EDIT : wrong Vdimm voltage

[misteroadster]

hey, I have a sucky result too from this gigabyte

30 sec superpi (will post piccy when my bench machine is back up and running), and a measly 43.38 sec pifast ..... all air cooled

Héhé good sucking dude

[misteroadster]

yeah 2x256 BH5 @ 3.60V

the giga board can really push the mem once you do the 3.3V bypass mod (or use a booster). My only beef with this board is the lack of high Vcore ... limited to around 1.95V before it goes bang (or so Ive heard ... since I aint going to try and find out )


EDIT : wrong Vdimm voltage

I think this problem of vcore is due to wrong Vmod , i found it but i'm not Hipro or others , when i connect the mod i hear the M/B screaming.
Somebody electro qualified can Look at this motherboard ??

[tictac]

I wonder where ABIT hide their nForce3 board? anybody know?

I'm waiting for that board....

[PowerK]

I wonder where ABIT hide their nForce3 board? anybody know?

I'm waiting for that board....

Abit says no to Nforce 3 250

[misteroadster]

I wonder where ABIT hide their nForce3 board? anybody know?

I'm waiting for that board....

Abit is not that Abit was
they loves Via now , and O.wu isn't there.They ll probably come back with nf4 , we ll see......

[CodeRed]

I think this problem of vcore is due to wrong Vmod , i found it but i'm not Hipro or others , when i connect the mod i hear the M/B screaming.
Somebody electro qualified can Look at this motherboard ??

I am an electrical engineer

I shouldve had a poke around before installing the prom and covering everything in seal string ... instead I just did the standard mod and crossed my fingers. Solving the Vcore fluctuation under load would make this the No 1 mobo (arguably).

[misteroadster]

yes , but without mod there is always the 0,1v increase , apprently it's normal on NF3250's Mobos.
I tried the m/b without cpu , and with these vmod , the M/B shutdown just after the power on.
I measure the voltage on the two ISL and it was the same without vmod , i wanted to connect their pins +VR but at the last moment i give up the try.
There is no reason this m/b can't accept more than 2V , K8N 754 accept.
The problem is those 2 ISL , i think when you do the vmod , and pull vcore at more than 1,9v , a potential difference between them is causing the death of the board.

Good luck codered , i'm with you

[The Runner]

Abit are pretty poor now, certainly going for gimmicks over good clocking boards. DFI is what Abit used to be, its good DFI has a good rma service considering how iffy their boards can be.

Bravo to them though, very good customer service, great company.

[Mongoose420]

here's the ePOS lol 100% unmodded fastest 1T ect.

[HKPolice]

So I guess overall, the MSI is the winner if you can get around the quirks. The asus is in 2nd if you don't need more than 3.15vdimm, and Gigabyte is third?

[misteroadster]

for me the gigabyte is first.
I know some guys happy with it .
All the gigabyte are the same , and works very very fine with some rams , tights timings , totally rockstable.
The only problem is past 2Vcore , but i'm not sure A64 needs them.
As you could see i ran it with 4X512Mo w/o problem in 2T about 230mhz
" " " 2X512Mo " " " 1T about 250 mhz
2x256 278 mhz 2 2 2 2 31s@2577mhz.
I never seen the MSI do the same and Totally stable.
Somebody can do those tests ?

[Mongoose420]

more eye candy from a crappy epox and a ty newcastle. thats all air, 100% unmodded no tricks ect. Gonna hook up the A/C and drop ambients down tonite and go for 245+x11 1:1. vdimm mod supplies ordered, should be here wed. also my ddr booster should be here wed. also.

[DCR]

If you read the linked article that Abit says no to Nforce 3...you may have noticed this at the top:

* CORRECTION Abit said that it is committed to using the Nforce 3 250, despite what the article says below. The misunderstanding appears to have arisen because people in the factory do not know Abit's roadmap, the head office in Taiwan said today. Apologies to Abit and to readers. 11 June 2004. Ed.

[mike.elmes]

Which MSI mobo of the 3 available is doing the highest FSB?

MSI K8T Neo2-F VIA K8T800Pro w/ GB LAN, Audio
MSI K8T Neo2-FIR VIA K8T800Pro w/ GB LAN, IEEE 1394, SATA RAID more
MSI K8T Neo2 Platinum VIA K8T800Pro
These are the 3 939's I was thinking go with the raid but is there raid on the pro?

[mdzcpa]

Which MSI mobo of the 3 available is doing the highest FSB?

MSI K8T Neo2-F VIA K8T800Pro w/ GB LAN, Audio
MSI K8T Neo2-FIR VIA K8T800Pro w/ GB LAN, IEEE 1394, SATA RAID more
MSI K8T Neo2 Platinum VIA K8T800Pro
These are the 3 939's I was thinking go with the raid but is there raid on the pro?

Ahhhhh....stop. Put down that motherboard list and back away quickly!!

Seriously, stay far far away from the K8T NEO2 boards. The locks do not work...period. I went through 3 of these damn boards before I realized that the locks simply do not exist at all. Go over to the MSI forums and confirm this. If you are looking for a higher HTT stay away from the K8T NEO2.

[mike.elmes]

Thanx Mike!!

What board(939) Plays well with OCZ 3700 eb (2x512) and gets the highest FSB?? Asus? I am doin an FX-55 under my prom mach1.soon as the fx can be found. I am just really unsure about the board, seems to be a tough call until NF4 arrives.
Which board has a working PCI/AGP lock?
tia
mike

[mdzcpa]

In order of choice:

MSI K8N NEO2 (NF3) - a bit quirky, but a great stable overclocker. sata ports 1/2 do not lock, but 3/4 do. manually set agp to 67mhz to lock the bus, leaving it at 66 does not lock. temp reporting is goofy. All that said, I have had 2 of these mobos OC great (280 to 300 htt) and play nice with a variety of mem including the eb.

Gigabyte NF3 - Nice board but bloated with waaay too much $hit and is waaaay overpriced. Can hit higher HTT and plays nice with many rams.

Asus A8V rev 2 non wi fi - stay away from early revs with hit n miss locks. VIA chipset doesn't like the locks is the problem. The rev 2 with working locks is a nice mobo.

All the others have more quirks than they are worth. I'd stick with an NF3 mobo if working locks is paramount for higher htt speeds. Since your going to NF4 in the future, the cheaper MSI K8N would be a cheaper way to play with an interim mobo.

This, of course, is all my own personal 2 cents

[saaya]

hey, i made this thread as sticky to collect reports about problems and bugs people have with their 939 boards and possible fixes they have found for those bugs

[saaya]

i made this list in the first post of this thread. please report bugs and problems you had with your 939 board and i will add it to the list. or let me know if the lastest bios fixed a problem for you, or you found another solution for a problem one of the boards is supposed to have. thx

MSI Neo2 nforce3
cpu socket position problematic for some small cases
2 of the SATA ports 1 and 2 are not locked
issues with ram slots 3&4 not working very well
lock doesnt work set the agp speed to 67mhz to lock it
stable vcore up to 1.9v
vdimm overvolts to 2.9v on highest setting

has problems with 512mb sticks of bh5 latest bios fixes this problem
has problems with 512mb sticks of ocz eb latest bios fixes this problem
runs great with ballistix
runs great with tccd memory



Gigabyte K8NSXP-939 nforce3
max vdimm is 2.7v
max vcore is 1.7v
max vcore after a mod is 1.95v
bad vcore, unstable and fluctuates up to 1.95v under load
coldboot problems with high HTT
always detects ide drives at bootup, cant disable this setting

runs great with bh5
runs great with ch5
runs great with samsung tccc


Asus A8V via k8t800pro
needs a vtt mod for high vdimm
OVP on VDimm above 3.15v, needs an extra mod
needs a vtt mod for high vdimm

stable and high vcore up to 1.85v
good pcb layout
runs great with bh5
runs great with ocz eb

Abit AV8 nforce3


Epox S939 nforce3

[CodeRed]

Well I like the socket orientation on the Neo2. Its perfect for prommy users with vertically mounted motherboards as it allows the evap to completely fill up and operate properly. Normal A64 boards have the prommmy evap mounted sideways which results in the evap only partially filling with refrigerant. This hurts temps as the prom works best with a fully flooded evap.

This pic trys to explain it:


Some other bits and pieces I noticed after using both the MSI and giga boards:

Giga board blows up if you use to much Vcore. This seems to be resulting from a cold boot at high Vcore (>1.8V measured at idle). I managed to set mine on fire, thats DPS gold is only good for fanning the flames. Maybe the solution is to never cold boot at high Vcore?

MSI board gets slightly lower mem clocks than the giga. About 6MHz lower from my KHX sticks @ 3.6V. But makes up for this with very strong Vcore regulation ... much higher CPU clocks at high Vcore.

If you cant get the MSI board to start with BH5 on your first boot, then stick in some cheap PC2700 mem (it should boot), set the Vdimm to max, then try again with your BH5. I found that either of my KHX sticks would not run @ 200 Mhz using 2.5V and stock BIOS timings. Raising the Vdimm made it work. Hopefully the newer BIOSes fix this, but this doesnt help on your very first boot vefore you get the chance to flash

The caps on the MSI board are easy to bend or break .. be careful.

CPU backplate is hard to get off on the MSI ... just heat it with a hair dryer, it will come off easily then.

for best performance the giga board needs Vcore and Vdimm/3.3V bypass mod (or the OCZ booster). MSI only needs Vdimm/3.3V bypass mod (or the OCZ booster). Yet to try a chipset mod or HTT mod on the MSI ... it may help with LDT 4x @ > 260 HTT bus speeds.

Both boards track Vref to 1/2 x Vdimm.

MSI CPU temp readings are from another planet. Min temp readout seems to be +40 deg C even if you are on phase change ... just ignore it. Giga temp reading is much better.

giga board has a better BIOS IMO ... more options for mem tweaking, but this isnt really necessary as they can be set from windows anyway.

Overall the MSi board worked better for me, but your individual mileage may vary. If you aint using high Vcore (air or water) then the giga would be best, but for phase change users the MSI is better IMO.

[PowerK]

FWIW, I'm having a hard time running Mushkin BH-6 at 2-2-2-5 @ 200MHz on A8V Rev2. It just won't be stable with tRCD at 2, forcing me to run at 2-3-2-5. I've tried vdimm upto 2.8V. (no vdimm modification).

[Rauf]

some info on the:

Abit AV8
AGP-lock working
stable Vcore up to 1.85v
vdimm overvolts to 2.85v on highest setting, OCZ Booster working
use slot 1&2 for BH-5, 3&4 for TCCD.
BH-5 doesn't work well at all, no matter what voltage
runs great with tccd memory
CPU-temp readings way off

[saaya]

ok, i added a lot to the lists thx a lot everybody!

rauf, charlie had good results with bh5 on his av8, are you sure the latest bios doesnt work with bh5? did you use 512mb bh5 sticks? what revision was your board?