ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 First Look

[situman]

my psu has a rheostat. I can turn tat to up the volts. The cap mod is only on the mobo right? I need to reallylook up these mod terms. Dont really understand them yet.

[chew*]

Ok in simple terms a cap mod is this.
you solder to the back of the boards atx connector on the 3.3 v line. the other solder point is a capacitor near the ddr dimms you solder to the back of one of the caps pins sticking out the back of mobo. Obviously you have to test for voltages before doing this and locate the proper cap. etc boot up at 2.6 ddr measure voltage at caps find 2.6 v. shut down reboot change to 2.8 remeasure voltage at cap where you found 2.6v see if its 2.8 v. In my case I solder one wire to each and install a switch in this way i can shut the mod off in case i run into a problem and want to eliminate my mod as a possible issue.

http://pageperso.aol.fr/misteroadster/caps+mod.JPG
this is a direct cap mod no switch combined with this
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=37574

alamodded3.3linevoltmod

[situman]

i like the wire on the back of the board better.

[tictac]

yeah i did that DDR volt mod on NF7s as well plus VTT = vref mod

http://69.93.183.37/802/26/upload/p205544.jpg

here is my logo....

[tictac]

wohooo... new bios update AVAILABLE

Version 12
1. Update RAID ROM to v4.81.
2. The CPU Multiplier function now works as intended.
3. Fix the issue that BIOS may hang at ABIT EQ voltage monitoring section if DDR voltage is set to 2.80V.

Download Link
http://file.abit.com.tw/pub/download/bios/an8/an812.exe
ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/download/bios/an8/an812.exe

[Gitsum]

sweet. Thanks tictac.
When will we see your modded version with that nice lookin boot screen?

[situman]

i hope hte vtt tracks past 2.8. its a pain to adjust both the vdimm and vtt and measure and crap like that.

[chew*]

We shall soon see. My board is in at my local computer store and for $180. I'ts great when you spend thousands of dollars and the owner hooks you up with decent prices. Now the big decision go to the store to pick it up or wait till the show on sunday that he will be at to get it. Decisions decisions decisions i got a bout $500. And this is what i have currently.

gigbyte (me) k8nsultra939
a643000+
2x256 mushkin pc3200(bh5) not crud revision 2
9800pro (kinda dead benches fine crashes in games think my gigabyteme killed it or maybe i did at 460core 390memory but i had to hit 25k in 01 )
fx5700U
Koolance case (modded)
antec 430truepower psu(modded)
a643800+(newcastle used)
pci test plain trident video card
2 x 36 gig raptors
1x cdrw/dvd r
1x dvdrw/cdrw/cd
1 x 256mb of infineon ddr333 (don't ask)
This was my thoughts either plan A or plan B.
Plan A
Buy the board(obviously) and comp usa has the x800xl in stock buy that.

Plan B
Buy the board(obviously) and take a chance on another 3000+ oem since i have a stock fan (cost $140 at show). Buy a thermaltake soprano case with a 430 watt TT psu(cost $90 at show)buy a 80 gig seagate sata drive(cost $60-70 at show)

problem is I need to have a 100% stable rig by sunday night for a TWL match
and mine even with the issues it has is stable atm.Other problem is i just sold my sons rig (my old rig nf7-s 2.0 xp 3200) and i need to have a rig together for him by the end of this month.

plan A lets me use the fatality right away providing i have no problems whatsoever.

Plan B lets me fool around with it and run tests mod it whatsoever as i can always take ram out of the other pc for testing.
Also I know i have a 3800+ but id rather kill a 3000+ with 3.5v to memory than a 3800+. plus its more fun to runa 3000+ at 2.4 gig or higher than to run a cpu meant for 2.4 gig saving it for a waterchiiled project anyway :P

[tictac]

if it is me.. i take Plan A

[chew*]

if it is me.. i take Plan A

Yah only prob with plan A is this. If my mod smokes board or cpu I'm kinda screwed and out of a TWL league match.

[tictac]

i dont think it is a good idea to smoke a 180dollar board ...

x800xl ... is alot better in Gaming compare to your current VGA

better keep the mod away until you done with your match.....

[situman]

the only thing u will smoke is ur mobo, u still got the gigabyte as ur backup

[chew*]

the only thing u will smoke is ur mobo, u still got the gigabyte as ur backup

you can also smoke the memory controller on the cpu.......Not only that but ill have a 300 dollar dust collector till i get board back

[situman]

hey where else can u find a cool red dust collector jk

[chew*]

Well I am now a proud owner of a fatality an8 now all i need is some vaseline for my rearend and some brakekleen to remove the name :P anyway gonna start working on this thing and see what mod capabilities are.

[tictac]

ok keep us posted...

[hurtz777]

Will someone with a vanilla AN8 please check and see what revision nf4 chipset they have? If it is A3 I think it will definitely bridge mode into ultra or sli chip mode. I bought the AN8 today thinking it had the ultra chipset since I didn't even know a regular nf4 chipset existed which means no SATA2 support. SATA2 really isn't that important right now but it might be down the line therefore I would like to see if the nf4 can be modded to nf4 ultra.

[tictac]

post your NF4 chipset here....

[chew*]

I seem to have read that somewhere to however dont you really wanna know what revision chip the ultra is? that way if its same chip then you know it can be done.

[hurtz777]

You can check your nf4 chipset revision in CPU-Z so you don;t even have to take the hsf off of it. I will attempt to mod mine when I get it. I will just break out the pencil and mod that extra bridge to make it an ultra. The only reason why it wouldn't work is if the core is different. Check out those pics and you can see the only difference between the regualr nf4 and nf4 ultra chip is the close bridge on the upper right of the nf4 ultra chip. Can someone please try this mod with their vanilla AN8 with a A3 chip? See all 4 different flavors of the nforce 4 chipset in the attachment below. From left to right it is nforce4 4x, nforce4, nforce4 ultra, and nf4 sli. It has been confirmed now that all Vanilla AN8 nforce4 chipsets have to be revision A03 since A03 is the only stable 1000Mhz HTT revision of the chipset. This means that there is a very good chance that by closing the two extra bridges on the nforce4 A03 you will have a nforce4 ultra chip. By closing all three extra bridges you will have a nforce4 sli chip which would be useless on the vanilla AN8 anyways without the extra PCIe 16x slot that the DFI Ultra D boards inlcuded against Nvidia's will. I will be getting my vanilla AN8 tomorrow or Tuesday and try the mod myself.

[tictac]

ABIT AN8 SLi ready



Any comment?

[althes]

It better have more vdimm.
A working bios of the bat.
And it better not cost over 230.

[situman]

all it needs is more vdimm, but yet they refuse to after the AI7. and even that it wasnt too impressive.

[chew*]

i dont like cmos battery placement or nf4 placement

[chew*]

So far we have this.

pros
looks good
5.1 audio daughter card(nf4 audio is its weakpoint IMO)
Rock stable at stock
Stable voltages(not alot of fluctuating)
Northbridge has good placement(If you read around people are having trouble using aftermarket heatsinks/waterblocks due to vid card interference.)
Temps appear to be accurate.(**update there are reported issues of temps innacurate after third reboot after resetting bios**)
Pci and Pci-E locks are working

cons
Max vdimm 1.85
an8 and fatality max vcore 1.75 with winnie 1.85 with newcastle(If anybody reaches higher without mods let me know ill update this)
floppy ide is not a desirable location

If anyone is wondering why I'm including both boards just look at the pics. It looks like the same pcb layout and I believe the boards are identical minus NF4 ultra chip and I believe that the fatality bios will work on this. If it doesnt i will start a seperate thread on AN8.
Anyone with Issues please feel free to post as I will eventually start a AN8 Bugs tips tricks mods thread as we get more info.

Max clock to date on fatality an8
3500+ @ 2550 memory topped out at 255(note this just may be memories max not boards)
Max clock to date on vanilla an8
3200+ @ 2350 10X235 cpu topped out at 240(note this may be cpu's max not the boards)
Max Htt at this time with fatality an8 is 375.

Edit
some new additions

Max stable fsb reached to date is 385mhz async
Max fsb into windows 399mhz to date
Cpu multiplier 5x is buggy and unstable( i booted at 6X385 and 4X385 fine 5x cpu multi would not work I'm attributing this to the fact this is the multi AMD has reserved for there cool and quiet technology.)