trick to get more stable vdimm on the dfi nf4!

[craig588]

It basicly works like the bios mod for the DFI NF3 mobo. It unlocks all of the options and keeps feeding the memory off of the 3.3 line.

Solder a wire to pin 7 on the first memory slot and you can measure the voltage getting supplied to the memory off of that. For the 3.3 voltage coming out of the PSU measure an orange wire. (The ATX spec says that orange = 3.3 line)

[cupra]

aua, that is so nice, thanks saaya

[SIOUX]

Good info indded sayaa.....thanks

[saaya]

thx a lot
again, big thy to tony

just to make sure i understand this...

1. change the jumpers as shown in the middle picture

2. you will then only be able to select 3.2v in the bios.

3. increase the voltage on psu's 3.3+ line and the vdimm will then increase as well

just wondering the "mofsets and heatsinks that will stay cool" are they the ones located on the top right of the board? and also how do you know what vdimm voltage you are on when adjusting the 3.3+ line.

Thanks.

1. increase the 3.3v rail
2. set the jumpers
3. set vdimm (you can select up to 4v in bios but i would only set it to 3.3v rail -0.1v)

the higher your 3.3v rail is above the vdimm you selected the more stable it will be. to get a 100% stable and clean vdimm i suggest to have the 3.3v rail 0.3v above the vdimm you selected, but if your psu has a stable 3.3v rail then you should be able to get vdimm closer to the 3.3v rail without any problems and still very stable and clean vdimm.

craig explained how to meassure the voltages

[cantankerous]

Man I love this forum. Always great stuff to learn and try out. Just to let everyone know this works without a hitch. Having gone too high on my vdimm but am reading well above 3.3v which was impossible before this mod. Heatsink is nice and cool to the touch as promised. God Bless DFI and OCZ for a great combo in board and psu. Now its time to see how much higher I can get on my BH-6.

[Wingz]

my 3.3+ line is reading 3.36v, so its safe to set it to 3.6v? btw i'm using the OCZ 520 Powerstream.

[[_Silence_]]

did you use the trick or did you use the 5v feed?
how did you meassure vdimm?

I was using the trick yes. Measured the Vdimm via Software, but with 5v feed it gets very stable and with the trick it has 0.1v variations, even with the 3.3v rail with more 0.3v than vdimm.

[magg]

its not? i heard it works fine though... the only extra lines used are the 5v lines if you use the 5v vdimm feed afaik. but im not sure...

they also recommend a 400W+ psu

im using a 350W 20 pin psu and the board runs great and ocs great...

Highly HIGHLY unrecommended to use a 20-pin on their mobos...they just had a press release saying they were no longer going to warranty anybody who was using a 20-pin on their boards, because it was strictly against what they have been telling people forever.

I've seen so many ridiculous problems that have all been caused just because of a 20->24-pin PSU, YOU NEED NATIVE 24-PIN PEOPLE!!

Also, they recommend >480W for their boards, not 400

Sorry, didn't mean to thread hijack, but I hang around the DFI street forums alot and answer these questions so many times that it just kinda happens

[Soulburner]

20/24 pin PSU thread:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=61334

[craig588]

my 3.3+ line is reading 3.36v, so its safe to set it to 3.6v? btw i'm using the OCZ 520 Powerstream.

You need it higher. Take it to at least 3.8V if you want 3.6V on the memory.

Running 3.6V with a 3.4V 3.3 line doesn't even make sense, where would the extra voltage come from?

[bmaffin13]

what else uses the 3.3v line? like hd's or mobo stuff? and can it screw anything up cause i need about 3.5v on my bh-5 to hit 265mhz so i guess i would need to crank it up to 3.7 ish on my ocz ps. i don't really mind the heat (idling at about 36c on the PWM right now) but if i can get it lower, it should be better.

[Wingz]

You need it higher. Take it to at least 3.8V if you want 3.6V on the memory.

Running 3.6V with a 3.4V 3.3 line doesn't even make sense, where would the extra voltage come from?

what i mean is that is it safe for the 3.3+ line on the psu to run at 3.6v? My ram needs only 3.3v to run at 260.

[EMC2]

FYI... you always want the PS rail supplying the mem at least 0.2V higher than what you will set Vmem to.... anything less than that and the Vmem control circuit in stock form can't hold proper regulation. Oh... and using individual jumpers works better IMO than the standard 6-pin jumper

Peace

[Magnj]

Ok so.
I would adjust the pots on my powerstream untill I get 3.7-3.8V(where do i measure this from?)

Move jumpers

Then I would adjust Vmem in bios .2-.3V under what my PSU is. So say i set my PSU to 3.8V, I can use Vmem 3.5-3.6ish

And I would also like to know what else uses 3.3V Rail. What wil lthis effect. and what does DFI say about this warranty wise

[EMC2]

Ok so.
I would adjust the pots on my powerstream untill I get 3.7-3.8V(where do i measure this from?)

Best spot to measure it is on the MB... for the 3.3V you can measure from any of the bottom four 3.3V Vmem jumper positions to ground (you can pick ground up from the copper plane area around the MB mounting screw hole next to the jumpers).

Move jumpers

Then I would adjust Vmem in bios .2-.3V under what my PSU is. So say i set my PSU to 3.8V, I can use Vmem 3.5-3.6ish

If you adjust for 0.25 above your max desired Vmem setting, your good... so say adjust to 3.75V on 3.3V rail you would be good to 3.5V on Vmem setting.

And I would also like to know what else uses 3.3V Rail. What will this effect.

Newer HDs, most of the ICs on your MB, most of your add-in cards. Some data points on voltages for 3.3V, applicable to power in general as well...

All parts are spec'd for +/-5%, so 3.46V would be guaranteed to work and should cause no problems.

Standard parts always tolerate +/-10% with only potential issue being a possibility with marginal designs of instability. That gets you to 3.63V. No safety issues other than standard heat related ones (spelled have good cooling).

Parts are usually spec'd with a +20% absolute max rating on the supply rails (the point above which damage to components can occur). This gets you to 3.96V. Note however that as you approach this point the potential for problems goes up significantly. Again, big key is proper cooling and in this case clean supply rails with low noise, tight regulation, and the absence of power spikes. This is really where PS quality can make or break you and why I use PCPnC supplies (best regulation and noise characteristics, no spikes) and high quality surge suppressors on the AC line on my systems.

and what does DFI say about this warranty wise

I would guess the standard line you would get from any company... they only guarantee and warranty "operation within specified conditions"... meaning +/-5% on the supply rails. But since when does the "warranty restrictions" have anything to do with Xtreme Systems or OC'ing in general ? Besides... without undo expense relative to the MB price, they couldn't tell.

Peace

*insert standard disclaimer about not trying this at home and proceed at your own risk, blah, blah, blah*

[Magnj]

super.I think I'll only need 3.55V tops so 3.8Vish sounds godo to me. As far as coolin i have 1 front intake, 1 side, 3 exaust in the back. Going to be getting XP90 + as5, ATI silencer 5 and i guess a multimeter and soldering gun

[Wingz]

ok i set my 3.3+ line on the psu to 3.5v and left the vdimm in bios to 3.3v, then switched off my pc and then changed the jumpers to as shown in the picture. i then booted into the bios and checked my vdimm voltage and it showed 3.28v (usually its 3.33v) so i adjust the pot on the psu till the voltage in the bios went to 3.33v (multimeter shows 3.3+ line is now at 3.55v)

i then ran memtest (20 passes) and all is stable with no errors and then touched the heatsink on the top right of the board which is usually too hot to touch and found it felt very cool

the red led is now lit on the back of my ocz psu on the 3.3+ line, i hope its not a problem.

[EMC2]

ok i set my 3.3+ line on the psu to 3.5v and left the vdimm in bios to 3.3v, then switched off my pc and then changed the jumpers to as shown in the picture. i then booted into the bios and checked my vdimm voltage and it showed 3.28v (usually its 3.33v) so i adjust the pot on the psu till the voltage in the bios went to 3.33v (multimeter shows 3.3+ line is now at 3.55v)

Pretty darn close to my 0.25 recommendation

i then ran memtest (20 passes) and all is stable with no errors and then touched the heatsink on the top right of the board which is usually too hot to touch and found it felt very cool

the red led is now lit on the back of my ocz psu on the 3.3+ line, i hope its not a problem.

Just signifies that it is at an "out of spec" voltage

BTW... here's a post that shows where you can use your DMM to measure VMem, etc.

[Wingz]

BTW... here's a post that shows where you can use your DMM to measure VMem, etc.

thanks for the pics they were very useful. found out my vdimm was actually 3.35v using the multimeter so the vdimm readings shown in the bios is only off by 0.02v.

[jikdoc]

i actually picked up this trick a while ago on this xs thread as a way to use > 3.2v on zippy. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...675#post807675

used it for a while before the chill control blew out on my vapo which is much sad since my sandy 3700 comes this monday. been a bad week for me as fx55 died this week as well. that's a lot of moola down the drain

[SAE]

Too bad it's less stable for me... but may help others.

I set 3.8V for 3.3V rail (bios 3.75V), and was trying to get my usual 3.6V out of it (bios 3.65V)...
Did not go well. Voltage in bios was .02V worse, and it could not even pass first step of superpi 32m.

[saaya]

I was using the trick yes. Measured the Vdimm via Software, but with 5v feed it gets very stable and with the trick it has 0.1v variations, even with the 3.3v rail with more 0.3v than vdimm.

meassure the vdimm via a multimeter please, maybe the onboard probe is just messed up... if it really fluctuates that much please check if it also fluctuates at lower vdimm settings and if its the same with the 5v feed and 3.3v feed without the trick, maybe your psu or board are faulty.

Highly HIGHLY unrecommended to use a 20-pin on their mobos...they just had a press release saying they were no longer going to warranty anybody who was using a 20-pin on their boards, because it was strictly against what they have been telling people forever.

I've seen so many ridiculous problems that have all been caused just because of a 20->24-pin PSU, YOU NEED NATIVE 24-PIN PEOPLE!!

Also, they recommend >480W for their boards, not 400

Sorry, didn't mean to thread hijack, but I hang around the DFI street forums alot and answer these questions so many times that it just kinda happens

thats what they tell the average joe guys to save themselves from loads of rmas im running my dfi with a 350W 20 pin psu and dont have any problems at all

what else uses the 3.3v line? like hd's or mobo stuff? and can it screw anything up cause i need about 3.5v on my bh-5 to hit 265mhz so i guess i would need to crank it up to 3.7 ish on my ocz ps. i don't really mind the heat (idling at about 36c on the PWM right now) but if i can get it lower, it should be better.

hdds use the 12v rail, and the 5v rail, same for optical drives... sata drives use 3.3v i think, not sure... i think only some videocards use the 3.3v rail as well... the chipset is fed from 5v afaik... i have been running 3.8v vdimm for over 6 months without any problems, but it could cause problems...

as for all ocing and modding, if you cant afford to lose your hardware dont do it

EDIT: read emc2's reply

ok i set my 3.3+ line on the psu to 3.5v and left the vdimm in bios to 3.3v, then switched off my pc and then changed the jumpers to as shown in the picture. i then booted into the bios and checked my vdimm voltage and it showed 3.28v (usually its 3.33v) so i adjust the pot on the psu till the voltage in the bios went to 3.33v (multimeter shows 3.3+ line is now at 3.55v)

i then ran memtest (20 passes) and all is stable with no errors and then touched the heatsink on the top right of the board which is usually too hot to touch and found it felt very cool

the red led is now lit on the back of my ocz psu on the 3.3+ line, i hope its not a problem.

perfect

Too bad it's less stable for me... but may help others.

I set 3.8V for 3.3V rail (bios 3.75V), and was trying to get my usual 3.6V out of it (bios 3.65V)...
Did not go well. Voltage in bios was .02V worse, and it could not even pass first step of superpi 32m.

i guess you need 3.9v on the 3.3v rail or even more to get 3.6v totally stable and clean... so if you want 3.6v or more vdimm its still better to use the 5v feed... but if you want 3.2-3.5v this trick is def helping and a better solution than the 5v feed

[Jasonxxx]

Works perfectly for me, I can only adjust up to 3.6v on the 3.3v line, but I'm stable up to 3.5v vdimm like this, and that is all I need right now anyway....

Thanks, My mosfet is cool to the touch...

[saaya]

glad its helping

3.5v is stable and clean? does it help you to get higher than 3.4v vdimm?

[SAE]

i guess you need 3.9v on the 3.3v rail or even more to get 3.6v totally stable and clean... so if you want 3.6v or more vdimm its still better to use the 5v feed... but if you want 3.2-3.5v this trick is def helping and a better solution than the 5v feed

Yeah, I know, but it's not gonna happen

I don't like to have my rails this high - those times are over after losing 6 IBM HDDs over 2 years... on AXP platform. I don't wanna lose my stuff again, and IMHO those high rails don't really help ocs any on dfi nf4

Great tricks anyways. Keep up the good work, ony and Sascha