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

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Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 and K8NS Ultra-939 nforce3
the only difference between the K8NSNXP-939 and K8NS Ultra-939 is the missing dps heatsink on the latter.
both boards are identical and bios compatible and will thus be treated as the same board in this guide




overclocking options
Bus Speed: 200-455mhz in 1mhz steps
Bus Multiplier: 1x-5x
CPU Multiplier: 5x-25x
AGP speed: 66-100 in 1mhz steps

overvolting options
Vcore: 0.8-1.70 in 0.025v steps
Vdimm: +0.1v +0.2v* *max vdimm is 2.85v with the latest bios
Vagp: 1.50 to 1.80 in 0.10v steps
Vht: 1.20 to 1.50 in 0.10v steps

periphals and features
IDE: 2 ATA 133 slots
IDE raid: 0,1,0+1,JBOD
SATA: 4 SATA 150 slots (2 SiI3512 and 2 nforce3)
SATA raid: 0,1,0+1,JBOD
sata+ide drives in raid: yes
Firewire: 2 IEEE 1394b ports
LAN: Marvell 8001 gigabit ethernet + ICS 1883 10/100 ethernet
Sound: realtec ALC850 8 channel

links
mainboard homepage: GA-K8NSNXP-939 and GA-K8NS Ultra-939
forum discussion: Gigabyte k8NSNXP-939/K8NS Ultra-939 tips, tricks and guide thread
review #1: Anandtech
review #2: Hothardware
review #3: Hardwareluxx (german)
vmod #1: vcore
vmod #2: vdimm
vmod #3: vht
vmod #4: vdd

pros
tracks vtt
runs great with bh5
runs great with ch5
runs great with mdt pc3200 (micron chips?)
runs great with samsung tccc

cons
bad vcore, unstable and fluctuates between 1.70v and 1.95v under load
coldboot problems with high HTT speed
crashes when upping the HTT speed too much at a time
always detects ide drives at bootup, cant disable this setting latest bios fixes this problem
9x multi sligthly unstable seems to work fine for some people
8x multi very unstable seems to work fine for some people
NO Memory Interleaving?

TIPS
TIP: you have to disable cool n quiet when ocing
TIP: easy vdimm mod with 3.3v rail = Vdimm Via single wire, VTT tracks automatically
TIP: easy vcore mod with pin10 to ground via 50K VR
BUT the max vcore after a mod is 1.95v and coldboot with 1.85v+ vcore might kill the board!
TIP: If having problems with BH5 ram, try the following:
1) Do 3.3v = Vdimm mod
2) Set HTT multiplier to 4x and HTT to 230Mhz - Lower HTT does not boot for some users.
3) Boot and overclock via clockgen, and tweak via A64tweaker.
TIP: for best performance the giga board needs Vcore and Vdimm/3.3V bypass mod (or the OCZ booster)
TIP: disable fast writes
TIP: use HTT multiplier 4x up to ~260 and 3x up to ~290
TIP: disable the bios option called "top performence" , it will limit your ocs and will cause instability with tccd at ddr400 2.0-2-2
TIP: if you have problems with some multipliers try the F5 bios



check out the ultimate 939 mobo guide here for informations, bugfixes and tips for all 939 mainboards







there are many different versions of gigabytes nf3 boards and the naming and feature set description are extremely confusing.
here is a list i made to give you a better overview over those confusing product names:

754 k8ns          2SATA+r   2PATA     lan                 1x2mb bios   firewall    2fan headers                      aux audio    game/midi 
754 k8ns pro      4SATA+r   4PATA+r   Gblan       2IEEE   2x4mb bios               3fan headers                      aux audio    game/midi 
754 k8nsnxp       4SATA+r   4PATA+r   Gblan+lan   2IEEE   2x4mb bios   firewall    3fan headers    multis in bios    aux audio    game/midi    dps 

939 K8NS-939      2SATA+r   2PATA     Gblan               1x2mb bios               3fan headers    multis in bios 
939 K8NSNXP-939   4SATA+r   2PATA     Gblan+lan   2IEEE   2x4mb bios   firewall    3fan headers    multis in bios    aux audio    game/midi    (gigabyte specs dont mention dps?)
939 K8NS u-939    4SATA+r   2PATA     Gblan+lan   2IEEE   2x4mb bios   firewall    3fan headers    multis in bios    aux audio    game/midi

EDIT:
-saaya