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

[jinu117]

Interesting, got the mobo today. With MSI K8N Neo2 as well. Will get CPU (90nm winchester) in mail tomorrow and I can start finding out what interesting things it might hold. It does sound like v-mod is relatively simple though. (Same as bigger gigabyte?) Also have DDR booster handy and few other spare PSU ATM to find out what is really going on with cold booting with phase cooling unit issue too. Will start with stock air cooling first

[Lithan]

Mine arrives the 5th, same day as my 3000+ winchester. Hopefully results on the 6th.

[trans am]

OK, just ordered mine from mwave. I got the 3200+ retail box and the kingston TCCD ultral low latency rebate deal. everything was $600 shipped, I got 2nd day air so it will be here this weekend

BA20672 1 ($45.00 Mail-In Manufacturer Rebate Available from 10/11/04 to 11/8/04) (*Limit 2pcs/customer)
KINGSTON KHX3200ULK2/1G ULTRA LOW LATENCY 2X512MB (MATCH PAIR) PC3200 400MHZ CL2 DDR DIMM W/HEAT SPREADER $267.00



BA20769 -BA20678 - - 1 (*Free T-shirt w/Purchase While Supplies Last!)
AMD ATHLON 64 3200+ RETAIL BOXED 64-BIT SOCKET 939 W/COOLING FAN (3 YEARS WARRANTY) (**FREE AMD T-SHIRT**; NO EXTRA COOLING FAN; NO THERMAL COMPOUND) $209.00



BA20728 - - 1 GIGABYTE GA-K8NS ULTRA939 nVIDIA nFORCE3 250 CHIPSET SERIAL ATA150 ATX FORM FACTOR 1xAGP(8X)/5xPCI/4xDDR W/SATA RAID,DUAL LAN(Gb),1394B,USB 2.0 & AUDIO (CPU TYPE:AMD ATHLON 64 - SOCKET 939) (NO CPU; NO MEMORY) $114.50



Sub-Total $590.50
Shipping & Handling or Will Call Fee $20.37
Order Total $610.87

[Perc]

Interesting, got the mobo today. With MSI K8N Neo2 as well. Will get CPU (90nm winchester) in mail tomorrow and I can start finding out what interesting things it might hold. It does sound like v-mod is relatively simple though. (Same as bigger gigabyte?) Also have DDR booster handy and few other spare PSU ATM to find out what is really going on with cold booting with phase cooling unit issue too. Will start with stock air cooling first

where di you mange to buy a msi board at? was it the 939 one ive been looking and everyone is out of stock?? also let me know how that gigabyte runs the jurys still out on what i will choose for this FX chip...

thx perc,

[jinu117]

Seems nice enough. Did quick run with 3700EB and got up to 260FSB no problemo (So did MSI K8N Neo2). However, thing won't run in phasechange just like MSI K8N neo2. I just didn't have time to test everything I could (more like got fed up with winchester + phasecooling combo). Backing down to 754 till I decide to jump for the big gun (FX). Time to browse FS section more throughly.
For time being, it seems to me certain winchesters will work fine in phase cooling while some just won't. Makes me wonder if AMD decided to kill phasecooler off or just some unseen bug between bios and CPU. (CMOS reset will get you up but unless you do CMOS reset, you just can't boot... which makes any oc'ing impossible).

[trans am]

Seems nice enough. Did quick run with 3700EB and got up to 260FSB no problemo (So did MSI K8N Neo2). However, thing won't run in phasechange just like MSI K8N neo2. I just didn't have time to test everything I could (more like got fed up with winchester + phasecooling combo). Backing down to 754 till I decide to jump for the big gun (FX). Time to browse FS section more throughly.
For time being, it seems to me certain winchesters will work fine in phase cooling while some just won't. Makes me wonder if AMD decided to kill phasecooler off or just some unseen bug between bios and CPU. (CMOS reset will get you up but unless you do CMOS reset, you just can't boot... which makes any oc'ing impossible).

I heard OPP and others get past issues with the chill control not working with the neo2. Look around here for the thread, I'll post a link if I can still find it.
here it is:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=44836

(Edit) nevermind, I see you already saw it and the problem still persists. That sucks!

[jinu117]

I heard OPP and others get past issues with the chill control not working with the neo2. Look around here for the thread, I'll post a link if I can still find it.
here it is:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=44836

Chill control... nah... prommy works fine. I had it on separate PSU for test purposes as well.

[trans am]

Chill control... nah... prommy works fine. I had it on separate PSU for test purposes as well.

Well, what about the Gigabyte board? How were the settings in the bios? ram settings are there right? Mine will be here Friday, so Lithan and me will be busy this weekend. Any pointers to start things off? or is it pretty basic functions?
and let us know how that new cpu does.

[jinu117]

I just didn't bother on air... :P
Maybe I should while writing some stuff off. Air testing was priliminary to just confirm my 3700EB works fine which it did. Actual usuage might vary but it seems to be as good as MSI is (short of voltage options). Oh... almost forgot, won't boot with 2x512 of 3700EB for some reason. Which MSI handled fine... For someone with TCCD it might be different story as it took 2 TCCC fine.

[trans am]

I just didn't bother on air... :P
Maybe I should while writing some stuff off. Air testing was priliminary to just confirm my 3700EB works fine which it did. Actual usuage might vary but it seems to be as good as MSI is (short of voltage options). Oh... almost forgot, won't boot with 2x512 of 3700EB for some reason. Which MSI handled fine... For someone with TCCD it might be different story as it took 2 TCCC fine.

only 1 eb would work? that's odd. is the fsb only up to 300? or is it higher? I am running raid 0 in my DFI currently. Do you think I would be able to transfer my stripe directly from a nf3-250gb to a nf3-250 ultra? They both have the same integrated nvidia raid controller. Gigabyte was smart and decided to disable sata ports 1 and 2 which are known problems on the nf3250 chipset. They added a SIL3512 controller for the disabled ones so it compensates for the nonworking 1 and2 ports. Very smart!

[Lithan]

Board and cpu arrived a day early. Just messed with it for about an hour so far.
Works out of box with shipping bios just fine.
CPU is a 0436.
Cpu is not anywhere near as good as others seem to be getting. Doesn't even do 2300mhz @ 1.4v. Won't even do 2550 @ 1.7v. I primed @ 2500 for about two minutes @ 1.7v. Probably stable 2400-2475 @ 1.7v. In other words it would take subambient temps to even have a hope of getting 2800mhz out of this thing. My old 3200+ newcastle clocked a solid 150mhz better than this thing at the same volts.

[trans am]

Board and cpu arrived a day early. Just messed with it for about an hour so far.
Works out of box with shipping bios just fine.
CPU is a 0436.
Cpu is not anywhere near as good as others seem to be getting. Doesn't even do 2300mhz @ 1.4v. Won't even do 2550 @ 1.7v. I primed @ 2500 for about two minutes @ 1.7v. Probably stable 2400-2475 @ 1.7v. In other words it would take subambient temps to even have a hope of getting 2800mhz out of this thing. My old 3200+ newcastle clocked a solid 150mhz better than this thing at the same volts.

Lithan where did you get that chip? it's a 3000+? retail or oem? did you set the htt link to 3x?

[Lithan]

Mwave, yes, retail, yes.

[|-jokker-|]

Does anyone has this board and incompatibility problems with bh5 memorys ?
I´m having a lot of problems , even with the vio mod , i cant get over 210 over dual channel , single i can reach over 260 :S
Does anyone have this problem or is just my nut board :S

cumps

[misteroadster]

jokker , set your timings to 2225222, set your FSB to 230 in bios and boot xp.

[|-jokker-|]

Thanks i´m going to doo that , but now i dont have the vio mod :S i took it off because i thougt it was the mod that was causing the instability :S

[trans am]

Mwave, yes, retail, yes.

Ok, did you flash to the latest bios?
Seperate Memory clock from DRAM timing setup group http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard...0Ultra-939.htm


has anyone tried modding a gigabyte bios to increase the vdimm? is I've only done this on video cards. The vdimm looks a little weak. Is there a way to do this without soldering? Will an ocz ddr booster work? or does the bios have to allow up to 3xVdimm for it to work. I never tried this ddr booster. Just modded dfi bios and increasing 3.3v rail on ocz psu.

[Perc]

guys when you get this mb please post your results im torn between this mb and the MSI for a couple bucks more... since i plan on buying the DFI when it is released i would realy like to pay the least amount possible for what ever i decide to get and buying the msi for 140 plus shipping seems like alot of cash for a temp mb. know what im saying? anyways i await the results. good luck guys

peace perc.,

[Lithan]

Been priming at 2450 for a few hours now.

I didn't flash the bios. I've never noticed bios revisions having enough impact on overclock that a flash would make me happy with this chip. I'll update bios sometime this weekend and update if there is any change however.

The gigabyte 754 boards had really easy vdimm mods, but I haven't bothered vmodding this one yet.

[misteroadster]

wich type of ram sticks do you use ?

[Lithan]

2x512 bh5 at the moment. I've been keeping the at 210 or less because like I said, no vdimm mod.

[misteroadster]

2x512 bh5 at the moment. I've been keeping the at 210 or less because like I said, no vdimm mod.

how do you test the stability ? 1:1 or 5:4, 5:3 ?

[trans am]

Been priming at 2450 for a few hours now.

I didn't flash the bios. I've never noticed bios revisions having enough impact on overclock that a flash would make me happy with this chip. I'll update bios sometime this weekend and update if there is any change however.

The gigabyte 754 boards had really easy vdimm mods, but I haven't bothered vmodding this one yet.

vmodding as in soldering? or as in bios modding? could you just get an 0cz ddr booster?

[misteroadster]

Here is a compare K8NS Ultra/K8NSNXP 939

Eeproms missed on K8NS

[Lithan]

I dont know if booster works in this board. And VMods as in soldering.