Chaintech VNF4 Ultra Users " Getting good overclcoks?"

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Ackbar

Originally posted by: MajorPayne
How high have you gone with your voltages Akbar? I know I have only had to up my voltages on the RAM from 2.6 to 2.7 to get my overclock, but I also have NEVER been able to run at 1T, since I am using 2 sticks of RAM. Is it possible you may need to up your RAM voltages more?

Well, I've tried all the way up to 2.9 V. My ram is supposed rated for 2-3-3-8 1T @ 233 on 2.8V which I've never been able to achieve. I spoke with OCZ and they said that I could RMA the memory, but I'm starting to believe that it may be a bios problem I can get 1T with the first beta bios now at 2.35 GHz but I have to use 2.5-3-3-8, nothing in CAS 2 works! I'll probably RMA my ram, if that isn't the problem, I guess we should contact Chaintech and make them aware that their bios does not like low latency ram!

EDIT: BTW- what port do you have your SATA drive on? Are all of them locked?

I run a SATA RAID 0 array using SATA ports 1 and 2. They are DEFINITELY locked. I have heard (from others) that ports 3 and 4 are locked as well, but I have not tried them myself (no need yet).

As for the RAM, I am not sure what is up with that. I cannot get 1T (because I use 4 sticks), but I AM running my 4 sticks of RAM at 2T at 2-3-2-10, which seems to work very well for me.

 

[Ackbar]

Originally posted by: MajorPayne
I run a SATA RAID 0 array using SATA ports 1 and 2. They are DEFINITELY locked. I have heard (from others) that ports 3 and 4 are locked as well, but I have not tried them myself (no need yet).

As for the RAM, I am not sure what is up with that. I cannot get 1T (because I use 4 sticks), but I AM running my 4 sticks of RAM at 2T at 2-3-2-10, which seems to work very well for me.

I don't know if you're willing or have time and want to try using just two matched sticks and try to see if 1T works for you. If it doesn't we know that there are some things wrong.

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Ackbar

Originally posted by: MajorPayne
I run a SATA RAID 0 array using SATA ports 1 and 2. They are DEFINITELY locked. I have heard (from others) that ports 3 and 4 are locked as well, but I have not tried them myself (no need yet).

As for the RAM, I am not sure what is up with that. I cannot get 1T (because I use 4 sticks), but I AM running my 4 sticks of RAM at 2T at 2-3-2-10, which seems to work very well for me.

I don't know if you're willing or have time and want to try using just two matched sticks and try to see if 1T works for you. If it doesn't we know that there are some things wrong.

I am downloading the latest BIOS now, and I will try to get to 1T (at my current OC) with both 4 sticks and 2 sticks, and see what works.

 

[imported_johnm]

*****WARNING****

I just flashed the new bios, the VN210203 one, and it took down my motherboard. I used the award flashing tool on the chaintech website...the flash seemed to go fine, but when I rebooted...the motherboard just made a series of long beeps and never posted.

It's quite a bummer too, because I just got the machine set up last night, I didn't overclock it, and it ran very cool and quiet with a Thermaltake Venus fan. Just what I was hoping for. The stock Zenith heatsink was barely warm.

Unless anybody can figure out a way to get the bios reinstalled, I will be shipping it back to the manufacturer on Tuesday .

 

[Silversierra]

I just flashed to vn210203 and it worked fine for me, it even let my memory run at slightly better timings. P.S. can you rma a board that dies in a bios flash? I mean yeah, you can, but is it right? I mean the board worked before. Maybe the board has a defective bios flasher or something.

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: johnm
*****WARNING****

I just flashed the new bios, the VN210203 one, and it took down my motherboard. I used the award flashing tool on the chaintech website...the flash seemed to go fine, but when I rebooted...the motherboard just made a series of long beeps and never posted.

It's quite a bummer too, because I just got the machine set up last night, I didn't overclock it, and it ran very cool and quiet with a Thermaltake Venus fan. Just what I was hoping for. The stock Zenith heatsink was barely warm.

Unless anybody can figure out a way to get the bios reinstalled, I will be shipping it back to the manufacturer on Tuesday .

CLEAR THE CMOS USING THE JUMPER!!!!!

These chaintech boards almost always need to have CMOS cleared after a BIOS flash. I do it out of habit now, but the first few times with a chaintech board, I wondered why it never posts (just beeps) after a flash. I think it is thier way of making sure you start clean with default settings in the new BIOS.

 

[MajorPayne]

Ok, for those curious about running RAM at 1T on the new BIOS (the 2-3-05 beta), I flashed to this BIOS, and tested the 1T setting with 2 sticks and 4 sticks of double sided ram.

With 2 sticks, it defaults to 1T, and I can overclock just as high at 1T as I can at 2T (I can get my Kingston HyperX 3200 up to around 433MHZ, before I have issues). With 4 sticks, if I set it to 1T if actually boots (Yay, cause it NEVER did before), but it sets my RAM speed to 100 (so final speed=200MHZ -- which sucks). I can get it up to about 233 before it will not let me boot any further. At 2T I can get it up to 433 (same as 2 sticks at 1T).

So in my (decidedly non-expert) opinion, I think they have done a good job of implementing the 1T and 2T. I think the folks having trouble with it may want to look at thier RAM, and possibly test this in another board (if possible).

 

[imported_johnm]

I already did the cmos trick, I moved the jumper, I even took out the battery and powered up without it. All I get is "beep...beep...beep...beep".

So depressing, I put my old Athlon board back in just so I would have a computer for the 3 day weekend.

<cry..sob...wail...pout>

 

[imported_johnm]

Ok I decided to put the board back in and actually got it working again...but I'm not sure exactly what the problem was. I unlplugged either a pci card or a hard drive randomly and finally got the thing to post (yes I even tapped on the bios chip with the backside of a screwdriver). Once I loaded up the defaults it's been fine .

 

[Ackbar]

Originally posted by: johnm
Ok I decided to put the board back in and actually got it working again...but I'm not sure exactly what the problem was. I unlplugged either a pci card or a hard drive randomly and finally got the thing to post (yes I even tapped on the bios chip with the backside of a screwdriver). Once I loaded up the defaults it's been fine .

Great to hear! :thumbsup:

Post clock speeds, issues and such when you ramp up.

 

[user1234]

Originally posted by: MajorPayne

Considering that I got my board for 130.00, with $2.00 shipping from Newegg, I think I got a GREAT deal!

now it's 109 at newegg

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: user1234

Originally posted by: MajorPayne

Considering that I got my board for 130.00, with $2.00 shipping from Newegg, I think I got a GREAT deal!

now it's 109 at newegg

Is that price for the VNF4 Ultra, or the VNF4 (Non Ultra) board?

And John, I am glad to hear you got your board working (even it you still do not know what caused it).

 

[dklingen]

That is for the Ultra at NewEgg or ZipZoomFly (same $113 total)

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: dklingen
That is for the Ultra at NewEgg or ZipZoomFly (same $113 total)

DAMN! That is a helluva deal, no matter how you look at it (and I thought I got off cheap gettin mine at $130.00)!

 

[dklingen]

MajorPayne,

Based upon your enthusiam. I went ahead and got the VNF4 Ultra and a A64 3200 from ZipZoomFly for $299.99. I vowed that when the package went below $300, I would buy it - so I did. This will be my first non ASUS board in a long time. But I think it will be fine.

Too bad it cannot do a bios update from windows (like ASUS) - but a small trade off for the cost savings.

Thanks for all of the feedback.

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: dklingen
MajorPayne,

Based upon your enthusiam. I went ahead and got the VNF4 Ultra and a A64 3200 from ZipZoomFly for $299.99. I vowed that when the package went below $300, I would buy it - so I did. This will be my first non ASUS board in a long time. But I think it will be fine.

Too bad it cannot do a bios update from windows (like ASUS) - but a small trade off for the cost savings.

Thanks for all of the feedback.

Damn! You waited for the right price all right. Good choice, I do not think you will be disappointed.

And, yes, I agree I miss being able to download and install BIOS updates "on the fly", but I can live with it too.

 

[user1234]

Originally posted by: MajorPayne

Originally posted by: dklingen
That is for the Ultra at NewEgg or ZipZoomFly (same $113 total)

DAMN! That is a helluva deal, no matter how you look at it (and I thought I got off cheap gettin mine at $130.00)!

Huh ? whenever you're paying >100$ for a budget board (==chaintech) than you are not getting a "helluva" a deal. You are just overpaying for being an early adopter. Nforce4, being the first chipset to support pci-e for Athlon 64 was able to command such a price premium when launched, but the truth is that it does not offer almost any speed advantage over agp chipsets (e.g. nf3), and now that alternatives are available from via and sis, nf4 boards are coming down to more reasonable prices (e.g. close to nf3 prices). Of course, I overpayed for the asus a8n, which has a premium on it because of it's sli capability, which is little more than a marketing gimmick, and not really a cost effective upgrade path.

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: user1234

Originally posted by: MajorPayne

Originally posted by: dklingen
That is for the Ultra at NewEgg or ZipZoomFly (same $113 total)

DAMN! That is a helluva deal, no matter how you look at it (and I thought I got off cheap gettin mine at $130.00)!

Huh ? whenever you're paying >100$ for a budget board (==chaintech) than you are not getting a "helluva" a deal. You are just overpaying for being an early adopter. Nforce4, being the first chipset to support pci-e for Athlon 64 was able to command such a price premium when launched, but the truth is that it does not offer almost any speed advantage over agp chipsets (e.g. nf3), and now that alternatives are available from via and sis, nf4 boards are coming down to more reasonable prices (e.g. close to nf3 prices). Of course, I overpayed for the asus a8n, which has a premium on it because of it's sli capability, which is little more than a marketing gimmick, and not really a cost effective upgrade path.

Ah, but I would not necessarily consider this board a "budget" board. This board is an Nforce4 Ultra, not plain Nforce4, so it carries the extras all Ultras have (hardware firewall, SATA II, etc.). It also is a HELLUVA overclocker, and rock stable in everything I have done. I have spent MUCH more than that amount on boards from Asus, Abit, etc. which were considered top of the line (and were not worth it). So even at the price I paid I considered it a very good deal, and for $113.00, it is a GREAT deal.