EPoX "EP-9NPA+Ultra" NVIDIA nForce4 ULTRA Chipset Motherboard

[sgtdic]

ultralight, looks good though i have a few suggestions. make sure you go ahead and get the SATA II drive. you'll be happy you did in the long run. this will cut your operating and load times in half. it's probably just a few more dollars. newegg has them under 100 for the 200G size. i would recommend reading this whole forum just because of the hardware you have listed. i think i remember reading about a prob with a certain antec power supply and i know someone had a prob with the x800 gto a couple pages back BUT he could've gotten a bad card or pcix slot. i'm an nvidia guy, so me personally wouldn't choose an ATI card. try your price ranges for video cards on newegg to see what you come up with. you might want to look at the 6800 GT or GS, as the 6600 GT is becoming low end, but still good. as for the cpu fan, you'll be perfectly fine with the stock one as long as your case has decent cooling. i wish i had your RAM, heard it was good.

 

[Ultralight]

sgtdic, thanks so much for the qucik reply! I should have listed that Seagate as a SATA drive but it is a SATA 1. What, if any, is the difference between 1 and 2? As for the X800 GTO I do know many that have this card and they really like it and came highly recommended. Plus, NewEgg had a great deal so I couldn't resist! connect3D is a good video card maker. Truthfully, I've had luck with both nVidia and ATI (except for an ASUS made Ti4200 that was under warrenty but they wouldn't respond to my fan dying at all -- lousy customer support; gave up on their vid cards but not their boards).

I really tried going through all the information but this mega-post has been hijacked so many times that it takes tons of effort just to get to the relevant ones.

Antec power supply problem, hmmmm. I'll see what they say. If you can remember, was it a PSU issue and this Epox board conflicting in particular?

So it seems you like the stability of this board? Any quirks that I should be aware of installing? I will be using Windows XP Professional w/SP2. How do you like that Venice core with this board? Thanks again.

 

[sgtdic]

sata 1 i believe is 1 g/s, whereas the sata 2 is 3 g/s. so much faster. get a sata 2. i'm not sure about the psu. i think a certain model has conflicts with a few mobos. also make sure it has the 24 pin power plug, you should be ok i think. i love the stability. you have to watch out for certain drivers though. i would recommend against installing the nvidia activearmor, firewall, and IDE driver. that's about it. the venice core works very well and is very fast. check out the cpu charts on tomshardware.com to get comparisons.

 

[Mem]

sata 1 i believe is either 133 or 150 mbps, whereas the sata 2 is 3 g/s. so much faster. get a sata 2.

Wrong,infact in real world no difference,also if you go here you see a WD SATA 1 HD beating SATA 2 HDs.

Final Words

What we've learned is that even though two of the three drives that we reviewed today have 3.0 Gb/sec SATA interfaces, the 1.5Gb/sec drive topped both of them in most of the benchmarks. We had to run a few of our benchmarks multiple times just to prove to ourselves that the numbers were correct and nothing was interfering with the accuracy of our results.

 

[sgtdic]

hmmm...interesting. thanks mem. so what are the advantages of sata 2?

 

[Mem]

hmmm...interesting. thanks mem. so what are the advantages of sata 2?

Higher burst rate (not sustained)then SATA,however in real world performance you will find no difference so just buy the SATA drive you want.

 

[DrewCU]

I am very happy with my SATAII Hitachi 250GB drive because it is one of the fastest, quietest, reliable drives but that has nothing to do with its SATAII capabilities. In fact, the drive comes with only SATA enabled and you have to use their utility to change to SATAII and doing so, makes no difference as I found out.

SATAII is good if you have your drives in a RAID config, and then you may just barely get the full use out of SATAII. I have even heard of PATA drives (100mb/s) drives coming close if not beating SATAII drives. The SATAII drives are only nice to have because they have the "latest technology" and don't have cumbersome cabling.

The USB 2.0 issue still lingers and I will probably go with the USB 2.0 PCI card that people say is the only current solution. If everyone with the issue complains, then maybe something will be done!

 

[techfuzz]

Originally posted by: Exnihilo
I am really tempted to RMA the video card, but I want to be sure I've tried everything. What do ya think?

What do I think? I think the video card is bad. Don't you have a friend who could test it for ya in their computer?

techfuzz

 

[lordkosc]

Ok all I just joined the forums since so many people have this board. MY Epox 9NPA+ Ultra board is working fine, EXCEPT!!! My IDE1 port does not detect any devices, not my hard drives nor my DVD-RW drive. In my IDE0 port I have two WD 160 GIG HDDs that work fine except they can only be seen useing cable select, I cannot set one to master and one to slave if I do that they are not seen in the BIOS. I can plug a cable from my DVD-RW drive into the IDE0 port it sees the burner, but if I plug it into the IDE1 port it does not see the burner.

I have WINDOWS XP pro on one of the 160 gig hard drives, plugged into IDE0, it works fine. If I plug it into IDE1 it says the hard drive is corrupt.

SO ... IDE1 cannot see any optical drives, and it tells me that any and or all hard drives I plug into it are corrupt.

This is the 2nd Epox 9NPA+ Ultra board I have tried this week. I figured the first one had a bad IDE port so I RMA'ed it, and now the replacement has the EXACT same prolbem, so it must be driver or software related.

I really could use some help...

 

[sgtdic]

sounds like your cable or maybe a bent pin. also, are you sure you have both IDEs enabled in the BIOS and set up correctly?

 

[thesurge]

Originally posted by: swamyg1

Originally posted by: johnnytc3
Have they resolved the USB 2.0 Problem yet with this mobo?
thanks

Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing...

 

[lordkosc]

Originally posted by: sgtdic
sounds like your cable or maybe a bent pin. also, are you sure you have both IDEs enabled in the BIOS and set up correctly?

Everything is set up correctly all on auto detect. I doubt its the cable, as the cable see's both hard drives on IDE0 but when I plug the same cable into IDE1 it doesnt see anything. This is the 2nd motherboard to have the EXACT same problem... Any other Ideas?

 

[teddyv]

This is a weird one - I often lose the left channel audio with my Altec 2-speaker w/ subwoofer setup. The only way to get it back is to go into the RealTek Sound Effect Manager and set it to the 4-speaker setup. This usually works, if I then do the 3D demo it always works. Most of the time though a reboot sets it back to no left channel.

It really isn't worth RMA'ing the board for me now but it is a real PITA. Could this be some kind of weird software/driver thing?

 

[Ultralight]

Does anyone know if 9NPA+Ultra and Crucial Ballistix RAM are compatible? I went over to the Crucial website and though it listed Crucial RAM compatible with Epox boards it didn't list the RAM I was interested in. No big deal because it was quite possible that it wasn't an exshaustive list nor is Epox on their main list of mobo manufactures. And so I decided to try their "Online Experts." When the agent Akbar (I'm not making this up) asked me how he could help I explained that I was seriously looking at the Epox motherboard in question and if the Ballistix RAM that was given to me as a gift were compatible. I also explained the PC still had to be built.

The advice I received was that the modules had to be placed in the motherboard to find out. Hunh? So I explained again that the system wasn't built yet and I still didn't have the motherboard. I was then given the advice to allow Crucial's system scan to see if their was compatibility. Right then I knew I had entered the Twilight Zone.

Again I explained that the system hadn't been built yet. I couldn't scan something that wasn't in existence. So then Akbar asked what the product number was. Now I will admit this is where my ignorance comes in because it has been 6 years since my last build. So I replied there are 4 different sets of numbers on each stick. Which one did he want? Online Expert said, "The Crucial one." With alacrity I left the Zone.

Please, can anyone tell me if there is compatibility btween this motherboard and this RAM?

 

[Kaifu]

ACK! My LAN port is wigging out!
I just recently started having issues with the onboard LAN. The LAN port blinks orange every second or so... and I keep getting a message that the network cable is unplugged. Checking the port light on my router, it also shows that "flicker" every second.

My uninformed opinion seems to point me to the conclusion that the LAN port is lacking power or having some sort of hardware issue. I haven't installed any new BIOS or done anything to the hardware in between when the port was working and when it wasn't. I'm not overclocking my system. Everything's set at stock speeds.

Any clues as to what my actual issue is?

 

[Orcishhuman]

Orcishhuman,be careful buying from USA,I know in UK you can end up paying extra for custom duty,not nice when you get a package from the USA and you have to pay extra like 20 quid or so on top at your front door,happened to my brother quite a few times.

Mem,

Do you mean when I order it from America and get it shipped to France? Because what I'm doing is I'm going to go to America, buy the parts and carry them myself to France by plane (That's why I didn't order the case, it would've been too heavy.).

 

[Mem]

Mem,

Do you mean when I order it from America and get it shipped to France?

Yep.

 

[Mem]

This is a weird one - I often lose the left channel audio with my Altec 2-speaker w/ subwoofer setup. The only way to get it back is to go into the RealTek Sound Effect Manager and set it to the 4-speaker setup. This usually works, if I then do the 3D demo it always works. Most of the time though a reboot sets it back to no left channel.

Check Realtek site for latest drivers see if that fixes the problem.

 

[teddyv]

Check Realtek site for latest drivers see if that fixes the problem.

That's the problem The site is confusing to me and I have no idea where to find them? Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

[RideFree]

Maybe a new release 12.1.'05
You might chance an update from the Properties section of the Hardware System
properties menu under the Update Driver section.

Caveat #1. Make sure that you have made a system restore point.
Caveat #2. Make sure that you have created a system restore disk from the backup menu.

 

[brzrkr0]

I see some others on this forum have had USB problems with this board, and it looks like I may be joining the club.

I'm using a basic Logitech optical USB wheel mouse. I installed the USB data cable and Powerchute software for my APC UPS earlier today, and immediately started seeing some major mouse lag. The mouse will move fine for a minute or two, then just freeze for a second or more. I uninstalled the Powerchute software and the problem seemed to go away. Since then, I've installed a USB printer (Epson Stylus C66). The mouse lag has come back again, though it's not as frequent as it was with the UPS.

I'm using the mouse driver from Logitech's website, the USB driver from Windows Update, and all the latest Nvidia motherboard drivers. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

 

[Mem]

I'm using a basic Logitech optical USB wheel mouse. I installed the USB data cable and Powerchute software for my APC UPS earlier today, and immediately started seeing some major mouse lag. The mouse will move fine for a minute or two, then just freeze for a second or more. I uninstalled the Powerchute software and the problem seemed to go away. Since then, I've installed a USB printer (Epson Stylus C66). The mouse lag has come back again, though it's not as frequent as it was with the UPS.

Mine is still working great,using the following USB devices,
USB 2.0 Canon i865 printer
USB 2.0 Lite-On DVD burner external 1633SX model.
USB Razor Diamondback mouse
USB keyboard.
USB 2.0 external NEC chipset based hub self powered.
MP3 USB flash drive player.

Also using USB mousepad for the LED lights around the edge.

 

[Mem]

The mouse lag has come back again, though it's not as frequent as it was with the UPS.

What do you have for BIOS settings USB wise?..I have both USB 1.1 and 2.0 enabled in BIOS.

One thing I have USB Mouse support disabled in BIOS.

This BIOS feature determines if support for the USB mouse should be provided by the operating system or the BIOS. Therefore, it will only affect those who are using USB mice.

If your operating system offers native support for USB mice, you should select the OS option. This will provide much greater functionality. However, if you are using DOS or operating systems that do not offer support for USB mice, then using the OS option will essentially disable the mouse as these operating systems cannot 'detect' or work with USB mice.

This is where the BIOS option comes in. When selected, the BIOS will provide support for the USB mouse. You will be able to use the mouse with both operating systems that don't support USB mice and those that do.

However, the BIOS option offers only rudimentary support for the USB mouse so using it will strip the mouse of all except basic functions. Therefore, you should not select this option if you are using an operating system that supports USB mice. It is recommended that you select the OS option if you are using a current operating system like Windows XP.

But don't forget to switch from the OS option to the BIOS option whenever you want to boot up using a DOS boot disk. Even if the boot disk was created by a USB-aware operating system like Windows XP, it will not support the USB mouse.

.

 

[sgtdic]

brzrkr0, i tried some of the settings you mentioned for overclocking. they wouldn't work for me, even at 2T. with my system i found that when trying 2 G, 2.2, and 2.4 Ghz, i got the best 3dmark score with only 2 Ghz. sounds odd right? of course my cpu score went up though. at 2.4 and ddr400 my cpu temp got up to 50 C (smartfan set at 50) and vcore up around 1.6 v on auto. so i'm sticking with 2 Ghz for safe measures and the only thing i have to change is the fsb.

 

[MadScientist]

Originally posted by: Mem

Btw anybody else got the Nvidia SW IDE driver installed? I have notice slow boot up sometimes (3 to 4 mins) to load Windows,I'm trying it now with NCQ disabled I heard this solves that problem ,will report back if it fixes it.

Originally posted by: Mem

Update on my NCQ problem,disabling NCQ has fixed the slow boot up when you have the Nvidia SW IDE driver installed,it can be found in SATA controller part in Device Manager under properties.

I have the Nvidia SW IDE driver installed and have also noticed slow boot times. Bear with me if these are dumb questions. Does NCQ mean command queing? And to disable it you go to Device Manager and under IDE ATA/Atapi Controllers/Nvidia nforce4 SATA Controller/properties/primary controller and uncheck Enable command queing? What exactly is command queing and does it hurt performance by unchecking it? I have an Hitachi SATA 2 hard drive which supports NCQ. Hitachi

Seek and ye shall find. NCQ