GA-K8NSNXP-939

[secreed]

i gave up, after trying everything possible i can't even run 3dmark test, my system is not stable at all. tried 2 different types of memory Corsair and Ballistix none of them worked in dual chanell. This board is going back for refund i might try k8t800 instead nvidia.

 

[Zoomeez]

After 3 weeks of constant turmoil I have found a cure to the corsair memory probs

Its quite simply really - RMA your gigabyte board and get the MSI K8N Neo2 board - it works a treat

I am now running Dual Channel 400Mhz 2-2-2-5-1T @2.75v no problems what so ever - stable as can be.

That was my first and last endevour with Gigabyte - never again.

Stick with what you know - i.e. anything else :>

PS - The MSI board is nearly 50quid cheaper, runs faster and has all the same features albiet no firewire2 - lol - who cares - I returned my gigabyte board and gots the MSI one AND a Logitech cordless MX700 mouse - frikkin sweet.

 

[savoybc]

This is my first 'problem' with Gigabyte but after adjusting voltage and timings it works perfectly. I have other motherboards from Gigabyte and they work like a charm.

MSI likes to die on me often :disgust:

But good luck on your MSI Sorry you couldn't get your RAM working... mine works fine in dual channel DDR400.

 

[pantner]

Originally posted by: savoybc
This is my first 'problem' with Gigabyte but after adjusting voltage and timings it works perfectly. I have other motherboards from Gigabyte and they work like a charm.

MSI likes to die on me often :disgust:

But good luck on your MSI Sorry you couldn't get your RAM working... mine works fine in dual channel DDR400.

ditto for all of the above

 

[Brickster]

Originally posted by: savoybc
This is my first 'problem' with Gigabyte but after adjusting voltage and timings it works perfectly. I have other motherboards from Gigabyte and they work like a charm.

ditto

 

[flawlssdistortn]

I love how the whole purpose of socket 939 was to allow users to buy cheaper, unbuffered RAM and allow them to run it in dual channel mode. So far, there's a very small list of "recommended" RAM for this motherboard, and an even smaller list put out by AMD. I don't think these instabilities are any one company's fault - seems like a compatibility issue between Nvidia's chipset and AMD's memory controller, and possibly something on Gigabyte's motherboard. But seriously, i'm so pissed that no one is willing to own up, take some accountability (seeing as they're all taking our money) and fix this damn problem!!! We, the customers our kinda left out to dry here, and I'm not sure whether to spend more money on a new motherboard or new memory.

 

[Ballistyx]

Originally posted by: Brickster

Originally posted by: savoybc
This is my first 'problem' with Gigabyte but after adjusting voltage and timings it works perfectly. I have other motherboards from Gigabyte and they work like a charm.

ditto

Ditto for me too.

BUT...........


I've got to agree with flawlssdistortn. THAT'S the primary reason why I'm so pissed off at all of this: The lack of accountability.

If any of you agree with this, write to your favorite review sites and ask them to start testing for this. If enough of us complain, then EVENTUALLY they're going to have to look into this issue.

 

[flawlssdistortn]

Yeah, and I think we should start with AnandTech. Their review made the K8NSNXP-939 out to be a dream come true. Using Mushkin PC3500 Level 2 or OCZ PC3500 Platinum Ltd Modules they said they encountered no instabilities in dual channel mode, and were even able to fill all 4 DIMM slots without any problem. Has anyone used this RAM? Is it stable?

 

[pantner]

Originally posted by: flawlssdistortn
So far, there's a very small list of "recommended" RAM for this motherboard, and an even smaller list put out by AMD.

i don't think thats a list for the motherboard, isn't it a list of RAM for all A64 boards?????

 

[flawlssdistortn]

If i'm not mistaken, here is the list of RAM approved for the Athlon 64: http://www.amd.com/us-en/asset...nbuffered_DIMM_AVL.pdf
And on this page of the Hardforum, a user received a list of approved RAM from Gigabyte: http://www.hardforum.com/showt...;highlight=K8NSNXP-939

 

[pantner]

oh.......i have never seen THAT one...

whoo "PMI PQI DDR 512MB PQ4D32BD5 ü"!!!!!!!!!

 

[Brickster]

Originally posted by: Ballistyx

I've got to agree with flawlssdistortn. THAT'S the primary reason why I'm so pissed off at all of this: The lack of accountability.

Point taken. Perhaps the frustration lies in Gigabyte being based in Taiwan? I.e., more disconnected with the majority of us folks in North America?

Peace!

 

[flawlssdistortn]

Eh, if they were located in the US, they'd probably outsource their tech support to India just like everyone else.

 

[Ballistyx]

Jesus Christ on a pogo stick! I LOVE MY BOARD NOW!!! WOOHOO!!

I *FINALLY* got my memory to run at DDR400 with ALL FOUR DIMMs installed! They're not even all the same brand either! The thing runs like greased lighting now (not that it was slow before... ). Want to know how I did it?

I read that link above from HardOCP's forums, and somebody there mentioned something about the bus frequency of the RAM. I also remember reading something about the HT bus not taking too kindly to being overclocked past 1Ghz. They were right on the money!

I changed the HT multiplier from 5x to 4x, set the CPU multiplier to 10.5x, and set my FSB to 245Mhz. The memory is now running at 203Mhz (DDR406). The CPU has a mild overclock @ 2572Mhz, which is higher than I could ever get it before. HT frequency is currently at 980Mhz, so I should have another 20Mhz I can go before it hits a ceiling.

For the record, I *HAD* tried this before, but I tried it with the beta F4p BIOS floating around. When I attempted it with that BIOS, my BIOS got corrupted. I just got the idea again to try it with the F3 BIOS.

 

[Zebo]

I heard run half multis gave a serious performance hit with A64///

Lemme see if I can find the link...

 

[Ballistyx]

Here's what I ended up with. I'll update later with how stable it is.

HT Speed: 1022.727 Mhz
Memory: 424.431 Mhz
AGP: 67.000 Mhz
CPU Mult: 10.0x
CPU Speed: 2556.814 Mhz

Zebo, if you were referringto the CPU Multiplier being 10.5x before, it shouldn't be an issue now. I'll have to do some benchmarking to see how she performs.

BTW, I'm folding in the background, and the CPU die (in the nv System Utility) is showing as being 25c. If it crashes, I'll make note of it here.

 

[Ballistyx]

Oh yeah.. my FSB speed is set to 255Mhz (EasyTune 5 says it's 257, but I don't believe it).

 

[pantner]

Originally posted by: Ballistyx
Here's what I ended up with. I'll update later with how stable it is.

HT Speed: 1022.727 Mhz
Memory: 424.431 Mhz
AGP: 67.000 Mhz
CPU Mult: 10.0x
CPU Speed: 2556.814 Mhz

Zebo, if you were referringto the CPU Multiplier being 10.5x before, it shouldn't be an issue now. I'll have to do some benchmarking to see how she performs.

BTW, I'm folding in the background, and the CPU die (in the nv System Utility) is showing as being 25c. If it crashes, I'll make note of it here.

whoa, cool....wats you vcore????

and wat was your CPU again??? 3500. 3800, FX53???

 

[imported_Hornswoggler]

I received my RMA'd Ballistix DDR500 module yesterday, and it ran Prime95 all night in sockets 3 and 4. I haven't tried 1 and 2 yet... as I wanted to maximize my chance for success.

Seems like the wind was blowing in my direction for a change!

 

[flawlssdistortn]

Wow, DDR500? Now is that the crucial ballistix BL3264Z505? It's on the company's compatibility list which is why I am asking. So you shouldn't have any problems (assuming crucial did their hw). As for anyone else - if you are running RAM that is on one of the two lists i posted above, please speak up!!! How stable is your system? I'd say it's good news if no one using "recommended" RAM is having problems. If i can get a guarrantee that a set of RAM will work with no instabilities, then I'll buy it. One other thing... can anyone tell me whether RAM that has been proven unstable on the K8NSNXP-939 works with the MSI mobo? And what about the A8V? I kinda figured that the A64 memory controller is a bit picky, but it is a possibility that the Nforce3 chipset just makes it worse.

 

[flawlssdistortn]

Ballistyx, please keep us updated on your progress... Have you run prime95, 3Dmark, ect? Now could you go into further into detail about the HT bus not taking kindly to being overclocked? I am not overclocking anything, but whenever i open up the Nvidia system utility, it says the HT bus is at 1005MHz and i believe the memory is a bit above 200MHZ itself. You dont think that could be causing problems do you? And could you explain a little more about what you did - whats FSB?? I thought that the HT bus replaced that. So how could you tweak HT frequency and FSB?

 

[Ballistyx]

Originally posted by: pantner

whoa, cool....wats you vcore????

and wat was your CPU again??? 3500. 3800, FX53???

I have my vcore set to 1.65v. I'm running a 3800+.

A small update. I've dropped the FSB speed to 250Mhz (CPU speed is now at 2499.612 Mhz). I noticed in 3DMark03 that when it'd do the CPU test, the framerate would plummet to almost zero.

Something strange happened when I booted my machine tonight too. It reverted back to 200Mhz. I had it set to 255Mhz, but it must not have liked that speed too much. That's why I knocked it back to 250Mhz. The other thing is that it revereted the SPD settings back to AUTO. Once I manually set that setting back to custom, and put the FSB speed to 250Mhz, it booted up just fine.

So... Heres my system speeds now:

HT Link speed: 999.845Mhz
Memory: 414.936 DDR
CPU Multi: 10.0x
CPU Speed: 2499.612

I ran Memtest86 v3.1 for almost two hours. Not one bad memory address (and it checked all 3GB of RAM too). I ended up stopping it before it completed the second pass.

-B

 

[Ballistyx]

Originally posted by: flawlssdistortn
Ballistyx, please keep us updated on your progress... Have you run prime95, 3Dmark, ect? Now could you go into further into detail about the HT bus not taking kindly to being overclocked? I am not overclocking anything, but whenever i open up the Nvidia system utility, it says the HT bus is at 1005MHz and i believe the memory is a bit above 200MHZ itself. You dont think that could be causing problems do you? And could you explain a little more about what you did - whats FSB?? I thought that the HT bus replaced that. So how could you tweak HT frequency and FSB?

OK... here goes.

The FSB I'm referring to really isn't the Front Side Bus speed, but the base CPU clock speed that the Hypertransport bus runs at (which is then multiplied by 5x for the HT link, and by your CPU's multiplier to give you the final CPU speed). You can find the setting under the M.I.T. Overclocking menu in the BIOS. If you go into the Chipset options, you can change the multiplier that the HT bus uses to multiply the base HT frequency by.

Basically, what I did was change the HT multiplier to 4x, and then set the HT frequency to 250Mhz. 250x4=1000. The only problem is that when you do this, you'll overclock the hell out of the CPU. Sooo.. you need to lower its multiplier. Thankfully, while you can't INCREASE the CPU multiplier, you *CAN* decrease it (unless you splurged on the FX-53 ). The multiplier on the 3800+ is 12x. Since I wanted a mild overclock on the CPU, setting it to a 10x multiplier would yield a final speed of 2500Mhz (or relatively close in my case). I bumped up the vcore to 1.65 to make sure it would be stable at this speed. I wasn't concerned about the extra heat this might generate, since I'm watercooling my system.

I don't remember exactly which message board I read about the HT link not liking speeds over 1Ghz, but apparently the poster of the message wasn't lying about it. I think the only reason I'm able to go a little over 1Ghz in speed (at least initially) is that I don't have stock cooling on the NF3 chip. I adapted a Swiftech MCX-159 heatsink to fit it. It's a tight fit next to the vid card, but it DOES fit.

Will this fix your issue? Hard to say for sure, but there's no harm in trying it really. Set your HT multiplier to 4X and see if it makes your system more stable. It's true that your HT link will only be running at 800Mhz, but if it's the only way to make it stable, it's a small tradeoff. Besides, you could then try to OC it and get as close to 1GHz as you can while keeping it stable.

I have run 3DMark, as well as Memtest86 v3.1. Both tests complete without any errors. At first 3DMark03 was dropping frames badly when I had the system set to a 255x4 HT link speed. After dropping it down, it seems to be a little better. I'm going to have to fool around with it over the course of the upcoming week to be certain though.

Here's what my system consists of, and what I have set in the BIOS. If there's anything you want to know, just ask.

Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 Rev 1.0 - F3 BIOS
Athlon64 Socket 939 (obviously) 3800+
Enermax 550W PSU (outputs 36A on all power rails)
Corsair TwinX 2048-3200 memory kit
Geil 512MB PC3200 ValueRAM x 2
ATI 9800Pro 128MB
Two 72GB WD Raptor SATA HD's (attached to nvidia PHY. NOT set up in a RAID config)
Two 120GB WD SE PATA HD's (connected to the SilImage controller with PATA->SATA adapters). Configured as a RAID1 mirror.
Swiftech MCX-159R heatsink slightly modified to fit onto the NF3 chipset.
Swiftech MCW5000A waterblock, modified with Swiftech's A64 retrofit kit.
Swiftech MCW-50 VGA waterblock
Swiftech MCP-600a water pump
Dual Blackice Micro radiators
Custom fill n' bleed setup
Lite-On DVD-ROM drive (attached to primary PATA controller)
Plextor 8X DVD burner. (attached to secondary PATA controller)
Mitsumi double-speed USB FDD drive (I don't have an internal FDD drive, since I rarely use it).

Memory timings set to 11/4/4/3. The TwinX kit isn't exactly high speed memory.
Memory voltage set to 2.7v. I set it this high since I'm running four DIMMs, and I have a mild OC on them as well (almost 415Mhz DDR).
HT voltage set to +0.2
CPU VCore set to 1.65v
CPU Multiplier set to 10x
HT link multiplier set to 4x
Top Performance is TURNED OFF.
Serial and Parallel ports are disabled in the BIOS.
NVRAID is disabled in the BIOS.
NVNIC is disabled in the BIOS (I use the Marvell NIC instead).

Humm.. I think that's it. If theres anything else anybody wants to know, just ask.

-B

 

[Ballistyx]

Minor update.

Methinks there's a bug in the BIOS with regards to the base CPU/HT clock speed.

When I cold-boot the computer, it reverts the clock back down to 200Mhz, and resets the SPD settings back to automatic. If I try to set the speed directly to 250Mhz, it will revert back to 200Mhz. If I first set the speed to 215Mhz and Save & Exit, it will take the new speed. I can then go back into the BIOS and set it to 250Mhz and it will then work at this speed.

It seems to me like this is a minor BIOS bug. There's no physical reason why it shouldn't work on a cold boot, but works if I do a two-step increment of the speed.

 

[pantner]

@Ballistyx

i tried using your settings, (Vcore, multi, etc) and my compu just wouldn't boot....

tried putting the multi down to 5, and the vcore up to 1.7, and the ram to a 1:2 ratio....

NOTHING.....would your water cooling be the difference, or does my chip just not overclock well??? or both