Is anyone else's Vnf4 ultra like this?

[Silversierra]

I just got a vnf4 ultra from Newegg, and it looks different than all the other pictures I've seen. Is it a newer revision or something? It has a blue pcb rather than black, and the chipset cooler has fins and says Zenith VE on it.

 

[Silversierra]

Can anyone tell me how to post a picture of my board? I don't see any way to post a pic, or can't this be done on this forum?

 

[imported_DaveA]

www.imageshack.us

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Silversierra
I just got a vnf4 ultra from Newegg, and it looks different than all the other pictures I've seen. Is it a newer revision or something? It has a blue pcb rather than black, and the chipset cooler has fins and says Zenith VE on it.

I will admit that this SOUNDS different than the one I have. Mine is identical to the VNF4 Ultra picture from the chaintech site. Without a picture though, it is hard to be certain.

Is there any possibility that you got the VNF4 Non-Ultra board by mistake. I have heard of some online sellers mis-labeling thier boards, and if yours is the Ultra, then it should have some different features to it (no hardware firewall, lack of SATA-II support, etc.).

I have been trying to locate a picture of the Non-Ultra board for comparison, but I cannot seem to find one. I will post it here if I do tho.

 

[Sniper82]

does Chaintech even have a non ultra version out? Didnt know they was gonna release one. Hard to believe its a revision aswell since its only been out what a month maybe 2(don't remember). I am interested in seening some pics.

 

[Silversierra]

No it definitely is ultra. 4 sata 2 ports, nvidia firewall, box says ultra. Odd, huh?

 

[Silversierra]

I wish I could post the picture, but I don't know how. My mobo also came with a half decent manual.

 

[Silversierra]

Ok I posted a similar thread in another forum that allows pictures. Here it is so you can see my pictures. http://www.techspot.com/vb/sho...hp?p=127642#post127642

 

[Sniper82]

have to sign up before you can view them. Open them up and copy the URL here.

 

[Silversierra]

http://www.techspot.com/vb/att...t.php?attachmentid=701
http://www.techspot.com/vb/att...t.php?attachmentid=702

 

[Silversierra]

Do the links work now? They work for me, but I'm a member.

 

[Sniper82]

not without signing up

 

[Silversierra]

I signed out and it still worked for me. Maybe because it's in my cache?
Edit: Once I cleared my cache the links wouldn't work without resigning in or signing up. Well it's free and easy to join.

 

[Silversierra]

Sorry, I didn't know that you had to be a member to view the pictures. Well I guess if you really want to see, you can sign up to techspot, because I don't know any other way to show my pics.

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Silversierra
Sorry, I didn't know that you had to be a member to view the pictures. Well I guess if you really want to see, you can sign up to techspot, because I don't know any other way to show my pics.

I went ahead and hosted them for you on my webserver. They can be accessed via these links:
http://www.oregoncomputersolut...creenshots/revblue.jpg
http://www.oregoncomputersolut...reenshots/vnf4blue.jpg

This DOES look like a new board rev -- which is interesting, since the board is still fairly new. My VNF4 Ultra does NOT look anything like this. I think I would prefer the blue PCB to the black/brown one on my board. I wonder if the new heatsink is to address the overheating problems with the original chipset heatsink. It looks like it may be harder to add a fan to this new chipset than the original though, so hopefully the new one does a better job of cooling the chipset so you won't need to!

This also makes me wonder what other changes were made -- are you able to overclock well with your board? And which BIOS came installed on yours?

 

[Silversierra]

Thanks for hosting my pictures majorpayne! I had a full board shot but it is really blurry and the rest of the board is the same as the original. I haven't tried overclocking, I'm kind of afraid to. I've never done it before, I don't know how, I could fry my board, and I'd void my warranties. But I kind of still want to for some strange reason. I've tried flashing my bios, but it has failed twice. My floppy I used is like 10 yrs. old, do they go bad? I formatted it before using it. I'm not sure what bios I have, but I tried flashing to both of the different beta bioses. I really like the color of the board. It is a nice shiny blue, if Chaintech would have put cool colored memory/pci slots and put an active cooler on the chipset this thing would be awesome. Oh, my memory timings are bad I think, but I don't really know. They are 2.5-4-4-8. I tried to lower the values, but when I tested it at 2.5-3-7-8 it was worse. I don't know what I'm doing, I don't even know what the numbers mean, I just know lower is better, like 2-2-2-2. I tried using ntune, but it says to lock my pci bus. How do I do that?

 

[Silversierra]

Yes I'm a newbie. If you want me to take more pics, just ask and tell me where to post them.

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Silversierra
Thanks for hosting my pictures majorpayne! I had a full board shot but it is really blurry and the rest of the board is the same as the original. I haven't tried overclocking, I'm kind of afraid to. I've never done it before, I don't know how, I could fry my board, and I'd void my warranties. But I kind of still want to for some strange reason. I've tried flashing my bios, but it has failed twice. My floppy I used is like 10 yrs. old, do they go bad? I formatted it before using it. I'm not sure what bios I have, but I tried flashing to both of the different beta bioses. I really like the color of the board. It is a nice shiny blue, if Chaintech would have put cool colored memory/pci slots and put an active cooler on the chipset this thing would be awesome. Oh, my memory timings are bad I think, but I don't really know. They are 2.5-4-4-8. I tried to lower the values, but when I tested it at 2.5-3-7-8 it was worse. I don't know what I'm doing, I don't even know what the numbers mean, I just know lower is better, like 2-2-2-2. I tried using ntune, but it says to lock my pci bus. How do I do that?

Overclocking is fairly safe with the stock cooling if you do not go to far. As for the floppy, YES they go bad, and I would trust a 10 year old floppy with my BIOS flash about as far as I can throw my wife's minivan (which is not far). I would definitely get a new set of floppies (they are pretty cheap) and try again.

Colored PCI slots and memory slots of a better color would have been nice (the default colors ARE pretty drab) but that new blue PCB is pretty nice looking.

For your memory, the timings you can set will depend on what kind of RAM you have, and who makes it. Let me know what it is, and who made it, and I should be able to look up the available timings for you.

To test the RAM (and see if it is stable at the timings/overclock you set), I use a utility called memtest. It can be found at http://www.memtest86.com/, and I usually let it complete several passes, which takes a while. To test if the whole system is stable, I use superpi, which can be found at http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=36. You can usually overclock until you get errors in superpi, and then back off a little on your overclock. For long-term stability, I run prime95 (which can be found at http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm) overnight, and make sure I do not have errors. If you pass memtest, superpi, and prime95 with no errors, then you are rock stable at your overclock.

Overclocking with this board is fairly simple. You can set the HTT speed (default is 200), and moving this up moves up the speed of your CPU and memory at the same time. Your CPU speed is equal to the CPU multiplier times the HTT speed, so if you have an A64 3000+ witha 9x multi like me, just multiply this times the HTT speed to get the CPU speed (at stock, my 9x CPU speed times the 200HTT speed gets me 1800MHZ)

There IS a PCI lock on this board, but it only kicks in if you up the HTT speed in BIOS by a small amount, so to get it to lock for Ntune, just change your HTT speed to 205 or so, and it will be automatically locked in Windows for you. As you scale up the HTT speed, you will need to drop your RAM speed back some to counteract the affect. For most 400MHZ DDR, you need to change the speed to 266 to go above about 205, and you need to change the speed to 133 to go past 240HTT.

You also need to change your HTT multiplier (which is found in the advanced chipset section of the BIOS) before you can go above about 205. It is defaulted to a 5X multiplier, and you are never supposed to go past around 1000HTT (final HTT speed is found by multiplying the HTT speed by the HTT multiplier). So the default HTT speed of 200 times the 5X default multi gets you 1000 off the bat, which is why you have to change it to 4X right away when overclocking. You must change it to 3X if you want to go past 250 HTT.

Voltages will probably also need to be changed as well. CPU voltage for my CPU is 1.4V (yours may be different), and I have upped this as far as 1.65V on stock aircooling. Your CPU likely requires extra voltage for a high overclock (I am currently running at 300HTT, which sets my CPU at 2.7GHZ). I would NOT change the stock chipset voltage unless you add a fan to your chipset's heatsink, since the only reviewer working on this board damaged his by upping this voltage, and going above 300HTT. This may not affect you though, since your board has a newer style of heatsink (I still would not try it). RAM voltage may not need to be changed, and I would not guess where to set your RAM without knowing what kind it is.

I hope this helps, and if there is anything not clear (or not explained) above, let me know. I will be happy to fill in any blanks. And if you want to add more pictures, just send me a private message (I already sent you one earlier), and I will send you my email address. I own my own server, so I can host additional pics (a clean shot of the whole board would be nice to have).

 

[Silversierra]

Ok thanks a lot. I guess I'll get new floppies. I already have memtest, prime 95, everest, and aquamark3. My ram is 512mb (2x256) Kingmax dual channel cl=2.5 single sided. http://www.newegg.com/app/View...tion=20-156-019&depa=1
My processor is AMD a64 3000+ @1.8 in socket 939. My video card is Jaton px-6600gt pci express 128mb. I don't know if I can overclock though. I don't think my psu can handle it, I was lucky that it can run it as is. It is a 350watt Antec with 21a on 12v.

 

[Silversierra]

What do you mean by "For most 400MHZ DDR, you need to change the speed to 266 to go above about 205, and you need to change the speed to 133 to go past 240HTT."? What is 266? The memory? Is pc3200 running at 3200, 400, or 200? I seem to see all three of these numbers associated with this type of memory. Also, what are dividers for memory? A lot of times I see someone recommend running dividers on their memory, and it helps them overclock more.

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

btw, the VNF4 and VNF4/Ultra are identical. They use the same PCB, BIOS, etc. When Chaintech says "VNF4/Ultra" instead of "VNF 4 Ultra" they mean something like "VNF4 series". That's why most people think the non-Ultra doesn't have a description at Chaintech's global site - they share the page.

For this isse, I will re-post my reply from other forums:
I think its just Chaintech changing the colors on the PCB - the board is not necessarily a new revision.

Here's a newegg user comment on the Chaintech SK8T800 ATX board:
"Had mine for a few days now and the one I got is Dark Blue not black , anyway, very stable,... "
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...tion=13-152-039&depa=1

As for the different heatsink - remember the VNF4 Ultra was very early to the market. Maybe this new one just got delivered to them now. It doesn't look better to me - on the contrary.

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Silversierra
What do you mean by "For most 400MHZ DDR, you need to change the speed to 266 to go above about 205, and you need to change the speed to 133 to go past 240HTT."? What is 266? The memory? Is pc3200 running at 3200, 400, or 200? I seem to see all three of these numbers associated with this type of memory. Also, what are dividers for memory? A lot of times I see someone recommend running dividers on their memory, and it helps them overclock more.

A divider for memory underclocks the memory when your overclock moves the memory's clockspeed out of spec. PC3200 DDR is also called 3200DDR, 400MHZ DDR, etc. It is all the same, and it runs at 400MHZ. The BIOS base speed for the memory is doubled, so even though the BIOS memory speed shows 200MHZ at default, it is running at 2x200MHZ, or 400MHZ, which is where it is supposed to go. If you up your HTT speed (which is lableled as CPU frequency in the Frequency/Voltage Control section in this board's BIOS), then the memory speed goes up too, so if you change HTT to 205, you get memory running at 410 MHZ, which is running 10MHZ over the spec for 400MHZ DDR.

Some people purchase memory rated at a higher speed so that they can overclock the memory further. In theory, PC4200 memory, which is specd to run at 533MHZ should be able to go to a higher clock speed than 400MHZ memory, but I have not seen this work out quite that way. It DOES seem to be able to clock higher, but I have not seen anyone personally who could run thier memory at 533MHZ (which I think it a limitation of the motherboard, more than the memory).

In order to implement a divider on your memory, go into the Frequency/Voltage Control section of the BIOS, and go into the DRAM configuration section. In here is a value called Memclock Index Value (Mhz). This IS the divider setting for your ram. It is set to default at 200MHZ (which is doubled to get the actual final RAM speed of 400MHZ). To go further in overclocking, you will reach a point where you will have to drop this back to 166 (which doubled sets a default clock of 333MHZ roughly).

The increased speed of your HTT (CPU frequency in this BIOS) will still have upped this from the standard value. At 240HTT, your ram will be running at about 410MHZ (if I remember correctly) at a 166 divider. The formula to caculate your final RAM speed gets trickier with an overclock (and a divider).

Basically, you take the amount of overclock above the stock (at 240HTT, this would be 40), add it to the base RAM speed at your current divider (which at the divider is 166), and double it to get ROUGHLY the final RAM speed. In this example at 240HTT with a 166 divider it would equate to (40+166) X 2, which equals 412MHZ final speed.

I say ROUGHLY, because my board always seems to differ from my calculation by a few MHZ. Above 240, you will likely have to go to an even lower divider -- 133MHZ. The calculation is the same though, so at 250, you should get (50+133) X 2, which gives you a final RAM speed of 366.

Which brings me to the the issue with RAM dividers. Initially in your overclock, when you have to kick in a RAM divider, you are underclocking your RAM. This will go away as you clock your clock/HTT higher, but at the point where you have to turn on the divider, you may LOSE performance over the point in your overclock right before you enabled the divider because you will only have gained a few MHZ in CPU clock speed, but LOST some (or a lot at a 133 divider) of ram clock speed. So when you implement a divider, it is a good idea to explore how far you can overclock at that divider, and see if it is actually an improvement over your maximum overclock with a lower divider.

One final note, at some point you will need to lower your HTT multiplier (explained in a previous post above). Lowering the HTT multiplier does NOT change either your CPU clockspeed, or your RAM clockspeed, it only affects the final speed of the HTT bus. As long as your HTT multiplier (which can be set to 1 though 5) multiplied by your HTT /CPU speed is less than 1000, you are fine. The HTT bus seems to work best when between 600 and 1000MHZ, so if you are below 1000, but above 600, you should only lose a very small amount in benchmarks.

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: ChineseDemocracyGNR
btw, the VNF4 and VNF4/Ultra are identical. They use the same PCB, BIOS, etc. When Chaintech says "VNF4/Ultra" instead of "VNF 4 Ultra" they mean something like "VNF4 series". That's why most people think the non-Ultra doesn't have a description at Chaintech's global site - they share the page.

For this isse, I will re-post my reply from other forums:
I think its just Chaintech changing the colors on the PCB - the board is not necessarily a new revision.

Here's a newegg user comment on the Chaintech SK8T800 ATX board:
"Had mine for a few days now and the one I got is Dark Blue not black , anyway, very stable,... "
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...tion=13-152-039&depa=1

As for the different heatsink - remember the VNF4 Ultra was very early to the market. Maybe this new one just got delivered to them now. It doesn't look better to me - on the contrary.

I agree with you that this is probably NOT a new revision -- I believe that the sticker on the new board even says revision 1.00, which answers that question). I agree with you on the new heatsink, I am not sure if it is an improvement, and since I would put a fan on it right away (if the new heatsink design can even accomodate a fan), the new shiny logo would be hidden anyway. I DO like the blue PCB though, I think it looks much better in a windowed case environment. I personally would like it if board makers figured out how to make PCB's themselves uv-reactive, since then your whole board could glow!

 

[Silversierra]

Sometimes if I'm playing bf 1942, it will stutter a little when action gets intense. A 6600gt should be able to run bf1942 like butter, so is it a game issue, my processor (3000+), or my ram(512mb)? Also, is it a bad idea to overclock a cheap brand video card? My 6600gt is a Jaton(it was cheapest), but I regret not getting brand name. Will the cheap brand make it not suitable for overclocking?

 

[Interitus]

i'm not a bf42 gamer, but i imagine it would be hurting on 512mb of RAM. Could be wrong, just my first guess.