**Official** Epox 8RDA+ Nforce2 Thread

[Pjotr]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Since the 800Mb/sec (400Mb/sec in each direction) is what nVidia claims for nForce2 as well, it seems reasonable to guess that 200MHz is the Hypertransport bus's native operating frequency.

nForce/nForce2 HyperTransport is 400 MHz DDR x 8 bit wide. This has nothing to do with the FSB to the CPU.

Also, nForce/nForce2 has asynchronous operation between PCI/AGP/FSB. This means they are all set independently. FSB can be adjusted to anything you want in BIOS (100-200+ depending on board), AGP can be set to anything you want in BIOS (66 MHz for example), but PCI is not adjustable via BIOS, it is always 33 MHz.

 

[MichaelD]

I just ordered this board. If it has 6-channel sound (I only need 4 for my Klipsch 4.1 PMs) , how do you get the other channels, as the Audio Seciton only has the standard three 1/8 jacks?

Do I have to buy another connector? I wanted to get rid of my SBLive card.

 

[whitelight]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
I just ordered this board. If it has 6-channel sound (I only need 4 for my Klipsch 4.1 PMs) , how do you get the other channels, as the Audio Seciton only has the standard three 1/8 jacks?

Do I have to buy another connector? I wanted to get rid of my SBLive card.

to get 5.1 the software remaps the 3 jacks so they are front / rear / center & sub.

 

[cnicol]

Originally posted by: whitelight

Originally posted by: MichaelD
I just ordered this board. If it has 6-channel sound (I only need 4 for my Klipsch 4.1 PMs) , how do you get the other channels, as the Audio Seciton only has the standard three 1/8 jacks?

Do I have to buy another connector? I wanted to get rid of my SBLive card.

to get 5.1 the software remaps the 3 jacks so they are front / rear / center & sub.

Does it have the option to just pass a digital (coax) 5.1 stream out (to a receiver for decoding)?

 

[KiltedFool]

Discussion of whether the SPDIF out is included in the retail box.

 

[Cybordolphin]

Having problems with this board as are others.

Be sure to do your homework before you buy this motherboard.

 

[HoMeZ]

Hello all this will be my first post YAY!!! anyways I am thinking about getting this board, but I have some questions:
1. Does this board kill Geforce 4's? I read in some forums people were having trouble with it. I have a ti4200 and I want to keep it working.
2. How does the sound on the board compare to Turtle Beach Sanata Cruz?
3.I have a 1800+ palamino Could i use the h/s and fan that came with the retail package if I o/ced it?
4. Does anyone have a newbie guide to o/c'in because I have no clue how to, but would liek to o/c my video card and my proc.

 

[KiltedFool]

The rumor of this board killing GF4 cards springs strictly due to inattention on the part of the builder.

The AGP slot is very close to the memory slots, to the degree that the locks to hold memory in place must be closed when you install your AGP card or they will collide. The GF4s were killed because the clips were open when the AGP card was installed and the end of the lever knocked a resistor off of the card.

This means install and lock down your memory before installing your GF4, and pay close attention when seating your card, don't just cram it in.

KF
edit:
I don't O/C but my understanding is a Palomino will not OC without doing a physical mod to the chip to unlock it. If your budget allows, I'd recommend buying a Thoroughbred, which comes from the factory unlocked and ready to be OC'ed. The other old hands here will be far more helpful in the newbie assist area, though the CPU/Overclocking forum would be better.

 

[HoMeZ]

Cool thanks for the info, but I already bought the chip. It would be a waste if I didn't use it. And should i post to that forum even for vid card overclocking?

 

[SpideyCU]

Try searching for Coolbits (if you have an nVidia card), or PowerStrip for any card, including nVidia ones.

Even if your processor isn't unlocked, with good memory, you can do some decent overclocking on the FSB alone. Multiplier overclocking is icing on the cake.

 

[HoMeZ]

What do you mean searching for coolbits? What is that? Search the anandtech forums?

 

[SpideyCU]

I meant Google. Coolbits is a registry hack that lets you overclock nVidia cards from the Advanced options tab within Windows, rather than having to run a separate program.

 

[Balex99]

Since this is the official 8RDA+ thread, I thought I would post here to see if anyone could help me out. Here is my quote from another forum that pretty much spells it out:

"I am having problems with my Iwill side raid 100 pci card. This card has worked before in two different boards, both with ME. Only thing different is motherboard. All goes well on the install of ME. The problem starts with the driver installation. I install the PCI mass storage driver(latest)(raid card). Reboot. Everything OK. I install the Nvidia MB drivers(latest). Reboot. Windows cannot access the registry. System crashes. I change the order of installation. Same result. I have since got the system working without the raid card. Everything great. I saw several posts on the non istallation of IDE drivers. I don't seem to have that option. Its all or nothing. I have not tried moving the raid card as some have mentioned about the functioning of some of the PCI slots. May try later. I have both serial ports and parallel port disabled. Using onboard lan and sound. Working fine."

Any ideas??

 

[etrin]

Sorry for posting this without checking the official epox site first. Sorry for the post
Etrin

 

[HoMeZ]

Thanks Spidey and would you happen to know if I need to add anything to the vid card so it doesn't burn up on me?

 

[SpideyCU]

The % by which you're going to overclock the video card isn't nearly big enough to burn it out. The signs of problem you'd see when overclocking more than the card can handle would be pecularities on the screen when it's being heavily used (3D games and such - artifacts appearing) or you might get memory errors in some games. I haven't ever run into an issue where overclocking the video card (at least to the degree that Coolbits lets you) would damage it in the long-run, but I'm by no means an expert on it. A look around on the Video forums isn't a bad idea.

 

[HoMeZ]

Thanks would you happen to know of any websites where I can find out how much I should o/c my card? I searched anandtech for it but people just post #'s and I don't really know what they mean.

 

[Balex99]

Just an update. Got my raid card working. Changed from pci slot 5 to slot 4. Changed some other things but I believe this had the most impact. Hope this helps someone else.

 

[HoMeZ]

Balex99 How much does an ide pci card cost?

 

[crisscross]

Hi! Having a small issue. my Epox 8RDA+ doesn't shutdown after I put a 1MB PCI Video Card (i know i need a better card, but this is only a interim solution until i get a Radeon 64MB 8500LE. I am having trouble locating it online) The system restarts even when I click on shutdown. Any ideas?

 

[lchen66666]

Just got 8RDA+ and installed bare OS.

I found that MCP-T chip is extramly HOT.

Any suggestion ? Do I need to put a heatsink on it ?

Which heatsink fits for this chipset ? and how to install it ?

Thanks

 

[Balex99]

If I remember correctly I paid around 50 bucks a year ago. With the new 8meg cache hard drives out it almost isnt worth it. Just picked up a WD 80GB SE for $60 AR. (two of those stripped would be nice) It still smokes most of the other machines at the lan parties when we start loading up the maps in BF1942.

 

[Cybordolphin]

Tornado.... what OS are you running?

 

[crisscross]

Windows XP. Do u think it could be because of the OS? I manually switch off the PC when it reboots (BIOS initialisation period) is that bad?

Thanx

 

[HoMeZ]

Hmmm Balex I just need to add on more hdd's =]