The EPoX 4G4A+ seems very promising.

[gsethi]

Originally posted by: nic949
Could someone please tell me where to find the Old 4/24 BIOS for this board?

Thanks

Nic, i have the 4/24 Bios and i would be glad to send it to you. I wonder if there is some way to backup my bios inorder to send it to you ? I remember someone was talking about such a program.......you have any info ?

btw, did you check the Epox site ? I wonder if emailing the Epox support will help you ?

 

[CTPAX]

You can find the BIOS in the AOA Files section, just search for '4g4a'. Btw. theres also a beta bios dated 07/09.

 

[nic949]

Originally posted by: nic949
Could someone please tell me where to find the Old 4/24 BIOS for this board?

Thanks

Will anyone ever answer my question? Please.

 

[nic949]

Thank you so much. YOUR THE MAN!

 

[nic949]

Damn they dont have the 4/24 BIOS this is all they have.

4G4A+ BIOS

4g4a2424.zip - July 16, 2002
EPoX 4G4A+ Original Bios Supplied with board

4g4a2709.BIN - August 3, 2002
2709 BETA BIOS For the 4G4A Epox Motherboard

 

[CTPAX]

The last 3 digits show the date:
2424 - 4/24
2709 - 7/09.

The other dates are the upload dates.

 

[gsethi]

nic949....PM me if you still need the BIOS if that file from the Epox site is not the 4/24 one. I will back it up and send it to you.

btw, i wonder if anyone tried the new BETA bios and noticed any differences ?

thanks
gsethi

 

[nic949]

Well i used to only be able to run my 1.8A @ 2.21 Ghz at a 1:1 mem ratio with 1.725 Vcore and 2.6 Vdimm with the 6/17 BIOS
Now im running it at 2.53 Ghz with 3:4 mem ratio and 1.6 vcore and a 2.7 vdimm.
Im loving it.

Thanks for the info on the BIOS.

Tomarrow ill try to hit 150 fsb!

 

[Acer]

Anyone needing bios 2424 and the latest beta bios can GO HERE at AOAForum files section to download those 2 puppies....

 

[WideMouth40]

Well, after following this thread for a while, I decided on the 4g4a+. My system is as follows:

1.6A - @2.624 gig 1.7 volts
Corsair xms 3200 2.1 - 2.7 volts 2/6/3/3
ax478 heatsink
SB Audigy
Hercules Radeon 8500 128 mb OC'ed to 300/300
Liteon DVD
plextor 24/10/40
IBM 60 Gig
Maxtor 80 Gig
2 x IBM G120 80 gig drives in raid 0 on the highpoint
Antec True Blue 480 power supply
FSB - 164

win98se(yeah yeah, I know...)

I'm running with the AGP locked and using the latest Intel chipset driver and inf files. I'm rock solid with the FSB@164 with the 4/5 mem ratio - mem settings @ 2/6/3/3. I really didn't expect such a good OC or for the memory to run at such aggressive settings, but I am one happy OCer. Runs prime 24 hours straight while using all other programs. Loops through 3Dmark2001 for 24 hours too. Sweeeet!

The only problem I have is I keep getting prompted for some PCI USB drivers, which I don't seem to have. I'll read back on this thread and see if its been addressed. Oh, one other issue, when I look to set the DMA on my drives, the option doesn't appear. Are the intel drivers taking care of this by themselves? Thanks for all the advice I've read here!

Peace

 

[gsethi]

the PCI USB drivers are on your CD. You need to install those drivers for your USB ports to work right. They are the USB ports supported by ICH4, hence they are USB drivers by Intel.

 

[Acer]

Originally posted by: WideMouth40
The only problem I have is I keep getting prompted for some PCI USB drivers, which I don't seem to have. I'll read back on this thread and see if its been addressed. Oh, one other issue, when I look to set the DMA on my drives, the option doesn't appear. Are the intel drivers taking care of this by themselves? Thanks for all the advice I've read here! Peace

Here is the exact location on your cdrom:\DRIVER\INTEL\ICH4\usb2ww50\ich4driver
Your USB drivers are located there.

 

[jdogg707]

Ok, new question...is anyone using the Highpoint controller in RAID 0 gettingg loow benchmark scores? I have two WD 80GB 7200RPM UDMA100 2MB Cache drives hooked up to it in Raid 0 using 64K clusters...and am getting a Sandra score of 28K, the comparison ATA100 setup was getting somewhere like 38K, and some people are reporting that they get into the 40's. What is the problem and where or whoo has an annswer...? Thanks.

 

[Acer]

Your best or fastest stripe/cluster size is 16K/8K. Are you using WinXP? That is the best operating system for Raid 0. There is difference of opinion between which files system you should use. I used NTFS. I've used FAT32 and I couldn't see very much difference between the two. I'll tell you that NTFS is safer and more secure file system. I have a pair of IBM 120 GXP's and this how they do in Raid 0 16K/8K.

My test were run at 150 FSB with an UNLOCKED PCI bus speed of 37.5 mhz. If you keep the bus locked at 33 mhz then the Writes will be lower by 10-15%.

I ran the test on ATTO. You can download it here. About mid way down on the page you will see this file name: Windows SCSI Utilities Version 1.63. Select that file at the bottom.

EDIT: I set my Latency in the bios to 224 or 248. The default Latency is 32 and with Raid, a higher Latency is better but experiment to see how it affects your drives. When I ran the test, I ran it from my single IDE drive looking across into the Raid Array so the G: drive (5G partition) would be the C: drive if I ran it within the Raid setup.

 

[WideMouth40]

Originally posted by: Acer

Originally posted by: WideMouth40
The only problem I have is I keep getting prompted for some PCI USB drivers, which I don't seem to have. I'll read back on this thread and see if its been addressed. Oh, one other issue, when I look to set the DMA on my drives, the option doesn't appear. Are the intel drivers taking care of this by themselves? Thanks for all the advice I've read here! Peace

Here is the exact location on your cdrom:\DRIVER\INTEL\ICH4\usb2ww50\ich4driver
Your USB drivers are located there.

Thank you, thank you, thank you....they were just where you said they'd be.

Peace

 

[Acer]

WideMouth40 I am glad it made it easier to find those drivers. To me, that is what these forums are all about, sharing info. Helping others w/o lecturing if that is possible. hehehe

 

[gsethi]

Hmm.....weird thing that i noticed today in my Device Manager

I have 2 Maxtor IDE HDs installed in my system on Raid controllers being used as IDE. One is on IDE 3 (master) and other is on IDE 4 (master)....I know i should setup a raid array but thats not the question here.

My HDs are IDE drives whereas they show up as SCSI drives in my Device Manager....anyone wonder why ??

UPDATE: I think i know why. My HDs are on the Raid channel and Raid channel is showing up inside "SCSI and Raid Controllers" in the device manager. Since the drives are not in raid array, i wonder if XP (or is it my mobo) reports them as SCSI drives (the only other option ??).....weird isnt it ?

btw, helping others w/o explaining them their problem makes no sense to me. If you dont explain (or as some people call it "lecture") the problem to the person and he encounters the same problem again, he will have no way to solve the problem on his own.

thanks
gsethi

 

[Sukhoi]

They're reported as SCSI drives because Windows sees them as being on a SCSI controller.

 

[om3gaboost]

 

[om3gaboost]

Sorry about the last post...

but onto my question

i've been reading how people who try to run 2 sticks of 512 mb pc2700 always run into problems.
why is this?
is it cause the board "unoffically" supports pc2700?

i think im sold on this board..but not qute yet though

 

[krazisoljahz]

Has anyone tried this bios? i saw it at tweaktown and its dated may 10 2002linky

Well i flashed it and its as great as april 24, no differences, but i'll keep this just to feel like my board is updated =P. I have no luck overclocking with the newer bios.

 

[Acer]

I have and I would not recommend using it unless you are paying attention to the specific bios settings. What it does; it changes the default setting for Dram timing and your Vcore. That's right, Vcore! So, if you tell the bios to just load the default settings and immediately save, which you would automatically exit the bios, it would then increase your Vcore to the cpu by +0.1V. So, instead of getting 1.5V, you would be getting 1.6V. To me, that is not a good idea especially if you are not into o/cing. Why pump more voltage and make more heat in the process if you don't need to.

The other change that I saw was the change in Dram settings. Epox approaches Dram timing by reading the Serial Presence Detect (SPD) chip on the memory stick. That is what Epox uses for the default setting. Now this guy who mod the bios has the Dram set to Turbo using 2.5, 5-3-2. Those settings with the wrong stick of memory installed on the board could possibly give you some headaches even at 133 FSB and DDR set to 4:5 ratio.

 

[krazisoljahz]

Thanks for the info acer, but my motherboard needs juiced to stay stable, i have to set my vcore at 1.80 for everything to be in stable especially games. Because when i play games it can drop a full .1 causing my games to freeze. On motherboard mem shows a small increase, so maybe it be better for me. The vdimm i guess i'll stick with default, my fake samsungs dont like turbo =(. Thanks acer

soljahz


I see what you mean about the vcore, when i decrease it at the bios, it drops very minamal. At 1.8 it idles at 1.81, When i set it at 1.75, it idles at 1.81 also. This is all coming from mbm. Thanks for the heads up, might flash back now if i get probs.

 

[Acer]

So, you changed the Dram timing to "SPD"?

 

[krazisoljahz]

Yes, i have it on spd. Is there a way to check the cas when windows loads up? Because my sandra always shows inaccurately. I would set it at 2.5,3,3. Sandra will always show it at 2, 2, 2