- Dec 23, 2004
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I have had my Chaintech VNF4 for several weeks now, and I have been working my tail off, trying to get the maximum overclock out of it solely using the BIOS. The BIOS has been very overclock friendly, allowing me to easily reach 240 HTT (after dropping my HTT multi to 4x, lowering the memory divider to 166, and upping my voltages a small amount). At these settings, my A64 3000+ was running at 2.16 GHZ (overclocked by 360 MHZ) at between 22 and 26 degrees C, and my memory (4 sticks of 400MHZ Kingston HyperX) was running at 406MHZ at 2-2-2-11 timings in Dual Channel Mode.
At this point, I reached a wall with overclocking using the BIOS -- no matter what I have tried, I was not able to get even 1 point over 240HTT. I tried lowering the HTT multi to 2x (even 1X), dropping the memory divider to 133, adding small amounts of voltage to the CPU, Ram, and the Chipset itself, and relaxing the memory timings -- it all did no good. Every setting I tried where HTT was over 240 resulted in a reboot to "safe settings", where my processor was automatically clocked down to protect me from myself, and the computer asked me to politely choose a different setting! Obviously the temps would indicate further overclocking possibility from this board/CPU, but the BIOS wasn't having any of it. So I decided to try another avenue.
I normally prefer to overclock solely using the BIOS, but in this case, this is obviously not possible, so I tried the NVidia N-Tune software that came with the board -- this ALSO is not a workable way to overclock this board. For some reason, the N-tune software will not let me move beyond any setting that results in a final HTT speed of over 800 at 4X, 750 at 3x (which gives me a 250, a mere 10 points above the BIOS' maximum overclock), and 500 at 2x (also 10 points above the BIOS limit of 240). Clearly this is not the way to overclock this board.
Next, I tried ClockGen, which is a very useful CPU overclocking tool. Using ClockGen, I was finally able to find the true limit of my board/CPU's overclocking potential. At a 3X HTT multiplier, with a 133 RAM divider, and my timings relaxed slightly to 2-3-3-11, I was able to reach 290HTT before things started to get unstable! It initially appears stable at 300+, but running prime, etc. can cause errors and lockups, and I was starting to worry about my temps (which were hitting 40+ degrees under load).
My final stable overclock (using BIOS to overclock to 240HTT as described above), and then clockgen launched hidden at boot to set the remaining overclock) is as follows: HTT is at 290, with a 3X multi, so final HTT bus speed is 870 (not too bad). CPU speed at this overclock is 2.61 MHZ (an 810MHZ overclock -- not bad at all!). Memory is running at 372.6 MHZ, which is a little lower than I wanted, but not too bad (I was hoping to hit the "sweet spot" at HTT of 315, where my memory would be back to 400MHZ).
I am running this board with a Gigabyte 6600GT (also overclocked slightly), and dual 120GB Western Digital SATA 7200 RPM, 8MB Cache Hard Drives, and my 3dmark 03 score (which was around 10,000 at stock) is now at around 11180! So I am quite happy with the boost my system gets from this overclock. I have posted links to some of the screenshots from my system.
Link1: CPU-Z showing processor and HTT speeds
Link2: CPU-Z showing memory settings
Link3: Everest showing system settings
Overall, I have been very happy with this motherboard... For a brand new technology (first Non-SLI Nforce 4 Ultra board I could find to purchase), with no reviews (still!), this has been an excellent motherboard. I was happy at 240HTT using BIOS to overclock, and I am happier at 290HTT (using BIOS overclock and ClockGen together). My only wish is for a new BIOS that could unlock the overclocking potential of this board, so that I can reach 290HTT without ClockGen!
At this point, I reached a wall with overclocking using the BIOS -- no matter what I have tried, I was not able to get even 1 point over 240HTT. I tried lowering the HTT multi to 2x (even 1X), dropping the memory divider to 133, adding small amounts of voltage to the CPU, Ram, and the Chipset itself, and relaxing the memory timings -- it all did no good. Every setting I tried where HTT was over 240 resulted in a reboot to "safe settings", where my processor was automatically clocked down to protect me from myself, and the computer asked me to politely choose a different setting! Obviously the temps would indicate further overclocking possibility from this board/CPU, but the BIOS wasn't having any of it. So I decided to try another avenue.
I normally prefer to overclock solely using the BIOS, but in this case, this is obviously not possible, so I tried the NVidia N-Tune software that came with the board -- this ALSO is not a workable way to overclock this board. For some reason, the N-tune software will not let me move beyond any setting that results in a final HTT speed of over 800 at 4X, 750 at 3x (which gives me a 250, a mere 10 points above the BIOS' maximum overclock), and 500 at 2x (also 10 points above the BIOS limit of 240). Clearly this is not the way to overclock this board.
Next, I tried ClockGen, which is a very useful CPU overclocking tool. Using ClockGen, I was finally able to find the true limit of my board/CPU's overclocking potential. At a 3X HTT multiplier, with a 133 RAM divider, and my timings relaxed slightly to 2-3-3-11, I was able to reach 290HTT before things started to get unstable! It initially appears stable at 300+, but running prime, etc. can cause errors and lockups, and I was starting to worry about my temps (which were hitting 40+ degrees under load).
My final stable overclock (using BIOS to overclock to 240HTT as described above), and then clockgen launched hidden at boot to set the remaining overclock) is as follows: HTT is at 290, with a 3X multi, so final HTT bus speed is 870 (not too bad). CPU speed at this overclock is 2.61 MHZ (an 810MHZ overclock -- not bad at all!). Memory is running at 372.6 MHZ, which is a little lower than I wanted, but not too bad (I was hoping to hit the "sweet spot" at HTT of 315, where my memory would be back to 400MHZ).
I am running this board with a Gigabyte 6600GT (also overclocked slightly), and dual 120GB Western Digital SATA 7200 RPM, 8MB Cache Hard Drives, and my 3dmark 03 score (which was around 10,000 at stock) is now at around 11180! So I am quite happy with the boost my system gets from this overclock. I have posted links to some of the screenshots from my system.
Link1: CPU-Z showing processor and HTT speeds
Link2: CPU-Z showing memory settings
Link3: Everest showing system settings
Overall, I have been very happy with this motherboard... For a brand new technology (first Non-SLI Nforce 4 Ultra board I could find to purchase), with no reviews (still!), this has been an excellent motherboard. I was happy at 240HTT using BIOS to overclock, and I am happier at 290HTT (using BIOS overclock and ClockGen together). My only wish is for a new BIOS that could unlock the overclocking potential of this board, so that I can reach 290HTT without ClockGen!