Official DFI NF4Ultra-D/SLi owners thread.

smids · 5 Apr 2006 at 01:51

Scoobie Dave said:
Here's the English version:

http://www.biosflash.com/e/bios-boot-cd.htm

It's actually quite easy to make when you know how

On my storage drive there is a 500MB partition of FAT32. FAT can be accessed directly from DOS so I put everything I need in their, load up a DOS CD/floppy and flash from the HDU - much safer than flashing from a CD even. It also allows you to save log files etc when using HD fitness checkers etc from DOS. It's a good method I think.

tomos · 5 Apr 2006 at 10:46

on my SLI-DR mobo i have the ram in the orange slots at the mo, i want to make changes to the internal setup which would need the ram to be in the yellow slots instead. prob is they wont work.

which dual channel 2GB kit works in the yellow slots?

p.s. using bios 7042bta on there at the mo since its better for ram compatability

smids · 5 Apr 2006 at 11:48

tomos said:
on my SLI-DR mobo i have the ram in the orange slots at the mo, i want to make changes to the internal setup which would need the ram to be in the yellow slots instead. prob is they wont work.

which dual channel 2GB kit works in the yellow slots?

p.s. using bios 7042bta on there at the mo since its better for ram compatability

2GB RAM does indeed work in the yellow slots - I used that at first with my ZX which I had before. It allows tighter timings in those slots (than the orange) but they do not clock well at all. Loose timings and high FSB in those slots may not work as I found out.

tomos · 5 Apr 2006 at 12:02

was thinking about either:

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC4000 Dual Channel Gold GX XTC Series EL-DDR CAS3

or

Mushkin 2GB DDR XP4000 Extreme Performance Dual Channel Kit (2x1GB)

or what about

Corsair 2GB DDR XMS4000PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS3 (MY-094-CS)

?

smids · 5 Apr 2006 at 12:07

Why the Samsung UCCC chips? I would either choose infineon CE-6 type PC4000 3-3-2-8 or PC3200 2-3-2-5 and use a divider. Remember timings are more important to an A64 than bandwidth.

tomos · 5 Apr 2006 at 12:56

havent conciously chosen uccc over bh5 or vice versa. - i've just heard good things about the above thats all.

thing is, bandwidth does help in my experience. not as much as timings but it helps. i do a lot of video encoding and have noticed running the ballistix @ 280mhz v 200 stock (with cpu running overclocked both times), the encoding is faster.

more than that - i need ram that will *deff* work in the yellow slots which are picky as hell

smids · 5 Apr 2006 at 13:01

Fair enough. However, I hate to break this one to you - the yellow slots REALLY don't like high FSB. They only like low timings and FSB to about 250mhz. I was testing out my RAM which wouldn't get stable @ 255mhz with my EB - would reach the Verifying DMI Pool data screen and just reboot. Simply swapping the slots and it booted fine. That's how picky. Lickewise, I was going for 218mhz 2-3-2-5 - perfectly fine in the yellow slots but would reboot continuously in the orange slots. I'm currently running (despite my sig) my EB @ 234mhz 2.5-3-2-6 which is faster than before which was 3-3-2-5 @ 255mhz. OK, there's not much in it but it does indeed run faster (SuperPi).

tomos · 5 Apr 2006 at 13:07

ah ok, can still bump it up as high as it will go tho cant i?

2-3-2-5 are generally the lowest timings arent they? will have a look at OCUK for RAM that can do those.

tomos · 5 Apr 2006 at 13:16

how about these

Mushkin 2GB DDR HP3200 CAS Latency : 2-3-2

or

G.Skill 2GB DDR ZX PC3200
CAS Latency : 2-3-2-5

or

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 Platinum
CAS Latency : 2-3-2-5

the mushkin seems to have good clocking potential and seems to keep low timings at decent speeds

smids · 5 Apr 2006 at 13:34

Usually Muskins clock pretty well, OCZ are a good bet too and G.Skill too. So basically they are all good choices. The Mushkins might clock further.

Bear in mind - all these use the same Infineon CE-6 chips as used in the expensive PC4000 3-3-2-8 sticks so there is a chance they will hit 250mhz anyway. However some may be binned for not reaching that speed. They should do OK though.

tomos · 5 Apr 2006 at 14:04

ah ok. will go for the cheapest in that case :cool:

tomos · 5 Apr 2006 at 15:47

been having a look at OCUKs selection. cant find 2gig kits that do 2-2-2-5. are there any out there?

smids · 5 Apr 2006 at 15:48

tomos said:
been having a look at OCUKs selection. cant find 2gig kits that do 2-2-2-5. are there any out there?

No, 2-3-2-5 is the tightest they do at the moment @ 200mhz.

tomos · 5 Apr 2006 at 15:59

ah well. will have to go with that then.

tomos · 11 Apr 2006 at 21:50

one more Q lads

next week i should get my 4th 74GB raptor. what i want to do is raid these (raid-0) on the NF4 SATA ports. i already have XP installed on 1 of these drives and have made a ghost image.

what i would like to do is simply set the 4 drives into a raid array in the bios (dont this on the SIl ports but never on the NF4 ports) once this is done, use the ghost image and restore that onto the array and thats that.

what i want to know is what can go wrong? my worry is that the image of xp on the drive wont be bootable since i wont have raid drivers already installed. i have raid drivers for the SIl of course but not sure about the NF4 ones. i have installed the sata drivers tho so does that count?

Scoobie Dave · 19 Apr 2006 at 00:15

smids said:
No, 2-3-2-5 is the tightest they do at the moment @ 200mhz.

Hey Smids are you still using the 704-BTA bios?

BTW, hows that old X2 of yours?

smids · 19 Apr 2006 at 00:20

Scoobie Dave said:
Hey Smids are you still using the 704-BTA bios?

BTW, hows that old X2 of yours?

Nope, still on the 29/3/06 BIOS with my X2 @ dual 2.8ghz

1.49v. (280x10) with RAM on a 166 divider @ 234mhz 2.5-3-2-6 1T. TBH, what with my exams at the moment (start in 2 weeks) I've not done much bar use my laptop for work and just left my desktop - busily sorting out MaxDSL at the moment so no clocking/tweaking/posting has been happening much.

Scoobie Dave · 19 Apr 2006 at 00:32

smids said:
Nope, still on the 29/3/06 BIOS with my X2 @ dual 2.8ghz 1.49v. (280x10) with RAM on a 166 divider @ 234mhz 2.5-3-2-6 1T. TBH, what with my exams at the moment (start in 2 weeks) I've not done much bar use my laptop for work and just left my desktop - busily sorting out MaxDSL at the moment so no clocking/tweaking/posting has been happening much.

How come you went back to the 29/3/06 BIOS. I thought you said the 704-BTA was the best ever?

Im still trying to find out whats best for my Opty atm. Might give the trusty old 29/3/06 bios a go . . .

smids · 19 Apr 2006 at 00:35

Scoobie Dave said:
How come you went back to the 29/3/06 BIOS. I thought you said the 704-BTA was the best ever?

Im still trying to find out whats best for my Opty atm. Might give the trusty old 29/3/06 BIOS a go.

Well, after further testing this BIOS performs no worse than the 704-2BTA but I still feel the BTA is the better all rounder however for me it made no difference. I now have to use the 10x multi instead of 11x but that is no biggie.

Scoobie Dave · 19 Apr 2006 at 00:39

smids said:
Well, after further testing this BIOS performs no worse than the 704-2BTA but I still feel the BTA is the better all rounder however for me it made no difference. I now have to use the 10x multi instead of 11x but that is no biggie.

Fair enough I'll stick with the 704-2BTA for now. Gonna see how high I can take this Opty under 1.4v