Official DFI NF4Ultra-D/SLi owners thread.

[ricco]

can a mobo do that? sonds like the PSU to me

The PSU is supposed to protect itself from a short(this is only thing that could have caused this) , so 'if' it was the mobo, and 'if' its killed the winchester then the PSU should be out on overload.

But if it was PSU that failed high, then its very easy to shove a few extra volts down the 3.3v line that would toast the board and the CPU.

Sounds like PSU to me.

 

[ricco]

paul: arctic silver V (5) is the best thermal paste to use, and my god is it messy!
get a good clean environment before you apply it, and remember you only want a thin! film across the surface of the cpu. (i have a friend who applied too much, apparently it actually burned his cpu out!)

the above methods should work (i use the good old credit card to spread it in a thin film across the surface and then attach the hsf)

have a go putting the hsf into the slot before you do any of this though, it's quite a scary experience even without the cpu involved as it appears to apply a fair bit of pressure to get it into the slot, but dont worry about that as long as you dont force anything!

most people here seem to reccommend putting a small blob on the cpu and spreading with the hsf otherwise, i'm sure thats fine too, mine created a fair bit of mess creating an even layer, and took some time

This would be the recomendation for AS3 , but not AS5.

what kind of warranty do the OEM cpu's come with? I bought a retail cpu myself purely for the assurance of warranty, and just have the stock hsf sitting in its box)

OEM is 3months or 31days, Retail is 3years.

I used winflash on the front link, slightly confusing interface at first, but appears to be easy enough to use. I know this has been asked somewhere but is there any way to find out what version of bios you are using? (actually cpu-z does report the date, so i guess that's how it is worked out)

Yes it can be a little confusing, but I'm glad you worked it out. I dont see it been any more complex then DOS based flash though.

As for new Nvidia drivers, they are old now , the link to drivers on the first posts goes right to the latest ( and always be updated)

If your not running 6.39 do it now.

 

[ricco]

Used to be as the price difference between retail AMD's and OEM was fairly big. majority of AMD used to be OEM, but now AMD have switched to retail box and leveled the price to a better std.

Now its pointless since AMD even provide an easy stepping viewing pannel

 

[ricco]

Yeah- not very clear way of explaining eh

The CPU is visible in the retail packs, so you can actualy see all the stepping/week codes clearly.

 

[ricco]

SHould still work without the bridge, but it limits its performance

 

[ricco]

thats just seems like they have not understood the problem, it makes no mention of DOA only ram instabilities.
Also Its very unlikely (as already outlined in this thread) that a Mobo fault would kill everything. Maybe you had a bad voltage spike? , but nayway all is not lost as yet since you can still apply for an RMA with DOA and as a last resort contact your insurance and tell them that your computer blew up

 

[ricco]

The 880 is stil an AC97, so it will still suck CPU cycles, a live5.1 would be a better option if your a gamer, otherwise the Karajan is very good.

 

[ricco]

Its in the upper slot, moving to the lower slot gives a few hundred points less in 3D 2001.

Lol you're the second person to say my arctics had a bite out of it I'm not the best person at modding

Function rather then aesthetics.

 

[ricco]

The main things are HHT = FSB
the HHT multiplier x HTT should always be equal to 1000 or lower.
the CPU multiplier is as you would be used too, except you will be able to adjust it up or down.

The bigest difference is how the HTT is mulitplied for CPU then memory runs at CPU/divider.
I posted this infor previous

I have seen a couple of posts now where the memory has been running at a different speed to that displayed, this could cause some confusion.

In laymans terms the A64's do not officialy support .5 (1/2) multipliers, so they round up to the nearest whole number for your memory.

So say you ran 7.5x 300mhz = 2250mhz.

If you ran your memory at 1:1 then you would expect your memory to be 300mhz too , this is wrong !.

It will run the memory at 8x multiplier(or divider in this case).

SO our memory would run at CPU FREQUENCY/ closest whole multiplier

Or (7.5x300mhz HHT)= 2250mhz
now divide this by the next whole number to 7.5 = 8

SO: (closest to 7.5 = 8)
CPU speed= 2250mhz
whole Divider= 8
Mem speed = 2250/8
true mem speed = 281.25mhz

A list to help;

Alternative to show frequency table


CREDIT TO OSKAR WU ( DFI Head design technician) for table.

 

[ricco]

That a good result- did you get the codes from the CPU ?

 

[ricco]

OMG egt your one lucky mofo !

48 SPAW - get ready for some big numbers
If you can't push it far - Im sure anyone one of us in this thread will be happy to steal it off you

 

[ricco]

No DC and probably limited to PC2700 speeds. This is a mem controller problem with the winchester that AMD will address in Venice.

You should be fine with 2x512meg DC, 256meg GFX card & your raptor.

 

[ricco]

n1 mate,

Just bought a CBBHD 3000+ week 48 SPAW myself - paid a bit to ensure it - but it should do well in my setup now - really needed a decent pro...

Just have to wait for the new OCZ 520W APFC

ps3ud0

Is that the ones that where been touted at £160 mark

 

[ricco]

TBH its not a bad price for what you have got, it should manage 2.8 failr easy.

Shame though as venice should start showing up soon and devalue all our *PAW chips

If your very lucky ( and u probably are) you might be able to get 9x 310+ and keep the memory at CPU/9 , that TCCD should start to fly at 310mhz+

 

[ricco]

Well the way I see it is Im not gonna u/g again until dual core is here (mobo, ddr2 ram?!?, pro) - so say 18months for it to be here in good supply with good mobos to take care of it.

Im unsure how good Venice will be - isnt just with SSE3 implemented and strained silicon throughout the family? With how 05 chips are overclocking, Venice may not o/c much more then these week 40's Winnie.

Im happy to be proven wrong - just dont make me buy one..yet...

EDIT: Ricco - what kinda o/c do u think I could get on air - worth me considering water cooling? From what Ive seen Winnies seem to o/c exceptionally well on air in comparison to water which only does a bit better - guess its quieter tho...

ps3ud0

water will just make it a little quieter realy, and only show its benefit in summer when al lthe air coolers OC's start to drop off.

If your wanting big numbers though, you can pick S/H vapo's up for how much a watercooling setup can cost, thats unless you want the added benefit of cooling CPU, GPU(s) (maybe chipset).
Water only realy benefits in high OC's if the CPU starts to push high output(watts).

But this is totaly outsode the scope of this thread - so maybe look through the OCing/cooling forum.

 

[ricco]

In testing I also found the Tras of 7 gave me the best bandwidth, but 10 seemed to help with pushing for higher clocks.

 

[ricco]

Anyone know if there are SLI bridge adapters kicking about yet ?

 

[ricco]

need to know what you have first

 

[ricco]

UPDATE.
new BIOS 310.
http://www.dfi.com.tw/Support/Download/bios_download_us.jsp?PRODUCT_ID=3471&STATUS_FLAG=A&SITE=NA

ALso a couple of new beta's (pls see HERE first.
http://oskarwu.myweb.hinet.net/dfi/betabios/NF4LD309-2.zip (309-2)
http://oskarwu.myweb.hinet.net/dfi/betabios/NF4LD310-2.zip (310-2)

 

[ricco]

Im going to give the 310 a go first,
just getting some basic bench test at defualt with 217 BIOS to see if there is any gains etc.