DFI NF4 Thread

[Sierra_abx]

I would avoid the new and more expensive PC4000 VX. Results haven't been great so far.

[CrowdAds]

[gocchin]

Originally Posted by Sierra

I would avoid the new and more expensive PC4000 VX. Results haven't been great so far.

It's the original PC3200 variety

[xgman]

anyone try the cat 5.3's yet?

[cromozone]

Looks like there is a new Overdrive version... I am unable to try them just now though!

[Blue078]

Multi-meter vs. Motherboard: A Study of Voltage Readings
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Ha...oltages/3.html

Tweekers should allready know this, but it's a good reminder, and maybe helpfull for those that dont know. Like the article says 5 boards isnt conclusive, but it's a pretty good indacation that many if not most mobo's are not up to snuff.

[johnrr6]

Big discussion over on the DFI board on ATX "standards" and the PSU.

DFI appears to support the new standard which requires 24 Pins AND dual 12V rails for "best" stability.

OCZ Powerstream 520 does not support the new standard...

OCZ Powerstream 600 does....

I want to talk "rails"---- I guess I'm stupid about this....

Those two 12V rails 0n the OCZ 600---how do I identify them on the PSU??? Can you Identify them?? In other words what string of connectors are on what???

Sata on one 12V rail-----the Video Card lead on another???? What is what----which is which???

Then-----how would you best balance the load for stability???

For example:
On one rail:
Video Card
Extra Mobo Connectors on the DFI board
Some Fans
Floppy

On the other Rail:
2 SATA Hard Disks
IDE DVD Burner
Orbital Matrix LCD screen.
Some Fans
Cold Cathode Ray Light

How would you decide of what to put on what "rail" or connection string???
Total Amps?? total Watts??

Am I all messed up and looking at this the wrong way???

I would think the trick would be to propely balance those two rails----not stressing either.

Somebody please explain this to me.

Thanks----John

[maxxshwagg]

Finally up and running and nice and stable. Spent the last two day getting the system stable. A couple of interesting differences between the DFI and MSI. My proc overclock is a few mhz higher which is nice, but now it is stable at 1.66V on the DFI instead of 1.72V on the msi. Very nice now my temps are down in the mid 30's in idle...I updated to the 218 bios and kept the default mem settings except i dropped the timing to 2.5 3 3 9, the suprising thing is that now i am able to run at 261fsb @ 2.8V when my max before was around 240 on the MSI board. This is super pi and memtest stable....I like this board...

....so now the problem. now that my OC is stable i reinstalled my second 6800U card and changed the setting to SLI. The problem is now my screen is blank until i get to the windows password screen. This sucks because i can't boot into the bios and i also cannot reinstall my game partition since the screens are blank. Has anyone else had this problem????

cheers

max

[Sierra_abx]

Don't have an answer about the blank screen problem, but those are weird timings you're using. Any reason for having tRAS at 9?

[Blue078]

Originally Posted by maxxshwagg

Finally up and running and nice and stable. Spent the last two day getting the system stable. A couple of interesting differences between the DFI and MSI. My proc overclock is a few mhz higher which is nice, but now it is stable at 1.66V on the DFI instead of 1.72V on the msi. Very nice now my temps are down in the mid 30's in idle...I updated to the 218 bios and kept the default mem settings except i dropped the timing to 2.5 3 3 9, the suprising thing is that now i am able to run at 261fsb @ 2.8V when my max before was around 240 on the MSI board. This is super pi and memtest stable....I like this board...

....so now the problem. now that my OC is stable i reinstalled my second 6800U card and changed the setting to SLI. The problem is now my screen is blank until i get to the windows password screen. This sucks because i can't boot into the bios and i also cannot reinstall my game partition since the screens are blank. Has anyone else had this problem????

cheers

max

Which DVI connector are you useing ??.
The Bottom connector {closest to the mob} On the card closest to the CPU is I belive correct.

[Blue078]

You know Johnrr6 I have some of the same questions about the dual rail PSU's
Ive read the specks on 2 so far, and they were far from clear.

Asus as all ways gives good documented specks on it's products, and Asus's recomendation on thie NF4 SLI board is

A single highend VC needs 17amps on the 12v rail, and dual midrange VC's in SLI would require 24amps on the 12v rail.

With that in mind, when you read the dual rail PSU's specs most show 15 to 17 amps "per rail" for a combined xxxxx.

So before div out any bucks on one I need more info myself, because sure dont want to be runing my 2 GT's on a 15a rail

[Ford Freak]

Originally Posted by Blue078

Multi-meter vs. Motherboard: A Study of Voltage Readings
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Ha...oltages/3.html

Tweekers should allready know this, but it's a good reminder, and maybe helpfull for those that dont know. Like the article says 5 boards isnt conclusive, but it's a pretty good indacation that many if not most mobo's are not up to snuff.

Some of those voltages are actually higher that what they are supposed to be though. I don't like how they did that test. What they should've done taken the reading and compaired it to what it is supposed to be. Not what the bios or monitor reads. Let's use the 3.3 for example. Let's say it reads 3.1. That would be 6.1% below what it is supposed to be. Not what the mobo reports.

[maxxshwagg]

sierra,

i tried tras 7 8 9 10 and 11. 9 and 10 gave me the best memory speed...

blue078,

i am using the inside DVI from card 1...it's stange, one card worked perfect now nothing

.....update, i decided to change video drivers, when i rebooted to install the new drivers nothing comes up and all, it seems like the cards are needing the drivers to fire up.. guess i have to switch back to single card mode again, what a pain.

[johnrr6]

Originally Posted by Blue078

You know Johnrr6 I have some of the same questions about the dual rail PSU's
Ive read the specks on 2 so far, and they were far from clear.

Asus as all ways gives good documented specks on it's products, and Asus's recomendation on thie NF4 SLI board is

A single highend VC needs 17amps on the 12v rail, and dual midrange VC's in SLI would require 24amps on the 12v rail.

With that in mind, when you read the dual rail PSU's specs most show 15 to 17 amps "per rail" for a combined xxxxx.

So before div out any bucks on one I need more info myself, because sure dont want to be runing my 2 GT's on a 15a rail

Exactly-----if somehow you put both on the same 12v rail----no workeee

and how do you identify what string of connectors is on what rail????

and how do you best balance the load??? Watts---Amps----what???

A cunnundrum....

[Sierra_abx]

Why is that a conundrum? With some PSU's, maybe. But unless you're planning to use ten hard drives and several optical drives, I don't see what the problem is. I'm using the 600W PowerStream. Your choices are somewhat limited by the type of connectors that are available.

FWIW, I use only one optical drive and a floppy, along with one video card. But I have two big Delta 120mm fans that run off the PSU and they draw a lot of current. Haven't had any problems.

[Glorfy]

Also, what you have to remember is that BOTH 12v rails are connected to the Motherboard, via

1) 24 pin connector, 2) 4pin 12v connector, 3) Molex, and 4) FDD connector!

The MB supplies enough power to run the my GTs at stock, and then you have the PCI-E power connector, which allows me to overclock.

The OCZ600 works fine on my SLI set up, and thats with the CPU eating up close to 150W when O/Cd.