Chaintech VNF4 Ultra Users " Getting good overclcoks?"

[HecDTec]

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: HecDTec

HecDTec, see my sig. Since the first beta BIOS came out, I have been running 300HTT on my VNF4 Ultra. At this overclock, I am running my A64 3000+ CPU at 2.7GHZ at 1.7V, which on the stock cooling would be too much, but I replaced my cooler with a Coolermaster Hyper6, and my temps are 22-28 degrees C right now, depending on load (Quite cool for this overclock imo). I upped my chipset voltage slightly (I believe that 1.6V is default, and I upped it once, so I think it is at 1.65V). My RAM is 4x 512 Sticks of Kingston HyperX PC3200DDR 400MHZ, running in dual channel (I was forced to use a 2T command rate to run all 4 sticks, but I think this is a limitation of ALL Nforce4 Chipsets). I upped Ram Voltage to 2.7V up from stock of 2.6V (They have good heatspreaders on them, so I felt OK going this far). I am running at a a 3x HTT multi, which puts the HTT bus at 900MHZ, slightly down from the ideal of 1000MHZ.

When I initially overclocked on this board, with the beta BIOS, the best I could get was 240HTT in BIOS. The beta BIOS changed everything, and opened up this board for overclocking COMPLETELY. I get errors in superPi above 300HTT, no matter WHAT setting I use, so I am not sure if this is the ceiling that my CPU will reach, or what (Even so, it is not a bad ceiling, considering that I have added almost 1GHZ to the stock speed -- an overclock of 50%!)

I have heard that the average person can usually overclock to between 270HTT, and 300HTT with this board, and I have heard from a few who have taken it above 300HTT, BUT I do not know how (or if) they verified stability at that OC. I have been running at 300HTT for several weeks now with NO problems at all. Considering that I got my board for 130.00, with $2.00 shipping from Newegg, I think I got a GREAT deal!

How far have you been able to overclock your MSI board? I was looking at those, but the Chaintech board became available sooner (I got mine at X-mas), and was really cheap, so I got it. It was so cheap, that I was able to jump to a new CPU (my 90nm A643000+), and a new GPU (a Gigabyte 6600GT) at the same time. Did you get a good deal on your board too?

 

[Ackbar]

My VNF4 Ultra and associated equipment can only get me to 2100 on a 3200+ 90nm. I think it's my chip though. Anyone want to donate a CPU to me for me to find out?

I've tried everything BTW but I can't get any higher...

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Ackbar
My VNF4 Ultra and associated equipment can only get me to 2100 on a 3200+ 90nm. I think it's my chip though. Anyone want to donate a CPU to me for me to find out?

I've tried everything BTW but I can't get any higher...

What! My stupid A64 3000+ can go way past that... This makes no sense to me?? What problem do you encounter when you try to go past 2100... Do you get benchmark errors, instability, or you just cannot boot? And which BIOS are you using? What is your processor cooling? Have you added a fan to your chipset yet (this made a HUGE difference in how much I was able to overclock)?

 

[PascalT]

So all nf4 mobos have to run 2T with 4 sticks? that sucks.

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: PascalT
So all nf4 mobos have to run 2T with 4 sticks? that sucks.

This is what I have heard (and what I have experienced so far with MY Nf4 mobo and 4 sticks). The performance hit from being stuck at 2T is less than the gain from going up to 2MB ram from 1MB ram tho, so the 2nd sticks stayed in. I have heard that the BIOS I am using "broke" the 2T/1T command rate, and the 2/6 BIOS (the one marked as for Both VNF4 Ultra and VNF4) fixes this tho, so I will re-flash tonight, and try it out. I will post here what my results were with this.

 

[Ackbar]

Originally posted by: MajorPayne
What! My stupid A64 3000+ can go way past that... This makes no sense to me?? What problem do you encounter when you try to go past 2100... Do you get benchmark errors, instability, or you just cannot boot? And which BIOS are you using? What is your processor cooling? Have you added a fan to your chipset yet (this made a HUGE difference in how much I was able to overclock)?

Hey MajorPayne! I know, I've been rather upset with my CPU... I've tried EVERYTHING that we talked about in the past. I upped the chipset voltage, I added a fan to my chipset a long while ago but noticed no difference, I've lowered everything contemplatable. Here's a thread that has a good summary of my experience: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=1511410&enterthread=y

I think I really got a gimpy CPU!

Edit: Right now I've got a HUGE 80mm fan sitting right on it and I've tried mounting smaller fans, none have made a noticable difference. The problem is stability. If I boot in with 2200 for example, I can run it stably at 1.45V vcore for 12 hours+ but then after that I'll get a BSOD and restart. Anythign higher results in an error in Prime95 and SuperPi even with 1.6V!

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Ackbar

Originally posted by: MajorPayne
What! My stupid A64 3000+ can go way past that... This makes no sense to me?? What problem do you encounter when you try to go past 2100... Do you get benchmark errors, instability, or you just cannot boot? And which BIOS are you using? What is your processor cooling? Have you added a fan to your chipset yet (this made a HUGE difference in how much I was able to overclock)?

Hey MajorPayne! I know, I've been rather upset with my CPU... I've tried EVERYTHING that we talked about in the past. I upped the chipset voltage, I added a fan to my chipset a long while ago but noticed no difference, I've lowered everything contemplatable. Here's a thread that has a good summary of my experience: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=1511410&enterthread=y

I think I really got a gimpy CPU!

Edit: Right now I've got a HUGE 80mm fan sitting right on it and I've tried mounting smaller fans, none have made a noticable difference. The problem is stability. If I boot in with 2200 for example, I can run it stably at 1.45V vcore for 12 hours+ but then after that I'll get a BSOD and restart. Anythign higher results in an error in Prime95 and SuperPi even with 1.6V!

Sweet Jesus!!! You have an 80 MM fan on your chipset heatsink! If that does not eliminate the possibility of your chipset overheating as your problem, then I do not know what does.

Add this to the fact that you have tried ALL of the beta BIOS's (I read your thread on this), played with your timings, voltages, HTT multi, etc., and I am starting to agree with you... I think your chip is a weak (very weak!) overclocker.

I think the only thing would be to see if another board has the same problem with this chip, but at this point, I would be more inclined to blow money on a new chip rather than a new board!!! If you have anyone close to you with a board that will run this chip, I would have them put it in, and see what it will do. I agree though, that a 100MHZ OC out of one of the new winchesters is dismal -- I have seen them do great things (look at mine!). Not fair at all.

 

[Ackbar]

Originally posted by: MajorPayne
Sweet Jesus!!! You have an 80 MM fan on your chipset heatsink! If that does not eliminate the possibility of your chipset overheating as your problem, then I do not know what does.

Add this to the fact that you have tried ALL of the beta BIOS's (I read your thread on this), played with your timings, voltages, HTT multi, etc., and I am starting to agree with you... I think your chip is a weak (very weak!) overclocker.

I think the only thing would be to see if another board has the same problem with this chip, but at this point, I would be more inclined to blow money on a new chip rather than a new board!!! If you have anyone close to you with a board that will run this chip, I would have them put it in, and see what it will do. I agree though, that a 100MHZ OC out of one of the new winchesters is dismal -- I have seen them do great things (look at mine!). Not fair at all.

Do you think it's worth RMAing? I know that my board has the voltage problem, and I can't seem to get any of the other "speaker" outputs to actually work either. Might be worth a try to get a new VNF4 and see if that fairs the same. But you're right, my o/c is by far the worse overclock I have ever heard of anyone getting. The worst part is that I've just spent so much time and effort to get nowhere with it...

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Ackbar

Originally posted by: MajorPayne
Sweet Jesus!!! You have an 80 MM fan on your chipset heatsink! If that does not eliminate the possibility of your chipset overheating as your problem, then I do not know what does.

Add this to the fact that you have tried ALL of the beta BIOS's (I read your thread on this), played with your timings, voltages, HTT multi, etc., and I am starting to agree with you... I think your chip is a weak (very weak!) overclocker.

I think the only thing would be to see if another board has the same problem with this chip, but at this point, I would be more inclined to blow money on a new chip rather than a new board!!! If you have anyone close to you with a board that will run this chip, I would have them put it in, and see what it will do. I agree though, that a 100MHZ OC out of one of the new winchesters is dismal -- I have seen them do great things (look at mine!). Not fair at all.

Do you think it's worth RMAing? I know that my board has the voltage problem, and I can't seem to get any of the other "speaker" outputs to actually work either. Might be worth a try to get a new VNF4 and see if that fairs the same. But you're right, my o/c is by far the worse overclock I have ever heard of anyone getting. The worst part is that I've just spent so much time and effort to get nowhere with it...

I would DEFINITELY do the RMA on this board.... If you have a speaker output problem, then you have a legitamate (spelling?) gripe, and replacing the board will answer your question without you having to pop for the cost of another board, only to find the CPU is still the problem. I would start it now tho -- it sometimes takes a while.

 

[gobucks]

I'm liking my overclock - 278MHz FSB so far, not sure how much higher I can go, but I'll likely be pushing it a bit more in a little while. BTW, has anyone had problems getting 1T to work on the newest beta BIOS? The last 2 broke the 1T/2T function, and the newest BIOS "fixes" it, but now it just errors in memtest86 and prime95, regardless of frequency, when I set my command rate to 1T. Anyone else having this problem?

 

[Ackbar]

Originally posted by: gobucks
I'm liking my overclock - 278MHz FSB so far, not sure how much higher I can go, but I'll likely be pushing it a bit more in a little while. BTW, has anyone had problems getting 1T to work on the newest beta BIOS? The last 2 broke the 1T/2T function, and the newest BIOS "fixes" it, but now it just errors in memtest86 and prime95, regardless of frequency, when I set my command rate to 1T. Anyone else having this problem?

Hmm... could you elaborate on this problem? So are you saying that you can overclock better on 2T at the moment?

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Ackbar

Originally posted by: gobucks
I'm liking my overclock - 278MHz FSB so far, not sure how much higher I can go, but I'll likely be pushing it a bit more in a little while. BTW, has anyone had problems getting 1T to work on the newest beta BIOS? The last 2 broke the 1T/2T function, and the newest BIOS "fixes" it, but now it just errors in memtest86 and prime95, regardless of frequency, when I set my command rate to 1T. Anyone else having this problem?

Hmm... could you elaborate on this problem? So are you saying that you can overclock better on 2T at the moment?

Actually, It sounds like 1T does not work for him AT ALL (since he gets errors immediately at 1T). I will have to try the newest BETA BIOS myself tonight, and see if I can get 1T to work. By the way gobucks, do you have 4 sticks of ram in your system? Because 4 sticks is the reason I cannot get mine to 1T (yet). I can run 1T with 2 sticks no problem, but 1T at 4 sticks on the present BIOS will NOT POST.

 

[Ackbar]

Originally posted by: MajorPayne
Actually, It sounds like 1T does not work for him AT ALL (since he gets errors immediately at 1T). I will have to try the newest BETA BIOS myself tonight, and see if I can get 1T to work. By the way gobucks, do you have 4 sticks of ram in your system? Because 4 sticks is the reason I cannot get mine to 1T (yet). I can run 1T with 2 sticks no problem, but 1T at 4 sticks on the present BIOS will NOT POST.

According to his sig, he's got 2x512 MB sticks although i have no idea how up to date that is. 1T might be the key to this thing, I've tried 2T on several occasions, but it may still be that 1T causes problems with overclocking!

 

[HecDTec]

I agree with MajorPayne and would RMA in a second just for the sound problem, which may or may not have anything to do with your oc'ing problem. Then I would test your cpu in somebody elses compatible rig, even if its a Nvidia nforce3 or VIA K8T800. Also don't forget the memory. Bring it with you and test it also just to be on the safe side.

 

[Ackbar]

Originally posted by: HecDTec
I agree with MajorPayne and would RMA in a second just for the sound problem, which may or may not have anything to do with your oc'ing problem. Then I would test your cpu in somebody elses compatible rig, even if its a Nvidia nforce3 or VIA K8T800. Also don't forget the memory. Bring it with you and test it also just to be on the safe side.

That's true... I think I will tomorrow then! :thumbsup:

Is there something special that I have to do to get sound to come out of the non-center/subwoofer port (ie. side speakers, etc) of the back panel? On mine I only have sound coming out of the center/subwoofer one. I'm guessing this isn't normal... I only have 2 speakers and a sub, so I didn't know how that worked.

 

[HecDTec]

Hey Ackbar here's some info from another member.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=1522052&enterthread=y

Seems this is a problem with VNF4's.

 

[Ackbar]

Originally posted by: HecDTec
Hey Ackbar here's some info from another member.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=1522052&enterthread=y

Seems this is a problem with VNF4's.

Thanks for the head's up! :thumbsup:

Maybe I can collaborate with him and we can get some assurance from newegg that our next one will actually work!

 

[Ackbar]

So... to make a long story short... I'm an idiot and I didn't isolate EVERYTHING. I guess one thing that I never tried was changing the slots of the memory sticks/running only one stick.

With one stick I'm able to semi-stably get to over 2300 and even approach 2400! Will update with more information once I figure everything out... things look promising though!

:thumbsup:

 

[gobucks]

so yeah, my 1T timings don't work AT ALL. it's really weird. With the 1st 2 betas, the 1T/2T just had no effect, so my memory would default to 2T regardless. Now, however, the 1T/2T works, but 1T always crashes, even at like DDR266. If I turn autodetect on, it also sets up 1T timings from the get-go, but then it crashes. So clearly it sees my memory is SUPPOSED to run at 1T, but the system just can't handle it.

And yeah, I just have 2 sticks, so there should not be any issues with that.

 

[gobucks]

oh, and I almost forgot, the memory loads into windows fine at 1T, it just errors. Posting is fine.

 

[Ackbar]

Originally posted by: gobucks
so yeah, my 1T timings don't work AT ALL. it's really weird. With the 1st 2 betas, the 1T/2T just had no effect, so my memory would default to 2T regardless. Now, however, the 1T/2T works, but 1T always crashes, even at like DDR266. If I turn autodetect on, it also sets up 1T timings from the get-go, but then it crashes. So clearly it sees my memory is SUPPOSED to run at 1T, but the system just can't handle it.

And yeah, I just have 2 sticks, so there should not be any issues with that.

Do you have any other sticks you can try? I can get my system to go into the computer at 1T and haven't really necessarily had a problem with that.

Edit: On high overclocks (over 2100) I am not stable with 1T even though my ram is rated to be able to handle that! This seems to be a problem with the bios.

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Ackbar

Originally posted by: gobucks
so yeah, my 1T timings don't work AT ALL. it's really weird. With the 1st 2 betas, the 1T/2T just had no effect, so my memory would default to 2T regardless. Now, however, the 1T/2T works, but 1T always crashes, even at like DDR266. If I turn autodetect on, it also sets up 1T timings from the get-go, but then it crashes. So clearly it sees my memory is SUPPOSED to run at 1T, but the system just can't handle it.

And yeah, I just have 2 sticks, so there should not be any issues with that.

Do you have any other sticks you can try? I can get my system to go into the computer at 1T and haven't really necessarily had a problem with that.

Edit: On high overclocks (over 2100) I am not stable with 1T even though my ram is rated to be able to handle that! This seems to be a problem with the bios.

How high have you gone with your voltages Akbar? I know I have only had to up my voltages on the RAM from 2.6 to 2.7 to get my overclock, but I also have NEVER been able to run at 1T, since I am using 2 sticks of RAM. Is it possible you may need to up your RAM voltages more?

 

[Ackbar]

Originally posted by: MajorPayne
How high have you gone with your voltages Akbar? I know I have only had to up my voltages on the RAM from 2.6 to 2.7 to get my overclock, but I also have NEVER been able to run at 1T, since I am using 2 sticks of RAM. Is it possible you may need to up your RAM voltages more?

Well, I've tried all the way up to 2.9 V. My ram is supposed rated for 2-3-3-8 1T @ 233 on 2.8V which I've never been able to achieve. I spoke with OCZ and they said that I could RMA the memory, but I'm starting to believe that it may be a bios problem I can get 1T with the first beta bios now at 2.35 GHz but I have to use 2.5-3-3-8, nothing in CAS 2 works! I'll probably RMA my ram, if that isn't the problem, I guess we should contact Chaintech and make them aware that their bios does not like low latency ram!

EDIT: BTW- what port do you have your SATA drive on? Are all of them locked?

 

[Macro2]

Did they ever put a fan on the chipset of this board?