Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI BIOS

[zasy99]

So I picked this board up along with 2GB Corsair RAM (TWINX2048-3200C2PT). I new from the beginning that the RAM wouldn't overclock that well so I would really require to lock the ram at or around 200MHZ (215 is about the highest it will run).
I had read all the reviews about the GA-K8NXP-SLI before buying and most if not all stated that CPU multiplyers went up in 0.5 steps and that it was possible to set the DDR speed as a ratio of the CPU FSB.

To my dismay I find on my board that the multiplyers only increase with integer values and that it is not possible to change the DDR speed independant of the FSB, even if you choose to "lock" the DDR speed to 200MHZ using any of numerous utilities in Windows will show that the RAM frequency is that of the FSB.

I am using BIOS version F6 and hit CTRL + F1 to get access to the "advanced" parameters of the BIOS.
Has anyone else noticed this issue or am I doing something wrong?

 

[Robowang]

One of the reasons I got rid of my Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI was the lack of .5x multi's. And the big jump from 1.55 to 1.65 in the vcore setting was bothering me.
If you have your mem set at 200, it will be sync'ed with the fsb. Set it for a lower value (183) and then up your fsb until the mem clock is back to 200. Most CPU's will over clock that much, maybe even to the 215 your ram will go.
go here to download a little stand alone memory ratio app.
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=44339
Be sure to tick the little DFI box to get the ratios that the NF4 board has available.
For example: if you have a 3200+ CPU, you set the mem ratio to 183, then to have the memory running at 200mhz, the cpu multi would be x10, FSB at 220mhz, and cpu freq will be 2200MHz. To run the mem at 215, FSB would be 236 and CPU freq would be 2360MHz.
One note on this board, going over 210-220 FSB you really should set HTT from 5x to 4x. The Giga board seems to actually work correctly with the HTT multi, unlike the MSI NF4.

 

[zasy99]

Thanks, never thought of that with the memory, stupid of me I guess, I was looking for something more like a divider ratio, say 5/6 or so, not set frequencies like 183 that would scale up with the FSB, but, it kinda makes sense in the end.

And I was hoping that the CPU would handle way more than the memory as far as FSB is concerned as I have read a lot of people getting about 250 or so with theirs, anyway, only testing will tell.

I am not at my Gigabyte PC right now but I think there was a setting for 166MHz DDR, with the CPU at 250MHz FSB that would be 25% more meaning a DDR frequenzy of 207MHz which is ok for this ram.

Will try all this out a bit later and report back.