Help!! anyone know Epox 9NDA3 has a SATA lock?

leosliu

Junior Member
Jan 25, 2005
6
0
0
I just bought this motherboard Epox 9NDA3 with a AMD64 3000+ 939

After spending 2 hours overclock testing, I found this mainboard cannot go higher than 235MHz*9 with SATA HD installed.

If I unpluged the SATA HD, it is very easy to overclock to 285MHz*9, but cannot go over 290MHz, even just use the mutiplier 8.

Anyone has same experience as me with this board?

I need help!!!!!
 

ts3433

Platinum Member
Jun 29, 2004
2,731
0
0
I think there are 4 SATA ports on the board... two are locked, two aren't. You'll have to see which ones are (I think they're the ones not provided by the NF3), and then move your SATA drives to those two.
 

leosliu

Junior Member
Jan 25, 2005
6
0
0
I tried the 2 which are not provided by nforce (sata3 and sata4), they are not locked for sure.

I cannot try the 2 provided by nforce, because they are right under my video card's heatsink, if I use these 2 sta, I cannot plug in my video card.
 

tr1kstanc3

Senior member
Sep 25, 2001
361
0
0
there is no way around the problem other than using sata 3 / 4. perhaps right angled sata cables would help?
 

leosliu

Junior Member
Jan 25, 2005
6
0
0
got no idea how to slove this problem
bought 2 200GB MAXTOR 16MB CACHE IDE HD instead

SIGH,have to put my 2 raptors to my old machine
 

Shimmishim

Elite Member
Feb 19, 2001
7,504
0
76
the external ones are NOT locked

the internal ones aka the nforce ones are locked...

but like he said... they have a tendency to get blocked by video cards...

they need to move the ports or do something about it....
 

vext

Junior Member
Feb 17, 2005
3
0
0
I've got an Epox 9nda3 with an EVGA 6800 Ultra, and am successfully using the ports hidden by the heat sink. You can mod the SATA cable ends to make them very low profile. You need to strip the hard black rubber cover off the cable end, using an xacto or other sharp blade. Be careful not to cut into the wire itself. The assembly inside the cover is made of a cable receiver and an end plug. You can bend the end plug up to 90 degrees with respect to the receiver, they're connected by seven wires.

Make sure you do the work over a table. There's a little wire retaining plastic piece that's part of the end plug. It tends to pop out when you bend the wires. It's not hard to put back in, but don't lose it!

I've installed two modded cables and haven't had any problems at all running them.

I found a single "low profile" SATA cable at Frye's yesterday. I haven't taken the time to pull the 6800 Ultra and test it, but I don't think it's quite low enough. The internet cable providers don't seem to list low profile cables, they only have the right angle cables, which are not a solution here.

The right angle cables only bend one way, and will direct your cables to the back of the case, instead of towards the drives where you need them. I found a single 18" right angle cable will reach, but you have to give it a tight bend under the graphics card, then feed it back towards the drives. You can only fit one cable because the ports are so close that the cables run into each other. Also, SATA ports are only allow the heads to be fitted in one orientation.
 

sauria

Member
Mar 15, 2001
79
0
66
Great to know vext -- I think I saw a post of some pictures of this -- anyone have the link?
 

sauria

Member
Mar 15, 2001
79
0
66
Originally posted by: leosliu
I just bought this motherboard Epox 9NDA3 with a AMD64 3000+ 939

After spending 2 hours overclock testing, I found this mainboard cannot go higher than 235MHz*9 with SATA HD installed.

If I unpluged the SATA HD, it is very easy to overclock to 285MHz*9, but cannot go over 290MHz, even just use the mutiplier 8.

Anyone has same experience as me with this board?

I need help!!!!!
1&2 are locked -- have to have a card that clear or try that cable bending to use 1 sata port
 

MDE

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
13,199
1
81
Ports 1 and 2 are locked. I had the same problem because the NV5 Silencer on my 6800GT blocked them. Replaced it with a Zalman VF700-Cu and running strong again.