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Venice core in EPoX 9NPA+Ultra?

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I have a similar setup. I'm running a hitachi sata2 165gb and an old ata 66 IDE HD. Check your BIOS settings under IDE devices and the boot order is probably wrong - make sure your SATA drive is in front of your IDE drive. It seems to want to stick the IDE drive in front if you're not careful! I'm having standby issues now and might just pull the ide drive for now to see if it fixes the problem.

Originally posted by: Cohort
I need some help since you guys are using the same board I have. I installed with a 3000+ venice core amd and a hitachi 80g sata had. I am trying to use an old ata 133 drive on the system aswell for my downloads and music storage. I got xp to load fine, but when ever I reboot the system it gives me this error

disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter.

I download software fro Hitachi to test the drive and make sure it is working, and it is according to the software.
This is all new merchandise and since I hadnt ever set up a sata drive I was wondering if any of you could guide me to fix this problem. Its been a huge pain in the neck.
Click to expand...

 
How is Epox's customer support? Abit seems to have good relations with their customers when I go browse their forums and seem very responsive with their suggestions
When I tour Epox's website, I get the feeling no one is there and theres no real product support afterward.
 
They have a sorta rinky-dink customer support, where you have to log onto their website for tech support and correspond there. I'm at the point now where it looks like I will have to send my mb in and wait for a replacement. These days, I expect to get a return on a faulty product before sending the defunct one back. They do seem to be fairly quick with responses though. I'm not even sure my mobo is bad, it might be an ide issue only.
 
Customer support is spotty at best. While the responses are fairly quick, they are pretty useless and require multiple follow-up questions.

What support forum are your referring to Hizzah? I didn't think they had a dedicated forum like Abit or MSI?
 
Its more a generality I am making. I just can't make up my mind on which motherboard to purchase for my next build. I'm fairly torn on this motherboard and the Abit AN8-Ultra. Granted, the Epox mobo has been tried and true; but thats because that motherboard has been here sicne the beginning of the year. The AN8 just got released worldwide and many in singapore and the UK have yet to find significant problems that can't be fixed with a newer Bios.

I've also combed the forums and found the Epox mobo to be stable and reliable which just makes the desicions all that much harder.
 
Ok gotcha Hizzah, let me add some info that may or may not help you. I have been a long time Abit user, my last 4 builds have been Abit boards so I was interested in the AN8 Ultra too when info first came out last month. Since the Abit board was not going to be available here in the US for a while, I started looking into other boards like the MSI Neo4 Platinum and the Asus A8N-E and settled on the Epox based on the good reviews I had read.

Setup went without a hitch and I was able to do an XP repair install from my old Abit KD7 setup which made things much easier for me. I've had some minor glitches along the way, but nothing major to report. The board has been rock-solid and I've been able to overclock it a bit, although I'm not a real hardcore overclocker (at least not yet).

I'm pretty happy with my decision so far and would definitely recommend this board if you are looking for a stable and reliable board.
 
One thing I forgot to add, if you are a hardcore overclocker and want to dabble with some Winbond UTT based memory then the Abit AN8-Ultra will be a better choice since it supports 3.55 vdimm. The Epox goes up to 3.1 vdimm, which didn't really help me to overclock my Mushkin Blues. If you can afford to get some good TCCD or TCC5 based memory then you will have better luck with overclocking on the Epox.

Of course if you are really hardcore then you should just go for the DFI Lanparty Ultra-D.
 
Robby you actually have been a great deal help in my descision making. Especially since from your profile I'm building the nearly identical system. Anyone know if Corsair ram works well in the Epox Mobo?
 
Glad the info helped Hizzah. If you are not overclocking then Corsair Value should work just fine at the rated specs. Corsair also has memory based on TCCD/TCC5 chips that you can check out if you decide to overclock and want to run your memory without a divider (and can afford the extra cost). You should check out the forums over at www.xtremesystems.org if you want to read up on all the different memory types and what others are using. There is a ton of information about memory in the "Xtreme Bandwidth" forum that is pretty interesting to read.
 
Robby, I have the same mobo as you but with a 3700+ Sandy and 2x 512 OCZ EL Plat 2-3-2-5. How high can you raise the HTT without a divider? I think my RAM is limiting me in quest for a nice OC.
 
The main problem I've been having with my 3200 Venice core CPU in my 9NPA+Ultra is that it won't run at 1T timings with 4 512MB sticks of PC3200 RAM. The RAM itself tests fine (at 2T at least), but the thing won't boot. The most recent firmware is better behaved when it's been set to 1T and it decides it's unhappy; before it wouldn't boot, now it forces 2T and boots in "safe" mode.
 
Originally posted by: MBentz
Robby, I have the same mobo as you but with a 3700+ Sandy and 2x 512 OCZ EL Plat 2-3-2-5. How high can you raise the HTT without a divider? I think my RAM is limiting me in quest for a nice OC.
Click to expand...

Your Sandy and Epox board are not the limiting factors. However, without the memory divider, HTT=FSB, your OCZ memory is rated at PC3200 DDR400 so your stock is 200 MHz. With a 1:1 ratio your best bet is around 250 to 260 tops. Increasing the voltage and increasing the CAS to 3 might help.

😉
 
Originally posted by: MBentz
Robby, I have the same mobo as you but with a 3700+ Sandy and 2x 512 OCZ EL Plat 2-3-2-5. How high can you raise the HTT without a divider? I think my RAM is limiting me in quest for a nice OC.
Click to expand...

I'm currently running 245*10 on my Venice 3200 (stock cooling, stock voltage) with my memory at 166 divider (205) 2-3-3-6 1T. My Mushkin Blues have Winbond UTT (BH) and running up to 3.1v didn't help at all so I'm running at stock voltage. After reading some threads over at xtremesystems it seems that UTT really needs 3.3v or higher to start hitting some good o/c numbers.

Doesn't the OCZ Platinum have TCCD/TCC5 chips? What numbers are you able to hit with those?
 
Originally posted by: pointym5
The main problem I've been having with my 3200 Venice core CPU in my 9NPA+Ultra is that it won't run at 1T timings with 4 512MB sticks of PC3200 RAM. The RAM itself tests fine (at 2T at least), but the thing won't boot. The most recent firmware is better behaved when it's been set to 1T and it decides it's unhappy; before it wouldn't boot, now it forces 2T and boots in "safe" mode.
Click to expand...

According to anandtech's latest article on NF4 boards, the 2T restriction with 4 sticks is a limitation of the AMD on-chip memory controller.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2465

 
Basically I need to be running a divider to OC at anything >215. I know the board is stable at higher HTT ratings because I was running 10*250 with a 166 divider.
 
What timings and voltage are you running with the OCZ Platinum? Since it uses TCC5 you shouldn't need alot of voltage to get a decent overclock with tight timings. I would check out some of the threads at xtremesystems to see what others are getting and maybe contact one of the OCZ guys that hang out over there (ryanpgroovy is one) for some advice.
 
Up to 2.8V. Didn't want to void the warranty just to enlarge my e-penis. I will probably get different RAM at a later date and have another go. 3700+ @ stock is good enough for BF2.
 
What 2x512 RAM would you recommend (not too expensive) to go with this mobo and a venice 3000+?
I was originally just going to go with Corsair VS RAM unless anyone can tell me another good, but not too expensive, choice?

I'm only going to mildy OC, nothing EXTREMEEEEEE.
 
ShazK, FWIW I'm running this OCZ RAM on my 9NPA+ board w/ a 3200+ Venice. I haven't done any oc'ing yet, just set the RAM timing to 1T.

Jeff
 
bupkus, FWIW I d/l'ed mine from nVidia. I disabled that da_n nVidia firewall, it was nothing but a pain in the tush. I can't say I'm very impressed w/ the nVidia network, as least as it compares to my previous network setup (Broadcom on an EPoX 4PDA2+ board).

Jeff
 
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