VNF4/Ultra Bios and Board Questions

[strtngfrsh]

Hello, this is my first post here. I completed my first build about 2 weeks ago
(listed at bottom). I've had some issues and some questions hopefully you guys can help me with. First their was an issue of NOT reading temps from Bios. After about 2 days it started reading temps 29C CPU, 39C System. I have no clue why, I didn't change anything. About a day later it was reading temps at - 128 both CPU and System. Since then it's back reading normal in bios again for some strange reason, again I didn't do anything. It's been over a week ago and has been normal since. I've had it now for
over 2 weeks and been wondering if I needed a Bios update. My MB Bios was dated
2-3-05 which is Version 2. Anyway today I decided I would update to the latest Version 5. I went to the Chaintech site and followed the directions. Copied the .bin and .exe file to floppy then rebooted from floppy, Alt/F2 and it went to the Bios update utility. It read the floppy for about 15 seconds then just stopped. I let it set for about 30 min and nothing. So I rebooted tried again, same results. So then I tried updating to Version 4 instead. It updated like it should, everything went smooth as silk. But now my fan speeds and tempatures are wacked. Under Version 2 Bios my CPU fan speed was around 3500rpm now it's less then 900rpm and sometimes 0. Like now it's just kind of jumping ever few seconds. Also my CPU and System temps went up about 3C each and my GPU about 8c since the update, still not bad. Readings now are 32C CPU, 41C System, 59C GPU. I'm thinking the tempature and fan speed difference is related to "Cool and Quiet" that the earlier Bios version didn't support. While monitoring from BIOS I blocked the airflow to my side window intake fan that blows directly on the the cpu fan/heatsink. The CPU fan went from 0 RPM to around 1400 RPM in about 15 minutes. I then ublocked the fan and then the cpu fan RPMs started to fall again.
OK now for my questions.

Since the GPU temp is the hightest in my system at around 60C, It's passive cooling and I'm wondering if I should add a chipset fan or is this temp ok for this card.

With the New Bios supporting Cool and Quiet should my CPU fan just stop at times?

Would it be better to disable Cool and Quiet? If so How?

My issue about not being able to update to 5.0. do I really need 5.0 or is 4.0 ok?
I didnt see anything in the decription that would give me an advantage of 5.0. It said something about Dual CPU Support.

Oh one more thing, when I read temps from NVIDIA Monitor the temps read about 4 degrees lower than from the BIOS. They are both good so I'm not worried about overheating but just wondering which one was right?

Premium Mid-Tower Case
Seaonic 500W PS
Chaintech VNF4/ULTRA
AMD 3000+ Venice
1GB Corsair Value Select
Asus 6200TC Video
Western Digital 160 SATA II HD
Pioneer DVD/RW
Mitsumi floppy Drive

 

[GadgetBuilder]

The V4.0 BIOS has "SmartGuardian" function of the 8712F chip enabled by default (this is different from CnQ). This causes the fans to be temperature controlled so the fan speed increases slowly as the temperature rises. My VNF4's CPU stabilized at a higher temp than I liked using SmartGuardian so I disabled the BIOS temperature control so the fan runs full speed as in the earlier BIOS. I also enabled shutdown on over temp.

Another item changed in V4.0 on my machine, the command rate went to 2T so that needed changing in BIOS also.

BIOS serttings:
PC Health/Fan Speed: Change from Auto to Disabled, Shutdown temp = 60C
Frequency Control/DRAM Configuration/User Configuration 2T to 1T

The little fan which cools the NF4 chip runs at near 5000rpm and still the system temp (sensor is near NF4 chip according to Chaintech) is 43C on my system so I will purchase a NB47J and use that. The actual chip temp is about 13C higher than the reported system temp...

I loaded the CnQ software from the AMD site and enabled Minimal Power management which dropped the CPU temp about 6C.

I use SpeedFan to control the fans in my system -- the CPU fan runs about 1250 to hold the CPU temp at 26C. SpeedFan provides more flexibility in setting the temperature than the present BIOS fan settings allow.

For more info on the V5.0 BIOS vs your CPU type visit:
http://forums.pcper.com/forumdisplay.php?f=46

 

[strtngfrsh]

thanks, lots of great info there. This is my first build. I'm slowly getting the hang of it. I already had 60C set as a shutdown temp. I did disable the auto fan speed and checked my temps after. Monitoring with NVIDIA both CPU and GPU both went down 7Cs from when it was set on auto, system temp stayed about the same, maybe a 1c drop. I can't tell any difference in the noise. The only thing I can hear is the air being sucked in by the case fan on the side. I checked out that cooler. I'll look into it more when I finish up this system should be next week. I'm wondering with it being passive if it would be more effective than the fan I've got now. Although the fan doesn't look like much. It's got so much houseing I don't see how much air could get in to let fan be effective. Going to check into speedfan also after I get a front 120mm and one for the rear. that should help also with air flow. Thanks Again.

 

[GadgetBuilder]

I had the passive NF4 cooler previously and it worked better than the (newer) fan version by about 2C. The cooler with the fan has much shorter fins so it needs the fan to approach the passive unit's performance. The NB47J is 47mm high vs 25mm for th VNF4's passive chip cooler so I expect it to work better but must test to be certain.

Adding CnQ is worthwhile for many systems since it reduces power used by the CPU which drops the temp if the fan speed is fixed.

You can use SpeedFan to simply monitor temperatures initially, then add fan control later. It takes a while to figure out how to set everything up. SpeedFan finds all the board's possible sensors, some of which don't exist so they give bogus readings like 128C. It is easy to uncheck these so they aren't displayed. Setup is best done by following the Help precisely the first time. My system is quiet so slowing the CPU fan makes a welcome difference.

SpeedFan also shows board voltages so you can tell that CnQ is working when Vcore1 drops from 1.4 to 1.09 or so.