Hi guys,
yesterday morning i received the following stuff ......
1) dfi nf4 ultra m/b.
2) venice core 3000+
3) Saphire Radeon x800 xl
4) OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 Gold Revision 2
(Tragedy, since i had wanted 1 GB . but i got 2 x 256 =512 mb. perhaps my mistake in sending the links ....)
Had fixed the zalman 7000 cu heatsink last night.
Today powered on the system, flashed the bios to the latest one 3.10 (in dos) , and tested it with my "old" ocz rams, low latency pc 3200 ones.
(since i am thinking of sending the new rams back and getting the 1 GB kit)
previously these old ocz rams on my Abit , p4 system, would not go above 234 mhz. since the limitation on that board (ABIT IS-7) was the 2.8V VDIMM.
today passed the memtests (3 rounds) @ 250 mhz @ 2.5 - 3-3 at
3.1 VDIMM. (1:1 , 1T)
(a nice handy feature in the bios of dfi ultra, the memtest program is built into the bios )
will back up my old system and install this m/b combo either tonight or tomorrow.
initial reaction to the m/b : well it is breath taking in its features. just to know the various settings for ram tweaking requires a deep knowledge of rams and its timings.
initial reaction to the gfx card: since i have not yet installed the os and tested, will do so later... but it looks solid built with top quality parts. except for the h/s and the small fan
(makes a whooss sound on power up for 1 second then gets quiet)
but this card is lies just 1 or 2 mm above the nf4 chip fan....:huh:
and BTW: i used my existing powersafe 500 watts psu for this. i used the existing
20 pin ATX connector and it is working beautifully....
Also another useful feature on this m/b is that the power and reset switches are built on the m/b itself.
this really helps in testing the board since you need not install it in the case and connect the power on and reset wires to the switches on the case.
now i wont have to "short" the pins to jumpstart this m/b outside the case ......
hyeah:
now i go to learn about the various settings in the bios and some o/c tips on the net.