Looking for; mATX MB for AMD socket 939 Winchester core

[bbq]

I found the MSI RS480M2 - but checking the website, it seems this does not yet support the winchester core


Anybody have any news/suggestions?

thanks

[skuzgib]

I know foxconn/winfast do an NF4 mATX board.

[StormPC]

Yes, the MSI RS480 does support the Winchester, but the BIOS has NO OVERCLOCKING FEATURES! I tested the board but stuck with the Foxconn for now because at least it supports memory timing and FSB changes. Wish DFI would come out with one soon.

[bbq]

Does the Foxconn have any OC capability? Which would you chose - MSI vs Foxconn?
Great news regarding the winchester support, I wanted to check first, since the information on the global site implied it didn't

Don't suppose you know of a stockist of the Foxconn/Winfast boards in the UK?

thanks

[nimbu]

I have the Foxconn, Havent really played with the OC Features, but one thing is certain I did not see a PCI Lock.

[StormPC]

The Foxconn has few overclocking settings, but THE MSI HAS ZERO!!! It does have the capability to run just about any PCI-E graphics card though.

The PCI on the Foxconn locks just fine. But it has very few overclocking features in the BIOS. You can change the multis in Clockgen though and they pretty much stay changed. This can be good or bad depending on what you change it to and your hardware configuration. NO VOLTAGE ADJUSTMENT IS THE WORST THING ABOUT THE FOXCONN!!! The BIOS has only the basic 4 memory timings and FSB from 200-250. It also has no LDT multi adjustment. It has almost no overclocking ability in the BIOS. The thing I think is the biggest crime is only being able to use 6 videocards in it (according to the very poorly written manual).

[nimbu]

Storm what BIOS rev u running? As Im pretty sure i didnt spot a PCI lock, once i put a PCI Express v/card in, i spotted a lock for that.

And yeah I noticed no Vcore adjustment.

Was that about only 6 Videocards? I cant find me manual (rarely read them anyway), maybe thats what blew up the X300SE I put in there first

Nimbu

[DavidM]

There doesnt seem to be many mATX 939 mobos yet....

[StormPC]

There doesnt seem to be many mATX 939 mobos yet....

That's for sure.

Nimbu,

I couldn't find any downloads at all for this moherboard.

Which board are you using? I'm running the CK804K8MA-KS which is no longer in production I believe.

There are no controls for PCI locks but the buss is locked, just the same as there being no multi adjustment in the BIOS but you can still adjust it with Clockgen, and the setting even holds when you change it through Clockgen, so be careful. If you get into trouble you can always clear the BIOS though.

The manual says you can only use the 6 videocards listed, five of which were ATi based and only one was nVidia, a 5750. The manual is full of crap though. You can use any PCI-E card your PSU can handle.

If you don't have a 24 pin PSU it is a good idea to use an adapter even though your motherboard should work fine without it. They're pretty cheap and easy to find.

Do you overclock?

[nimbu]

Thats the same model number im using, I couldnt find jack on the board either, though the reason i asked, when i googled once i found something about a bios upgrade for the board, but it was in another language that google couldnt translate.

As for the Vid card Issue I think ur right, those video cards listed are prob ones they had in labs to test with. I dunno if u remember the Lex SIS AMD boards, they claimed the max V Card u could put in was a TNT2, but we had put in all sorts in there.

Ill have to play with this clockgen proggie.

One question as tbh i have no clue about AMD cpu's, I understand the HT Bus is 1600 on this board, how is that figure calculated as from what ive heard if u go over this value, things can start to go astray.

Nimbu

[StormPC]

That may be a problem with overclocking this board. If the standard NF4 chipset is limited to 1600 (the ultra is 2000) they locked the LDT at 4x. It works like this basically:

Memory speed is selected in the BIOS as a multiplier for 200. On your board you have Auto (which is really 200MHz or 2:1=200x2=400MHz effective), 166MHz (which is 5:3=200x1.666=333MHz effective), 133MHz (4:3=200x1.333=266MHz) and 100MHz (1:1=200x1=200MHz).

There is only one MHz number that is usually referred to as the FSB but it's actually the main frequency from which everything else (including the buss) is derived. The standard number is 200. Most BIOS let you adjust this upwards. Yours goes to 250MHz. I suspect that's because the LDT is locked at 4x. If you went higher than 250 with your LDT at 4x instability would be an issue. Anyway, this number and various mulitpliers determine the speeds of your CPU, HTT and DDR among other things.

CPU Speed (MHz) = This Freq x CPU Multi (not adjustable in your BIOS)
DDR Speed (MHz) = This Freq x Multi (adjustable by the means stated above)
HTT Speed (MHz) = This Freq x 8 (if LDT=4, x10 if LDT=5, x6 if LDT=3, etc...)

You may want to look at some of the many good A64 overclocking guides also. Don't want to hijack this thread any further.

Cheers!