DFI NF4-DAGF BIOS + RAID setup guide (this RAID guide is for all DFI N

[Angry_Games]

ok...been working on this one all day

 

DFI NF4-DAGF

 

this is a VERY good board...it is on par with the LanParty NF4-D (which is the exact same board as the LanParty Ultra-D, SLI-D, SLI-DR).

 

the ONLY real difference is no second PCI-E slot, so you can never have SLI (even though the chipset is able to mod to it...BUT DONT DO IT (mod for SLI!)), and the vdimm only goes to 3.2v (it has no 4v jumper...but see big red text below)

 

You can however, modify it to "Ultra" chipset, which will allow you to gain SATA II support (check Modifications section in this forum...unsupported by DFI but you know...we'll help you unofficially)

 

http://www.angrygames.com/DAGF-1.htm

 

 

 

PS: DFI has finally fixed the NF4 F6 RAID drivers so they no longer give you those weird things like in my original tutorial. After I finish this, I will go back through with a LanParty Ultra-D board and re-raid it and fix the pictures.

 

 

 

NOTE:

 

this setup is RAID-0, but I thought I would try something different this time. I am using a Hitachi SATA II 80GB 8mb drive (SATA I functions of 1.5Gb/s enabled only) + a Western Digital WD800 80GB IDE drive

 

 

 

the link once again:

 

http://www.angrygames.com/DAGF-1.htm

 

 

 

I am putting the rig through the benchmarks right now, and will also include more pictures on getting Prime95 to run on both cores separately (and will post pics in teh X2 Prime95 thread stuck up here also as it seems some cannot get dual prime's to work the way I have instructed)

 

 

 

NOTE:

 

You must have the official 6/13/2005 BIOS for this board to run an X2 cpu.

 

Also note that the splash screen after flashing shows up as an 'Infinity' which made me laugh a little...and if you look in the first pic on the page, you will see that the BIOS string itself thinks it is an Infinity...regardless, this is one hell of a board, and it overclocks VERY well once you get used to the DRAM/Genie BIOS settings.

 

Ask THunDa about this...he has clocked an FX-55 very well on it.

 

and no, it does not go above 3.2v vdimm...but it wouldn't take much to modify the bios to allow more than 3.2v vdimm and then use a good OCZ Powerstream with adjustable rails to get more than 3.2v vdimm....an OCZ DDR Booster might also work also, as it works in the Lanparty NF4 boards...but I do not recommend them

[Angry_Games]

2 hdd benches are posted, and here's an updated 'How To Run Dual Prime95 on X2/Hyperthreaded/Dual Processor machines'

 

 

since this has been asked a zillion times to me, I thought I'd make a short easy little guide for those of you running dual core X2's and Pentium4's with two logical cores.

 

 

 

install prime95

 

then right click the exe and send a shortcut to your desktop. rename this Prime95-1. Right click the shortcut and put a space after the last character in the Target box, and then -A0 (thats an A and a zero)

 

then right click the original exe for prime and send another shortcut to the desktop. Rename this Prime95-2. Right click on this shortcut, and at the end of the target line, put a space and -A1.

 

so it should look like this:

 

 

 

double click each shortcut and you should get both prime95 boxes up.

 

Next you have to go to Advanced - Affinity. This tells Prime to only use 1 instance per specific cpu!

 

(thx for all of you that found my error in the original!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now go to Options - Torture Test...then down to Custom. You will see in the circled box how much memory Prime95 wants to use (this rig has 1GB of memory).

 

 

what you have to do is remember that you have TWO instances of this running, so divide this number in half. I always like to give a little leeway, so half of 927MB is 414...so I only use 400MB per cpu (this assures that the system wont over-use the physical RAM and end up accessing the pagefile...keep in mind both cores @ 400MB of memory each is VERY stressful!!!)

 

 

 

 

 

open your Task Manager (crtl+alt+del) and you'll see two physical cores in the cpu box...click OK on one of the primes, and you will see 1 core go up to 100% use.

 

click OK on the second prime and you will see the second core go up to 100% use.

 

 

[malinois1]

Nice thanks for the update AG

[Angry_Games]

 

just a little later...I use the Ntune utility to monitor temps/voltages since the ITE Smartguardian acts all funny on voltages (which is funny in itself since the DAGF has an ITE chip on it...)

[pkilway]

Thanks AG, I love my DAGF so far. Been VERY impressed with it, and yes the main reason I bought it was it was basically the Ultra-D without the 3GB/s SATA and Karajan audio).

 

Still working on getting my cpu overclocked, but I'll get there.

[Angry_Games]

you can enable SATA II on the DAGF if you look for the info in the modifications section...

[THunDA]

Ask THunDa about this...he has clocked an FX-55 very well on it.

 

I even ran my Sandy in it for a while @ 242x12...Its lacks a few memory timings compared to the other NF4's, but it does have a few others that I really didnt mess with.. Overall its an excellent mobo and very stable..

[nPHYN1T3]

I've had some issues with this board so far & would like some input. I like the board however if I install on a Raid array (0) Windows after it's done installing will simply BSOD on boot. Machine runs nice on a normal IDE drive however or Sata non-raid.

 

I have tried many things & I'm sure there are many more things to try but I'd appreciate it if someone had a quick tried & true work around for this. At present I'm using my old oem Win XP SP1 disc for repairs since using the OS purchased with the machine (x64 Windows) is even more hopeless then the 32 bit version at this point.

 

Kingson ram 1G

ATI x800 PCIe

Athlon 64 3800x2

etc etc etc

[werdwerdus]

What additional steps, if any, would be required if I want to span the RAID array across both SATA controllers on the SLI-DR Expert? This means one hard drive on the Nvidia controllers and one hard drive on the Silicon Image 3114 controller.

[Angry_Games]

What additional steps, if any, would be required if I want to span the RAID array across both SATA controllers on the SLI-DR Expert? This means one hard drive on the Nvidia controllers and one hard drive on the Silicon Image 3114 controller.

impossible to do

 

you can span PATA + SATA on the NV controller, but you CANNOT span anything across two separate RAID controllers (the SI and NV controller)

[Angry_Games]

I've had some issues with this board so far & would like some input. I like the board however if I install on a Raid array (0) Windows after it's done installing will simply BSOD on boot. Machine runs nice on a normal IDE drive however or Sata non-raid.

 

I have tried many things & I'm sure there are many more things to try but I'd appreciate it if someone had a quick tried & true work around for this. At present I'm using my old oem Win XP SP1 disc for repairs since using the OS purchased with the machine (x64 Windows) is even more hopeless then the 32 bit version at this point.

 

Kingson ram 1G

ATI x800 PCIe

Athlon 64 3800x2

etc etc etc

try slipstreaming SP2 into a disk:

http://www.angrygames.com/slipstream_sp2.htm

 

and also looking at my other RAID guide:

http://www.angrygames.com/nf4raid-1.htm

[Jasy]

the ONLY real difference is no second PCI-E slot, so you can never have SLI (even though the chipset is able to mod to it...BUT DONT DO IT (mod for SLI!)), and the vdimm only goes to 3.2v (it has no 4v jumper...but see big red text below)

 

How can I do it? the maximum isn't 3.1v?

 

You can however, modify it to "Ultra" chipset, which will allow you to gain SATA II support (check Modifications section in this forum...unsupported by DFI but you know...we'll help you unofficially)

 

I didn't find the mod to ultra.

 

 

Can you help me with this?