EPoX 9NDA3+ nForce3 Ultra Socket 939 Motherboard

BIOS Configuration:

The 9NDA3+ uses the familliar Award BIOS with lots of options for tweaking. The manual covers the BIOS configuration extensively, especially on setting up a RAID array.

The Advanced Chipset screen allows for adjusting the HyperTransport ratio, AGP settings, and also tweaking memory timings.

• HyperTransport Ratios: 1X - 5X (in 1X increments)
• DRAM Speeds: Auto, 100, 133, 166, 200
• 1T/2T Memory Timing: Auto, 1T, 2T
• CAS Latency (Tcl): Auto, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0
• RAS to CAS Delay (Trcd): Auto, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
• Min RAS active Time (Tras): Auto, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
• Row Precharge Time (Trp): Auto, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The Health Status screen displays all the relevant voltages, and allows the user to enable a smart fan function (fan speed adjusts according to CPU temp), and also a shutdown temperature. For the most part our voltages were spot on, only the DIMM voltage seemed to be undervolting some (which can be an issue for serious overclockers). EPoX has been working on this and it should be fixed with a BIOS update hopefully.

The Power BIOS Features offers a lot of options for overclocking, most notably the bus speed can be adjusted from 200MHz all the way up to 400MHz! AGP speed can be adjusted too, however most people will probably leave it at 66/67MHz. The CPU ratio can be adjusted, however with regular Athlon64 processors you can only decrease the multiplier. CPU and DIMM voltages are somewhat limited for serious overclockers, however they still provide enough voltage to do decent overclocking.

• Bus Speeds: 200MHz to 400MHz (in 1MHz increments)
• AGP Speeds: 66MHz to 100MHz (in 1MHz increments)
• CPU Ratios: Auto, 8X to 25X (in 1X increments)
• CPU Voltage: +.05V, +.10V, +.15V, +.20V
• DIMM Voltage: 2.5V to 2.8V (in 0.1V increments)
• AGP Voltage: 1.5V-1.8V (in 0.1V increments)
• Chipset Voltage: 1.6V-1.75V (in 0.05V increments)