Gigabyte 7NNXP

[noah]

I'm currently watching out for this board; it will most likely be my next AMD board.

A pdf is available from Gigabyte here (http://http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/News/News_Year_2003.htm#News563) , but I haven't yet found any info on availabilty.

[Tony]

So noah..why is it so good? i know you always study hard before you buy, so come on m8 spill the beans!

[noah]

I will as soon as I get it, heh heh!

[Tony]

Looks like a nice review will be in order then m8...feel up to it?

[noah]

I do ;)

[JeffPH]

It costs about $180-200. Gonna wait for your review :)

[noah]

Still no info on US availability. There is this review (http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?lp=ja_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oc.com.tw%2Farticle%2F0305%2Freadgoodarticle.asp%3Fid%3D1469) though (warning, babelfish).

[noah]

7nnxp on its way. Should be a fun weekend coming.

[pointreyes]

The Dual BIOS is a useful feature and can prevent unnecessary RMAs.

Makes me wish I would have known about this board before I got that A7N8x. :mad: I might still get it though. I might have sold my Epox system.

So where's the review?

[Mikki]

Originally posted by noah
7nnxp on its way. Should be a fun weekend coming.
I'm looking forward to it also noah!!! :D

[noah]

The 7NNXP is here!

I've been tinkering with it over the weekend.

Here are my initial observations:

1) The retail package is simply astounding. We're not just talking the kitchen sink anymore folks. This think reminds me of buying a lego set.

2) Voltages in the bios look almost perfect with my Enermax 430 Whisper series. We're talking 3.38, 5.05, and 12.09. These readings remain stable and consistent as overclocking ensues (many boards drop voltage lines slightly at higher overclocks). The vcore comes overvolted slightly - give 1.625 for a 1.6v processor. The DDR voltage is up a little too. It's 2.64v by default - no way to lower it. There is no chipset voltage adjust :(

3) Using control-F1 reveals more bios settings as with many Giga-byte boards. One confusing point is that in addition to the vcore adjust from 1.1 to 1.85v, ctrl-F1 gives you an overvolt parameter - 5%, 7.5%, 10%. I'm finding that this simply does not do anything.

4) Install went smooth as silk with the following setup:

7NNXP
Radeon 9500 Pro (ATI retail)
2x256 MB Corsair XMS 3200 rev. 1.1
Athlon XP 2100+ tbredB (at 2200mhz)
11x200FSB, RAM at 100% 2-2-2-7 timings
1.7v vcore, default vmem and vagp

13300 3dmark 2001 at all defaults otherwise. A very heathy score.

My other benches are just about right on par with Proms Soltek review.

5) This boards is STABLE. This same CPU has chocked at 2167mhz 1.75v on my previous 8rda+ (a very decent board). I attribute this to excellent voltage regulation. I want to say the dual power system plays a part, but honestly, I don't know what that thing really does. It looks cool with the glowing fan though.

6) The sound quality & CPU utilization is good - just as with other nforce2 boards. I prefer the Audigy2 though (who wouldn't?).

7) Oddities/gripes:
- Can't seem to get all multipliers to work correctly. Raising above 11x at 200fsb doesn't work. Setting the fsb to 166 allows up to 14x to work with my chip.
- Dual channel memory operation doesn't work when 3 or 4 dimms are installed - it switches to single channel. This is dumb IMO - an idiot oversight by Gigabyte. Wouldn't much rather have only 3 DIMM slots and have them all work with Dual channel operation as with other nforce2 boards. Perhaps a bios fix?
- No chipset voltage adjust. This is holding me back to about 206mhz FSB. I know the RAM can safely take 220.
- No CMOS clear. Gigabyte says this isn't needed because the backup bios will kick in. WRONG! You have to remove the battery to clear it. The board should really have a physical switch on it for selecting wich bios anyway.
- EZTUNE does not seem to work. Installs, but fails to launch. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong...
- Can't find a good harward monitor. MBM works but reads the voltages incorrectly, even with version 5.3.3.0 (the latest as of right now).

I'm hoping some of these things can be fixed with a bios update (using F9 right now), but giga-byte is not well known for good bios engineering.

I have not yet tested some of the onboard goodies - gigaraid, gigabit ethernet, serial ATA (and SATA raid), so I can't comment on them right now.

[noah]

I have scored a digital camera, but only for a very short while. I'm actually planning to scoot home and take a few pics at lunchtime today. Hopefully upload them here sometime tomorrow.

[pointreyes]

Thanks Noah. I know that I'm really amazed with my 8KNXP (the Intel Canterwood board), it has the three RAID controllers as well. I'm getting memory scores with default settings that the rest of the 8KNXP owners at ABX can't understand how I'm getting such good scores. :)

Keep me posted because the 7NNXP might be replacing my A7N8x board. :)

Oh, is the 7NNXP a 6-layer PCB?

[noah]

Hmm... it appears to be be same thickness as other 4 layer PCB boards I have, but I'm not sure this is definitive. Any other way to tell?

[noah]

Well - I had originally intended to do a full review of this board. Unfortunately, after a very stable start, the hiccups arrived, and I haven't really been able to iron them out. I arrive home from work or wake up in the mornint to find the machine locked up, even bumped down to 2ghz. It's probably not even the board, but I can't in good conscience recommend this one until I know for sure what's tripping it.

I have to say, for those considering the Gigabyte, the 7N400 pro, which lacks the gigabit ethernet and dual power source, is probably a much better deal at about $60 less.

Sorry to drop the ball in this folks! But my hefty summer work schedule and growing interest in linux is keeping me from getting down & dirty with the hardware like I used to! Anywho, there are always new and wonderful things on the bleedin' edge (which is really in intel's court at the moment!) - so enjoy :)

[prometheus]

I an currently testing the 7N400 PRO - the same board without DSS and the second LAN - and with onboard SATA RAID and IDE GigaRAID. It is THE best nforce2 board I have ever tested. I'm currently running an average 2500+ Barton at 233x9, DDR466 on the C1 Ultra400 chipset. There IS adjustable chipset voltage (hidden but revealed with CRTL+F1), FSB to 300, multiplier adjusts that don't require any mod to recent chips, and a ton of other features.

Gigabyte missed the first round of nForce2 boards since nVidia withheld them from those NOT selling their video cards - and Gigabyte sells ATI Radeon video. Well, it was worth the wait!! I'm testing the 7N400 PRO with onboard SATA RAID and IDE GigaRAID - currently at 233x9,
I'll be posting more as I get some benches - but this is the most excited I have been about a board in a while. And yes, I have tested the Epox 8RDA+, the Asus A7N8X, The Soltek with Ultra400 & RAID, and most of the other nForce2 boards.

More to come.

[prometheus]

Noah, there is a hidden chipset voltage option in the Frquency/Voltage section the appears after a ctrl+F1. It's called vCore voltage and allows you to add 5%, 7.5%, and 10%. THis is in addition to CPU voltage adjustments which always are threr from 1.10 ti 1.85v in .025v increments.

In my testing so far it also appears vAGP (a la Abit) may also affect chipset voltage somewhat. That also explains why the adjusts are to 1.8v. (.1,.2,.3). With all these options I have been able to hit new overclock records at lower voltage with my chips. As I type this I am running my Barton 2500+ (1.83 real) at over 2.4GHz real at 1.7V (default is 1.675v) at 34C on air.

There is also a hidden vDimm adjust of 2.8v which bigtoe has 'unhid'. He has also found other options to unhide and I'm testing his revised BIOS now BEFORE he posts it. It will be posted as soon as checked out.