Chaintech VNF4 Ultra vs. SATA2

[ndavid]

I have a Chaintech VNF4 Ultra Zenith VE motherboard (I think) with BIOS V7.0 4/19/06, running Windows XP SP3, connected to an OCZ SSD. I can't seem to get the OCZ drive to work in SATA2 mode, which is limiting performance.

The BIOS doesn't seem to recognize SATA2 drives, or have any relevant setting, but I thought I could use the nVidia IDE driver settings to override this. (Is that correct?)

The first driver version I tried was "Fernandos non-AHCI nForce Performance Pack for XP 32bit v8.5", but I had 2 problems:
- SATA drives showed up as SCSI drives, so they didn't have the SATA options available
- could only access first 1TB of Seagate 1.5TB drive

Then I installed the nVidia nForce driver pack 6.66 (IDE driver 5.10.2600.534 5/17/05), which works OK in SATA1 mode. The "Let BIOS select transfer mode" and "Transfer mode" options do show up in the channel properties, but if I set them to SATA 2 and reboot, they revert to the SATA1 settings.

So, questions:
1. Has anyone been successful in running this motherboard in SATA2 mode?
2. Is there a way to tell for sure if I have the NF4 Ultra version of the board, other than removing the NF4 heatsink?
3. Is there a different BIOS version that I should be using?
4. Is there a different IDE driver version that I should be using? There are so many versions out there, I don't want to use trial and error.

Thanks for any suggestions! (Other than switching to a different motherboard or Windows 7 )

[Fernando 1]

@ ndavid:

Welcome at nForcersHQ Forum!

It was not a good idea to buy an SSD and and to use it with an nForce4 chipset mainboard. Your LEGACY mode board has not been designed at all for being connected with an SSD.
Since you obviously had enough money for the SSD, you should buy an appropriate actual mainboard and the needed accessoires. Otherwise you will never be happy with your SSD.

Regards
Fernando

[ndavid]

Well, I totally disagree. I think it was a great idea to buy the SSD. It was under $100, it works fine with my motherboard, and I'm already really happy with it. I would be even happier if I could get it to run at SATA300 speed.

[Fernando 1]

It was not a good idea to buy an SSD and and to use it with an nForce4 chipset mainboard. Your LEGACY mode board has not been designed at all for being connected with an SSD.

Well, I totally disagree. I think it was a great idea to buy the SSD.

I did not write, that the purchase of the SSD itself was a bad idea. My criticism was related to the conjunction of the SSD and the old chipset.
If you don't believe me, you may look into >this< OCZ Forum thread.
Conclusion done by tuney: An nforce 4 system is not worth a high end lsi card.

2. Is there a way to tell for sure if I have the NF4 Ultra version of the board, other than removing the NF4 heatsink?

You can run any hardware detection tool like AIDA or SiSoft Sandra.

3. Is there a different BIOS version that I should be using?

You will not be able to change the SATA Controller by updating the BIOS.

4. Is there a different IDE driver version that I should be using?

Did you already try the generic XP in-box MS IDE driver named PCIIDE.SYS?[/quote]

Regards
Fernando

[ndavid]

Conclusion done by tuney: [b][size=150] An nforce 4 system is not worth a high end lsi card.

Don't worry, I'm definitely not planning on buying an LSI card. I might buy an $8 SATA2 card on eBay though.

2. Is there a way to tell for sure if I have the NF4 Ultra version of the board, other than removing the NF4 heatsink?

You can run any hardware detection tool like AIDA or SiSoft Sandra.

AIDA says the motherboard name is "Chaintech VNF4 (Ultra) ZENITH VE", but then identifies the South Bridge as "nVIDIA nForce4 (CK8-04)", so that seemed ambiguous.

Sandra 2011 just says the chipset is "N61F", and I couldn't find that number anywhere - what does it mean?

Is there any tool that will give a definitive answer?

3. Is there a different BIOS version that I should be using?

You will not be able to change the SATA Controller by updating the BIOS.

I don't have any reason to think there is a problem with the SATA controller. Maybe a different BIOS version would enable SATA2 mode.

4. Is there a different IDE driver version that I should be using?

Did you already try the generic XP in-box MS IDE driver named PCIIDE.SYS?

Yes, but it doesn't have the SATA1/SATA2 option that the Nvidia driver has. Also, it seemed a bit slower. I was really asking about different versions of the Nvidia driver.

[ndavid]

I found the problem - although the board was marked VNF4 Ultra, it had a plain NF4 chip. I had to bridge the 2 sets of SATA2 pads to get it to work in SATA2 mode.