A few general questions (ATX 24-pin, Nforce Qs, and General O/C)

As a continuation of my post in the electrical storm sticky...

I have recently upgraded to the following.

Epox 9NPAJ Nforce 4 mobo
AMD Ahtlon 64 3000+, Socket 939
MSI Geforce 6800
Same old 768 PC-2100 DDR

ATX 24-pin Question
Now then my first and most urgent concern.. When I purchased all this I saw and read nothing that made me aware of the 24-ping ATX power connector on the 9NPAJ. I usually consider myself a thurough person, but this one just hit me below the belt! And from what I got off of google, it seems to have surprised a number of people as well..

My Antect 400W is a damn nice PSU of course, and only has the standard 20-pin connector.. It DOES fit into the 24-pin connector, leaving 4 pins free of course, and I also put the 4-pin 12V connector to use as well (first time actually). I have read confusing and conflicting information about people having melt-downs at the connector-level because of these standard variances, and going ahead with using their old 20-ping anyway. I have also heard of people buying adaptors; also said to be nothing more than grounded /empty units - yet also said to contain some ground, some 12v, and some 5v (I think).. I am very confused on that one !

I have also read that SOME board, and my board in particular, seem to run fine as is - or are in some way "backwards compatible".. Being the stupid fool I am (and I desperately need my PC to get work done on my site/magazine, as well as other projects) I am running things right now with my 20-pin PSU hooked up to the 24-pin board..

Am I safe? Can anyone confirm this is OK? Am I running a terrible risk? I CANNOT afford a new PSU.. Is there anything I can do if I need an immediate resolution?


Nforce 4 onboard sound question
I originally resented Nvidia's entrance into the chipset market.. But once I bought my first Nforce 2 chipset with soundstorm, and the other goodies it offered, I was hooked.. I am concerned about my current, and also future sound offerings from them.. I have heard that these days its not really "real" surround sound, etc.. My board in particular is supposed to have 2ch/8ch sound.. I have 4.1 Logitech Z-540's that have seen two sound blasters, my aformentioned Nforce 2 soundstorm (8RDA+), and now my Nforce 4 sound on my 9NPAJ board. I have to admit, things seem to sound a little different compared to my Nforce 2 board.. I don't know if its a combination of true slight difference + mental tricks by what I read (says rear is "cloned front channel" type deal) or what.. I guess I am wondering if anyone can give me any concrete answers on this one.

Is my board capable of EAX/EAX2 / Surround anything? Or is it just a cloned channel, or what?? I know back on my Nforce 2 board I played games where I could hear things to the left/right/front/rear. So, sorry if this one is just me being mental with myself, but I'd like some reassuring answers on what my board may be capable of.. I don't have to go buy some expensive SPDIF type speakers to get real surround do I ?

Sound Question -- Drivers
Back on my Nforce2 board I had problems with sound cutting in and out at random, I believe it was pretty much a problem with my subwoofer. Sometimes it seemed like giving the thing a knock around or somethign temporarily fixed the problem, and I almost went ahead and tried to get an RMA from Logitech.. However after doing some digging I believed it to actually be a problem with the independant NForce sound driver download off Nvidias site.. I rolled back to the drivers incuded in the Nforce platform drivers and the problem eventually cleared up.. My concern is how those independant drivers will behave on my Nforce 4 board.. The notes mention support for Nforce 4 etc, but I don't want to waste a ton of time installing drivers that cause my sound to crap out and then fight to roll them back to a working set of drivers, etc.. Can anyone attest to using these latest drivers with their Nforce board? Did it improve your sound any vs the standard platform drivers? Did it improve anything else ? Thanks..




General Overclocking Question
When I got my A64 I was very nervous.. All I got was the retail HSF combo, since it was all I could afford.. Also I was nervous about just mounting the thing and locking it in place, so for the time being I opted to stay with the standard TIM it comes with.. I know its not the best, and one day I hope to maybe upgrade my now retired water cooling gear and break out the Arctic ceramique.. But for now the retail HSF/TIM is all I got..

I have heard good things about my chip in particular.. 939, 3000+ 1.8ghz "Venice" - reaching as high as 2.6ghz or so.. Obviously I do not intend to try something like that on such woefully poor cooling equipment, however I was wondering if perhaps there is a safe margin I could raise it by? Perhaps 100 or 200 Mhz? Also I know that you can lower the multiplier of A64's and raise the FSB speed.. As I have crumby PC2100 ram that craps out at about 143mhz anyway (286 DDR) I was wondering if I were to boost the CPU's bus speed and leave the ram behind, would I see any significant performance increase for the effort? The idea of course would be to match the stock speed as close as possible to avoid overheating damage, and just "widen" the bus to squeeze a bit more data through..

Well that about sums it up.. Thanks in advance for any helpful replies

AFAIK, the extra 4pins on the 24pin connector are for powering the PCI-E slot when a high power card is installed that runs solely off of the slot.

I am against using converters, they can really cause some problems. what version of the 400w do you have? Antec released an update to the original Smartpower line (not smartpower II but an update to SP) that evened out the amperage a bit and in favour of more on the +12v. The original did not have that much on the +12v and I would definitely encourage purchasing a better unit for overclocking.

You shouldn't have to but have you set up the sound using the audio panel?

overclocking is pretty much the same as other platforms, the only thing you have to pay attention to is the LDT multiplier. It is defaulted to 5x, you will want to lower it to 4x when overclocking slightly.

Know Nuttin said:

AFAIK, the extra 4pins on the 24pin connector are for powering the PCI-E slot

Click to expand...

that is accurate.

the 4 pin is to provide supplemental power to the cpu and need to beplugged in no matter what psu your using.
some may run without it but its not recommended.
dont try to plug the 4 pin into the extra 4 slots not that you did or that it even should fit but im just making a few valid points that may save someone a problem. after seeing a 7800 gtx have part of its slot cut off i dont doubt much anymore.

i have converted my antec 550 to a 24 pin. the adapters are useless and only steal power from the other rails, when your overclocking this isnt good for stability.

i used the sata connector to power the extra pins.
here is pic of psu

I think mine is an original smart power.. I'll check on it later..
And yeah I've done setup through the audio panel speaker wizard, etc..

Interesting info for sure.