Since my last motherboard died three days ago, I had to trade it in, just days after I upgraded to it. So now I am using the black edition of the XFX 750a SLI nFORCE Motherboard.
Here are the stats for the machine I am using:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+
Windows 7 (6.1) Ultimate Edition (Build 7100)
CPU Arch : 1 CPU – 2 Cores – 2 Threads
CPU PSN : AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5600+
CPU EXT : MMX(+), 3DNow!(+), SSE (1, 2, 3), x86-64, AMD-V
CPUID : F.B.2 / Extended : F.6B
CPU Cache : L1 : 2 x 64 / 2 x 64 KB – L2 : 2 x 512 KB
Core : Brisbane (65 nm) / Stepping : BH-G2
Freq : 2900.22 MHz (200.02 * 14.5)
MB Brand : XFX
MB Model : MD-A72P-7509
NB : NVIDIA nForce 740a SLI rev A2
SB : NVIDIA nForce 740a SLI MCP rev A2
GPU1 Type : NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
GPU1 Clocks : Core 550 MHz / RAM 500 MHz
GPU2 Type : NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
GPU2 Clocks : Core 550 MHz / RAM 500 MHz
DirectX Version : 11.0
RAM : 2048 MB DDR2 Dual Channel
RAM Speed : 362.5 MHz (Unknown) @ 5-5-5-18
Slot 1 : 1024MB (6400)
Slot 1 Manufacturer : Corsair
Slot 2 : 1024MB (6400)
Slot 2 Manufacturer : Corsair
This motherboard is probably the most complicated install I have done since my old old EPOX motherboard back in 98. Actual jumper usage for overclocking. If configured incorrectly, you will not be able to boot to any operating system. On day one, I fell asleep in a pile of computer parts at 3 Oclock in the morning, sitting on my floor at the foot of my bed. So determined to finish the job. The next day I woke up to my alarm clock at 6 am and left for work, hurting from sleeping sitting up. The instruction book that came with the motherboard, was a lame accordion fold thing that just listed content and identified parts. All the use I had of a search engine was through my G1 phone. Glad I had it though. I was going to give up, but I found people leaving reviews at some sites (for buying computer parts) and the reviews they left said really bad stuff (not looking good) then there were follow ups saying ” ok last review was right in the sense it expressed how I felt, but after learning how to work this better, This is an awesome motherboard. Clearly not for the novice, oh and the full instruction manual is a pdf on the driver install disk”. That is sooo owrong. I was wanting to give up and take it back but I see that other people had a rough start and they figured it out. So now i was determined.
There is a huge set of jumpers between the PCI-E slots, move the jumpers to position 3-4 for all of them, you will be fine.. That is if you want to use the pci-e slots. If you intend to use SLI mode, you will lose the option of pci-e1. So take out all pci-e 1 cards.
There is a jumper next to the onboard power/reset/cmos buttons. No matter what the book says, leave it at 1-2 pins. That is of course, if you just want the machine to boot up. Mess with the whole overclocking feature later when you confirm the machine works.
There is another jumper at the foot of the green PCI-E slot. That slot is labeled as being PCI-E4 . Really it is not what you think. that is actually the primary display slot. I know, it’s not the ideal typical location. Just do it, use that slot you will understand later. If you need to know now, it’s the closest spot to the north bridge (there you happy?).
Boot to bios and set everything back to default. Go to “JusTWoot” (lol)
Just Woot in my Bios
and set everything to auto. go to pc health and check to make sure that your processor is reading at the default speed. Mine kept overclocking to 4940 MHZ, That’s 2 gigs over default. Explains why it would crash most of the way through boot up.
After setting everything up and getting my machine running at default, it took me 15 hours of hard brain scratching work to get it going, I have to say, this is clearly by far the best motherboard I have ever purchased. I am far beyond satisfied. I can not thank the one person on the review system who retracted his negitive review by saying that the people who reviewed it negitivly , clearly where counting on just plug and play. I love this motherboard.
At default I out benchmark any previous motherboard my components have been plugged into. Now I shall focus on geting new components.
