eVGA 131-K8-NF44-AX NF4 SLi mATX Mobo Thread

I have a question about this board, and I didn't want to start a new thread, so hopefully, someone can answer me here. I did a search and didn't see anything close enough to what I'm asking.

I plan on using an SG01 Evolution, two 7900GTX's with VF900's to replace the bulky stock cooling, and an X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card in the PCI slot.

My question is: Will it fit?

Judging from some other posts regarding the VF900, it will, but I wanted to be sure. I'm not buying both GTX's right now, but I plan on getting a 2nd sometime down the road when a) the prices drop, and b) I get a 24" Widescreen LCD. Otherwise, if I had the cash now, I'd just get a 7950 and it would fit no problem.

Any opinions on this upgrade path would be appreciated too.
 
5tharrow said:
I plan on using an SG01 Evolution, two 7900GTX's with VF900's to replace the bulky stock cooling, and an X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card in the PCI slot.

My question is: Will it fit?
Click to expand...
I have 2 6800GS's in SLi with vf900's and I have to say that it is pretty tight. The vf900 is actually larger than the stock cooling, not smaller. I had to dremel down the screws on the back of one card to prevent it from hitting the vf900 fan on the other. I am not sure how this would compare with your 7900gtx's though. I don't have anything in the outer PCI slot so I am not sure if an x-fi would fit but I believe it would (now looking through the window on my xpack.) Just my 2 cents...
 
I'm noticing all the 7900GTX cards have a dual slot-cover which would cover/block the PCI slot if a second GTX is used in SLI. I guess this won't let you use a sound card even if the cooler was replaced with something more shallow. Am I right or am I just tired? It looks like it would be a pain to cut off.
 
5tharrow said:
I'm noticing all the 7900GTX cards have a dual slot-cover which would cover/block the PCI slot if a second GTX is used in SLI. I guess this won't let you use a sound card even if the cooler was replaced with something more shallow. Am I right or am I just tired? It looks like it would be a pain to cut off.
Click to expand...
Now that I think about it, I think they are double slot as well. Why not just go with a 7900GT and save a few dollars. Then you can get a second one later even cheaper. In fact, a single 7900GT would let you run just about everything at high to max settings, anyway. I would even hold off on that second card until the DX10 cards come out around Christmas.
 
Why not just go with a 7900GT and save a few dollars. Then you can get a second one later even cheaper. In fact, a single 7900GT would let you run just about everything at high to max settings, anyway. I would even hold off on that second card until the DX10 cards come out around Christmas.
Click to expand...

I think you're right; I was starting to lean that way. I may just pick-up a second 7800GT to use in my second PC with this eVGA board instead. Then, after the DX10 cards come out, I'll build a Conroe based machine with one of those, then move the two 7800GT's into the eVGA box and I'll have two rigs capable of running well on two 24" widescreen LCD's (my ultimate goal).

I'll build a work PC out of the the leftover 939 MSI board. :) Thanks for the input.
 
I hate to dig up this old topic, but it is better than making a new one.

I got my SLI board in yesterday. It runs my 2 512Mb Corsair XMS sticks in 1T fine. Also, I have been able to get only a 25% overclock out of my opty 146 on it. I am still on stock volts, but I don't want to up vcore at all. I think I will be able to get it higher with a bit of experimenting, but in the meantime, I am going to stick with my current overclock.

Unfortunately, I used to have a 2.8 overclock on a shitty AsRocks board, so I understand some people's disappointment. Nonetheless, the AsRocks board far supassed my expectations, so I would say that the eVGA one barely met my expectation.

Too bad it is the only option for mATX SLI...
 
I'm thinking of building a small form factor, fully water cooled system with this mobo. I want to use the lian li v300 totally modded to have three black ice pro radiators, (two120mm, and one 80mmv2), Side Windows, and Neon Lights.

but this is my first mod job and I am looking for some advice as to how to go about cutting up the case?

any help would be nice.
 
Anyone know when eVGA might update the BIOS on this board? I have two systems that have this motherboard in it. I know there are issues with Creative's X-FI popping, and supposedly Creative is working with Mobo manufacturers to fix it. Or, am I SOL?

-E
 
MrE said:
Anyone know when eVGA might update the BIOS on this board? I have two systems that have this motherboard in it. I know there are issues with Creative's X-FI popping, and supposedly Creative is working with Mobo manufacturers to fix it. Or, am I SOL?

-E
Click to expand...

SOL, take that hunk of crap card back if you can. Creative sure as hell isn't working with mobo manufacturers, as much as they'd like to blame them. There are many, many, many motherboards that do not work with the X-Fi.
 
MrE said:
Anyone know when eVGA might update the BIOS on this board? I have two systems that have this motherboard in it. I know there are issues with Creative's X-FI popping, and supposedly Creative is working with Mobo manufacturers to fix it. Or, am I SOL?

-E
Click to expand...

Well I have no problems using Creatives X-Fi together with my eVGA board.
 
evilsquidlord said:
hey guys, does this motherboard support Quad SLi? has anyone tried it before?
Click to expand...

Joo crazy, For some reason I dont think a GX2 would even fit in a SFF case, without modding. But, maybe IM crazzzzzahhhhhhhhh?
 
BronxBartoni said:
Joo crazy, For some reason I dont think a GX2 would even fit in a SFF case, without modding. But, maybe IM crazzzzzahhhhhhhhh?
Click to expand...
why woud'nt it fit? i've seen ppl fit in a pair of GTX's without modding.
 
I have a BFG 7900GTX in mine SG01B-e, and since a 7950 is the same size, I see no problem in fitting it in. But... that's in a SG01, don't know about others.
 
I'd love to go with two 7600/7900gts in SLI (not sure which yet, gotta check budget) and an X-FI, but I'm concerned with heat issues in a MicroFly type case. The PSU sits very close atop the cards, and as seen in the pics, the sound card would be straddling the lower GPU card making a tight fit with little airflow. Theres an 80mm fan mounted to the front of the Microfly, but I'm not sure where it sits in the x-axis - if it would cool the cards effectively or not . I'm trying to see how things will build out in my head, but this would be my first uATX build and I'm just left guessing really.

Is this something I should be concerned with? Do any of you qpack/microfly owners have similiar setups with some temps for me? Is there a better cooling solution I'm overlooking?

Thanks for the help as always fellas.
 
Heat is no big deal in a Micro Fly. I get better temps in my MF than my old case.

The 80mm fan up front does not direct air towards the vid cards, but the PSU exhaust draws enough air out to get decent airflow.

IMO, you will be fine on temps unless you get a GTX or a GX2.


To update on my mobo, I have not been on the past week. Why you ask? Well, my NB temp was 115 degrees CELCIUS. eVGA offered to RMA it free, but they said it would take less long to RMA it through Newegg, so I did. Hopefully the next one will have decent temps :D
 
evilsquidlord said:
why woud'nt it fit? i've seen ppl fit in a pair of GTX's without modding.
Click to expand...


7950 GX2 Quad SLI should fit in just about every mATX SFF as it is roughly the same size as (2) 7900GTX in SLI

My concern would be for cooling performance in any SFF with a Quad SLI setup, since the 7950GX2 dumps all of it's heat inside the case. I'm in the process of writing up an article comparing each of the following setups - primarily focussed on cooling performance and noise levels running SLI with an X2 4800+ CPU.

7900GTX SLI in SG01B (no mods)



7900GTX SLI in Micro Fly / Qpack (no mods)


7900GTX in Qmicra (plenty of room for Quad SLI!)


7900GTX SLI in Lian Li V300B (had to mod drive cage)


7900GTX SLI in XFX SFF (no mods)
 
Too bad there is so little support for quad-SLI. I wish more games worked well on it...
 
Alright I read through half of the thread and searched for top card and still didn't see the answer to my question.

Question when you have SLI configured which DVI-D port (assuming you have a 7900GT or GTX) on which card do you connect to?

I was only able to get the left port on the bottom card to work.

I switched all the SLI jumpers connected the bridge then powered up and only that port works. Loaded windows and drivers and enabled SLI. So far so good, but it's just disturbing that my top card doesn't work.

Checking EVGA I see this:
http://www.evga.com/support/faq/afmviewfaq.aspx?faqid=61

But I do not believe we have the NF41 southbridge. Or am I getting the chips mixed up and this is a NF41 board?
 
In SLI, you only can use one monitor. I have not looked into SLI much, so I don't quite know how it all works...
 
JonDoms said:
Alright I read through half of the thread and searched for top card and still didn't see the answer to my question.

Question when you have SLI configured which DVI-D port (assuming you have a 7900GT or GTX) on which card do you connect to?

I was only able to get the left port on the bottom card to work.

I switched all the SLI jumpers connected the bridge then powered up and only that port works. Loaded windows and drivers and enabled SLI. So far so good, but it's just disturbing that my top card doesn't work.

Checking EVGA I see this:
http://www.evga.com/support/faq/afmviewfaq.aspx?faqid=61

But I do not believe we have the NF41 southbridge. Or am I getting the chips mixed up and this is a NF41 board?
Click to expand...

This is pretty standard. Even thought the FAQ says NF41, the NF44 is very closely related and probably set up the same way with the PCIe ports. There is a master card and a slave card like it mentions, and you only get display out of the master. Don't be concerned about it. If you aren't looking for the SLI performance and just once more monitors, disable SLI and now you have 4 monitor ports.
 
Has anyone actually tried a 7950 GX2 on this mobo? Just because a mobo is SLi compatible does not necessarily mean it is compatible with the 7950......or at least, that's what my understanding is...

Doesnt the 7950 rely on the motherboard having a pci-e switch compatible bios? this has nothing to do with sli, right?
 
Alright. Long story short, RMAs suck. I finally got my replacement mobo today, more than a month later. The board STILL has a NB temp around 115 degrees celcius. Is anyone else with this board seeing such shitty temps? At least this one is stable, but the stupid NB is hot enough to burn me again. Anyone have any ideas? I might end up RMAing... AGAIN...
 
No silicon can withstand 115c for more than a few hours without deteriorating at a very rapid rate. If theres no problems now, there will be later. RMA.
 
well, reading the last few pages, I have to ask this question....

is there any hope of watercooling something like this?

I plan on doing 2 7900GTs (but start out with 1 initially, and get the 2nd for my b-day) and a 4200+....in a MicroFly case...

http://www.ultraproducts.com/product_details.php?cPath=13&pPath=439&productID=442

....

I've never done watercooling myself, but this looks like, if it was fittable, that this would be the case to do it in :D
 
synaps3 said:
Alright. Long story short, RMAs suck. I finally got my replacement mobo today, more than a month later. The board STILL has a NB temp around 115 degrees celcius. Is anyone else with this board seeing such shitty temps? At least this one is stable, but the stupid NB is hot enough to burn me again. Anyone have any ideas? I might end up RMAing... AGAIN...
Click to expand...
was that thru newegg? mine is going back to newegg for rma and they said it would take 3 days t turn around :confused:
 
[QUOTE='99]Well I have no problems using Creatives X-Fi together with my eVGA board.[/QUOTE]
I've heard mine crackle a bit, and sometimes, I get sound only out of one my speakers (2.1), but this happens VERY rarely, and it's never happened in a game. The only time I can specifically remember it happening is duing the little ditty Windows XP plays when it boots into the GUI.
 
If they would just fix the problems with this board I would pick one up instantly! (Only $76 @ NewEgg) But right now i'd rather stick with my Tforce....
 
I have no problems with mine. I have done some minor OC'ing with it without issue (although it doesn't have the greatest OC controls), and it has been stable and fast for the most part.
Jason
 
Just for shitz and giggles, EVGA has finally posted the E02 bios for the NF44 on their website. Mine came with E02 when I bought it back in March but I remember reading a few posts about people who still had E01 and couldn't find E02. Here's still hopping for E03... :rolleyes:
 
Maybe I'll try it and see if it is any different than the bios e02 that came with my board.

It does have a different date as far as I can tell.
 
wangoflove said:
Has anyone actually tried a 7950 GX2 on this mobo? Just because a mobo is SLi compatible does not necessarily mean it is compatible with the 7950......or at least, that's what my understanding is...

Doesnt the 7950 rely on the motherboard having a pci-e switch compatible bios? this has nothing to do with sli, right?
Click to expand...
I'm using an XFX 7950GX2 570M XXX edition and it is definitely working correctly in MultiGPU mode with NF-44 as the perfomance in my games and Benchmarks is comparable to my 7900GTX SLI performance.

The only drawback is that it dumps ALOT of heat inside my case but my QMICRA case handles it just fine.
 
anyone have any luck getting higher fsb with this board?
have tried 133 mem deviders, lower htt, more voltage, and still stuck at 290 (chip has done 329 in a nf3 board)

double edit:
fixed it (memory timings got switched from manual) goes to 300 on stock volts now.
only problem now is the @!#%ing bios is caped at 300 :mad:

btw, this board is on sale for $54.99@ the egg
 
I just got this motherboard to go with a 4000+ San Diego. I really like it. Now I just need a new video card. I wish the 8800 GTS would hurry up and have a major price drop already.

EDIT: I'm so sorry, I didn't see that this was the mATX version. I have the x16 SLI ATX. Oops.
 
_G_ said:
anyone have any luck getting higher fsb with this board?
have tried 133 mem deviders, lower htt, more voltage, and still stuck at 290 (chip has done 329 in a nf3 board)

double edit:
fixed it (memory timings got switched from manual) goes to 300 on stock volts now.
only problem now is the @!#%ing bios is caped at 300 :mad:

btw, this board is on sale for $54.99@ the egg
Click to expand...

Have you tried Clockgen? If the board is capable it will take you over 300.

In the new bios does the board have PCI lock?
 
Can someone who still has the manual scan/take a pic of the jumper settings for sli in the manual? I set mine to non-sli a few months ago and have since lost(prolly thrown away) the manual and am now trying to set it to SLi so I can use two PCIe cards.
 
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