How to enable SATA-II and SLI on NForce4

[W1zzard]

Introduction
NVIDIA's nForce4 chipset is offered in three variants.

nForce4: This chip is the lowest cost version, it has no support for SLI or SATAII.
nForce4 Ultra: This is the midrange version, it supports Serial ATA II but not SLI.
nForce4 SLI: This is the high-end version with support for both SATA II and SLI.


Possible mods
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/120/images/nf4.jpg

This is a photo of an nForce4 Ultra chipset, as you can see, the SATA-II pins are connected (=enabled). SLI is not connected (= disabled).

In order to enable a feature you have to make an electrical connection between both pins. You can use a conductive pen or a pencil.

SLI MOD should work for DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D, LANPARTY UT nF4-D

SATAII MOD should work for DFI LANPARTY UT nF4-D, NF4-DAGF, NF4 INFINITY

In order to use SLI you will need an SLI conector card, which comes with the SLI versions of all motherboards, but is usually not included in the plain/ultra versions. You could look on Ebay or ask your friends.

[XeoNoX]

Does anyone know if this will work with the ECS NFORCE4-A939, or is this mod just for DFI boards in specific?

[Andi64]

The Chaintech VNF4 and VNF4-Ultra both have the same PCB. Can I unlock SATA-2 features in the nForce4 non ultra VNF4?

[W1zzard]

this will work on any board which uses the nforce 4 chipset

[t_ferenc]

hi!

having read this article about enabling sata2 mode on nf4 chips i began to wander whether i can do the same with my abit an8 mobo. i know guys, w1zzard already said it is possibble on all nf4 chip motherbaords.

my next question is: will this mod turn my an8 into a an8 ultra?

[Dynamic]

So has anyone tried it on an "DFI Lan Party UT nF4-D" yet? What happen to this thread? I have a pair of BH-5 Chips i want to run along with SLI here soon and i was wondering if this board is worth getting for $115 that will work with SLI-MODE?

[mydumpstinks]

From memory not sure if this is true for all sata 2 hd, but im sure the hitachi sata 2 drives ship without sata2 enabled, i had to download hitachi Feature Tool (v2.00) to go into the hd and enable sata2, http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm feature tool is 3\4 down the page, i know it reads my seagate drive settings also, so maybe worht having a look at your own drive settings, dont change what you dont know tho :)

[ebuprofen]

Look at my nForce4
http://www.zone.ee/ebuprofen/nforce4(1).jpg
http://www.zone.ee/ebuprofen/nforce4(2).jpg

[XeoNoX]

the glare is so bright, its hurting my eyes!!!!1

[ebuprofen]

Can anyone tell me, if its possible to enable sata-2 on my chipset:confused:

[S3phy]

I just tried the SATA-II mod on my Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 (based on a cheap nForce4-4x chipset) and it works great :D

Before :
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7977/sata1jr9.th.png (http://img155.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sata1jr9.png)

After :cool: :
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2930/sata2is9.th.png (http://img155.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sata2is9.png)

(Sorry for bringing up such an old topic :roll: )

[TikiZombie]

anyone have any tips where I can find these connector on my ECS Nforce4-a939

I'm assuming/hoping it's on the same side as the expansions slots, but I'm not seeing the chip with the nvidia logo, so I'm having trouble locating these things.

Any help is appreciated, thank you.

[XeoNoX]

anyone have any tips where I can find these connector on my ECS Nforce4-a939

I'm assuming/hoping it's on the same side as the expansions slots, but I'm not seeing the chip with the nvidia logo, so I'm having trouble locating these things.

Any help is appreciated, thank you.



on the ECS NFORCE4 a939 unless you have one of the boards that came out within the 1st couple weeks then the rest of the chips on the board they seem to have covered it in some kinda of thin layering, and if you attempt to scratch it off then you might risk damaging the board when you attempt to scratch off the thin layer coating.

THe solder points on the A939 are not in plane sight like some of the other boards. oh well, what do you expect for a cheappy board.

[TikiZombie]

Thanks for the reply on this somewhat outdated thread.
Oh well, perhaps too much trouble for now, I wouldn't want to damage my current setup.

Perhaps when I make my next build I'll try fooling around with it:D

[the_nux]

how about the bios? are we must update the bios?

[XeoNoX]

how about the bios? are we must update the bios?

no

[progdrums]

Hi Peeps
Man Im glad I found this thread. Im getting poor SATAII speeds also and would like to ask WIzzard A question. Does this mod also apply to the Nvidia Professional chipset? I have a Tyan Tiger S2877ANRF Motherboard.

[spud107]

just had a look at my msi k8n neo4, seems to have those contacts sealed,
think sata2 is enabled anyway,
http://img.techpowerup.org/080121/nf4.jpg

[XeoNoX]

yea they got smart and started sealing them with some kind of clear/semi transparent coating.

[spud107]

iv managed to get around that prob,
used a small drill bit, an a portable soldering iron,
sata2 wasnt enabled but it is now,

[QuarterMain]

spud i have the neo4-f(blk pcb rev1) were u able to just melt away the coating that was sealing it or what?gonna yank the hs off this board as its just sitting and i wanna try this out:)

[spud107]

used one of these drill bits from an ink refill kit,
carefully drilled just enough to expose a small part of the solder underneath, or an art knife could do it, jus be careful scraping off the resin,
then quickly put a bit of solder on it, not sure if the resin melted though,
edit - while soldering there was a bit of white residue coming off the resin, looked a lot like what superglue does so i think it could be a similar substance.
http://img.techpowerup.org/080209/Image(13).jpg

[QuarterMain]

thxs for the info spud, so happens i have one of those bits and an art knife in my poss. i got the hs off and it looks like its gonna work( if i dont bugger it up) funny thing is it looks like the sli bridges have been sealed( same as the pics) but theres only 1 pcix slot on this board? so thay just started sealing the chips altogether? or is there some magical way im unaware of to make this an sli board?prob not im sure but i had to ask:D

[spud107]

on my board theres a 16x, 1x an an open ended x4 pcie, iv tested my gfx in the x4 an it worked fine, only tested 3dm01 though, not sure how sli would perform with a x16/x4 config.
http://global.msi.com.tw/uploads/prod_67327f7e9ac9d79be1abfeac92623d57.jpg

[TomFred]

good source, dude
thanks for sharing