Solaris17's SLI NF4 Ultra Mod

[Solaris17]

Well I told you guys i would so i did i took apart my rig (on the kitchen table right now) and im currently unmodding and remodding my Mobo to show you how to enable sli...stay tuned! (on mom in laws LT)

my sound card mod will also be written as they are being done at the same time



Ok so here is what you've guys have all been wating for im going to show you how to mod the NF4 Ultra NB's to support SLI.

First i remove the mod reflash to the orig bios for this board and show you what were working with...here is the part of the bios im instrested in. This seems to control the majority of the pci-e settings.





as you can see its not necissarily limited but obviously doesnt support SLI but lets aim to change that.

First we need my rig..This is kinda an all in one deal as im going to perform multiple mods today..so make sure you pay attention to my horrible wiring job in this pic (i was really excited when i got the 9600)



the front of my dirty rig.



(all will be cleaner like factory when im done )

And finally the inside of my wrecked case eww.


ok so first we need some tools to do this job because this mod should take quite some time im also going to need various other things.

My tools


My food


Entertainment


and Finally new batteries for my camera




Ok so now that weve done that time to take pictures of my area and various components and things ill be doing.

Here we have some mad cheap dynex (BB brand) thermal paste this has got to be the poorest iv ever been in my life seeing as its not even mine....really makes me sad cause i had a huge tube of ASC that my buddys stole and wouldnt give back...Gay



However thats the stuff ill be using to mod today and my NB will get the pleasure of using micronized silver to cool it agian.

Here we have my 2X 2GB kit 4GB of ram delicious..they rated at 667 but i can get them past 800 stable I kinda dont like it because its well OCZ and its not my fav brand im a G.Skill guy but that kit was more expensive ATT but i should have waited as it got cheaper than this stuff a week later but thats ok



Ok so before we get serious its time to take a step back and do some quick mods and pointers b4 we dig deep. Here is a pic of one of my disloged cathode...super glue can sometimes work but it usually doesnt and tape is no good because when the case gets dusty the cathiode will fall because the tape looses its stick..So how do we fix it so it looks cool and stays forever?



The answer is simple hot glue...you see through observation i have decided hot glue is the number 1. Hot glue goes on clear is relatively simple to manage sticks and bonds to everything and doesnt ususally come off if done right. Also when applied to cathodes you have some added effect..if your afraid it wont look good you should probably hide your cathodes to begin with but if thats not the case than not to worry hotglue being clear in nature takes on the color of the cathode and glows with it...for an added effect i do bealive you can buy UV reactive hot glue so if you have blacklight cathodes you may be in for a cool treat.



And now to take apart the case and clean re position and rewire it..we need good airflow and we need to make sure that 9600 fits!

Here is the case stripped but no modification notice the funky placement of my HDD's this is the part were i figured out my front airducts are totally blocked by dust and dust is keeping my left front intake from spinning so this is the cleaning stage



and another angle.



And finally the reordered mobo with the drives all in the bayts the front intakes will draw and blow air directly on them this is good as my HDD's get hot..that and with the HDD's together the case itself looks better.



So here are the big guns the Motherboard in question this is about to be modded to do some amazing things..while looking at it notice the 2 PCI-E slots DFI profied us..go cutting costs and simply "cutting sli" with these 2 PCI-E slots can come amazing possabilities. We also take this time to examine caps to make sure this puppy isnt going to die anytime soon looks like were good



Ok so here we have the Mobo flipped over exposing the 2 plastic pins holding the NB cooler on pretty basic we see this design everyware its very common with Motherboard NB's and passive GRFX solutuions.



Here is our exposed clean NB the blurryness is beyond my control my camera's micro setting cant do it simple...but i made sure yo show you what the pins look like and ill find another pic of a NB to show you were to sand the enamel.



NB naked a little clearer


notice their are 2 enamel points well we want the one closest to us if the NB is right side up..and after you sand the enamel off those 2 pretty little pins are all that is holding SLI back on this crippled board....so lets re enable it shall we?

So its pretty basic what i did ill show you but i didnt take pictures of the process just B4 and after becuse with a soldering iron mistakes can hurt quickly..so what i did..was take some solder and melted it to the tip of the iron maybe a millimeter or 2 of solder wire so that it beads up at the tip of the iron this is what we want because now we lower the iron to the 2 points and place the bead on it being extremely carefull not to tag the transistor next to them which is about a MM or less away from the points. After we let the bead sit for a second we remove the iron quickly leaving the solder behind to cool on the points.

AH beautiful


Now to tidy up the case so i dont have to open it again for awhile and it has amazing air flow and goos cosmetic effect..but first we have to get buy this

my Huge 24pin power cable if never seen something so thick b4 if this was live and coming at me id be crazy scared take a look notice the amazing color



However dispite its size it was pretty easy to move you see the empty drive bays under my DVD drive are excellent for hiding this thing

This is my nearly completed wire re-manage just compare to the first pic...also it does end up a little cleaner than this



And here is how i did it :P with sneaky behind the mobo tricks.



So now i have you on your feet come on Solaris did it boot? is it dead? did it work? can you do it?

Well this is what i did b4 taking the rig apart i flashed to the newest bios for this non sli board...than after i did that i booted back up and made a boot floppy with the newest SLI bios for the SLI version of this board...and without further adue after it booted i flashed it went into bios and whalla!!
Behold my Skillz!! J//k
K im not that conceded bu woohoo!



And card selection



i dub this a success and hope to test it in about a week.

what i may get for my B-day

another 9600
tarantual KB
lechisis mouse

and after i get my taxes ill give this system over to my girl..because well i love spreading modding to others but this one is a wee bit personal sure i crazy OC'd my 8600 sure im getting their with my 9600 but this this has to be the most epic mod i ever performed...making something this complicated come to life...Im also pretty sure you can do this will all NF4 Ultra NB's or even plain NF4 NB's youll just have to see if you have questions post you NB pic here and maybe i can help but dont be disapointed if i cant.....Now after this read be sure to check out my other guide

"How to prolong the life of your sound card and get it to offer better sound quality"

tell me what you think guys hope you liked

Special thnaks to Fox34's guide to case modding for the wire hide ideasGuide to case modding
and to MKMods for his expertise on fan airflow.

[newtekie1]

Very nice write up

You can enable SLI and SATAII on the normal NF4 chipset. http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/...ocking/AMD/120

[Solaris17]

Thnx man hope you guys like this

[MKmods]

I really enjoy watching the technical stuff like this. Me, I just slap some metal together to make a box. When I try to Program or do technical stuff like this my head hurts

thanks Solaris17 for making it fun to read.

[pagalms]

Great job
Will be waiting for soundcard mod

[das müffin mann]

damn solaris you and your awesome mods

i to will be waiting to see how the sc mod turns out

keep up the good work!

[Solaris17]

w0ot sound card guide/mod up!!! give her a looksee

Modding your Soundcard

[intel igent]

sweeet mod/guide!

do you just bridge the two points together?

[JrRacinFan]

Hey Sol, what are your thoughts on the Dynex TIM? Also, think you can work wonder's on my i975X chipset to enable SLi with the 8 series cards?

[Cold Storm]

wow man! another great mod by the man him self! I am so looking forward to seeing this be good! Can't wait and another great one man!

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by JrRacinFan

Hey Sol, what are your thoughts on the Dynex TIM? Also, think you can work wonder's on my i975X chipset to enable SLi with the 8 series cards?

i dont reccomend anything dynex this stuff sucks hardcore not like AS5 in the slightest..id say it was mayo if it wasnt grey...as for your chipset ill lookinto it

Originally Posted by Cold Storm

wow man! another great mod by the man him self! I am so looking forward to seeing this be good! Can't wait and another great one man!

thnx man means alot did you see my soundcard one?

[Cold Storm]

Yeah, saw the sound card one, but was to dang tired to post in it before I had my "cat" nap... lol.. its looking good!

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by JrRacinFan

Hey Sol, what are your thoughts on the Dynex TIM? Also, think you can work wonder's on my i975X chipset to enable SLi with the 8 series cards?

Some things you may want to check out

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=198405

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=181144

these are just a couple ill look more into it for you..but if you have a newer card if i remember corectly you can modify the .ini to support your card type and these drivers enable sli without needing a bridge and let you on ati xfire boards i do bealive maybe this will be my next proj modded sli drivers... i need a new challange anyway

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by Cold Storm

Yeah, saw the sound card one, but was to dang tired to post in it before I had my "cat" nap... lol.. its looking good!

hey thnx man

[Scrizz]

awesome stuuff as always Solaris17!

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by intel igent

sweeet mod/guide!

do you just bridge the two points together?

yup you just bridge the 2 exposed points after you scrape of the enamel then you can pencil solder or conductive ink the 2 points together..flash to the sli bios so you get the options and your good

[spud107]

iv enabled the sata2 on my board using the guide on tpu, that enamel was a pain though,
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/...ocking/AMD/120

[DaMulta]

Nice easy to follow guide.


So it will boot with the non-Sli Bios, but I wonder what it would of done if you flashed the SLi Bios on it before you did this.Hmmmm


And where were the hot pockets?

Modder with no hot pockets?

What's wrong?

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by spud107

iv enabled the sata2 on my board using the guide on tpu, that enamel was a pain though,
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/...ocking/AMD/120

ya mine was already a sata3 board actually do i didnt have to worry about that but the enamel was crazy a pain i was omfg..because you need to make sure you dont sand the silicon or else you expose the micro wire which probably isnt good to expose and like solder onto..

Originally Posted by DaMulta

Nice easy to follow guide.


So it will boot with the non-Sli Bios, but I wonder what it would of done if you flashed the SLi Bios on it before you did this.Hmmmm


And where were the hot pockets?

Modder with no hot pockets?

What's wrong?

it will boot with the SLI bios...without it connected..the options just dont show up...but it boots because its the exact same board...in actuallity if you open up CPU-Z with this board you get this



notice how CPU-Z detects it as all of these mobos? its because their exactly the same good to know if you own any of them as that measn this mod is doable. But no it boots fine with the SLI bios if the NB isnt connected it just doesnt show the option for dual VGA its the opposite for the norm bios if your running the norm/orig bios and you have the NB connected it still doesnt show the options(obviously since the options arent programmed in)


and i didnt have hot pockets to eat i did have a chicken p[anini shortly after putting it all back together though.

[JrRacinFan]

Originally Posted by Solaris17

Some things you may want to check out

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=198405

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=181144

these are just a couple ill look more into it for you..but if you have a newer card if i remember corectly you can modify the .ini to support your card type and these drivers enable sli without needing a bridge and let you on ati xfire boards i do bealive maybe this will be my next proj modded sli drivers... i need a new challange anyway

Holy crap, and I was only joking!

But, I have kept up on reading this, so far I only know of 6/7 series in SLi on Intel chipsets. 8 series would be kickass especially with the current price of the 8600GT.

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by JrRacinFan

Holy crap, and I was only joking!
But, I have kept up on reading this, so far I only know of 6/7 series in SLi on Intel chipsets. 8 series would be kickass especially with the current price of the 8600GT.

its np ya i think if you get those and modify them with the device ID of your card it will work.....the only prob is it prob doesnt have the optimizations the new ones do but my plan is !

mod the old sli drivers 8x.xx to support the 8 series

and modify ythe new 174.74's to do sli on ati boards and reg boards with no bridge.

[spud107]

the hdtach result nearly doubled when i done it lol,
i used a small drill bit to expose the contacts,
do you think id need to flash to an sli version of my board for it to work properly?
not that it would be any use, i have a 3870, unless theres a way to enable crossfire . . .

Originally Posted by Solaris17

ya mine was already a sata3 board actually do i didnt have to worry about that but the enamel was crazy a pain i was omfg..because you need to make sure you dont sand the silicon or else you expose the micro wire which probably isnt good to expose and like solder onto..





it will boot with the SLI bios...without it connected..the options just dont show up...but it boots because its the exact same board...in actuallity if you open up CPU-Z with this board you get this

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by spud107

the hdtach result nearly doubled when i done it lol,
i used a small drill bit to expose the contacts,
do you think id need to flash to an sli version of my board for it to work properly?
not that it would be any use, i have a 3870, unless theres a way to enable crossfire . . .

ya if you enable it if their is a sli board just like yours that has the same specs only sli flash it to that first than do the mod..that way when you boot up if the option is their you know it works

[sinister_steve]

Hi there so what do I do to enable sli on my m3a32-mvp delux wi fi with my 8800gt,s ? please help I dont want to get a damn nvidia chip mobo...e mail me directly if you please hod333@hotmail.com thanks much much

[Solaris17]

it cant be done without an nvidia NB for your board you need hacked drivers which im working on

and i dont mean to be an ass but i wont contact you by e-mailuntil i know you and you stick around here...its a forum of knowledge which means someone else might benifit from what i say...if you dont want tot talk about it on the forum than i dont want to tell you via e-mail. Dont mean to offend but if you look at my other projects i do everything for this community nothing second hand