Initial impressions DFI NF4-SLI-DR-EXPERT

I already read that thread, but thanx anyway Dumo. :)
ballistix can't take more than 3.0v anyway, and i don't plan on running them over 2.8 ;)

On a more positive note, i am up to 2.2GHz (245FSB) on my Opteron at stock 1.35v. Temps are still 28 under full load. ;) Taking it slowly, gonna see how far it goes on stock voltage.

update #2: up to 2.5Ghz (278FSB) on stock voltage 1.35v. Both cores seem stable. CPU still shows 28c, but my ambiet temps dropped a few degrees, since i opened the window. Btw, this opteron has a much better memory controller, cause i have my ballistix run 1:1 at 278 FSB at 1.7v. My old 3700+ SD on rdx200 could only do 270FSB 1:1 at 2.73v.

This Opteron 165 seems great so far. And the expert is giving me no problems. Not a single crash/freeze/reboot/no boot.

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Originally Posted by Ub3r-L33ch

Maybe I'm missing something, but you say you are using the stock heatsink.

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The stock heatsink for the FX series and dual core processors has the heatpipes. It is really nice for a stock heatsink.

The bandwidth a board delivers is not so much decided by the chipset as the memory controller is on the die of the cpu. As long as you set the boards up the same and use the same cpu and ram the boards will give identicle bandwidth.

Yeah, that seems logical. Thanx :)

Here is an update on my overclocking progress.
The chip was doing 2.43 GHz or 270FSB stable at stock voltage of 1.35v. It could do 2.5Ghz or 278FSB at 1.375. Beyond that it didn't respond well to voltage increases. I had to bump it up to 1.6v to get it to run at 2.7Ghz which is what i wanted out of this chip. Mainly core 0 would fail all the time, while core 1 could take 2.7Ghz (probably a lot more) at a lot less voltage.

Temps are: 23c idle 38c full load on both cores for the CPU. 30c idle 39c full load on both cores for pwmic. 38c idle 41c under load on both cores for the chipset. Ambiet case temp is aorund 23c.

300HTT or 2.7Ghz prime95 stable (so far 2 hours) at 1.6v.
ram is at 270HTT with a 9 (RAM) : 10 (CPU) divider at 3-3-3-7-1T dual channel at 2.73v.

I also plan to slap some active cooling on the ram, 'cause i know the ram can do 300 HTT 1:1 with the cpu at 2.95v.

Overall i'm pretty happy with this setup, assuming it doesn't die. ;)
Benches and screenshots soon to follow, once i verify full stability.

As far as he expert goes, this board didn't give me any trouble so far. Very stable, easy to overclock. Doesn't hang and always posts. Much better than my rdx200.

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Originally Posted by Avid6eek

Here's a pic of my SLI-DR Expert in action:

http://hardware-geek.com/Pictures/LIsystem02.jpg

Right now I've got an Opteron 170 running at 2.95Ghz with the stock heatsink/thermal paste. Just burning some things in. It isn't prime stable at those speeds, but then again I don't plan on using the stock heatsink. Just testing out different frequencies.

As has already been mentioned, the system build went very smooth and the OS/Driver installation was seemless.

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What are your RAM timings with the Redlines? I'm having trouble OC'ing this new Expert board. My Redlines that were running at 250MHz 2-2-5-2-1T on my SLI-DR won't do the same on the new Expert board. I copied over the exact same timings and it doesn't want to work for me :slapass:.

it has been said, that mostly the old timings won't work with the expert/rdx200 mobo because of a totally changed biosdesign or something like that so keep trying....
test all the drive strengths and all this stuff.

mfg

Benchmaks and screenshots:
(don't have any 3d benchmarks, simply b/c i have a temporary 6600gt which is too slow)

Everest Latency:
http://people.msoe.edu/~tsilovm/scre...estlatency.JPG

Everest Read:
http://people.msoe.edu/~tsilovm/scre...verestread.JPG

Everest Write:
http://people.msoe.edu/~tsilovm/scre...erestwrite.JPG

Sandra RAM:
http://people.msoe.edu/~tsilovm/scre.../sandraram.JPG

Sandra CPU arithmetic:
http://people.msoe.edu/~tsilovm/scre...arithmetic.JPG

Sandra CPU multimedia:
http://people.msoe.edu/~tsilovm/scre...racpumulti.JPG

HDTach (raptor 74GB):
http://people.msoe.edu/~tsilovm/screenshots/hdtach.JPG

SuperPI 1M:
http://people.msoe.edu/~tsilovm/scre.../superpi1m.JPG

SuperPI 32M:
http://people.msoe.edu/~tsilovm/screenshots/superpi.JPG

CpuZ and dual prime95 (only to heat up the cpu and the board) and temps:
http://people.msoe.edu/~tsilovm/screenshots/cpuz.JPG

System is dual prime95 stable for 8+ hours (haven't had a chance to test it longer yet).

For some reason I have had to bump my vcore on my naked 4800+ way up from what it was on the sli-dr to obtain stability. Right now at 1.65 under water at 2900mhz but temps are still only in the high 20's idle. I switched to the 180 divider to give the balistix some breathing room. Lots of tweaking still to do.

I think the key to this Expert is very fine tuning. It's not for the plug and play types.

Yeah, people noticed the same thing with the rdx200 - they needed more vcore to get the cpus stable compared to the old nf4 boards. I guess it has to do with the new power design of these boards. It sure as hell doesn't feel like 1.6v is going through my chip. The temps never go over 38c under full load on both cores, and when i touch my heatisnk, it's slightly warm and not hot at all. Either my TT Big Typhoon is that good, or it's not really 1.6v that's going through the chip. :banana:

hmm im afraid to go above 1.55 lol .. i know the opty i have did 2950 @ 1,45 on air on the old sli-dr .. but for the life of me i cant get it stable on the expert .. just 2750 @ 1.39 .. how high can these cpus take ? over 1.6 on air as long as the temps stay low ?

You need to tweak the memory timings because the CPU overclock is depedent on them.

like which ones ?
i set this board up just like my sli-dr and its very hard getting stable and i know this cpu can do it .. along with my ram

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Originally Posted by jetjaguar

hmm im afraid to go above 1.55 lol .. i know the opty i have did 2950 @ 1,45 on air on the old sli-dr .. but for the life of me i cant get it stable on the expert .. just 2750 @ 1.39 .. how high can these cpus take ? over 1.6 on air as long as the temps stay low ?

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well when i had my RDX200, which seemed to power cpus very similar as the expert, i took my opeteron to 1.66V in the bios (read 1.64 in smart guardian), and it never broke 46° under load. That doesn't mean your chip will do the same, or your board, ect.. just letting ya know that it might be possible to up yours a bit, but don't do it if you feel unsure about it.

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Originally Posted by jetjaguar

like which ones ?
i set this board up just like my sli-dr and its very hard getting stable and i know this cpu can do it .. along with my ram

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This is most likely your problem, Tony mentionned you can't use the same settings you had on the ultra D or SLI DR.

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Originally Posted by MaxT

Yeah, people noticed the same thing with the rdx200 - they needed more vcore to get the cpus stable compared to the old nf4 boards. I guess it has to do with the new power design of these boards. It sure as hell doesn't feel like 1.6v is going through my chip. The temps never go over 38c under full load on both cores, and when i touch my heatisnk, it's slightly warm and not hot at all. Either my TT Big Typhoon is that good, or it's not really 1.6v that's going through the chip. :banana:

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Yeah, I felt the same thing. I thought maybe the temps were being misread at first, but I'm not sure what the deal is.

about to build a system in a couple days... WinXP with SP2 has sata drivers built in, correct? i won't need to find nforce4 sata drivers (expert uses normal nf4 chipset i think) and stick them on a floppy for the install or anything...?

You never really need hdd drivers, unless you have a raid setup. Only then you would need a raid driver.

How is the raid on this board? Did you get a chance to try it out?

I think I will just stick with my sli-dr board. I've had enough problems. I can wait a few ;)

Keep up the good work Max :clap:

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Originally Posted by CrashOv3r1De

How is the raid on this board? Did you get a chance to try it out?

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nope, i don't do raid. But single drive performance is better than on rdx200.

so anyone figure out how to tweak ram drive strength settings? i.e, wtf it means ? :)

I haven't bothered yet. ;)

Hmm, well now i have 2 different socket 939 cpus, opteron 146 & opteron 170, and neither like my ballistix... i think i might just rma them to newegg for some different sticks.

Yours seem to work just fine with all your cpus, and on the eXpert and RDX200.

what do u have ur drive strength and data drive strength set at .. according to tony and them .. that makes or breaks ur overclocks and it might not need the extra vcore .. but prolly these 2 settings are causing the instability