Thoughts on DFI RD600

Before the thread below was closed , about 40% thought this mb would be the best board for Conroe. I did not think it would but that it would be a good board. I think many who thought that it would be the best were AMD guys who thought DFI could do the same magic again with Intel as it had done with AMD 939. The boards have been out a few weeks and I wonder if it is just the best tweaking mb or if in time it will be the as good as the hype back in the summer.


http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=111727

Well so far I've gathered from others:

buggy
digital pwm is crap and dies
not much of an fsb champion
sucks at pi

Everyone I've talked to who's owned the board says it sucks.

stay away at all costs, the rd600 is one of the worst boards ive ever owned, only the CFX3200-DR on 939 is crappier/buggier...

Go 975 or 965 if you have an allendale.

xbx2, aw9d, p5b dlx, etc

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Originally Posted by afireinside

Well so far I've gathered from others:

buggy
digital pwm is crap and dies
not much of an fsb champion
sucks at pi

Everyone I've talked to who's owned the board says it sucks.

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Digital PWM is crap and dies?? Dude, care to explain? :eek:

Except for being slower in Pi, I dont have much against this motherboard.

In what ways is it buggy? I haven't had any issues with the board yet (since it was released) :)

As for fsb, I have no trouble reaching 515fsb (Orthos stable), which is the max. fsb of my CPU. I'll see if the RD600 can do over 515fsb stable once I get another CPU that is pretested (on P5B-dlx) at 540fsb stable.

I'm not saying this is the best board available, but it definitely doesn't suck :)

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Originally Posted by afireinside

Well so far I've gathered from others:

buggy
digital pwm is crap and dies
not much of an fsb champion
sucks at pi

Everyone I've talked to who's owned the board says it sucks.

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This is a nice stable board, but then I just use it for gaming and such not super pi. It does seem however that higher fsb requires lots of NB volts that taps into so called unsafe levels.

The board fell on many levels,it's a shame,most of the boards that support the Core 2 do have problems,and i think it was hoped that this was a stable as the XBX2 but with a multi, and have the highs of the P5B without the reboots and its traits.
I never actually got one but i read the posts and gave up a while ago.
Ive got the AW9D-MAX (crap) at the mo and im looking at the Commando or the ABIT Quad as my next board,im not sure what the next 'exciting' board will be.

Of course with anything like this, the opinions will be mixed. A lot of people seem to have a fair amount of trouble with their P5B DH for example...i`m just annoyed by the 4:5 behaviour, and even at that, mine is better than some (lucky me)

Please can more detail be given on the PWM? Is it a DFI fault, or a problem with the idea? Will Asus and Abit have similar troubles looming with their 680 boards for example?

The BIOS in the RD600 is...fairly comprehensive. Is Pi performance really the board/chipset limitation, or are there BIOS tweaks still to be learned?

I`m not accusing anyone of poor attention to detail, just want a balanced picture :)

K

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fhpchris

stay away at all costs, the rd600 is one of the worst boards ive ever owned, only the CFX3200-DR on 939 is crappier/buggier...

Go 975 or 965 if you have an allendale.

xbx2, aw9d, p5b dlx, etc

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How can you state that rd600 is a very bad board when you barely had time to test it?

You most probably had a defective motherboard, that's all :)

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Originally Posted by pcmoddingmy

Digital PWM is crap and dies?? Dude, care to explain? :eek:

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fhpchris can explain...

Maybe I am wrong with the fsb but it seems in the thread people are having issues hitting 500.

Actually, let me rephrase, unless raju is the worst 3dmark tweaker ever, RD600 is slower than every chipset at 3d also.

Maybe the board isn't as bad as some make it out to be, but when the xbx2 is rock stable, much faster clock for clock, and 75 dollars cheaper, why buy RD600?

I like mine...no, it's definately not a benching board, but if you run crossfire and want the best board for ram tweaking, this would be it. 3D it's faster than all the other boards I have had(quite a few), so it's in my gaming rig, but it's not one to get just for benching.

RD600 cpu score = 3346:
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=1114475
975x cpu score = 3315:
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=1061505

vdroop is very bad on my board.
1.2625v=1.19v
1.35v=1.29
1.4v=1.34v
1.45v=1.38v
1.5v=1.43
1.55v=1.47
1.6v bios= 1.51v real


....and that sucks.

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Originally Posted by rick_fx

How can you state that rd600 is a very bad board when you barely had time to test it?

You most probably had a defective motherboard, that's all :)

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I can say the board is buggy..its biggest issue(and we were warned IMHO) is the number of options which affect stability and performance...way too many

I have no idea what to change and how it will effect thing...You cant really just change one thing and test..you will be there forever

I would love a guide that really points to what options are best to first change to max. stability and how other voltage need to be adjusted if a particular is increased or decreased

lol it's not really all that hard...took me abt 2 days to figure out the options. Alot of them are directly related to what other hardware you have installed though, so other than general hints, direct ideas as to "what to change" without having the same hardware is kinda pointless.

Honestly, who cares about a 1sec in superpi?


I feel its a good board, but a little overpriced.

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Originally Posted by wangerin

Honestly, who cares about a 1sec in superpi?


I feel its a good board, but a little overpriced.

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Enthusiasts that are looking to make a WR.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wangerin

Honestly, who cares about a 1sec in superpi?


I feel its a good board, but a little overpriced.

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What if you're 1 second or even less from the WR?
Would you care?

This is XtremeSystems after all.

I would avoid DFI at all costs.
Support is horrible, LanParty's were supposed to be "the overclockers dream", so getting no support for overclocking at DFI street is pretty ironic in my book.

DFI street made me throw up, their ignorance/arrogance made me promise myself to never buy a DFI board again.

Results i've seen from RD600 were dissapointing, no reason to choose DFI over anything else atm.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nealh

I can say the board is buggy..its biggest issue(and we were warned IMHO) is the number of options which affect stability and performance...way too many

I have no idea what to change and how it will effect thing...You cant really just change one thing and test..you will be there forever

I would love a guide that really points to what options are best to first change to max. stability and how other voltage need to be adjusted if a particular is increased or decreased

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Since when is having too many bios options a bad thing? :rolleyes:

Not knowing what to do with certain bios options doesn't make a board buggy. If a certain option makes your board unstable, leave it alone and try other options :)

Sure, a guide would be nice but the whole point of tweaking is to learn, not being spoon-fed with solutions :)

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Originally Posted by cadaveca

Alot of *options* are directly related to what other hardware you have installed though, so other than general hints, direct ideas as to "what to change" without having the same hardware is kinda pointless.

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QFT :)

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Originally Posted by afireinside

fhpchris can explain...

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That is only 1 case, that's very far from being a "widespread problem". He probably had a defective motherboard :)

Stating that "digital PWM is crap and dies" with only 1 known case reminds of when a member claimed that "EVGA 680i" killed ram :rolleyes:

The board was marketed toward performance however it's better for stability. The unlinked ram means you can pretty much plug in whatever you like and if it'll work, it will. the cpu fsb means you can get to around 450fsb with safe voltage. Maybe 470 with a only .1-.2v higher. After that getting to 500fsb pretty much means close to 2.0 core voltage which people have killed their boards on in only a day.

"ZOMG ITS A FEW SECONDS SLOWER IN SUPERPI!!!"

You do realise that a few seconds in SuperPI means nothing in real life application performance, just like a few points in 3d mark mean nothing in gaming performance, unless you care about one FPS.

Ok, so the board isn't what you want if your a bencher for superPI times.

No one in this thread even knows what all the bios settings do.

The board is stable.

The board isn't FSB champ, but unless your running a low multi processor then 511FSB is fine, your processor will max out before the board unless you're using phase/LN2/DICE and you're core is a well stepped one.

I'm running a E6600 and water cooling, so 511 is a wet dream achievement. The board is fast in 3D.

It's got one bios out, majority of boards have had way more revisions. I'm putting my money on this board doing something in the future, if the bios support is as good as NF4 was from DFI.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rick_fx

Since when is having too many bios options a bad thing? :rolleyes:

Not knowing what to do with certain bios options doesn't make a board buggy. If a certain option makes your board unstable, leave it alone and try other options :)

Sure, a guide would be nice but the whole point of tweaking is to learn, not being spoon-fed with solutions :)


QFT :)

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I never said it was buggy or more options are bad(..except not knowing how they play together can be very frustrating....)

While I would love to be spoonfed..I would like a guide that tells us a bit more detail on the effect of various settings...yes Big Toes guide is good but a bit more info is need IMHO

BTW...do you have to manually set it to run Dual channel...I left this at auto but I was thinking someone said you need to set it to channel A and B

DFI street was nice but Travis was abrasive at time....new site will be just as good IMHO over time

DFI at least with bios support always has been good at least at trying to find solutions..though some boards never worked well

My board has been pretty solid, although I think I may have either damaged a hard drive or sata port. It absolutely sux for Pi benching & I'm having trouble with 3DMark 06 & hacked sli drivers. Highest 12hour prime stable FSB I got so far was 478 mhz. It look to need more voltage than I was comfortable with to hit 500FSB though I was successful @ doing so. Looks to be an awesome board for testing & toying with ram due to the independent FSB. I think with a little more time, effort, & tweaking the performance can be improved to rival the 680i boards but perhaps not the 975 ones. Alot of people are so quick to say the board suxs, but I just don't remember the previous lan party boards all being great and easy for everyone to overclock the first three weeks after release.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nealh

BTW...do you have to manually set it to run Dual channel...I left this at auto but I was thinking someone said you need to set it to channel A and B

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Yes, manually set it to "channel A and B".

Before I tried that option, I was starting to get pissed at the motherboard because I couldn't even get Orthos stable at 3ghz. :p:

After finding that option, it was all fun from there on. :woot:

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Originally Posted by Mekrel

"ZOMG ITS A FEW SECONDS SLOWER IN SUPERPI!!!"

You do realise that a few seconds in SuperPI means nothing in real life application performance, just like a few points in 3d mark mean nothing in gaming performance, unless you care about one FPS.

Ok, so the board isn't what you want if your a bencher for superPI times.

No one in this thread even knows what all the bios settings do.

The board is stable.

The board isn't FSB champ, but unless your running a low multi processor then 511FSB is fine, your processor will max out before the board unless you're using phase/LN2/DICE and you're core is a well stepped one.

I'm running a E6600 and water cooling, so 511 is a wet dream achievement. The board is fast in 3D.

It's got one bios out, majority of boards have had way more revisions. I'm putting my money on this board doing something in the future, if the bios support is as good as NF4 was from DFI.

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No-one welcomed you to XtremeSystems did they :p: Why buy this board over an entry-level CF/SLI board? We want performance. with a side of performance. DFI build these boards for enthusiasts, and if they dont deliver, DFI are wasting their time and money.

Well, after spending about a week of playing with the board 10+hrs a day, I personally think they DID deliver.

But I can easily say what ISN'T about this board, honestly:


1. Price. But then again, given what it is, the price probably IS fair.
2. NON-Solid Capacitors. Don't need to explain this one. However, putting a kit together with all the caps needed and offering them for sale somewhere would be nice. It's just easier to buy one thing than many.
3. Digital PWM. Great for phase users only, that need such clearance. But then it's too close to socket by about .75cm IMHO. Droop is less and v-core more accurate the cooler PWM is, and this is affected far easier than regular PWM. Users with this tech be careful during summer when temps rise...your voltage might too! ASUS's idea to include fan with thier boards was a great idea, and should have been something DFI should have considered. I would have paid the $5 extra.:fact:

333strap faster than 266 strap @ 333mhz.:stick:


Otherwise, this board is bloody brilliant. But #3, and #2...both power delivery issues. That's a big upset.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by K404

No-one welcomed you to XtremeSystems did they :p: Why buy this board over an entry-level CF/SLI board? We want performance. with a side of performance. DFI build these boards for enthusiasts, and if they dont deliver, DFI are wasting their time and money.

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It may be Xtremesystems, but I don't see a forum dedicated purely for Xtreme performance minded people.

I see to name a few:
Case modders, those who water cool for silence and not for overclock headroom, I see people buying products which follow their build colour.

Not every purchase made by everyone on this board is for pure performance purposes. People have different needs and requirements and personal preferences.

If we all were, we would all own the same recommended motherboard and cooling system. BORING!

Hey if number crunching and showing off times is your thing (as by going by the fact you participate in score submitting via HWBOT) then hats off to you. People have to realise not everyone on this forum wants to thrash a piece of hardware to the inch of its life.

Personally, I overclock because I can and it's free performance. I'm not going to keel over with envy because someone else is getting more free stuff than I. I run SuperPI and 3DMark as a way of indicating how my score has scaled from stock. As far as I'm aware RD600 is the only chipset to offer strap selection support and 8*2 PCI-E lanes for crossfire.

Think of it as, a hungry beggar with a free meal. He isn't going to turn it down because beggar B got mayo with his free meal.

The board is an enthusiast board, and it does deliver. The bios options tell me that, just because at the moment its slower clock for clock than another enthusiast board, doesn't make it any less of one.

Lets remember what 704 bios did for Nforce4, and what 965 infinity bios' did for that board too. DFI RD600 has a lot more to offer I feel. Yes it was released late, but NO hardware has a real test until it's out in retail in hundreds of different end user setups and scenarios.

Forget it... ATI is AMD now, since then RD600 is no more

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Originally Posted by _Eduard_

Forget it... ATI is AMD now, since then RD600 is no more

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That is one thing that worries me, will we get drivers and RAID bios updates for DFI to include in future bios' ?

Time will tell :)

I thought i get with DFI a great mobo with huge oc but after many posts i see many users have a bad opinion about this and the few users are happy about the huge oc (eva2000, Big, Tony, etc.). I don't know what shall i buy. My components are on my list and the mobo is DFI. I haven't much time and need a mobo. I don't want a bad mobo.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GNU

I thought i get with DFI a great mobo with huge oc but after many posts i see many users have a bad opinion about this and the few users are happy about the huge oc (eva2000, Big, Tony, etc.). I don't know what shall i buy. My components are on my list and the mobo is DFI. I haven't much time and need a mobo. I don't want a bad mobo.

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Well ... there`s nothing wrong when you get that board. it clocks ok and when you can handle that "babe" well ... it works well, if you treat it bad - it gives up on you. It´s simple like that, I have no probs @all and my Xeons run nicely - even a tad better than on my P5W64 WS Pro ;)

Temps are kinda "normal", if you go for high FSB h2o on the NB is prefered. The Digital PWM does not really need h2o - if your airflow in the case is ok. Don´t believe too easy on such comments that the PWM-HS get´s "too hot" - it´s simply BS (don´t know what he had for dinner :D ). The 3060 here is primeing since 12h @3800 - and i still can touch the PWM HS without any probs !

Soon i´ll post some results where they fit (3060@3,8 or 3,9 and 4.0 on the DFI .... :slobber: )

cya & stay cool ;)

I will be getting one soon. Hope its not as bad as you guys make it out to be.

I would not say I'm a great bencher, I don't use many of the os tweaks many guys know to optimise scores. Up high the board can be made quite stable. For outright benching, yes you can get faster clock for clock, there's no denying this as yet, you have to put a lot of work into getting bandwidth high and latency right down to get anywhere near 975 and 980i scores in some benchmarks, maybe someone else who's an expert could step forwards with some pinoeering tweaks. I have pushed a little farther and claimed another 5000 aq3 points last night just by finding a sweet spot on the ram. If someone like opb got hold of the board I'm sure he would take it further than me.


I feel if the bugs with sync could be removed somewhat we may see closer battle in some of the 3d scorers. The money shot for benching with this board seems to be Crossfire for those that have it. In all other areas the for normal use the board is fine. 3d benching or benching in general is not my strong point, so I'd take some of my figures with a pinch of salt. To date I've had no issues with the pwm at all. So far looking at hwbot, I'd say I'm about 100mhz in higher cpu speed than others who are scoring 73000 in 3dmark01 on gtx's with 650-660 on the core, I have certainly enjoyed my experience with it and it offered something different to play with, it's not worth judging a product and slating it from one angle only, there are lots of different users to consider and some just like extensive bios's. Oskar has a beta in the works, so I'm gonna give some more time yet..

I pushed out a little further thx to help from Phase at ocx, moving trc to around 8 (which was the sweet spot), trfc to 34 and tras to 1 gave a quite nice increase in aq3. I have not optimised anything in 01 yet....


http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/3...3221734uq6.jpg

So a 545 FSB i consider crap nowadays? Man you guys must be spoiled beyond spoiled :p

Im a gamer first an forth, but I do some overclocking ones in a while. If i could run my C2D CPU a 1000 MHz over stock 24/7 im satisfied with that. To me it seems that if you own a CPU with a multi of 9 or above this board will get you where your going. It's main competition is the 975 (FSB and 3Dwise) not the 965. We all know the 965 boards does FSB really well, but sucks at 3d when paired with 2 GPUs hence the Allendale crowd should stay away. SuperPi is not really my thing, to me a benchmark in Fear or someother game says more of what I'll be getting performance wise in applications and in games. A screenshots of a low SuperPi score dosen't get my surfing or fragging to go any faster at all.

And for how the boards has been excepted by user I would say that most opinions are positive (read every posting about the board here on the XS), but we don't really have a right to form a real opinion yet when only a handfull of users have gotten it and europe is pretty much still waiting. And how can you guys state that DFI street as a downside when it is no more? The new support forum is up and it seems to be doing well.

Sorry guys for stating the obvious to you, but some of us haven't gotten ahold of the board yet and are eagerly listening to every word that is said about it. It was just released this week here in Sweden, and currently only a singel retailer has it listed at all.

Any word on when anandtech is gonna give us that full review of the board, I think Bingo mentioned something about that back in December.

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Originally Posted by Pete@X

Well ... there`s nothing wrong when you get that board. it clocks ok and when you can handle that "babe" well ... it works well, if you treat it bad - it gives up on you. It´s simple like that, I have no probs @all and my Xeons run nicely - even a tad better than on my P5W64 WS Pro ;)

Temps are kinda "normal", if you go for high FSB h2o on the NB is prefered. The Digital PWM does not really need h2o - if your airflow in the case is ok. Don´t believe too easy on such comments that the PWM-HS get´s "too hot" - it´s simply BS (don´t know what he had for dinner :D ). The 3060 here is primeing since 12h @3800 - and i still can touch the PWM HS without any probs !

Soon i´ll post some results where they fit (3060@3,8 or 3,9 and 4.0 on the DFI .... :slobber: )

cya & stay cool ;)

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Hmm, maybe you have gotten a "lucky" board. I don't know but i hope if i buy the DFI RD600 i want a high oc. I'm a player and work with pinnacle vs. So I want a high oc to get a faster work on my pc not more (I believe I don't need the ocz flex because I couldn't reach the maximum with the DFI too bad :( ). The advantage from the DFI is the Bios. DFI has with Oskar Wu a great developer.

@gambit: Yeah, the user has a good opinion about the DFI but the Benchmarkmaster don't want it. You can read the thread in xtreme benchmarks and you only see mobos without DFI.

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Originally Posted by GNU

Hmm, maybe you have gotten a "lucky" board. I don't know but i hope if i buy the DFI RD600 i want a high oc. I'm a player and work with pinnacle vs. So I want a high oc to get a faster work on my pc not more (I believe I don't need the ocz flex because I couldn't reach the maximum with the DFI too bad :( ). The advantage from the DFI is the Bios. DFI has with Oskar Wu a great developer.

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Since i have 3 (1 sample and 2 retails from 2 sources) of them here - nopes - not a lucky board ;), the Board/CPUs combo works ok on all 3 boards :D You just have to treat the board nicely and it does what it needs to do :banana: . Massive plus are the Bios Settings regarding the Memory, the "Oskar Team" did a great job there :clap:

Xeon 3060@DFI ICFX3200-T2R/G - GSkill PC6400 2GBGA @PC8500 <- so far my 24/7 setup for gameing and the rest of the stuff :toast:
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/4...m167zn7.th.jpg

There is still room for some bios tweaks - but 1st i have to get rig 4&5 up and running :eek:


Edit: It´s always funny to see ppl ditch the board - when they never had one in their hands :stick: ..... maybe they need an update of the "user.exe" :p:

How much of a difference is made between cooling the NB with H2O vs. a good heatsink and fan? With good airflow, I've read there may only be a couple of degrees in temperature difference. I was planning on using a Swiftech MCX159 I have laying around, but if going H2O is noticeably better, then it's time to make a purchase.

Air cooling will suffice but I think people water cool because there isn't many alternatives for air cooling due to the different sized loop mount.

Where as 975x dangerden block fits :)

FSB Isnt Everything, and the AW9D is 100% what a board should be (assuming you have expensive ram becsuse it runs tighter than anything ive used) and the FSB limit of ~400-445 on a stock board.

X6800 + AW9D is where it is at!

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Originally Posted by Gambit_2K

Any word on when anandtech is gonna give us that full review of the board, I think Bingo mentioned something about that back in December.

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We were waiting on the last Beta bios to go public before releasing our final results, there have been numerous memory tweaks made and sync is working better. I have been trying to get an answer from DFI for a week now but it seems they are more interested in promoting the 965 Infinity scores at this time instead of locking this board down. :(

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Originally Posted by bingo13

We were waiting on the last Beta bios to go public before releasing our final results, there have been numerous memory tweaks made and sync is working better. I have been trying to get an answer from DFI for a week now but it seems they are more interested in promoting the 965 Infinity scores at this time instead of locking this board down. :(

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This is what always worried me about a mb with no future. :(

Is DFI going to spend the time on bio updates for a one time deal mb or move on?:stick:

guys is there any advatanage to Prime 95 24.14 vs Prime95 v251....
If you run version v251...it seems to auto detect 2 cores and runs both at 100%

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bingo13

We were waiting on the last Beta bios to go public before releasing our final results, there have been numerous memory tweaks made and sync is working better. I have been trying to get an answer from DFI for a week now but it seems they are more interested in promoting the 965 Infinity scores at this time instead of locking this board down. :(

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Damn that doesn't sound good at all =/

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Originally Posted by Pete@X

Well ... there`s nothing wrong when you get that board. it clocks ok and when you can handle that "babe" well ... it works well, if you treat it bad - it gives up on you. It&#180;s simple like that, I have no probs @all and my Xeons run nicely - even a tad better than on my P5W64 WS Pro ;)

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Too bad your P5W64 is prolly faster 400 mhz less...
This DFI board is crap, the only thing it does is run higher FSB (prime didnt even work for me, so I am not impressed at all)

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Temps are kinda "normal", if you go for high FSB h2o on the NB is prefered. The Digital PWM does not really need h2o - if your airflow in the case is ok. Don&#180;t believe too easy on such comments that the PWM-HS get&#180;s "too hot" - it&#180;s simply BS (don&#180;t know what he had for dinner :D ). The 3060 here is primeing since 12h @3800 - and i still can touch the PWM HS without any probs !

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Well, I run, err RAN a L628B chip @ 1.67v measured vcore, and the pwm was dead within an hour of running that voltage.

The chipset mounting is horrible, again, who on earth decided to use the stupid hooks and not a standard mounting with holes...

My P5WDG2 WS PRO got mildly warm to the touch @ 1.85vmch, my DFI RD600 BURNED ME

Stay away from this board.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bingo13

We were waiting on the last Beta bios to go public before releasing our final results, there have been numerous memory tweaks made and sync is working better. I have been trying to get an answer from DFI for a week now but it seems they are more interested in promoting the 965 Infinity scores at this time instead of locking this board down. :(

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First of all, who cares about the bios when the board just dies? The memmory performance is so low, no ammount of tweaking or running in different modes 1T/2T/3T/Sync is going to make this board catch up.

DFI has only proven with this board that they only make buggy and crappy Intel/ATI chipset boards.

Whoever stress tests these boards, or runs pre-release hardware clearly does not do a good job. If that is Tony or some other big name person here, I am sorry, but the results clearly speak for themselves. Anyone here is free to send me another RD600, I bet I will be able to kill it the same way in the same ammount of time.

I also feel sorry for those of you who buy this board through ewiz or ebay, when it dies, your out 240$

You are one user out of many who have had this board, YOU do not represent everyone, remember that because you seem to be forgetting it.

The only boards on XS that have died, is yours and some bloke who didn't insulate enough and phase condensation killed his board.

Every single product that comes of a manufacturing line will have ones which slip through quality control. Yours was obviously one of them.

I agree about the hooks, but the mount depends alot on the chipset and how its routed on the PCB.

DFI and Buggy ATI and Intel boards?

Ermm, well really the only really buggy ATi board they made was CFX3200 for 939. RDX200 was based on a crap chipset and a crap northbridge and you can't polish turd.

As for RD600, its a good chipset with lots of features and the SB600 seems like a good southbride apart from a few nigly raid problems. Unlike SB450 and the ULi one.

How many bios updates has the WS PRO had compared to ICFX3200? Answer speaks for itself. You got a bad board your angry and bitter and your views do not represent RD600 in any way other than chipset mounting and heat. :)

As for making crap intel boards, I recall the board pushing Fugger to 5GHz plus was a DFI 875 board (IIRC, cant be arsed to check)

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Originally Posted by Mekrel

You are one user out of many who have had this board, YOU do not represent everyone, remember that because you seem to be forgetting it.

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I run though enough hardware that I know the difference between getting a bad board and getting a badly designed board.

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The only boards on XS that have died, is yours and some bloke who didn't insulate enough and phase condensation killed his board.

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Who else runs higher than 1.65v on a B cpu here? Oh wait, no one.

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Every single product that comes of a manufacturing line will have ones which slip through quality control. Yours was obviously one of them.

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It worked as it intended out of the box, I only had issues after I started going above 1.5v.

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DFI and Buggy ATI and Intel boards?

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Lets count:
DFI Expert NF4 - killing CPUs
DFI CFX3200-DR - raid issues, ULI issues
DFI RDX200 - 100% crap
DFI RD600 - Slow raid, PWM that dies, bad NB voltage/mounting issues, etc
DFI 975x Infinity - initial release was horrible, only new bioses and revisions have fixed issues.

Thats off the top of my head anyway.

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How many bios updates has the WS PRO had compared to ICFX3200? Answer speaks for itself. You got a bad board your angry and bitter and your views do not represent RD600 in any way other than chipset mounting and heat. :)

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Having actual support isnt a bad thing. I am sure that running bios 0005 for the P5WDG2 would still be fine, as I had no issues. Lets count shipping bioses that worked 100% fine:

AW9D-MAX, first release added uplocked multis for X6800
P5WDG2 WS PRO, first release added more ram timings in bios and multiplier unlocked down.
XBX2 - make the bios not FFING confusing.

Again, good boards with good shipping bioses, and only minor revisions are so rare now :slapass:

I dont "get" free hardware for the reason that when I get crappy products, I post about it. You are welcome to buy me a second RD600 and I will happily kill it for you..

Board runs fine for me and I like it, but Ive never owned any other 775 board either :)

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...00stable-1.jpg

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Originally Posted by fhpchris

Who else runs higher than 1.65v on a B cpu here? Oh wait, no one.

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i guess if you do say so....i have to believe......:D

it happens that i did some benching with single stage and 1 dfi icx3200....
E6600 L28B...running 1,75 vcore during hours

did 540 fsb benchable......

still alive and kicking
and the other one i have is still running fine.....WC rig.....pwm never excedes 28ºc......
good strong solid board......i bit tricky......but nothing out of the ordinary

having some major issues with my ocz flex 9200 ram that refuses to boot after a clear cmos


but after i saw 2 dead p5b deluxe with no mods......maybe i can bash asus too and say that their boards are crap

i had a couple of ultra-d.....1 sli-d......1 VENUS......1 cfx3200....never touched an expert.....because i didnt trust it

never killed a board or a cpu......


tryed 4 diferent sets of ram....cellshock 6400...mushkin elpida chips....some generic oem pc 4200 ram and the ocz 9200 ....apart the vdimm issue with the ocz... ram was perfect

i am still learning the mobo....i dont have much time and its very complex to deal.....but has given me lots of fun....

for me its a good board that needs a bios update to become a terrific board

no flames plz......just giving my 2 cents based on my personal experience
regards

Maybe beta bios fixes your issue with D9's, like I have. CMOS clear boots on D9 maybe 4/10 tries after CMOS clear. Thanks very much to GSkill for giving me ram that never fails to boot and works just as well as my D9's!(well, ok, not really, but they do boot every time:lol2:)

bear in mind the vdimm defaults to 1.88 after a cmos reset. Best bet is a single stick of ram in the last or third slot for boot and adjustment of bios.


I have been running around 1.8 thru my cpu at 4.65 ghz on SS cooling with no issues.


off topic amd system manager locks my pc up if I try to change fsb up or down. I must be missing something, all drivers are installed. any ideas?..

regards
raja

smbios driver. And d9'd should boot @ 5-5-5-18 1.84v, AFAIK. they do in XBX and XBX2, for sure. P5WDH too, actually. Only RD600 gives me issues. Like even single stick does not work, all the time. depends on how long I reset CMOS for, really...quick power/reset, I can boot...full CMOS reset no go.

The RD600 on its own could be good. But then you compare it to what its up against, and you have faster boards with less bugs for less money. This, IMO, makes it a flop.

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Originally Posted by Pete@X

Since i have 3 (1 sample and 2 retails from 2 sources) of them here - nopes - not a lucky board ;), the Board/CPUs combo works ok on all 3 boards :D You just have to treat the board nicely and it does what it needs to do :banana: . Massive plus are the Bios Settings regarding the Memory, the "Oskar Team" did a great job there :clap:

Xeon 3060@DFI ICFX3200-T2R/G - GSkill PC6400 2GBGA @PC8500 <- so far my 24/7 setup for gameing and the rest of the stuff :toast:
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/4...m167zn7.th.jpg

There is still room for some bios tweaks - but 1st i have to get rig 4&5 up and running :eek:


Edit: It´s always funny to see ppl ditch the board - when they never had one in their hands :stick: ..... maybe they need an update of the "user.exe" :p:

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Yeah? So I'm very happy about this and will buy it next days :clap:

I see the only user who has problems with DFI is fhpchris and not another. He has gotten a bad board. The rest is happy with DFI, so there are enought comments which speaks for DFI :)

from what i have tested
with amd sistem manager E6600 wont work ....use clockgen instead
cant remember the exact pll but later i will have that

with E4300 the sistem manager works very well.....even the voltages and the ram frequency
dont really know why....:confused:

with a cedar mill sistem manager didnt work either....i had a screen full of stripes and a frezze

thx cadaveca, I had missed that.

don't let the naysayers stop you from enjoying this board, least of all those who don't own it. I have enjoyed it throughly, I have not had one board from any manufac without issues. In fact visiting support forums for all major manufacs one can see 'issues' on a par with these.

It was the users themselves that hyped the board like lunatics, not the test team. A grand case for tight moderation of pre release I want it to do 600fsb threads.

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Originally Posted by raju

... don't let the naysayers stop you from enjoying this board, least of all those who don't own it. I have enjoyed it throughly, I have not had one board from any manufac without issues. In fact visiting support forums for all major manufacs one can see 'issues' on a par with these.

It was the users themselves that hyped the board like lunatics, not the test team. A grand case for tight moderation of pre release I want it to do 600fsb threads.

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2nd that :toast:

@fhpchis:

If you want to kill a board - there are always possibilties to do so - so that fact does not count. IF you run high VCores without the needed precautions (cooling) - you are the one to blame - not the board :nono: ! Running high Vcores on the Board without the needed steps regarding cooling is a typical case of the "user.exe needs an update" :nono: .

You mix apples with onions with you "bad" DFI list, why not join the folks on the "680i is killing ram" thread ??? ... i have tested ~ 2000 CPUs on DFI nF4 Boards (part of my Job :D ) - not 1 cpu died on my Hands, Expert Issues where mostly with pre-rel. boards or alpha bioses. So the useres did know that something could go wrong - oc needs also some brain to work - just get stuff, cranck up the voltages has not always the best effect. Who really cares about an E6600/X3060 @3.7 or 3.8 with a VCore passt 1,5V ??? No1 to tell you the truth - far more interessting are the nice results in the low Vcore regions. These results leave enough room to tweak the system for stability and performance.

You call the Abit a good Board ? I could get easy ~ 20 customers who would tell you the opposite - would that be a reason to judge the Abit a "crappy" board - i my eyes no - as there are always two sides of the coin. Some users can handel a board better than others - simple like that.

VCore - why that high vcore (1,67 and so on ...) ? Ever had the idea to find better cores that needed less juice to perform nicely ? There are dam nice Xeons around ... 3.6GHz ~ 1,3V, 3.8GHz ~ 1,4V - there is absolutly no need for insane VCores. I have now 5 DFIs up and running, all @3,6GHz or 3,7GHz below 1,4V. More than enough for 24/7 use :D - but i guess useless to say that to you :rolleyes: .

Anyway - i have the 6th DFI here, running P 25.1 since +12h a X3060@3.7GHz@1,375VCore. PWM HS is easy to touch - no burn marks etc .... ;) - so before i extend that post - i`ll go better back to my work and skip the other thoughts i had in mind ...

If someone whats to buy the board, has the right feeling about what to do - and what to skip - very well, the board will make you happy.

Just a final note - since i play with boards (+15 years) - not one has ever died in my hands / nor rams or so .... we always have to keep in mind > treat the hardware nicely - and you have fun. Go over the limts and you are lost. Simple as ABC - if you follow these rules, all will be well :D

For my side - the case is closed - as there will be always 2 sides, and i`m on the "nice board" side ... so why bother, you ruined a board in a short time. Sorry for the board - not for you - as mentioned above.

Interesting to read, do not have this board -but a nice reading and a nice experience how different people behave themselves in the discussion :)

:clap: kudos Pete

PeteX...would you say 1.525v on a e6600 is too much??

Show me 500fsb with quad core plz :D

Honestly DFI Infinity 965 is the board to get as long as you don't need SLI/CF

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Originally Posted by kiwi

Show me 500fsb with quad core plz :D

Honestly DFI Infinity 965 is the board to get as long as you don't need SLI/CF

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I second that. :)

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Originally Posted by Pete@X

2nd that :toast:

@fhpchis:

If you want to kill a board - there are always possibilties to do so - so that fact does not count. IF you run high VCores without the needed precautions (cooling) - you are the one to blame - not the board :nono: ! Running high Vcores on the Board without the needed steps regarding cooling is a typical case of the "user.exe needs an update" :nono: .

You mix apples with onions with you "bad" DFI list, why not join the folks on the "680i is killing ram" thread ??? ... i have tested ~ 2000 CPUs on DFI nF4 Boards (part of my Job :D ) - not 1 cpu died on my Hands, Expert Issues where mostly with pre-rel. boards or alpha bioses. So the useres did know that something could go wrong - oc needs also some brain to work - just get stuff, cranck up the voltages has not always the best effect. Who really cares about an E6600/X3060 @3.7 or 3.8 with a VCore passt 1,5V ??? No1 to tell you the truth - far more interessting are the nice results in the low Vcore regions. These results leave enough room to tweak the system for stability and performance.

You call the Abit a good Board ? I could get easy ~ 20 customers who would tell you the opposite - would that be a reason to judge the Abit a "crappy" board - i my eyes no - as there are always two sides of the coin. Some users can handel a board better than others - simple like that.

VCore - why that high vcore (1,67 and so on ...) ? Ever had the idea to find better cores that needed less juice to perform nicely ? There are dam nice Xeons around ... 3.6GHz ~ 1,3V, 3.8GHz ~ 1,4V - there is absolutly no need for insane VCores. I have now 5 DFIs up and running, all @3,6GHz or 3,7GHz below 1,4V. More than enough for 24/7 use :D - but i guess useless to say that to you :rolleyes: .

Anyway - i have the 6th DFI here, running P 25.1 since +12h a X3060@3.7GHz@1,375VCore. PWM HS is easy to touch - no burn marks etc .... ;) - so before i extend that post - i`ll go better back to my work and skip the other thoughts i had in mind ...

If someone whats to buy the board, has the right feeling about what to do - and what to skip - very well, the board will make you happy.

Just a final note - since i play with boards (+15 years) - not one has ever died in my hands / nor rams or so .... we always have to keep in mind > treat the hardware nicely - and you have fun. Go over the limts and you are lost. Simple as ABC - if you follow these rules, all will be well :D

For my side - the case is closed - as there will be always 2 sides, and i`m on the "nice board" side ... so why bother, you ruined a board in a short time. Sorry for the board - not for you - as mentioned above.

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Hey Pete,

I have two points to make here:

1. This is a $250 board, much more expensive then most core2 boards. one of the features is a high vcore, if high vcore kills the board, then what good is it? Saying you don't need it doesnt matter, its part of what you pay for, and i for one expect it to work. HOWEVER, i do agree that FHP's case is isolated and he probably just got a bad board.

2. My second point is this, even without FHP's issue, this is still a $250 board that can be outperformed by pretty much any other board out there. It's clock for clock performance is simply awful. I only hope that the new beta bios bingo is talking about really does improve sync 1t speeds as it seems that is the only way this board will be able to compete clock for clock with the other chipset.

sync 1t is the way to go for those with sub ddr1000 capable ram, for those who have the good stuff, ddr1100 and over at cas 4 2t outperforms 1t cas 4 ddr975, on current bios.

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Originally Posted by Pete@X

If you want to kill a board - there are always possibilties to do so

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The whole point is that I DONT want to kill another board, but I am sure that if I put this thing through a fair second test, It will die.

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IF you run high VCores without the needed precautions (cooling) - you are the one to blame - not the board :nono: ! Running high Vcores on the Board without the needed steps regarding cooling is a typical case of the "user.exe needs an update" :nono: .

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Dont babble at me saying anything about the voltage that I am running is bad/scares you/degrades/whatever. I clearly have enough cooling here, as I am the one running 8+ hours prime on this voltage...

I also have run 1.65v+ daily, so your talking to the wrong person here.

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You mix apples with onions with you "bad" DFI list, why not join the folks on the "680i is killing ram" thread ???

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WOAH! BECAUSE MY 680I DOES NOT KILL RAM! HOW DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND!

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... i have tested ~ 2000 CPUs on DFI nF4 Boards (part of my Job :D ) - not 1 cpu died on my Hands, Expert Issues where mostly with pre-rel. boards or alpha bioses. So the useres did know that something could go wrong - oc needs also some brain to work - just get stuff, cranck up the voltages has not always the best effect.

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Is that what Kyle @ [N]ubocp told you?

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Who really cares about an E6600/X3060 @3.7 or 3.8 with a VCore passt 1,5V ???

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I donno? POSSIBLY XTREMESYSTEMS.org?

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No1 to tell you the truth - far more interessting are the nice results in the low Vcore regions. These results leave enough room to tweak the system for stability and performance.

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Who cares about low voltage? Why dont you just run stock? I booted with my X6800 for two days @ 6*435 and I didnt really notice in day to day things, whats the point? Again I say over and over, your 3.7 isnt holding a candle to the 4100 I am running 3dmark at on water, and for those things ~500 mhz and a faster chipset is kinda noticeable...

And again, I ran 3.9ghz on 1.54/1.6+/whatever I want, and it will pass any stress test that I throw at it. I am the one talking to real people here.

I am the one here, helping others like Eva2000 get those extra 50-150 mhz out of his X6800, all by using the same settings that ive talked about over and over and over and over and...

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Originally Posted by EVA

BEFORE:
it's benchable at 3950mhz at 1.56v load
AFTER:
- max single Super Pi 32M = 4091Mhz at 1.675v bios set (1.65v idle/load)

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You call the Abit a good Board ? I could get easy ~ 20 customers who would tell you the opposite - would that be a reason to judge the Abit a "crappy" board - i my eyes no - as there are always two sides of the coin. Some users can handel a board better than others - simple like that.

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1) I bet over half of those people have E6300/E6400s
2) I bet over half have cheap ram (under 300$/2gb, not counting corsair)
3) I bet over half those users run the stock aircooled chipset
4) I bet none of those users have modded boards
5) I bet only 1% of those users even knows what a digital multimeter even is

Again, the AW9D isnt a noob-friendly board, but apparently neither is the RD600. Hell, Kyle@[T]ardforums only managed 333FSB on the AW9D. How sad is that...

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VCore - why that high vcore (1,67 and so on ...) ?

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Because it is fast. Duh. XS = FAST(benching or daily)

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Ever had the idea to find better cores that needed less juice to perform nicely ?

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Yes, I called intel and asked for a 3.9-4ghz cpu @ 1.3v and they said call newegg.
:stick:

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There are dam nice Xeons around ... 3.6GHz ~ 1,3V, 3.8GHz ~ 1,4V - there is absolutly no need for insane VCores.

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3.6 is slow as crap, 3.7 is below average, 3.8 is average, and 3.9 isnt too bad. Oh yea, all those are 8+ hour prime.

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I have now 5 DFIs up and running, all @3,6GHz or 3,7GHz below 1,4V. More than enough for 24/7 use :D - but i guess useless to say that to you :rolleyes: .

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XS is about pushing the limits of computing, daily or otherwise, and I think my 8+ hour orthos @ 3900+ mhz kinda counts on that arena.

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Anyway - i have the 6th DFI here, running P 25.1 since +12h a X3060@3.7GHz@1,375VCore. PWM HS is easy to touch - no burn marks etc .... ;) - so before i extend that post - i`ll go better back to my work and skip the other thoughts i had in mind ...

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3.7 is slow. My L623A did 3.7, and people like you couldnt even get 3.2 on the same stepping L623A E6600.

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Just a final note - since i play with boards (+15 years) - not one has ever died in my hands / nor rams or so .... we always have to keep in mind > treat the hardware nicely - and you have fun. Go over the limts and you are lost. Simple as ABC - if you follow these rules, all will be well :D

For my side - the case is closed - as there will be always 2 sides, and i`m on the "nice board" side ... so why bother, you ruined a board in a short time. Sorry for the board - not for you - as mentioned above.

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I am sorry the board is a POS as well, back to the store it goes...

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Originally Posted by raju

sync 1t is the way to go for those with sub ddr1000 capable ram, for those who have the good stuff, ddr1100 and over at cas 4 2t outperforms 1t cas 4 ddr975, on current bios.

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Sub DDR 1000 capable ram cant do sync 1t ;)

i dont care if at one specific setting it beats 975 it is still slower then 975. You even proved it with your personal benches.

SO, like i said if the board really does have bios fixes for 1t and sync clocking that is its only real chance to become a good core2 board, as that is the only time clock for clock performance is good. If we can do 450 1t 3-3-3 sync this board would kick ass. But we can't. ;)

Fact of the matter is this, people will like the board regardless of whether or not it lives up to your personal requirements.


If you have 1000 capable ram and you buy this board to overclock run 2t with overvolt ddr1100, no brainer. No need for dodgy winks, sub 1000 ram can be overclocked, or are we talking stock settings on a dfi lp board now?

Everyone knows the 965 is slower in nearly all current forms than the 975 board, but does that make the 965 a failure? Unrealistic expectations is what springs to my mind...


There is no way I believe that chris gave his bioard a harder hammering than me, he did not even come close to what I've put through this board, so that to points at him being unlucky..

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Originally Posted by raju

Fact of the matter is this, people will like the board regardless of whether or not it lives up to your personal requirements.


If you have 1000 capable ram and you buy this board to overclock run 2t with overvolt ddr1100, no brainer. No need for dodgy winks, sub 1000 ram can be overclocked, or are we talking stock settings on a dfi lp board now?

Everyone knows the 965 is slower in nearly all current forms than the 975 board, but does that make the 965 a failure? Unrealistic expectations is what springs to my mind...


There is no way I believe that chris gave his bioard a harder hammering than me, he did not even come close to what I've put through this board, so that to points at him being unlucky..

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I dont know why you are so defensive about this, i am not telling people to dislike thier boards. What i am saying this is a $250 baord that underperforms. Certainly it works ok, but then compared to its competition it doesnt.

Certainly 965 is slower clock for clock then 975 - but then it doenst cost as much either. I payed $180 for my P5B-deluxe, it can perform similar clock for clock on RD600, and it can hit higher FSB. Fact is RD600 should have been infinity, because this board is supposed to be top of the line, but its not, its just top of the line price.

Im not hating on DFI either, i have many of the same gripes about most asus boards...

Also my point about memory performance is that 2t 1100 is not fast on this board... i dont why its so hard for you to grasp, as you proved it with your own tests. for the last time, the only time this board competes clock for clock is in sync. BUT sync mode doesnt work - either from a chipset limit or a bios limit fact is it isnt there. Once again the only hope for this board to be a real performer is in improved sync mode clocking. Either that or they make the async timings tighter.

Otherwise, ill pass on a $250 board that doesnt do any better then my $180one , thanks. async mode doesnt interest me - what good is it if performance isnt improved. i dont care if my ram run 300mhz or 1400mhz all that matters is its performance (See: latency) Once agian, so you don't get your panties in a wad again, i am not saying its a bad board, i am simply saying you dont get what you pay for, therefore IMO it is a flop.

If people want to go on paying too much for a board and liking it - as you say, they are welcome to it, regardless of my personal requirments(which are only that a board offers good value for what you pay for).

My 2 cents to this.

iCFX has the tweaks to make conroe and kents clock high, it also features high end caps and other components that drive the cost of the board high. All you guys want boards that clock CPU's without the need for mods etc but most do not want to pay for them...kinda sad if you ask me.

let me give you an example:

A while ago I priced up manufacturing cost for the reference RD480 board from ATI, at the time it would have been the best Xfire board on the market. Without packaging, CD, cables etc etc the board was $174 just to make, add in all the other stuff you need and you were talking 200+ INC packaging shipped to the USA. Now i know you would have all freaked out so the project died.

My point here is you really do need to get a grasp of how much these boards cost to make...you want the best caps etc you have to pay for them, you want the Wu creating boards that clock like mad..you have to pay for his RnD time.

Simple facts....if you want to buy cheap boards there are plenty out there, if you want the boards that clock well then they always cost more.


hell the i680chipsets were 100bucks at launch with nothing else...so the board was costing 100dollars without even a PCB.

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Originally Posted by Revv23

I dont know why you are so defensive about this, i am not telling people to dislike thier boards. What i am saying this is a $250 baord that underperforms. Certainly it works ok, but then compared to its competition it doesnt.

Certainly 965 is slower clock for clock then 975 - but then it doenst cost as much either. I payed $180 for my P5B-deluxe, it can perform similar clock for clock on RD600, and it can hit higher FSB. Fact is RD600 should have been infinity, because this board is supposed to be top of the line, but its not, its just top of the line price.

Im not hating on DFI either, i have many of the same gripes about most asus boards...

Also my point about memory performance is that 2t 1100 is not fast on this board... i dont why its so hard for you to grasp, as you proved it with your own tests. for the last time, the only time this board competes clock for clock is in sync. BUT sync mode doesnt work - either from a chipset limit or a bios limit fact is it isnt there. Once again the only hope for this board to be a real performer is in improved sync mode clocking. Either that or they make the async timings tighter.

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It is not hard for me to grasp, given that i actually have the board and know the figures thus far either way in my own comparisons on my system.

What matters to users who actually own the board at present is where the speed is at for them personally at this time, it just so happens that ddr1100 cas4 outperforms all other possible settings below it on the current bios, which is what I mention it, not to satisfy 975/965 comparisons, I know that thru my actual testing of various sysnc/unsync 1t/2t/3t testing, there is no shame in telling that to users of the board, that's what I am defensive about, the fact that poeple are pouncing upon those who have the board with the glories of other chipsets all the time, at least let them get the best perfomance thay can from their own board, which does not have to be the fastest in the world.

The only place we actually agree is that bios work is needed on sync, but from what I know already the gap between sync ad the speeds I have hit up high in terms of benchable latency bandwidth (ddr1226 4-4-4-8 trc 8) is so large that sync is gonna need to come upto around ddr1000 or so to beat it for me personally for everyone else who owns the board they will have to find their own lower sweetspots, and at this point I'm not talking 975/965 comparisons.


thank you for your input.
raja

When is price an issue if a piece of hardware is the top dog?......it's not.

Only when performance is about equal is price an issue.

Raju

The bios in 1:1 sync mode uses the 1066 ram table which is the most agressive, this is why it is a lot harder to overclock in this mode.

Also the chipset hits its max clock at 464fsb, there is no point trying to clock higher than this really as the memory performance takes a dive. This is why i kept saying buy CPU's with higher multi's for this board.

T

this weekend we benched a couple of rigs for max 'pi on air with as much voltage as still improved final speed.
the only two components switched between the bench sessions were an RD600 and a p5b-dlx.
even the OS on the drive was the same.
after several hours using an e6600 at around 3.7ghz we could not get iether board to pull out a convincing lead.
now we maxed at around 427fsb with both boards (RD600 went a bit further possibly due to finer vcore tweakability)
luckily we could use the 4:5 divider on the asus giving us +-533mhz for the D9
we also ran the Rd600 memory at the 533mhz mark.
the final score was in the favour of the p5b to about 0.06 seconds...
BUT we had not yet used the RD600's ability to run the ram way higher with as much voltage as we could want really.

in the end the flexibility of the RD600 would have led to it taking the super-pi 1M crown had we taken the time to push the ram further.
the p5b was maxing on the cpu and further ram speed was therefor out of the question.

so once the p5b has gone over to 1333strap even an upwards divider cannot get it to pull out a lead on the RD600 and this in 'pi 1M supposedly RD600's weakest link.

in the end this board is so much more flexible, requires no vmods, looks great and performs equally to the most popular mobo out there.

it definately has its place in the sun

plus who wouldn't want to run the mobo with AMD chipset for intel cpu's :D

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Originally Posted by dogsx2

When is price an issue if a piece of hardware is the top dog?......it's not.

Only when performance is about equal is price an issue.

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The facts are this, The board clocks well, specially with a kents, the issue is its not as fast.

now is that the boards fault or the chipsets fault? I think the chipset is at fault a little here. Now going by what we all have seen you will either live with the chipset limitations and clock around them or you buy a board featuring another chipset that is faster.

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Originally Posted by Tony

Raju

The bios in 1:1 sync mode uses the 1066 ram table which is the most agressive, this is why it is a lot harder to overclock in this mode.

Also the chipset hits its max clock at 464fsb, there is no point trying to clock higher than this really as the memory performance takes a dive. This is why i kept saying buy CPU's with higher multi's for this board.

T

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Thanks for all of your input Tony. Can you go into more detail about sync mode? Will there be more bioses available for this board in the future, to your knowledge?

Thanks :)

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Originally Posted by Tony

Raju

The bios in 1:1 sync mode uses the 1066 ram table which is the most agressive, this is why it is a lot harder to overclock in this mode.

Also the chipset hits its max clock at 464fsb, there is no point trying to clock higher than this really as the memory performance takes a dive. This is why i kept saying buy CPU's with higher multi's for this board.

T

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Yeah I know Tony that's why I only use an x6800 with this board, however for outright benching in 3d marks you can get lower latency and higher bandwidth benching scores by nearly killing your ram lol and murdering the chipset... Once you get over 4ghz it's even harder to get sync speeds to co-operate, sub 4.2ghz you can use many of the post 400fsb settings, for quick benches upto say 429. At 11x multi the 266 strap is good for upto 425fsb in async and can be forced to bench at ddr1200 cas 4, leaving sync on the current bios (with it's inherent limits) for dead.
Thus far highest becnhing perfomance for me is fsb511 (max in bios), ddr1226 cas 4-4-3-4-8 trc 8 trfc 34, she will pass aquamark with that and run 3dmark2001 at ddr1208 at the same timings, read data transfer of 5, trrd 4( can go 3 but actually worsens performance), clocking drive strength needs to be at 13-14, however the core users are best of with the 266 strap and sub fsb you mention for 24/7 use.

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Originally Posted by Tony

I think the chipset is at fault a little here.

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:fact:


:woot:





LoL. DFI is NOT to blame.


:toast:

I agree with tony and dogs..


I never thought DFI has done a bad job, the chipset doesnt compete... so i stay away... thats why, as i said, i think DFI's RD600 would have been a better effort as an infinity series... there is no need to make a top end board out of a bottom end chipset.

like dogs said, the price of the board can be high as long as performance is there.

I think this board delivers for what I bought it for. I am very familiar with the DFI bios since I've messed around with the 939 Lanparty's quite a bit and it's nice to be in that familiar territory. Asynch Ram speeds are quite easy and it's a nice option for once to just set it and forget it and worry about your cpu clock, fsb and multi to get that stable. This board is quite stable for me and overclocking it has been a lot easier than my P5W64. I'll pay the extra few dollars for a good board that I don't have to Vmod, and I'll pay the extra few dollars for good quality components. I have no qualms with this board, definitely a fun board for me and that's what counts.

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Originally Posted by Tony

My 2 cents to this.

iCFX has the tweaks to make conroe and kents clock high, it also features high end caps and other components that drive the cost of the board high. All you guys want boards that clock CPU's without the need for mods etc but most do not want to pay for them...kinda sad if you ask me.

let me give you an example:

A while ago I priced up manufacturing cost for the reference RD480 board from ATI, at the time it would have been the best Xfire board on the market. Without packaging, CD, cables etc etc the board was $174 just to make, add in all the other stuff you need and you were talking 200+ INC packaging shipped to the USA. Now i know you would have all freaked out so the project died.

My point here is you really do need to get a grasp of how much these boards cost to make...you want the best caps etc you have to pay for them, you want the Wu creating boards that clock like mad..you have to pay for his RnD time.

Simple facts....if you want to buy cheap boards there are plenty out there, if you want the boards that clock well then they always cost more.


hell the i680chipsets were 100bucks at launch with nothing else...so the board was costing 100dollars without even a PCB.

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Tonys statement above about wraps up what this board is really all about! It`s an outright "enthusiasts" board, endorsed by the high quality caps & components used in it`s construction, combined with a plethora of Bios options, in particular the RAM section. I would advise anyone new to overclocking to tread very carefully if buying this board. It`s not for beginners or the faint-hearted! DFI build the UT LP specifically with quality components, whereas the Infinity based boards are "Budget" boards with cheaper components & less features.
Here in the UK, the 3200T2R/G was &#163;205 on pre-order & the hotter 680i boards from Asus were nearly &#163;260 on pre-order. :eek:


Oskar Wu deserves a pat on the back for getting the boards Bios to the level it is now. We just need a fix for having to do a Ram Dance around all the slots after "re-setting" CMOS everytime; Seeing your CPU & Ram speeds displayed at Bios post from an adjustment session would be nice too. ;)

DFI appear to have gone one better than they did with the nF4 LDI DR Expert - That was a fantastic board, even tho I did turn it into a Vertical Swimming pool on one occasion with the Vapo. Over night in front of a De-humidifier & she was running again! This boards Bios was the BEST I have ever had the pleasure of playing with & so far, this one is looking even better.

Over at the Repository, freecableguy has taken a Quad Xeon to 460Fsb on this board. Other board manufacturers arn`t quite making these speeds with the Quads.

The Repository

I was unlucky with my first board. C1 Error codes on 2 sizes of Geil Ram, so it had to be RMA`d. Thankfully, it was a DOA board & even 2GB of uber slow Geil PC4300 works at 360fsb 1:1 with 7200Mb/Sec. Looking forward to getting it all set up on water & gettin` some faster Ram. :D

way, way more happy users than disgruntled ones, that's what matters most. Looking forward to the next bios now as it looks like some of the higher multi's are in operation too. After that I wanna see what the 980i will do and also the quad gt..

regards
raja

I'm a happy user of DFI RD600.. :)

:woot:

hope the bios fix comes.. :)

I bought this board 3 weeks ago in replacement of ans Asus P5WDH. I get this board because i want a board who :
1. can get high fsb without mod.
2. have high voltage for ram and cpu without mod.
3. can make crossfire with full lane.
P965 who can do the 2 first points are expensive (more than 200€) or need mod.
P965 crossfire is also dodgy.

Fhpchris you said go for other board :
BX2 : need mods and 240€ in France.
AW9D : nice out of the box but more than 200€ for 1 pci slot(:eek: ).
P5BDlx : P965 board so missing something for me and i see lots of rma for those cards.

Like some tell you here you are the only one here who see his board diying mike that. I have Asus fan on PWM since start and 30°C is max temperature i can see on it. I prefers chipset mounting like that that crappy heatpipes we can see on other boards.
I run high voltage on this board and it's alive. I max voltage yesterday for benching and no problems. I use stock bios and easily beats the performance of my Asus by a large margin unless 10 or 12 revisions bios of the P5W DH.
My Asus is probably faster clock for clock with my DFI but my Asus can't match the clock of my DFI so....:rolleyes:

Guys regarding the chipset we have to remember its quite an old design, remembering that i actually think it does an awesome job...for me better than i680 ;)

Like all high end boards there will always be overclocking issues, issues at stock speeds are always a lot less but we all tend to forget this as we all overclock.

I for one WOULD buy the iCFX, I don't run superpi for a living and as such would probably never see it being a little slower than a 975. Games do pretty well though and it overclocks Kents real well due to in bios GTL ref voltage tweaking...so for me it is actually a worthy buy.

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Originally Posted by Tony

I for one WOULD buy the iCFX, I don't run superpi for a living and as such would probably never see it being a little slower than a 975. Games do pretty well though and it overclocks Kents real well due to in bios GTL ref voltage tweaking...so for me it is actually a worthy buy.

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If I can bench all night long on this board and Q6600 or Xeon 3220 at 500x9 (subzero, of course), and the board doesn't die, I would take one :D

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Originally Posted by mrlobber

If I can bench all night long on this board and Q6600 or Xeon 3220 at 500x9 (subzero, of course), and the board doesn't die, I would take one :D

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my understanding is it will not hit 500fsb on quad cores

with good watercooling on the chipset temps remain sub 50 even for stringent benching. I would love to see how far a quad could go on this board with good cooling. 3d mark o1 wise I am at 75000 points or so now. In game performance is great even at stock..

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Originally Posted by Tony

Guys regarding the chipset we have to remember its quite an old design, remembering that i actually think it does an awesome job...for me better than i680 ;)

Like all high end boards there will always be overclocking issues, issues at stock speeds are always a lot less but we all tend to forget this as we all overclock.

I for one WOULD buy the iCFX, I don't run superpi for a living and as such would probably never see it being a little slower than a 975. Games do pretty well though and it overclocks Kents real well due to in bios GTL ref voltage tweaking...so for me it is actually a worthy buy.

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For me, those issues are not even the bad ones, the only two serious problems are:

1) it died after 7 hours of abuse.

2) it just didnt run my Xeon as fast as my other boards will, I could screen higher, but I could not prime higher...

My RD600 is now basically dead, killed a set of OCZ TI's that did 1100 MHZ 4-4-4-8-1T @ 2.35v as well.

Came into work today saw that the screen had a BSOD on it.

Tried to reboot and kept getting a C1 memory error.

Went over looked at the board, and noticed that the 8 pin receptor on the board actually had burnt. Tested out the ram on 3 other boards confirmed dead.

Board still boots with 2x 8000UL I had laying around the office, but BSOD's on load. Took out the PSU into another computer and it works fine. I guess I don't really know what to say about this board other than THANKS DFI!

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Originally Posted by mrlobber

If I can bench all night long on this board and Q6600 or Xeon 3220 at 500x9 (subzero, of course), and the board doesn't die, I would take one :D

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Congrats on Post Number 1k1. :D

Tony and Eva are for the DFI and i have seen, more users are happier with DFI than with another boards. I should get a high oc with tony's guide but i don't know which RAM :( . I hope the Flex is strong enough for this but it's too expensive.

And fhp you had a bad mobo and this is not often you see another users who haven't a problem with DFI. It's only a bad luck.

@pete: Wo arbeitest du bitte denn, wenn du dort mit 1000 Prozessoren zu tun hast?

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Originally Posted by GNU

Tony and Eva are for the DFI and i have seen, more users are happier with DFI than with another boards. I should get a high oc with tony's guide but i don't know which RAM :( . I hope the Flex is strong enough for this but it's too expensive.

And fhp you had a bad mobo and this is not often you see another users who haven't a problem with DFI. It's only a bad luck.

@pete: Wo arbeitest du bitte denn, wenn du dort mit 1000 Prozessoren zu tun hast?

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And again for time #300, my board worked fine out of the box, it wasnt DOA, it is not defective, it worked fine untill I went above 3.6ghz and 1.5v.

[H] Review... Enjoy.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

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Originally Posted by fhpchris

And again for time #300, my board worked fine out of the box, it wasnt DOA, it is not defective, it worked fine untill I went above 3.6ghz and 1.5v.

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This is actaully where my board xploded as well, took the ram with it. Tommorow I should have some neato pictures.

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Originally Posted by Yoxxy

My RD600 is now basically dead, killed a set of OCZ TI's that did 1100 MHZ 4-4-4-8-1T @ 2.35v as well.

Came into work today saw that the screen had a BSOD on it.

Tried to reboot and kept getting a C1 memory error.

Went over looked at the board, and noticed that the 8 pin receptor on the board actually had burnt. Tested out the ram on 3 other boards confirmed dead.

Board still boots with 2x 8000UL I had laying around the office, but BSOD's on load. Took out the PSU into another computer and it works fine. I guess I don't really know what to say about this board other than THANKS DFI!

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The fact that your psu is still alive doesn't say it's not the cause of the sudden death. Even if it boot other config well.

I had to send mine back to zipzoom, it wouldn't run second channel memory. Now I remember why I buy at newegg, but thats off point,. I loved the board while I had it. with single channel mem 470 fsb was a breeze so I Can't wait to get another one soon and 3xr600s and then it will be gaming on the HD fer sure. :)
It is a very complex bios and should be avoided if you don't want to spend a lot of time tweaking. FYI I have the new P5n-E SLI its the sweetest little board. Its good to around 450 fsb rock stable. like it was made for it. match that with a E6600 and you have a nice little rig.

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Originally Posted by fhpchris

And again for time #300, my board worked fine out of the box, it wasnt DOA, it is not defective, it worked fine untill I went above 3.6ghz and 1.5v.

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3.6Ghz @1.5V ain't going to kill a motherboard. I've run:

-1.7V on CPU (air)
- 2.8V on ram
- over 2V through the NB for the last 2-3 days

No problems as of yet ;)

I state again, its either defective motherboard or user error. And I dont think there are many user errors at XS, so that slims down possibilities to "defective motherboard" :)

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Originally Posted by MsB

I had to send mine back to zipzoom, it wouldn't run second channel memory. Now I remember why I buy at newegg, but thats off point,. I loved the board while I had it. with single channel mem 470 fsb was a breeze so I Can't wait to get another one soon and 3xr600s and then it will be gaming on the HD fer sure. :)
It is a very complex bios and should be avoided if you don't want to spend a lot of time tweaking. FYI I have the new P5n-E SLI its the sweetest little board. Its good to around 450 fsb rock stable. like it was made for it. match that with a E6600 and you have a nice little rig.

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Had you manually set memory to run dual channel? ("channel A and B" option in bios)

Hi to all...

I've a good...and bad experience with this board... very good board IMOH, I can run RS 465x9 with only 1,4850V (e6600), also nice ram overclocking capability..I can run RS 610mhz 5-4-4-8.... today I have tried X3060..I can tell I'm a bit disappointed, maybe it's just a not so good cpu...but I can't run 4ghz even with 1,55V..so I set back my good E6600 and play supreme commander...suddenly I got a BSOD..I reset the system and I notice that it went very unstable..so I clear cmos and set back the working bios config from the beginning..no boot..C1 error with memory at 600mhz...in the past 10 day it always booted...so I set 550mhz after clearing cmos and I could boot..but while is was changinge timings in bios..suddely the system froze up... and from that moment no more boot..first it's just stop at C1 without any sound, then, after clearing cmos and unplug the motherboard, C1 with tipical ram failure sound. After some trials I discover that this crappy mobo refuse to boot in dual channel...If i set the memory in the first two lane it work..the second two lane are dead...

Now i'm running 1gb single channel and it's works well, stable ad befeore but I can tell for sure the second two ddr lane are apoparently dead, ddr works well (i tried to swap them they work..but no in the 3-4 ddr lane)...

I will just rma it or someone have suggestions?

Bye

How many vddr?

hmm..why would 1.5v(bios setting??) and speed of 3600 kill the mobo??

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Originally Posted by gabriel_e78

Hi to all...

I've a good...and bad experience with this board... very good board IMOH, I can run RS 465x9 with only 1,4850V (e6600), also nice ram overclocking capability..I can run RS 610mhz 5-4-4-8.... today I have tried X3060..I can tell I'm a bit disappointed, maybe it's just a not so good cpu...but I can't run 4ghz even with 1,55V..so I set back my good E6600 and play supreme commander...suddenly I got a BSOD..I reset the system and I notice that it went very unstable..so I clear cmos and set back the working bios config from the beginning..no boot..C1 error with memory at 600mhz...in the past 10 day it always booted...so I set 550mhz after clearing cmos and I could boot..but while is was changinge timings in bios..suddely the system froze up... and from that moment no more boot..first it's just stop at C1 without any sound, then, after clearing cmos and unplug the motherboard, C1 with tipical ram failure sound. After some trials I discover that this crappy mobo refuse to boot in dual channel...If i set the memory in the first two lane it work..the second two lane are dead...

Now i'm running 1gb single channel and it's works well, stable ad befeore but I can tell for sure the second two ddr lane are apoparently dead, ddr works well (i tried to swap them they work..but no in the 3-4 ddr lane)...

I will just rma it or someone have suggestions?

Bye

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Holy Crap! that exactly what happened to me. Send it back for exchange. Don't waste time on it.
I spent hours trying to figure it out. if you set it manually in the bios and it doesnt run dual its bad. Even if your memory might need more volts than 1.8 it should try to run both channels.

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Originally Posted by MsB

Holy Crap! that exactly what happened to me. Send it back for exchange. Don't waste time on it.
I spent hours trying to figure it out. if you set it manually in the bios and it doesnt run dual its bad. Even if your memory might need more volts than 1.8 it should try to run both channels.

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this may sound stupid how do you know if it is actually running dual channel..I have it manually set to dual channel..ie A & B...cpu-z says dual channel...

thanks