DFI RDX200 CF-DR First look

Guys

Just got the board, took some pics to show packaging and the bare board. First thing i noticed was SI3114 SATA which is SATA1 only but for me thats no big deal.

So i will post these first pics then set the board up and play with memtest86 for a while to get a feel for ram overclocking. While im testing i will show pics of the bios.

I can not run any benches as Wesley over at Anandtech has an exclusive on the review so look to AT in a day or so for bench results.I will talk about the feel of the board and answer as many questions as i can over the next few hrs.

Pics

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38552&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38553&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38554&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38555&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38556&stc=1

He, we'll wait till you can give us every bit of info.

Thanks!!!

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38558&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38559&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38557&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38560&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38561&stc=1

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony

Guys
First thing i noticed was SI3114 SATA which is SATA1 only but for me thats no big deal.

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Oh no :( tht controller was very poor on the NF2 brds, very low performance, I sure hope its not the same on tht board!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Troman

all i want to know is the coldbug option :D :banana:

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Cold bug is dram drive strength..i have documented this many times. Weaken the drive as you chill the cpu and the ram will clock higher

...Standing by for BIOS shots... :D

Good luck, Tony :up:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38562&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38563&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38564&stc=1

Thats it for now, I have to set the board up and go for bios pics next.

Stay tuned

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bachus_anonym

...Standing by for BIOS shots... :D

Good luck, Tony :up:

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YEP!!! (10chars) :toast:

When's Wesley over at Anandtech supposed to post a review? Like today or next week?

Can't wait to see the results Tony! Thanks for giving us a sneak peek :)

I hope this board loves TCCD...

D

Mickeymouse is going to owe me a mousepot here...we have 4 TCCD dimms running 1T at 200fsb.

Aquamark3 runs fine, we have screenies of cpu-z, A64 tweaker and AQ3 in 1T 4dimms and 2T 4 dimms.

more soon

How does 3.4+ Vdimm work???

woot!!!!
Sounds great so far. Now lets see if this thing can clock TCCD like its brother the Ultra D :)

Yep, i what to know this board increase CPU/RAM OC for some Mhz or clocks the same?
And what MAX HTT on ATI chipsets?

Very nice tony..

Good preview, Tony.

Will await bios screenies.

Btw, running 4 dimms of 512 mb sticks or 2 dimms of 1GB sticks in 1T will be more worth it on this board ?

:toast:

Bios shots

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38579&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38580&stc=1 http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38581&stc=1 http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38582&stc=1 http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38583&stc=1

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MickeyMouse

NO OEM'S/ MANUF'S /BETA TESTERS/ REVIEWERS OR /REPS

Any normal person that buys from a reg online store that we know isn't connected to anything beta/special gets one. ;)

This gives the little guys or poor guys a chance ;)

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Thats BS man...don't move the goal posts now its been done.

I will mail my shipping details to you once you forward your email addy to me.

stand up like a man when i prove you wrong and do the right thing

Looking good...............



:woot:

What about VTT control? Is there a specific control for it in bios or is it just tracked properly this time (unlike in the dfi nf4's)?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony

Thats BS man...don't move the goal posts now its been done.

I will mail my shipping details to you once you forward your email addy to me.

stand up like a man when i prove you wrong and do the right thing

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I remember distinctly him stating previously what he just posted above. No special people, just average joes. This was stated originally. :rolleyes:

Not taking sides, just stating fact.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EnJoY

I remember distinctly him stating previously what he just posted above. No special people, just average joes. This was stated originally. :rolleyes:

Not taking sides, just stating fact.

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Yup I saw the same thing stated in the othe thread

Looking good so far...... can't wait to see some testing. I'm hoping this board oveclocks like many of the other DFI products. 4x512 1T would be nice also. Keep us posted.

1t? With 4 doublesided dimms?

No single-sided dimms to try Tony? Just the TCCD? how many MB/sec in memtest? That should be some killer bandwidth.

4X OCZ3200Plat rev2 at ddr400 1T

CPU-Z and Tweaker showing the dimms timings ETC

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38584&stc=1

Aquamark3 4 dimms at 1T notice the score
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38586&stc=1

AQ3 4 dimms 2T...score drops
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38587&stc=1

Finally AQ3 with 2 dimms 1T, 4dimms is slightly faster due to improved interleaving.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38585&stc=1

And if you wondering how the board does it.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38588&stc=1

Oskar has opened up all levels of drive from the memory controller, 0 to 15 is selectable. This board must have next to zero crosstalk to be able to do this as the amount of dram drive needed is huge.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MickeyMouse

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...23#post1078923
:)

Nice tony got some sandra and everest? memtest/prime? :)

thanks

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Jason if you are backing out thats fine, i proved my point.

Just remember there are those who design boards, and there are those who just play with them, the designers are much better overclockers than you think as they are the ones who give you the tools to play with.

Hi Tony ,

What's the feeling about the layout (new design) ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MickeyMouse

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...23#post1078923
:)

Nice tony got some sandra and everest? memtest/prime? :)

thanks

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Those benches belong to Wesley Fink, im helping him set up his board, for now he is 4 hrs infront of me.

I have no doubt this board will run prime with 4dimms 1t, regarding sandra i really don't care for it, try and run 4dimms thru AQ3 at 1t and it will show if its stable or not.

nice board Tony.. looking forward to your further testing :)

woah talk about memory vdimm increments galore!

Jason isn't trying to back out. He just asked for someone that isn't a company rep or site staff member to post results...

Ok I will do this, Im going to CES this year, i expect to have Jasons mousepot with me to give away on the DFI/OCZ booth.

I think thats a fair compromise we can both live with.

ok......now I'm drooling..... I'm sure I have for sticks somewhere that could work together with this board.

very nice :banana:

How is 4 dimms 1T possible ? I tought it was limited by the A64 memory controller!

LenniZ,
Look here.

wow, nice one tony, that board looks very nice.
i didnt see any jumper on the board that will get 5v and give as 4v in the dimms - like the j16 in the nf4 dfi boars.

and i wonder, did you try any oc on that board ?
from your impression : nf4 vs ati200 - which will be better in oc ?

thx

As long as it OC's as well as the nf4, I'm ALL OVER ONE!!

C

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MickeyMouse

Isn't CES in LasVegas Jan 4-8th 2006?
I can promise you I will be there and I will bring you a Mousepot to give away at the booth no problems. :)

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Nicely done, I will organise a nice easy competition to give away the Pot to an Xs reader.

now, come weds next week we will see lots of people doing 1t with 4 dimms so i think we can now put this one to bed...the board is built to do it and its very easy to do.

onto more bios shots

I like the 0-15 drive strength, that HAS to help with cold bug. More vdimm options are nice to have too.

As for the Mousepot, MM specifically said in that post that reps cannot participate. It is good of him to offer a pot anyway, but how is it fair to us regular joes that don’t get stuff a month before it comes out if reps get the prizes?

Will the DFI NF4 Expert handle memory like this board or does it have something to do with the chipset itself?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by J-Mag

Will the DFI NF4 Expert handle memory like this board or does it have something to do with the chipset itself?

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Good question. Will the drive str and extra vdimm options be in expert too?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eldonko

Good question. Will the drive str and extra vdimm options be in expert too?

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well the expert looks like it's based on this design.. so vdimm options should be the same..

I think before Tony gets the actual board itself he won't be able to comment?

I love that options for vdimm :D

How much will cost the board¿?

Keep us updated Tony :)

IIRC 4x512@1T is made possible because of the six layers PCB. Someone correct me if i am wrong.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ZeroX

I love that options for vdimm :D

How much will cost the board¿?

Keep us updated Tony :)

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The board SHOULD cost about $189... however the vaseline vendors will get about $260 the first week... ncix has it for $220USD, pre-order.

C

Thanks for the info Charlie :D

here's a shot from the manual given on dfi's website

looks very much like the nf4 ones now

NB +1.2v A?

http://www.mini-itx.com.au/Images/rdx.JPG

4 sticks at 1t has me drooling. I was gonna sell them for 2 1gig sticks.

now the real question. this board, grouper or expert.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MaxxxRacer

now the real question. this board, grouper or expert.

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Or CF-BT :D

wow~~~~ i love it ~~~~
still waiting nf4 expert :( :(

Woah! Time to image the nvidia array.......... :p: :p:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brock911

When's Wesley over at Anandtech supposed to post a review? Like today or next week?

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The review is sceduled to post at AnandTech on Monday/Tuesday at midnight. If we can get it up Monday AM we will, but I just got the board a few hours ago, and we plan to check out all the controllers and features.

One nice surprise is that DFI did a Karajan audio module with an Azalia HD chip - for those who might care. This should be very low CPU utilization AND decent sound quality for those who might game between competetive benchmark runs.

According to DFI, New Egg will have retail product for sale either Tuesday AM or Wednesday AM.

all the boards are 6 layer...its more to do with the traces and which layers they are spread over.

Grouper=6 layer
halibut= 6 layer
RDX200= 6 layer
expert=6 layer

@Tony,
How about those VDIMM's, how exactly is eg. 3.59V in Windows via Smart Quardian?
Is it 0.02V lower in Windows than BIOS?
Which DRAM Driving Strength is best when we are pushing CPU's with CO2/LN2, 0 or 15?

I lov that space around S939 :toast:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cupra

wow, nice one tony, that board looks very nice.
i didnt see any jumper on the board that will get 5v and give as 4v in the dimms - like the j16 in the nf4 dfi boars.

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afaik you dont need jumper for that

Tony, how does the clocking with two dimms look? 300 1:1 1T still possible? Any particular issues with initial setup? Thanks for the preview :)

D

what i really want to see is x1800xl/xt benchies in CF :p
that would be really nice

Guys

Bear with me, im playing with overclocking at the mo and i only have 1 screen as the wife has borrowed my other so im back on forth on this monitor.

Vdimm i will check with a meter, the options are good but not quite as nice as CF-BT will be as that goes from 2.5 to 3V is 0.02V steps then from 3 to 4V in 0.05V steps.
Drive strength, 15 is max drive, we used that to hit 4dimms at 1T, regards the other settings its going to take me 40 hrs just to learn the board so i need time to play.

I will bring you as much as i can as i can, im working close with Prometheus to get the board clocking well etc as there are tight deadlines.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony

Guys

Bear with me, im playing with overclocking at the mo and i only have 1 screen as the wife has borrowed my other so im back on forth on this monitor.

Vdimm i will check with a meter, the options are good but not quite as nice as CF-BT will be as that goes from 2.5 to 3V is 0.02V steps then from 3 to 4V in 0.5V steps.
Drive strength, 15 is max drive, we used that to hit 4dimms at 1T, regards the other settings its going to take me 40 hrs just to learn the board so i need time to play.

I will bring you as much as i can as i can, im working close with Prometheus to get the board clocking well etc as there are tight deadlines.

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I won't bother you again lol

Good luck

this board looks a lot like the new SLI DR expert board... in layout..

I have managed to clock OCZ TCCD VERY well using the 250 upclock ratio with a SD with a 10 multi, DDR620+ seems real easy.

Now im going to work on 1:1 next to see how that does.

Keep the updates coming

Quote:

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Originally Posted by charlie

The board SHOULD cost about $189... however the vaseline vendors will get about $260 the first week...

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:rofl:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MickeyMouse

Isn't CES in LasVegas Jan 4-8th 2006?
I can promise you I will be there and I will bring you a Mousepot to give away at the booth no problems. :)

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Even though you stated no industry pros, this looks like a good promotion for both parties. :up:

I'm sure a lot of people are scrambling to gather up thier matched 4x512 but the 4x512 set-up will have a hard time coming close to the performance of new 2x1gig sticks available. 4x512 seems like a nice option though when you want to go from benching mode into gaming mode and don't want to pop for the premium on 1gig sticks. :D Finally a home for all the cheap Twinmos UTT purchased over the last year.

@BigToe - Thanks for bringing this preview to XS community. Always nice to have the "pros" sharing with the enthusiasts. :D

This looks like the board to get when this :banana::banana::banana::banana: is getting changed.
Drool :)

Hmm, I think 4xMushkin RedLine XP4000 should be nice RAM's @ 1T :toast:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony

Vdimm i will check with a meter, the options are good but not quite as nice as CF-BT will be as that goes from 2.5 to 3V is 0.02V steps then from 3 to 4V in 0.5V steps.

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You mean .05V correct?? 0.5V incriments are nothing short of useless.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dani

Hmm, I think 4xMushkin RedLine XP4000 should be nice RAM's @ 1T :toast:

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Just remember the 4x set-up won't come close to the 2x. Reaching 4x512 200HTT 1:1 is an event. I doubt the Redlines 4x512 at 250HTT 1:1 is in the cards.

How hot do those MOSFET heat sinks get?
It's a real pet peeve of mine that they are spread over the board, preventing focused cooling on all of them, im a bit disappointed to see them so spaced out again on this board tbh.
Cant argue with the results otherwise though, looks like a sweet board (not that i can afford to go crossfire so grouper is still the way forward for me)

G

Thanks for the sneak peak. I will wait until crossfire comes out to upgrade.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MaxxxRacer

You mean .05V correct?? 0.5V incriments are nothing short of useless.

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sorry m8 yes, 3.55 3.6, 3.65, 3.7 etc....sorry for the mix up

CPU mosfets get hot,the dimm mosfet im actively cooling so hard to tell.

Im running 307 in memtest 2.5-4-4-10 so its looking like these dimms will max out around 305 or so in windoooze

Remember some will have better dimms than I so this is just ball park tests to give you all some idea.

good going Tony..........pitty about the SATA1 controller but i guess a card would do nicely........these are already available with disties here but i think everyone is waiting for results..... so the promise of 1T 4xdimms came true.....so what was your drive strength in the end to reach 1T

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony

CPU mosfets get hot,the dimm mosfet im actively cooling so hard to tell.

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so what were the temp readouts

I had to set 15 for the 200fsb run at 2-2-2 with 3200plat rev2, we benched it and it was 100% stable...what we did not test was overclocking.

Oskar tells me the board will do 4x1gig dimms 1T at 200 also so this may be the ultimate workstation with a dual core opty ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony

all the boards are 6 layer...its more to do with the traces and which layers they are spread over.

Grouper=6 layer
halibut= 6 layer
RDX200= 6 layer
expert=6 layer

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What was/is the DFI NF4 SLI/Ultra board's number of PCB layers?

6 m8, they are all high quality 6 layer boards

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony

ultimate workstation with a dual core opty ;)

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man from your mouth into Oscar's ear about some Opteron optimisation...........i know AMD is :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:slapping people around over this but no need to tell us just hook us all up with some good Opty bioses :toast:

I am taking a swing in the dark here but I am assuming that the DRAM drive pins from the CPU memory controller are just open source drains from the motherboard power supply DIMM regulator. Not really sure why the "15" setting is as high as it can go....care to elaborate?

Seems Oskar has split his drive options in bios, we have found 7 8 work best with TCCD upto now so maybe some options are just to weak or agressive to be useful.

So i had better get some more bios pics up, overclocking has to stop for the night more over the weekend.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38607&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38608&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38609&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38610&stc=1
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=38611&stc=1

erm...i hope im not sounding like a retard...but whats the diff between NB analog voltage and NB core voltage, and how does it affect overclocking ?

Hey Tony, while you're taking shots can we have a pic or two of the board?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pcdoc1

Hey Tony, while you're taking shots can we have pic or two of the board?

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its on the first page

Thanks for the updates tony.
Will like to see how the OC goes tomorrow.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by x714n

its on the first page

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Duhhhh.... Gotta wonder how I missed that. Thanks...........

Tony....you've sold me, I've been wanting to run my 3GB of 5B -D + TCCD @ DDR 400 2.5-2-2 1T for awhile now :D

Keep up the good work reviewing it.....thorough + slow >> fast + crappy.

So wheres the BT board?

Ok guys i don't do much overclocking over the weekend as i try to be a husband to my wife for 2 days a week, i don't see her due to work thru the week even though i work from home here.

I will try and post more info and i do know RGone has a board now also.

Upto now we have the following results...yes they are all OCZ based but they are a good pointer.

4000EB 280+fsb prime stable
4800Plat TCCD 305fsb prime stable
VX 260+fsb prime stable

Im going to test older Hynix modules as well as old school BH5 etc later as they are not as popular, i have been assured they all will work ok.

Oskar has split the boards drive into 2, 1 to 8 for higher fsb 2 dimm work, 9 to 15 for 4 dimm 1T etc etc.So setting drive of 1 is very weak and should help with cold bug etc for those on phase. The orange slots are for 2 dimms and the yellows are optimised for when you run 4 dimms.

Thats all I can really tell you for now, i have info on cas1.5 working along with cas4 also but I need to test first to confirm they work ok....im sure they will work just fine though.

i will try and get more posted over Sat and sunday, im sure Wesley will join in as well as Rgone and by next week you will have the boards also.

I will say this board is strong, but upto now does not clock TCCD as high as the NF4 does,it does do ddr600+ but it does not scale as high. It is fine with all dimms though and works well with 4DS modules.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nn_step

So wheres the BT board?

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November im told....as soon as I get a firm date i will post it.

thanks for the info Tony.. enjoy your weekend :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony

Ok guys i don't do much overclocking over the weekend as i try to be a husband to my wife for 2 days a week, i don't see her due to work thru the week even though i work from home here.

I will try and post more info and i do know RGone has a board now also.

Upto now we have the following results...yes they are all OCZ based but they are a good pointer.

4000EB 280+fsb prime stable
4800Plat TCCD 305fsb prime stable
VX 260+fsb prime stable

Im going to test older Hynix modules as well as old school BH5 etc later as they are not as popular, i have been assured they all will work ok.

Oskar has split the boards drive into 2, 1 to 8 for higher fsb 2 dimm work, 9 to 15 for 4 dimm 1T etc etc.So setting drive of 1 is very weak and should help with cold bug etc for those on phase. The orange slots are for 2 dimms and the yellows are optimised for when you run 4 dimms.

Thats all I can really tell you for now, i have info on cas1.5 working along with cas4 also but I need to test first to confirm they work ok....im sure they will work just fine though.

i will try and get more posted over Sat and sunday, im sure Wesley will join in as well as Rgone and by next week you will have the boards also.

I will say this board is strong, but upto now does not clock TCCD as high as the NF4 does,it does do ddr600+ but it does not scale as high. It is fine with all dimms though and works well with 4DS modules.

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Sweet can't wait for my DFI Crossfire and Expert boards - certainly have enough cpus to test them with :D

Playing with the board is good, but playing with the wife is just infinitely better. Update when you can :)

I dont know if this has been asked already... but, is a non-crossfire sisterboard going to be released?

Gotta say a big thankyou to Tony from everyone here for all this info, i know we all really appreciate it, enjoy your weekend.

G

nice board.
anywhere i can get it for a pre-order?

what is the difference between BT and DR?

if I'm right ,

the BT follow the reference ATI design when DR use the Oscar Wu design and the BT has also some special feature or tweak for memory but don't know what exactly.

CF-BT is based on the ATI reference design, this started with the single x16 Grouper board and they progressed to the crossfire board.CF-BT has awesome voltage regulation and is hugely over engineered for overclocking, it also overclocks ram very well much like this RDX200 im playing with now. The ATI reference was designed from the ground up for use with extreme cooling so this should give you an idea how strong the board actually is. I have 2 here and i will not be parting with them as they are so solid.

RDX200 copies some of the voltage regulation from the ATI reference, Oskar has also applied some of the tweaks he thinks will help the board under phase change etc. Its a solid board and does overclock well but its a different beast to the NF4 board we are all so used to, when you get this board you will have to learn again what works and what doesn't.

Now i am planning a BT version of the bios, this will improve setup defaults and should be a good pointer to getting you all overclocking from the get go. This will come over the next few days.

So would you say your board will be better for us in the end? ;)

If you don't want to say it because it has you're name on it....PM me and I'll say it :D

Or if you don't want to cannabilize the CF-DR sales...well, that's understandable too.

Jason....that's the impression I've had....

nice but i'll wait and see the nf4 xpert mobo, also i wont need to learn almost from 0 with the xpert mobo :)


thanks for all the info

p.d. i'm sure i read somewhere before that ati would made a 4 layer pcb mobo