Initial impressions DFI NF4-SLI-DR-EXPERT

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11-11-2005, 04:26 PM
MaxT

Initial impressions DFI NF4-SLI-DR-EXPERT

So far so good. Very painless build.
Initial impression is much better than that of rdx200. This board is more stable, it posts all the time, it doesn't hang. Voltages seem more stable - they don't jump around as much. The temps are great. Even the onboard speaker is 3x louder than the one on the rdx.

The ballistix bandwidth is back up to what it should be, it was pretty low on the rdx200. SATA performance is even better with the same SATA drive. Basically, the board feels faster, snappier, and has less issues. And the BIOS is slightly better than the one on the rdx200.

I will be reporting my OC results here over the next few days.
Btw, my opteron runs at 24c idle at stock with TT Big Typhoon. I haven't taken the IHS off yet either. :banana:
11-11-2005, 04:44 PM
CRUSH-ER

Quote:

Btw, my opteron runs at 24c idle at stock with TT Big Typhoon. I haven't taken the IHS off yet either.

Overclocked or stock? :confused:
11-11-2005, 04:50 PM
Diverge

i hope i have better results then the rdx200 too, with my ballistix. i went the same route as you MaxT - it's gotta be better with a more mature chipset ;)
11-11-2005, 05:04 PM
Haltech

Be careful! Looks as though OPB lost 2 chips with his new expert. He is saying faulty board.
11-11-2005, 05:05 PM
MaxT

Quote:

Originally Posted by CRUSH-ER

Overclocked or stock? :confused:

stock so far...under full load it's only 28c. this is with hte IHS still on.

I'll see how it responds to OC. Typhoon seems to perform pretty well once the CPUs heat up.
11-11-2005, 05:05 PM
MaxT

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diverge

i hope i have better results then the rdx200 too, with my ballistix. i went the same route as you MaxT - it's gotta be better with a more mature chipset ;)

It already does. I am getting aorund 5k everest reads, vs about 4100 on the rdx200 at stock speeds.
11-11-2005, 05:06 PM
MaxT

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haltech

Be careful! Looks as though OPB lost 2 chips with his new expert. He is saying faulty board.

:( that sux. Hopefully it's just an isolated case.
11-11-2005, 05:07 PM
dinos22

nice you've got the 165 Opteron...what stepping is your one
11-11-2005, 06:23 PM
MaxT

CCBWE 0541RPMW
haven't tried to push it yet. I have to reinstall windows right now, since this is the rdx200/3700+ SD installation.
I'll post my results here in a day or two.
11-11-2005, 06:35 PM
[XC] leviathan18

MaxT did you lap the base of your TT BT???? perhaps if you do it you can lower you temp 3 or 4 degrees

can you tell me waht comes in the package please ????
11-11-2005, 06:35 PM
Ender17

cool, keep us posted
11-11-2005, 07:03 PM
MaxT

Quote:

Originally Posted by leviathan18

MaxT did you lap the base of your TT BT???? perhaps if you do it you can lower you temp 3 or 4 degrees

can you tell me waht comes in the package please ????

yep, it was lapped. 28c under full load, even at stock, is a pretty good temp for a dual core opteron :)

the package had:
1) board
2) backplate
3) audio module
4) 2 IDE round cables
5) 1 floppy round cable
6) 4 sata cables and 2 sata power adapter cables
7) manual
8) quick installation guide
9) raid drivers floppy
10) driver cd
11) SLI bridge
Think that's all.
11-11-2005, 07:16 PM
Avid6eek

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

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

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

As has already been mentioned, the system build went very smooth and the OS/Driver installation was seemless.
11-11-2005, 07:26 PM
IvanAndreevich

Nice, those 165's really rock
11-11-2005, 08:26 PM
end0

Little off-topic but have you had any problems with that X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS Sound Card ? Ive got this board on pre-order and was thinking of picking up one of those sound cards when they come available in December.
11-11-2005, 08:30 PM
Avid6eek

I just got the card about a week ago and just installed it today. So far everything has worked great, but I haven't done any gaming or anything with the system yet.
11-11-2005, 10:16 PM
Ub3r-L33ch

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avid6eek

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

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

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

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

Maybe I'm missing something, but you say you are using the stock heatsink. Doesnt that mean the heatsink that comes with the retail processor? In that picture it looks like an XP-120 or SI-120 or something similar... unless the retail heatsinks have heat pipes and such and I'm unaware of it.
11-11-2005, 10:21 PM
jetjaguar

that is the stock fx57 heatsink

any hiints on how to make this board stable .. for some reason .. my cpu just isnt stable when i know it is on the sli-dr ..

super pi just crashes and i have to reboot .. same with sp2004 .. etc
11-11-2005, 11:49 PM
wtz54321

Quote:

Originally Posted by jetjaguar

that is the stock fx57 heatsink

any hiints on how to make this board stable .. for some reason .. my cpu just isnt stable when i know it is on the sli-dr ..

super pi just crashes and i have to reboot .. same with sp2004 .. etc

what's your overlclocking setting ?
11-12-2005, 12:08 AM
Scroatdog

You don't have the 4 pin cable hooked up above the top PCI-E slot. So I guess it ISN'T needed???

If not, then GOOD !

Let us know, pls. And keep rockin' on!
11-12-2005, 12:14 AM
end0

You'll also notice he's not running any graphics cards in the PCI-E x16 slots though either :rolleyes:
11-12-2005, 12:40 AM
20AEGTI

Quote:

Originally Posted by end0

You'll also notice he's not running any graphics cards in the PCI-E x16 slots though either :rolleyes:

I am running a 7800GTX OC on the board and don't have that plug occupied by a power connector. I am using the 8pin and 24pin connector with the PCP&C 850W PS though. Board seems fine to me so far and have had no real problems other than the system freezing at the windows install screen a time or two. Otherwise, I have messed around with it some and ran into the following results. This is just ho-hum messing with it and not completely finished. Did run it at 300FSB but the system was unstable. This overclock has been running fine but have not run prime95 or super pi yet. I will leave one running overnight to see what I get.

http://members.cox.net/jztumli/bench.PNG

Hopefully I will have sometime soon to tweak more but school is getting close to finals and project deadlines so I might not have a lot of time. I am sure I will squeeze it in though and double time it closer to the end.

20
11-12-2005, 01:03 AM
Scroatdog

Quote:

Originally Posted by end0

You'll also notice he's not running any graphics cards in the PCI-E x16 slots though either :rolleyes:

Nice sarcasm, wise guy. He's NOT using it. So THERE :nono: :stick: :slapass:

Thanks for the update 20AEGTI !
11-12-2005, 01:22 AM
end0

Heh sorry Scoatdog :D he's got the same PSU as me, PCP&C 850W SSI, very good PSU, I got the last one from our major supplier in Australia sorry DezzaBot :cool: I wanted to know this question also about the extra mini-molex power socket, so with the 24PIN ATX and EPS 2.0 8 PIN 12V line I assume you don't need to use that connector then :confused:
11-12-2005, 01:26 AM
Dumo

@MaxT and Aveed6eek....Please read this and thanks to Tony for the info :toast: ..http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...t=79509&page=1
11-12-2005, 01:30 AM
MaxT

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

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

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

This Opteron 165 seems great so far. And the expert is giving me no problems. Not a single crash/freeze/reboot/no boot.
11-12-2005, 06:14 AM
Avid6eek

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ub3r-L33ch

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

The stock heatsink for the FX series and dual core processors has the heatpipes. It is really nice for a stock heatsink.
11-12-2005, 06:20 AM
Tony

The bandwidth a board delivers is not so much decided by the chipset as the memory controller is on the die of the cpu. As long as you set the boards up the same and use the same cpu and ram the boards will give identicle bandwidth.
11-13-2005, 01:26 AM
MaxT

Yeah, that seems logical. Thanx :)

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

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

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

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

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

As far as he expert goes, this board didn't give me any trouble so far. Very stable, easy to overclock. Doesn't hang and always posts. Much better than my rdx200.
11-13-2005, 02:31 AM
B5I8

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avid6eek

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

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

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

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

What are your RAM timings with the Redlines? I'm having trouble OC'ing this new Expert board. My Redlines that were running at 250MHz 2-2-5-2-1T on my SLI-DR won't do the same on the new Expert board. I copied over the exact same timings and it doesn't want to work for me :slapass:.
11-13-2005, 06:10 AM
killingspreez

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

mfg
11-13-2005, 01:24 PM
MaxT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

System is dual prime95 stable for 8+ hours (haven't had a chance to test it longer yet).
11-13-2005, 02:39 PM
xgman

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

I think the key to this Expert is very fine tuning. It's not for the plug and play types.
11-13-2005, 03:45 PM
MaxT

Yeah, people noticed the same thing with the rdx200 - they needed more vcore to get the cpus stable compared to the old nf4 boards. I guess it has to do with the new power design of these boards. It sure as hell doesn't feel like 1.6v is going through my chip. The temps never go over 38c under full load on both cores, and when i touch my heatisnk, it's slightly warm and not hot at all. Either my TT Big Typhoon is that good, or it's not really 1.6v that's going through the chip. :banana:
11-13-2005, 04:05 PM
jetjaguar

hmm im afraid to go above 1.55 lol .. i know the opty i have did 2950 @ 1,45 on air on the old sli-dr .. but for the life of me i cant get it stable on the expert .. just 2750 @ 1.39 .. how high can these cpus take ? over 1.6 on air as long as the temps stay low ?
11-13-2005, 04:48 PM
.sentinel

You need to tweak the memory timings because the CPU overclock is depedent on them.
11-13-2005, 04:58 PM
jetjaguar

like which ones ?
i set this board up just like my sli-dr and its very hard getting stable and i know this cpu can do it .. along with my ram
11-13-2005, 05:02 PM
Diverge

Quote:

Originally Posted by jetjaguar

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

well when i had my RDX200, which seemed to power cpus very similar as the expert, i took my opeteron to 1.66V in the bios (read 1.64 in smart guardian), and it never broke 46° under load. That doesn't mean your chip will do the same, or your board, ect.. just letting ya know that it might be possible to up yours a bit, but don't do it if you feel unsure about it.
11-14-2005, 06:21 AM
LowRun

Quote:

Originally Posted by jetjaguar

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

This is most likely your problem, Tony mentionned you can't use the same settings you had on the ultra D or SLI DR.
11-14-2005, 07:01 AM
xgman

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxT

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

Yeah, I felt the same thing. I thought maybe the temps were being misread at first, but I'm not sure what the deal is.
11-14-2005, 10:20 PM
SubZeroGTS

about to build a system in a couple days... WinXP with SP2 has sata drivers built in, correct? i won't need to find nforce4 sata drivers (expert uses normal nf4 chipset i think) and stick them on a floppy for the install or anything...?
11-15-2005, 12:10 AM
MaxT

You never really need hdd drivers, unless you have a raid setup. Only then you would need a raid driver.
11-15-2005, 08:13 AM
CrashOv3r1De

How is the raid on this board? Did you get a chance to try it out?
11-15-2005, 08:37 AM
geto

I think I will just stick with my sli-dr board. I've had enough problems. I can wait a few ;)
11-15-2005, 09:12 AM
alpha0ne

Keep up the good work Max :clap:
11-15-2005, 09:13 AM
MaxT

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrashOv3r1De

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

nope, i don't do raid. But single drive performance is better than on rdx200.
11-15-2005, 04:20 PM
SubZeroGTS

so anyone figure out how to tweak ram drive strength settings? i.e, wtf it means ? :)
11-15-2005, 04:25 PM
MaxT

I haven't bothered yet. ;)
11-16-2005, 07:50 PM
Diverge

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

Yours seem to work just fine with all your cpus, and on the eXpert and RDX200.
11-16-2005, 08:28 PM
jetjaguar

what do u have ur drive strength and data drive strength set at .. according to tony and them .. that makes or breaks ur overclocks and it might not need the extra vcore .. but prolly these 2 settings are causing the instability
11-16-2005, 09:20 PM
RyderOCZ

Mike....I think they are just already sold out...first batch was small...and went fast.....2nd batch is due soon....but I don't have any ETA data.
11-16-2005, 09:47 PM
alpha0ne

Plenty in AU, bought one yesterday, benchies coming :D
11-16-2005, 10:00 PM
jetjaguar

has anyone here ran their board with crucial ballistix ?? any timings they care to share .. for the life of me i cant get my ram stable .. it seems to be killing my overclocks .. super pi freezes or just says not in round
11-16-2005, 11:26 PM
wolfmyst

I have the PC4000 ballistix. My expert seems to do okay with them. They have no errors up to 260 with 3-4-4-10 timings 2t. Right now I'm using a 9/10 divider and running my 170 @ 2.7ghz. I'm about to raise the clock soon though.
11-17-2005, 12:17 AM
joe.latino

please put here your setting with ballistix ram thanks
11-17-2005, 05:14 AM
jetjaguar

i dont know what is holding my overclock back .. previous owner on a sli-dr hit 2800 on default vcore no problems .. 1.45vcore got him 2950 .. no matter what i cant even do 12x220 which is a 200 mhz overclock .. prime failed after 4 hours ..

what settings should i look at ?? seriously ..
11-17-2005, 07:14 AM
xgman

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfmyst

I have the PC4000 ballistix. My expert seems to do okay with them. They have no errors up to 260 with 3-4-4-10 timings 2t. Right now I'm using a 9/10 divider and running my 170 @ 2.7ghz. I'm about to raise the clock soon though.

They should do way better than that. keep pushing upwards and timings 3-3-3-8 1T (assuming this is a 2x1gig set)
11-24-2005, 04:48 PM
MaxT

UPDATE: had to up TRFC to 11, since 10 wasn't stable in counter-strike source. For some reason nvidia cards are real sensetive to memory timings.

new timings, check out a64 tweaker. tref is at auto in te BIOS, so are the data and data drive strength, CPC (1T) is enabled. Testing for stability right now. Ambiet temps are around 18...it's cold here, winter's coming :D

http://img453.imageshack.us/img453/237/oc3gr.jpg
11-24-2005, 05:09 PM
dinos22

you should measure your temps with a probe........there are a number of people reporting extremely low temps with expert and i've worked out that thermal resistance and reported CPU temp do not correspond.....my CPU temps are around 20C under reported so just thought i'd let you know
11-24-2005, 05:16 PM
MaxT

thanx, but i have touched my heatsink after a few hours of priming and it was warm at best. And i know for a fact the heatsink is making good contact with the IHS. It's just freezing in my room right now. Usually i get the temps of 41c under load on cpu, 40 pwmic, and 41 chipset.
11-24-2005, 05:19 PM
dinos22

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxT

thanx, but i have touched my heatsink after a few hours of priming and it was warm at best. And i know for a fact the heatsink is making good contact with the IHS. It's just freezing in my room right now. Usually i get the temps of 41c under load on cpu, 40 pwmic, and 41 chipset.

fair enough................i'd be doing some testing if i were you as 41C is WAAAAAAAY too low as well for those settings but anyways it's your call
11-24-2005, 05:32 PM
chainhoe

please, can anyone try running 4V on oldschool BH5? i would like to know if they fixed memory power circuit.
11-24-2005, 05:41 PM
MaxT

Quote:

Originally Posted by dinos22

fair enough................i'd be doing some testing if i were you as 41C is WAAAAAAAY too low as well for those settings but anyways it's your call

yeah, i should buy one of those infrared thermometers. Funny thing is, i had similar temps with a 3700+ SD at 1.67v on my rdx200 before i RMAed it.
11-24-2005, 05:48 PM
dinos22

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxT

yeah, i should buy one of those infrared thermometers. Funny thing is, i had similar temps with a 3700+ SD at 1.67v on my rdx200 before i RMAed it.

hehehe wonder what happened there ;).......so what did you do with your RDX...you still got it.....how does it compare to expert
11-24-2005, 05:53 PM
MaxT

no, i meant i RMAed the rdx200, lol. The 3700+ SD is sitting here on my desk as a backup in case the expert cooks my opteron. ;)

I didn't like that board. It had low memory bandwidth scores, higher cpu utilization, and low LAN throughput for my tastes. On top of that it hung at boot like 8 out of 10 times (oscar wu figured out what was causing it though, it was the USB mouse and keyboard enabled in the BIOS, but it was already afetr i RMAed that board).
11-24-2005, 06:10 PM
dinos22

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxT

no, i meant i RMAed the rdx200, lol. The 3700+ SD is sitting here on my desk as a backup in case the expert cooks my opteron. ;)

I didn't like that board. It had low memory bandwidth scores, higher cpu utilization, and low LAN throughput for my tastes. On top of that it hung at boot like 8 out of 10 times (oscar wu figured out what was causing it though, it was the USB mouse and keyboard enabled in the BIOS, but it was already afetr i RMAed that board).

heheh i had a terrible first day with Expert and my USB FDD drive.....all i can say is don't use that combo hehehehe

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