DFI first DDR3 motherboard, UT X48-T3R Heatsink by Thermalright

[Glennswe]

For sure. Compare board voltage to temperatures. I removed the finned upper portion of the NB heatsink and put a MCW30 on it.

Same here, have also a MCW30 on nb and the whole system is running very cool and stable. This is heaven compared to my last board Striker 2 Extreme Thanks again DFI Oh and Praz, almost forgot, you are doing a wonderful with your testing, i love it! A pleasure to follow your work mate.

[ShoNuff]

Hey Guys!

*SUBSCRIBED!*

Mine will be here tomorrow hopefully. Does this come with just the cooler that sticks out the back of the case, or does it come with the large HR-05-like NB cooler as well? Newegg's picture only showed the rear heatsink.

Anyway, I'll be testing max FSB with the E8600 E0 I got today. Should be VERY exciting and I'll definitely post as soon as I can.

Still haven't seen anyone posting 550+ FSB with this, though.

-Collin-

+1...let us know when you get the board. TIA

[NinjaZX6R]

+1...let us know when you get the board. TIA

I'm going to try to control my emotions here and just state facts, but it might be hard.

Let me start by saying I now remember why I swore I would never buy another DFI board. Actually before I even say that, I believe you guys are misrepresenting this board by showing it with the NB cooler - IT DOES NOT COME WITH IT. ONLY THE EXTERNAL ONE IS INCLUDED

Now, my complaints with this board, and there are many:

1) The extreme pain in the ass to install that stupid cooler outside of the case. It makes me think this board was never even meant to be in a case.

2) The clear CMOS jumper is RIGHT underneath the second graphics card. If you're going to use crossfire, then you won't be clearing your CMOS. To DFI: why do I have to pull out my second graphics card when Asus is kind enough to put a clear CMOS button on the back of the I/O shield?

3) More on the CMOS: I have never had to clear CMOS with my Asus Blitz Extreme. Not a single time. I can set the FSB to 700mhz, and it will still boot and default back to my original settings. Personally, I don't see what the joy in clearing CMOS every 30 seconds is and with DFI boards, you WILL be doing that.

4) I know how it's quite a controversial issue to have a windows-based flash utility, but why not give us the option? Apparently the BIOS that DFI ships with this board is useless, so, thanks for that. And thanks for not giving me a way to flash it to something semi-usable.

5) Overclocking: seems poor so far. On my Yorkfield on the Blitz, I can set 450x9 and go. No issues what-so-ever. Now I know the learning curve on this is WAY steeper, but come on...this is a joke.

What this comes down to is that I replaced a board I loved because of the promise of this latest and greatest and I wanted to give DFI a chance again. Now, I've spent $350, broken my case fan in the process or mounting this ridiculous heatsink outside of my case, and am 400mhz slower than I was on my beloved Asus Blitz Extreme.

I know you will all ask this question - why did I get this instead of I loved my other board so much? Quite simple: I'm a damn fool.

-Collin-

[Gautam]

Your post needs a lot of proofreading.

[ShoNuff]

@NinjaZX6R...WOW...sorry to hear about all of your troubles. Thanks again for sharing your experiences. I found OPB's post on OCXtreme's website and was able to determine that the pictured HR-05-IFX does NOT come with the board. Like you I said I would be hesitant to do another DFI board again. Now...I'm not sure? I'm just looking for the best Intel X48 chipset to run a crossfire setup...decisions...decisions...

[NinjaZX6R]

@NinjaZX6R...WOW...sorry to hear about all of your troubles. Thanks again for sharing your experiences. I found OPB's post on OCXtreme's website and was able to determine that the pictured HR-05-IFX does NOT come with the board. Like you I said I would be hesitant to do another DFI board again. Now...I'm not sure? I'm just looking for the best Intel X48 chipset to run a crossfire setup...decisions...decisions...

Well, maybe I am overreacting a bit. I guess it needs a lot of time. But, I'm angry about the clear CMOS jumper. I'm at 3.8ghz now and I guess that's progress. 425x9 but 450fsb is a no go.

How the hell am I going to update my BIOS?

-Collin-

[mrlobber]

Ninja, 3 things:

1. Get a 1Gb USB flash stick, make it DOS bootable (look at google, various ways of doing it) and you're free to flash whichever bios you want, to whichever board you want, and beyond.

2. Do some research first (this is not meant to be offensive ). Honestly, DFI have put an actual beta board out this time again (they have done it before as well) but some guys are working real hard to get things better, and they're indeed getting better (then again, I'm still personally stuck at maximum 495 fsb and... yes, DDR3 660 mhz so far with this DFI :p)

3. You did a bad job selling the Blitz Extreme. Although not as good as the P5K3 Deluxe, still in top3 of the best DDR3 boards for real extreme 2D LN2 benching (with some mods of course).

[Praz]

BIOS flashing can be done by floppy, USB stick or in Windows 32Bit using WinFlash. If none of those options will do then the BIOS probably doesn't need to be flashed.

The few times I have a need to clear the CMOS I use either the Insert key or the onboard Reset + Power button method. Have to try awful hard to scramble the BIOS enough to have to use the CMOS Clear jumper.

[NinjaZX6R]

Thanks guys, actually that helps a lot. Wasn't aware of that trick for the BIOS. Making slow but sure progress. I'm at 425x9 now with ddr3-1700 at 7-7-7. Will keep pushing.

Question: which slots am I supposed to be using for crossfire? I've read that 1&3 are for 16x + 16x. I'm in 1&2!

Edit: And I didn't sell the Blitz Extreme. It's in my "backup" computer with an E8400

-Collin-

[NinjaZX6R]

Got the latest BIOS and it's virtually identical. Can't get anywhere near 450fsb at any multiplier on this quad. Am I missing something? Does anyone have a picture of their bios settings, or are you guys all on Wolfdales?

-Collin-

[Roger_D25]

Collin - There are some great resources for helping people get sorted with this board, there is a steep learning curve but many have worked very hard to help others to overcome this. Below are a few great links that might help you get started, not as much on quad clocking but the general info could help out? Sorry if you have already checked these out but they were very helpful to me, good luck man!

eva2000's Initial testing HERE

Clunk's Testing Info HERE

OCX Testing Info HERE

[Praz]

Question: which slots am I supposed to be using for crossfire? I've read that 1&3 are for 16x + 16x. I'm in 1&2!

First and last slot for crossfire.

[NinjaZX6R]

Thanks Roger. Yes, I have scoured each of those links and that's just the problem - no one seems to be testing this board with a quad! My 9650 did 450x9 at 1.25v in my Blitz Extreme. This board will not even come close.

-Collin-

Collin - There are some great resources for helping people get sorted with this board, there is a steep learning curve but many have worked very hard to help others to overcome this. Below are a few great links that might help you get started, not as much on quad clocking but the general info could help out? Sorry if you have already checked these out but they were very helpful to me, good luck man!

eva2000's Initial testing HERE

Clunk's Testing Info HERE

OCX Testing Info HERE

[Roger_D25]

Than once you get it sorted and running strong at 450 x 9 you'll be the first to post testing results for quads on the X48-T3R, lol! In all seriousness I'm sure someone around here is going strong with a quad on this board but I haven't seem many?

[NinjaZX6R]

Than once you get it sorted and running strong at 450 x 9 you'll be the first to post testing results for quads on the X48-T3R, lol! In all seriousness I'm sure someone around here is going strong with a quad on this board but I haven't seem many?

Hate to say it, but this isn't a learning curve. It's more of an unfinished motherboard that I feel shouldn't have been released to the public.

Sorry guys, it's going back. I'm out. My 1 year old P35 board put it to shame in at least 10 different ways, and for half the price.

-Collin-

[eva2000]

Thanks Roger. Yes, I have scoured each of those links and that's just the problem - no one seems to be testing this board with a quad! My 9650 did 450x9 at 1.25v in my Blitz Extreme. This board will not even come close.

-Collin-

Unfortunately, i don't think you'll get close on FSB on DFI when compared to Asus for X38/X48 chipsets at least unless your cpu and board combo has a sweet spot of GTL/CPU VTT tweaking and you nail it on the head. But memory clocks/settings also play apart in max FSB But DFI is working daily on bios improvements so who knows where it will end up

I tried my QX9650 L739A640 on DFI LT X38-T2R max fsb around 445-FSB http://i4memory.com/f80/qx9650-l739a...r-cooled-5669/ pluck it in Asus Blitz Formula and 3d benching at 480FSB http://i4memory.com/f54/qx9650-evga-...-formula-6304/.

Seems in general max FSB declines as the number PCI-E link width increases with quads heh

P45 > P35 > X48 > X38

[NinjaZX6R]

Unfortunately, i don't think you'll get close on FSB on DFI when compared to Asus for X38/X48 chipsets at least unless your cpu and board combo has a sweet spot of GTL/CPU VTT tweaking and you nail it on the head. But memory clocks/settings also play apart in max FSB But DFI is working daily on bios improvements so who knows where it will end up

I tried my QX9650 L739A640 on DFI LT X38-T2R max fsb around 445-FSB http://i4memory.com/f80/qx9650-l739a...r-cooled-5669/ pluck it in Asus Blitz Formula and 3d benching at 480FSB http://i4memory.com/f54/qx9650-evga-...-formula-6304/.

Seems in general max FSB declines as the number PCI-E link width increases with quads heh

P45 > P35 > X48 > X38

I'm seriously considering sacrificing the 16x + 16x crossfire and going with a P45 for that reason my friend.

BTW, awesome job on your posts with this board. Same to Clunk. Thanks for helping out. Unfortunately, dual core FSB does me no good on this board.

-Collin-

[quake6]

If I use TR HR-05 does TR 120EX fit?

[SquidgyB]

I'd go for an HR-05 Sli, that'd be guaranteed to fit. You'd either have to fit a standard HR-05 off centre on the NB heatsink, or bend it to be out of the way. Either way, I'm sure an HR-05 Sli would fit fine.

e: It will fit, of course, if you mount the true horizontally, and to have a fan blowing downwards when mounted in a normal case, I'm not sure you could get a fan inbetween a horizontally mounted true120 and an hr-05 to blow upwards.

Still best to go with an SLI version then I think.

[quake6]

Yeah,probably will go with HR SLI...tnx

[LoWRiDeR]

Hey dudes,great work testing this nice little new toy.I'm a DFI lover as well, since the DFI LANPARTY NF2 ULTRA B days, and I'm building a new machine Q9450 based and would like the experts' opinion on this board combined with this quad beast.Do quads go up alright with this mobo?

[Red Evil]

Hey dudes,great work testing this nice little new toy.I'm a DFI lover as well, since the DFI LANPARTY NF2 ULTRA B days, and I'm building a new machine Q9450 based and would like the experts' opinion on this board combined with this quad beast.Do quads go up alright with this mobo?

Isn't Q9450 pretty much limited to 4Ghz?

[LoWRiDeR]

So I hear,I was wondering if this motherboard helps going any further

[eva2000]

So I hear,I was wondering if this motherboard helps going any further

X48 like X38 probably won't help quad core FSB.. you probably need a good P45 board for higher FSB

[ACE76]

X48 like X38 probably won't help quad core FSB.. you probably need a good P45 board for higher FSB

Eva, can this board go to 450-475 fsb with quads without tweaking GTL values?