The motherboard that breaks the limitation of memory:DFI LANParty NF680I LT SLI-T2R

[windwithme]

Recently, the hottest chipset of NVIDIA must be NForce 6 series (Intel
platform).
In fact, 680i is the highest model of them all, which has SLI x16 + x16
/EPP/QuickSync technology….etc. The publicity of NV 6 series is “on the rise”
these days, even though the Intel chipsets are so strong in the market.

Not long ago, I released a review of 680i’s reference board.
That is also the board of many others manufacturer too (same board,
just print their logos on) No matter the spec. or design of it is also real
excellent; particularly the
DDRII OC parts is defeats all Intel chipsets. But it was pity that the
reference board of 680i only can reached 470MHz when installed with my X
6800 CPU. Besides, I tried 965 mobo equipped with the same CPU, it ran
around 500MHz… later on, some of the mobo manufacturers tried to design
their own 680i. but seems non of them could do better than the NV reference
board.

Now, what I’m going to test is the overclock-oriented motherboard, DFI.
The LANParty UT NF680i LT SLI-T2R is the highest-end of DFI’s LP product.
It adopts 680i LT chipset; it is exactly the same spec to 680i. Maybe
the “production quality” is a bit different to 680i.

First of all, we check the package design first; it’s really “fashion-look”
this time.



The inside package contain 3 different parts.
The 1st part: NB Heat sink.



The installation guide of NB heat sink and the paste.



Imprint Fins of NB heat sink with a LP logo.
It is optional to install a 6 x 6 cm FAN,
a great help to a high performance NV chipset.



“Copper bottom” design. I heard that this NB heat sink will be sell
independently…



The 2nd part, Accessory



Inside:
Includes User menu, driver CD, SLI bridge, IO shield, connect cables,
Karajan audio module and RAID driver disk.



The 3rd part: the board itself



DFI LANParty UT NF680I LT SLI-T2R





Lower left of the board: 3 x PCIe x16, 1x PCIe x4, 3 x PCI slots.



The lower right parts:
Power/ Reset button & Debug LED light.
Pure copper South bridge
6 ports of SATAII, which supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 functions
Built-in Silicon Image SiI3132 chip.
2 stackable SATAII ports with RAID function too.



Upper left of the board
IDE 24-pin power and 4 dimm DDRII slots



The upper left parts:
Unique 6-phase digital PWM design, except the better power supply stability,
it also provide a bigger space for a “huge” CPU cooler.



IO output
6 x USB2.0 (total up to 10 ports), Dual gigabit LAN, 1394 ports
(audio module not installed)



Northbridge



There is a cushion pad between the heat sink and the surface of the chip.
Just follow the instruction, the chip won’t be damage…





The system details:
CPU:INTEL Core 2 Duo E6420
MB: DFI LANParty UT NF680I LT SLI-T2R
DRAM: CORSAIR TWIN2X2048-10000C5DF
VGA:MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-HD-OC
HD: WD1600AAJS
POWER: Thermaltake Toughpower 850W
Cooler: Thermaltake V1


I recommended that install a additional fan with the NB, especially when OC
over 400MHz…(BTW, V1 is really helpful, the air flow can help NB too, it’s
strong)

The drivers installation interface:



CPU: 266X8=>2133Mhz 1.3V
DRAM: DDRII 800 CL3 3-3-9 1T 2.19V
NB:1.18V

SP2004 steady…


DDRII 800 CL3 3-3-9 1T is a option that 680i reference board can’t be
reached.
I knew the revised version BIOS released, the reference board can works
normally at last. But the voltage is higher than DFI680i LT a little bit.


CPU: 266X8=>2133Mhz 1.3V
DRAM: DDRII 1066 CL4 4-3-9 2T 1.98V
NB:1.18V

SP2004 steady…



I tried to show the performance between 680i and 680i LT when equipped
with X6800ES CPU… (It ran steady at FSB470MHz)
CPU: 450X8=>3600Mhz 1.4V
DRAM: DDRII 1310 CL4 4-4-4 2T 2.67V
NB:1.48V

Super PI 1M



DFI 680i LT NB after increasing a little voltage, 500MHz FSB is easy to reach.
Further, the highest voltage is 3.04V; it’s a wider range of voltage settings
than 680i reference board. For my personal experience, this is the first time I
reached 1300(CL4) with 2G DDRII memory. Quite cool…

DFI did the best to make LT better than the hottest NV 680i reference board
(by their R&D design). Moreover, the FSB and DDRII performance are
obviously better than the reference board. It improves the FSB’s limitation
between different CPU of Intel.
Further, it also pushes the memory performance to a highest place under all
Intel platform.

Most of Mobo manufacturers sell the 680i reference board awhile ago and
some of them have their own design too… DFI was late in launch their 680i
LT as usual, but, the refined package design, thoughtfulness HW & BIOS
design and OC performance are still the reason why enthusiasts like it.
I’ll post a detail review about BIOS and some extreme OC test a bit later.

The up-coming reviews:
ATI RADEON HD2900XT 512MB CrossFire
The ultra-high VGA product line.



Thermaltake Toughpower 850W
High C/P ratio and high power output Active PFC PSU



Updated Seagate 7200.7 160GB HD, for increase the performance,
I brought the WD 1600AAJS 160GB 8Mb cache memory. (a latest version)

[bing]

Again, yet another lesson learned, want the best ? Same as my grany told me on plan thingy, "Wait till it riped (matured), you'll get the best".

Early adopter are facing pains only and nonetheless.

[Verisimilitude]

DRAM: DDRII 1310 CL4 4-4-4 2T 2.67V

[MacClipper]

Any idea what kind of VRM is onboard ie. does it support the incoming 45nm chips?

[icon57]

nice to see dfi back in the game with a kick ass 680 mobo.

[xgman]

Who makes the NB cooler for them?

[p0tter]

looks like Thermalright is making the NB and Evercool the SB.

Can anyone confirm?

[Solarfall]

i'm not particularly impressed by the cpu oc results, this board was supposed to me the next messiah among the nvidia LT boards.. but im sure that the tests will continue and hopefully you will prove me wrong.
but i do have to say that the ram oc is really impressive, then again you are really punishing them with high voltage. nice..

btw windwithme i have to say that your reviews and overview are always a pleasure to real and particularly nice to look at, love the cute class animal figures that you use in those pics.. very nice personal touch. keep up the good work.

[BenchZowner]

Hi Windwithme, have you tried the same ram kit in another 680i SLI/LT mobo to check their overclockability ?

[koc]

nice work and clear pic.

and nice overclock result

My ram can also reached 1350

[virtualrain]

Nice review... can you post some Everest memory/cache benchmarks for that overclocked RAM... I'm curious if these crazy speeds translate into real bandwidth performance.

From what I've seen 1T at lower clocks is where it's at but would like to see more results.

[erwinz]

very nice..

thanks for sharing..

a little late.. but its DFI..

[djt]

looks like Thermalright is making the NB

That sounds right, typical.

You’d think that they could possibly design it with their own Ultra-120 eXtreme in mind, but apparently no. I’ve got the Ultra eXtreme crammed in next to the north bridge heatsink on this motherboard and it’s like an oven in my TJ-09.

Looks like another piss-poor design to me.

At this point I’m thinking of just going back to my Evga 680i and Zalman 9700heatsink, at least this setup fits. The Ultra eXtreme won’t even fit on the Evga motherboard, it touches the north bridge heat sink on that board also.


DFI LANParty UT NF680i LT SLI-T2R nForce 680i LT
X6800 / Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme / S-Flex SFF21F
2048MB Corsair Dominator PC2 6400 (4-4-4-12)
Evga 8800GTX KO
X-Fi Fatality
2x 74GB Raptors (RAID 0)
Plextor PX-760A, PX-755SA
PC Power and Cooling 1000Watt SR
SilverStone TJ-09 / S-Flex case fans

[vincey2kr1]

If you flip that NB heatsink around your chipset temps will drop considerably in the mid 40c range. The heatpipes arent perfectly centered on the heatsink.

[SF3D]

500 FSB is easy to reach. My CPU can do only 501fsb on air, so can't test how far it could go. Room temp is 25c. Everything is aircooled.

I have broblems with my Mushkin memory sticks. 1T just wont work right.

[djt]

If you flip that NB heat sink around your chipset temps will drop considerably in the mid 40c range. The heatpipes arent perfectly centered on the heatsink

How can I flip the NB heat sink around when theirs barely enough room for it the way it is now?

[xenolith]

Too late.

This was my choice back in January to finally switch over to the dark side. But with its $290 price tag and with all the price cuts and new launches hitting critical mass in a couple months, I might as well wait a little longer.

[Grinch]

could not wait any longer...ordered!...*-)

[_G_]

very nice board but too much $ for me
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-NF680IS

[Grinch]

281.99
http://www.motherboardpro.com/displa...&categoryId=74

[ineedaname]

First off thanks for the really nice review.

1310 is really high for the memory.

On the other hand, 14.094 seconds isn't really a good superpi time for 3.6ghz

Can you show us 32m?

Btw wuts the max fsb you reached?

[windwithme]

Hi Windwithme, have you tried the same ram kit in another 680i SLI/LT mobo to check their overclockability ?

yes
I try to OC in EVGA 680i SLI+CORSAIR PC 10000
DDRII 1300 CL5 5-4-4 PI 32M...2.45V

[BenchZowner]

yes
I try to OC in EVGA 680i SLI+CORSAIR PC 10000
DDRII 1300 CL5 5-4-4 PI 32M...2.45V

Thank you very much.
I suppose you don't have a Asus Striker Extreme to test the 1000C5DF there right ?

[Apollonas]

Nice review

But this mobo get out too late and too expensive. It should cost half the money to be a good choice among other mobos right now. Not to say that has poor overclocking for Quad cores and I think that is something that is not going to change latter on with more bios updates, because the problem I think is detected within the digital PWM design.

If somebody wants to take this board further, he would have to solve those high temps first.

[Origin_Unknown]

im curious about this board

1st) which two of the psi-e slots are for SLI? hopefully it would be the one on the left and the one on the right ... (right being cpu side)
2nd) is it available already?