Anandtech RDX-200 Review

**Revv23** · 10-18-2005, 07:20 AM

http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2572

reading now

**Ubermann** · 10-18-2005, 07:29 AM

"The DFI easily handles 2-2-2-7-1T timings at stock speed, as do almost any of the current boards for AMD Socket 939 from NVIDIA, SiS, VIA, and ULi. However, what is truly unique is that the DFI LANParty UT RDX200 is the first board designed to run four double-sided 512MB or 1GB DIMMs at the fastest timings and a 1T Command Rate. In fact, AMD specifications tell us that this is impossible. To his credit, Oskar Wu and DFI found a way to accomplish the impossible."

**slider99** · 10-18-2005, 08:25 AM

Originally Posted by Ubermann

"The DFI easily handles 2-2-2-7-1T timings at stock speed, as do almost any of the current boards for AMD Socket 939 from NVIDIA, SiS, VIA, and ULi. However, what is truly unique is that the DFI LANParty UT RDX200 is the first board designed to run four double-sided 512MB or 1GB DIMMs at the fastest timings and a 1T Command Rate. In fact, AMD specifications tell us that this is impossible. To his credit, Oskar Wu and DFI found a way to accomplish the impossible."

If this is true,

!

Would by any chance a new NF4 board (perhaps the DFI Expert version?) be able to handle this as well? I currently have two 7800GTX in SLI, I'm not sure I will upgrade again this year (it would take a little more than X1800XT to make me upgrade, if R580/G80 or perhaps an ultra-strong 7800 Ultra came out then) and wouldn't want to have one of them just lying around!

**Revv23** · 10-18-2005, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by slider99

If this is true,

!

Would by any chance a new NF4 board (perhaps the DFI Expert version?) be able to handle this as well? I currently have two 7800GTX in SLI, I'm not sure I will upgrade again this year (it would take a little more than X1800XT to make me upgrade, if R580/G80 or perhaps an ultra-strong 7800 Ultra came out then) and wouldn't want to have one of them just lying around!

#1 it only works with TCCD
#2 there is a lanparty NF4 bios coming out that supports this
#3 it cant clock past 200mhz, making it pretty useless

All in all, its a pretty useless feature... but yeah, expect the Expert to have it.

**rcofell** · 10-18-2005, 11:49 AM

Originally Posted by slider99

If this is true,

!

Would by any chance a new NF4 board (perhaps the DFI Expert version?) be able to handle this as well? I currently have two 7800GTX in SLI, I'm not sure I will upgrade again this year (it would take a little more than X1800XT to make me upgrade, if R580/G80 or perhaps an ultra-strong 7800 Ultra came out then) and wouldn't want to have one of them just lying around!

From what it sounds, the DFI Expert should be able to run four doublesided sticks at 1T as well. Otherwise, there wouldn't much of a reason to make it a 6 layer board.

**ozzimark** · 10-18-2005, 12:14 PM

as i posted in the comments over there:

"it's very very very dependant on the cpu. notice that they used the FX-57 for those tests, which is a cpu that typically has some of the best memory controllers around.
Wesley, how do 4xDS sticks perform with the 4000+?"

"this stands out at me.
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/d...11007/9521.png

that data is... somewhat useless for the top 5-9 boards, as it's obviously a cpu limitation. try oc'ing the htt/fsb with the fx-57 and watch the board break 400mhz"

that about sums up my feelings on the matter. pretty sweet that 1T works, even if with an FX-57, and that cas1.5 is supposedly supported now.

**xenolith** · 10-18-2005, 12:57 PM

I have to say, the biggest disappointment is DFI's use of the ATI SB450. They knew about it's problems back in May and they decided to take the chance ATI would fix it.

The question I have, did ATI ever plan to have SATA2 support with their SB450? If not, then what the heck was DFI thinking?

**kiwi** · 10-18-2005, 12:57 PM

Looks quite good

Might be my next board soon

**4rory** · 10-18-2005, 01:08 PM

Um, is it just me or does this sound stupid?

"The highest clock does not reach to 315 to 318 as a few other boards have because of the compromises made to achieve reliable operation with 4 double-sided DIMMs at 1T."

and

"305 at lower multipliers is not the highest value that we have reached in past testing, but it does place the DFI in the company of the few excellent overclocking Athlon 64 boards that have managed to reach a stable 50% or better frequency overclock (300) at lower ratios. It is also a very acceptable compromise that was required for the 4DS 1T option at DDR400."

This compromise better be with just this bios version, because some of us might run at 200mhz 4dimm at 1t just to check it out... like once, but it has no real value to an overclocker since it can only get to 202mhz, so someone made a big mistake if they made an unreversable compromised to the board to get this 1t thing working. This board might be DOA already.

**Mr. Tinker** · 10-18-2005, 01:20 PM

Didn't Tony say the board needs to be 6-layer to cut back on cross-talk? In that case only expect NF4 SLI Expert to have this feature. I don't think it's worth upgrading.

**Revv23** · 10-18-2005, 01:23 PM

its got to be the bios version...im sure oskar changed up some important high clocking memory timings in favor of best RAM compatability at stock settings, imo the right move, less people with thier new dfi's that dont have a clue how to get thier setups working with all these crazy options.

**J-Mag** · 10-18-2005, 01:26 PM

Originally Posted by xenolith

The question I have, did ATI ever plan to have SATA2 support with their SB450? If not, then what the heck was DFI thinking?

How many SATA2 drives do you own for christ's sake? Personally I think SATAII as a performance technology is similar to the 32x nforce4 boards (as in there is no real benefit).

**xenolith** · 10-18-2005, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by J-Mag

How many SATA2 drives do you own for christ's sake? Personally I think SATAII as a performance technology is similar to the 32x nforce4 boards (as in there is no real benefit).

For other people who think the same, you need to read this over @ DFI-Street. It's a 41 page thread, but you should get the gist by skimming it.

**en4cer** · 10-18-2005, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by Revv23

#1 it only works with TCCD
#2 there is a lanparty NF4 bios coming out that supports this
#3 it cant clock past 200mhz, making it pretty useless

All in all, its a pretty useless feature... but yeah, expect the Expert to have it.

2GB or 4GB of memory at 2-2-2-7 1T doesn't sound too useless to me, The A64 is fantastic for gamers at those timings at stock speed.

Sounds great to me

**perkam** · 10-18-2005, 05:05 PM

2GB or 4GB of memory at 2-2-2-7 1T doesn't sound too useless to me

Especially since Microsoft Vista will require 2GBs for speedy operation

Perkam

**xenolith** · 10-18-2005, 05:15 PM

Originally Posted by perkam

Especially since Microsoft Vista will require 2GBs for speedy operation

Perkam

Wait a minute... Bill Gates said 640k should be enough for anybody.

**nn_step** · 10-18-2005, 05:24 PM

Originally Posted by perkam

Especially since Microsoft Vista will require 2GBs for speedy operation

Perkam

More like 40Gb of Ram

**ben805** · 10-19-2005, 01:22 AM

whomever think there's a big advantage to use SATAII over SATAI is smoking some good stuff, NCQ is overrated as well.....I've been switching those options back and forth on my Hitachi T7K250 and see absolutely no gain whatsoever, that's probably one of the main reason why DFI didn't even bother to implement SATAII into this Xfire board, didn't Anand wrote a review regarding SATAII and NCQ features as well?

**xenolith** · 10-19-2005, 01:29 AM

Then there's a bunch of people over @ DFI-Street that are smoken a whole lot, ben.

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/show...highlight=sata

**Revv23** · 10-19-2005, 06:25 AM

whats it matter if you notice it or not?

no one notices SM3. but how would you feel if DFI mobo's somehow left out upport for that?

the point is people pay money for these things, and support for thier features is really high up in the buying desicion.

**Vapor** · 10-19-2005, 06:41 AM

If it's not an appreciable feature through performance gains or lowered cost, what's the point? I would honestly not mind if DFI left out SM3 support (if they could), I've never used it where I couldn't use 2.0b

Why pay money for something you don't notice?

playing Devil's advocate here....

**slider99** · 10-19-2005, 06:42 AM

I have four (4) SATA-II drives in RAID-0. Am I a weed-smoker if I say that SATA-II gives me higher bursts than SATA? I'd never get a board which doesn't support SATA-II.

**Revv23** · 10-19-2005, 06:44 AM

im sorry, i meant useless for us...

they should be releaseing a bios that allows this on NF4, so if your upgrading just to run at stock speeds, dont.

**Vapor** · 10-19-2005, 06:44 AM

Slider, you obviously have a need then...I assumed you were like 99% of people and didn't (I sure don't....my storage drives can be slow as turtles and I wouldn't care as long as my Raptors are fast). My bad.

**slider99** · 10-19-2005, 07:17 AM

It's cool guys. I understand most people don't stripe four HDDs, but they are just my system disks (although they are 4x250GB so it makes lots of room for certain "stashes" too :P). I save all my precious data on my mirrored storage drives too ofc, and, in truth, I don't really care about their speed either.

Btw, raptors are nice. Why won't WD release some SATA-II raptors? Or Seagate a SATA-(II)-compatible Cheetah? That would be just awesome!

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