Limitation breakthrough?! The initial look of DFI LP UT P35-T2R

[Solarfall]

wow windwithme those ram sticks are amazing, 600mhz and with only 1.95v

[Freez]

After having my P5B Deluxe kill two of my E6600's, I think it's time I went back to DFI with their QUALITY products and maybe get a Q6600. Hopefully the $309.99 price on motherboardpro.com doesn't mean every other retailer will sell them at ~$300.

[pippo369]

Very beautiful board.

[Mekrel]

not sure about "amazing" but I like the sound of this:

http://www.digitimes.com/mobos/a20070807PD213.html

(sorry off topic a bit)

EPP was a gimmick and Software controllable Clockgen PLU is nothing new either.

[Tony]

wow windwithme those ram sticks are amazing, 600mhz and with only 1.95v

its the board that allows the ram to do this, not the fact that the sticks are awesome.

Remember BH5 when first launched would do around 210 2-2-2 and those same modules were doing 250+ on AMD's A64 939 platforms...the ram did not change but the memrory controller did and the boards.

Looks to me Jarry and the team have built a monster this time

[Masami]

No doubt: for now this is the best p35 mobo. Wonderful.

[noobzed]

can you try with some crucial ballistix ?

[mcflurry4321]

Oh man this board looks amazing. I love the sexy bootup screen

I just wish these boards didn't have to be so expensive. There's not way I could drop 300 dollars on a board.

[WSX]

This board will be a monster peformer.... but DFi release is sooooo late, virtually on the eve of the X38 boards, it should
have come much earlier to give Asus, Gigabyte, & Abit some stiff competition. I think the Dfi will be the cream of the P35's boards.

[msgclb]

Not long ago, DFI was famed for its LP NF4 series motherboard.

What's up with these...



Is this your mascot?

[Okda]

something like trademark always used by WWM in his reviews

[msgclb]

something like trademark always used by WWM in his reviews

Dang! I was hoping that I would get one if I bought this board.

[windwithme]

500/1200 CL5 5-5-15 1.88V
Super PI 32M

[XtremeTiramisu]

Thanks for another great preliminary review
bookmarked
I'm waiting for it to become avaliable, hopefully by the end of this month.

[windwithme]

What's up with these...



Is this your mascot?

yes,its my mascot



to SaFrOuT:

you are right

They also my trademark ,and always used by WWM in my reviews

[Spanki]

Thanks for another great preliminary review
bookmarked
I'm waiting for it to become avaliable, hopefully by the end of this month.

In stock now: http://www.motherboardpro.com/store/...?productid=338 (at that site, at least.. not sure if they ship to CAN).

[windwithme]

The 2nd half of my review

BIOS options
Boot-up screen


The main options for tweaking


Somehow it’s a “characteristic” of Intel chipset when overclocking…
it will shutdown after tweaking. For that, DFI has 2 different modes to chose:
Mode 1) when the system was boot-up, it will run a little “diagnose”.
If the CPU frequency doesn’t change too much, it will skip the “shutdown”
function and rewrite the clock generator directly.

Mode 2) no matter how little the clock or DRAM’s ratio has been changed, the system still “shutdown” and reboot by itself.



Clock VCO Divider
This function is use to fix the clock generator’s divider and “NB Strap” by its
jumper. Then, system wouldn’t be reboot again because it presumed itself is
not in an overclock status. (this function needs to cooperate with particular
jumper)


CPU FSB range: from 200 to 700MHz


Boot-up clock
This function can help you out by setting a lower boot up clock as a buffer,
when your FSB is tweaked too high in the beginning.


Memory Speed ratio option is really plentiful


CPU related functions


DRAM Timing details


Voltage related settings
The CPU voltage can be separated into 2 sections:
1st section is from 0.44375 to 1.6000V
2nd section is 100.23~ 130.00%


The range of DRAM: 1.710 to 3.040V


PC health status


I found that the “copper bridge” over the CPU and PWM area is a sufficient
way to dissipate heat form both of them. Hence, if the CPU cooler has a
better dissipation,
It’ll help to carry out heat from other chipsets. .On the contrary, if the
Transpiper shows a better performance of heat dissipation, it also will help
CPU to carry out apart of the heat. I think they help each other….


The Transpiper can be extended to outside of the chassis. And let the PSU
fan to carry out the heat from inside the chassis. I think if I put a 8 x 8cm
fan onto south bridge part, the effect of heat conduction will be double.


he cooler installed


The copper bridge helps two parts to conduct heat.
Of course the thermal paste is needed...


Test system detail
CPU:INTEL Core 2 Duo E6850
MB: DFI LP UT P35-T2R
DRAM:CORSAIR Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF
VGA:ELSA 860GT PH2 256B3 2DT RH
HD:WD1600AAJS
POWER:Corsair HX620W Modular Power Supply
Cooler:Thermaltake V1


At the previous part, I have already showed you the FSB test.
It’s a pity I only have a Intel E6850 CPU, which is not that good in FSB tweaking.
Generally speaking, most of P35 board in market might be stable at FSB500.
But if the FSB overclock than 505 or above, that will made the system unable
to boot up or can’t made the OS start up smoothly. DFI’s LP UT P35-T2R can
get into OS stably under FSB522, more than that, it also can completely
finished a Super PI 32M.
Once I have a better CPU, I’ll update a extreme FSB OC review then.

Actually, there was several very good review of FSB record around some HW sites.
6th Aug. version BIOS has enhanced DRAM’s performance of this board.
It particularly improves a lot when memory such like Corsair’s advanced “tall”
PCB modules. First, you can try to make the “CLK fine delay” option into 6.
(Notice: if you use this setting for “short” PCB DDRII modules, it may caused
hanging or shut down) Somehow, different PCB modules needed different LCK
fine delay settings, it has to spend so much time to find the answer.

If you follow the golden ratio of 500/1200 in DDRII CL5 5-5-15, I found that,
it only need 1.95V (BIOS default is 1.972V), 2 Super PI 32M can be done steady.


Even though the Enhance Data transmitting/ addressing has been set to “Auto”, the bandwidth’s performance is still better than some others.


For Intel chipset, It is really not easy to reach DDRII 1100~1200 under the
setting of “CL4”. On the other hand, the system also took only 2.44V (BIOS
default is 2.47V) to finish 2 Super PI 32M stably. Under same “golden ratio
500/1200, DDRIICL4 4-4-9


The “bandwidth” looks great when memory under testing.


This is a quite outstanding OC record of Intel platform.
It finished the task under 1200 CL5 low voltage and 1200 CL4 settings.
3DMark2003 test.


DFI LP UT P35-T2R
The merits:
1)A good look and tasteful package design and related design
2)100% Japanese solid capacitors, 3 slots of PCIe x 16, which supports
CrossFire and physics rendering.
3)A unique heat piper cooler, Transpiper. It is real sufficient for heat
dissipation for inside or outside of the chassis.
4)Rich BIOS options for OC and voltage, especially an enhancement for Intel
chipset’s characteristic that forced to shutdown and decrease voltage.
5)8 phases digital PWM and independent Bernstein audio module.
6)Seems the best FSB OC for all P35 board in the market. DDRII performance
is almost the same.


Defects:
1)It almost like a common failing that DFI’s LP board is apparently higher price
in market. This model cost around USD$290.(I knew some area has priced
USD$260)
2)It should have a more detail but easy understanding install menu for
Transpiper to let users to install it quickly.
3)DFI P35 launched into market later than others manufacturer almost 2
months (before, they almost release new products that later than others up
to half year. It much better, but hope they can improve that after)

I heard a lot about X38 in this half year. Maybe most of mobo manufacturers
will launch their X38 in 1 or 2 months. But, leading brands keep launching new
P35 products. It proves how “charming” the P35 can be… Besides, X38 only
born for DDR3, of course it has a better bandwidth for Crossfire. The spec.
comparison between P35 and X38 is quite similar to 965 and 975.

However, It is good to see that DFI did a good job with its LP P35. Obviously,
they have some improvements on OC ability and product’s creativity.
I agree this is a good choice when you want to have a try of P35 high-end motherboards.
This is my brief introduction though.
If I have found some thing further on audio or OC settings, I’ll update that to
you guys. Thanks!!


windwithme next test...which one do you want to see?!

BIOSTAR TD35D3-A7 Deluxe



MSI P35 Diamond





DFI BLOOD-IRON(INFINITY P35)


ASUS P5K-Permium


GIGABYTE P35-DS3P


BENQ 241WZ

[Okda]

DFI blood-iron and DS3P please

[nop]

wow...thanks for your contribution. It'd be great if you can review ASUS P5K-Permium so we can compare its performance with DFI.

[erwinz]

very nice test.. thanks for sharing..

btw.. I always notice a white surface for the picture of your hardware.. is your table white?

this P35 is good.. hope to see more of your results an insights with this board..

[msgclb]

We need to know if your mascot likes the ASUS P5K Premium as much as the DFI LP UT P35-T2R.

[Solarfall]

have to say that this idea looks very weird to me.. does it really help. ???



btw this was a great first glimpse of the new DFI p35 board.. your the man windwithme

[Chosen.]

DFI blood-iron and DS3P please

[dogsx2]

Good job on the review.

I would really like to see the BIOSTAR TD35D3-A7 Deluxe tested. I would like to see if you can get results like Pt1t got. If you can the a mb for less then 1/3 the price of the top boards that has cpu oc'ing capabilities that is as good, then it is worth looking at. Many or more on this forum do not use the most expensive mb's.

Thanks for a good job on the DFI board.

[georgesod]

I would like to know how this new feature "vcore droop control" is affecting the voltage from idle to load when enabled and or disabled.

Thanks