RD600 first look and general questions

[acesea]

anyone had issues running 4x1gb with this mb?ive a friend thats having major headaches getting 4x1gb team d9s to run anything over 800mhz 4-4-4-12.with 2x1gb everything was fine.he was running 1000mhz 4-4-4-12 24/7 no probs but now with 4x1gb he cant even post at 800mhz same timings and voltage?any idea what may be the issue?

ive got 4x1gb OCZ2P10002GK running very stablily on this board. ram is at 503mhz @ 2T 4-4-4-4-14 @ 2.3v

It actually took me a while to get this stable at these speeds. I did a LOT of testing to nail it down as I really wanted to have the 4gb and needed it 24/7 prime stable for video editing. I have a hunch that two of OCZ modules are the slower GMHs keeping the whole pack down, while two of the faster ones may be GKX which hit over 580mhz @ above specs.

First, put a fan on the ram. No questions asked. I've seen too many people fry their chips running north of 2.3v. Next, get a bootable cd of memtest and run each 1gb stick individually on the left most dimm slot next to the cpu. Run test #5 each time increasing your ram mhz clock until memtest spits errors. Write down the speed at which EACH chip runs stable. Next, sort the 4 1gb modules from slowest to fastest and place them respectively left to right on the board.

I found that placing the slowest chips closest to the cpu and the fastest furthest away I was able to run a lot faster and a lot more stable. After you sort them by speed, run memtest #5 again with all four gigs in the board and find your top speed.

Good luck.

[acesea]

I've read through most of the recent pages and am curious if the new bios affects the promise raid adapter or its sata ports at all?
I've got all my 4x ati raid sata ports occupied by raided discs and have a sata cd/dvd rom plextor that I want to use. I can't get the freakin' thing to play nice with the promise satas. Anyone here successfully run a sata cd/dvd rom on the promise?

I REAAALLY don't want to move one of my 2x74gb raptors onto the promise as that adapter is on the pci bus (from what I understand) and is not nearly as fast as the native ati one. This has been pissing me off since December when I got the board and it would be nice if DFI or promise sorted this out by now. Any word on this? Or am I the only one struggling lol?

[kimandsally]

Quadcore? this board only install Vista with ATI RAID and Vista 32, Core2 ONLY!!!!!


They have abandoned this board, needs new bios to fix this very old issue, but i see no such bios form them, even called about it(actually called about my last dead board)....and they said they would not replace my faulty board(quality issue, not my fault), so DFI gets a big ignore from me for a bit

I feel for you mate, DFI are being silly here, point them over to this thread then they will find out you really do know what your doing, then if they have any sense they should help you.

You have helped many people on here with this board, I have used your wise advice myself and find what you say to be 100% accurate, you have helped make this DFI a much more useable board for many people and surely this should have helped DFI, now it's the turn of DFI to help you.

I have always had great things happen with all my DFI boards but if I had your problem and DFI wouldn't help that would be the last DFI that I would buy.

Good luck and thanks for your very useful posts.

[kimandsally]

Hi there can anyone help, I have a strange problem, been using the PC daily no problems at all stable as a rock mild overclock.

The other day I pressed the start button on the PC and although the fans started and the LED's on the Mobo lit up it did not boot, the Diagnostic bit that does the error codes wasn't lit, I turned it off and restarted it and no problem it booted straight up, and ran for the day when I turned it off the normal shutdown in XP.

Today which is 2 days since I last used it again no boot nothing, tried the full CMOS reset as per C1 error. Left it initially for an hour then tried it and nothing.

So I did it again the reset that is, left it for 10 hours, again nothing the fan headers are outputting to the fans, the yellow LED at the bottom is lit but the error code box is completely blank.

I have no idea what might have happened I have changed nothing at all, any idea's please.

[cadaveca]

That's what happened to my last board. After leaving for a while, it would no longer boot. There's something whacked with this board and it's bios...I don't think it's the bios itself, but maybe something in socket...almost seems like dead CMOS battery or something, but if you do not even get diagnostic LCD working, board is most likely culprit assuming that your PSU provides power to the board.

i dunno...I gave up on this board long ago.


you might want to try just 1 stick of ram. You may also want to check chipset...I have killed one board crushing chipset with Noctua cooler(damn crappy mounting system), and same behavior too.


Thanks for your vote of confidence...I spend alot of time overclocking, and the plethora of settings that DFI provide in thier bioses...I've never had as much fun as I have with DFI boards...

Problem is that DFI is in the mid-size OEM rut....they have gotten too big to give peopel like me individual attention, but do not have the resources to provide the high-level support that would match the products they release.


I'd really like to get the crushed chipset replaced...they say they do not get the parts...that's not good enough for me. I can call up ASUS and get chipset replaced on ASUS board(done that three times now, for a fee, of course). I've had ASUS send me small components like power plug for laptop, and a superIO chip...


Anyway, I'm eagerly awaiting the release of a new board from DFI so I can play again. Maybe in December they have X38 board ready for us...but maybe earlier?

[kimandsally]

Thanks for the quick reply, if I find it to be dead which P35 board would you recommend as I'll get one tomorrow, I might go Quad in the future but I will not need more than one GPU as I don't do any gaming, I do like to overclock though that's why I have had so many DFI boards.

Thanks again.

[cadaveca]

I'm currently playing with P5KC...have to say i like my P5K vanilla better...But i'll be picking up a DFI P35 as soon as I can...


One thing I must say, no other board out there offeres the number of expansion slots that DFI boards do. I have Phys-X, soundcard, and TV tuner all needing pci slots...DFI provides board with enough, noone else does.

That being said, DFI P35 gets my vote even though I have not tried one yet. Irregardless of the lacking support, they do bring fantastic products to market, and if i look at the stack of 20+ boards I have stashed in my garage, 75% of them are DFI.

[kimandsally]

I'm currently playing with P5KC...have to say i like my P5K vanilla better...But i'll be picking up a DFI P35 as soon as I can...


One thing I must say, no other board out there offeres the number of expansion slots that DFI boards do. I have Phys-X, soundcard, and TV tuner all needing pci slots...DFI provides board with enough, noone else does.

That being said, DFI P35 gets my vote even though I have not tried one yet. Irregardless of the lacking support, they do bring fantastic products to market, and if i look at the stack of 20+ boards I have stashed in my garage, 75% of them are DFI.

Thank you,
Could you tell me which of the boards on this link you would go for, I have no need for pci slots and only use the one X1900XT GPU.

The moneys not an issue really apart from I wouldn't go for the DDR3 as yet, would you know if the Asus P5KC Combo Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard is any good?

If my board is dead which it looks like it is do you think we could fit the northbridge chip from mine onto yours? Mine has no damage on it that I can see and I've never put big voltage through it and it's water cooled so it's never been hot either.

Thanks for the help.

[cadaveca]

Thank you,
Could you tell me which of the boards on this link you would go for, I have no need for pci slots and only use the one X1900XT GPU.

The moneys not an issue really apart from I wouldn't go for the DDR3 as yet, would you know if the Asus P5KC Combo Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard is any good?

If my board is dead which it looks like it is do you think we could fit the northbridge chip from mine onto yours? Mine has no damage on it that I can see and I've never put big voltage through it and it's water cooled so it's never been hot either.

Thanks for the help.

chipset swap...possible, however I do not have the equipment for such.


P5KC is ok...i cannot say "GOOD", as i've only spent a few hours on it so far. doesn't seem much different, really, from P5K Vanilla, other than some bios teething issues. Not enough ramslots for my liking, either, but whateva. only consider if you wanyt to run DDR3 in the near future, and don't want to upgrade board when you do....

I highly recommend staying away from DDR3 ATM...there are fantastic chips out there...i got a set of Micron, does 2ghz, but they were far too expensive.

[kimandsally]

Hey you won't believe my luck, I've found a working board with the karajan and other bits missing, got it for peanuts, so I'm up and going again.
The guy who had it claimed it was dead and useless, I thought what have I got to lose so bought it, all I had to do was the STD DFI CMOS clear which us regular users get used to, he's happy getting some cash and I'm happy again, I just love these DFI's it's the first one out of many that I've ever had a problem with yet I've had 3 Asus die 2 DOA and one just like this DFI.

Anyway thanks for the help, I'm a VERY happy bunny. :-))))))))))))

[kimandsally]

This new board is strange, the temps are quite a bit higher than the old one, and the ram settings also are looking different. I've updated the BIOS to the newest to see if it made any difference, but as I expected it didn't.

I've taken off all the blocks and cleaned them up real nicely, took me ages who ever put the goop on surely wasn't paying for it, I've never seen so much even on previous DFI boards, but even after all that my temps are nearly 10c higher for all except the CPU temps which are roughly the same as before.

Do you have any experience of this Cadaveca?

[cadaveca]

Nope :/


Maybe newer revision? i see prices for this board have droppped since i got mine....maybe i buy another....lol...

[kimandsally]

Nope :/


Maybe newer revision? i see prices for this board have droppped since i got mine....maybe i buy another....lol...

The revision is the same, maybe the sensor is a bit off, not to worry as it's working OK.

The wife told me to get a spare one when she saw how cheap they are, the only problem here is that no one has stock now other than at full price which is off putting when the P35 boards are a lot cheaper than full retail.

Are they still available is the USA?

I'm looking to get the latest DFI boards but no one over here in the UK stocks them as far as I can see, might have to get one sent from the USA if I can't get one the doller is at a good conversion rate at this time.

[Mekrel]

Right I've got a problem here,

I sold my E6600 like an idiot to partly fund my upgrade (DFI P35, and a Q6600 which I've received the quad but waiting on the P35). I forgot to backup the data off my ICFX3200 RAID 0 array so decided to put the quad in to burn the data onto some DVD's.

Problem is, I get to the post screen to which is comes up with CMOS checksum error which s a standard error when you've cleared CMOS. So I pressed DEL to get into the setup screen but it just goes onto a blank screen and nothing happens.

Diagnostic LED says 7F.

The other weird thing, is that the post screen says my Q6600 is running 600x9 600Mhz.

The bios is the 2/12/2006 (shipping bios) as the board hasn't been used for a long time and was put away when all the new bios' came out.

I'm sure the shipping bios' supports quads, as the release notes for 2/12/2006 is some sort of fix for QX6700 processors.

Any ideas?

[xx_ED_xx]

Well i remember when this board was all the stink. Now that it is not. Is it worth using for the dual 16x on crossfire?

I got a c2d e6600
2 hd2600xt cards
2 gig of a data

nothing spectacular
But was wondering if it was even worth spending the money on

[dogsx2]

Well i remember when this board was all the stink. Now that it is not.

Guess I haven't kept up on this board. When did it become non-stink?

[Gambit_2K]

Right I've got a problem here,

I sold my E6600 like an idiot to partly fund my upgrade (DFI P35, and a Q6600 which I've received the quad but waiting on the P35). I forgot to backup the data off my ICFX3200 RAID 0 array so decided to put the quad in to burn the data onto some DVD's.

Problem is, I get to the post screen to which is comes up with CMOS checksum error which s a standard error when you've cleared CMOS. So I pressed DEL to get into the setup screen but it just goes onto a blank screen and nothing happens.

Diagnostic LED says 7F.

The other weird thing, is that the post screen says my Q6600 is running 600x9 600Mhz.

The bios is the 2/12/2006 (shipping bios) as the board hasn't been used for a long time and was put away when all the new bios' came out.

I'm sure the shipping bios' supports quads, as the release notes for 2/12/2006 is some sort of fix for QX6700 processors.

Any ideas?

No the shipping bios does not support the Q6600, I think that's where your problem is. Buy a cheap celeron and update your bios if you can afford it.

[kimandsally]

I have a Quad6600 GO that i'm trying in this board and I have real problems, I can get it to 350 X 9 and it throttles down to 6 X 9 under 100% Orthos.
The temps are high 50s on 100% load and low 30s at idle so I'm surprised that it' throtlling but it is.

Then if I set the multi to 6 instead of 9 I still cannot get over 350fsb, it will boot at 360 sometimes fails Orthos instantly even on the 6 multi.

Tried quite a lot of voltage settings with no improvement, it's like there is a wall at 350fsb, no amount of voltage on the CPU makes any improvement at all, it does 350 X 9 @ 1.375v and will not do 360 no matter what voltage (up to 1.5v) that is.

Anyone had any luck with this board with a Quad?

[Eldonko]

C1E/EIST off? Have you tweeked the nb and sb voltages? i.e.:

NB Core 1.2V 1.5v
NB PLL 1.8V: 2.0v
NB PLL 1.2V: 1.38v
NB PCIE 1.2V: 1.34v
NB core 1.2V convert from: 2.14v
SB core voltage: 1.34v

[Gambit_2K]

I have a Quad6600 GO that i'm trying in this board and I have real problems, I can get it to 350 X 9 and it throttles down to 6 X 9 under 100% Orthos.
The temps are high 50s on 100% load and low 30s at idle so I'm surprised that it' throtlling but it is.

Then if I set the multi to 6 instead of 9 I still cannot get over 350fsb, it will boot at 360 sometimes fails Orthos instantly even on the 6 multi.

Tried quite a lot of voltage settings with no improvement, it's like there is a wall at 350fsb, no amount of voltage on the CPU makes any improvement at all, it does 350 X 9 @ 1.375v and will not do 360 no matter what voltage (up to 1.5v) that is.

Anyone had any luck with this board with a Quad?

Im a real amateur but what strap are you using. If it's auto or 266 try going 300 instead.

[kimandsally]

Thanks

tried this;
C1E/EIST off? Have you tweeked the nb and sb voltages? i.e.:

NB Core 1.2V 1.5v
NB PLL 1.8V: 2.0v
NB PLL 1.2V: 1.38v
NB PCIE 1.2V: 1.34v
NB core 1.2V convert from: 2.14v
SB core voltage: 1.34v

Also have the strap to 300 also tried 333

Thinking that I might try the Asus maximus

[`danny]

thanks tony .. eagerly looking forward to the result...

ultra-D for intel .. such a good term to describe this MB ..

Ah old reliable ultra-d, glad DFI is going to be releasing an amazing board for Intel

[Aivas47a]

Thanks

tried this;
C1E/EIST off? Have you tweeked the nb and sb voltages? i.e.:

NB Core 1.2V 1.5v
NB PLL 1.8V: 2.0v
NB PLL 1.2V: 1.38v
NB PCIE 1.2V: 1.34v
NB core 1.2V convert from: 2.14v
SB core voltage: 1.34v

Also have the strap to 300 also tried 333

Thinking that I might try the Asus maximus

The key for quad core overclocking on this board is tweaking the GTL reference voltage settings:

http://sg.vr-zone.com/articles/DFI_L...w/4409-17.html

Personally I had the best success using 160-160-160 for the GTLs and tweaking vtt voltage. With those settings I was able to get 390 fsb stable (x8 multi) on a qx6700. Never could get stable at 400+.

I expect the Asus maximus would get you higher quadcore clocks with less work. The P5K Deluxe will easily take a quad to 450fsb +.

[kimandsally]

The key for quad core overclocking on this board is tweaking the GTL reference voltage settings:

http://sg.vr-zone.com/articles/DFI_L...w/4409-17.html

Personally I had the best success using 160-160-160 for the GTLs and tweaking vtt voltage. With those settings I was able to get 390 fsb stable (x8 multi) on a qx6700. Never could get stable at 400+.

I expect the Asus maximus would get you higher quadcore clocks with less work. The P5K Deluxe will easily take a quad to 450fsb +.

Maximus arrived today, what a pleasure to get going, it even booted windows without a reinstall, although I'm now doing a clean install right now, been flicking through the BIOS and it looks pretty good much less options than the DFI but enough I expect to get it going OK.

I had been playing with the GTL settings and yes it did make quite an improvement but it was still throttling down to the 6 X multi, I'll see what this Asus does, I suppose it could be a bad CPU but we'll see soon.

Thanks for the info it was certainly the way to better clocks.

[Aivas47a]

Maximus arrived today, what a pleasure to get going, it even booted windows without a reinstall, although I'm now doing a clean install right now, been flicking through the BIOS and it looks pretty good much less options than the DFI but enough I expect to get it going OK.

I had been playing with the GTL settings and yes it did make quite an improvement but it was still throttling down to the 6 X multi, I'll see what this Asus does, I suppose it could be a bad CPU but we'll see soon.

Good luck, I think you'll be real happy with your results on the Maximus. That DFI RD600 bios was a good learning experience I guess, but after working so hard for every extra 5mhz on that board the nice, easy, blow-and-go Asus bios is a nice break.