DFI RDX200 CF-DR and Ballistix

[Diverge]

Okay, since I am not welcome to ask any questions at DFI-Street because i have an Opty CPU, i'm gonna repost what i posted there on these forums hoping someone has some info.

Okay, I'm gonna start my own thread so this doesn't get overlooked.

Yesterday I got my board, and started to set it up (running on top of my DFI MB box w/ one sata drive - no raid just yet). But I've ran into a problem, the board does not boot at all with the Ballistix, no matter what slots, single stick or duel (stock bios settings after clear and/or loading optimized settings). Upon hitting the power button, the 4 leds (plus 1 dram led) light up, then the first one goes out - this is where it freezes. That alone is a major problem, since you can not boot to the bios to tweak any settings (and would prevent users with no other ram options from flashing to a better bios if one did exist).

If I take my old Mushkin TCCD (pre-brainpower PCB) ram and plug those in, it will boot just fine. If I use my ancient generic DDR333 samsung ram, it will boot fine. Right now, my only options to try to get my Ballistix to work is to boot with the other ram sticks, tweak some settings, and then: powerdown, swap to the Ballistix, and see if it boots - rinse and repeat (trying different bios settings).

I'd like to know where Anandtech got their info regarding this board being optimized for running Ballistix, cause no one seems to have tried them it seems.

[MaxT]

Like i said on dfi-street, i'll post my results tomorrow.

[Blue078]

Originally Posted by Diverge

Okay, since I am not welcome to ask any questions at DFI-Street because i have an Opty CPU, i'm gonna repost what i posted there on these forums hoping someone has some info.

You cant ask questions because you have an Opti ???? That place is that bad ?

[Diverge]

Originally Posted by Blue078

You cant ask questions because you have an Opti ???? That place is that bad ?

Unfortunately, yes... If you have hardware, that they say they don't support, and you ask a question regardless if it has to do with that piece of un-supported hardware, they opt to take the easy way out and not help by stating their rules and/or blaming that hardware. Not everyone there is like this, but some mods/admins are.

But i don't want to derail my own thread, heh, go see for yourself

[Diverge]

Originally Posted by MaxT

Like i said on dfi-street, i'll post my results tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to them - we seem like the only 2 on the internet that have this combo

[Dumo]

Put your balistix on dimm 1 and 2 (yellow and orange) and it will boot fine...

[situman]

wouldnt that be single channel? I thought this board was designed for Ballistix. I guess not yet at least.

[Diverge]

Dumo, not sure if i tried that. But i might just reset my bios to original settings and try it out of curiousity (or MaxT could try it tomorrow when he initially trys to setup his board - if he wants to ).

but i got mine to boot, by using my other ram to get into the bios, and setting everything to what i had on my nF3 board (nothing is set to auto), and booting on a 1/2 divider. After that i tried to bring the speed up to 1/1, the only settings that i changed to do this was Dram Drive Str and Level. I'm in windows now at 10 x 200 w/ mem @ 1:1. If i try the stock settings of the Ballistix 10 x 250 (1:1) i can't boot into windows just yet, but by palying w/ dram str and level i was getting closer and closer to booting into windows. I guess over time i'll figure out some good settings.

[Dumo]

I tried with 2X1GB Centon@ spd 3-3-8 (not sure what chips) on dimm 1 and 2 and this damn mobo post
I can run 4X512@1T with Gskill GH(bh5/utt) on dimm1/2 and Redline4000(ch5) on dimm 3/4. Other than this will give me 3 red lights on and no post...

[Diverge]

Well I cleared my CMOS to try what Dumo suggested, and it still didn't boot. So it's still gonna suck for the people with these sticks and no other types of ram. After testing that, i swapped in my TCCD, and reloaded my saved settings from before - swapped it back to the Ballistix and it booted fine into windows. Although it's not prime stable atm, i guess i have lots of settings to test out.

[Diverge]

I just got into windows with the ram at 250mhz, but it's not prime stable - crashes windows soon as i start prime. I played with a bunch of the timings, but only when i relaxed the main ram settings from the default 3 3 3 8 to 3 4 4 8 did it boot into windows at 250.

[MaxT]

3-4-4-8 is the default, they are rated at that Most people run them at 3-3-3-8 though. But good to see you at least got it to post!

[Diverge]

Originally Posted by MaxT

3-4-4-8 is the default, they are rated at that Most people run them at 3-3-3-8 though. But good to see you at least got it to post!

Yeah, but I know what these sticks can do on my old board, 285 @ 3 3 3 8 with both in, or 300 mhz @ 3 3 3 8 individually. 32m pi Stable too.

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=36279
http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=36589

I know this board is young yet, but i don't see how it is really optimized for Ballistix, or any ram for that matter (judging from others problems with other ram types). It seems that Ballistix comment in the Anandtech acticle is BS.. wish i knew where it originated from

[MaxT]

Well, mine posted just fine. I haven't finished building it, in fact, i just started, but it works. 2 x 1GB Ballistix PC4000 in slots 2 and 4. OCZ PowerSream 520W (older version), AMD A64 3700+ SD + TT Big Typhoon.

Seems like it posted with 3-3-3-8 timings. 1T dual channel. 10/11/2005 BIOS.
IHS removed. heatsink lapped. So far it's hovering around 16-18c.

Be back in like 2-3 hours, when i finish building it. So far so good though.

Oh, and the buzzer on board works too, but it is disabled by default. The manual is a bit confusing, but you have to put the jumper in 2-3 position, then it works. Kinda quiet though.