DFI RD600 overclocking tutorial and an demostration of DDRII 1200 achievement

Recently, there are two new chipset released in market.
They are Nvidia’s 650/680i and ATI’s RD600.
The performance of both the board is real good.

DFI LANParty UT ICFX3200 T2R/G adopts ATI RD600 chipset






Most of the enthusiasts realized that DFI LANParty series has a very good OC
performance.
Moreover, BIOS settings is also fabulous…

Frankly, I’m personally not drive the board well from very beginning. But after
I’ve found the knack to this board, I was getting better and better each
time I OC.
I’d like to share some tricks about BIOS of this board to you guys. We can
start from FSB500 and DDRII 1200 as a basis. Coz, DRAM settings of this
mobo is totally separate from CPU.
So, if you got a very good memory, you might capable to create a new
history record.

Let’s get to the point here:
About voltage setting, the most important thing that we have to do is to rise
up FSB.
Therefore, you have to take these voltage options: CPU VTT, NB CORE, NB
PLL, and NB Core.




CPU’s FSB 500/ DRAM frequency: 601/ PCIE 100.




The DRAM adjusting options:
DDRII 1200 CL4-4-4-9 2T, the others of below options are the “performance optimized” options.






The detail of my test bed
CPU:INTEL Core 2 Extreme X6800
MB: Nvidia nForce 680i SLI
DRAMFI LANParty UT ICFX3200 T2R/G
VGA:ELSA GLADIAC 790GS PH2 256DT
HD:Seagate 7200.7 160GB
POWER:Corsair HX620W Modular Power Supply
Cooler:TT Big Typhoon VX

FSB500/ DDRII1200 is the starting point.

The first memory modual:
Mushkin Tuner XP Redline
The default setting: DDRII 1000 CL4 5-4-11




DDRII 1200 CL4 4-4-9 2T 2.54V(BIOS:2.57V)
Super PI 32M finished

The second memory modual
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C3
Default: DDRII 800 CL3 4-3-9




DDRII 1200 CL4 4-4-9 2T 2.49V(BIOS:2.52V)
Super PI 32M finished




The 3rd memory modual:
Patriot PDC21GB8000+XBLK
Default: DDRII 667 CL3 3-3/DDRII 1000 CL4 4-4




DDRII 1200 CL4 4-4-9 2T 2.52V(BIOS:2.54V)
Super PI 32M finished




Actually, after I’ve set the 1st & 2nd memory to run in DDRII 1200(1GB x 2)

Then, the 3rd one I tried whether the voltage can be a bit lower or not (by
512MB x 2)
Finally, it ends up with a “about the same” result. It seems this model is not
better than the 1st and 2nd one.


The 4th memory modual
CORSAIR Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF
Default: DDRII 1111 CL4 4-4-12




CPU is in FSB 511status
DDRII 1200 CL4 4-4-9 2T 2.35V(BIOS:2.37V)
Ends up in Super PI 32M

I tried to found out how much of voltage I should add to NB when I want the
FSB is higher than 500.

Status I, when NB only has a fan-less solution:




Super PI 32M (the OS of this test is moved from 975/ 650i with reinstallation, so, the PI result will be slower than the normal one)




Status II: If we put a air cooling to enhance heat reduction,




Super PI 32M




NB has a fan: CPU VTT 1.44V/NB CORE 1.82V/NB PLL 2.31V/NB Core 1.89V
NB without a fan: CPU VTT 1.44V/NB CORE 1.76V/NB PLL 2.21V/NB Core 1.81V

I found that the heat of NB seems high is caused by the “temperature
monitoring” program.
When I put my finger on the top of NB’s heat sink, actually, it’s only “warmly”
not hot. I can say 975/965 is a bit hotter than RD600’s NB. So, the actual
temperature of it is 10 to 15C lower than what system shows.

BTW, the highest FSB under BIOS seems around 511Mhz,
If you use a AMD tweaking software under OS, it can push a little to 520Mhz,
furthermore, if you decrease the clockGen voltage inside the BIOS, then, you
might push FSB higher than 520Mhz.

The lines above is my personally experience of DFI RD600
Hope all these can help other enthusiast who has the same board.
Compare to other Intel base platform mobos, RD 600 is truly has many
advantages.
I hope the price of it can be a little bit lower, let us has lot more choices!!

some war booty I grab from PC mall recently

Nice job windwithme. Thanks.

I wanted to point out this post from Tony at XS in your thread over there.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2017700&postcount=6