[Supershanks]

DFI LANPARTY DK 790FXB-M3H5 & Phenom II 945

Got my hands on two new bits of kit, DFI's newest AM3 board the DK 790FXB-M3H5 and an AMD Phenom II x4 945:

Main Index

Click Pic For Link:

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[juane414]

Nice review.

You were only able to get to 210 for the HTT? That's really disappointing. Was 3.3Ghz the max overclock that you got with the PII 945? Where you only overclocking with the HTT bus or did you try overclocking by raising the CPU clock multiplier as well?

[Supershanks]

:lol: no the 3.3ghz is just current state of play , no idea how far it will go yet. Only started overclocking yesterday, plan on posting results as I get them., hence the title in Main Index "Living Review" , as opposed to the magazine style this is what I got kind of thing. This format hopefully allows for more feedback both ways

[juane414]

Sounds exciting. How did you get a PII 945 already? I'm looking forward to seeing what it can do. BTW... is it black edition with unlocked multiplier or do you know if the PII 950 will have unlocked multiplier?

[Supershanks]

Hi Sorry for delay, been enjoying myself.
No the 955 is a BE this isn't, but isn't dping too badly

Added a few more clocks See bottom of index - Clocks and Benching

Pleased today at getting to
3,600 15x240 @1066 1,279Mhz 6-6-6-16


Benches

1st sub 20 Minute Super Pi 32M
Stability

Bios settings Here

[Sgt_Pinto]

no pci-e 1 slots? hmm.

[Supershanks]

No big deal I don't think, you can always use the 3rd x16/x4 slot see pci-e x1 card into pci-e x16 slot? especially post# 4

see also another link from that thread
PCI Express: An Overview

[MonkeyMhz]

Looks great, Im thinking of getting a DFI and Phenom II X4 955. I'm not wanting to OC or do anything right off the bat, but would you recommend this mobo?. Will it give decent performance right out of the box. And is a good build quality? Would you say its more of a quality motherboard than asus or giga?

[Supershanks]

yep straight out the box was no issue at all. I always do a quick test to see how high i can raise the fsb/htt whateverGot to 210 see 3,150Mhz 15x210 @1333 1,400 6-6-6-20 for detail. Not the highest i've managed but still decent. 220 was just a question of upping vcore, 230 had to drop memory multi., so no big shakes.
Depending on CPU you have will probably be even easier if you have a BE with higher multiplier options.
That's the only thing i'm finding restricing with the 945 I 'm constrained by a max x15 multi so have to do it by HTT alone. A 955 BE will be great

[MonkeyMhz]

Originally Posted by Supershanks

yep straight out the box was no issue at all. I always do a quick test to see how high i can raise the fsb/htt whateverGot to 210 see 3,150Mhz 15x210 @1333 1,400 6-6-6-20 for detail. Not the highest i've managed but still decent. 220 was just a question of upping vcore, 230 had to drop memory multi., so no big shakes.
Depending on CPU you have will probably be even easier if you have a BE with higher multiplier options.
That's the only thing i'm finding restricing with the 945 I 'm constrained by a max x15 multi so have to do it by HTT alone. A 955 BE will be great

Does it have idiot proof bios. Were it restores them if they corrupt. I don't think so, but ya never know.

[Supershanks]

no dfi don't do dual bios like gigabyte if thats's what you mean. But pressing the [home] or [insert] keys reloads default settings . There are 2 clear Cmos jumpers one on rear panel and 2nd near floppy port.

Click pic for link
see bottom of linked post you can have simple or advanced bios settings as you want.

[MonkeyMhz]

Originally Posted by Supershanks

no dfi don't do dual bios like gigabyte if thats's what you mean. But pressing the [home] or [insert] keys reloads default settings . There are 2 clear Cmos jumpers one on rear panel and 2nd near floppy port.

Click pic for link
see bottom of linked post you can have simple or advanced bios settings as you want.

Oh, but asus also has it too, its not duel bios. Like, say if i flash the bios or update it or something and it buggers up. Is the board dead then/having to get new bios chip. Or does it have the restore thing were you cant RMA the motherboard by corrupting/messing up bios.

Also, is the cooling on the board sufficient. Asus says they better cooling with their 9 step whatever. And gigabyte has their special copper pipe. Is that just propaganda? or what does DFI have? And what are the temps of your CPU on idle and load?

[Supershanks]

yes I know what you mean if all else fails you stick the asus cd/dvd in & it reads and flashes bios. No I don't think that tghis board has that.

Temps are great, CPU temps are shown below the prime styability tests on the 3450 and 3600 shots see Links #26 & #27 in index as i say for 3.6Ghz I put a fan over chipset. If you want the chipset block can be unscrewed and after market cooling added to the base see below. This leaves the PWM cooler and heatpipes still on the board.

Top removed

Base

[Supershanks]

Just got back to this using 955BE, had got 3.8Ghz 24/7 stable, but on air was struggling with stability, so put the DFI LANPARTY DK 790FXB-M3H5 & 955 on water.

Pretty pleased with results:-

3,900Mhz 19.5x200 @1,600mhz 8-8-8-21

&

4,00Mhz 20x200 @1,600mhz 8-8-8-21

[Recluse]

Nice this is the same setup I'm using for my current build(955). Although I cant afford to wc at this time(my wallets empty). Wondering what are you cooling on your loop / what kind of temps under load/idle?

[Supershanks]

Hi Recluse,
Thanks. Just the CPU is on the loop atm.

I've stuck my temps on the stability pick of Orthos, the bottom of coretemp is under the 2nd CPU-z tab. Shows Current, Low & high, those are as the run starts & during it.

At 4Ghz i'm showing a high of 37C, I must admit i can't get used to the low temps compared to I7. I'm not a 100% confident that the sensor is accurate.

Looking on air cooling for example, this was run on the JR 3.8Ghz 17.5x217 @1,333Mhz 1,487Mhz 6-6-6-18 1T Ganged, same cpu but would be the same on the DK. the max temp is still only showing 43c. That's at 1.45V vcore, the 4Ghz on water is at 1.525v.

I'm not sure i'd go to water purely to run the 955. I already had it so you have to give it a go :lol:
It does give you a bigger margin of safety of course

to be honest i never really track idle temps, i tend to just focus on the load temps, sorry.

[Recluse]

Nice! on air with all 4 cores on 100% load I'm getting temps of 54c. This is with no OC'n 100% stock settings. I can't wait until I can afford a WC loop so I can OC this bad boy!

[Supershanks]

Nice one I've been upping NB to around 2.6Ghz. Have had to use my loop on I7 the last week though. My NB is the issue now with temps in excess of 50C. Running on air i can get a fan on the NB but with a Noctua NH-U12P mounted space is tight. Am putting the amd back on water tommorow so will have more room to do something to cool NB better.

[Calef]

Hi guys, I am planning on buying this mainboard and the only thing that makes me hesitate are rumours about the NB getting too hot.

So my question is now, can you recommend a decent but not too expensive aftermarket cooler for the NB? Best would be watercooling heatsink but the only one I found is about 60€ and that's more than the difference from the DFI to the Asus Crosshair III Formula so I think it would be smarter to invest into a "better" board rather than getting a super expensive NB cooler. Air cooling is of course also ok for me if it is not too expensive and cools the chip to acceptable temps.

[Supershanks]

depends on how high you plan clocking it, i've only started adding a fan at 3.9~4Ghz. up till there it's fine.
There are plenty of reasonably cheap options Enzotech SLF-1
Retails around maybe 12~15EU ? Enzotech Pure Copper Low Profile Heat Sink with Fan SLF-1. That would work well with air cooling , being low profile.

I rigged myself up something yesterday, using an enzotech nb heatsink such as above , but with the fan & fan bolts from :
Swiftech MCX159-CU bits which I had accumulated. The swiftech block is much too large to fit, but the fan fits perfectky. I was originally going to use the fan bolts tyo mount the fan on top of the DFI block. Frustratingly the bolts were too short. So ended up with the above mix. If air cooling though you will need shorter bolts to avoid interference with CPU cooler.



Chipset temps are down 8~10C

[Calef]

Thank you for the tips, Supershanks.

I think I will get the board then, ~15€ for a decent cooler which I may not even need sounds ok