New DFI nF4 Ultra-D build...so perty!

[TimoneX]

Thought it sounded like cough medicine.

3.4v is good for 265Mhz, down from the initial 3.5v that was required. I believe you're likely to recieve errors with numerous memtest runs if you fail to actively cool the dimms as well as the vdimm regulator under the heatsink by the memory.

Timings are:

1.5-2-2-7-15. The most crucial discoveries I've made with regards to timings is that the default Tref value(3120) isn't stable over 260Mhz for me. Changing it to 0648 allowed for more speed. I experimented briefly with [email protected] and I believe I can stabilize there, but alas my CPU gives up the ghost before 2.7Ghz. I suppose I should drop the CPU multi and try some higher memory speeds, but I believe I'll wait for the bios savior that's on the way. Which leads me to cautioning you in this regard. Please be careful with memory timings on this board. On two occasions now I've caused it to become unable to post and it took me several hours to get it back. Make sure you've read the well written sticky on avoiding bios corruption in the DFI MB section here as well as the post by angry games on how to properly flash the bios on the DFI. If the board has a weakness it is being easily suseptible to bios corruption, which as you may well know has been an ongoing problem with DFI for some time. I've never had to RMA a DFI board despite this problem though, a little caution and patience goes a long way. Just the same if you're planning to keep the board for a long time and push it hard(duh ) then a bios savior kit will likely be a good choice. eva2000 confirmed that the RD1-PMC4 kit works on the DFI nF4 boards and I have an RD1-8X on order that's almost certain to work.

 

[TimoneX]

Ah what a week of ups & downs. One vid card up...another vid card down. One set of memory up(way up) another down(way down).

I think I have a line on DFI SLI bridges for us poor Ultra-D owners.

Just waiting to confirm that it goes through and I'll share with anyone having trouble finding one. No guarantees at this point, but it looks very promising.

I'm just chomping at the bit at the prospect of reverse engineering one of these things.

 

[OakenGoby]

TimoneX:

PM me about this line on the SLI bridges. I am also very interested in trying to reverse engineer one of these.

 

[TimoneX]

No offense bro, but I'd just assume wait till I confirm delivery. They're not free, but they do keep the cost of a modded Ultra-D w/ a bridge well under the cost of an SLI-D which is functionally identical. I don't mind risking my own money, but I'd rather not be responsible for causing others to lose money on an untested source. No hard feelings I hope, it should only be a week at most. By then I'll hopefully have another video card and the bridge and will be able to verify that they're indeed properly functioning bridges, which is important since it's come to my attention that there's a third party constructing them for bundling with Ultra-Ds. It's difficult to imagine any respectible electronics firm messing up such a simple part, but I've seen worse gaffs.

 

[mkfosgate]

Hey Timonex, ive been thinking about getting the dfi board, and twinmos memory. I was wondering if there would be any gain in going with a faster cpu, like a 3500. I want a pretty fast setup.

I have another thread on here asking what the difference is between the cpus when they all basically run at the same speed. I know the multi's are different, but there has to be somethig else to it. Why would a 3200 and a 3800 run at the same speed, but have higher numbers on them? Is it even beneficial to go with a higher "numbered" cpu over the slower one?

Ive been checking newegg every couple hours just to see if theyve came in. I plan on getting these for sure.

Also, im not trying to hijack this thread, but what is this keeping a 1.1 aspect ratio? Im new to this, so try to put it into english lol If i get a 3500, should i get pc3500? But then they dont make twin mos speed premium in 3500. I also dont understand how you can put higher than pc3200 on the board, when the board is only suppost to support up to that, as well as the cpu supporting up to that.

Not trying to drive you insane with all these questions, but please help me here.

OH yeah, and where is some other sites that sell the speed premium besides newegg?

 

[shard]

welcome to the forums!

on that CPU, the 3500+, its a Performance Rating that AMD gives it Processors, and i dont think it would be the best bet if you want to OC, and the 3800+ is better, due to 1mb L2 cache, wich adds a good amount of performance

on the Ram, the Async 1:1 aspect is meaning that if your HTT bus is 200, get 200mhz ram, now on ram, you double the speed to get the your DDR speed, so 200mhz is 400mhz DDR, follow?

well with OCing, you crank up the HTT bus, and thus you raise your ram to keep up with it in 1:1 ratio, so if you are running 240mhz HTT bus, then you will want to have ram that can easily do 240 aka 480mhz.

now on the PC3200, PC3500, etc. its the base speed x8, so if you had PC3200, its base speed is 400mhz (200x2) 400x8=3200, same goes with PC3500 433x8=3500. so now you get the general gist of things?

 

[TimoneX]

Hey Timonex, ive been thinking about getting the dfi board, and twinmos memory. I was wondering if there would be any gain in going with a faster cpu, like a 3500. I want a pretty fast setup.

I have another thread on here asking what the difference is between the cpus when they all basically run at the same speed. I know the multi's are different, but there has to be somethig else to it. Why would a 3200 and a 3800 run at the same speed, but have higher numbers on them? Is it even beneficial to go with a higher "numbered" cpu over the slower one?

Ive been checking newegg every couple hours just to see if theyve came in. I plan on getting these for sure.

Also, im not trying to hijack this thread, but what is this keeping a 1.1 aspect ratio? Im new to this, so try to put it into english lol If i get a 3500, should i get pc3500? But then they dont make twin mos speed premium in 3500. I also dont understand how you can put higher than pc3200 on the board, when the board is only suppost to support up to that, as well as the cpu supporting up to that.

Not trying to drive you insane with all these questions, but please help me here.

OH yeah, and where is some other sites that sell the speed premium besides newegg?

Wow that's quite a mess-o-questions.

With the E0 cores looming on the not too distant horizon I'd get a 3000+ winchester. Traditional logic has favored the 3200+ due to the high HT speeds required to get to 2.6-2.8Ghz with the 3000's 9x max multi. In the case of the DFI boards though I think the fact that they overclock so easily and have so many memory options makes the 3000+ a much more viable option.

As far as the different models of the same processor are concerned one must keep in mind that overclockers represent only a tiny fraction of processor end users. Many people will never overclock their 3000+ processor and will never know that it's capable of matching or exceeding the performance of a 3200+ or even 3800+. Getting a higher clocked CPU insures that you'll get a higher guaranteed level of performance. Is it a good deal to go with a 3500+ rather than a 3200+? No, not in my opinion, but I wouldn't call people that choose to go with 3500s suckers either. Some people just choose not to overclock &/or just want a higher minimum level of performance.

By 1:1 I assume you're referring to memory ratios? Some people are under the mistaken impression that maintaining a 1:1 ratio between their CPU clock speed and memory clocks somehow gives higher performance than running them at different speeds. This just isn't the case on the A64 and it's been proven time & again. There are advantages to being able to run the memory bus and CPU at different speeds. The most obvious of which is that you can get the maximum performance from both your CPU & available memory. For instance if your CPU is capable of 2700Mhz, but your ram isn't capable of running at this speed then you can select the appropriate divider to enable your memory to run at a speed it is capable of running at. This ability makes the A64 platform very flexible.

The speed ratings assigned by memory manufacturers are much like the speed ratings assigned to CPUs. They're a reference point only...a minimum if you like. For instance there are many PC3200 memory sticks capable of running much much faster than their rated speed of 200Mhz(DDR400). The OCZ PC3200 platinum r2 I recently sold was capable of operating at frequencies 50% higher than their rating would suggest. The twinmos PC3200 sticks I have now aren't quite as capable of high frequencies, but are capable of operating 32% higher than their rating would imply and also at much lower latencies than they're rated for. The net result is very fast memory speeds at a budget price.

Twinmos speed premium sticks are nabbed as soon as they appear at newegg. Unfortunately the only other place I know of that gets them in N America is newegg's affiliate chiefvalue.com. There are likely others however, I just never looked all that hard. Remember now there's no guarantee you'll get great memory with the twinmos sticks. If you want guaranteed great memory that's more readily available and is warrantied for higher voltages then get OCZ VX.

 

[TimoneX]

Well I finally got around to tossing the Ultra-D in a case and putting some H2O to it. Here's the board going into my fave aluminum case(Chieftec). You can see the neoprene cushions I fashioned to keep the narrow RBX waterblock mounted securely to the nekked 3200+. The processor & the area around it have a thin layer of dielectric grease on them for protection from possible condensation.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v718/timonex/Setup_1.jpg

 

[TimoneX]

Getting things settled in here and figuring out the best ways to route the numerous cables. I won't be missing the front-x that comes with the SLI-DR since the chieftec case has front mounted USB & firewire ports. I've also rigged up an additional audio I/O backplate. I required toslink output so I adapted this from an old Iwill xp333r super audio plate. I now have many many audio I/O options on the Ultra-D.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v718/timonex/Setup_2.jpg

 

[mkfosgate]

So, you are saying I can get more out of the 3800 over the 3200?

And I looked at those ocz sticks. Do those have the utt chips on them as well? You cant run 4 sticks of dual channel memory, can you?

Sorry for all the questions, but trust me, ive got PLENTY more!!!

 

[TimoneX]

I switched from a small 60mm to a large 92mm fan blowing on the dimms & the heatsink cooling the vdimm regulator. Now that it's time to mount the board vertically I needed a new option for attaching this large fan. I wanted it an inch at lease away from the dimms and in a very specific location to maximize airflow over the dimms & the heatsink in question. The old rubber band tie down trick just wasn't gonna cut it here. I fashioned a bracket from a coat hanger and have been bending it and manipulating it till I have it about righ where I want it. It's not the most beatiful thing in the world but works flawlessly. Perhaps at some later date I'll fashion a more permanent bracket that's aesthetically pleasing. For now function trumps form!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v718/timonex/Setup_3.jpg

 

[TimoneX]

...and the result...ahh it's good to be back to watercooled.

 

[shard]

more of a percentage of an overclock, no, but a higher clock speed most likey yes, with a good mobo, and good ram

 

[TimoneX]

So, you are saying I can get more out of the 3800 over the 3200?

And I looked at those ocz sticks. Do those have the utt chips on them as well? You cant run 4 sticks of dual channel memory, can you?

Sorry for all the questions, but trust me, ive got PLENTY more!!!

No not necessarily more. If you're going with a DFI nF4 board I recommend a 3000+ winchester(90nm) processor. You'll get good performance from it, great if you're lucky and get a good overclocker. Ya just never know how well it'll overclock till you get it under a heatsink and crank it up.

OCZ 3200 platinum rev2 has Samsung TCCD chips. The particular sticks I had were excellent performers, but all in all I prefer the setup I have now with the twinmos(UTT) chips.

Yes technically you can run 4 sticks in dual...or dual dual if you like. However the winchester's memory controllers are currently unable to handle 4x512Mb of memory very effectively. Such a configuration is likely to be forced to DDR333 &/or 2T memory timings. Not a very good choice IMO. The E0 core is supposed to address this problem.

 

[mkfosgate]

I think im just gonna get the twinmos whenever i can get ahold of them, and get the dfi board, and maybe by the time i get everything completely together, the new e0 cores will be out.

Will the newcastle cores, or whatever the .130's are handle 4 dual sticks?

Oh yeah, and what is a good watercooling kit, thats works really well, and is fairly easy for the beginner. I want everything water cooled in the pc.

 

[TimoneX]

No newcastles do no better with 8 banks to my knowledge.

 

[TimoneX]

Wow I'm just having no luck with online retailers of late. I seem to be getting the dumbest of the dumb packaging my shipments. On the 17th I ordered an RD1-8X bios savior for the Ultra-D from mwave. Well today my shiny new RD1-8X2 bios savior arrived. I checked the invoice to be sure I was properly charged and all was good, but I overestimated their ability to match the product on the invoice to the product they're shipping. The invoice is correct, the box is incorrect, the product is incorrect. The RD1-8X2 is a 2MB PLCC kit and as such is less than worthless to me. :

 

[HousERaT]

sorry to hear that bro...... seems this research is crawling do to stupid people.... hang in there bro, not everyone can be as smart as overclockers....

some good news..... got my Twinmos TMII sticks today and they do have the UTT chips. I'll be getting the TMSP sticks in the mail tomorrow and I hope I'm as fortunate.

 

[TimoneX]

Kewlness. Are they the 50D chips? Have you gotten to try them out at all yet? I'd love to see how the 50D & 44D chips stack up.

 

[mkfosgate]

I have kept my eye on newegg for days now, and the twinmos sticks still havent popped up.