DFI LanParty NF4 Expert - initial impressions

[tjj]

my initial impressions are rather disappointing: defective DIMM3 & DIMM4 RAM slots and a trace cut.. Even 1 stick of TCCD which did 300 on Ultra-D now errors and i can't get it stable whatever i do. For 200 EUR it's practically the worst stuff i've ever invested in..

[servo101]

well, you can always RMA it...

[cs02jhf]

I got my EXPERT to replace my asus A8N SLI premium 2 days ago. I tried to OC my 3700+ today with bios setting below. it just cant boot into windows. before I used my asus A8N SLI premium, it was stable and can finished 8 hours prime95. How come expert is worse than ASUS ? I run the memtest TEST #8 for 13hours (250-2.5-3-3-5) without any errors. any one can help me out? my gold is 2.7Ghz.

 

I installed the chippest driver6.70 and installed NVIDIA IDE driver, sw-ide driver aswell.

 

 

Genie BIOS Settings:

 

FSB Bus Frequency............................. - 250

LDT/FSB Frequency Ratio....................... - x3

CPU/FSB Frequency Ratio....................... - x 10.0

PCI eXpress Frequency......................... - 100Mhz

 

CPU VID StartUp Value......................... - 1.500v

 

CPU VID Control............................... - 1.450v

CPU VID Special Control....................... - Above VID * 112.0%

LDT Voltage Control........................... - 1.20v

Chip Set Voltage Control...................... - 1.52v

DRAM Voltage Control.......................... - 3.52v

 

DRAM Configuration Settings:

 

DRAM Frequency Set............................ - 200=RAM/FSB:01/01

Command Per Clock (CPC)....................... - Enable

CAS Latency Control (Tcl)..................... - 2.5

RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd)..................... - 03 Bus Clocks

Min RAS# active time (Tras)................... - 05 Bus Clocks

Row precharge time (Trp)...................... - 03 Bus Clocks

Row Cycle time (Trc).......................... - 07 Bus Clocks

Row refresh cyc time (Trfc)................... - 17 Bus Clocks

Row to Row delay (Trrd)....................... - 03 Bus Clocks

Write recovery time (Twr)..................... - 03 Bus Clocks

Write to Read delay (Twtr).................... - 02 Bus Clocks

Read to Write delay (Trwt).................... - 03 Bus Clocks

Refresh Period (Tref)......................... - 3120 Cycles

DRAM Bank Interleave.......................... - Disable

 

DQS Skew Control.............................. - Increase

DQS Skew Value................................ - 0

DRAM Drive Strength........................... - Auto

DRAM Data Drive Strength...................... - Auto

Max Async Latency............................. - Auto

DRAM Response Time............................ - Normal

Read Preamble Time............................ - Auto

IdleCycle Limit............................... - 256 Cycles

Dynamic Counter............................... - Disable

R/W Queue Bypass.............................. - 16 x

Bypass Max.................................... - 07 x

32 Byte Granularity........................... - Disable(4 Bursts)

[Vroom]

Hello all,

 

This is my first post on dfi forums.

More than 1 year I keep reading it, but never had serious problems with my Ultra-D and Venice/Opteron with Centon PC3200LL TCCD 504 BP808.

I managed without any problems to get the rig stable @ 307 1T 1:1 , even 310 with my first Venice. 2,5-4-3-6-1T

Well I'm now with a 146 0540 APMW on the expert and cant do anything above 240 1:1 ; More stable @ 2-3-3 than 2,5-3-3 ->bsod !?!? wow

I tried all, all settings one per one, lot of time -lost. I dont even talk about hours to read all oc forums I know including xs of course.

Running with 11/25 bios.

I really think the centon is not compatible with that board, unfortunatley I cant test others ram for now :/

Now I need some feedback/confirmation/solution about that

 

Thanks a lot

[Keekles]

I riped the image from earlyer in the thread, but it is so easly knocked and/broken. maybe it should have a supporter.

 

 

yeah for some reason I have bumped a few of those on this board.

[vega27]

just got mine last night so i thought i'd offer my own initial impressions.

 

received board on 12/12/05 with 11/02 BIOS.

 

couldn't get it to boot until i moved the stick of RAM to slot #2 (orange slot furthest from CPU). board would not POST with the DIMM in slot #3 or #4 (two slots closest to CPU). [fixed: thanks, martin! i was looking at slots 1-4 as 4-1]

 

it properly recognizes my opteron 175 but shows CPU idle temp of 120C :eek: .

 

time to flash...

[ICON57]

mine is on the truck for delivery today, will post tomorrow, inital results.

[Squid1]

couldn't get it to boot until i moved the stick of RAM to slot #3 (orange slot furthest from CPU). board would not POST with the DIMM in slot #1 or #2 (two slots closest to CPU).

 

This is normal for the SLI-DR, too. Only the yellow and organ slot away from the CPU ever do single-channel.

 

BTW, you have the numbering wrong, at least on the SLI-DR number 1 is farest and number 4 is nearest to the CPU.

[vega27]

one thing i forgot to mention. on first POST i went into the BIOS to set up stock settings. then i enabed memtest and walked away so it could burn a little bit. when i came in to check on it (test #7, pass #1) the CPU fan wasn't spinning! not quite sure why it did this, esp. since BIOS is grossly exaggerating my CPU temps (120C idle) and i also left CPU throttling on in the BIOS.

 

luckily, i had set up everything outside of the case and i'm using an xp-120. i know memtest is a memory stresser but i really hope it didn't damage this CPU. does the CPU get hot during memtest?

 

i've since plugged the CPU fan (120mm sunon) straight into the PSU instead of the motherboard.

 

gonna flash from this so-far-crappy 11/02 BIOS to something else when i get home. hoepfully, that'll fix my problems.

[ncsa]

Some initial settings for the GeIL ONE TCCD Modules - 2 x 512Mb, these still need tweaking but the one aspect that surprised me was that CPC had to be set to 2T after HT 265. I know these modules are good for 315 1T.

 

BIOS 12-07

 

This has corrected the corruption I saw in the description fields of 11-25 but has not carried across the 'RAM DLL SPEED' option which is available in the 11-25 version.

 

 

Genie BIOS Settings:



[COLOR=Red]FSB Bus Frequency.............................  -  310

LDT/FSB Frequency Ratio.......................  -  x 3.0

CPU/FSB Frequency Ratio.......................  -  x10

PCI eXpress Frequency.........................  -  100Mhz



CPU VID StartUp Value.........................  -  1.500v



CPU VID Control...............................  -  1.325v

CPU VID Special Control.......................  -  Above VID * 116.8%

LDT Voltage Control...........................  -  1.40v 

Chip Set Voltage Control......................  -  1.65v

DRAM Voltage Control..........................  -  2.71v [/COLOR] 



DRAM Configuration Settings:



[COLOR=Blue]DRAM Frequency Set............................  -  200=RAM/FSB:01/01

Command Per Clock (CPC).......................  -  Disabled 

CAS Latency Control (Tcl).....................  -  2.5

RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd).....................  -  4.0

Min RAS# active time (Tras)...................  -  6.0

Row precharge time (Trp)......................  -  3.0

Row Cycle time (Trc)..........................  -  07 Bus Clocks

Row refresh cyc time (Trfc)...................  -  14 Bus Clocks

Row to Row delay (Trrd).......................  -  02 Bus Clocks

Write recovery time (Twr).....................  -  02 Bus Clocks

Write to Read delay (Twtr)....................  -  02 Bus Clocks

Read to Write delay (Trwt)....................  -  02 Bus Clocks

Refresh Period (Tref).........................  -  3120 Cycles

Write CAS latency (tWCL)......................  -  01 Bus Clocks

DRAM Bank Interleave..........................  -  Enabled



DQS Skew Control..............................  -  Auto

DQS Skew Value................................  -  0

DRAM Drive Strength...........................  -  Level 11

DRAM Data Drive Strength......................  -  Level 1

Max Async Latency.............................  -  Auto

DRAM Response Time............................  -  Fastest

Read Preamble Time............................  -  Auto

IdleCycle Limit...............................  -  256 Cycles

Dynamic Counter...............................  -  Disable

R/W Queue Bypass..............................  -  16 x

Bypass Max....................................  -  07 x

32 Byte Granularity...........................  -  Disable(4 Bursts)[/COLOR]

 

[ixtapalapaquetl]

ncsa, did you try raising your Tras? I found that I could only get high frequency at 1T with higher values than spec, like 10 or 11.

[red930]

i've since plugged the CPU fan (120mm sunon) straight into the PSU instead of the motherboard.

That's always the best move since powering the fans from the motherboard headers takes some current from the board. You can find 3pin fan to 4pin molex power adapters that have the yellow sense wire so you can monitor the fan speed if you like.