Why do Experts clock so poorly?

[vertigofm]

So is this true? I thought the expert was one of the best OCing boards out there?

[mdzcpa]

My best clocks have come on the Expert. It takes a little more work. Don't expect your Ultra D or SLI-DR settings to work on the Expert. Focus on the Drive strengths. Each CPU and memory combination is different. On the Expert, Drive strengths are king.

[vertigofm]

what do u mean drive strengths?

[racinjimy]

So is this true? I thought the expert was one of the best OCing boards out there?

 

I am confused with your answer

 

the expert overvolts less, that is good not bad, it is just that you can't switch from a regular DFI NF4 board to an expert without tweaking it again.................

[Guest Lux]

On mine... if I set 1.50 in bios and reboot back to bios it shows 1.523v

 

If I set 1.425 * 109%, and boot back to bios it shows 1.560v

 

It seems using the * % gives more accurate voltages however on a couple of them I can change it and the voltage reports the same.

 

107% and 109% which is weird. Windows ALWAYS (mobo monitor, cpu-z,etc) shows lower voltages by sometimes .06v

[Angry_Games]

here's the difference in the Expert vs non-Expert boards that I have announced many times but I suppose people still have not read it...

 

 

the Expert board focuses much much much more on DRAM Drive Strength and DRAM Data Drive Strength.

 

these are the two most important settings when it comed to overclocking on an Expert. You have now 15 levels of Drive Strength to match up with 4 levels of Data Drive Strength.

 

 

any kind of previous settings you had on your non Expert NF4 are pretty much moot on the Expert because of the focus on DRAM Drive Strength

 

 

I cannot give you a magical setting that will work for everyone either (because I know your next question is "well what should I use to get such-and-such overclock on my stuff then???").

 

I can tell you that if you have ignored DRAM Drive (and Data) Strength with your Expert, or just copied settings from the non-Expert expecting it to work just the same, you have to go back and fiddle with these two settings.

 

You also have much more accurate control over vdimm voltages which has a VERY profound effect on overclocking memory. We found that hitting right at 2.75v with TCCD seemed to be a very very good sweet spot, but the only way to do that on a non-Expert NF4 was to do a volt mod to where you could more accurately control .25v increments. With the Expert you get a heck of a lot more choices in how to set your vdimm voltage, which again, can have yet another profound effect on overclocking.

 

Some memories can handle a 'general' voltage range of 3.0-3.2 and be ok

 

Some memories really have a very nice 'sweet spot' at say, for example, 2.66v and anything outside of this range will not produce nearly as good results (you might only get to 265Mhz but if you dial in your sweetspot you might hit 281Mhz)

 

 

I see absolutely no reason to believe that the Expert is a worse overclocker than the non-Expert.

 

I see much evidence pointing to users not realizing what I just explained and thinking that their overclock should be better just by the fact that it's a newer board (but not understanding just how it is new and what is so different about it than the original)

[4Qman]

The Expert Board rocks. :nod:

 

I too had to fiddle with Data Drive Strength and the other few settings as this really made the difference from a stable system and a non stable system expecially on TCCD IC's.

 

I cant fault the board to be honest, just needs more play which myself and many who buy DFI boards enjoy anyway. Especially on the "Expert" board.

[jodiuh]

the Expert board focuses much much much more on DRAM Drive Strength and DRAM Data Drive Strength.

 

I've got my RAM and HTT clocked down nice 'n' low cause I'm trying to isolate CPU top end. With that in mind, would this be something poking holes in my stability @ higher (280+) FSB?

 

EDIT: I really need to spend some more time in here...

[gokalper]

it seems i can't get my 165 to run dual superpi at stock settings, the second core fails instantly. Is this a drive strenght issue, it even does this at a 1/2 mem div. I had a sli-dr before, mamybe i should get the regular ultra-d if the experts gonna give me problems from the start, ima try to get my 165 tested in my old rig tommorow in the sli-dr. Any ideas?