Nice article rich. Doesn't sound like the best board out there at the moment (from stock especially, but thats not the point is it) but nice to read a subjective view of the RD600 :)
Thats quite interesting to see the difference between the Striker and this board, but i think the Striker is the better buy :D Im not an Asus fan, honest.
And how come Tims hosted it when bindi wrote it all, Tims getting all the credit :D
And how come Tims hosted it when bindi wrote it all, Tims getting all the credit :D
lol :) That's one of the fun parts - You never know who's going to actually make the thread for the article ;) Rich was busy at the moment when Tim got done with our editing procedure, so he put it up instead. We're sneaky like that...ninja, even. :D
Wow...I don't even know what half the BIOS settings do...that's how I know a board is a LanParty! It's still cheaper then an Asus Commando P965 board in the US, and much less then any of the Asus 680i boards(a whole $150 less then the Striker!), so the price seems reasonable to me. I could never afford any of these boards anyway...
I'd consider it just so I could run an Intel CPU on an AMD chipset with an Nvidia GPU. ;)
Seriously though, every time I look at overclocking hardware I think that I could just buy a cheaper board and a better CPU and get higher speed guaranteed. It seems to me that serious overclocking (I'm a mild overclocker) is as much of a "lifestyle choice" as playing WOW etc.
Originally Posted by Gravemind123 Wow...I don't even know what half the BIOS settings do...that's how I know a board is a LanParty! It's still cheaper then an Asus Commando P965 board in the US, and much less then any of the Asus 680i boards(a whole $150 less then the Striker!), so the price seems reasonable to me. I could never afford any of these boards anyway...
In the UK the Commando is £35 cheaper than the DFI.
Great Review!!!!!!!
Thank you. I imagine that would have taken a lot of time and effort to put together, but it was very interesting and informational to read. Seems to me like another DFI board with more BIOS options than you know what to do with (making it overclocking heaven for serious tweakers). I really like the layout though, seems very nice and user friendly.
Originally Posted by Jodiuh Nice read guys. Will we see a DFI 965P board? I don't particularly care for my P5B and long for the days of Abit NF7/IC7 DFI nf3 250GB/nf4 expert.
I honestly don't know, I've been certainly been pushing/hoping for one... still no luck though
Originally Posted by Jodiuh Nice read guys. Will we see a DFI 965P board? I don't particularly care for my P5B and long for the days of Abit NF7/IC7 DFI nf3 250GB/nf4 expert.
DFI are BIOS guys, and I've heard Intel rarely give much out other than the basic registers when they release a chipset because they don't want people overclocking. This means all the extra work on Intel chipsets is done by the company making the motherboard reverse engineering and debugging the chipset. AFAIK, luckily quite a few registers don't change so the initial work is easy, but to get it done well takes a while. This is also why some companies like DFI with their 975X infinity, and the Gigabyte P965 DS3/DQ6 have taken months to get a really OC friendly BIOS out. Gigabyte is on F9 now. Companies like ATI or NV are more likely to go the extra mile because they are smaller and need to get that edge in order to make it a more appealing product.
Originally Posted by Jodiuh Nice read guys. Will we see a DFI 965P board? I don't particularly care for my P5B and long for the days of Abit NF7/IC7 DFI nf3 250GB/nf4 expert.
there's some pics/screenies on XS of a DFI Infinity 965 but it's probably months away.
Meantime the abit AB9 QuadGT is already reported to be doing 520+fsb but still on the 1067 strap (Gary Key in Anandtech's forum) ...
Nice review of the DFI RD600 though guys, it pretty much confirms my initial thoughts as not for me.
About ****ing time DFI started releasing enthusiast boards for Core2. Good article. Was expecting the board to be better however. I await the striker review ;)
Very nice informative piece on the bios settings :)
Just have a question about the maths here
Quote:
The CPU Core GTLRef values range from 1 to 255, with each value representing approximately 0.00153V, so the stock value of 48 represents a cut off voltage of 0.70V, out of typically 1.21V. Increasing this offers values of typically: 72 = 0.74V, 96 = 0.77V, 120 = 0.81V.
The Northbridge GTLRef values also range from 1 to 255 but each value represents 0.00146V, so a stock value of 128 = 0.86V. Increasing this offers values of typically: 144 = 0.88V, 160 = 0.91V, 176 = 0.93V.
CPU GTL value = 0.00153v per step and 48 = 0.70V but 0.70/48 = 0.014583333
NB GTL ref value = 0.00146 per step and 128 = 0.86v but 0.86v /128 = 0.00671875
That's a good point. I was merely quoting DFI from their wiki on the subject that included those values. It was a long morning and I didn't have time to confirm them, I just assumed they were correct. I spent the best part of 2 days trying to work it out by hand beforehand. http://csd.dficlub.org/tikiwiki192/tiki-index.php?page=GtlRef
After reading it again, I'm still unsure of the actual voltage numbers: either the quoted voltages or increments are incorrect, but the principle is right though.
I love these things for the tweak settings out the arse, but geez DFI know how to make an ugly board. Lose the neon crap, replace with all-black like the Abit AW9D-Max...
It's too bad the MAX of today is nothing like the max of the olden days.
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And how come Tims hosted it when bindi wrote it all, Tims getting all the credit :D
Seriously though, every time I look at overclocking hardware I think that I could just buy a cheaper board and a better CPU and get higher speed guaranteed. It seems to me that serious overclocking (I'm a mild overclocker) is as much of a "lifestyle choice" as playing WOW etc.
In the UK the Commando is £35 cheaper than the DFI.
Thank you. I imagine that would have taken a lot of time and effort to put together, but it was very interesting and informational to read. Seems to me like another DFI board with more BIOS options than you know what to do with (making it overclocking heaven for serious tweakers). I really like the layout though, seems very nice and user friendly.
DFI are BIOS guys, and I've heard Intel rarely give much out other than the basic registers when they release a chipset because they don't want people overclocking. This means all the extra work on Intel chipsets is done by the company making the motherboard reverse engineering and debugging the chipset. AFAIK, luckily quite a few registers don't change so the initial work is easy, but to get it done well takes a while. This is also why some companies like DFI with their 975X infinity, and the Gigabyte P965 DS3/DQ6 have taken months to get a really OC friendly BIOS out. Gigabyte is on F9 now. Companies like ATI or NV are more likely to go the extra mile because they are smaller and need to get that edge in order to make it a more appealing product.
Meantime the abit AB9 QuadGT is already reported to be doing 520+fsb but still on the 1067 strap (Gary Key in Anandtech's forum) ...
Nice review of the DFI RD600 though guys, it pretty much confirms my initial thoughts as not for me.
And >100°C on the NB that is just crazy.
little typo
Nice thought out review. Must have taken ages to write with all the bios settings!
Just have a question about the maths here
CPU GTL value = 0.00153v per step and 48 = 0.70V but 0.70/48 = 0.014583333
NB GTL ref value = 0.00146 per step and 128 = 0.86v but 0.86v /128 = 0.00671875
:? :?
http://csd.dficlub.org/tikiwiki192/tiki-index.php?page=GtlRef
After reading it again, I'm still unsure of the actual voltage numbers: either the quoted voltages or increments are incorrect, but the principle is right though.
It's too bad the MAX of today is nothing like the max of the olden days.