DFI LP Dk X48-T2RSB+ Retail Results and Overclocking [56k Warning]

[reverandmaynard]

PICS ARE RESIZED


I'm going to start off with some beauty shots of the packaging, board close-ups and bios environment.

The Box...cool but still just a box. Maybe I can cut a hole in it, and give it to my wife for Christmas

love the carbon fiber look.


The Goods
easyconnector yes, extended jumpers yes, orange ide/fdd cables...no. Black would have been much better.


The Board
I really like this layout. Having all angled sata connectios, low PCI slots and all main connection at the edges of the board should be standard. I did notice that some of the components looked like they were attached by a drunk meth addict on a Friday afternoon, but aesthetics aside, they are high quality.


The Warp
This might look bad, but I've seen worse. the most likely cause for this isn't lack of quality, but actually the quality fastening of the mosfet cooling. I'll take nuts and bolts over cheap pushpins any day.
http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/2...rpedop1vh4.jpg

Chipset Cooler
This is a pretty nifty design. You can unbolt it and underneath there is a flat copper pad that is still linked to the heatpipe array. I am keeping this passively air cooled for this review.


Let's get on with the bios environment. I'll stick to the most important stuff as this could easily take 30 pictures to cover. I can go into further detail in future posts

Main Bios Page
As you can see, this is the typical main page for a Phoenix Bios. If you've been sheltered by the ASUS umbrella for a while...you're in for a treat


I Dream of Genie
This is where the magic happens.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/5...eniezl5iy8.jpg

DRAM Timing
Don't get lost in here Everything you could possibly need to adjust and more.


DR Timing continued...



Voltage Control
Lots of goodies in here! Notice the VID Control and the Special Add features. VID Control lets you control the values in voltage terms, while Special ADD allows you to adjust my percentage over your CPU's VID. I'll return to the these settings later...

continued...


CMOS Reloaded
This is such a handy tool. Anyone who does allot of different settings for benchmarks, e-peen sword fights and suicide shots needs to use this religiously.


continued...as you can see, I keep a somewhat detailed description that lets me go back and fine tune as I succeed and fail.

It's time to fire this thing up!!!

[RAMMSTEIN]

Nice read. I liked the layout, it was easy to follow for me. Nice job!

Now let's see how high you can get that chip...

[splave]

oooOOOoooO looks great rev, if I were say in the market for x48 would you suggest this one to me?

[Almost Tactf]

So I guess it's safe to say you like the board as a reference point the BIOS looks exactly like my DFI LP LT X48 T2R

[reverandmaynard]

Setup Deets

CPU: Intel E8600 3.33ghz 6mb L2Cache 45nm
Display Card: ASUS EAH4870 512mb using Catalyst 8.9
Ram: OCZ Reaper 8500 5/5/5/15 2.1v
SOund: XFI Platinum w/Live Drive
Power Supply:Silverstone Zeus 850w
HDD(s): Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 32mb Cache in RAID0+1
And the star of the show....
DFI LP Dk X48-T2RSB+
Cooling: Swiftech H20 220 Apex Ultra

First Boot
500x8, 1.28v, 1.4v nb, 333/800 resulting in 1:1 all other adjustments left at either auto, or stock.


3DMark 01 and 06


Everest Memory Cache and Bandwidth


HDD Tach
Using the ICH9R's Intel Matrix Raid Storage Manager. 64kb stripes; enable write back cache...enabled, 200g RAID 0 short stroke, 300g RAID 1 data back up.



CRANKING IT UP




Click on my sig for highest clocks so far.

[splave]

oh and also, does it really need such high NB voltage? although it looks like the heatpipe and hs are doing a fantastic job

[Almost Tactf]

Originally Posted by splave

oh and also, does it really need such high NB voltage? although it looks like the heatpipe and hs are doing a fantastic job

Voltage seems to be spot on as I need 1.4v for my X48 to hit 400FSB with a quad

[reverandmaynard]

Originally Posted by splave

oh and also, does it really need such high NB voltage? although it looks like the heatpipe and hs are doing a fantastic job

For 500fsb on an x48, this considered pretty good. I'll add that this value takes this board beyond 550fsb

[nico1981]

great review! i have the dfi lanparty dk p45 T2RS and i hit 3.4(425x8) Ghz with my q6600 at only 1.3 vcore! ( VID 1.2750). dfi is the best!

[reverandmaynard]

Thanks nico.

[DiMeLo]

Great review rev. looking good bud.

[ether.real]

When do we see Quad testing

[reverandmaynard]

Originally Posted by DiMeLo

Great review rev. looking good bud.

Thanks D.

Originally Posted by ether.real

When do we see Quad testing

i7 ether...i7

[BabyGorilla]

Solid job rev! I want to see 45nm on there as well...**** near every board out can do this with a dual...

I want to try this thing with a dual...

[reverandmaynard]

Originally Posted by tremexglok

Solid job rev! I want to see 45nm on there as well...**** near every board out can do this with a dual...

I want to try this thing with a dual...

See though, the thing about the start of this thread is that I wasn't going for maximum clocks. I've got some tricks up my sleeve

[splave]

Originally Posted by reverandmaynard

See though, the thing about the start of this thread is that I wasn't going for maximum clocks. I've got some tricks up my sleeve

well you didnt have to tell ME that, I already knew

[reverandmaynard]

Originally Posted by splave

well you didnt have to tell ME that, I already knew

uhh, I replied to trem lol. I'm drunk.

[w2richwood]

looking good rev looking forward to more
Rich

[reverandmaynard]

Thanks Rich. Still tweaking, and still getting results.

[Witchdoctor]

Sweet review man,

Are you planning to go Crossfire since you went to the x48?
Or did you just want to see what x48 was all about.
with 2x16 lanes I bet it would lay down some nice numbers and frame rates

do you think 4.8 is possible with this board??