DFI UT P35-T2R: Tweakers Rejoice!
by Rajinder Gill on October 18, 2007 2:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test Setup
With such a vast array of overclocking BIOS functions at our disposal, a decision was made to stick with a single operating system environment. Microsoft XP SP2 was chosen due to its maturity, taking away some of the time burden looking for possible software level conflicts that may exist on a newer OS (though we ventured to our standard Vista test suite for the non-overclocking benchmarks). This does not mean to say that the board cannot work with Vista at present when overclocking. We are just trying to eliminate possible downtime on non motherboard/BIOS related issues and also considered the fact that a vast majority of overclocking enthusiasts have not switched to Vista (yet).
The test setup utilized the supplied Transpiper, set up to exit our Lian Li PC75 case via the space available by not inserting the supplied I/O backplate. The fin section of the Transpiper heatsink was aligned with the exhaust fan of the OCZ 1000w ProXStream PSU, though at times we felt this might not have been the best solution during extended overclocking sessions because of the already high temperature of the PSU exhaust. Another reason this setup may not be ideal when benchmarking is that the Transpiper solution is partially handicapped by an adjustable construction. We found most of the heat that was transferred into the single heatpipe never quite made it past the elbow joint connecting to the dual pipe heatsink. The biggest gain in temperature reduction was realized by simply pointing a fan at the PWM heatsink itself.
We could not find any gains in using the supplied CPU to PWM heat transfer plate; CPU temps with the plate installed were considerably higher at full load (~10C). This was partially due to the increased thermal resistance of an extra surface, which decreases thermal transfer potential from the most critical junction of a cooling solution - directly over the CPU die. We also need to consider the concave or bi-concave bases of some modern coolers and waterblocks and indeed the IHS itself (unlapped). The heat transfer plate would need to be quite flexible to ensure good contact when under pressure.
We used our QX6800 G0 ES CPU, concentrating on the 8x and 9x multipliers that both our air- and water-cooled setups can take advantage of currently. The CPU itself is a particularly high temperature sample of a G0 stepping; load temps were around 15C higher at equivalent voltages in comparison to some of the better Q6600 G0 examples we have in the labs. We later lapped the IHS flat (as flat as possible) which resulted in a seven degree drop in load temperatures, but that still ends up around 8C higher than our best Q6600 temperature ranges.
Both high resolution 1920x1200 and 1280x1024 resolution game benchmark tests were run to find performance benefits for gamers, should such advancements through BIOS tweaking exist. We utilize new drive images on each board in order to minimize any potential driver conflicts. Our 3DMark results are generated utilizing the standard benchmark resolution for each program. We run each benchmark five times, throw out the two low and high scores, and report the remaining score.
We limited our standard Vista test suite to a few benchmark results to indicate the general performance of this board. After all, a P35 is a P35 for the most part at stock settings, with most P35 boards scoring within 1%~2% of each other. It really does not matter if you utilize a $90 abit or Gigabyte P35 board or the $200+ versions from ASUS or DFI as stock performance will not vary much in most cases.
As such, we decided to take a different look at this board and focus on overclocking. This board was designed for the PC Autobahn and not your typical school zone road or office park avenue. Our overclocking tests will only show results on this board for now, but we will expand coverage to include direct comparisons as we review other boards that are designed for the overclocking enthusiast market sector.
| DFI UT P35-T2R Standard Benchmark Testbed |
|
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core, 2.4GHz, 8MB Unified Cache, 9x Multiplier, 1066FSB |
| CPU Voltage | 1.2500V |
| Cooling | Tuniq Tower 120 |
| Power Supply | OCZ ProXStream 1000W |
| Memory | OCZ Flex PC2-9600 (4x1GB) |
| Memory Settings | 4-4-4-12 (DDR2-1066) |
| Video Cards | MSI 8800GTX |
| Video Drivers | NVIDIA 163.71 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital 7200RPM 750GB SATA 3/Gbps 16MB Buffer |
| Optical Drives | Plextor PX-B900A, Toshiba SD-H802A |
| Case | CoolerMaster Stacker 830 Evo, Lin Li PC75 |
| BIOS | DFI 9/13 |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit |
| . | |
With such a vast array of overclocking BIOS functions at our disposal, a decision was made to stick with a single operating system environment. Microsoft XP SP2 was chosen due to its maturity, taking away some of the time burden looking for possible software level conflicts that may exist on a newer OS (though we ventured to our standard Vista test suite for the non-overclocking benchmarks). This does not mean to say that the board cannot work with Vista at present when overclocking. We are just trying to eliminate possible downtime on non motherboard/BIOS related issues and also considered the fact that a vast majority of overclocking enthusiasts have not switched to Vista (yet).
The test setup utilized the supplied Transpiper, set up to exit our Lian Li PC75 case via the space available by not inserting the supplied I/O backplate. The fin section of the Transpiper heatsink was aligned with the exhaust fan of the OCZ 1000w ProXStream PSU, though at times we felt this might not have been the best solution during extended overclocking sessions because of the already high temperature of the PSU exhaust. Another reason this setup may not be ideal when benchmarking is that the Transpiper solution is partially handicapped by an adjustable construction. We found most of the heat that was transferred into the single heatpipe never quite made it past the elbow joint connecting to the dual pipe heatsink. The biggest gain in temperature reduction was realized by simply pointing a fan at the PWM heatsink itself.
We could not find any gains in using the supplied CPU to PWM heat transfer plate; CPU temps with the plate installed were considerably higher at full load (~10C). This was partially due to the increased thermal resistance of an extra surface, which decreases thermal transfer potential from the most critical junction of a cooling solution - directly over the CPU die. We also need to consider the concave or bi-concave bases of some modern coolers and waterblocks and indeed the IHS itself (unlapped). The heat transfer plate would need to be quite flexible to ensure good contact when under pressure.
We used our QX6800 G0 ES CPU, concentrating on the 8x and 9x multipliers that both our air- and water-cooled setups can take advantage of currently. The CPU itself is a particularly high temperature sample of a G0 stepping; load temps were around 15C higher at equivalent voltages in comparison to some of the better Q6600 G0 examples we have in the labs. We later lapped the IHS flat (as flat as possible) which resulted in a seven degree drop in load temperatures, but that still ends up around 8C higher than our best Q6600 temperature ranges.
Both high resolution 1920x1200 and 1280x1024 resolution game benchmark tests were run to find performance benefits for gamers, should such advancements through BIOS tweaking exist. We utilize new drive images on each board in order to minimize any potential driver conflicts. Our 3DMark results are generated utilizing the standard benchmark resolution for each program. We run each benchmark five times, throw out the two low and high scores, and report the remaining score.
We limited our standard Vista test suite to a few benchmark results to indicate the general performance of this board. After all, a P35 is a P35 for the most part at stock settings, with most P35 boards scoring within 1%~2% of each other. It really does not matter if you utilize a $90 abit or Gigabyte P35 board or the $200+ versions from ASUS or DFI as stock performance will not vary much in most cases.
As such, we decided to take a different look at this board and focus on overclocking. This board was designed for the PC Autobahn and not your typical school zone road or office park avenue. Our overclocking tests will only show results on this board for now, but we will expand coverage to include direct comparisons as we review other boards that are designed for the overclocking enthusiast market sector.
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retrospooty - Sunday, October 21, 2007 - link
Not really. Check this memory test here at AT. http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=312...">http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=312...At DDR 2000 at 6X500 CPU the best sisoft standard memory score for DDR3 is 9138 at DDR3 2000 8-7-6-18 ... I get 8871 with my DDR2 1000mhz at 4-4-4-10 with a similar setup on the DFI P35 mobo. DDR3 even at a highly overclocked 2000mhz is hardly faster than DDR2 at 1000 now. I am not going to go to DDR3 until Nehalem is cheap, and DDR3 latency is lower and cheap, 2 more years out.
And PCI-E 2.0 is not going to help for a long time. Like with PCI to AGP, and AGP to PCI-E there is no improvement at all right off the bat. The graphic bus standard is always WAY ahead of the actual cards need for it, 1-2 years at least. We are not even utilizing PCI-E 8x, much less 16x, not even with dual 8800GTX's. Also , PCI-E 2.0 is backward compatible, so I I get the latest greatest Graphic card next year (whatever it is) it will be PCI-E 2.0, but will work fine on PCI-E 1 motherboards.
Raja Gill - Thursday, October 18, 2007 - link
It's one of those things in life, despite having no real logic to it, 'tweaking' actually has a market. DFI took a risk, while this segment does not guarantee large sale volumes, some of the return is made up in a higher profit margin. Without DFI around, some of the more pioneering BIOS options (that actually are of use to Joe blow due to Intel's binning strategy), would never filter thru to other boards. The asking price is high, both Gary and myself recognised this. It has to be said that those who have paid the premium have generally not been dissapointed. In terms of the cascade results, yes, boardss like this and Asus's ROG line are used by the benchmarking community to chase big records, again this is a growing community who pays high dollar for every last drop of performance. We are aiming to satisfy a slightly wider audience with the performance board reviews, by looking at how they will be used, and help out with settings by spending long hours exploring the BIOS functions ourselves, still trying to give a balanced view for JB and some insight to help the benchmarkers decide if the board fits their needs... The bios's on so many of these boards are getting more complex, we hope those who buy the boards can use some of the settings we provide to get a base to work from, (if they need it)..If there's anything else you would like to see added, please let us know....
regards
Raja
Jodiuh - Friday, October 19, 2007 - link
SCREW THEM ALL! I've been drinking and still managed this in under 2 hours.http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/jodiuh/DFI%...">http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/...0UT%20P3...
Sure I've been able to achieve good results w/ lowly air on the Giga DS3, Asus P5B, DFI Dark, and Abit IP35, but this board:
1. makes oc fun
2. great layout (usb ports towards the front where they should be, shame Abit)
3. great stock cooling, especially for air
4. excellent bios
5. did I mention speed drunk oc? (beer, then 50mhz on the bus)
It's truly a great game. And for about $260, it's a steal. There's no other board that offers this much pleasure. Sure it's $, but then didn't most of you pay $320 for your 6600's? :D
Avalon - Friday, October 19, 2007 - link
Any drunk monkey could OC a decent C2D to 3.5Ghz. I've had plenty of fun OC'ing on my $90 Gigabyte P35 DS3L, which also has a great layout and decent BIOS. It's no DFI, but it gets the job done for $160 less, which is enough money for me to buy a decent video card, 4GB of RAM, 750GB of hard drive space, etc...Don't get me wrong, DFI is by far my favorite motherboard company, and their BIOS tweaking is the best available. However, I will NEVER consider a $260 board a "steal" when the only thing I'll get out of it over a significantly cheaper board is that I have more settings to play with if I feel bored. Fortunately, when I get bored, I load up a game, instead.
cmdrdredd - Saturday, October 20, 2007 - link
Avalon hit it right on the head. Any decent C2D can do over 3.2Ghz and some up close to 4Ghz with proper cooling on $90 boards. There is absolutely NO reason to buy a $260 board this late to market. Not to mention that it is also slower than boards which retail for less money in this review at the settings used.The number of people actually willing to and wanting to use 550Mhz+ FSB is too small to matter.
/end
Jodiuh - Tuesday, October 23, 2007 - link
Most of the 965 board's are a crap shoot for 500fsb, but the 2 p35's I've used had no qualms about this. It's not just getting the OC for me tho. I needed a board that:-doesn't look like rainbow brite exploded on it (Gigabyte DS3)
-doesn't use an AMI bios, hits 500+ FSB easily (Asus P5B Deluxe)
-doesn't crackle (DFI P965-S, Abit IP35 Pro)
-isn't NV (EVGA 680i)
-has usb ports, front panel header, and SATA ports in the far right of the board
-and of course the great stock cooling (uses nuts/bolts), excellent bios, and stable voltages add to the package
There's just no other non-Asus board that did all that right now. Paying another $70 for the extras isn't an issue for a hobbyist that plays w/ his rig.
Acanthus - Friday, October 19, 2007 - link
Yes, we did.And on quad cores, this board does no better than other boards much cheaper than itself.
I am not here to bash DFI, they make great stuff.
The price of admission is too high for this board for quad overclocking from the results i've seen. The FSB limitation appears to be the G0 quads themselves, they all seem to top out at 470-510fsb anyway. The Asus P5K and Gigabyte P35 DQ6 both easily do those speeds on unmodified boards.
customcoms - Thursday, October 18, 2007 - link
Thanks anandtech for providing an overclocking article TRULY worth reading! We needed a motherboard review like this when DFI's original nForce4 boards came out-trying to figure out every bios option, while fun and rewarding, is a very very time consuming process.Its one thing for a reviewer to claim "this board is capable of 500+ fsb speeds" and another COMPLETELY for that reviewer to document virtually every step and every bios option they used to get to that speed. This review is along the lines of the user reviews I normally turn to to verify the components I am interested work as advertised. While the cascade cooling results and extreme price of this board could have been left out, it is good to see a reviewer actually using the hardware in the environment a $300 (or $260, or any board over $200 imo) motherboard is going to be used in.
Jodiuh - Thursday, October 18, 2007 - link
It can be found for $260 from motherboardpro. Comes w/ a nice little LAN carrying harness too.cmdrdredd - Thursday, October 18, 2007 - link
Still too much money. As was said before, it still does not beat some of the boards which have been out for a long time. Sure it looks nice, but for the money spent here, you can buy more memory or the next step up in CPU if you go with a less expensive board.It's late, expensive, and does not have any magic that makes me say "it's better than anything else out there". Even the $90 IP35-E is a good match against this DFI board unless you have to or like to spend hours setting up the bios just so.
It's nice, but like I said too little too late.