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DFI LANParty UT nF3-250Gb: Overclocker's Dream

 by Wesley Fink on September 8, 2004 12:05 AM EST
54 Comments | Add A Comment
54 Comments

Memory Stress Testing: DFI LANParty UT nF3 250Gb

The memory stress test is very basic, as it simply tests the ability of the DFI nF3 250Gb to operate at its officially supported memory frequency (400MHz DDR), at the lowest memory timings that OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 Modules will support. Because of the numerous questions that have been asked about the number of DIMMs on Socket 754 boards, Memory Stress Testing was conducted by running 1 DIMM, 2 DIMMs, and all 3 DIMMs at DDR400. All DIMMs used for stress testing were 512MB double-sided (or double-bank) memory.

Stable DDR400 Timings - 1 DIMMs
(1/3 DIMMs populated - Single-Channel mode)
Clock Speed: 200MHz
CAS Latency: 1.5
RAS to CAS Delay: 2T
RAS Precharge: 10T*
Precharge Delay: 2T
Command Rate: 1T
*Several memory tests have shown that memory performs fastest on the nVidia nForce chipsets at a TRas (RAS Precharge) settings in the 9 to 13 range. We ran our own Memory Bandwidth tests with memtest86 with TRas settings from 5 to 15 at a wide range of different memory speeds. The best bandwidth was consistently at 9 to 11 at every speed, with TRas 10 always in the best range at every speed. The performance improvement at TRas 10 was only 2 to 4% over TRas 5 and 6 depending on the speed, but the performance advantage was consistent across all tests. All benchmarks were run at a TRas setting of 10.

We have not tested a Socket 754 board that offered a CAS 1.5 setting. The OCZ memory ran without problems with 1 DIMM at 1.5-2-2-10 settings.


Stable DDR400 Timings - 2 DIMMs
(2/3 DIMMs populated - Single-Channel mode)
Clock Speed: 200MHz
CAS Latency: 2.0
RAS to CAS Delay: 2T
RAS Precharge: 10T*
Precharge Delay: 2T
Command Rate: 1T
*Several memory tests have shown that memory performs fastest on the nVidia nForce chipsets at a TRas (RAS Precharge) settings in the 9 to 13 range. We ran our own Memory Bandwidth tests with memtest86 with TRas settings from 5 to 15 at a wide range of different memory speeds. The best bandwidth was consistently at 9 to 11 at every speed, with TRas 10 always in the best range at every speed. The performance improvement at TRas 10 was only 2 to 4% over TRas 5 and 6 depending on the speed, but the performance advantage was consistent across all tests. All benchmarks were run at a TRas setting of 10.

All earlier 754 benchmarks were run with 2 DIMMs, and this is the configuration that was used for all standard benchmark tests. The DFI LANParty UT was completely stable with 2 DIMMs at the rated timings of 2-2-2-10 at default speed.


Filling all three available memory slots is more strenuous on the memory subsystem than testing 2 DIMMs on a motherboard. We were very pleased to find that 3 DS DIMMs (1.5GB) of memory worked fine at timings almost the same as the aggressive timings that we used for 2 DIMMs. The DFI is one of the few Socket 754 boards that we have tested which can handle 3 DS DIMMs. You do need to use slightly slower timings with 3 DIMMs, but the 2-2-3-10 is very close to the rated 2-2-2-10 timings of the memory which we used for testing.

Stable DDR400 Timings - 3 DIMMs
(3/3 DIMMs populated - Single-Channel mode)
Clock Speed: 200MHz
CAS Latency: 2.0
RAS to CAS Delay: 3T
RAS Precharge: 10T*
Precharge Delay: 2T
Command Rate: 2T
*Several memory tests have shown that memory performs fastest on the nVidia nForce chipsets at a TRas (RAS Precharge) settings in the 9 to 13 range. We ran our own Memory Bandwidth tests with memtest86 with TRas settings from 5 to 15 at a wide range of different memory speeds. The best bandwidth was consistently at 9 to 11 at every speed, with TRas 10 always in the best range at every speed. The performance improvement at TRas 10 was only 2 to 4% over TRas 5 and 6 depending on the speed, but the performance advantage was consistent across all tests. All benchmarks were run at a TRas setting of 10.

The boot screen and Sisoft Sandra 2004 both reported a Command Rate of 2T when all 3 DIMM slots were filled.

FSB Overclocking: DFI LANParty UT nF3 250Gb Performance Test Configuration: DFI LANParty UT nF3 250Gb
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  • ciwell - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

    "Overclocking for Dummies"

    I like the sound of that! :D

  • punko - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

    Impressive Article !

    Can't wait for the first edition of Anantech's "Overclocking for Dummies"
    as the whole concept of FSB and memory tweaking both interests and scares me.

    Now if only I could justify to the wife retiring my current rig . . .

  • gimper48 - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

    So when is the next overclockers guide? Can we expect to see this board in it?

  • Wesley Fink - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

    #1 - The Asus K8N-E will be included in a roundup of new 754 boards in the next week.

    #2,#4 - Corrections made

    #7 - The final correct name of the series is LANParty UT, as you point out. The name has been corrected in the article. DFI considered many last minute changes - from full LANParty to bargain board. Final decisions were quite recent.

    #9 - We received this production board by Express shipment direct from Taiwan on September 1, after several delays. We are told by DFI that this is the production board. DFI, like other manufacturers, will likely make further improvements during the production run.

  • mikedustin - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

    I've been waiting for this board for a long time, only one problem I have with it, why did they pick yellow? I was wanting UV green. :(

    Oh well, I hope it will match my green case anyway.

    DFI is on the right track as a mobo maker, this board is just another big win for them.

  • tomati - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

    I have read in other forum that DFI have postpose the 2 september to the 9 because of last change in the design board , so can I expect the same result as yours ?

    (you told about the pre version , right?)

  • tomati - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

  • geoff2k - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

    Any reason that the review calls the board the "Lanparty UL NF3 250GB" and DFI's own site calls it the "Lanparty UT NF3 250GB"?

  • Ecmaster76 - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

    Talking about weak SATA connectors...

    I just built a Shuttle XPC for a friend and it had custom SATA connectors on the board and (slightly) custom cables that make things a lot better. The board connector is a lot like a USB socket, it has an outer support ring with the original SATA data pins in the center (its backward compatible). The cable has added bits on it that make it snap into the board connector. No more accidentally pulle cable. I wish the SATA mechanical specs would be revised to such a system or something similar. The electrical aspects of SATA are awesome but they didn't put much though into the connectors.

  • kmmatney - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

    "We were also able to complete stress testing at 300x8 with 2.5-3-4-10 memory timings. At that speed of 2.4Ghz at DDR600, we achieved the following results:
    Quake 3 - 474.0
    Return to Castle Wolfenstein-Enemy Territory-Radar - 104.3 "

    So...with overclocking the you saw the following increases?

    Quake 3: 411 up to 474
    Wolf-ET: 70 up to 104.3

    Wow....


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