DFI X48 LT T2R: Floats like a Butterfly…
by Rajinder Gill on April 28, 2008 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Conclusion
DFI's execution of the P35 T2R motherboard was so close to perfection that any board released after it was bound to face an uphill task to live up to the performance, compatibility, and ease of use that has become synonymous with the product. The LANParty X48 T2R board has managed to equal the P35 when it comes to the simple things like USB ports and plug-in peripherals working as they should - we had no issues to speak of with any of our peripherals whilst using the board. However, overclocking the board to its limits is a little bittersweet.
It's sweet that the fine tuning options allow running components like memory at high bandwidth with the lowest VDIMM we have ever managed with our memory modules. The other positive is that users who don't want to go for elusive levels of FSB will find that the board will run fine without any need of tuning GTL levels right up to 485FSB for dual-core 45nm processors and 420FSB for quad-core 45nm processors. The bitter aspect is that boards from ASUS such as the Rampage Formula are in direct competition to DFI's offering in this segment and can run ultra high FSB speeds and lower tRD levels with relative ease.
As a result of this, there are times when performance on the ASUS boards is actually better than our achievements on the current DFI BIOS and with far less overall effort and time expenditure. Mind you, DFI still has an edge when it comes to flexibility for users who wish to run 8GB of memory. Access to all known chipset registers allows users to give and take on performance so that they can run high processor and memory speeds even with all the DIMM banks populated - there is no doubt DFI is the market leader for memory overclocking.
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Right at the very top-end of the performance ladder, we know DFI are working hard to pry everything they can from the X48 chipset, and in order to succeed they need to be able to provide that last few percent of headroom that people have come to expect from DFI products. Right now, for outright brute force overclocking, realizing that additional 1%-2% headroom is not possible. The board's current strengths may not be enough to win over the type of user that will generally choose this type of product to "race".
What we have here is a motherboard not quite able to dominate the DDR2 sector outright, but it certainly sets new standards in other regards. If tweaking is your thing and you have the patience to work with the extensive BIOS options, there is no doubt that the X48 T2R will keep you occupied for a long time. However, DFI's own P35 offers everything a user could need and can be teamed with a dual-GPU card to get around the P35 chipset limit of having a single x16 bandwidth PCIE slot.
We were hoping for a little more performance from this board and despite DFI's efforts thus far, we did not find the final few percent that would have given this board top-DDR2-dog status for 2GB and 4GB memory overclocking (that title still belongs to DFI's P35 LANParty board), but it's certainly an interesting contender. So interesting, that if you are not ready to move to DDR3 and want to run CrossFire, then we suggest you take a look at it.
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Ephebus - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - link
I remember a time when I was considering the purchase of a midrange ASUS motherboard with a reasonable set of overclocking options in the BIOS but no PCI-E clock setting, and there was no information on the specifications page or the manual as to how that setting would behave when overclocking. I then wrote to ASUS asking if the PCI-E clock was always locked by the board at 100 or if it would vary according to the CPU clock setting, and was actually told by an ASUS support "technician" to "go read a book on overclocking". I managed to get the info later on a forum from a person who owned the board and was kind enough to check it out for me. And that is, when ASUS support doesn't simply delete your support inquiry.With DFI I've managed to actually have short conversations with the technical support staff in the past, was able to report minor BIOS bugs and see them fixed on the next release, etc., so at least for me it's not just a question of whether a DFI motherboard can reach a few MHz more than an ASUS competitor or not on this or that benchmark, it's also all about the feeling of satisfaction from owning a product made by a company that has this kind of attitude towards users, and that always does their best to meet the needs and wishes of enhusiasts. I'll gladly pay more for a DFI product anytime.
Intelman07 - Monday, April 28, 2008 - link
Is there a reason Anandtech reconmends ~400FSB for quad core, does a lower multiplier and a higher FSB increase performance more in a quad core chip?Rajinder Gill - Monday, April 28, 2008 - link
Hi Intelman07,This applies in relation to the FSB limits of the quad cores only ON THIS board; 400 FSB at a trd running near 5-6 will give you a read delay time of around 13ns. Anything over 420 FSB needs a hike in trd while 440+ you need to be looking twoards a trd of 8 which is a delay of 17ns. The drop in write/copy speed bandwidth by reverting to 400FSB is only 500mbs while reads gain 500mbs running the lower tRD (swings and roundabouts). Now factor the VTT and VMCH requiremnts of the higher FSB and it becomes to click.
For more insight into this, 2 of our articles here will explain the fundammnetals and reasoning a little better.
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3208&am...">http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3208&am...
and also logical approach to system tuning using Kris' excellent groundwork.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...
Other boards which vcan hit higher FSB's and low tRDs change these rules a little. But for the most part, the truth is that FSB overcloking on the quads and Joe Public - 400FSB really is realistic and attainable with real stability - and this is important to a majority of our readers. Of course, we still use our cascades from time to time and hammer the boards real hard without any of the logic written here applied.
The interetsing part comes as no surprise - yup - this all favors unlocked multiplier processors aka QX9650 and 9770 class, just up the FSB - keep the tRD low and hey presto!
The beauty of this board is that it gets close to that tRD 12.5ns latency time at 400FSB at 1.25VMCH and 8GB of memory with no need for GTL tuning- easy as pie- with performance that you can't swing anywhere else using a 12mb cache quad on this board.
Hope that clears it up a little..
regards
Raja
Bozo Galora - Monday, April 28, 2008 - link
Another great article by AT's best reviewer.I have read somewhere DFI's top X48 board gonna have ICH10R and cost ~$400??
Slash3 - Monday, April 28, 2008 - link
Page 2 states "The expansion slot layout is comprised of three PCI Express x16 slots (two x16 and one x4 slot), and three PCI slots."The board itself has 3 physical PCI-E 16x slots and 1 PCI-E 4x slot though, so the sentence is kind of ambiguous.
takumsawsherman - Monday, April 28, 2008 - link
It's the wicked fast 400Mbps version, rather than 800Mbps. Wouldn't want to advance the field. Nope, let's use the 10 year old ancient variety, rather than the 5 year old less ancient variety.I've got an even better idea... Why not throw in some USB 1.1 ports.
Rob94hawk - Monday, April 28, 2008 - link
I got all excited and then I saw DDR2....Might as well just replace PCIE with AGP while their at it.
Rajinder Gill - Monday, April 28, 2008 - link
Just contacted DFI, they are aiming at retail launch of the DDR3 version on the 20th May..Review sample boards should ship within the next week..
regards
Raja
Rajinder Gill - Monday, April 28, 2008 - link
EDIT: Make that early June for full retail (allowing for shipping time etc)..regards
Raja
Rob94hawk - Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - link
Will be looking forward to it. Thank you.