Intel 925X Roundup: Creative Engineering 101
by Wesley Fink on August 12, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
DFI LANParty 925X-T2: Overclocking and Stress Testing
FSB Overclocking Results
| Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed | ||
| Processor: | Pentium 4 Prescott LGA 775 2.8GHz |
|
| CPU Voltage: | 1.3875V (default) | |
| Cooling: | Thermaltake Jungle 502 | |
| Power Supply: | HiPro 470W | |
| Maximum OC: | 265FSB (+33%) | |
Like Asus and Abit, DFI manipulates the PCIe frequency during boot to achieve higher overclocks. The DFI was able to reach a FSB of 265, a 40% overclock, with an ATI X800 XT and SATA hard drive. This is the second highest overclock that we achieved with this hardware in the roundup. The LANParty 925X-T2 was more limited with an nVidia 6800 Ultra video card, reaching 248. As we have already stated, the nVidia PCIe cards are apparently less tolerant of out-of-spec PCIe frequency than the X800 XT.
DFI was able to achieve even higher overclocks with PCIe and SATA drives in their own lab tests, but we are finding that the PCI Express cards do vary a good bit in their ability to handle out-of-spec PCIe speeds. We used the same ATI X800 XT for all overclock tests in this roundup, so results could be compared one board to another.
The LGA 775 CPUs are multiplier locked, so the only way to overclock the CPU is to increase the FSB, but most manufacturers are floating the PCIe to achieve higher overclocks by manipulating CPU clock/PCIe ratios. All of the successful 925X overclockers are saying that fixing the frequency tends to limit the overclocking of the 925X to around 10%.
Memory Stress Test Results:
The memory stress test measures the ability of the DFI 925X-T2 to operate at its officially supported memory frequency (533MHz DDR2), at the best performing memory timings that Crucial/Micron PC2-4300U will support. Memory stress testing was conducted by running DDR2 at 533MHz (stock 3:4 ratio) with 2 DIMM slots operating in Dual-Channel mode.| Stable DDR533 Timings - 2 DIMMs (2/4 DIMMs - 1 Dual-Channel Bank) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 266MHz |
| Timing Mode: | 3:4 (200:266 - Default) |
| CAS Latency: | 3.0 |
| Bank Interleave: | Auto |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 3 |
| RAS Precharge: | 3 |
| Cycle Time (tRAS): | 10* |
| Command Rate: | N/A |
DFI also performs without issue at the best 3-3-3-10 DDR2 timings that work well on all the 925X boards in the roundup.
Filling all four available memory slots is more strenuous on the memory sub-system than testing 2 DDR2 modules on a motherboard.
| Stable DDR533 Timings - 4 DIMMs (4/4 DIMMs - 2 Dual-Channel Banks) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 266MHz |
| Timing Mode: | 3:4 (200:266 - Default) |
| CAS Latency: | 4.0 |
| Bank Interleave: | Auto |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 3 |
| RAS Precharge: | 3 |
| Cycle Time (tRAS): | 10 |
| Command Rate: | N/A |
The DFI LANParty 925X-T2 handled 4 DDR2 DIMMs at default voltage, at 4-3-3-10 timings, the same timings required on the Asus and Abit boards. It is very early in our testing of DDR2 memory - too early to draw firm broad conclusions - but it looks as if DDR2 memory may require slower timings with 4 DIMMs than what we can achieve with 2 DIMMs. Since we are accustomed to similar timings with either 2 or 4 DIMMs with regular DDR memory, this is a bit of a disappointment.
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jdoor0 - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
This review has been reviewed:http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18896
Nige - Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - link
Does the ASUS P5AD2 Deluxe motherboard have the same overclocking capability as the P5AD2 Premium?skiboysteve - Friday, August 13, 2004 - link
Wow nice catch. i guess my "(I know... toms sucks)" disclaimer came true.yaeh i understand.
Wesley Fink - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
#26 -There is now an apology to Asus up at THG. They measured the voltage wrong. We had also measured the voltage and found 1.5 to 1.55 which is well within spec, not 2.1 as they reported. They now acknowledge the correct voltage measurement for the P5AD2 is 1.53V.
High Northbridge voltage is not the reason the Asus, or any other 925X/915 board, overclocks well. There are far too many simple and wrong explanations for the complex overclocking issues of the 925X/915 chipsets.
skiboysteve - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
Page 10"...Broadcom attached to the faster PCI Express bus..."
there is no PCI Express bus, its a point to point protocal.
Just nitpicking.
Great review.
Also, over at Toms (I know... toms sucks) they looked at 9x5 Boards over there and showed that the Asus P5AD2 was running at an astounding 2.1v on the northbridge (1.5v is the stock)
Something might have to be mentioned about reliability of such out of spec behavior, and cooling concerns. You might want to conduct your own quick test on the voltage with a multimeter.
broberts - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
One of the problems with these arguments is that the FX-53 is almost 20% more expensive.I've been thinking for a while now that benchmarks should show some form of pricing index so that one can better judge the advantage/disadvantage of the various choices. Just quoting prices isn't ideal, for a host of reasons. I'd suggest, instead, a relative measure. And not just the cost of the particular component being benchmarked. Calculate the cost of the each system used in the benchmarks. Pick one, perhaps the lowest or highest cost one and calculate the relative difference in price. I suggest using the entire system because quite often the choice of one component dictates the available choices for other components. Ideally a relative measure for both the components and entire system would be calculated and published.
manno - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
Moo Moo MOO.manno - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
why no Doom3?Wesley Fink - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
#21 -We will definitely be including Doom 3 benches in future reviews. The only reason they are not included in this 925X roundup is because most of the testing was completed before we had a working copy of Doom 3. You can get a clear idea of how the 925X/Intel 560 performs in Doom 3 in Anand's Doom 3: CPU Battlegrounds review published August 4th at http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...
kherman - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
Umm, Doom 3 benches?