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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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  • rjm55 - Thursday, September 9, 2004 - link

    Saw the DFI at www.gameve.com for $130. ZZF had them for a bit at a similar price. It looks like it will be affordable.

  • deathwalker - Thursday, September 9, 2004 - link

    Sweet Mobo...sounds inviting for my planned system upgrade from my Abit NF7-S with my O/C 2500 mobility proc...only concern...will I have to mortgage my home to be able to afford this board...afterall..these goodies do come with a price tag.

  • rjm55 - Thursday, September 9, 2004 - link

    Which is the better overclocker - the 2.0 1024k 3400+ or the 2.2 512k 3400+? Has anyone tested both?

  • Wesley Fink - Thursday, September 9, 2004 - link

    #40 - Both versions of the 3200+ are now mentioned at the bottom of page 9 - 2.0GHz with 1024k cache and 2.2GHz with 512k cache. Our test 3200+ was a 2.0GHz 1024k version.

  • Jedi2155 - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

    did anyone else noticed the error about the 3200+ @ the bottom of page 9 :-).

  • rjm55 - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

    I'm releived to know 1GB dimms work fine. It didn't make sense that other 754 had no problems with 1GB dimms and this one did. I'm glad DFI cleared up the confusion.

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

    I just spoke with Oskar Wu, the board's designer. Oskar says they have 1GB dimms from Samsung that work fine on the LANParty UT, and that the Samsung 1GB dimms use 512MB chips in their construction. He said the only reason for the caution on 512MB chips (not dimms) was because they have not verified operation with dimms made with 1GB chips. All of the 1GB dimms I have here for testing use 512MB chips in their construction.

    Oskar also stated that 2 dimms work best in dimm slots 1 and 2, and not 1 and 3. He said try 1 and 2 and you will get better performance with 2 dimms.

  • Bozo Galora - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

    I just went there to check it out - #33 was wrong.
    It supports 512 MegaBIT DEVICES - DRAMS, not sticks.

  • cnq - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

    Yeah, I saw that too. I didn't know that any 754 motherboards forbade using a 1GB DIMM. Who knows, maybe it's a misprint on DFI's part...we can always hope.

  • laxxy - Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - link

    where does it say it supports only 512M?
    here:
    http://www.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_product_spec_deta...
    it states that it
    > Supports up to 3GB memory when using DDR333
    > Supports up to 2GB memory when using DDR400
    ???
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