DFI UT P45-T3RS Living Review

[supershanks]

Final thoughts and conclusion.

This board clocks like I’d hoped the DFI UT X48-T3RS would, for example:4,313 7.5x575 400/1333 1,916 7-7-7-21 - It did this with only the 2nd BIOS. Though I couldn’t quite get some of my higher clocks stable, I’m pretty confident that subsequent BIOS releases will fix that and I'm optimistic that there's more performance to come with later BIOSes too.

Sticking with the DFI UT X48-T3RS comparison, the biggest disappointment to me is the dropping of the removable North bridge heatsink. This solution gives the option of adding after market cooling, or a water block, whilst leaving the heatpipes in place. This saves the owner having to find alternate after market cooling for the SB and PWM heatsinks when the heatpipes are removed. Frankly I'd prefer to pay slightly more if necessary to have this feature than have to compromise with cooling options.

Pros

• Decent overclock on relatively immature BIOS.
• New BIOS Chip – With manufacturers generally moving to soldered chips, it’s great to see DFI’s commitment to replaceable chips with a new design, low footprint chip and socket.
• Smart Connectors - Simple but a welcome addition.
• Overclock Recovery – Improved.
• GTL Ref Control – Unlike most BIOSes there is provision to apply a different GTL Ref factor for up to 4 cores. This should really help maxing a Quad CPU.

Cons

• NB Cooler Height - Restricts large air coolers from being aligned to rear exhaust fan
• Ram slots are very close to graphics card slot PCIE1 – the only x16 slot. You’ll need to lift the graphics card, to change ram.
• Value - No Transpiper (DFI LP UT P35-T2R), no Flame Freezer (DFI UT X48-T3RS LanParty).
• No Removable NB.
• Loss of 400/1600 Divider - Not sure why, included in other manufacturers DDR3 P45 boards but gone missing here:-DFI UT X48-T3RS LanParty V DFI UT P45-T3RS Seems odd when the 400 strap is one of the strongest.

Though in summary I have as many cons as pros, don’t assume that this is an indifferent board.
It’s more a measure of DFI’s regular trend of producing high quality motherboards. In the new BIOS chip and BIOS features we see ongoing innovation. It’s the omission of some features from earlier boards that disappoint.

However, comparison to other manufacturers brings things back into perspective and places this board firmly in the upper ranks of P45 motherboards. So bearing this in mind I'll give this board 4 out of 5.

[supershanks]

DFI UT P45-T3RS Voltage Measuring Points.

Please do not go poking around with a DMM unless you know what you are doing, you can easily damage or kill your board if you do it wrong and I take no responsibility for any damage as a result of using these images.


Voltage Measuring points - Overview


VCore

VTT

CPU GTLRef

NB Vcore

NB GTLRef0

NB GTLRef1

Southbridge Volts

VDimm


Thanks to Jimmy Su of DFI

[supershanks]

reserved

[supershanks]

reserved 1

[supershanks]

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[BlackDragon24]

I am very curious to see how this turns out....am thinking about picking one up but from the sounds of it, P45 boards absolutely suck at clocking ddr3.

[supershanks]

not sure about that Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME just starting off on this one will get some initial benches up shortly

[BlackDragon24]

Originally Posted by supershanks

not sure about that Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME just starting off on this one will get some initial benches up shortly

Ahh yes....I should have amended my statement to say 2 x 2gb kits. You planning on testing any of those? I have no problems getting to 1800mhz on my x48 t3rs, but any more than that requires disabling some powerful features that essentially kills bandwidth.

I'm also very curious to see how high of fsb you can reach with this board....540 seems to be the limit on the X48 ddr3 board.

Thanks!

[supershanks]

not exactly I have got 2 sets of these 2GB CellShock DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHzI'm planning to run , am just running one set at the minute. so far am at 10x400 with ram at 333/1333 1600. stable. I'm hoping FSB is high I had the X48 ddr3 board but couldn't get over 500FSB, though that was with early Bios. Both the gigabyte Extremes's got to 575 stable , so would be nice to get around there. Hope to push on through 500 tommorow, and get today's clocks posted here

[supershanks]

E8600 - 4,000 10x400 @333/1333 1,600Mhz 7-7-7-14
1st clock out of the blocks.

Benches


Stability


Bios Settings

DFI UT P45-T3RS LanParty
CPU Feature - Sub Menu
Thermal Management Control.......: Enabled
PPM(EIST) Mode...................: Disabled
Limit CPUID MaxVal...............: Disabled
CIE Function.....................: Disabled
Execute Disable Bit..............: Disabled
Virtualization Technology........: Disabled
Core Multi-Processing............: Enabled
--------End Sub Menu--------
Dram Timing - Sub menu
Enhance Data transmitting........: Auto
Enhance Addressing...............: Auto
T2 Dispatch......................: Auto

Clock Setting Fine Delay - Sub Menu
DLL and RCOMP Settings...........: Manual
CH1 Dram Default Skew............: Model1
CH2 Dram Default Skew............: Model1
RCOMP Setting.......................: Model1
Fine Delay Step Degree...........: 70ps
Ch1 Clock Crossing Setting.......: Auto
DIMM 1 Clock fine delay..........: Current 78ps
DIMM 2 Clock fine delay..........: Current 78ps
Ch1 Control0 fine delay..........: Current 24ps
Ch1 Control1 fine delay..........: Current 24ps
Ch1 Control2 fine delay..........: Current 0ps
Ch1 Control3 fine delay..........: Current 56ps
Ch1 Command fine delay...........: Current ps
Ch2 Clock Crossing Setting.......: Auto
DIMM 3 Clock fine delay..........: Current 94ps
DIMM 4 Clock fine delay..........: Current 94ps
Ch2 Control0 fine delay..........: Current  78ps
Ch2 Control1 fine delay..........: Current  78ps
Ch2 Control2 fine delay..........: Current   8ps
Ch2 Control3 fine delay..........: Current   8ps
Ch2 Command fine delay...........: Current 94ps

CH1Ch2 CommonClock Setting.......: Auto
Ch1 RDCAS GNT-Chip Delay.........: Auto
Ch1 WRCAS GNT-Chip Delay.........: Auto
Ch1 Command to CS Delay..........: Auto

Ch2 RDCAS GNT-Chip Delay.........: Auto
Ch2 WRCAS GNT-Chip Delay.........: Auto
Ch2 Command to CS Delay..........: Auto 
--------End Clock Setting Fine Delay Sub Menu--------

Flex Memory Mode.................: Disabled
CAS Latency Time (tCL).............:  7
RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD).......: 7
RAS# Precharge (tRP)...............: 7
Precharge Delay (tRAS)............:14
All Precharge to Act.................:8
REF to ACT Delay (tRFC)..........:60
Performance LVL (Read Delay).....:  7

Read delay phase adjust - Sub Menu
Ch1 Read delay phase (4~0)    7-7-7-7-7
Channel 1 Phase 0 Pull-In........: Auto
Channel 1 Phase 1 Pull-In........: Auto
Channel 1 Phase 2 Pull-In........: Auto
Channel 1 Phase 3 Pull-In........: Auto
Channel 1 Phase 4 Pull-In........: Auto
Ch2 Read delay phase (4~0)   8-8-8-8-8
Channel 2 Phase 0 Pull-In........: Auto
Channel 2 Phase 1 Pull-In........: Auto
Channel 2 Phase 2 Pull-In........: Auto
Channel 2 Phase 3 Pull-In........: Auto
Channel 2 Phase 4 Pull-In........: Auto
--------End Read Delay Sub Menu--------

Write to PRE Delay (tWR).........: 19
Rank Write to Read (tWTR)........: 15
ACT to ACT Delay (tRRD)..........: 4
Read CAS# Precharge (tRTP).......:6
ALL PRE to Refresh: Auto ...........: 8
--------End Dram Timing Sub Menu--------

Voltage Setting - Sub Menu
CPU VID Control..................: 1.3875v 
CPU VID Special Add Limit........: Enabled
CPU VID Special Add..............: Auto
DRAM Voltage Control.............: 1.89V
SB Core/CPU PLL Voltage..........: 1.55V
NB Core Voltage..................: 1.303V
CPU VTT Voltage..................: 1.256V
Vcore Droop Control..............: Enabled
Clockgen Voltage Control.........: 3.45v
GTL+ Buffers Strength............: Strong
CPU GTL 0 REF Volt...............: 0.635
CPU GTL 2 REF Volt...............: 0.625
CPU GTL 1 REF Volt...............: 0.665
CPU GTL 3 REF Volt...............: 0.625
NB GTL 0 REF Volt................: 0.6025
NB GTL 1 REF Volt................: 0.6025
FSB Vref.............................: 00
--------End Voltage Sub Menu--------


Exist Setup Shutdown: Mode 2
Shutdown after AC Loss...........: Enabled
AC Shutdown Free.................: Enabled
O.C. Fail retry Counter............: 1
O.C Fail Cmos Reload...............: Disabled
CPU Clock Ratio.....................: x10
CPU N/2 ratio.........................:  Disabled
Target CPU Clock.................: 4,000 MHz
CPU Clock........................: 400MHz
Boot Up Clock....................: Auto
CPU Clock Amplitude..............: 800mV
CPU Clock0 Skew..................: 0ps
CPU Clock1 Skew..................: 0ps
DRAM Speed.......................: 333/1333
Target DRAM Speed................: 1601MHz
PCIE Clock.......................: 100MHz
PCIE Slot Config.................: x1 x1
CPU Spread Spectrum..............: Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum.............: Disabled

Ram stability was pretty shabby until I tried switching
DLL and RCOMP Settings...........: Auto --> Manual
CH1 Dram Default Skew............: Mode0--> Model1
CH2 Dram Default Skew............: Model0--> Model1
RCOMP Setting.......................: Model0--> Model1

That did the trick.