Foxconn Black Ops vs. DFI UT X48-T3RS Comparison Review

[Clunk]

Digged.

[supershanks]

NB at 0.032 is a little more sensitive than the Mars 0.045v sb & Vtt remain the same.

Cheerrs for that mate

[SquidgyB]

Does the "bowl" section of the NB heatsink come off at all? I'd like it if it came off similar to the DFI T3Rs' NB cooler, but I expect as it's made for cooling in a number of different ways that it's stuck onto the heatpipes quite soundly...

Oh, and does a True 120 fit ok horizontally, so as to use the exhaust fan on the back of the case to draw air out from the heatsink?

Thanks in advance, I'm really looking forward to this review

[DamageX]

Hi SquidgyB!

I skimmed through the Black Ops manual and it doesn't say anything about being able to take off the Northbridge cooler. I may be wrong though. It does look like the module rests on two surfaces with the pipes running in a canal between them. I'll take some photos and post them so you can see.

Unfortunately, I do not own a TRUE 120 But I will be testing to see if my push pull Noctua NH-U12P fits. I think they might be similar sizes.

[SquidgyB]

Cheers, it'll be good to see a few close ups of the block. I assume you don't get the little heatsink that straps to the side of the bowl as you do with the dreadnought either? That looks like it could help dissipate a fair bit of heat, considering the bowl is pretty much a solid lump apart from the chunky fins in the bottom...

It's certainly going to be an interesting month or two, what with the Foxconn and DFI 790is and x48s, as well as that lovely looking Foxconn P45 coming out soon. I like the overclocking bay panel it has, looks very swish. I'm almost glad I had the problems with the Asus because it's pushed me into choosing another board, and the ones coming out now really do look a lot nicer than what's been offered previously.

All that and the GTX 280s coming out, it's going to get very expensive for me...

[DamageX]

I've updated the first page, adding more detailed photos of the board and I added some close ups of the Northbridge module.

Your assumptions are correct, this board does not come with the side heat sink that is pictured on the Dreadnaught. The bowl itself does a poor job at dissipating heat but it's designed around accommodating the dry ice/LN2 tower and the water cooling unit. Unfortunately I have neither dry ice/LN2 nor water cooling.

However, I have a air conditioner blowing down on the entire setup so everything is pretty chilly

Here is my test setup on the workbench:



No problems on the first boot. Phew!



I did do a quick overclock to 4.0Ghz and it was very stable. My first impression of the bios is that it is very easy to use for someone who wants to do a low level overclock. Also, a first time overclocker should be able to work with the bios with ease as it has some very user friendly features. I'll talk about that later at some point.

I will be away for the next three days so I apologize for the wait on the tests. Hopefully by Tuesday I will have something worthwhile to post!

[kaskuli]

Is this to determine which will be the P5E64 WS EVO's biatch?

[Clunk]

Originally Posted by kaskuli

Is this to determine which will be the P5E64 WS EVO's biatch?

You have the P5E64 WS EVO then?

[kaskuli]

No....Played around with one...fondled and massaged one a little bit.......I'll probably grab one when they're back in stock... These boards have been long anticipated but I think the Asus Workstation board is the dark horse and other results at XS seem to confirm this...

[neo786]

Nice thread mate. I got the blackops had it for a few weeks and must say I thought it was a complete POS waste of money! Until today that is... Finally installed the latest G25 beta bios and I'm getting somewhere... 3.6Ghz at 1.25v on the QX9650 (360 x 10). I'm looking for 400 x 10 and it seems do-able now with hopefully some low volts. This is just a quick test, I could probably lower the volts more.

Before I wasn't really able to do much at all because 2T command rate didn't even work. I'm using 2 x 2GB G Skill HZ modules with it. I am running them pretty loose on timings at the moment compared to what they should be able to do.

There are a couple of issues which I think could have been better addressed:

- SATA ports placement if you use the second PCI-E slot you will loose 3 of them! Thats providing you have a long card, I'm running a GX2 with it.
- BIOS is flakey. Considering they had so much time spent on it, it's not upto scratch take for example the command rate issue only just solved in the latest beta
- Aegis panel does not show the temps of the NB and PWM even though they are visible in the BIOS
- The Aluminium top on the cooler is a let down. I've got it water-cooled using feser one in a loop on it's own.. Am I still in trouble?
- More feedback needed to the user via the software, I've not seen a board that provides as much info back to the user as the Maximus Formula, this board also lacks in that department IMO.
- Placement\size of the onboard buttons (power, reset and cmos clear), not good IMO should be at the bottom of the board where the least clutter is and they are tiny.
- CPU VTT voltage steps are a bit high could do with smaller increments
- EDIT: The FOX Liveupdate is also not great, I used it and after a re-boot it would go back to the previous bios version!!! Make a bootable usb instead or try the built in software on startup....

damn thats turned into quite a big list, I'm sure there's more.... However if the latest G25 beta bios is anything to go by, it should be better\easier in terms of overclocking. Again, nice thread mate.