DFI RS482 Infinity in stock (US)

RS482 works with X2 or Opteron. Just make sure to flash the beta bio to fix the problem of some voltage selections got hidden. See my post above.
 
With an Opty 144, it seems that the max bootable fsb is around 313-314 fsb regardless the multi or vcore settings. It is not as high as some reviews have indicated. But I'll take it. Once it's booted into Windows, I can use Clockgen to push the fsb to around 318 and still Prime stable. With an Opty 165, the max bootable fsb is around 305, regardless the multi or vocre settings.

The voltage is rock steady, unlike most of the mobos I have worked with. That may be one of the reasons why this mobo overclocks so well. I am using a 20 pin 450w PSU.

I am now convinced that the Smartfan is NOT for overclocking at all as it sets a very lazy fan speed. Hope there is fix in a future bios.

I still have not touch any of the memory settings as I use a set of cheap Patriot 2x512 sticks.

Also I have not spent time on fixing the connection to my HDTV via the DVI-D port. I may have to use Powerstrip to get that done. That sucks.

Also got a quick reply from DFI about the broken tab in my Component Output cable. Bascially, they tell me to rma the whole thing back to the reseller and don't brother them. That's suck becuase I don't want to wait for weeks. Time to bring out the Krazyglue.

That's it for now.

Anyone want to buy my Biostar tForce-939?
 
I'm weighing b/t this board and the MSI K8NGM2-FID.

From what I've gathered so far

DFI RS482: OC well, has all the HTPC features (component) of the MSI + SPDIF out (MSI requires bracket not included), though I won't be using SPDIF anyway.

MSI pros: not much OC (max 250 fsb, max 1.4v vcore). SATA II not SATA I (probably makes small real wold difference). 6150 video is a bit better than 200xpress. HD audio (I think the DFI does NOT have HD audio.) With PureVideo, it can playback 1080i mpeg2 and wmvhd smoothly with little CPU load. The 6150 also has vertex shader. It's also 15-$20 cheaper.

The ATI chipset is known to be not as good. The benchmarks show it lags behind on everything by 3-7%

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/chipsets/display/gf6150-gf6100_12.html

Of course that's with a ECS board, not DFI.

USB is known to be poor too. This'll be a problem as I may use a USB-based TV card.

Basically the DFI has one thing going for it: OC.

Some questions:

1) can you play HD (1080i mpeg2 .ts files, 1080p wmvhd) smoothly with the RS482 onboard video? Does ATI have something like PureVideo?

2) has someone done some benchmarking (e.g., Sandra, PCMark) to see how this board fares compared to nforce4 boards?

3) I was not crazy about the MSI's text output. How's text on the DFI? Does ATI generally have better 2D than nVidia?

4) When I had the MSI (which I had to RMA due to bad IDE controller), I pushed my X2 3800+ to 2440mhz stable on stock voltage (1.35v). Do you think I can push the X2 much higher to make it worth it to get the DFI, considering the drawbacks of the ATI chipset?
 
the rs482 has integrated x300, not x200. not sure if that makes a difference in what u said about the 6150 being a little better or not tho. unless thats what u meant w/ the 200xpress, but that looks like x200 to me :p
 
Soymilk said:
the rs482 has integrated x300, not x200. not sure if that makes a difference in what u said about the 6150 being a little better or not tho. unless thats what u meant w/ the 200xpress, but that looks like x200 to me :p
Click to expand...

yes, it's based on the X300. The chipset is called Xpress 200. But anyway, the chipset has been around a while, so it's not quite as up to date as the 6150 chipsett. Supposedly ATI will come out with a better IGP solution, but that'll be later for AM2 socket.
 
buzzly said:
With an Opty 144, it seems that the max bootable fsb is around 313-314 fsb regardless the multi or vcore settings. It is not as high as some reviews have indicated. But I'll take it. Once it's booted into Windows, I can use Clockgen to push the fsb to around 318 and still Prime stable. With an Opty 165, the max bootable fsb is around 305, regardless the multi or vocre settings.

The voltage is rock steady, unlike most of the mobos I have worked with. That may be one of the reasons why this mobo overclocks so well. I am using a 20 pin 450w PSU.

I am now convinced that the Smartfan is NOT for overclocking at all as it sets a very lazy fan speed. Hope there is fix in a future bios.

I still have not touch any of the memory settings as I use a set of cheap Patriot 2x512 sticks.

Also I have not spent time on fixing the connection to my HDTV via the DVI-D port. I may have to use Powerstrip to get that done. That sucks.

Also got a quick reply from DFI about the broken tab in my Component Output cable. Bascially, they tell me to rma the whole thing back to the reseller and don't brother them. That's suck becuase I don't want to wait for weeks. Time to bring out the Krazyglue.

That's it for now.

Anyone want to buy my Biostar tForce-939?
Click to expand...

did u mention ur Biostar tForce-939 can do 300fsb? i'd be interested cos mine only up tp 260, pm me more info if u can, thanks.
 
LxT said:
I'm weighing b/t this board and the MSI K8NGM2-FID.
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat with the AMD 3800 X2 I have waiting to be installed. I will be using it for hdtv, watching movies and playing the occasional civ 4 game. Any recommendations?
 
I used ATItool to overclock the x300 IGP on the RS482.

The automated test stopped/crashed when it reached 618 mhz (from stock 300mhz). I have to lower the setting to 560mhz in order to eliminate artifacts when running MCE. No problem so far with running PowerDVD or other TV tuner programs @ 600mhz. But that's almost 100% overclock. To be safe, I am setting it at 520mhz-- without additional cooling on the northbridge.

I guess that would offset the 5-8% performance gap comparing to the nvidia 6100 IGP.

More testings are needed.
 
Thanks, buzzly. I'm not too worried about 3D performance -- ut's nice but really not what the board is intended for. I'm more concerned with video/2D performance. For example, could you download this 1080i clip and see if it plays smoothly and how much CPU usage is there

http://www.dododge.net/roku/hd-test-streams/mpt-200309161700-clip.ts

clip is ~10M, very short.

Also I'm interested in knowing overall system performance (memory, HD, USB). I hear the ATI southbridge is not as good as nvidia. Do you have sandra or other benchmarks?

http://download.guru3d.com/sandra/
 
I have problem playing the movie from your link. But I have played Step Into Liquid--the 1080i WMV HD film and it played fine. I also have played HD materials on MCE and WatchHDTV and it also played flawlessly. The CPU usage was around 34-38%.

In term of benchmarking, this is the memory bandwidth test.

SiSoftware Sandra

Benchmark Results
RAM Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2 : 5382 MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Float Buff'd iSSE2 : 5393 MB/s
Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.

Int Buff'd iSSE2 (Integer STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 5419MB/s
Scaling : 5365MB/s
Addition : 5372MB/s
Triad : 5372MB/s
Data Item Size : 16 byte(s)
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 216% (estimated)

Float Buff'd iSSE2 (Float STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 5386MB/s
Scaling : 5388MB/s
Addition : 5414MB/s
Triad : 5384MB/s
Data Item Size : 16 byte(s)
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 216% (estimated)
 
Im planning to order one of these soon. Will there be any issues with using a 20pin PSU with it? I know it is 24pin. I do plan to OC. I have an Opty 144 Cab2e waiting to be popped in. The PSU I plan to use is an Ultra XConnect 520W v1.
 
I am using a 20 pin PSU now. Opty 144 @ 2.8ghz 2x512 mem, 2 250g drives

CRaZYMoFo said:
Im planning to order one of these soon. Will there be any issues with using a 20pin PSU with it? I know it is 24pin. I do plan to OC. I have an Opty 144 Cab2e waiting to be popped in. The PSU I plan to use is an Ultra XConnect 520W v1.
Click to expand...
 
Stock 1.4 (1.392 actual) Opty 144 CACJE 0602GPMW 315x9 =2835mhz AMD stock 4-pipe HS

In fact I am priming as I am typing this.

CRaZYMoFo said:
at what voltages?
Click to expand...
 
recieved my dfi board today

wont be able to test till i finish with this case


hugs


Jen
 
There have been two beta bio released already. It seems like DFI is cutting back some of the features in these bio releases, especially in the VGA Sync area. Also I have yet find the Surroundview in the bios (but it is in the manual).


Jen said:
recieved my dfi board today

wont be able to test till i finish with this case


hugs


Jen
Click to expand...
 
buzzly said:
There have been two beta bio released already. It seems like DFI is cutting back some of the features in these bio releases, especially in the VGA Sync area. Also I have yet find the Surroundview in the bios (but it is in the manual).
Click to expand...

cant someone just hack this bios for us and open up all the options . let us decide what works best

have to make hard drive bracket for my case then i can start placeing items in new case i made

hugs

Jen
 
nice@ stock V
im putting mine under a 7000B-Cu :D

are the ocing options being affected in these new bioses?
 
I have a 7000B-cu too, but the AMD 4-pipe HS seems to do that job and is much easier to install. I don't think the new bios affect OC, but it is alarming to see half of a menu page in th bios just disappear.

CRaZYMoFo said:
nice@ stock V
im putting mine under a 7000B-Cu :D

are the ocing options being affected in these new bioses?
Click to expand...
 
Let me try to answer some of your questions.

1) I have played demo ts 1080i files from movies I Robot and Star Wars. The WMP 10 played them smoothly. The CPU usage tange from 13-44%, averaging at arohnd 18%. That with the Opteron 144 running at stock speed. The decoer used is nVidia (not the higher end nVidia PureVideo decorder).

2) There is a review comparing a mobo with RX480 chipsets vs nForce4 Ultra. NF4 beats RX480 slightly.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/sapphire-pure-x200p.html

3) I have only managed to output it to my HDTV via component. The Text did not look that great.

4) I have overclocked a Opteron 144 to 2.87ghz (312fsb x9), 1.375v (vs. 1.4 v stock) Now I use CrystalCPUID to dynamically lower the CPU to around 1.8ghz at 1.075v and 2.87ghz at 1.375v. The loudest component is the harddrive in the system.

Also the IGP can be overclocked from stock 300mhz to 560 mhz with ease (618mhz max in my case).

I have yet be able to connect this board to my HDTV via DVI. But I have a TV that has a DVI/HDMI handshake issue. But the DVI output to a 18" LCD monitor looked great.

That's it for now.


LxT said:
I'm weighing b/t this board and the MSI K8NGM2-FID.

From what I've gathered so far

DFI RS482: OC well, has all the HTPC features (component) of the MSI + SPDIF out (MSI requires bracket not included), though I won't be using SPDIF anyway.

MSI pros: not much OC (max 250 fsb, max 1.4v vcore). SATA II not SATA I (probably makes small real wold difference). 6150 video is a bit better than 200xpress. HD audio (I think the DFI does NOT have HD audio.) With PureVideo, it can playback 1080i mpeg2 and wmvhd smoothly with little CPU load. The 6150 also has vertex shader. It's also 15-$20 cheaper.

The ATI chipset is known to be not as good. The benchmarks show it lags behind on everything by 3-7%

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/chipsets/display/gf6150-gf6100_12.html

Of course that's with a ECS board, not DFI.

USB is known to be poor too. This'll be a problem as I may use a USB-based TV card.

Basically the DFI has one thing going for it: OC.

Some questions:

1) can you play HD (1080i mpeg2 .ts files, 1080p wmvhd) smoothly with the RS482 onboard video? Does ATI have something like PureVideo?

2) has someone done some benchmarking (e.g., Sandra, PCMark) to see how this board fares compared to nforce4 boards?

3) I was not crazy about the MSI's text output. How's text on the DFI? Does ATI generally have better 2D than nVidia?

4) When I had the MSI (which I had to RMA due to bad IDE controller), I pushed my X2 3800+ to 2440mhz stable on stock voltage (1.35v). Do you think I can push the X2 much higher to make it worth it to get the DFI, considering the drawbacks of the ATI chipset?
Click to expand...
 
before i give up on trying to install a OS on this board useing a scsi drive, does anyone have bios settings .

eight failed attempts later , i'm tired


hugs

Jen
 
Dang!

Had to RMA my MB back to ZZF. It would not boot up other than making a ticking sound. The sound seemed to come from one of the electric coils.


Update: The MB booted up again and the ticking sound seemed to be heard only by me. I guess I will keep it for now and not RMA it.
 
That sucks. Let's know how it turns out.

Jen said:
flashed to this bios and system now fails to post

i'm attempting to clear the cmos in hopes it will survive this

if not i am wondering if i can reflash the bios chip useing my jetway board

sigh
Click to expand...
 
I have this board and it works really well. I will try and do some overclocking this weekend and see how that turns out. I have an Opteron 170 with a x1900xtx inside it.
 
That corrupt BIOS was removed from that website. But not before I killed my board. I "HOT Flashed" the BIOS chip using a DFI nF3 Ultra that had the exact same chip. To do a hot flash on another system you must execute: AWDFLASH correctbios.bin /F

The "/F" tells the flasher to ignore that the BIOS is not for that board....

Sorry I brought this problem to your attention.... :(
 
JWilson said:
That corrupt BIOS was removed from that website. But not before I killed my board. I "HOT Flashed" the BIOS chip using a DFI nF3 Ultra that had the exact same chip. To do a hot flash on another system you must execute: AWDFLASH correctbios.bin /F

The "/F" tells the flasher to ignore that the BIOS is not for that board....

Sorry I brought this problem to your attention.... :(
Click to expand...

wish that you had tested this bios before posting it available


Jen
 
Got my board today and its up and running now. Working fine so far. Going to test my ballistix sticks on it :D
Im not flashing the bios even though I am running an opteron 144 on it. Will wait for more official bios updates.
Now I really need to save and buy a qpack quickly :(
 
You will run into the problem with the stock 126 bios when you have a Opteron. You need the beta 209 or beta 308 bios to "unhid" some of the vcore selections.


CRaZYMoFo said:
Got my board today and its up and running now. Working fine so far. Going to test my ballistix sticks on it :D
Im not flashing the bios even though I am running an opteron 144 on it. Will wait for more official bios updates.
Now I really need to save and buy a qpack quickly :(
Click to expand...
 
I am aware of the vcore options. However I wont be overclocking for a while yet so I am not bothered. My opty is running @ stock 1.39v so all is well. I think my ballistix may be failing so my priority is to confirm that and to also purchase a qpack before i do anything else fun with the system.

I am also a bit picky when it comes to beta bioses and I really would like an official stable updated bios before I flash anything.

Tomorrow I will see how much my X300 onboard can oc too :)
 
I used ATItool to overclock the x300. Using the automatic test, it overclocked to 618mhz (from stock 300mhz) before clashing. Realistically, I have to lower it to around 56omhz to make it stable.
 
There is a bug in the stock bios- 82DMD126. When a Opteron CPU is installed, the vcore is set to 1.4v but the voltage selection can only go to 1.5v and up. If you can live with the default 1.4v, you don't need to do anything. But if you want to overclock or under-volt your system, you need a beta bios listed on DFI's beta bios webpages. It is either 82DMD209 or 82DMD308. See my post on the lost page in this thread.


LawGiver said:
why exaclty are we updating bios? Which ones does opteron need?
Click to expand...
 
Against my better judgement (if I have any), I just flashed the new "fully tested" bios from rhch.com. I live to talk about it. I don't know what the benefits are. :p
It does not give you a warm feeling when, at the site, it is still referred it as "DFI LP nF4 Expert Version 82DMD308RH," not DFI RS482.
 
Your a brave man! Especially after Jen's flash of the corrupt BIOS and dead board... I'm working with her to get her board back on the air... I fixed the mislabeling on that BIOS page... Thanks!
 
buzzly said:
There is a very thin line between brave and stupid. :p
Click to expand...

Agreed, I am running stock because I need to count on this computer and can't risk running a beta BIOS.
 
JWilson said:
Your a brave man! Especially after Jen's flash of the corrupt BIOS and dead board... I'm working with her to get her board back on the air... I fixed the mislabeling on that BIOS page... Thanks!
Click to expand...

i have sent in a request for rma , hopeing it wont take to long to replace. dont have money to purchase another to replace this one. for now i am useing the jetway on the table. my computer case will be finished when i have a working dfi board again
 
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