DFI SLI-DR questions

[CP5670]

I built my new system around this board (the cheaper UT version) and I'm pretty impressed with it so far. I am actually using Corsair value select memory on it and surprisingly haven't had a single problem. It worked and was fully stable right out of the box, at every divider I tried and with better timings than my last motherboard could handle. These sticks aren't from a dual pack either and were actually purchased around 10 months apart. Sort of ironic, since I spent over two days researching the possible problems with this combination and getting other people's memory settings before I bought the board, and was basically expecting everything to go wrong. In general everything has worked without any hassles or tweaking needed, which is a lot more than I can say about the last two boards I used (both Asus), and overclocking with it has been very quick and simple for the most part. This is quite contrary to the reputation this board has as only for experienced users, so I don't know if I just got lucky or what.

The one thing that has me confused though is that it might be undervolting. The BIOS's health monitor thing, CPUZ and MBM all detect the vcore to be around 0.05V less than what I set it to in the BIOS and my CPU overclocks are somewhat lower than I expected considering the week/stepping I have unless I increase the voltage to compensate. Is this a common thing with these boards?

The other issue is the placement of the chipset and its fan. The top video card blows hot air directly into it and the temperatures can get fairly high, around 57C at times. Is it worth putting ceramique on there instead of whatever stock stuff they use?

 

[rise]

"bad weather always looks worse through a window"

alot of the people who warn others about dfi nf4s have in fact never even used one. i'm glad your experience has been, like mine, good.

as for the cpu vcore readings, it seems they all read off by the ~.05 you're seeing. i've installed 6 of them and all read lower than what i set in bios so i always use the bios setting as my actual vcore.

the chipset location, like many nf4s is regrettable. after having similar temp problems with my first board i applied some as5 which helped and i have since done so before i installed anything on the other boards. makes it a lot easier.

your case airflow also has a large impact on your chipset temps, especially if you're lacking any front intake. if thats the case, positioning a low rpm 80-92 mm fan to blow over the area will help.

you can also move the sli jumpers and run the card in the second pci-e slot which has no real world performance penalty.

as for your overclock, well a good stepping doesn't always make a good chip. if you've followed zebos stickied quick oc guide you should have an idea of what the chip can do at the vcore you deem safe.

 

[CP5670]

Thanks for the advice. It's running outside the case at the moment, so it will probably go a few degrees higher in the case, although the case has a front intake with no hard drives in the way. I'm actually using the SLI functionality, so the top slot has to be occupied. The temperatures don't seem to result in any instability, but I guess I might as well replace the paste before putting everything in.

as for your overclock, well a good stepping doesn't always make a good chip. if you've followed zebos stickied quick oc guide you should have an idea of what the chip can do at the vcore you deem safe.

Yeah, I pretty much followed that except for the memory part, as I was going to use a divider anyway. I think I just got a dud CPU, although I might try some more things with it later. At least I can get FX57 speeds out of it without any trouble.