DFI CrossFire Mobo in the [H]ouse

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
Staff member
Joined
May 18, 1997
Messages
55,626
Got in our DFI Radeon Xpress 200 Crossfire mobo today. Certainly an "enthusiast" motherboard, and if not that, then certainly "high end." Interestingly, ATI sent us this board last week, but we refused shipment as we wanted to make sure we did not get a "cherry picked" sample. There is no accusation in that statement, simply we would like to insulate against even that possibility, so we bought one from Newegg when they showed the board in stock.

Interestingly enough, even though this is the motherboard that ATI seemingly wants representing their CrossFire motherboard line, DFI does not even have a single product that qualifies in ATI's Certified Motherboards program.
Motherboards listed on the pages below have been tested and are Certified to meet the highest standards of quality, usability and reliability.
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It seems as though if DFI is not even a member or "certified partner." I asked some questions of ATI pertaining to this yesterday, but have yet to get any response.

ATI pointed out to us last week that they could not control the quality of Xpress 200 retail motherboard products as they do not build them. This was their explanation to us as to why we have experienced some Radeon Xpress 200 motherboards that were unstable. So they have this " ATI Certified Motherboard" program to show what is supposedly the best of the best. I find it very odd that the motherboard that ATI is sending out for reviews does not even meet ATI's own certification program.

Here is a Certified by ATI - FAQ that answers some questions about the program.

Q: Does it mean that users/system integrators should not purchase a product that is not Certified by ATI?
A: A product that is not Certified simply has not been tested by ATI. It might be an excellent product that will function well. However, given a choice, why wouldn't you choose a Certified product? Certified products have been tested by ATI. Certified products are supported by ATI. Certified products don't cost more than non-Certified product. These are compelling reasons to buy a Certified product over a non-Certified product
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I would think that it would be in ATI's best interest to lead with a ATI Certified product, especially if this is the product that ATI is sending out to represent their CrossFire series motherboard.
 
Ok, that HAS to be a mistake! I bet their other partners that DO have certified boards would be pretty pissed about this...
 
I feel the engine picking up steam.......


btw: I got this board last week and find it to be a great board, like the DFI NF4 board it replaced. Now for some Crossfire X1800's.
 
I am thinking that we should see DFI show up here soon. That said, my questions have gone ignored, not even a "Oops, we left them off, we will get that corrected," reply. I don't think DFI part of this program, but it will be interesting to see what happens next.

Our CrossFire board that came direct from ATI for our CrossFire testing has been 100% stable in real-world gaming situations and it has had a lot of gameplay thrown at it here lately.

I hope to see the DFI board stand up to our usual terms of abuse. I will be doing the work myself on this one.
 
Hey Kyle, you may want to look into the broken serial ata connector issue. It appears that the way the mobo and the Karrajan sound module are packaged is causing the module to bend and break off the serial ata connectors on some boards. Marci at, (crap cant think of the company. They build water cooling rads.), said he had half a shipment come in with broken connectors and it was definately caused by the Karrajan module...


Now I remember, Thermochill.
 
Here is a nice clip from AnandTech's review of this board so lets see what [H] comes up with.

"It has taken a very long time for the first retail ATI Crossfire motherboard to arrive. However, ATI could not have done better than to have the first retail board come from DFI, the current leader in motherboards based on the nForce4 chipset. In every performance area important to overclockers and AMD hobbyists, the DFI is at least as good as the legendary DFI nForce4 motherboards. In some areas, the DFI RDX200 is even superior to their nForce4 boards."
 
R1ckCa1n said:
Here is a nice clip from AnandTech's review of this board so lets see what [H] comes up with.

"It has taken a very long time for the first retail ATI Crossfire motherboard to arrive. However, ATI could not have done better than to have the first retail board come from DFI, the current leader in motherboards based on the nForce4 chipset. In every performance area important to overclockers and AMD hobbyists, the DFI is at least as good as the legendary DFI nForce4 motherboards. In some areas, the DFI RDX200 is even superior to their nForce4 boards."
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yea I read that article. I trust Kyles evalutations b4 AT.I have been following this board on another forum. I'm skeptical to say the least. 548 posts and counting.
 
The thing is there is no x1800 master cards to really test this boards true potential! :eek:
So until there is, you really cant evaluate its performance!
 
when is ati actually planning on releasing crossfire master cards anyway? Or is it all just another one of their marketing schemes...
 
This is pointless. A $200 board for a video card that you can't even buy yet. Oh, yay. The 7800 has been out for 3 months. Won't it take as long for the X1800 line to reach similar prices? Who is going to wait that long if they can get proven SLI now?
 
This board is still in its infancy. Until I see real game banchmarks with mastercards I will reserve judgment on its performance! :D
 
R1ckCa1n said:
Here is a nice clip from AnandTech's review of this board so lets see what [H] comes up with.

"It has taken a very long time for the first retail ATI Crossfire motherboard to arrive. However, ATI could not have done better than to have the first retail board come from DFI, the current leader in motherboards based on the nForce4 chipset. In every performance area important to overclockers and AMD hobbyists, the DFI is at least as good as the legendary DFI nForce4 motherboards. In some areas, the DFI RDX200 is even superior to their nForce4 boards."
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Retail samples and retail products often don't show the same qualities. This is why we stopped reviewing samples given to us by manufacturers and technology developers. I would suggest that my board purchased by me personally from Newegg would be the board to truly tell the tale. Just my opinion. We all know that no company has ever cherry picked samples to give to the press. ;)
 
nst6563 said:
when is ati actually planning on releasing crossfire master cards anyway? Or is it all just another one of their marketing schemes...
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That is the million dollar question!

This board is not for a n00b, that is clear.
 
kyle I respect your work in this community. I trust you will give it the ole [H]ard reviews as I've come to love.
 
Two X850 XT video cards in a CrossFire configuration should be quite enough to find out whether the motherboard is stable and lives up to it specifications.
 
Can you buy them today? I have been so focused on the X1800XT in Crossfire, I have not checked.

edit: nm... I checked and found them at Newegg
 
No X1x00 CrossFire video cards are available for sale to my knowledge, buy hey, I did not know that the GTO was an official ATI model number till I asked....

Anyway, I put in a mail to ask for official dates or changes to any that we have seen lately. It is time to follow up on the X1x00 launch for sure.
 
purefun65 said:
Then let her rip and plz abuse this board. We wait with anticipation with your evaluations! :D
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Well, if you want some good news, the board is not DOA. :) And a fresh OS install to a RAID 0 partition is going along just fine with nary a problem. That right there is more than I can say for every Xpress 200 retail product we have ever touched. So things are looking up. I hope this board will change my opinion of the chipset.
 
Kyle alot of us have plenty of sticks of 512mb ram. Will this board overclock with all 4 banks in 1t. Try some old school bh-5 plz.
 
R1ckCa1n said:
Remember the EXPRESS 200 is not what you are working on according to websites since that chipset has integrated graphics. You are working on the ATI RD480 Northbridge - ATI SB450 Southbridge according to DFI's specs. I can't wait to see the ULi Southbridge version coming supposedly by DFI, if it wasn't cancelled.
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Just FYI, they are both marketed under the "Radeon Xpress 200" branding. This one in particular is stickered with "Cross Fire Multi-GPU Ready."

And to be more to the point, I don't really care what the code name on anything is. We are working on a Cross Fire mobo review, and it had damn well be all it should be in a Cross Fire configuration. (No RAID issues are a great thing to see with the Silicon Image 3112a controller technology. ULi is bottom of the RAID barrel in my book.)
 
purefun65 said:
Kyle alot of us have plenty of sticks of 512mb ram. Will this board overclock with all 4 banks in 1t. Try some old school bh-5 plz.
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I have a full assortment of sticks here waiting for it. Trust me, with the timing issues we have seen in the past, it will get a thorough battery of RAM tests.
 
I was suprised they went with the 3112a controler.I thought they were going to upgrade it.
 
Also, if anyone is doing this at home, there are a lot of newly released drivers on the DFI website for this board that have come out recently. I am sure they are worth the download. Original BIOS still in play though. :)
 
purefun65 said:
I was suprised they went with the 3112a controler.I thought they were going to upgrade it.
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I don't really think there is anything much to gain from going to the 3114 or one of its RAID5 versions. 3112a is hopefully very stable and matured. Actually I have been using a 3112a controller in my personal system now for many many months and have been very happy with it. It kicks ass.
 
R1ckCa1n said:
Remember the EXPRESS 200 is not what you are working on according to websites since that chipset has integrated graphics. You are working on the ATI RD480 Northbridge - ATI SB450 Southbridge according to DFI's specs. I can't wait to see the ULi Southbridge version coming supposedly by DFI, if it wasn't cancelled.
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Wasn't the DFI board originally supposed to have the ULi SB but ATI managed to sucker DFI into using their SB? I was under the impression that the board was merely changed from the ULi to the ATI SB, and not that there was a second one in the works.
 
No take on it yet....

This particular board does have some reboot issues. Sometimes it is requiring a hard power off to get the motherboard to POST, and it has locked once detecting IDE devices, but nothing that really waves a red flag yet.
 
purefun65 said:
I'm sure oskar is working his tail off on that one!.
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I sure hope so. I was telling stories about him this week to some folks that did not know the Lore of Oscar. :D
 
Thanks for the heads up so far. I know you dont want to say too much but I'm waiting with baited breath cause I'm ready to upgrade.
 
Erasmus354 said:
Wasn't the DFI board originally supposed to have the ULi SB but ATI managed to sucker DFI into using their SB? I was under the impression that the board was merely changed from the ULi to the ATI SB, and not that there was a second one in the works.
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According to DFI streets and Xtremesystems.org there is a RDX200 CF-DR (shipping model) and a RDX200 CF-BT. The BT supposedly has the ULi southbridge but has been rumored to be cancelled. Time will tell.
 
R1ckCa1n said:
According to DFI streets and Xtremesystems.org there is a RDX200 CF-DR (shipping model) and a RDX200 CF-BT. The BT supposedly has the ULi southbridge but has been rumored to be cancelled. Time will tell.
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I have been folowing both of those sites and I hear you about ULI.
 
R1ckCa1n said:
According to DFI streets and Xtremesystems.org there is a RDX200 CF-DR (shipping model) and a RDX200 CF-BT. The BT supposedly has the ULi southbridge but has been rumored to be cancelled. Time will tell.
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The thing is with those sites they get engineering samples and pre production releases. They dont buy retail,instead are spoon fed beta testers.
 
This board purchased from Newegg has the SB450 southbridge. That said, the system will not reboot without a hard power down. It is hanging at the 3112a detect. :rolleyes:

And of course the dreaded CLI.exe error is here as well. I always forget about needed the damn .Net Framework....
 
R1ckCa1n said:
This appears to be a known issue with many people experiencing the same issue. Are you typically seeing it after a BIOS change or simpy during the reboots?
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You apparently have been following this board. You know the answer! Lets see what conclusion Kyle finds.
 
R1ckCa1n said:
This appears to be a known issue with many people experiencing the same issue. Are you typically seeing it after a BIOS change or simpy during the reboots?
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No BIOS change has been done on the board, it came from Newegg with the latest public BIOS installed.

But it is hanging at IDE detects as well on the POST screen sometimes...even after a hard power down sometimes now. :(
 
purefun65 said:
You apparently have been following this board. You know the answer!
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Following? I am living it. What is clear to me is this is not a n00bie friendly board. People are either going to love it for all the flexibilty or hate it because you have to tweak it to make it sing.
 
I am hoping this is my error as all the drivers showing on the disk are for 3114 controller. I loaded the 3112 drivers. If I recall correctly, the orig ref Xpress 200 boards misidentified the 3114 controller. Been too long....
 
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