"Grouper" first look

[Tony]

Guys finally I have the board and ATI have released me to post a little. Impressions are good although bios twekaing continues so it should get better.
Im posting pics of the board first, i will know shortly what bios shots i can show and will post these ASDP.

I have been debugging the board a little for a few days in between working on the cold boot issue on the DFI, i have not benched the board but I do know it overclocks real well.Please remember this is an internal engineering board, the finals may be a little different but this should be real close.

I have tested the board with OCZ dimms based on:
Sammy TCCD and TCC5
Micron (EB)
VX (UTT)
BH5
Hynix
Mosel

So far im impressed with all the dimms although the TCCD did clock a little lower than it did on the DFI, i have a feeling this is interleave related and some bios tweaks i feel will cure it. VX and EB clocks real well and is fast and stable. Old BH5 was good also matching my best clock for clock.

Now I know you may want to see the board so here are a few pics, as i said i will post bios shots and release more as i get the nod from the ATI boys.

[Saffire]

Thats a pretty cool looking board (asthetically)

Any word on a release date?

[cadaveca]

And can we get pics without heatsinks(pwm)? Thank you very much, BTW.

[ettis]

Will there be an AMR compatible board like this one?

[d@rkn1ko]

vdimm 4v?

[Tony]

And can we get pics without heatsinks(pwm)? Thank you very much, BTW.

Why? hexus posted pics of the rev1 board showing this area and as far as i know nothing has changed.

Im not keen on pulling it to bits now i just got it all mounted up again.

[Tony]

Will there be an AMR compatible board like this one?

Yes

[Mr. Tinker]

didn't I see shots of this board (or one similar) with special edition Danger Den waterblocks?

[Tony]

vdimm 4v?

wait and see

[Tony]

didn't I see shots of this board (or one similar) with special edition Danger Den waterblocks?

Yes that was the rev1, nothing was ever posted about how it clocks etc

[Lithan]

I really like the cream and red color. Is that just the ES or will retails look like that too?
Also like the stock cooling on power. I see two problems.

1. Dimm clips will hit installed Video card, same problem a few early NF2 boards had. Not terrible, but certainly something that is EASY to avoid and should have been.
2. It looks tight around the cpu socket to me. I doubt many larger heatsinks will fit. Can you try an XP-120 for us?

Oh and one question, What Cap's is it using for Vcore and Vdimm?

Second question, PCI locks work?

Third Question, Max HTT and HTBus? (Test when you have time please)

Fourth, Performance in 3d versus NF4 at same settings? (Same)

[Mr. Tinker]

Something about the way this board looks makes me want to eat Oreo's and Milk.

[The Mofo]

Well its great this board is finally going to evolve! What i noticed off the bat is how many less power connectors it requires. Looks like the NF4 will be moved down the line. Thanks for the pics Tony

[ozzimark]

any chance they'll ditch the all white and go with a red pcb with white components?

[cadaveca]

Why? hexus posted pics of the rev1 board showing this area and as far as i know nothing has changed.

Im not keen on pulling it to bits now i just got it all mounted up again.

I wanted to make a block of my own for the area. no biggie..never knew you built back-up...thought the pics were VERY recent.

i'd like to know about hte onboard video as well...

[hovo73]

Hmmm, looks lie someone spilled milk on a red PCB board.

[Tony]

Ok bios shots, I will get to onboard video later as its something i know little about but i will ask. Im using an 850XT PE at the mo so no need for something slower

Now there is one option i can not show, I can say there are many options for drive strength in both normal and weak drive modes...i can not however show you the values at this time. But i can show you the following.

[Tony]

[Tony]

[Tony]

As you all see the engineering bios is pretty full featured, it is an AMI file but im told an Award bios also exists for the board with the same feature set.

i just popped an 3000venice in so i will have a play with memtest and see what sort of clocks the cpu/ board will do.

[mikead_99]

Wow! That looks pretty fully featured. Does VCore go higher than the scale shown?

and lol at the milk and oreos.

[Tony]

Wow! That looks pretty fully featured. Does VCore go higher than the scale shown?

and lol at the milk and oreos.

It goes to the max Vid the cpu allows then you add the extra options to boost it up, so it depends on what CPU for max VID..IE newcastle allows 1.55v max ect..

[Vapor]

Is it just me, or is 4.0V x 1.102 something like 4.4V for max VDIMM? I can't imagine I'd ever need that much, but WOW! Everything else looks solid so far, too.

Board looks really nice as well.

[Tony]

Is it just me, or is 4.0V x 1.102 something like 4.4V for max VDIMM? I can't imagine I'd ever need that much, but WOW! Everything else looks solid so far, too.

Board looks really nice as well.

Its you..max vdimm is 4V

[cantankerous]

OMG. Finally a board with as many, if not more options than the DFI. I wonder if the DFI board will copy some of these options and incorporate them into their boards. I like the % addition to the Vdimm, very cool. Some stuff on there I have no clue what it is either. I like the additional voltage options for the PCIE bus as well something else the DFI doesn't have.