*****Official***** DFI NF4 ultra-D first look

[OPPAINTER]

Guys I have an X850 here and it fits with NO mods. Check the pics.


http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=22934&stc=1

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=22935&stc=1
Holy :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana: thats close:D

OPP

[Tony]

Its close yup but it works ;)

Nice bench there OPP....good to see you on the hunt gain :)

[GRAFiZ]

Great score OPPAINTER... quick question about the board...

So far, from what you've seen, does this product warrant the amount of enthusiasm we're all giving it?

I mean, everyone is going nuts over this board and it even has me rather worked up about it.

Thanks! :toast:

[Bennah]

Opp make yourself one of these.
http://www.jason57.iwarp.com/msineo2/o.jpg

use #6 bolts and since the holes are just big enough in the mobo for #6 make sure you drill accurate. after you do the 9 holes place the mobo in the support and make 2 #6 holes where you would use the hold down then apply 2 3in #6 bolts to the board with the exact same height as the stand offs with the washers and so on so it looks like this
http://www.jason57.iwarp.com/msineo2/s.jpg

add some foam like this
http://www.jason57.iwarp.com/msineo2/r.jpg

install it and get this
http://www.jason57.iwarp.com/msineo2/p.jpg
http://www.jason57.iwarp.com/msineo2/q.jpg

I gaurt you nothings going to warp at all as I uses some massive force now wihtout any issues.. If you get my design right you could add 200lbs force to the chip wihtout a warp anywhere.

I had issues rem and I think this was my cure. :)

Sorry for being offtopic here but whats all the red liquid on the mobo jason? Some kind of insulation?

OPP, that 38K is looking good. Good luck with the 'serious' benching ;)

The DFI SLI-DR is looking good... me will have to pre-order one.

Why cant OPP, Big Toe and OPB wait till its out in the shops before they start to tease us with hardware that the 'normal' xtremesystems overclocker cant get yet :D

[uwackme]

1.95Vgpu = 789.... holy snike's batman. Guess I wont worry about my 1.485 at the moment, thanks a bunch OPP!

Graf.... I think the enthusiasm is justified. DFI is putting into the bios all the adjustability the OC'ing community would want and that is VERY EXCITING. Nothing makes me happier than a manufacturing actually meeting the needs of thier customers.

Also, we know from his proven track record on Infinity/LPuB that Oskar Wu puts the real effort to perfecting the bios. Showing respect for DFI's customers that no other OEM bothers to bother with.

Ex: ABit "the enthusiast company" that didnt bother putting CPC on/off control into the bios, when 2x 512M sticks really required it to solve alot of problems for customers.

To me its like having the RedSox put out a motherboard that I know is gonna get me a shot at the Worldseries.....so Im happy to spend the $$ with them, and can look forward to sorting out my OC issues NOT debugging thier product before I get to my OC issues.

The real excitement over this board (justified imho) stems from the fact it heralds the next big step in power dropped into the hands of the enthusiast community....where it takes us, we'll just have to see....

Now THAT's exciting :banana:

[GRAFiZ]

1.95Vgpu = 789.... holy snike's batman. Guess I wont worry about my 1.485 at the moment, thanks a bunch OPP!

Graf.... I think the enthusiasm is justified. DFI is putting into the bios all the adjustability the OC'ing community would want and that is VERY EXCITING. Nothing makes me happier than a manufacturing actually meeting the needs of thier customers.

Also, we know from his proven track record on Infinity/LPuB that Oskar Wu puts the real effort to perfecting the bios. Showing respect for DFI's customers that no other OEM bothers to bother with.

Ex: ABit "the enthusiast company" that didnt bother putting CPC on/off control into the bios, when 2x 512M sticks really required it to solve alot of problems for customers.

To me its like having the RedSox put out a motherboard that I know is gonna get me a shot at the Worldseries.....so Im happy to spend the $$ with them, and can look forward to sorting out my OC issues NOT debugging thier product before I get to my OC issues.

The real excitement over this board (justified imho) stems from the fact it heralds the next big step in power dropped into the hands of the enthusiast community....where it takes us, we'll just have to see....

Now THAT's exciting :banana:

I see your point and I hope so.

My last mobo purchase was an Abit IC7-MAX3... following montsh worth of buildup. Well, it's a great motherboard indeed, but nowhere near worth all that was once spouted off about it.

To my eyes, what I see that seperates the DFI from the rest is the BIOS options. Voltage settings out of this world, memory settings to make your head spin, etc. etc.

But, I worry that when everyone who wants one gets one, say in a few months, people might find it doesnt overclock much better then the MSI or ASUS, etc. Thats all.

I'm not going to lie, I'd love to have one in my grubby hands right now, but I worry it might end up being just a little bit of a let down.

Thanks for the info!

[Holberg]

I have a 20-24pin converter,and I measured on the 4 extra pins there was=>
12V 3.3V 5V and ground

I you sure the converter doesn't work, because it's has it all???

[TysonM]

Sorry for being offtopic here but whats all the red liquid on the mobo jason? Some kind of insulation?

The colder you get with your phase change, the more careful you have to be with condensation. I'm pretty sure that stuff is to prevent corrosion. I've seen the results that months of condensation can cause (a whole bunch of green, crusty pins falling off the cpu as it is examined!). So this was a wise move, especially with how freaking cold cascades get!!!

[daniel734]

Excuse me but if the DFI nF4 will use 24pin will it work with my Antec Neopower??? Im getting kind of worried here cuz i dont no :banana::banana::banana::banana: about power connectors. =/
thanks

[synergy321]

wow guys thanks for the updates waiting for zzf to get there ultra back in stock :D, then im picking up on of these :D, i know lol that red stuff, from what it sounds is a good idea, but pouring liquid on a 100 electrical product makes me scared :(. thanks again you 3, hopefully more to come.

btw: either of you guys with the boards have pdp 3200 tccd or ocz 3200 rev 2 tccd, i want to know the performence between these 2 so i can make my choice. thanks

[Flask28]

Excuse me but if the DFI nF4 will use 24pin will it work with my Antec Neopower??? Im getting kind of worried here cuz i dont no :banana::banana::banana::banana: about power connectors. =/
thanks

I have a neopower and just doublechecked that. It is fully ATX2.0 compliant and has the 24pin connection. You're good!

[eva2000]

My lttle blue Asus H/S on it now is frying big time, hot, hot.

OPP
maybe DFI should do what Asus did with their new boards, add a small aluminium heatspreader underside of the motherboard to further disspate heat ? IIRC, Asus managed to reduce temps by another 10C like that ? maybe a thin plate that extends to the side of the board via dual heatpipes :D

[choseone214]

The Red Paint guys Is Electronic circuit paint. good for +200f to -80c :)

I need it at high clocks ;)

Opp> Looking good. I might have to put something fresh up now. My new chip a week 0442GPMW is a win2000 lover.. Rem the old chip? The one King got "3580mhz" that was a winxp+2003 only chip? This is same, but Its doing win2000 :banana:

[felinusz]

bigtoe - page one

2x256BH5 3500Platinum.

Now these modules did 240fsb 3.3v on the NF2 UltraB revB which i didn't think to bad....they do a LOT better on the NF4

Everest is a pretty slick bench as it also reports memory latency. Im running cas1.5 here at 264fsb 1:1 for the lowest latency bench i have seen with my dimms. Also the jump from 240 on the NF2 to 264fsb is pretty astounding on this NF4....seems the board loves BH5 in a BIG way.


Did 264 MHz with this nForce4 board only need 3.3V (what you needed for 240 MHz with the old nForce 2 board) to run stably?

BH-5 running at 264 MHz stably with 3.3V of VDIMM is indeed insane, and reason enough for me to purchase one of these new DFI motherboards once they're available! With this kind of result, 270+ should be possible with 3.6V+ of VDIMM.

But the comparison is unfair if all the variables (namely VDIMM) did not remain constant across both test platforms (NF2/NF4 - 240MHz/264MHz).

[ison]

X850XT PCI-E card fits perfect in both PCI-E slots.

OPP has an alpha or beta board. RG and I have RC boards.

magnetic fan spins down (blows down on chipset)

just woke up...more in a bit

from:http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=4645&perpage=15&pagenumber=4

ok then ati x850xt it is for me:)

One question (i know it must be answered somewhere but i cannot find it)

The dfi boards have the A2 or the A3 revision of the nforce4 chip?

Is this the same with the sli AND ultra mobos?

[Kobalt]

A3 revision on all boards....how else do you think people are hitting like 1300ht

[ison]

A3 revision on all boards....how else do you think people are hitting like 1300ht
ok thanx (im not too experienced so didnt quite noticed it)

[jikdoc]

A3 revision on all boards....how else do you think people are hitting like 1300ht

i thought tony mentioned that the dfi board automatically scales ldt down with overclocks to keep htt ~ 1000. people didn't notice it since it was done automatically and assumed they were running htt ~ 1300

[OPPAINTER]

Opp> Looking good. I might have to put something fresh up now. My new chip a week 0442GPMW is a win2000 lover.. Rem the old chip? The one King got "3580mhz" that was a winxp+2003 only chip? This is same, but Its doing win2000 :banana:
Hay, didn't you say you wanted to swap me that chip a ways back? :D

OPP

[althes]

Cant wait to see opp push on for the record

[xgman]

i thought tony mentioned that the dfi board automatically scales ldt down with overclocks to keep htt ~ 1000. people didn't notice it since it was done automatically and assumed they were running htt ~ 1300


That is sort of what he said, but where do you see this scaling down and can someone confirm this?

[Chris27]

what about this PSU, will it work?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-101-502&depa=0

[TinTin]

DFI tech support already stated they will NOT support 20 to 24 (or very close to similar comments), they insist that an ATX 12 PSU be used, and all 24 pins connected.

Check dfi-street on that one.

Look in this thread:
http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3447&perpage=15&pagenumber=35

Using 20pins PSU is totally okay, even overclocking ;)

[TinTin]

I was useing the 5v jumper for memory last night.
It works good, it ran my VX at 3.65 without problems.

OPP

3.9V or above seems to be unstable, did you try?
3.8V with 512*2 BH-5 to window is okay, but 3.9V gave me BSOD :D
What I tried before was a sample board.

[thebluesgnr]

The dfi boards have the A2 or the A3 revision of the nforce4 chip?


People always ask this about nForce4 boards... if the specs says it can do 2.0GTs Hyper Transport there's nothing to worry about.

[TinTin]

Can you see it is a A3 chips? Taken by mobile phone.... :D

[Blindbat]

Can you see it is a A3 chips? Taken by mobile phone.... :D

Barely visible but yes, thank you. CPUZ motherboard tab would show it also.

[uwackme]

Well gotta tell ya, the absolute minimum I'd task with a serious system based on this motherboard series is this PSU...

Fortron 500Watt ATX2.0 24pin (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-104-934&depa=1)

Just my $.02

[GRAFiZ]

People always ask this about nForce4 boards... if the specs says it can do 2.0GTs Hyper Transport there's nothing to worry about.

Do you know if the Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI supports 2.0GTs?

All I can find on thier site is: Processor interface via 2000MT/s HyperTransport bus

Is that the same thing?

Thanks!

[TinTin]

Do you know if the Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI supports 2.0GTs?

All I can find on thier site is: Processor interface via 2000MT/s HyperTransport bus

Is that the same thing?

Thanks!

SLI version must be A3 chips, they support 1GHz Hypertransport (i.e. 2GHz bi-direction)
The Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 nForce4 4X chipset :rolleyes:

[GRAFiZ]

SLI version must be A3 chips, they support 1GHz Hypertransport (i.e. 2GHz bi-direction)
The Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 nForce4 4X chipset :rolleyes:

Aha!

Thanks friend.

You'll have to excuse my ignorance, I'm used to Intel systems.

[TinTin]

Aha!

Thanks friend.

You'll have to excuse my ignorance, I'm used to Intel systems.

I just hate Gigabyte selling those 4X chips (A2) instead of REAL NF4 ultra chips ;)

[Tony]

Well guys I have a new bios, about to test but indications show a huge improvement on the memory :D

OPP mail me and i will return mail it to you.

[NoStra]

I found the same when beching my Epox 9NDA3+ for some reason the DFI is giving lower benches. i hit 4k unbuffered sandra on the Epox and came nowhere near on the DFI....email time I think.

here is my Epox unbuffered with the 3500EB, now this is at 290fsb but 10fsb more on the DFI will not give me the 4K the epox is giving.


The epox is nforce3 and the dfi is nforce4....that's the difference. Nf3 gives more bandwith.

[Kunaak]

Big Toe or Opp.

whats under the chipset fan, thermal pad, or paste?

like always, looks like DFI just out did everyone again.

[jrw]

How are the actual voltages compaired to the bios settings?

As everyone says, this board is really tempting for all of us that dont like modding our boards due to the extreme voltage options...

How are the voltages then?

As posted earlier 3.9vdimm results in BSOD. Any other troubles related to the voltages?
Deep vcore drops during load? VTT tracking? Vdimm 3.0->4-0v?

It really seems as we are entering a great chipset era. Ati is gonna spice up the scene!

Now, give us a DFI manufatured board featuring a killer chipset with Dothan support! Wuuuuhaaaaaa!!!

[Holberg]

Using 20pins PSU is totally okay, even overclocking ;)

that is good news, then I can use my 20-24pin converter on the DFI NF4 board.

tintin did you try with a 20-24pin converter?

[Tony]

The epox is nforce3 and the dfi is nforce4....that's the difference. Nf3 gives more bandwith.

Not so my friend...a new bios comes to the rescue ;)

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=22975&stc=1

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=22976&stc=1

Now Angry Games over at DFI street has some later OCZ TCCD thats doing 310+fsb easy, mine does 303 or so.

I will post settings as i load A64 tweaker etc.

[Feiticeira]

What has changed to give this performace boost and has it changed the max overclock you get with your RAM?

Dave

[Tony]

Here is what settings I was using.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=22977&stc=1

[Tony]

What has changed to give this performace boost and has it changed the max overclock you get with your RAM?

Dave
A whole new bios, bank interleave is inc now also.

[Tony]

To see the difference i ran a quick unbuffered. The old is at 310fsb the new is at 303...seems I may be able to squeeze a little more yet ;)

Anyway....here is the old.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=22758&stc=1


And now the new.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=22979&stc=1

Nice gains here :)

[eva2000]

nice to see new bios improvements

when you say newer TCCD that you and Angrygames have, which model ?

[mdzcpa]

Wow...nice imporvement. DFI seems to making all the right adjustments to go along with the best in class feature set they already have. This DFI mobo will definitely be in my future. Thanks for all the great info :toast:

[Tony]

nice to see new bios improvements

when you say newer TCCD that you and Angrygames have, which model ?
Angry has 4200EL Plat which came later than the build i have here, which means he has much later week codes.

[eva2000]

i see..

btw, whole of Australia ran out of OCZ PC3200 Plat rev2, someone I know rang 30 retailers here and no stock and best ETA is 3 weeks heh.. hurry and ship our Aussie disties some more stock :D

[Tony]

i see..

btw, whole of Australia ran out of OCZ PC3200 Plat rev2, someone I know rang 30 retailers here and no stock and best ETA is 3 weeks heh.. hurry and ship our Aussie disties some more stock :D
I will forward the info m8...thanks

[Lood007]

hows the OCZ EB doing with this new BIOS?
and at what voltage do you run them at, tony?

[cantankerous]

A whole new bios, bank interleave is inc now also.

awesome news on the bank interleave. Thanks for that.

[Blindbat]

Darn some serious gains there Tony, thank you for sharing.

Me think 4200 Platinum is the way I will go, cooler and no need to generate heat with the vdimm bridge at 5 volts.

reseller is going to be pissed 3rd time I change my memory choice, LOL....oh well good outcome of that now he' got the entire line of OCZ modules in stock...hehehehehe

[Rustafur]

Bigtoe, have you got a chance to test the the stability of the 5v rail with this new bios? I was pretty dissapointed to hear that there was stability issues with it.

[Tony]

hows the OCZ EB doing with this new BIOS?
and at what voltage do you run them at, tony?
I still can't get over 270, i tried 3.5+V with no gain.

I found heat was the issue witht he 5V jumper on the board so cooling is a must. The board is stable as long as its cooled.

[Tony]

Darn some serious gains there Tony, thank you for sharing.

Me think 4200 Platinum is the way I will go, cooler and no need to generate heat with the vdimm bridge at 5 volts.

reseller is going to be pissed 3rd time I change my memory choice, LOL....oh well good outcome of that now he' got the entire line of OCZ modules in stock...hehehehehe

The 4200 is pretty sweet ram and does well on a good board.

[felinusz]

felinusz

Did 264 MHz with this nForce4 board only need 3.3V (what you needed for 240 MHz with the old nForce 2 board) to run stably?

BH-5 running at 264 MHz stably with 3.3V of VDIMM is indeed insane, and reason enough for me to purchase one of these new DFI motherboards once they're available! With this kind of result, 270+ should be possible with 3.6V+ of VDIMM.

But the comparison is unfair if all the variables (namely VDIMM) did not remain constant across both test platforms (NF2/NF4 - 240MHz/264MHz).


Bigtoe?

I'm really interested in these results, and am extremely curious what kind of VDIMM was needed for 264 MHz 2-2-2 with this board, and your BH-5 :)

TIA bro :)

[Demoulous]

I notice that on these boards that the sound system only has coax digital out.
Any mention anywhere about an optical SPDIF connector?

Or if not, does anyone know if the optical SPDIF and coax SPDIF have the same
pins if I were to bust out the wand of soldering and not care about the warranty?

My whole setup is based around optical in/out and so if the built in sound is
good I'd rather use that than have to go with CL's latest cash cow.

[OPPAINTER]

Bigtoe, have you got a chance to test the the stability of the 5v rail with this new bios? I was pretty dissapointed to hear that there was stability issues with it.
With my board I have been useing the 5V rail running my VX all day at 3.75V with no problems.
I havn't tryed new bios yet.

OPP

[Blindbat]

I notice that on these boards that the sound system only has coax digital out.
Any mention anywhere about an optical SPDIF connector?

Or if not, does anyone know if the optical SPDIF and coax SPDIF have the same
pins if I were to bust out the wand of soldering and not care about the warranty?

My whole setup is based around optical in/out and so if the built in sound is
good I'd rather use that than have to go with CL's latest cash cow.

not 100% sure but i don't think it's coaxial it's RCA. I read something about another adaptor to connect on the mobo around the sound thingie in order to be optical, which I also would like to have. No mention on what part number to get in order to obtain optical however.

[Tony]

Bigtoe?

I'm really interested in these results, and am extremely curious what kind of VDIMM was needed for 264 MHz 2-2-2 with this board, and your BH-5 :)

TIA bro :)

3.4Vdimm for 264 1.5-2-2-5

[xgman]

good ole BH-5. ;)

[gocchin]

3.4Vdimm for 264 1.5-2-2-5

That's what I needed to know! (^_^)

[turtle]

Awesome results guys!

Can someone quick clear up with me if my fortron 530w is going to work either with or without a 20-24pin adapter? It seems there's different answers floating around. Can someone give me a definative one?

Thx

[Tony]

I notice that on these boards that the sound system only has coax digital out.
Any mention anywhere about an optical SPDIF connector?

Or if not, does anyone know if the optical SPDIF and coax SPDIF have the same
pins if I were to bust out the wand of soldering and not care about the warranty?

My whole setup is based around optical in/out and so if the built in sound is
good I'd rather use that than have to go with CL's latest cash cow.

i can't find an optical out....only coax

[Rustafur]

With my board I have been useing the 5V rail running my VX all day at 3.75V with no problems.
I havn't tryed new bios yet.

OPP

:banana: :banana: Freakin' A! Thanks OPP, man I can't wait to get my hands on this board and some OCZ VX :banana: :banana:

[ZaVkE]

I've been out of the loop for some time, so if someone would be so kind to update me ;)

That 3.3V-5V option: Is it news tot the NF4-board of DFI or do they also provide it on the NF3?

[enduracell]

A whole new bios, bank interleave is inc now also.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=22979&stc=1DFI rules once more, the quickest response from mobo manufacturer I have ever experienced in my life.
Also thank u bigtoe for being in to this :toast:

[Perc]

nope the one guy oscar talked about doing the 5v thing with the DFI nf3 250ut in an upcomming bios update but i gues it wasnt possible :shrug: so now we see it on the nf4 dfi's wich is a beutiful thing :)

peace perc,

[cantankerous]

This works in the same was as the booster does it not in terms of using the 5v rail? The booster most definately needs cooling so I see no reason why that corner of the board wouldn't either. Wondering. Would a booster be better as it supposedly provides cleaner power or is this essentially a booster built in the board so to say?

The higher the voltage the less that has to be thrown away meaning wouldn't higher voltage not be as hot running? 5-3.6 = 1.4 as opposed to 5-3 = 2?

[tictac]

Is it ok to run OCZ ddr booster with this board if i dont want to use 5V jumper? :)
What is max safe voltage to run OCZ ddr booster with 3V jumper ? :)

[cantankerous]

I don't think Tony officially tested and made mention of the booster being tested on this board. Perhaps with it setup the way it is with the choice of 3/5v the booster may not even work at all being added to the incompatibility list. Good thing I didn't go out and buy one till I hear an official answer.

[jikdoc]

quick question for bigtoe,

what's the clearance underneath the x850xtpe to the board. from your pictures i can see that it barely clears the dfi chipset fan. i'm thinking of watercooling the chipset and was wondering 2 things.

1. do you think it's necessary to wc the chipset in a 24/7 overclocked setup inside a case?

2. will any current waterblocks fit? i'm considering a slimline fusionSL which is 19mm tall, or a polarflo waterblock which has a 360 degree rotation of the barbs. the a dd maze4 chipset waterblock doesn't look like it it will fit from the pics i've seen.

[pudds]

Might seem a strange question but does anyone know the maximum amps you can connect to the cpu fan header?
My fan draws 2 amps which is too much for a lot of motherboards. Ive looked in the manual and it doesn't say. The asus sli allowed 2 amps max but that seemed a bit to close for me so i opted to use a thermaltake fan controller which is mounted in a pci slot.
Its really annoying to have to reach round the back of the computer to change the fan speed. Never found a rheobus which could take 24w.

[TM30]

Tested modules.

3200Plat rev2 =TCCD
3500Plat = BH5
3500EB = Micron EOL
3200VX
4200EL = Hynix BTD 43
4400gold = Hynix CTD5
4000gold rev2 = Hynix DTD5


could you please test that 4400gold ? or did you already?

[OPPAINTER]

Just flashed to the new bios. Gotta love Interleave:D

Check out these Lobby scores, the highest scores in the world I believe:D

OPP
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23024&stc=1

[H2OGun]

Opp, where can I get the BIOS?

[OPPAINTER]

Opp, where can I get the BIOS?
You would have to PM me your e-mail addy.

OPP

[H2OGun]

You would have to PM me your e-mail addy.

OPP

YGPM

[Blindbat]

Might seem a strange question but does anyone know the maximum amps you can connect to the cpu fan header?
My fan draws 2 amps which is too much for a lot of motherboards. Ive looked in the manual and it doesn't say. The asus sli allowed 2 amps max but that seemed a bit to close for me so i opted to use a thermaltake fan controller which is mounted in a pci slot.
Its really annoying to have to reach round the back of the computer to change the fan speed. Never found a rheobus which could take 24w.

Maybe something like this could solve your problem.

http://www.adpmods.com/case-modding/Motherboard-Saver-RPM-Cable-p-49.html

[conrad.maranan]

Just flashed to the new bios. Gotta love Interleave:D
2-Way or 4-Way?

[OPPAINTER]

2-Way or 4-Way?
2-way
I have 1gig of memory.

With 2gigs you would get 4-way

OPP

[Blindbat]

I notice that on these boards that the sound system only has coax digital out.
Any mention anywhere about an optical SPDIF connector?

Or if not, does anyone know if the optical SPDIF and coax SPDIF have the same
pins if I were to bust out the wand of soldering and not care about the warranty?

My whole setup is based around optical in/out and so if the built in sound is
good I'd rather use that than have to go with CL's latest cash cow.

Ok, so I screwed up there is coxial. LOL

Here is what i found in the manual:

The system board is equipped with an onboard S/PDIF-in RCA jack
(red) and a S/PDIF-out RCA jack (yellow) at locations CN5 and
CN7 respectively.
The S/PDIF connector at location J3 is used to connect to
optical S/PDIF ports. The S/PDIF ports may be mounted on a cardedge
bracket. Install the card-edge bracket to the system chassis
then connect the audio cable connector to J3. Make sure pin 1 of
the audio cable connector is aligned with pin 1 of J3.
DO NOT use RCA S/PDIF and optical S/PDIF at the same time.

My puzzle is how do you get the S/PDIF ports and the card edge?

[reject]

isnt that depending on how many banks you have?
2x single sided is 2 way and 4 way is for 2x DS

[conrad.maranan]

2-way
I have 1gig of memory.

With 2gigs you would get 4-way

OPP
Hmmm. I always thought that if the modules were double-sided, you can enable 4-Way Bank Interleave with 2 modules so long as the BIOS had provisions for it. Maybe I'm wrong. :confused:

EDIT:
reject beat me to it.

[Fewture]

2-way
I have 1gig of memory.

With 2gigs you would get 4-way

OPP
Eric, what would 4x 256MB give me? Would that give any possibilities with interleaving? Thanks m8.

I have this board coming and have 4 sticks of BH-5 that do some nice clocks.

[enduracell]

isnt that depending on how many banks you have?
2x single sided is 2 way and 4 way is for 2x DS2xSingle sided in DC is one bank for MCH, 2x double sided (4 physical) is 2 in DC for ΜCH ;)

[daniel734]

OPPAINTER whats ur 01SE score with the board at this moment?

=)

[uranium]

quick question for bigtoe,

what's the clearance underneath the x850xtpe to the board. from your pictures i can see that it barely clears the dfi chipset fan. i'm thinking of watercooling the chipset and was wondering 2 things.

1. do you think it's necessary to wc the chipset in a 24/7 overclocked setup inside a case?

2. will any current waterblocks fit? i'm considering a slimline fusionSL which is 19mm tall, or a polarflo waterblock which has a 360 degree rotation of the barbs. the a dd maze4 chipset waterblock doesn't look like it it will fit from the pics i've seen.

I'd like to know this too
I sent PolarFLO a link to pictures of the board and they said their chipset block won't fit (too tall)

Any of the lucky people who have this board like to get their ruler out? ;)

[ZaVkE]

Hasn't koolance any?
I know they aren't the best performing, but they're always very thin.

http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=29_46&products_id=87
http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=29_46&products_id=104
http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=29_46&products_id=105

Any of these should seem to fit.
I know, there are better out there, but watercooling is always better then air, so it could be the next best thing ...

[Demoulous]

The S/PDIF connector at location J3 is used to connect to
optical S/PDIF ports. ?

Nice! I wonder if their connector is like the one on my dearly departed A7N8X-D as I could use the Asus optical out slot daughter board with it and dance around like the Dean of happy from happy university.

Great to hear that this beast now supports bank interleaving as my gig of Twinmos BH-5 will be in this mobo and loving the bandwidth. Gotta try for that CAS 1.5 when I get her.

[cantankerous]

Will enabling interleaving affect ocing performance at all?

[uranium]

Hasn't koolance any?
I know they aren't the best performing, but they're always very thin.

http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=29_46&products_id=87
http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=29_46&products_id=104
http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=29_46&products_id=105

Any of these should seem to fit.
I know, there are better out there, but watercooling is always better then air, so it could be the next best thing ...

Thanks Zav :)
Only problem is the fittings look a bit on the small side- really need at least 3/8" id tube. Maybe I'll just have to go to the machine shop.... ;)

[FallenAngel]

in the same site you got adapters to go with the wb cooler

http://www.koolance.com/shop/default.php?cPath=25_36

[reject]

yeh, since the early via athlonxp chipsets had interleaving, and 512mb was the normal max back then, it would have had to been 2 way

[OPPAINTER]

OPPAINTER whats ur 01SE score with the board at this moment?

=)
I don't have one yet. I will hook my Graphics card to my cascade today and should get around 42500 if all goes well.

OPP

[OPPAINTER]

As far as interleave goes, it's not the same as the old days.
These days, and this may be because of the AMD onboard memory controller, it goes by Gigs. Total of 512Mb gets you No-way, 1Gig gets you 2-way and to get 4-way you need 2Gigs. This has been the way it is since the S940 FX-51 through out my testing, and on both Via and nVidia chipsets.

OPP

[felinusz]

Bigtoe

3.4Vdimm for 264 1.5-2-2-5


WOW.

Thanks man, that pretty much hammers the last nail into the purchase decision ;)

[n00by]

Man I am so lost with all these new boards. DFi has 3 NF4 boards out. The Ultra-D, SLI-D, and the SLI-DR. I am so confused as to which has which and what I should look into. So all 3 accept 2 video cards but can work with just 1?

[synergy321]

heres what i think plz correct me if im wrong
ultra- atm 2 slots pci-e 16x, have to do sli "hack" to get 16x/2x cards to work. that information is at anandtech.

sli-2 video cards 16x/16x, good performace, just lots-o money. :(
then if it has name-Dthen a R, r has to do with something with raid. there are many posts about this, at dfi-street, and here. also any of the boards just run off 1 16x card, if the board is for sli, it DOESNT have to be in sli all the time. hopefully that answered your question. and feel free to correct me.

[reject]

and the dfi ultra can be modded into FULL SLi 8x/8x

[danbob]

anybody know how much the dfi costs.. haven't seen it in any places yet.

[DustMite]

They have the Ultra-D and the SLI-DR at ZipZoomFly for pre order.

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 ULTRA-D nForce4 Ultra Athlon 64(FX) Skt939
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=246486
price = $155

DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR nForce4 SLI Athlon 64(FX) Skt939
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=246485
price = $227

Does that help?

...my $0.02... :cool:

[Ronin]

Hey,

Just some general questions about this board.

What are the rounded cables like that come with it? I heard you can have corrupted data and loss of data with rounded cables?

And hows the Karajan onboard sound?

Thanks!

[felinusz]

Hey,

Just some general questions about this board.

What are the rounded cables like that come with it? I heard you can have corrupted data and loss of data with rounded cables?

And hows the Karajan onboard sound?

Thanks!

Rounded cables don't cause any problems, why would they?

[Ronin]

Ok,

Now is there enough rounded cables with this motherboard to have...
-Floppy Drive
-DVD Drive
-CDRW Drive
-SATA Hard Drive
-ATA100 Backup Hard Drive

Thanks

[trans am]

They have the Ultra-D and the SLI-DR at ZipZoomFly for pre order.



Does that help?

...my $0.02... :cool:

zipzoomfly and preorder shouldn't even be in the same sentence. :rolleyes:

[OPPAINTER]

OPPAINTER whats ur 01SE score with the board at this moment?

=)

DFI goes straight to #1:D

OPP
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23090&stc=1

[trans am]

DFI goes straight to #1:D


OPP, you show that turd who's boss! :toast:

[Marquzz]

Gratulations OPP, nice run, and not with extreme gfx-clocks I see, more to come then ;)

you got yourself a PM aswell :)

[jjcom]

you've got the second lowest CPU clock speed on that screen shot...:drool: Just think of what that thing will do once its the highest clocked CPU on that page...Nice job!

jjcom

[xgman]

Opp, where can I get the BIOS?

It's on the "beta" DFI server. Do a google search for DFI beta bios. ;)

[FallenAngel]

WOW, just WOW

[eva2000]

DFI goes straight to #1:D

OPP
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23090&stc=1
very nice!

[[G.N.U.]Fragman]

still waiting on mine...but have a couple of questions... my PSU only have 20 pin connector...do i need a 20>24 pins converter (and is it included in the Sli-DR model? )

any news on the OCZ pc4200EL memory modules on the board...how much voltage and what timings to max out mhz (air cooliance only).....damn this thread has grown!

[H2OGun]

It's on the "beta" DFI server. Do a google search for DFI beta bios. ;)

Thanks xgman. I only found 1 beta BIOS dated Jan 14 1005. @OPP: Is this the one you are using? Thanks.

[felinusz]

OPP's benchmark title

DFI 939 testing :)

Now that's just plain cavalier ;).

I'm sure that this will draw reams and reams of enthusiast interest in the new S939 DFI boards too :D :)


Good work OPP!

[OPPAINTER]

Thanks xgman. I only found 1 beta BIOS dated Jan 14 1005. @OPP: Is this the one you are using? Thanks.
The one I have here is labled 121, probably named after the date it was released.

OPP

[flexy]

i onle see bios for the nf4 ultra sli-dr....also on the dfi site...i guess i cant use these with the nf4 ultra (non sli) board ? On the other hand...aren't all these boards the same, even the ultra can be modded to the SLI, Shouldnt the other bios work ?

Btw. hos is dfi in general with releasing and updating new bios ?

[IvanAndreevich]

Nice OPP.. you're the only one on there using PCI-E too. They have XT PE's while yours is a plain XT.

[Ronin]

Hmm,

Well after reading through this thread will a ati x800xl fit properly on this board or will it hit the stock heatsink/fan?

Thanks

[IvanAndreevich]

Ronin
Yes, it will. OPP's board is just bent because of the evap mounting.

[Ronin]

Ok cool thanks!

[OPPAINTER]

Some more DFI "POWER" in action:D

OPP
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23105&stc=1

[Blindbat]

Geezzz... nice going OPP.

Come on reseller shake the banana tree of the master distributor I need a dfi nf 4 Ultra board prompto !

[jumanji969]

Dang this board looks awesome.

[graham_h]

It's this week in Australia.
Damn the wait is killing me...... :slobber:

[Ferry82]

I will have it this friday thats what the said :slobber:

[xs64]

And when will DFI appear in Euro ? I can not wait anymore :(

[HermS]

I'm not holding my breath, my guess is first or second week of Feb at the earliest. I hope I'm wrong.

[tipiaccionoicon]

And when will DFI appear in Euro ? I can not wait anymore :(

next week in Italy so i hope in Europe...

[Klosti]

next week it will also in germany arrive. check out hpm-computer

[xs64]

next week it will also in germany arrive. check out hpm-computer
So next week i will have it :banana4: .......

[Fewture]

Some more DFI "POWER" in action:D

OPP
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23105&stc=1
Congrats man, real nice!

[Tony]

Guys clearance on the chipset to ATI card is tight, but it does fit as long as the board is now bent.
I know the chipset gets warm so water may help although I have had no issues. I do know DD are working on a block for it ;)

Awesome to see OPP bank on form, were you using our dimms there m8?

Regards using the 5V Jumper emabled, the mosfet has a heatsink on it and at 3.4Vdimm it was showing 75+C for me on full load, this to me means get sone cool air blowing on it ;)

[xgman]

Guys, I understand it shouldn't be much longer for shipment. A last minute hardware change and bios update to the shipping boards is being made to smooth out performance.

[Blindbat]

Guys clearance on the chipset to ATI card is tight, but it does fit as long as the board is now bent.
I know the chipset gets warm so water may help although I have had no issues. I do know DD are working on a block for it ;)

Awesome to see OPP bank on form, were you using our dimms there m8?

Regards using the 5V Jumper emabled, the mosfet has a heatsink on it and at 3.4Vdimm it was showing 75+C for me on full load, this to me means get sone cool air blowing on it ;)

Oppssss.....slip of the tongue there Tony, tired also I suspect working on to many boards at the same time....ATI in this case probably means DFI...lol

[trans am]

Oppssss.....slip of the tongue there Tony, tired also I suspect working on to many boards at the same time....ATI in this case probably means DFI...lol
Actually tony is reffering to the clearance from the chipset fan to the PCB on the ATI pci-e card. Opp had a problem because his board was warped from the Evap head mount.

[Blindbat]

Actually tony is reffering to the clearance from the chipset fan to the PCB on the ATI pci-e card. Opp had a problem because his board was warped from the Evap head mount.

Oppsssie my bad, I guess I'm the one tired and did not read properly..lol

[OPPAINTER]

[QUOTE=bigtoe]

Awesome to see OPP bank on form, were you using our dimms there m8?

QUOTE]
Here's specs for me last run last night.

42879

DFI NF-4 SLI DR mobo,, FX-55 at 266x13,, 2x512 OCZ VX at 266MHz 2-2-2-5,, 1xMSI RX800 at 799/659


OPP

[OPPAINTER]

Awesome to see OPP bank on form, were you using our dimms there m8?


Here's specs for me last run last night.

42879

DFI NF-4 SLI DR mobo,, FX-55 at 266x13,, 2x512 OCZ VX at 266MHz 2-2-2-5,, 1xMSI RX800 at 799/659


OPP

[perry_78]

So next week i will have it :banana4: .......

HPM-COMPUTER.DE is getting it from DFI Netherlands the 26th. The expect shipping to begin the 29th.

Nice OPP... Brian and Jacob are behind you with a crappier board :D

[diamonddog]

Is it neccessary or is it useful to cool down the chipset to -40°C? Or doesnt matter this? I ordered my dfi nf4 ultra last week :) I hope it rocks with my bh5 sticks!

[coop]

Is the "chipset" the same size as regular "NB" with same mounting holes? Could someone verify the height between the top of chip and bottom of vid card. It would be helpful so we can start getting parts now. Would a 20mm tall block fit that had water ports on the lower portion of block as to not interfere with the card? Copper is act. 10mm.

[uwackme]

You will want the water ports to come out centered between TWO video cards, so it can handle SLI, also needs to take into account the impact of any heatsinks on the videorams.

Same for the water blocks on the GPU's. the top card GPU block needs to not interfere with the bottom cards backside ramsinks.

Even if ATI takes a while to get SLI-ness functional, 2x X800 would make a cool 4 monitor desktop setup a snap. Even more nasty would be two Apple 30" LCD's each powered by one X800 card.

[coop]

looking here, http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?p=676389#post676389 , (it is all I have to go on), it seems there may be enough room above the lower card if someone was running two. Also (the orientation part I have not got to), the hose may be able to go to the back. Height seems to be the unknown. ***edit: I see what you are saying, about possible caps etc. being on top of the lower card....

[tictac]

Is it neccessary or is it useful to cool down the chipset to -40°C? Or doesnt matter this? I ordered my dfi nf4 ultra last week :) I hope it rocks with my bh5 sticks!

:lol: that will need some times to do that

the clearance are to small even for standard chipset cooling fan....

then what do you think .... with an evaporator block? :confused:

[diamonddog]

no waterchill with ethanol as I cool my nb and graphicscard on my nfII ultra infinity

[trans am]

2x512 OCZ VX at 266MHz 2-2-2-5,, 1xMSI RX800 at 799/659

is the vx doing any better on this board? or is it exactly the same?
799/659? Holy crap! mine max out memtest stable at 265, but this is on single channel 754 DFI rig. I have yet to try them in dual.:toast:

[Ronin]

Hey,

Just wondering what 3200 Dual 2x512mb Ram would work good for this board for $240 or cheaper?

Thanks!

[c42]

If you don't plan on o/cing(don't know why you would want this board if not), get some value ram from corsair, kingston, mushkin etc.

If you want to o/c my suggestion is G.skill pc4400 LE 1gb, just wait one more pay period, can be had for about 270 shipped at the egg.

[Blindbat]

OPPAINTER,

Small favor to ask, if you have the time and processor.

Is it possible for you to try a Winchester under cascade and the DFI nf4, and be kind enough to let us know if it works or if the famous ''winchester under phase change'' problem is also present with the DFI?

Last item for me to order is the processor and I wonder if I should go 3500+ NewCastle (until such time as Venice is out and hopefully not having the same problems as winnie), I will be using it on a modest Vapochill XE II.

[Ronin]

OK cool,

If im not overclocking with this board.

Will this Kingston

http://www.us.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=13550&vpn=KHX3200ULK2/1G&manufacture=Kingston

have a huge advantage over the ocz if not OCing.

http://www.us.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=12104&vpn=OCZ4001024PDC-K&manufacture=OCZ%20Technology

[c42]

Nope but I'd go with something like this if not o/cing(btw why buy this board if you aren't o/cing? You would be fine with a less expensive solution I'd think?)

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-299&depa=1

[Feiticeira]

why on earth are u paying out for the DFI if not overclocking? If your not then any RAM rated to pc3200 with ok timings will be fine no matter what make.

[c42]

At stock speeds higher quality ram just doesn't have much of an advantage over lower speeds.

Where the sweet spot is at for ram such as the g.skill I suggested for O/Cing is when you start getting at higher FSBs. Where running a 280+ FSB at a 1:1 ratio with your memory at 1t and lower timings such as 2.5-3-3-7 or whatever it may be is greater than what value ram will usually give you, as it will sometimes only run at 2t, need the use of a divider etc.

[turtle]

Guys, I understand it shouldn't be much longer for shipment. A last minute hardware change and bios update to the shipping boards is being made to smooth out performance.

I understand the bios change, but can you state what the hardware change was? Is it something that will help OCs or cure any certain issue? Can you elaborate?

:toast: thx

[xgman]

All I know is a "hardware" fix is in the works and I just got word the "DFI" ship date has been pushed back to 1/31. I think the beta testing that has gone on in this thread and others has led to some fixes and bios updates and DFI wants to launch the board right the first time.

[situman]

I think most definitely they will fix the NB fan clearance issue.

[OPPAINTER]

OPPAINTER,

Small favor to ask, if you have the time and processor.

Is it possible for you to try a Winchester under cascade and the DFI nf4, and be kind enough to let us know if it works or if the famous ''winchester under phase change'' problem is also present with the DFI?

Last item for me to order is the processor and I wonder if I should go 3500+ NewCastle (until such time as Venice is out and hopefully not having the same problems as winnie), I will be using it on a modest Vapochill XE II.
Sorry, don't have a Winchester, in fact I have never had one. So I never got the chance to even see the sub-0 cooling bug the chips have.

OPP

[Blindbat]

Sorry, don't have a Winchester, in fact I have never had one. So I never got the chance to even see the sub-0 cooling bug the chips have.

OPP

Oh well, thanxs for the answer.

Umm...take a chance and go winnie or play safe and go newcastle...let's flip a coin!

[xgman]

I think most definitely they will fix the NB fan clearance issue.

It isn't an issue. It's the same on all of the Nforce boards.

[naelq]

maybe you bigtoe, (or any other one with the DFI/Wini/phase) can check if this MoBo has that bug?! :rolleyes:

[jjcom]

Hey,

Just wondering what 3200 Dual 2x512mb Ram would work good for this board for $240 or cheaper?

Thanks!

The TwinMos Speed Premuim RAM wouldn't be bad its something like ~90 bucks at newegg for a 512mb stick and reacts to volts like OCZ VX

jjcom

[flexy]

All I know is a "hardware" fix is in the works and I just got word the "DFI" ship date has been pushed back to 1/31. I think the beta testing that has gone on in this thread and others has led to some fixes and bios updates and DFI wants to launch the board right the first time.

a "hardware fix" is in the works - one week before the launch ? :)

[c42]

*Shrug* anything is possible, although very unlikely.

[jjcom]

Wonder...maybe the early board won't be as good as the ones say a few weeks the launch date. Who knows, maybe its something small?

jjcom

[c42]

Perhaps a fix for the ati card problem, or MAYBE(really doubt this though, as it is very far fetched), they re arranged the SLI mobo to give more space between the pci-e x16 slots.

[P_1]

Perhaps a fix for the ati card problem, or MAYBE(really doubt this though, as it is very far fetched), they re arranged the SLI mobo to give more space between the pci-e x16 slots.

what ati card problem? if ur talking about clearence, it affects the nvidia cards even more so since nvidia cards are longer.(both same in height)

[c42]

*Shrug* don't have it in hand, but only problems I have seen people reporting, video card wise was from the ATI crowd.

[P_1]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=22934&stc=1

[c42]

Ayup, still a bit close for comfort(considering r520s and such may have different dimensions?)

[P_1]

no video card can get any lower then that...

[c42]

Yea, but if longer, perhaps the cooling could get in the way?

[Skip]

can you even slide a piece of paper in between that?

[situman]

if tat fan ever dies its gonna be one heck of a search to find a replacement that would fit in that tiny space

[reject]

if you have a 6800 in the top slot the fan is gonna suck 50c air off the mosfets and ram right into the chipset ouch
the nforce 3/4 chipest is in a really bad position. with a nv5 silencer i have a via nb hs and i had to bend some pins to allow for clearance.
i think wel will all have to go to water/ chiller/phase just to get away from the chipset

[c42]

if you have a 6800 in the top slot the fan is gonna suck 50c air off the mosfets and ram right into the chipset ouch
the nforce 3/4 chipest is in a really bad position. with a nv5 silencer i have a via nb hs and i had to bend some pins to allow for clearance.
i think wel will all have to go to water/ chiller/phase just to get away from the chipset


Yea what I was thinking of doing down the road, but don't want to have to w/c the gpu to start off, I'll need to save a little more =\.

[xgman]

a "hardware fix" is in the works - one week before the launch ? :)

That's why the launch hasn't come already. It's a hardware fix for "smoother performance" and a bios update according to what DFI (incl. Vivian) told me. I recieved a email from DFI yesterday saying the shipment was delayed 1 week.

[cpulloverclock]

Today the first DFI have been sent by DFI TW to DFI NL for Europe.
Waited on Thursday (01/27/05)

[xgman]

That's good news.

[Brum Man]

Today the first DFI have been sent by DFI TW to DFI NL for Europe.
Waited on Thursday (01/27/05)

Sorry what is DFI NL? (I tak it TW means taiwain)

So they should be ready for sale soon? What do you mean "waited on thursday"?

Sorry for not understanding!!!

[SlackeR]

TW= taiwan, yes.
NL= holland.
Waited would be awaited i guess. As in they should arrive thursday ;)

[HARDCORECLOCKER]

:D Oh yes - english language is a profession............ :p:

:toast:

[Brum Man]

Cheers for clearing that up!!! :)

So it could be as early as next week that we start seing these boards appear then, just need to get a bloody graphics card now.

[OPPAINTER]

DFI and OCZ VX, there is no substitute:D

OPP

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23234&stc=1

[Ferry82]

WOW :slobber: Great score you got there OPP :toast:

DFI holland he WT :banana: thats where i life :banana4:
Sow i should get this board soon the said friday but i have hardfeelings about that. :D

[trans am]

DFI and OCZ VX, there is no substitute:D

OPP and 3d mark 2001se ORB, there is no contest.:D

[Tempest25]

1st post :banana4:

I'm about 2/3 of the way through this thread and hope this hasn't been asked yet, but I'm anxious to find out if this board has a feature to automatically rollback to safe settings (or last known good settings) if you overclock too far so you can boot into the BIOS and make changes without clearing the CMOS every time.

I just got done messing with multiple MSI Neo2 Plat boards (had a few replacements) that I ordered a while ago because I got impatient waiting for this board and finally gave up on them. There's FAR too many problems with them. Each one seemed to have it's own quirks. I've never been so frustrated working with a MB before.

That MB required a CMOS clear when choosing incorrect/incompatible settings and it was a HUGE pain. Asus boards I've had in the past have a nice feature that automatically rolls back the settings on reboot if the prior boot locked up.

Please tell me this board has a similar feature, especially with all the settings present in the BIOS. I've never worked with a DFI board before so I'm not familiar with how their boards normally work.

[OPPAINTER]

1st post :banana4:

I'm about 2/3 of the way through this thread and hope this hasn't been asked yet, but I'm anxious to find out if this board has a feature to automatically rollback to safe settings (or last known good settings) if you overclock too far so you can boot into the BIOS and make changes without clearing the CMOS every time.

I just got done messing with multiple MSI Neo2 Plat boards (had a few replacements) that I ordered a while ago because I got impatient waiting for this board and finally gave up on them. There's FAR too many problems with them. Each one seemed to have it's own quirks. I've never been so frustrated working with a MB before.

That MB required a CMOS clear when choosing incorrect/incompatible settings and it was a HUGE pain. Asus boards I've had in the past have a nice feature that automatically rolls back the settings on reboot if the prior boot locked up.

Please tell me this board has a similar feature, especially with all the settings present in the BIOS. I've never worked with a DFI board before so I'm not familiar with how their boards normally work.
There is a jumper on the board that is supose to do that, it won't clear Cmos, it will leave your settings.
Also, you can store your Bios settings in the bios. If you happen to clear cmos you can always load your saved bios settings.

Welcome to Xtreme :toast:

OPP

[Patrickclouds]

:D Oh yes - english language is a profession............ :p:

:toast:

yes it´s often hard to understand what some people mean

i´ll hope to receive this board at the end of the week :toast:
but i only believe it when my hands touch the board :cool:

[Tempest25]

Thanks! While that's not exactly what I was hoping for, it's still much better than the hell MSI puts you through.

:toast:

Grats on the great scores BTW. I'm tempted to return the Patriot 3200 XBL stuff I just received and go OCZ VX instead. I'm not sure if the minor performance difference I may gain is worth the $45 difference though (including shipping to return and on the new order - I know someone would have corrected me to $30 if I hadn't explained ;) )

There is a jumper on the board that is supose to do that, it won't clear Cmos, it will leave your settings.
Also, you can store your Bios settings in the bios. If you happen to clear cmos you can always load your saved bios settings.

Welcome to Xtreme :toast:

OPP

[HARDCORECLOCKER]

:D Ordered a LEADTEK 6600 GT EXTREME which is not such a large card so I hope there won't be any problem with the SATA HDD's.

But want to get the chipset under water like I did with my NEO2, what about the SLI slot and the card - will it fit or not?

I mean there are the tubes from and to the cooler and I'm not sure where exactly the card is placed.

Is there anybody with a watercooled chipset on that board ???

THX !!! :toast:

[metro.cl]

sorry to bring this out, here, but opp are you getting a bullhead mobo, couse you are the only one that really take mobos to their limit, i really need to know the real diferences in performance between both mobos.

great score by the way.

[xs64]

just received the email from HPM-Computer , they said :

Dear customer,

DFI has just announced the official release date for the brandnew
nF4-boards. We expect the boards to arrive on the following days:

DFI nF4 Ultra-D: 01/27/05, 01/28/05
DFI nF4 SLI-D: 02/03/05
DFI nF4 SLI-DR: 02/03/05

HPM-Computer is one of only 3 companies in europe who is able to deliver
these boards that early.
So , everyone in Europa , ready for start your enginee :toast: :banana4: :banana:

[Tony]

sorry to bring this out, here, but opp are you getting a bullhead mobo, couse you are the only one that really take mobos to their limit, i really need to know the real diferences in performance between both mobos.

great score by the way.

Please remember Bullhead is a tweaked OEM board and doesn't have the overclocking features built in, the bios has been tweaked to overclock but it does have its limits.

you will see more ATI performance soon with a new rev of the board.

[Marquzz]

Feels great to have one already, it's gonna be a real hunt for these little babies :D

[mrlobber]

DFI and OCZ VX, there is no substitute:D

OPP



w00t, I'm getting the same combo :banana: (well, except for dual cascade and an FX55 :p: )

It's really great to hear that OCZ VX takes full advantage of the enormous DFI Vdimm options, and the board just keeps screaming by with it!

[metro.cl]

Please remember Bullhead is a tweaked OEM board and doesn't have the overclocking features built in, the bios has been tweaked to overclock but it does have its limits.

you will see more ATI performance soon with a new rev of the board.

thanks m8 hope so

[Brum Man]

just received the email from HPM-Computer , they said :


So , everyone in Europa , ready for start your enginee :toast: :banana4: :banana:

Any idea what the other companies are??

[del_fuego]

Probably not OCuK, but hey, we may be lucky :)

[Brum Man]

Probably not OCuK, but hey, we may be lucky :)

Lets hope so! Strange when ppl recognise you from around different forums :)

[computersmsa]

Hello :)

Can you help me ? :)
I must have dimension and weight of box of :

DFI nF4 Ultra-D :
DFI nF4 SLI-D :
DFI nF4 SLI-DR :

It's urgent, thanks you very mush !

[Patrickclouds]

tomorrow i´ll get my sli-d
the sli-dr will be available on 3rd february 2005
and the ultra will also be available on 3rd february 2005

the difference between the sli-d and sli-dr are the 8 s-ata connectors instead of 4 s-ata connectors.
the sli-dr can do raid5 and has more accessories (pc transpo, sleeving-kit and the diagnostic led)
i dont´t need this stuff, so i changed my order from sli-dr to sli-d 20 minutes ago

[Brum Man]

tomorrow i´ll get my sli-d
the sli-dr will be available on 3th february 2005
and the ultra will also be available on 3th february 2005

the difference between the sli-d and sli-dr are the 8 s-ata connectors instead of 4 s-ata connectors.
the sli-dr can do raid5 and has more accessories (pc transpo, sleeving-kit and the diagnostic led)
i dont´t need this stuff, so i changed my order from sli-dr to sli-d 20 minutes ago

But, erm, the official release date for both of the SLI boards isn't till the 3rd of feb, only the Ultra board is released tomorrow. So, I assume you are ordering your board from a retail outlet as you mention changing your order, your won't get you board until the 3rd of feb at earliest?

Look back at the post with the offical release date on it.

[Patrickclouds]

But, erm, the official release date for both of the SLI boards isn't till the 3rd of feb, only the Ultra board is released tomorrow. So, I assume you are ordering your board from a retail outlet as you mention changing your order, your won't get you board until the 3rd of feb at earliest?

Look back at the post with the offical release date on it.

i got an email this evening:

Dear customer,

DFI has just changed the release dates.

DFI nF4 Ultra-D: 02/03/2005
DFI nF4 SLI-D: 01/27/2005
DFI nF4 SLI-DR: 02/03/2005

The SLI-D boards will arrive tomorrow (01/27/2005)


:banana: :banana: :banana:

[Ratax]

tomorrow i´ll get my sli-d
the sli-dr will be available on 3th february 2005
and the ultra will also be available on 3th february 2005

the difference between the sli-d and sli-dr are the 8 s-ata connectors instead of 4 s-ata connectors.
the sli-dr can do raid5 and has more accessories (pc transpo, sleeving-kit and the diagnostic led)
i dont´t need this stuff, so i changed my order from sli-dr to sli-d 20 minutes ago

Where did you pre-ordered it?
overclockers.co.uk have an issue with orders above 2Kg for the EU...

Can we expect the same overclocking capacity between SLI-D and SLI-DR?
Well.... when someone has them to try :)

thanks

[Mastakilla]

:D Ordered a LEADTEK 6600 GT EXTREME which is not such a large card so I hope there won't be any problem with the SATA HDD's.

But want to get the chipset under water like I did with my NEO2, what about the SLI slot and the card - will it fit or not?

I mean there are the tubes from and to the cooler and I'm not sure where exactly the card is placed.

Is there anybody with a watercooled chipset on that board ???

THX !!! :toast:

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4688
http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=47231#post47231

trying to find out exactly the same thing

aint lookin to good on 1st sight... :(

[Patrickclouds]

i pre-ordered from hpm-computer in germany

[Blindbat]

Did anyone say DUAL GPU watercool in SLI mode?

http://www.theinquirer.net/images/articles/gwsli1.jpg

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20808

[Lood007]

wow. :slobber:

[Dissolved]

not all boards will fit that waterblock tho..

[HARDCORECLOCKER]

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4688
http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=47231#post47231

trying to find out exactly the same thing

aint lookin to good on 1st sight... :(

:D Hm, seems to be a little complicated - I use the same watercooler from 1A cooling and in fact there are only 2 questions:

1) Will a single 6600 GT fit in the upper slot when waterblock is mounted ?

2) If not, can I use the lower slot 16x with a single card without losing performance ?

Here is a picture of my setup with the NEO2, the old FX5200 AGP and waterblock mounted:

http://de.geocities.com/hardcoreclocker/A64Sys005.jpg

Isn't there anybody in the staates who got his chipset under water ???

Come on guys - there must be someone to help us...............
:toast:

[Ratax]

i pre-ordered from hpm-computer in germany

Thanks!

I pre-ordered a DFI LANparty nF4 SLI-DR too from this site...
Don't understand German, but I get there ;)
Hope it will be shipped 3th February.

[Mastakilla]

:D Hm, seems to be a little complicated - I use the same watercooler from 1A cooling and in fact there are only 2 questions:

1) Will a single 6600 GT fit in the upper slot when waterblock is mounted ?

2) If not, can I use the lower slot 16x with a single card without losing performance ?

Here is a picture of my setup with the NEO2, the old FX5200 AGP and waterblock mounted:

Isn't there anybody in the staates who got his chipset under water ???

Come on guys - there must be someone to help us...............
:toast:

hehe

funny u have same WC that i wanted to buy :)

u like it?
prolly gonna get one with dual rad, eheim 1048 and blocks for cpu, gpu and nb (if possible offcourse :()

hope u buy ur dfi nf4u soon then... cause id like to know if it fits ;)

been askin some more stuff about it in that 2th link btw

[HARDCORECLOCKER]

hehe

funny u have same WC that i wanted to buy :)

u like it?
prolly gonna get one with dual rad, eheim 1048 and blocks for cpu, gpu and nb (if possible offcourse :()

hope u buy ur dfi nf4u soon then... cause id like to know if it fits ;)

been askin some more stuff about it in that 2th link btw

:D Here You can see the rest of it:

http://de.geocities.com/hardcoreclocker/A64Sys001.jpg

A very nice cooling system for chipset and even for CPU with the HV-3 cooler - before I came to single phase I managed to cool down a 2600+ mobile at 2,7 GHz and 1,96 Vcore to 26°C on normal water !!!

The DFI NF4 ULTRA is already ordered - will arrive tomorrow in Europe NL so I guess will get it soon.

:toast:

[Mastakilla]

very nice man

cant see the pics though...

lookin forward to ur experiences with it ;)

[HARDCORECLOCKER]

very nice man

cant see the pics though...

lookin forward to ur experiences with it ;)

:D Yep - stay tuned. Pics won't work sometimes, to much access on my HP.

Crazy guys have limitted the access and denies it when it gets to much....,

a little later it will work again.

I really do see hard times coming - either cutting a hole in my GPU or move the chipset to another place on the board....... :ROTF:

:toast:

[Mastakilla]

well...

just got the answer...

and it aint good :(

we can only use the "better placed" slot as a pci 2x slot
even when having an sli version its not possible to use a single VC only in the "better placed" slot at 8x, u need two VCs for 8x + 8x, otherwhise its also 2x 16x

hope somehow it does fit using that "evil slot".. but im fearing the worst

guess its allmost time then for a dfi nf4 nb blocks compability list :D

nice pic btw:
mine is goin inside though, on the bottom (stacker case)

[HARDCORECLOCKER]

well...

just got the answer...

and it aint good :(

we can only use the "better placed" slot as a pci 2x slot
even when having an sli version its not possible to use a single VC only in the "better placed" slot at 8x, u need two VCs for 8x + 8x, otherwhise its also 2x 16x

hope somehow it does fit using that "evil slot".. but im fearing the worst

guess its allmost time then for a dfi nf4 nb blocks compability list :D

nice pic btw:
mine is goin inside though, on the bottom (stacker case)

:confused: Hm, so what to do? Leave the chipset on air is no problem, OPB clocked this board like hell and his chipset is also still on air but I can't get familliar with the tought to sell my WC.

I think it's not just the cooler itself but the tubes and most of all the adaptors and screw fittings which need to much space.

Even if finding another way for the tubes You can not get a hard angle for it right in front of the cooler - otherwise they will be damaged.

Indeed I can not see a solution............

:toast:

[cpulloverclock]

http://web.cc.ntnu.edu.tw/~49040308/100.JPG

[manalainen]

Hmm, about the chipset cooling, how about a system similar to the one used in Shuttle SFF´s...

A small and flat heatsink on top of the heat generator (CPU, NB etc.) with built-in heatpipes for carrying the heat away to a large and possibly actively cooled heatsink? The other end could also be a watercooling block. :)

The only problems I see with this approach is the way of fixing the end of this gizmo to the MB so that it wouldn´t rip it apart or crush the chipset. Torque becomes a major factor as the lenght of the heatpipe increases... Then again it could be mounted so that the other end is supported by a structure that is affixed to the motherboard via it´s mounting screws...

Opinions? Does this sound absurd?

[Lood007]

i wonder if danger den will be coming out with a waterblock to fit this...

I could envision a less-deep maze4gpu-version of a chipset block working fine... with the inlet and outlet on the side of the waterblock.

[manalainen]

Well, found this out at dfi-street:

CPU Killer said:
You are right, I am working on a block for this mobo, but it doesn't mean that I will release it. It will be very challanging to get a block to work in the location it is in. With 2 Vid Cards right above it, may prove to be more work than it is worth.... But I am working on it....

So if it ever comes out it will most certainly take some time...

[Patrickclouds]

:banana: :banana: i got it now :banana: :banana:

:love: :love: :love: :love: :love: :love: :love: :love:

http://patrickclouds.cybton.com/dfi/dfi1.jpg

http://patrickclouds.cybton.com/dfi/dfi2.jpg

http://patrickclouds.cybton.com/dfi/dfi3.jpg

http://patrickclouds.cybton.com/dfi/dfi4.jpg

http://patrickclouds.cybton.com/dfi/dfi5.jpg

http://patrickclouds.cybton.com/dfi/dfi6.jpg

http://patrickclouds.cybton.com/dfi/dfi7.jpg

http://patrickclouds.cybton.com/dfi/dfi8.jpg

http://patrickclouds.cybton.com/dfi/dfi9.jpg

http://patrickclouds.cybton.com/dfi/dfi10.jpg

http://patrickclouds.cybton.com/dfi/gskill.jpg

[kraggy]

@ patrickclouds.....Does your mobo package inslude a SLI connector???

[trakslacker]

hook that bad boy up and lets see some results. :)

congrats, you're one of the first people in the consumer public to get this board. woot!

[RAINFIRE]

@ patrickclouds.....Does your mobo package inslude a SLI connector???

I think that is what is in the orange bubble wrap.

[OPPAINTER]

Rainfire is right, thats a connector in the bubble wrap.

Nice looking board:)

OPP

[eva2000]

nice pics ... wish i had that board :D

[xgman]

what's with the plastic cpu back plate?

[uwackme]

The SLI bridge connector is in the pink bubblewrap.

Im so jealous.

I wish someone would slap 2 36/74G Raptors on raid0 to tell us how fast the new NV raid controller is.

[cantankerous]

Hopefully better than the SIl 3114. Especially in terms of writes.

[Jupiler]

I wish someone would slap 2 36/74G Raptors on raid0 to tell us how fast the new NV raid controller is.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=51501

[dnavarro]

uwackme , I can tell you the NF4 Raid/SATA 2 controller is damn fast. I currently have a gigabyte sli setup (Dual Rapors 36GB Raid 0) and it blew away my previous setups. The bandwidth increase was extreme. Sequential reads went up (for me) 10-15 mb/sec in my hdtest program. My Atto disk bench went up in reads and writes about 10 mb/s average also. I would assume the DFI would do similar as it is the same chipset.

D

[Patrickclouds]

the chipset cooler is a bit wobbly, but silent
my new gskill 2x512 LA (431) can do 300mhz at 2,5-3-3-6-10 1T
i haven´t tried to push it higher
my cpu (3200+ week33) is so sweat, but weak :(
i can´t boot at 2700mhz (270x10 and 300x9 is not possible)
so i only did some benches at 260x10, but there will be a little more power on cpu and ram than i´ve tested.

http://patrickclouds.cybton.com/dfi/2600@32pi.jpg

http://patrickclouds.cybton.com/dfi/sandra.jpg

don´t forget, this is not the max power and i´m still a a64 nooby :D
but theese are the only screenshots i´ve made

i only tested with the boxed cooler, because i was too lazzy to install my watercool setup this evening

[HARDCORECLOCKER]

the chipset cooler is a bit wobbly, but silent
my new gskill 2x512 LA (431) can do 300mhz at 2,5-3-3-6-10 1T
i haven´t tried to push it higher
my cpu (3200+ week33) is so sweat, but weak :(
i can´t boot at 2700mhz (270x10 and 300x9 is not possible)
so i only did some benches at 260x10, but there will be a little more power on cpu and ram than i´ve tested.


don´t forget, this is not the max power and i´m still a a64 nooby :D
but theese are the only screenshots i´ve made

i only tested with the boxed cooler, because i was too lazzy to install my watercool setup this evening

:D Well done- first impressions of OC - und natürlich aus D !!! :up:

[Patrickclouds]

:D Well done- first impressions of OC - und natürlich aus D !!! :up:

i was very sad about the bad cpu, but you cannot have everything
if i have enough time tomorrow i´ll go on testing

from the dfi-forum:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I just found 2 shops in Germany that have the DFI Lanparty UT nF4 SLI-D (NOT SLI-DR !!) already in stock !!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Angry_Games:

no you didnt. We have not released the boards at all. No one has them and if they do, they need to be recalled ASAP.

:slobber:

[HARDCORECLOCKER]

:confused: A recall of the boards that just been released?

What in hell does that mean? Is Angrygames drunken.......... :dammit:

[Lood007]

if you read the entire thread, you can see that there was a last minute change to the board and its shipping BIOS, i believe.

What Angry_Games is saying is that if indeed the shops have the boards, they are not the changed ones, hence, they should not be sold as official release boards.

He stated the shipping dates of the official release boards somewhere in that thread.

JazzMang Out.

[ominae]

this is going to be interesting - unreleased boards in retail? Wonder what the real deal is...

[GRAFiZ]

I dont think Angry_Games works for DFI... I might be wrong, he certainly knows his stuff. But it's obvious in some parts of the world, this motherboard is out and for sale. So... someone is getting some bad info somewhere, might be the retailers, might be Angry_Games himself. Who knows.

All I know is if I saw one on the street right now, I'd buy it and not worry about whatever the small change was they made.

[jikdoc]

a_g does work for dfi afaik but since he's human, he can make mistakes. if he were cylon, it might be different...

EDIT: yes i meant dfi, not msi

[LowRun]

a_g does work for msi afaik but since he's human, he can make mistakes. if he were cylon, it might be different...

You mean DFI

[dnavarro]

In case anyone is interested....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=67865&item=6739702659


D

[flexy]

AG works for dfi..at least thats what his webpage says.

[Lood007]

yes,
Angry works for DFI. He is a mod and is a very frequent helper over at DFI-Street's forums.

Over at DFI-Street, they are talking about the mobos on ebay as well... many people think that the boards that we are seeing for sale today are the pre-release version of the boards which lack the last-moment modification described by Vivian, who works for DFI (see DFI-Street's NF4-SLI thread).

I wouldn't buy those pre-release boards for that much! I'd rather wait for the real deal myself.

JazzMang Out.

[Mastakilla]

the chipset cooler is a bit wobbly, but silent


can u describe what u mean with "wobbly"?

dont really understand

[Patrickclouds]

can u describe what u mean with "wobbly"?

dont really understand

if you push with your finger on the cooler, below the fan, then the whole cooler moves at this place down to the board and the opposite site moves up

v (finger)
_________________ (cooler)
-------------------------- (board)

now this happens wehen you touch the cooler at this place
it moves up at the other side

________---------- (cooler)
-------------------------- (board)

i think that the feathers aren´t strong enough to reach enough pressure

[Tony]

Guys i can answer a few questions here as my debugging of the board lead to the bios and the mods AG has described.

The boards are having a few components changed to improve ram overclocking and compatibility. A new bios was written to overcome an issue i found working with DFI which is the main reason AG has stated all boards released early are not final release.

I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU TO WAIT FOR OFFICIAL BOARDS they will clock ram better and they come with the latest official bios. if your board comes with 121 or earlier I strongly suggest you flash it at once to the 126 or later.

Now i don't know how these pre release boards are hitting stores, i would wait to see DFI press releases etc and know your getting a latest spec board.


Tony

[cantankerous]

Good to know Tony, thanks. I hope the board I get is an OFFICIAL with the changes.

Is there any way to check to see besides the bios revision?

Could you possibly be more descriptive on which components were changed?

[Tony]

I can't as i don't know all the specs on the changes, I know my board here has half the changes it needs and will be going back for the other half ;)

[BeachKEN]

Guys, maybe a stupid question, but I don´t see any SLI conector with nF4Ultra bundle, I will get this board next week and I´m still thinking about doing it a full SLI board. :D

Finally good mobo and not piece of junk like the A8N SLI Deluxe, which burned me last week :mad: even without any OC´in. The layout of ASUS is the best when compared to other nF4 boards, but that "reliability" really makes me pissed off.