DFI Lanparty UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert

I'm still looking at that 4-pin floppy connector, just above the 1st PCI-Express slot and wondering why, why , WHY is it there????!?! With an 8 pin power connector, there should be no need for this floppy connector!!! Right?? Not to mention what a PITA it may be to get it over there in the first place (in my case), considering I've only got two strands of molex w/ the floppy connector on it. The other two strands are SATA, and of course two strands are 6-pin SATA, and then there's the 4-pin P4 strand........... and of course, my 8 pin strand. (Oh, and the 24-pin ATX strand too. sorry).

I'll be really pissed it I have to fudge up my wiring oragami to plug a damn floppy connector to give the board more power. :nono:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scroatdog

I'm still looking at that 4-pin floppy connector, just above the 1st PCI-Express slot and wondering why, why , WHY is it there????!?! With an 8 pin power connector, there should be no need for this floppy connector!!! Right?? Not to mention what a PITA it may be to get it over there in the first place (in my case), considering I've only got two strands of molex w/ the floppy connector on it. The other two strands are SATA, and of course two strands are 6-pin SATA, and then there's the 4-pin P4 strand........... and of course, my 8 pin strand. (Oh, and the 24-pin ATX strand too. sorry).

I'll be really pissed it I have to fudge up my wiring oragami to plug a damn floppy connector to give the board more power. :nono:

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Maybe It's for more powerful cards that hve not appeared yet?

doesnt really look like a floppy connector imo...

it could serve loads of fuctions

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Originally Posted by s7e9h3n

For what it's worth, Shamino and LardeArse used that PSU in one of their #1 #3dmark Runs ;)

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AFAIK........they are the same person :D

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Originally Posted by Afterburner

AFAIK........they are the same person :D

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i was gonna point out the same thing but thought Steven's pulling someone's leg

Noted....... :p:

The Expert should arrive in 1-2 weeks. I will contact you when it’s available.



Thank you for your patience.



Sincerely,



Ming-Huey Jeng

DFI San Jose

PR/Marketing Dept.

He says that to everyone :).

i'm expecting my board at the end of this week.......distie confirmed ETA for Wednesday today so looks OK.....i really hope this 1-2 week thing is for USA market :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zoom314

Maybe It's for more powerful cards that hve not appeared yet?

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...............reaches for "chill pill". :cool:

Fingers crossed!

Just when I thought I could save up for the expensive tax season, here comes the tempatation again.

please are there any prereview of this motherboard? I'm also awaiting for it,but here in Italy its more difficult to find!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dinos22

i'm expecting my board at the end of this week.......distie confirmed ETA for Wednesday today so looks OK.....i really hope this 1-2 week thing is for USA market :p

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farking hell man another delay with NO ETA whatsoever....DFI have NFI when this board will be ready...............WTF..............are they chucking an ATI on us now.....releasing products 2 years after announcement :rolleyes:

I got this e-mail yesterday

Quote:

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Hi (Weee),

The LANParty UT nForce4 SLI-DR Expert will not be available in the US
for at least another couple of weeks. Please stay in touch and I will
also let you know when it becomes available in the US.

Thanks,

Ming-Huey Jeng
DFI San Jose
PR/Marketing Dept.

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waiting :(

WHAT THE HELL, DFI??!?!?!? :slapass:

If anyone from DFI is reading this (doubtful) WHAT IS GOING ON????!?!?!

No U.S. ETA???? You've got to be kidding me! How long has this board been finished now???

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!?!?!?

If I ran that company I'd FIRE your Marketing head AND your Supply Chain head.

This ia UNSAT.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scroatdog

WHAT THE HELL, DFI??!?!?!? :slapass:

If anyone from DFI is reading this (doubtful) WHAT IS GOING ON????!?!?!

No U.S. ETA???? You've got to be kidding me! How long has this board been finished now???

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!?!?!?

If I ran that company I'd FIRE your Marketing head AND your Supply Chain head.

This ia UNSAT.

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:nono: :slapass:

agreed, this board better be worth every last penny/cent considering how long i have to wait for a new rig now.
the bios better be stable if we wait this long.


i hope that email was delayed by about 2-3 weeks by rubbish email servers.... but i think not. :(

Makes me think of all those wonderful sayings out there:
"Good things come to those who wait"
"Rome wasnt built in 2 days"

.... but my god man... this is just craziness.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 3NZ0

:nono: :slapass:

agreed, this board better be worth every last penny/cent considering how long i have to wait for a new rig now.
the bios better be stable if we wait this long.


i hope that email was delayed by about 2-3 weeks by rubbish email servers.... but i think not. :(

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probably got a nice deal with ATI :rolleyes:

I got a reply within 4 hours of sending my inquiry as to the status of the board

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Weee

I got a reply within 4 hours of sending my inquiry as to the status of the board

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I have YET to receive a reply about the board. E-mailed those hold-outs TWICE now. I went to the DFI Global page, then clicked America. Once on the America page I hit "contact" and sent an e-mail to the Sales one on the list. They had PR & Marketing, but I didn't bother with those.

I have been waiting a long time to upgrade to AMD. Months. First I was waiting to see what the ATI R520 would bring to the table (cough..cough. I am now going nVidia this round), also waited to get my Storm block to upgrade my H20 circuit, got my Seasonic S12 600 PSU all sleeved & ready to go......... I'm just waiting on the damn mobo!. Don't wanna buy my 3800+ X2 yet, since I will be WAY out of the return window for it, and can't test it anyways.

I am growing more impatient by the day.

I've been kinda watching this thread because I would like to upgrade to the expert from the SLI-DR if it has a lot less problems and runs better. However, I have one question.

My PSU is a PCP&C 510 SLI and it only has a 4 pin connector instead of the 8 pin. Will this really make a difference or is there an adapter? I really don't want to shell out another $200 for another PSU.

I seriously doubt that this board is actually allowing any better overclocks than the existing Lanparty line. I would hold out for it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Onycho

I've been kinda watching this thread because I would like to upgrade to the expert from the SLI-DR if it has a lot less problems and runs better. However, I have one question.

My PSU is a PCP&C 510 SLI and it only has a 4 pin connector instead of the 8 pin. Will this really make a difference or is there an adapter? I really don't want to shell out another $200 for another PSU.

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If I remember correctly, it doesn't require the 8 pin to be hooked up..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nn_step

If I remember correctly, it doesn't require the 8 pin to be hooked up..

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right 8 pin increase the stability but you will be allready fine with the 4 pin connector

You should also be fine with a 4 to 8 pin adapter. Better than just using the 4-pin cable on the board (because the lanes on the board get less current each).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Martin Cracauer

You should also be fine with a 4 to 8 pin adapter. Better than just using the 4-pin cable on the board (because the lanes on the board get less current each).

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do you have a link for this kind of adapter ? I tough there was only one 8pin -> 4pin not opposite ?

I bought a Thermaltake-labeled kit for SMP motherboards. Comes with a 20->24 pin and the 4->8 pin. Was 5 bucks or so. I lost the link, though. If I remember tomorrow I can see whether it pops up in my brain. Or ask on the 2cpu.com forums, they know this.

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Originally Posted by tomati

do you have a link for this kind of adapter ? I tough there was only one 8pin -> 4pin not opposite ?

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I just picked one of these up the other day in preparation for the Expert. It even comes sleeved whatever color you want. Here's the link: performance-pcs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Revivalist

I just picked one of these up the other day in preparation for the Expert. It even comes sleeved whatever color you want. Here's the link: performance-pcs.

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They seem to have a lot of colors to choos from. What the heck is "super-hero" color?

Or ogre or jester for that matter....wonder if the adapter actually helps? :confused:

Or if it needs to be a native 8-pin or a 4-pin + 2xmolex or something....

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Originally Posted by Vapor

Or ogre or jester for that matter....wonder if the adapter actually helps? :confused:

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The new DFI will work with a 4-pin plugged in.

There is nothing magical about the 8-pin: the advantage is that now each wire on the mainboard carries less current. If you use an adapter to 8 pin before the MB this advantage is fully preserved.

Of course a pure wire is better than an adapter but adapters are really not that horrible as long as they are not corroded or mechanically challenged. It will certainly be overall better than just pluggin the 4-pin in.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Onycho

I've been kinda watching this thread because I would like to upgrade to the expert from the SLI-DR if it has a lot less problems and runs better. However, I have one question.

My PSU is a PCP&C 510 SLI and it only has a 4 pin connector instead of the 8 pin. Will this really make a difference or is there an adapter? I really don't want to shell out another $200 for another PSU.

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pcpc will retrofit if you want.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Martin Cracauer

There is nothing magical about the 8-pin: the advantage is that now each wire on the mainboard carries less current. If you use an adapter to 8 pin before the MB this advantage is fully preserved.

.

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I'm not so sure that this is the case. Engineers at pcpc told me that an adapter is not the same as a real 8 pin hookup. With this big an investment, I think I'd rather have the real thing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xgman

I'm not so sure that this is the case. Engineers at pcpc told me that an adapter is not the same as a real 8 pin hookup. With this big an investment, I think I'd rather have the real thing.

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Hmmm...I just modded my pcpc 510sli with an 8-pin plug in preparation for my expert :p: TBH, I don't think there would be a drastic difference ifrom using an adapter vs wiring straight from the psu's pcb (which is what I did, btw)

Using a 4 pin to 8 pin adapter doesn't do much for you, it really does nothing. All it does is split the 4 wires coming out of the psu, into 8 wires (8 pin plug). The whole point of 8 wires is to easily supply more current with less resistance. If the 8 pin header on the motherboard has all the 12v pins in common, and all the grounds in common, the only purpose would be to support more current via parallel motherboard traces (vs. using bigger traces that might have been harder to route). Since it has been said that you could use just the 4 pin plug, and leave the remaining 4 with nothing plugged in, they all must be in common, therefore using adapaters is silly :p: (the only way to mod a PSU would be to add more wires dirrect from the source (transistors/fets) in the PSU - i don't speak from experience, but it is basic electronics)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Martin Cracauer

I seriously doubt that this board is actually allowing any better overclocks than the existing Lanparty line. I would hold out for it.

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im not bothered about that,

if it overclocks as well as/better the others then thats ace but the reason i want this is because of the larger gap inbetween the sli cards as i am going to watercool and use pci cards (x-fi pro & tv card) :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Diverge

Using a 4 pin to 8 pin adapter doesn't do much for you, it really does nothing. All it does is split the 4 wires coming out of the psu, into 8 wires (8 pin plug). The whole point of 8 wires is to easily supply more current with less resistance. If the 8 pin header on the motherboard has all the 12v pins in common, and all the grounds in common, the only purpose would be to support more current via parallel motherboard traces (vs. using bigger traces that might have been harder to route). Since it has been said that you could use just the 4 pin plug, and leave the remaining 4 with nothing plugged in, they all must be in common, therefore using adapaters is silly :p: (the only way to mod a PSU would be to add more wires dirrect from the source (transistors/fets) in the PSU - i don't speak from experience, but it is basic electronics)

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I'm not quite sure what you mean by adding wires "direct from the source (transistors/fets)". Psu wires terminate at the pcb of the psu and you can simply solder leads directly to the pcb if you want/need extra rails. The extra 4 pins on an 8-pin header are indeed used to supply more current with less resistance, therefore if you were to use only a 4-pin connector, the wires would have to carry 2x the load of an 8-pin connector. Yes, using a 4-pin connector will work, but using an 8-pin one works better. I would imagine an adapter wouldn't take the 4 wires from a 4-pin connector and then split them into 8-wires; rather it would use those 4 wires ALONG with 4 others from 2 molexes on separate lines to comprise the 8-wires necessary for the connector......

I just called dfi and heard a slightly mumbled "delay due to production problems" when asking about the "Expert", so no official ship date yet according to their morning update. Hope it's not a repeat of the early NF4 sli boards problems.

Well I don't know the DFI EXPERT specific answer about 4 -> 8 pin adapters and whether
just using a 4-pin connector would be OK.

But as an EE I can tell you for SURE that it COULD make a CRITICAL difference -- there's
no requirement I know of that says that they couldn't take each of the four +12V wires
coming in on the four pins of the 8-pin connector and use them to power
ENTIRELY DISTINCT parts of the motherboard e.g.
wire #1 powers chips A,B,C,D wire #2 powers chips E,F,G,H, etc. so that
if you didn't have all four +12V wires attached to the connector then some parts
of the motherboard would simply not be getting power inputs everywhere they
were supposed to.

The scary thing is that the board could actually seem to 'work' in this state if
the power started flowing in some 'backwards' way through the unpowered devices
so that they were getting some juice but not in the right way to avoid damage or
impairment to the circuits.

DFI and the other M/B manufacturers should really 100% clearly tell us if the
12V lines on the 8-pin connector are all connected electrically "in parallel"
AT the connector location, or if they're just run off as distinct power traces.
If they're truly hooked in parallel on the motherboard (all to the same copper pad
/ power trace on the PCB) then, yes, you could use a 4-pin connector on the 8-pin
socket and probably have no problem unless the extra PSU input current and
lower PSU to motherboard resistance from having more input wires was really
crucial for your setup. If the motherboard connector does NOT have the +12V
inputs in direct parallel then bad, bad, bad things may / probably eventually will happen.

The same can be said for using "only" a 20pin ATX connector on a "24 pin"
motherboard, I suppose, though I don't at the moment recall what the other 4
pins in that case are defined to be used for and if they're guaranteed to be
parallel, not parallel, critical, or non-critical.

Measuring the resistance of the 12V pins on the M/B to each other is probably
not a useful way to tell if they're truly all paralleled because you could get a false
"connected" reading going through a circuit vs. a PCB pad. The only way to know
is to ask DFI or see the connector pins literally soldered dead directly on to the
SAME PCB pad.

PS even if the +12V wires are paralleled it's similarly conceivable they
could use the different GROUND pins for DIFFERENT circuits, so, again,
if those weren't ALL connected through the connector to the PSU there
could be big problems.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xgman

I just called dfi and heard a slightly mumbled "delay due to production problems" when asking about the "Expert", so no official ship date yet according to their morning update. Hope it's not a repeat of the early NF4 sli boards problems.

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Hmmm.......... It's karma. They pitched the Promise SATA RAID controller they were initially going to use, and stuck with the crappy Promise one. This is nature's way of getting back at DFI (and us, it would seem)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by s7e9h3n

I'm not quite sure what you mean by adding wires "direct from the source (transistors/fets)". Psu wires terminate at the pcb of the psu and you can simply solder leads directly to the pcb if you want/need extra rails. The extra 4 pins on an 8-pin header are indeed used to supply more current with less resistance, therefore if you were to use only a 4-pin connector, the wires would have to carry 2x the load of an 8-pin connector. Yes, using a 4-pin connector will work, but using an 8-pin one works better. I would imagine an adapter wouldn't take the 4 wires from a 4-pin connector and then split them into 8-wires; rather it would use those 4 wires ALONG with 4 others from 2 molexes on separate lines to comprise the 8-wires necessary for the connector......

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PCB, or to the actual component in the PSU, it's all the same, assuming the PCB traces and actual circuitry handles the current (if there is more a load). But, if you look at those adapters they sell (a link was posted above), all they do is branch 4 more wires out of the existing 4 pin psu connector. The way you described in your post is the right way to do it (by running additial wires from inside the actual psu).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by synergy

Well I don't know the DFI EXPERT specific answer about 4 -> 8 pin adapters and whether
just using a 4-pin connector would be OK.

But as an EE I can tell you for SURE that it COULD make a CRITICAL difference -- there's
no requirement I know of that says that they couldn't take each of the four +12V wires
coming in on the four pins of the 8-pin connector and use them to power
ENTIRELY DISTINCT parts of the motherboard e.g.
wire #1 powers chips A,B,C,D wire #2 powers chips E,F,G,H, etc. so that
if you didn't have all four +12V wires attached to the connector then some parts
of the motherboard would simply not be getting power inputs everywhere they
were supposed to.

The scary thing is that the board could actually seem to 'work' in this state if
the power started flowing in some 'backwards' way through the unpowered devices
so that they were getting some juice but not in the right way to avoid damage or
impairment to the circuits.

DFI and the other M/B manufacturers should really 100% clearly tell us if the
12V lines on the 8-pin connector are all connected electrically "in parallel"
AT the connector location, or if they're just run off as distinct power traces.
If they're truly hooked in parallel on the motherboard (all to the same copper pad
/ power trace on the PCB) then, yes, you could use a 4-pin connector on the 8-pin
socket and probably have no problem unless the extra PSU input current and
lower PSU to motherboard resistance from having more input wires was really
crucial for your setup. If the motherboard connector does NOT have the +12V
inputs in direct parallel then bad, bad, bad things may / probably eventually will happen.

The same can be said for using "only" a 20pin ATX connector on a "24 pin"
motherboard, I suppose, though I don't at the moment recall what the other 4
pins in that case are defined to be used for and if they're guaranteed to be
parallel, not parallel, critical, or non-critical.

Measuring the resistance of the 12V pins on the M/B to each other is probably
not a useful way to tell if they're truly all paralleled because you could get a false
"connected" reading going through a circuit vs. a PCB pad. The only way to know
is to ask DFI or see the connector pins literally soldered dead directly on to the
SAME PCB pad.

PS even if the +12V wires are paralleled it's similarly conceivable they
could use the different GROUND pins for DIFFERENT circuits, so, again,
if those weren't ALL connected through the connector to the PSU there
could be big problems.

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Yeah, i agree (pretty much what i had said with less detail). But from what has been stated, DFI or their tech support said you can use just the 4-pin plugs, so if that is true, the grounds and +12V's have to be common, otherwise circuits might not get powered correctly. (either way, my psu has an 8pin :p: )

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xgman

I'm not so sure that this is the case. Engineers at pcpc told me that an adapter is not the same as a real 8 pin hookup. With this big an investment, I think I'd rather have the real thing.

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It is not the same, stricktly speaking. Having a solid wire is always better than having wires connected by a plug.

But think about this: if these connectors in the plugs are so horrible, how come it works between the wires and the mainboard. It is the same plug, same mechanism. Of course having one is better than having two, but it is not possible that the adapter itself is a big problem. If it was, the plug on the mainboard would be the same big problem.

Well we will see if NCIX is right and everyone has been hush hush and not telling us when the boards will hit. They still show the ETA as tomorrow so hopefully they aren't lying. If not I got a cheaper board to tide me over until it gets in stock. Here is the link again if you want to check the date for yourself.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dinos22

farking hell man another delay with NO ETA whatsoever....DFI have NFI when this board will be ready...............WTF..............are they chucking an ATI on us now.....releasing products 2 years after announcement :rolleyes:

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I remember not long ago we have a bunch of whinner accuse the current NF4 board were 'rush-product' but now when DFI take their time to work out all the bugs and tweaks for the upcoming products and here we have yet another group of people complaint again about them not being on time......jeewiz....you guys are hard to please! :D :D :D I can understand if it was being delay for like 2~3 months but it's only couple weeks.....it's not too bad really. :D :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ben805

I remember not long ago we have a bunch of whinner accuse the current NF4 board were 'rush-product' but now when DFI take their time to work out all the bugs and tweaks for the upcoming products and here we have yet another group of people complaint again about them not being on time......jeewiz....you guys are hard to please! :D :D :D I can understand if it was being delay for like 2~3 months but it's only couple weeks.....it's not too bad really. :D :D

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yeah well after the first couple of weeks delay you say no worries, second delay....well :banana::banana::banana::banana: happens and third and forth delay you start thinking WTF....if this product coming out soon or what.......i guess we'll see how well they've prepared the product for final release when they start selling next month sometime (hopefully)..............it's not a perfect world but when you make a call stick to it.....don't mess around..........no bios will be perfect regardless of how long they take.....it can only get better once there are bucketloads of competent overclockers making the rounds with the motherboards......

companies are increasingly relying on this form of spindoctor marketing, talking up products on forums, massive launches, promising the world and then not delivering on time..............the board was talked up for months and it is now formally announced :fact: There should be boxes on shelves from day1 and not day 21, 31, 61, 91.................seems Nvidia of late is the only decent company around in that respect

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 20AEGTI

Well we will see if NCIX is right and everyone has been hush hush and not telling us when the boards will hit. They still show the ETA as tomorrow so hopefully they aren't lying. If not I got a cheaper board to tide me over until it gets in stock. Here is the link again if you want to check the date for yourself.

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Sorry to dissapoint, but it's gonna be AT LEAST 7-10 days until launch of the Expert and maybe even a little longer until they actually hit store shelves....

i have it now...

http://img5.picsplace.to/img5/10/01_012.jpg

http://img5.picsplace.to/img5/10/04_005.jpg

err...wrong thread?...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by s7e9h3n

Sorry to dissapoint, but it's gonna be AT LEAST 7-10 days until launch of the Expert and maybe even a little longer until they actually hit store shelves....

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No dissapointment on my end as you can see by my post I didn't really think it would be out today. If so why would I have gone through the hassle of buying a board to tide me over a couple of days to a week? I have come to expect that most company will not meet estimated dates by any means and to expect a delay in the products being released. My guess is you will have another release like their Crossfire boards.

All the sudden, a couple of people will have them and post thoughts and results, a big website will have an exclusive that is due in a day or two, then all the sudden holy :banana::banana::banana::banana: a lot of retailers have them for sale, only to sell out in an hour and a half. So lets see next estimate :stick: date is what November 1st or so? Oh well, maybe something better will come out and I will cancel my pre-order.

20

Umm............ no. That is the ATI board you have there, Windwithme. That is not the NF4 'Expert' board.

For UK people:

http://www.cpucityshop.co.uk/forums/...3&t=2347&st=15

Anyone think there's any truth in this? CPUCITY are normally VERY reliable, and they are saying they have been told this board is USA only.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by madpete

For UK people:

http://www.cpucityshop.co.uk/forums/...3&t=2347&st=15

Anyone think there's any truth in this? CPUCITY are normally VERY reliable, and they are saying they have been told this board is USA only.

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That sounds rediculous to me.

Then again, this is a quote from a Australian reseller web site in the Expert listing:

"Release of this motherboard has been delayed indefinitely by DFI. No release date is currently available"

ouch . . :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by madpete

For UK people:

http://www.cpucityshop.co.uk/forums/...3&t=2347&st=15

Anyone think there's any truth in this? CPUCITY are normally VERY reliable, and they are saying they have been told this board is USA only.

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Don't be affraid , we will see it here in Europe too ,

This shop in belgium have allready listed them .

http://www.bytesatwork.be/shop/_toplogo/main.html

Just sent this off to their sales, marketing, PR, and tech support e-mail addresses:


To Whom It May Concern,

This is now the third time I am e-mailing DFI, looking for information. The first two e-mails were to sales@dfiweb.com but since no one bothered to respond to me, I have decided to include every e-mail address listed on the DFI website's contact page.

I am trying to find out when the DFI Lan Party NF4 "Expert" motherboard is going to hit the retail channels in the U.S. It was rumored that October 20th was the release date, but that is obviously not the case. Now there are rumors that the board may not be released at all, or that it will be released, but only in select countries. Is this true???

Please do me the simple courtesy of responding to my e-mail. I imagine if you did not want to hear from customers/potential customers, you would not have listed contact information on your website. I would like to know when this board is being released. And if it is not being released, I would like to know why. I can name at least four enthusiast websites off the top of my head with many forum members anxious to see this board released. With the recent reviews on the DFI Crossfire solution, it's USB performance, and lack of SATA2, I think it might be in DFI's best interest to release the updated NF4 board.

Thank you,



******* EDIT *********
I just got a reply from someone named "Jacky". Have no idea what department he/she works in.

Quote:

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Sir,

We do not have the definite date of NF4 Expert version yet.

Maybe it will be arriving in Nov time frame.

Jacky

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:mad:

Damn DFI. I dont know if I'm going to wait anymore. I'm tired of looking at the top of my desk and seeing my Seasonic PSU box with the PSU in it, and looking at the box above it with the Storm block in it...

This is what I got today:

"Yes, the release date has been pushed back as our engineers are finalizing things on the board. So, unfortunately I don’t have an estimated shipping date"

Can't wait for this one. Hopefully this one will be good out of the box since it is still the NF4 chipset. The RD200 is having some ram issues as mickeymouse has posted. Hope to see none of that here.

This would imply that the board hasnt even "gone gold" yet. Figure at least a few more weeks for production, packaging, shipping, retail availability.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Martin Cracauer

It is not the same, stricktly speaking. Having a solid wire is always better than having wires connected by a plug.

But think about this: if these connectors in the plugs are so horrible, how come it works between the wires and the mainboard. It is the same plug, same mechanism. Of course having one is better than having two, but it is not possible that the adapter itself is a big problem. If it was, the plug on the mainboard would be the same big problem.

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Actually, your reasoning is a little flawed. Every time you put a connection in, you increase the resistance in the wire. Since in this case that resistance is not as constant as the resistance caused by an actually resistor, it can cause fluxuations in power. The more connections in the wire, the greater the fluxuations in current.

Also, it takes one bad connection to really introduce fluxuations bad enough to affect your overclocking ability.

too much whining going on here
your life isn't going to end if you have to wait a few more weeks for a motherboard
and wouldn't you rather DFI spend the extra time making it better?

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Originally Posted by Ender17

too much whining going on here
your life isn't going to end if you have to wait a few more weeks for a motherboard
and wouldn't you rather DFI spend the extra time making it better?

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I wish you right on there , but my last experience with the dfi nf3 s939 was a disaster , a crappy board realesed 1 year after everybody and wich even needed a second rev during the first month of his realese , this time I will wait after the user's test before to buy one dfi more .

how come they are not going x16 like most of the motherboard makers .. seems like asus .. msi and abit revisions of their sli boards are all x16 .. while dfi is staying 8x .. ?? are they planning on releasing another sli board after the expert with x16 ?

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Originally Posted by jetjaguar

how come they are not going x16 like most of the motherboard makers .. seems like asus .. msi and abit revisions of their sli boards are all x16 .. while dfi is staying 8x .. ?? are they planning on releasing another sli board after the expert with x16 ?

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there is no peformance difference between current x8 SLI and x16 SLI solutions...what's the point

If it is x16 default they don't need jumpers, switches, or cards to split the PCI-E bandwidth, Thus allowing a much Highier overclock...

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Originally Posted by nn_step

If it is x16 default they don't need jumpers, switches, or cards to split the PCI-E bandwidth, Thus allowing a much Highier overclock...

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i'll believe it when i see it...........so far no evidence to support that claim so your statement is on short legs

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nn_step

If it is x16 default they don't need jumpers, switches, or cards to split the PCI-E bandwidth, Thus allowing a much Highier overclock...

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uhh pci-e bandwidth makes no difference and has nothing to do with overclock. if anything performance is worse thanks to the added latency.

Does this motherboard has double x16 like the A8N32 Deluxe ?

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Originally Posted by TuKo

Does this motherboard has double x16 like the A8N32 Deluxe ?

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no this board stil use 8x+8x in SLI mode :D...

Does any board use 16x-16x in SLI mode?

yes asus the 32 lanes version

I can't understand why the new SLI-DR expert isn't gonna be 32 lanes...oh well. Is ASUS the only one with a 32 lane board?

I don't see why you want 32 lanes....the current implementation sucks and it won't be good until a single chipset version comes out.

Anyway, I wonder if this can be dropped in place of a regular SLI-DR without a reinstall/repair of Windows. :shrug:

To get twice as much FPS when running SLI-AA.

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Originally Posted by ElDuderino

To get twice as much FPS when running SLI-AA.

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Huh?! Got proof?

There's currently a huge problem with the fact that it's a multi-chipset solution that has limitations and often results in lower FPS in situations that aren't 100% GPU bound (just about every situation).

Will this board have any memory problems like the R200? It is using the Nf4 chipset which was already tested so should be a good clocker OBO.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vapor

Anyway, I wonder if this can be dropped in place of a regular SLI-DR without a reinstall/repair of Windows. :shrug:

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Hmm thats a good question... I was able to go from my a8n-sli to a DFI board and boot into Safemode with the same OS install, but I couldn't boot into normal windows without BSOD.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vapor

Huh?! Got proof?

There's currently a huge problem with the fact that it's a multi-chipset solution that has limitations and often results in lower FPS in situations that aren't 100% GPU bound (just about every situation).

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http://hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=739

That is what he was talking about. Looks like SLI-AA modes require alot more bandwidth between cards. Although, there is no way you would get acceptable frame rates with new titles and the SLI AA modes with current hardware.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vapor

Anyway, I wonder if this can be dropped in place of a regular SLI-DR without a reinstall/repair of Windows. :shrug:

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I can't imagine why not. Same chipset drivers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ElDuderino

To get twice as much FPS when running SLI-AA.

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Complete nonsense.

Current cards use the equivalent of x4 at the maximum.

And even if you would starve them for half the bandwidth they could use that wouldn't mean cutting the FPS in half.

There are more components involved, you know?

Hmmmmm, VERY interesting....I can't rationalize it though. :shrug:

I wonder what performs better though? TR SSAA 8x or 8x SLI-AA? i.e., who cares if it gains 67% if it's still slower than the other implementation.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MickeyMouse

those SLI 16x16 AA runs where crazy in farcry a 67% boost at high res gaming. :)

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A 67% FPS win when going from 2x x8 PCIe to 2x x16PCIe?

Nonsense. Link?

I was just going by the numbers that hot hardware put up...personally I love the looks of SLI-AA on my machine but would benefit greatly from a %67 fps boost that 32 lanes would provide.

http://hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=739

:fact: nonsense? look at the numbers

The benefit apparently won't be felt unless you run games at the maximum resolution with all settings cranked. According these results but I wouldn't put too much weight on these results because they don't even use SLI-AA which really makes the 32 lanes shine.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/81..._af/index.html

Only the High end will see any benifits from x16, which is who this board is supposed to be marketted to...Thus the x8 is just plain stupid....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ElDuderino

The benefit apparently won't be felt unless you run games at the maximum resolution with all settings cranked.

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This is not a realistic test as it overflows the 256 MB memory on the cards. Nobody would run games like that "in production".

If you run games with proper options you don't get the speedup out of x16.

Does anyone know when are these going to be available in US? Thanks in advance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Martin Cracauer

A 67% FPS win when going from 2x x8 PCIe to 2x x16PCIe?

Nonsense. Link?

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yeah jeezus did you even look I posted the link with my previous post.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Martin Cracauer

This is not a realistic test as it overflows the 256 MB memory on the cards. Nobody would run games like that "in production".

If you run games with proper options you don't get the speedup out of x16.

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I'm confused by what proper options are? I guess overclocking is not proper and cranking every setting to the max is also unproper? :stick: xtremesystems

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ElDuderino

I'm confused by what proper options are? I guess overclocking is not proper and cranking every setting to the max is also unproper? :stick: xtremesystems

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Selecting graphics options that load more textures onto the card than the crd has memory, so that textures get kicked out to agenture memory, will surely show a difference between 2x x8 and 2x x16. But nobody can run a game like that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by J-Mag

yeah jeezus did you even look I posted the link with my previous post.

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It shows an increase of about 2%. Or are we looking at different graphs?

If don't think that is a good reason to reject a board that you would otherwise buy (because of overclocking options, 4x PCIe or similar).

This motherboard looks like It would definately be able to do "Radical Good Speed" to borrow a phrase from Straight Cougar in the anime S-Cry-Ed. :D

Talk about overclocking, This Guy is overclocked, to the Extreme. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Martin Cracauer

It shows an increase of about 2%. Or are we looking at different graphs?

If don't think that is a good reason to reject a board that you would otherwise buy (because of overclocking options, 4x PCIe or similar).

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http://hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=739

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ender17

http://hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=739

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More specific:
http://hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=739

Oh, I stand corrected. It is actually 2.4% in 1280x1024 with AA. God god! I will never touch one of the lame DFI boards with 2x x8 again. This will kill me, it will feel like suffocating if I get 127.3 instead of 130.4 FPS.

Although, if I had that SLI setup, maybe I would run the resolution they show in the chart below. 0.5% at 1600x1280. Now if that's no killer speedup I don't know what.

But really, anything below 100 fps is just so unplayable, I would run that SLI setup in 640x480 no AA. In that case the Asus 2x x16 board will bring me what - 5% more or so 525 instead of 500 FPS? R00LZ! I will be undefeatable. Or somefink!

The difference for me, when running my X800XL overclocked, from 16x to 8x was a loss of about 40 3DMark05's. Hardly anywhere NEAR close to half the FPS.

The benefit won't be seen for benchmarks. The added lanes help when you have all the settings turned up, resolution all the way up, and the most evidence is seen when running SLI AA.

What evidence?

The hothardware review on the SLI-AA page...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Martin Cracauer

More specific:
http://hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=739

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Um, that's the exact same link.
I was trying to link you to the page titled "SLI-AA Performance: Far Cry"
It's the one that shows a big difference.

this one? ;)

http://hothardware.com/viewarticle.c...leid=739&cid=3