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

[dnavarro]

Tony, on DFI's official website bios 1.25 is the official bios and 1.26 is the beta. Are you saying official boards will be flashed with the beta? Or is 1.26 actually the official release? Thanks.

D

[Mastakilla]

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

hehe

COOL explenation man!

really wanne get rid of that cooler
hope 1A-cooling reacts positive to my request for a compatible NB block

[HARDCORECLOCKER]

Do You all still believe in St. Clauss ???

If it only were a BIOS bug there is no need to stop release - BIOS can be flashed easily, someone here can tell the truth ???

[Alexwai]

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

Regarding to the new BIOS (126), it boost 50Mhz more for my board comparing with the old BIOS.

[H2OGun]

The DFI boards were out for sale since 2 days ago in Hong Kong and I think they all came with BIOS dated Jan 19. The latest beta BIOS dated Jan 26 does give huge improvement in terms of RAM clocking. Managed to go beyond DDR600 which was not possible with Jan 19 BIOS while I know for sure my RAM can handle that on MSI K8N Diamond. LOL, the latest BIOS rocks!!!

[Tony]

Do You all still believe in St. Clauss ???

If it only were a BIOS bug there is no need to stop release - BIOS can be flashed easily, someone here can tell the truth ???

Read my post m8, i just said there are component changes to be made...this is the truth. If you want to make more of it then go for it...i know the truth as I was part of why the boards are being altered.

[Tony]

Whay my SLI-D is shipping with the BIOS 125. I think it is the final release board.

Regarding to the new BIOS (126), it boost 50Mhz more for my board comparing with BIOS 125.

As far as i know 125 is a rough and 126 was a recompile of the same bios...so how you see higher clocks i don't know

The changes made to 125 and 126 are very important and its a must you all run these files or later when the boards hit the shelves.

The ultra will NOT ship with a SLI bridge.

[Alexwai]

The DFI boards were out for sale since 2 days ago in Hong Kong and I think they all came with BIOS dated Jan 19. The latest beta BIOS dated Jan 26 does give huge improvement in terms of RAM clocking. Managed to go beyond DDR600 which was not possible with Jan 19 BIOS while I know for sure my RAM can handle that on MSI K8N Diamond. LOL, the latest BIOS rocks!!!

Yes, it is truth and thanks for you link.

[Tony]

The DFI boards were out for sale since 2 days ago in Hong Kong and I think they all came with BIOS dated Jan 19. The latest beta BIOS dated Jan 26 does give huge improvement in terms of RAM clocking. Managed to go beyond DDR600 which was not possible with Jan 19 BIOS while I know for sure my RAM can handle that on MSI K8N Diamond. LOL, the latest BIOS rocks!!!

Those boards will not have the hardware changes to make them even better....why do boards always leak out early

[Patrickclouds]

on dfi-street.com:

[QUOTE]In response to questions from your Forum readers I am posting the latest info I have from DFI on the release of the new nF4 boards:

"I have just received the final revisions to both boards and DFI has not altered the Ultra design - it still includes 2 x16 PCIe slots and is still the same PCB as the SLI design. The AnandTech review is scheduled to appear on Tuesday, February 1, and New Egg and others should start receiving retail boards on Tuesday or Wednesday also.

DFI did change some 20 components on the board that greatly improves memory compatability. Testers found the initial board was very good with Samsung TCCD but not so good with Hynix and some other memories. The new revisions work well with any of the common memories in the market and the board also overclocks even better than the initial release. We are told DFI has modified all boards, so only the new revision will appear in the retail channel."QUOTE]

[BeachKEN]

The ultra will NOT ship with a SLI bridge.

THNX for the info, but, if someone mod the Ultra board to full SLI, there should be some SLI improvement, the question is, how can this board handle full SLI potential, if the bridge is needed to connect 2 cards into the full SLI system, there won´t be any improvement at all and it shouldn´t work, right?

Or just to buy or get anywhere the SLI bridge?

[HARDCORECLOCKER]

Read my post m8, i just said there are component changes to be made...this is the truth. If you want to make more of it then go for it...i know the truth as I was part of why the boards are being altered.

SRY man - my eyes ran to fast, did't see that part of Ya post.

So we're talking about hardware modifications - nothing to do with BIOS - how can I recognise if my board is a modified ?

I mean if I get a "before release board" and flash BIOS to 1.26 it will be not the same as I'd get a modified board.

So BIOS version is not the right tool to see what board I'll get.

[H2OGun]

Those boards will not have the hardware changes to make them even better....why do boards always leak out early

Don't know about that. And please don't take this the wrong way, Tony. I don't doubt you, okay? FYI: I learned from the local Authorized Distributor that the second batch of shipment is going out from DFI Taiwan today and will arrive early next week. Why on earth DFI keeps shipping out the boards if there will be hardware changes required?

[Alexwai]

As far as i know 125 is a rough and 126 was a recompile of the same bios...so how you see higher clocks i don't know

The changes made to 125 and 126 are very important and its a must you all run these files or later when the boards hit the shelves.

The highest FSB for the old BIOS was 280 while it is 286 in BIOS 126. All testing config are the same. I have been using A64 3000+.

[dnavarro]

Tony, if we get a board with bios 1.25 or 1.26 will we be ok? Does that mean we will get an "official board"? Anything ealrier (bios wise) means it wasn't updated? Just clarifying. Thank you,

D

[HARDCORECLOCKER]

What about the serial number, a from - to for non official boards would help !!!

[dnavarro]

Guys, I emailed tech support at DFI and Mr. Frank Wong gave me some good info. If you can check boards available in your area for what he states. Here's his reply...

XXXX,


Please check the bar code sticker on the edge of the last PCI slot when you receive the board. On the bottom right of the sticker, there’ll have something like R.A00, R.AB0…to indicate the revision of the board. The R.A00 or R.AB0 stands for the revision A. that’s a final release board. If it lists R.PR22 or R.PR with different #, that’s an engineer sample. We are not allowed to sell engineer samples to customers.



Frank


Frank Wong
Technical Support Manager
DFI San Jose




I want to thank Frank for his clarification. Now anyone with a board check it!


D

[xgman]

good info.

[H2OGun]

But, I hope that's not a general DFI rule that does not apply for this specific board. You know, it was a very last minute changes, right?

Anyway, I am happy for now since I saw this on mine.

[dnavarro]

I guess we would need DFI to tell us otherwise. But they aren't talking (except for Frank ). But I think you should be ok. BTW, how's yours clocking atm? I guess it doesn't matter if your performance is good!

D

[H2OGun]

I guess we would need DFI to tell us otherwise. But they aren't talking (except for Frank ). But I think you should be ok. BTW, how's yours clocking atm? I guess it doesn't matter if your performance is good!

D

It's a very nice board. My RAMs are doing better on this board than any others I've tried. My OCZ VX can do 260 for the very first time. The new BIOS really gave a big boost.

[Tony]

The word i have is boards are being modified and have been for 2 days or so. So the situation is this....if you jump now and get a board with 121 or earlier bios you got an old one.If you get a board with 126 bios and the package is sealed you got a fully finalised board which is good to go. Most boards will hit the stores in a few days so again i would look for the official stores to have official boards.

If you have a board that came with 119 bios etc that will probably not have all the hardware changes etc....once you flash you will have a good board but it won't be as good as the later ones.

Lasly you must flash to the 126 bios to get the board overclocking better.

[H2OGun]

Oh, Thanks for the cold shower Tony. That's okay though. At worst, just buy another board. Luckily that is the cheapest component in the whole setup.

[xgman]

But, I hope that's not a general DFI rule that does not apply for this specific board. You know, it was a very last minute changes, right?

Anyway, I am happy for now since I saw this on mine.

I thought only R.A00 and R.AB0 were the fianl ones?

[H2OGun]

I thought only R.A00 and R.AB0 were the fianl ones?

I take it that anything start with R.A0# and R.B# are final. The number may indicate minor revision or something. The email only mentioned that R.PR22 or R.PR are pre-release.

Anyway, there is no point arguing about this though since we may never know the truth. I own the board already and if necessary, I will own a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of the same board. Heck, I just spent >$1000 for 2 x 6800U. What's $150 compared to that, right? I know a lot people took a plunge with an even worse board (A8N anyone?)