DFI nForce4: SLI and Ultra for Mad Overclockers
by Wesley Fink on February 5, 2005 9:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Board Layout: DFI nForce4
Each new generation of DFI motherboards seem to be improving on board design, and the DFI nForce4 boards feature a very functional layout.
The DFI nF4 places the CPU in the top center of the board and DIMMs at the top. This arrangement worked well in our testing and should work better for those who change memory frequently than the crowded right edge location used on most boards.
The ATX 24-pin and the 4-pin 12V connector are in ideal locations on the DFI nF4. The bulky 24-pin ATX is located on the preferred top right edge of the motherboard, and the 4-pin 12V power connector is right beside it. This board-edge location keeps bulky cables away from the CPU and memory.
The CPU socket is in the top center of the board. PCI slots are below the socket and memory is above the CPU. There is plenty of room around the Socket 939, so most Heatsink/Fans should work fine. A Zalman 7000 overhung DIMM slot 4, but it still cleared our stock OCZ memory and dimms could work in all slots.
The IDE connectors are at our preferred upper right edge of the motherboard, and the floppy connector is a board edge connector about right midline of the board. Both locations are nearly ideal and worked well in our testing. If you use a floppy drive, you might want to connect the floppy before screwing down the board, as many mid-tower cases are tight in the area of the floppy connector. Having said that, we would still choose this floppy location any day over the floppy placed at the bottom of the board.
SATA connectors are to the right of the nF4 chipset and the magnetic levitation fan. The fan is low enough for video cards - both ATI and nVidia - to mount properly. We tried both ATI and nVidia top-of-the line cards to make sure.
Most competitive boards with 2 x16 PCIe video slots use a simple card edge selector that is reversed for SLI operation. DFI uses 6 jumper blocks that must all be moved to switch to SLI mode.
DFI also continues CMOS reloaded, which was introduced with the second generation LANParty boards. This feature allows you to save several different custom BIOS set-ups so that you can recall custom BIOS settings easily for a particular overclock or settings for a different OS. Overclockers and users who run multiple operating systems will really find CMOS Reloaded to be a useful feature.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
114 Comments
View All Comments
ShadowVlican - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
beautiful analogy #22for now i guess this is THE best AMD64 board money can buy... i wonder if Abit's AN8 will change the results...
PrinceGaz - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Can hard-drives be installed in non-RAID mode on the Sil3144 sockets with this board?As far as I know, the additional controller on the Asus SLI Deluxe board requires SATA drives to be in a RAID configuration and does not support individual drives. Can you confirm if that is the case with the DFI board.
erios666 - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
#49 - Thanks much Wesley. I did actually see that. I still feel it doesn't answer the question of whether or not you can span all those monitors. It will work great for when I'm at work. Which I can accomplish with an AGP plus a PCI vid card. But I am hoping to get some "surround gaming" going in UT2004, HL2 and NFSU2. So *span* capabilites with a 3840x1024 res' I guess is what I'm looking for rather than a simple multi-mon.Zebo - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
This is what I call a "ten year board" ...a motherboard built to last (jap caps, mosfets, al cooled etc), with every feature imaginable... you DON"T have to be an overclocker to get this board. In fact it's probably the best mobo ever built for the price using componets found in high-end server boards costing hundreds more. You should buy this DFI reguarless if you plan to overclock or not.That said... it's overclcoking options leave me speechless..never has a board came with these kind of heavy duty options..2.1 Vcore..4Vdimm..fuggin incredible. And it shows...guys at xtreme are posting over 400HTT with this bad boy.
Just awesome..you'd have to bee a damn fool to buy any other skt 939 mobo, or any mobo for that matter over DFI...
Stiganator - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Between the A8n-SLI and this DFI SLI board which would you choose?Wesley Fink - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
#48 - DFI has responded to your question."That's what we call "Dual Xpress Graphics" technology, supporting 2 video cards simulatneously and therefore 4 monitors. The DFI Ultra-D in normal mode will support up to 4 monitors off 2 video cards"
erios666 - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Please please does anyone know if it will be possible to do a 3 monitor span on the Ultra-D?!I beg of you! I want to do something like a Matrox Parhelia but with more 3D power. I've already got all my lcds and now I'm just sitting and waiting to see how this all pans out.
nserra - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Athlon 64 3200+ (Socket754) ALL 1003Athlon 64 3000+ (Socket754) ALL ALL
Athlon 64 3400+ (Socket754) ALL ALL
Athlon 64 2800+ (Socket754) ALL 1003
Athlon 64 3700+ (Socket754) ALL 1003
Sempron 3100+ (CG version) (Socket754) ALL 1004
Sempron 3100+ (D0 version) (Socket754) ALL 1005
Any one know how sempron 3100+ D0 overclocks?
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Instead of answering emails, we asked DFI to name some vendors who would likely have boards this week. They suggested New Egg, Frys (and their outpost.com online store), NCIX, zipzoomfly, and Monarch Computer. DFI also says Tiger Direct and Microcenter will have them by next week.That's all we know and it's straight from DFI, so PLEASE stop emailing us asking where to buy. Thanks!
HardwareD00d - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Onboard sound has pretty much always been crap, with a few exceptions (Sound Storm). I wasn't too impressed with Via Envy24 BTW. An add-in soundcard is the best way to go IMHO.* waits for Creative to get off there a$$ and make a PCI-e soundcard with Dolby Digital Encoding *