DFI nForce4: SLI and Ultra for Mad Overclockers
by Wesley Fink on February 5, 2005 9:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Words
DFI set out to create the absolute best nForce4 boards that an enthusiast could find on the market. After spending several weeks with engineering samples and now the final retail boards, we believe that DFI has succeeded in their goal. There are other very good nForce4 boards that compete well at stock speeds, overclock well, or perform well in SLI mode, but no other board that we are aware of does so many things so well as the DFI LANParty nForce4 boards. Looking at the boards as they ship, it would be hard not to be impressed with the feature sets, performance, record-setting overclocking, and stability of the new DFI nForce4 motherboards.
If you then throw in the fact that all the DFI nForce4 boards from the $140 UT Ultra-D to the $200 LANParty nF4 SLI-DR are based on the same PCB and use the same BIOS, the story becomes even more interesting. Those simple facts mean that all of the DFI boards perform the same, overclock the same, and contain the same pair of x16 PCIe slots. This allows even the bottom-of the-line Ultra-D to run 2 PCIe video cards in x16/x2 mode at about 90% the performance of full-blown SLI. Perhaps even more impressive is that a simple mod with a #2 pencil turns the Ultra-D into an SLI board, allowing any nVidia drivers to work in full x8/x8 SLI mode. When this is factored into the formula, we have to say that no current nForce4 board - SLI or Ultra - can deliver the value that you get with the DFI LANParty UT Ultra-D.
For many buyers, the UT Ultra-D will be the start and end of their search. A $140 board that performs like this one does, overclocks like this one does, and that also can do SLI is an incredible bargain in today's market. Keep in mind, however, that the price spread from the Ultra-D to the SLI-DR is only about $60 once the prices settle down. Those who are afraid to mod may find the additional $60 for the SLI-DR to be well worth the cost. You also get a full-blown LANParty package with the top board, and the Front-X box, UV cable sheathing and carrying harness for your system do add value.
Last, but clearly not least, the overclocking results will put a smile on any user's face. Memory voltage to 4.0V, the huge array of voltage adjustments, a slew of memory tweaking options, and vCore to 2.1V are all impressive features, but they are even more impressive when they really do enable higher overclocks. On the DFI nF4 boards, that is certainly the case. We reached 318x9 at 1T Command Rate - performance that demolished our previous best of 295 1T with this same memory. We also were able to reach the highest overclock that we have ever seen at stock ratios with our 4000+ CPU, reaching a stable 238x12. Enthusiasts will love this board, and the designers deserve our admiration for the solid design work that went into the DFI nF4 series.
This does not mean that the DFI nForce4 boards are perfect, but they are certainly close. We could wish for High Definition audio on the Karajan Audio Module, and we might wish for an easier means to switch from "normal" to "SLI" mode on the boards. The 6 jumper blocks are clumsy to set to SLI, even with the included chip extractor. But if jumpers were the trade-off to give us an SLI selection on the Ultra-D, we will take them. We also wish that DFI could find some means of reaching an agreement with nVidia to provide the "dual-video" bridge with the Ultra boards. In the larger scheme of things, however, these are mostly minor complaints.
It is rare that we test a board and feel completely satisfied, but to be honest, that is exactly the feeling that the DFI nF4 boards leave with us. Yes, there are a few warts, but the complexion is much clearer of imperfections than we usually find. This is one motherboard that has just earned a spot in my personal setup and it will take something very special to displace this one. This board is a keeper - whether you mod the $140 Ultra-D or spring for the full-blown SLI-DR!
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rjm55 - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
It looks like your praise for the DFI riled the competition in #26. Frankly it is good to see your enthusiasm for the DFI. It is nice to see some excitement come through in the review.Over the years of reading your reviews I've learned that if you get excited it's a product I'll be very happy with. I just wish you could persuade DFI to use a VIA Vinyl codec instead of that very pedestrian Realtek 850. It's a shame to waste the potential of the Audio Module on the 850. This board deserves better.
bupkus - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Oops, my bad. I need to wait until Epox releases their nForce4.Illissius - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Awesome board. Unfortunately, not perfect. I find the following faults with it:- The second GbE is PCI and not PCIe.
- It uses the same crappy Realtek audio everyone else does, rather than Creative SBLive (a la MSI SLI) or VIA Envy24PT.
- Its color scheme is not blue thingies-that-are-not-the-PCB on a black PCB.
These shortcomings conspire to demote it from the status of 'awesomest motherboard in the history of history' to 'best A64 motherboard thus far, and possibly ever'.
Have a nice day :D.
As for the review; for the most part great, except... using 61.77 drivers for everything else, and 71.40 for the nForce4, probably invalidates all the gaming scores, as there have been significant performance improvements from the 61.77 to the 66.93, and I would imagine the 71.40 doesn't regress in this regard.
Also, I'm interested in the maglev chipset cooler. Is there any visual difference from a standard cooler? Is it quieter, at least?
bupkus - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Was there anything good about the competition? Were they cheaper and almost as good, like a second place winner for us cheap economy guys. How about the Epox?knitecrow - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
The DFI board is very nice, and if anyone is going to overclock, this board is the one to get. For non-overclockers, MSI board looks good as well.The chipset fan seems gimicky, I wish it had a bigger heatsink with a more efficient fan.
I am reading correctly between the lines? Is Nvidia charging some insane SLI tax? I like to see what DFI can do with the upcomming ATI chipset for athlon64.
I can tell you from personal experience that the realtek ALC850 (also used on my DFI UT nF3 250GB) is absolute crap. And I am not being picky either. My old soundblaster 16 sounds better. Gone are the days of good audio on the NFII. There are SO many better choices, why not go with a better AC'97 codec? Via Vinyl, sigmatel, cirius logic?
Its really dumb to go through all the trouble of having an add-in card and then use the worst AC'97 codec chip on the market.
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
#39 - The FrontX is a "breakout box" that installs in a drive bay and provides front audio, usb, firewire, and SATA ports in this design. FrontX also features diagnostic LEDs that tell you how the board is functioning.We covered FrontX in detail in past LANParty reviews which you can look up at AnandTech. It is a modular design. You can also find more info at www.frontx.com
SPDIF is a digital audio input and output. I'm sure others here will explain more about SPDIF.
DeanO - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Does anyone know what the FrontX and Diagnostic LED Connector, that are included with the SLI-DR motherboard, do?The manual says:
One FrontX device equipped with:
- 4 diagnostic LEDs, 1 S/PDIF-out, 1 mini 1394 port and 1 Serial ATA port
The article doesn't seem to mention it anywhere, and neither does the DFI website.
What do the LEDs do? And what is an S/PDIF-out?
Thanks ~ DeanO
Aileur - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Any idea how much the SLI bridge will go for, seperately?I can see it being as much as 20$, bringing the price difference between real SLI and modded SLI to a point where youd have to ask yourself, do i wanna risk it.
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
#35 - 318 (DDR636) is the highest clock speed we have acheived with THIS memory at 1T with DS dimms in dual-channel mode AT ANANDTECH. The previous 1T record with this setup was 295.We are aware you can reach higher speeds with single-sided dimms and a single dimm, but users don't generally run their machines with 2 256MB SS dimms. We have seen reports of memory speeds of DDR680 and even higher with single-sided dimms.
You can also reach higher speeds with a configuration with water-cooling or phase-change cooling or liquid nitrogen.
The important thing in our opinion is performance with the exact same setup, and here the DFI reached new performance levels with this memory and this CPU with air cooling.
mctmcpoop - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
318 is not the highest record ...The HTT record of this board is 456mhz ...
http://www.coolaler.com/ipb/index.php?showtopic=37...
The 1:1 DRAM record is DDR750 ...
http://www.coolaler.com/ipb/index.php?showtopic=38...