DFI "LANPARTY UT nF3 250Gb" or ASUS K8N-E Deluxe?

[kxm9976]

What you guys think about these two mobos?
they sure get great reviews, especially DFI with overclocking.
I don't plan to overclock at least in the beginning, before my comp is considered old.

I am getting 2 sticks of 512mb of RAM ( performance ones with latency of 2) so either of these mobos should be fast at the stock speeds. Any suggestions with RAM?

The only thing that turned me off about ASUS was the RAM voltage on it was I think 2.7 according to anand's review.

Thank You very much.

 

[Addy]

I was torn between these two as well. When I contacted my RAM manufacturer asking what timings I should use the tech recommended CL2.5 on the Asus and said CL2 should be no problem on the DFI.

Picked up the DFI today and am just waiting for the CPU to be delivered. Liked the Asus because of the joyport that I would have used for MIDI, but now I?ll have to pick up a MIDI to USB thingy. I won?t be OC?ing, least not right away, most important things is to be stable. Should be a fast system at stock speeds for a while anyways

 

[Maximus96]

I bought both. out of the two, the asus has better documentation and assessories. you get an extra 2 usb ports in a back plate/bracket thing and extra firewire. you also get some DVD software. the DFI only comes with the necessary cables. The round cables that the DFI bundle with is nothing more than a folded ribbon in a rubber sleeve. The only thing with the asus board, as mentioned above, is the 2.7v vdimm. at first i thought that was holding back my overclock. then after receiving the DFI and going all the way up to 3.0v vdimm, i still can't get 220 mhz out of my memory. so i came to the conclusion that its my mushkin basics that are the culprits. the dfi comes with many more options in bios, most of which i don't understand nor do they provide you with good enough documentation. with the asus, every option in the bios is explained in the manual. both boards are completely stable. only crashes were due to too much OC. i'm still torn myself as to which board to return, but i'm leaning towards the DFI board at the moment, because of the extras and the asus name as performance is nearly identical for me.

 

[cirthix]

dfi

 

[kxm9976]

What Ram would you guys suggest?
also I am getting Antec with 430 watt Truepower PSU. This should be plenty right?
Thanks

 

[Maximus96]

i currently have the 430w antec truepower. it served me fine, but i am upgrading to a 550w superflower PSU since i got it for cheap and can probably sell the antec for more that what i paid for the superflower

 

[Addy]

Zaku:

Sounds like you are keeping the Asus but in case you didn?t know there?s a 117pg .pdf manual on the DFI CD. It?s pretty detailed, comparable with any of my Abit or Asus manuals I?ve had in the past.

 

[Maximus96]

thanks, i didn't know of the pdf file on the cd. i will look into that. right now i'm still testing the OC with the DFI board. with my setup and being ram limited, my chip seem to max out at 2.5ghz. 255x10 would give error in prime with 250x10 will ran prime w/ no problems. i'm now testing for higher fsb, using 260x9 and it seems ok, i thought i read in the big K8N-E thread that the asus maxes out at around 260 fsb.

i just skimmed thru the pdf file, i take back what i said before about the poor documentation.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Well, I'm not certain was had been said already, but I've had both these boards.

Here's my impressions.

Overclocking, the DFI board wins hands down. I've been able to easily reach 2.4 with a 3000+ on the DFI, whereas I could only get maybe a 100MHz OC on the Asus, and this is after I flashed the BIOS to the newest and other things to get it to work better (like getting a Zalman HSF). I think I just got a not so great OC'ing board on the Asus, and am convinced I can get 2.5 out of the DFI.

Features, they're about even, both offering mostly the same (makes sense both being the same chipset). The DFI is kinda overwhelming with its BIOS features, and I don't even know what half of them mean it seems like. I know the important ones, and they're easy enough to understand and see. I've left most things set to Auto (and this board does a great job of setting things on its own). For instance, my RAM ran at 3-4-4-7 on the Asus, but does 2-3-2-6 on the DFI (the board automatically set these timings).

There is one thing that I can't figure out though, my temps are 15C higher on the DFI than on the Asus. This is at stock speed on both boards. Also, temps on the DFI are the same if I'm running it at 2.4 as at stock, and its very stable at 2.4. I dont' know if maybe the board is reporting temps wrong or what, but its just kind of strange. BTW temps are 50C idle and 60C load on the DFI. Both boards reported 32-35C ambient temp. Also, temps are with Zalmans all copper 92mm HSF (I forget its model name) and Arctic Silver 5.

 

[Addy]

Erroneous temp reporting is a known issue with the shipping BIOS. There are several beta BIOS revisions you can try if you want that fix it?dunno when the official update is due.

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/index.php?s=

Originally posted by: darkswordsman17


There is one thing that I can't figure out though, my temps are 15C higher on the DFI than on the Asus. This is at stock speed on both boards. Also, temps on the DFI are the same if I'm running it at 2.4 as at stock, and its very stable at 2.4. I dont' know if maybe the board is reporting temps wrong or what, but its just kind of strange. BTW temps are 50C idle and 60C load on the DFI. Both boards reported 32-35C ambient temp. Also, temps are with Zalmans all copper 92mm HSF (I forget its model name) and Arctic Silver 5.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Thanks a bunch, I thought it was something like that since I made sure to try several times.

 

[Maximus96]

i currently have my OC at 9x270 and it ran prime for about 20 hours. i'm going for max fsb since i found out my chip maxes out at 2.5. the OC is better on the DFI, i think i may end up keeping the DFI.

 

[Adn4n]

The new revision of the K8N-e Deluxe has a Vdim of 2.8, which is enough to overclock for my ram.

 

[Maximus96]

is that the new 1.06 bios or were you talking about the revision 1.05 motherboard?

 

[einsig]

I've been through 4 s754 mobos in the last 9 months. Two of them were ASUS offerings, one the MSI K8N Neo Plat. What am I using now and what has given me by far the best OC? The DFI Lanparty UT. I'm in total love with this board. I used to be a big ASUS fan, but after their A64 offerings I'm staying away for the moment. Things like leeching PCI resources for the onboard LAN, the bad capacitors, etc. have put them in a bad light for me. ASUS bickering aside, the DFI's BIOS options are just too good to pass up no matter what.

 

[kxm9976]

Hi alll,

I think I am gonna stick with the DFI for my computer, it seems to be well liked and gets good reviews.

As for my dad's computer, I don't wanna spend too much money for a mobo. So I am thinking of going with Chaintech Model "VNF3-250", which is $79 with shipping on Newegg. It also gonna be running AMD 64 3200+. Do you think Chaintech/Amd 64 is a good match?

Thanks everyone

 

[Orillian]

@ 2.5 on the ASUS board with a 3000+ rock solid! latest bios. Zalman HSF. Corsair RAM @ 2.5,3,3,7 @ 1:1 Can't complain at all!