I have a Lanparty NFII Ultra Version A, and I was given a lot of thought to buying a Lanparty 250GB, but the biggest hurdle and something that I just can't get over is the seriously crappy job that DFI does on BIOS upgrades.
Apparenty, DFI has either no programming department, or just a tiny one for upgrading the BIOS. On dfi-street.com which is dfi's official forums, they often talk about Oskar Wu making the fixes in the BIOS for the new lanparty, which is really insane. Don't they have a programming department? One guy doing it, even if he is a great engineer, is just stupid. Besides most engineers do not have the skill, knowledge or time (especially no time) to do the BIOS fixes necessary. And what seems like to be an issue of no programming department and lack of time, seems to be taking a toll on the reliability of the Lanparty series.
I can list around a dozen different bugs (and these are not small bugs) that still exist in the Lanparty NFII Ultra, version A. And some of those bugs are fixed on nforce2 boards by other manufacturers. These are serious bugs that cause you extreme annoyances when using your computer on an everyday basis. For example, there is a bug when you use certain USB keyboards and a PS/2 mouse, where you need to boot your computer twice for it to work (computer will only work on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc boot). This bug is FIXED by Abit on their nforce2 motherboards, but DFI never fixed it on the Lanparty NFII Ultra (and this bug exists on BOTH the A and B versions). It was fixed 6 months ago by another company, but not by DFI. You can also find bugs that were fixed on the MSI brand nforce2 motherboards that exist on the DFI boards, but likewise never fixed by DFI.
Why is this so? There is a simple reason why this occurs. Motherboard manufacturers will use a "generic" BIOS when building a new motherboard. So all motherboards (whether manufactured by DFI, MSI, Abit or Epox) that use the same type of BIOS (for example: Award BIOS) will have the SAME BUGS in them. This is the same as if you used the same software on two different computers, if the software is buggy, then all computers that use it will have the bugs in it. It is up to the manufacturer to have a programming department and to fix the bugs themselves. A company that only releases BIOS updates once every 4 months or so, and only fix like 1 thing per BIOS update, will be leaving dozens of bugs in their boards not fixed. Some people say that if a company doesn't release bug fixes often for their BIOS, then maybe its because there aren't bugs in them. But that logic is dead wrong. Since the bugs exist in the Award BIOS (or whatever other BIOS) code itself, and will be on EVERY motherboard that uses the same software for their BIOS. If the manufacturer doesn't release BIOS updates, then they are simply leaving the bugs unfixed. You can actually figure out what bugs exist on your motherboard by going to another manufacturer's web site (pick a manufacturer who releases BIOS updates frequently) and look up a model # motherboard that uses the same chipset and same type of BIOS as your motherboard. Then scroll down the BIOS updates. Look at the bugs they fix. Then try replicating those bugs on your board. You will find that 90% of the time, that those bugs exist on your board and just were never fixed by the manufacturer of your board. The manufacturers who release the fewest patches for their BIOS are just leaving the bugs in them, and this can be easily verified.
And going back to the Lanparty, another bug that exists on the Lanparty NFII Ultra version A, is the cold boot bug. But guess what, DFI already has the code to fix the bug, and all they need to do is "cut and paste" the code from the version B bios to the version A bios. But do they take the time to cut and paste the necessary code? No they don't.
Guess what they do? They abandon their previous versions of a product. And this is actually the third time they did it with their Lanparty line. Just go to DFIs web site, and click on the first version of any of their Lanparty boards and look at the date on the last update and look at what it fixes. Then click on version B of that same board, and you will see that they fixed stuff in version B and never cut and pasted that code to the original version. And this has happened THREE times with THREE different of their lanparty models, where they just "forget" to fix the bugs in their older revision boards.
So wonder what would happen if a few months from now they release a new version of the Lanparty 250gb. How would you like it if you run out and buy the board now, then find out that they stop bothering to spend any time fixing the bugs on what you just bought, when they release a new revision?
Every other respectable motherboard company I know of, including MSI, Epox, and Abit, will continue to fix the bugs on ALL revisions of a board. If there is a revision 1, 2, and 3 of a motherboard and if the company finds a bug that effects all revisions of the motherboard, then they will cut and paste the code to fix it to the BIOS for all their motherboards then release an update for each revision of the board and post it on their site.
A couple examples:
MSI stop manufacturing the K7N2G-ILSR over a year ago, but there is a new BIOS released 2 months ago.
Abit's NF7-S which was first manufactured 2 years ago, has had over 18 BIOS updates and the last update was 2 weeks ago! This is a 2 year old product, and its still being updated the BIOS!
Now lets take DFI. DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra Version A, which I paid $180 bucks for one year ago, and which was their most expensive socket A board (their "flagship" product), has had NO BIOS updates in the last 10 months! There has not been one BIOS update in the last 10 months. And bugs that were fixed in version B of the board, were never fixed in version A. When all they need to do is a simple cut and paste of the code from the one BIOS to the other.
So you might want to give some serious consideration to the fact that DFI just abandon's their old products when a new revision comes out (which seems likely to happen with the Lanparty 250gb. Probably be a new revision soon.)
And even with the products that they are currently supporting, they still only release BIOS updates once every few months and they don't fix the majority of the bugs. They apparently don't have the programming staff to do it.
Sincerely,
Bitpower
Apparenty, DFI has either no programming department, or just a tiny one for upgrading the BIOS. On dfi-street.com which is dfi's official forums, they often talk about Oskar Wu making the fixes in the BIOS for the new lanparty, which is really insane. Don't they have a programming department? One guy doing it, even if he is a great engineer, is just stupid. Besides most engineers do not have the skill, knowledge or time (especially no time) to do the BIOS fixes necessary. And what seems like to be an issue of no programming department and lack of time, seems to be taking a toll on the reliability of the Lanparty series.
I can list around a dozen different bugs (and these are not small bugs) that still exist in the Lanparty NFII Ultra, version A. And some of those bugs are fixed on nforce2 boards by other manufacturers. These are serious bugs that cause you extreme annoyances when using your computer on an everyday basis. For example, there is a bug when you use certain USB keyboards and a PS/2 mouse, where you need to boot your computer twice for it to work (computer will only work on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc boot). This bug is FIXED by Abit on their nforce2 motherboards, but DFI never fixed it on the Lanparty NFII Ultra (and this bug exists on BOTH the A and B versions). It was fixed 6 months ago by another company, but not by DFI. You can also find bugs that were fixed on the MSI brand nforce2 motherboards that exist on the DFI boards, but likewise never fixed by DFI.
Why is this so? There is a simple reason why this occurs. Motherboard manufacturers will use a "generic" BIOS when building a new motherboard. So all motherboards (whether manufactured by DFI, MSI, Abit or Epox) that use the same type of BIOS (for example: Award BIOS) will have the SAME BUGS in them. This is the same as if you used the same software on two different computers, if the software is buggy, then all computers that use it will have the bugs in it. It is up to the manufacturer to have a programming department and to fix the bugs themselves. A company that only releases BIOS updates once every 4 months or so, and only fix like 1 thing per BIOS update, will be leaving dozens of bugs in their boards not fixed. Some people say that if a company doesn't release bug fixes often for their BIOS, then maybe its because there aren't bugs in them. But that logic is dead wrong. Since the bugs exist in the Award BIOS (or whatever other BIOS) code itself, and will be on EVERY motherboard that uses the same software for their BIOS. If the manufacturer doesn't release BIOS updates, then they are simply leaving the bugs unfixed. You can actually figure out what bugs exist on your motherboard by going to another manufacturer's web site (pick a manufacturer who releases BIOS updates frequently) and look up a model # motherboard that uses the same chipset and same type of BIOS as your motherboard. Then scroll down the BIOS updates. Look at the bugs they fix. Then try replicating those bugs on your board. You will find that 90% of the time, that those bugs exist on your board and just were never fixed by the manufacturer of your board. The manufacturers who release the fewest patches for their BIOS are just leaving the bugs in them, and this can be easily verified.
And going back to the Lanparty, another bug that exists on the Lanparty NFII Ultra version A, is the cold boot bug. But guess what, DFI already has the code to fix the bug, and all they need to do is "cut and paste" the code from the version B bios to the version A bios. But do they take the time to cut and paste the necessary code? No they don't.
Guess what they do? They abandon their previous versions of a product. And this is actually the third time they did it with their Lanparty line. Just go to DFIs web site, and click on the first version of any of their Lanparty boards and look at the date on the last update and look at what it fixes. Then click on version B of that same board, and you will see that they fixed stuff in version B and never cut and pasted that code to the original version. And this has happened THREE times with THREE different of their lanparty models, where they just "forget" to fix the bugs in their older revision boards.
So wonder what would happen if a few months from now they release a new version of the Lanparty 250gb. How would you like it if you run out and buy the board now, then find out that they stop bothering to spend any time fixing the bugs on what you just bought, when they release a new revision?
Every other respectable motherboard company I know of, including MSI, Epox, and Abit, will continue to fix the bugs on ALL revisions of a board. If there is a revision 1, 2, and 3 of a motherboard and if the company finds a bug that effects all revisions of the motherboard, then they will cut and paste the code to fix it to the BIOS for all their motherboards then release an update for each revision of the board and post it on their site.
A couple examples:
MSI stop manufacturing the K7N2G-ILSR over a year ago, but there is a new BIOS released 2 months ago.
Abit's NF7-S which was first manufactured 2 years ago, has had over 18 BIOS updates and the last update was 2 weeks ago! This is a 2 year old product, and its still being updated the BIOS!
Now lets take DFI. DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra Version A, which I paid $180 bucks for one year ago, and which was their most expensive socket A board (their "flagship" product), has had NO BIOS updates in the last 10 months! There has not been one BIOS update in the last 10 months. And bugs that were fixed in version B of the board, were never fixed in version A. When all they need to do is a simple cut and paste of the code from the one BIOS to the other.
So you might want to give some serious consideration to the fact that DFI just abandon's their old products when a new revision comes out (which seems likely to happen with the Lanparty 250gb. Probably be a new revision soon.)
And even with the products that they are currently supporting, they still only release BIOS updates once every few months and they don't fix the majority of the bugs. They apparently don't have the programming staff to do it.
Sincerely,
Bitpower
) and never looked back. I have since moved onto this Infinity, i'm very demanding on my hardware and have yet to find a single bug aside from the following two:
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