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How hard are DFI ultra-d nforce 4 boards seriously?

D

Dark Wizard

Member
i have to get my parts ordered ASAP for my tech class, and i need to make my decsion between the Epox ultra board or the DFI ultra board

I have my heart set on the DFI, i love how it has its sound card on its own circrutry and the duel lan. I will be OC but not to extreme yet tell i know what the hell im doing, but i do want a good OC board so the fetures are there for me. I know this has ALOT of OC features and i have seem so many mixed revies, some say its easy to get going out the gate and then some say hell no its terrible and only grab this board if your a highly experinced OC.

On that note i am going to be getting my A+ in a few months and plan on making a carreer on working on people computers and eventually getting a nice IT job once i get out of my networking schooling, soo i will need to beable to know how to work on any kinda of board and settings, so this board would be a big challange, but i do want the damn thing to work when i get my system al put toghter. My Teacher looked over this and the epox board and said as longs as for the DFI you can find a better manual somewhere other then the one it comes with which is supposed to be crap, to go with that one. The teacher told me to stay away from the Epox for one big reason, the the layout do to where the power connector is positioned, he said ill have lots of issues with that /shrug, I also didnt care for the epox only for the reason of it had intergraded sound which will take up more resources ingames and only one lan.

I know both are good boards in there own rights, i just need some push in one directin or the other. And i need to have some very honest PERONSAL experince responses on how actual hard it is to get the DFI board running for the first time. IM getting the Ocz gold editon duel channel 1gb kit which from what ive read is stable for this board. Im not affriad of a challange, just dont want a lost cause if ya know what i mean!

PLEASE HELP!! 🙂
 
some help PLEASE!!

Is there a better manual or guide for the dfi lanparty nforce4 board then the one that comes with it?? that would help my decison more then anything.. If there is a more detailed version or write up by an exsperinced tech etc etc please link for me.

Still need some oponions from my first post please, i have tell tommrow to order the board so time is a ticking.
 
DFI had a well-supported community- just look at how many people on these forums own them. And should you have any problems at all, go to www.dfi-street.com and ask for help there. They have several DFI employees roaming around on there and you should be able to get good support.

However, off the top of my head I cannot name an online in-depth manual. Google?
 
Ill tell you straight up...the DFI has the most potential of OCing I have ever seen. Every single option is open for you to optimize in terms of the settings/memory timings...etc., As a novice/moderate computer builder, I do admit it was quite hard.

I myself am having trouble with some cold boot starts. If you want an all around board that is good in every area but not great in one is the Asus SLI boards. The DFI is like err umm a sports car...fast and so many overclocking options however it's a pain to work/fix and it isn't the smoothest ride.

Hope that helps.
 
well is there any tricks or suggestions for when i first go to boot up to help smooth the ride? is there a more stable bios that i should have already dl on a disk and ready for flashing? links to that would be great "IF there is a better one to suggest"

Also the ram i mentioned the ocz gold edition duel channel kit, is that a good brand to help smooth the ride as well?

Is the placement of the power adapter on the EPOX MB a huge problem in the long run like my teacher said it would be?

Thanks again for all the help, please throw some more suggestions and comments my way, i have telll tommorow afternnon to make my decsion.
 
The DFI boards are great ocers. But, there are problems with those boards. SOme involve cold boot, some involve wierd lan, another problem is the loud and hard to replace chipset cooler. Its a nice board to play around with, but I wouldn't use some of the extra options such as the 5 rail Vdimm jumper for more than a few days. If you want to play around, have some fun overclocking and are willing to pay that extra 17 dollars for the experience, then get the DFI board. But when you finish playing around with Ocing, then you will go back to almost the same features as the Epox board has.
 
Let me say I love DFI's technical support. I have met them in person and they were great. However, u can't expect like I said earlier a Mustang Cobra to have the ride and smoothness of a Lexus...just isn't it.

IMO, it's best you get the MSI or Asus board. They are solid all around and while not crazy overclockers...they do have some nice features. As for the ram, the ram Im having trouble is the OCZ Rev 2 for some reason.
 
so far so good with my Epox 9NPA+ Ultra however for some reason the latest Bios doesn't work for me (then again I have only tried updating via windows which many say isn't the best)....

I considered the DFI however due to its hardware requirements and how picky it was with components I decided to save a few bucks and go the epox route...overall I am happy however there are still some quirks here and there.
 
I just finished building my first DFI motherboard, a DFI ultra D nforce4. I've always been an Asus and Abit fan . However I heard so much good things about this board, especially for its overclocking ability that Im willing to deviate from my usually choices. Stability is my number one concern. Eventhough I have read it is harder to setup than others ( I've never used any Epox board so cant comment on that) and people seems to have several issues with the board, I bit the bullet when it went on sale at Newegg.

Before I even received the board I did my research going thru various forums: dfi-street.com, xtremeoverclocking.com and extremehardware.com to name a few. I made notes of common problems people have with this board. Several of the problems people seem to face with this board are related to brand X RAM and brand Y PSU not working properly. Also updating the BIOS seems to solve some problems.

When I started building the board I thought it will take me several hours to start it up. To my surprise it booted on first start. I had a problem with my USB keyboard but I resolved it by flashing to the latest BIOS. Oh btw the manual isnt that good if you are use to the likes of Asus and Abit which guides you step by step. But the helpful people at dfi-street is a big plus for this board.

Took me a couple of days to put everything up and running . I didnt install WINXP from scratch since I was able to transfer my RAID setup from my old NEO2 NF3 rig. I dont use the onboard RAID, I have an ABIT card for this purpose. The transition went smoothly and prime95 and memtest ran without a hitch in stock speed for both days. The only reason it took me to stepup this long was because Im using a Vapochill phase change CPU cooler and made sure that both regular CPU cooler and Vapo will run without a problem at stock. If I just opted for the regular CPU cooler I would have been running the same time I've built Asus and Abit rigs.

Im happy with the board. I have started playing with its overclocking abilities.. a little bit overwhelming with all those options but I love how stable it is. As long as you run good RAM, very good PSU and update the latest BIOS if you find a few quirks, everything should be alright.
 
TYVM Geff that was what i was looking for. also ty for everybodys else imput as well, everybody imput is equally taken in and digested 😛

Be kewl to hear from a few more owners of the dfi nforce 4 board or the EPOX board or both 🙂

My question then to Geff or anybody else who owns a dfi, did i pick the right ram and PS...

Went with the modstream 520 by Ocz and the gold edition 1gb (2x512) deul channel kit
will those play nice or are known to play nice in the DFI? What are you using Geff for ram? and psu?

Thanks again for the responses, all are much apprecaited!
 
Specs in sig.

I briefly considered going with ASUS from my friends' experiences, but after reading a load of reviews, I went with the nF4 SLI-DR. It wasn't hard to set up at all, even with this being my first build. As long as you read up on it beforehand, you will be ready for anything it throws at you.

As many have said, and I'm sure you know by now, the board is picky about RAM (higher-end OCZ is it's bread and butter) and it's a little power hungry (don't skimp on the PSU... use all 4 power plugs on mobo... native 24-pin a must!). If you can get past these minor hurdles, it will treat you well.

My experience has been great, though there's not much to say apart from the board performing like a champ. I haven't OC'd it yet, since there's no need at the moment, but when the time comes, it will be ready.

I've only run into one problem so far. Sometimes when I reset, two of my fans don't turn on with the system, and when I power down, those two fans come on. From what I heard, using all 5 fan plugs on the mobo stresses it out. To fix this, I simply ordered some 3-pin to 4-pin adapters, switched the fans to those, and all has been well ever since.
 
Originally posted by: Dark Wizard
Be kewl to hear from a few more owners of the dfi nforce 4 board or the EPOX board or both 🙂
Went with the modstream 520 by Ocz and the gold edition 1gb (2x512) deul channel kit
will those play nice or are known to play nice in the DFI?
Click to expand...

Those are good choices,... the OCZ Gold is almost the de facto standard for the DFI NF4 boards. You should have no problems. I use a 480 Neopower and Mushkin Black on an SLI-DR, booted first try. I think most DFI NF4 problems come from people who don't listen to DFI's recommendation on PSU's, who use a 20 pin and/or a converter, forget to plug in all 4 power connectors or don't think they are really needed etc. etc.
 
Both my MSI and Asus Nforce4-SLi boards crapped out..so far my DFi board is running great and I've gotten a higher OC with it then on other two boards I had.

 
tyvm for the good reviews, those are what i wanted to hear,

i ordered the modesstream from ocz the 520watt , will that be fine for the dfi? will it play nice?

Just finihsed placing order for my first DFI board, now im gonna cross my fingures and hope everything goes fairly smooth.

is there any certain order or steps anybody recommends once i got the board and all components installed?
 
dfi.street, spend time there. read the stickys and read the posts. don't be overwhelmed by the problems there as its a support forum. just learn from what other people are doing that works and what others are doing that fails.

in no time at all you'll be saying "wtf is this guy thinking??" lol

its not rocket science, you'll be fine.
 
tyvm rise, that makes me feel better about my decsion 🙂 i will go book mark that now and make suire and do some reading before the board gets here 🙂
 
Well I do think you made the wrong decision. You said it yourself that you weren't looking to do some extreme overclocking, so you just spent a few more dollars on the DFI board. Just my opinion.
 
hacp is right. i have a dfi nf3 s939 board and it has alot of options. im a pretty experienced pc builder but new to the A64's. Board worked great for me and im using stock bios. look at my sig for my rig specs. hacp, you're better off with an epox pci-e board or the asus a8n-e....
 
well ty both for your input as well, but from the other above poster's above you 2 and other poster's on the other board i frequent, i do belive i made the CORRECT descision. I have the parts that are KNOWN to play nice with this board so im elminating one issue there, and as far as OC, YES i did say im not going that extreme YET, but i never said i wasnt ever, so this is actually just fine as the options will be there for me when im ready to tackle it. I also said if you would of read my posts that im ok with a challange, and am going to school for networking and pc tech so im learning about all this anywasy so this board will be good practive for me.

I know i asked for advice and oponions at i stand by that no matter if its negative or positive, so thank you for all your comments form everybody, and i appreciate the time to stop by here and help me with my decsion. The majority of you made it seam that i should go for it and its not as bad as some say as long as you have the right parts, which as far as i can tell i do. So i did, and cant wait for it to arrive now 😛
 
I have OCZ PC3200 Gold 200@2-2-2-5...this ram will not overclock for me without more than 3.2v...

while it is great ram the BH5 chips need more voltage...I wish I had gone with different ram...though I will say OCZ support is awesome and they are helping but the fact is without a mod I will not be able to run at 230mhz with 166 divider..even at loose timing

BTW I am not saying this ram is not good...it is nice stuff but Iwould rather have gotten something needing less vdimm...my mistake
 
why not sell it nealh? i don't like the big voltage stuff either. other people don't mind so you should have no trouble unloading it.
 
well i bought that ram becasue that seemed to be what most people recommended for the DFI board as it does have a higher volt ability, and i wanted to make sure i lessened my chances for any hangups or conflicts, so i orderd only the parts ive heard othors have had sucess with.

Hey PM me if you want to sell that ram, i might want some more if the price is right 😛
 
I asked OCZ guys about whether I could get 225-235 at 3.1 to 3.2 v ..not real tight they thought this wa sa good choice..so oh well

I just got from Newegg..I may just return eat a restocking fee and buy something else as this not my can of worms..I could try a soft volt mod with my OCZ 520w psu...but my luck I will screw that up

dark wizard I will send a PM
 
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