MSI DFI

[gvayl]

MSI SLI costs about $180...the DFI is like $230. I was thinking of going with the MSI since its a lot cheaper and the only negative is that it has just the 2 PCI-e slots where as the DFI has more...MSI also has better audio. So I thought go with that. I read a thread by heinrich, there seems to be some problem with MSI SLI and Winchester AMDs overclocking issues. They are saying its an MSI bios problem. Also PCIe locks are malfunctioning...I have no idea what that means.

I'm building my first computer...will it be safer for me to spend the $50 extra bucks and get DFI? I honestly would rather not though...$230 for a motherboards is a lot...IMO.

Thanks...

 

[thanatos355]

do you plan on doing much oc'ing? do you have many pci cards that you want to transfer? do you plan on, or allready have, a good sound card?

if you're going to oc, get the dfi. if you dont want to spend much money on the mobo, get the ultra-d. if you dont need many pci slots, the ammount on the boards doesnt matter at all. if you have, or plan to buy a good sound card, then the onboard audio doesnt matter in the least. onboard sound hurts overall performance anyway, and i wouldnt recommend it to anyone that can afford a good sound card. they are pretty damn inexpensive now, so there's no excuse to use the onboard audio.

 

[Elfear]

Seems hit and miss with the MSI boards. Some seem to run extremely well, right up there with the DFI boards, and some seem to have problems. A new bios should fix the probs but the question is, when will it be here. Other than that the MSI is awesome! In Anandtech's review they show the onboard audio utilizing only 5% or so of cpu usage. That blows most of the competing solutions out of the water. I really don't think you'd see any difference between the onboard sound and an add-in solution unless you're a picky audiophile.

 

[jose]

I've had some bad luck w/ a DOA a8n-sli mobo, but my DFI-UltraD has not given me any problems. Check my sig. for specs.

Seems there are alot of ppl having problems w/ NF4 right now w/ the technology being so new. Every manf. has its own issues..

Good Luck
Regards,
Jose