nForce 4 Ultra VS nForce 4 SLI?

[CFP]

I was browsing a pc store the other day, and chatting with a sales guy - he asked me what motherboard I was running my 165 @ 300HTT on, and I said an Asus A8N-E - I mentioned I was in the market for a DFI board, and he told me to get one with an nForce4 SLI chip instead of the Ultra variant, and when asked why, he simply said it was "better".

Is this the case? And if so, which kind of DFI board should I go for? I run a single XTX so I don't know if getting an SLi board is worth it - but I am looking for a more stable CPU OC and also in the market for a 3GHZ stable Opty, so a DFI would certainly help matters there.

I hear the Expert's and Venus' are very expensive, so out of my market.

Would the Ultra-D be a good choice?

Thanks.

 

[CalvinHobbes]

Here's a comparison of the chipsets. Each maker could alter the chipsets a little or add in/remove features.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce4_family.html

 

[furballi]

Why get SLI when you don't need this feature. Even SATA II is a waste of $.

 

[CFP]

My sentiments exactly. I'm going to look at some reviews for the NF4U vs NF4SLI.

 

[Heidfirst]

they are exactly the same silicon just with different bridges open/closed.

 

[furballi]

More hypes to get the consumer to pay more $ for bells and whistles. I use the passive heat-sink solution from Zalman/Cooler Master to cool my NF4 chipset. The heatsink is only lukewarm since I have a front 120 x 38mm Panaflo at the front of the Antec SLK3000B case.

 

[Twsmit]

They are 100% the same board. The only difference is that the SLI has one tiny little bridge on the chipset connected, and that it ships with an SLI connector. In fact you can mod the Ultra into an SLI, something that I did and it only took about 15 minutes and a #2 pencil to cross the bridge.

DFI will also sell you for ~$12 (something like that) an SLI bridge so you can use 2x video cards if you want. The sales man is correct that the SLI board is better.... in the sense that it allows you to use SLI without modification. But performance wise, or feature wise they are the EXACT SAME THING.

I essentially have an NF4 Ultra-D ---> NF4 SLI-D