"Official" DFI nF4 Ultra-D / SLI-DR Thread

[Waylay00]

Ok guys, I really need some advice. It's down to the ASUS or the DFI SLI board. I've been hearing SO many people with problems with DFI, more than the ASUS when it first came out. I have finally convinced my dad to let me build a computer, and since I have convinced him, I want to make sure that it will more than likely work the first time I put it together. I will be ordering in a week. What should I do?

 

[akugami]

Anyone have problems with the Diamondmax 10 NCQ enabled hard drives on this board like the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe boards? Searched the thread and didn't notice anything on it, or at least didn't notice on a quick scan of the thread. I didn't actually read through 29 pages of posts.

 

[jaZZguy]

 

[jaZZguy]

I have my UltraD running stable on Mandrake Linux and SuSE. However, XP and Win98 are another matter. When attempting to boot XP, I immediately get a BSOD and Win98 does nothing. Anyone who has had a similiar problem and overcome it, please let me know how you did it.

 

[harbin]

"3 people with the damage to the exact same portion of the motherboard. Interesting. I think I will start a seperate thread for this..."

Count me!

I had the same damage problem with the ultra-d board. The board was from Monarch. The power swith and reset buttons were smashed. I asked RMA, but I haven't sent them back yet because I am thinking that the $10+ shipping cost is really a pain to my wallet!

Somebody can take care of this common probelm? Is this a lemon?

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: akugami
Anyone have problems with the Diamondmax 10 NCQ enabled hard drives on this board like the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe boards? Searched the thread and didn't notice anything on it, or at least didn't notice on a quick scan of the thread. I didn't actually read through 29 pages of posts.

I don't have one of those drives but I have a Seagate that supports NCQ. I haven't had any problems with it so far, but I don't know if NCQ is working or not.

 

[imported_Assassin]

Originally posted by: Waylay00
Ok guys, I really need some advice. It's down to the ASUS or the DFI SLI board. I've been hearing SO many people with problems with DFI, more than the ASUS when it first came out. I have finally convinced my dad to let me build a computer, and since I have convinced him, I want to make sure that it will more than likely work the first time I put it together. I will be ordering in a week. What should I do?

I would suggest going with the Gigabyte board if you're looking for something that will work for sure the first time as I've heard they are pretty reliable and easy to set up. But if you're set on Asus or DFI then I don't know what to suggest. I've got the DFI and only had one problem with the eztouch switch as mentioned above. I haven't heard enough either good or bad about the Asus to decide. I guess just do some research and pick your poison.

 

[Bonesdad]

Myself, Assassin, Tyson95 and Tobin all have the same damage...those of you getting new boards, look carefully before you start building...This is not a problem with the board per se, just a problem in packaging it for sale.

Add one more..."pablo" on DFI-Street.com A64 forum. 5 in one day.

 

[Waylay00]

I don't think I will be getting this board for my first build...

 

[Chink]

I just installed mine. Using the 380S with Sonata. No stabilities issues at all so far, did a 32M Superpi, pass. 3000+ winnie. I'm pretty satisified for the moment. I'll see how my PSU holds up with OCing. '05 week two.... hmmm

 

[TheInvincibleMustard]

Updated the first post with a few more reviews (HardOCP and NeoSeeker) and updated the price/stock listings as well. Clarified a few points about RAM.

I finally ordered mine for my fiancee's new computer, got it all hooked up working fine (Corsair Value Select PC3200 2x512MB worked fine out-of-the-box on defaults) but the brand-new Ultra X-Connect PSU died. Thankfully it didn't take anything else out with it. As it'll be a few days for a replacement to come, I can kinda answer questions about it, but don't expect to get much out of me (only had time for about 14 hours of Prime95 before the PSU died ... replacing it with a TTGI/SuperFlower Plug-N from NewEgg).

Her Specs:
DFI nF4 LanParty UT Ultra-D
AMD Athlon64 3000+
Swiftech MCX64+ Heatsink
2x512MB Corsair Value Select PC3200
XFX GeForce6 6600GT 128MB PCIe
temp Maxtor HDD until her Seagate 7200.8 comes in
temp CDROM until her NEC 3520A comes in
Lian-Li PC60 case
TTGI/SuperFlower Plug-N PSU when it arrives from NewEgg

 

[REMF]

hardocp are not very impressed with the stability of the DFI as compared to the Asus and MSI nForce4 boards............

are they likely to get more stable with future revisons/BIOS's?

 

[essential]

My Ultra-D comes in on Monday, and I'm going to be installing XP on a Raptor. I got the Raptor in the mail today, OEM, so I have no idea about these jumpers. Do you need to change jumpers on a SATA drive since there is no master/slave? Should I just leave the jumper where it is, or does it make a difference?

 

[slash196]

Got mine, been tweaking for a couple days. Finally, memtest stable (26 passes) and Prime95 stable (2 hours) @ 2.7 volts. Got the 1-25 bios. However, rig still having problems. If you think you can help me out, my topic is http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=32&threadid=1530051&enterthread=y

 

[Bonesdad]

Originally posted by: REMF
hardocp are not very impressed with the stability of the DFI as compared to the Asus and MSI nForce4 boards............

are they likely to get more stable with future revisons/BIOS's?

That's not precisely correct....quoted from the review:

[/quote]Overall, the DFI nF4 SLI-DR is a solid motherboard that is going to keep even the most hardcore gamers and hardware enthusiasts very happy. There is going to be a niche? contingent that needs a motherboard that is even more robust though. Once again we saw a DFI motherboard fail when it comes to long-term stress testing. By ?long-term,? we mean in excess of 24 hours. While most of the latest heavy hitters from the likes of ABIT, ASUS, and MSI will literally run error free for days under 100% load, that is not the experience we have had with DFI motherboards. While this seems to put a really bad spin on the DFI nF4 SLI-DR, in reality it does not at all. Our DFI nF4 SLI-DR would many times run 8 to 16 hours error-free under severe temperature conditions while pulling a heavy workload. Quite frankly I doubt that many end users would actually see any impact from this shortcoming, but still the DFI nF4 SLI-DR does not pass our normal testing. That said, when most motherboards fail under our stress testing, we usually see them fail in the first couple of hours if not minutes and this is of course unacceptable. While the DFI nF4 SLI-DR does not totally blow us away in the stability department, it certainly does not put in a bad showing. I think that the DFI nF4 SLI-DR is going to make just about any gamer or hardware enthusiast very happy.[/quote]

 

[CheesePoofs]

Originally posted by: Bonesdad

Originally posted by: CheesePoofs
My board, from monarch, had a fair amount of bent pins, but the eztouch switches work, and so do the pins now that I bent them back.

where were the bent pins on the motherboard? near the eztouch?

Yeah, they were the pins for the front panel connectors. Maybe some of the USB ones also, but I'm not positive on that.

Originally posted by: essential
When you guys ordered your boards from Monarch, were they combo's or just the board? I would assume with a combo a Monarch tech wouldn't ship out a board with bent pins, but who knows.

Mine was a combo. I can't refuse free games .

 

[CheesePoofs]

Originally posted by: Bonesdad

Originally posted by: essential
When you guys ordered your boards from Monarch, were they combo's or just the board? I would assume with a combo a Monarch tech wouldn't ship out a board with bent pins, but who knows.

I bought the combo, but asked them not to assemble, now I kinda wish i had asked them to

You got them to not assemble it???

I asked them repeatedly if there was any way I could get the combo without having them build it, but they all said no. How did you do it?

 

[Bonesdad]

I just sent an email asking them not to assemble/test, they wrote back with reply: Okey dokey. Wish I had had them do it now, I would be typing this on my new computer!! I can't help it though, the building is half the fun!

 

[CheesePoofs]

Originally posted by: Bonesdad
I just sent an email asking them not to assemble/test, they wrote back with reply: Okey dokey. Wish I had had them do it now, I would be typing this on my new computer!! I can't help it though, the building is half the fun!

You're lucky, this is what i got when I emailed them:

I understand that building the computer is fun, because I enjoy doing it
myself, but the only way that we offer the free software is by ordering
a combo. If you order a combo it will be assembled and pre-tested, (no
way around that).

 

[REMF]

Originally posted by: Bonesdad

Originally posted by: REMF
hardocp are not very impressed with the stability of the DFI as compared to the Asus and MSI nForce4 boards............

are they likely to get more stable with future revisons/BIOS's?

That's not precisely correct....quoted from the review:

Overall, the DFI nF4 SLI-DR is a solid motherboard that is going to keep even the most hardcore gamers and hardware enthusiasts very happy. There is going to be a niche? contingent that needs a motherboard that is even more robust though. Once again we saw a DFI motherboard fail when it comes to long-term stress testing. By ?long-term,? we mean in excess of 24 hours. While most of the latest heavy hitters from the likes of ABIT, ASUS, and MSI will literally run error free for days under 100% load, that is not the experience we have had with DFI motherboards. While this seems to put a really bad spin on the DFI nF4 SLI-DR, in reality it does not at all. Our DFI nF4 SLI-DR would many times run 8 to 16 hours error-free under severe temperature conditions while pulling a heavy workload. Quite frankly I doubt that many end users would actually see any impact from this shortcoming, but still the DFI nF4 SLI-DR does not pass our normal testing. That said, when most motherboards fail under our stress testing, we usually see them fail in the first couple of hours if not minutes and this is of course unacceptable. While the DFI nF4 SLI-DR does not totally blow us away in the stability department, it certainly does not put in a bad showing. I think that the DFI nF4 SLI-DR is going to make just about any gamer or hardware enthusiast very happy.[/quote][/quote]
fair enough, just pointing out that it is notably less stable than two premier competitors, and wondering if that is a correctable problem........?

 

[govern1]

As far as NCQ drives and this board goes, I switched from the A8N-SLI to the DFI in my sig. The A8N-SLI would sometimes not detect my Maxtor DM10, well the DFI SLI-DR didn't detect once when I cold-booted once. That was the final straw for me. I ordered the Seagate 200gig 7200.8 NCQ drive and have not had a single detection issue since. I say the heck with Maxtor, never again.

Shawn

 

[Tab]

I just got my setup finish....

HOLY CRAP THE SOUND QUALITY IS HORRID!

This is unbearable, my AC'97 on my Soltek FRN 75 L was much better...

Anyone having issuses?

 

[vanvock]

Originally posted by: essential
My Ultra-D comes in on Monday, and I'm going to be installing XP on a Raptor. I got the Raptor in the mail today, OEM, so I have no idea about these jumpers. Do you need to change jumpers on a SATA drive since there is no master/slave? Should I just leave the jumper where it is, or does it make a difference?

Just leave it like it is, it should be fine

 

[cronic]

I have an ASUS A8N-SLI Dlx currently. However I grew very tired of the "stuck at 235-240 with 1t" overclocking issue. So I preordered a DFI SLI-DR. It hopefully will be here after March 1st. My question is I want to be able to overclock the cpu to the max so should I order different memory. I have looked at the OCZ and can't decide weither to go with the highly accliamed PC3200 EL Platinum Rev 2 or the following:
OCZ Platinum Enhanced Latency Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-4200 - Retail


Model# OCZ5331024ELDCPE-K
Item # N82E16820227202
Specifications:
Manufacturer: OCZ
Speed: DDR533(PC4200)
Type: 184-Pin DDR SDRAM
Error Checking: Non-ECC
Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
Cas Latency: 2.5-3-3-8
Support Voltage: 2.75 V
Bandwidth: 4.2GB/s
Organization: two 64M x 64 -Bit
Special Features: EVP® (Extended Voltage Protection),

Also will this memory even work with this board?
I want to be able to take full advantage of the subzero cooling system that I have and want the fastest overclock possible.I guess a better way to put would be if cost is not an issue what is the absolut best memory for the fastest overclock possible? Any help or suggestions would be great. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[TheInvincibleMustard]

Updated the first post with a link to the thread about these boards arriving damaged due to (possibly) the placement of the Karajan module in the packaging.

Found the SLI-D for sale in North America -- Monarch has an ETA of March 2nd for it