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

[ACE76]

Zipzoomfly has the SLI-Dr back in stock if anyone is interested...I got the e-mail notification and just ordered one.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=246485#Disclaimer

 

[thanatos355]

it's in stock @ the egg now too! $225!!

 

[TheInvincibleMustard]

Just updated the first post with a few more reviews I found around the web.

 

[cronic]

THANKS FOR THE IN STOCK STATUS GUYS. I HAD ONE ON PRE ORDER WITH MONARCH AND THE PUSHED THE ETA BACK TO THE 7TH. CANCELED THAT ORDER AND ORDERED ONE FROM ZIPZOOMFLY. HOPFULLY WILLL BE HERE ON THURS. THANKS AGAIN GUYS

 

[imported_Assassin]

I just saw the "in-stock" notice in my e-mail and ordered from newegg..... $229 shipped...... I've already got the Ultra-D, but I only because I didn't think I would be able to order one when they did come back in stock. Figured they would sell out too quick. Oh well, guess I'll just RMA it because of the broken EZ Touch switch.

 

[Rustler]

Got the CPU today and installed the board on my mobo tray, set the HSF in place and installed one stick of memory and the video card. Fired it up with my 20 pin PSU and got right into the bios. Looks good now all I need is my new PSU and I can put this puppy together.

 

[CJ4]

Originally posted by: doc007

Originally posted by: thanatos355

Originally posted by: doc007
Anyone using the nTune software? I can't get some of the adjustments to actually set.

it only stays at those settings till you reboot. then they reset.

I've tried runing the auto tune for quiet and it seems to just keep running and running. (for well over 20 minutes) and trying the system performance it locked up near the end. Can you acutally get it to auto tune?

I didn't have any problem with autotune, though it didn't seem to really increase anything.

CJ

 

[johncatral]

Quick Question about PSU and the DFU Ultra-D.

I have the Thermaltake PurePower 480w PSU which has the 20 pin power connector. I see that some people just plug in the 20pin without using the 24pin adapter. What's the better and safer way to do it?? Use the adapter or just use the 20 pin connector? I just bought this PSU and I can just return it for the TTGI PLUG-N Power 550W Modular Power Supply or the OCZ ModStream 520W Power Supply. What do you guys think about the TTGI? Why is it much more cheaper than the antec and the OCZ? Name brand? Reliability? Quality PArts?

BTW, I don't plan to OC the computer YET... So a stock setup is fine for now.

Thanks!

- John

 

[Mykl]

First post...

I used the DFI nF4 Ultra-D for my first PC build. After reading this entire thread I'm left with the impression that I'm one of the few people who managed to have no initial stability issues or physical damage to the motherboard upon delivery. Booted, posted, and loaded XP (from previous box) faster than I could smack the keyboard to get into BIOS. I was impressed.

My system has been rock solid on stock settings for two weeks now. System temp at idle stays at about 38C and CPU temp at idle is about 30C.

The only problem I had was with the onboard ethernet settings. I guess the cable modem Charter gave me is a little picky, after a weekend of frustration and I figured out that I needed to set the speed/duplex settings to 'force 100 half duplex' instead of 'full autonegotiation.' Probably a rookie mistake... but I'm a rookie so it's ok.

System specs...

Case: Antec Sonata (stock 380 watt PSU)
MB: DFI nF4 U-D
Mem: 2x 512 Buffalo B-Line
VC: eVGA 6600GT
HD: 1x 40 gig WD 7200RPM ATA100, 1x 80 gig WD 7200RPM ATA100

I know that some of my components are less than top grade, but I'm on a budget and they can be upgraded later. I'm still on IDE drives because that's what I had in my old rig. I kinda wanted to experiment with OCing, but after reading this thread it seems that I need to upgrade my PSU first.

 

[TheInvincibleMustard]

TTGI (AKA SuperFlower AKA Athena AKA Link Depot) is a solid manufacturer of quality inexpensive powersupplies. If I needed to rate powersupplies based off of quality, it'd go something like this:

PC Power & Cooling Specifications (they don't make their own anymore, AFAIK, do they?)
OCZ Specifications (made by Topower)
Antec / TTGI (yes, I rate them this close together)

The 14cm TTGI Plug-N 550W is the one in my fiancee's computer with this board and a 6600GT right now. Though we haven't done any overclocking on it, it's rock solid.


I'll update all of the stock listings and prices on the original thread later tonight. Anyone seen these for sale elsewhere?

 

[thanatos355]

i'm running this power supply with my setup. i love it. the pics do NOT do it justice! i would say it looks like chrome, but i've never seen chrome this smooth or reflective!

 

[mooncancook]

Originally posted by: TheInvincibleMustard
TTGI (AKA SuperFlower AKA Athena AKA Link Depot) is a solid manufacturer of quality inexpensive powersupplies. If I needed to rate powersupplies based off of quality, it'd go something like this:

PC Power & Cooling Specifications (they don't make their own anymore, AFAIK, do they?)
OCZ Specifications (made by Topower)
Antec / TTGI (yes, I rate them this close together)

The 14cm TTGI Plug-N 550W is the one in my fiancee's computer with this board and a 6600GT right now. Though we haven't done any overclocking on it, it's rock solid.


I'll update all of the stock listings and prices on the original thread later tonight. Anyone seen these for sale elsewhere?

That is good to hear coz I just ordered the exact same PSU to replace my 20pin Aspire. I hope I'll be able to get some decent OC result with it.

 

[rpgfan]

Originally posted by: johncatral
Quick Question about PSU and the DFU Ultra-D.

I have the Thermaltake PurePower 480w PSU which has the 20 pin power connector. I see that some people just plug in the 20pin without using the 24pin adapter. What's the better and safer way to do it?? Use the adapter or just use the 20 pin connector? I just bought this PSU and I can just return it for the TTGI PLUG-N Power 550W Modular Power Supply or the OCZ ModStream 520W Power Supply. What do you guys think about the TTGI? Why is it much more cheaper than the antec and the OCZ? Name brand? Reliability? Quality PArts?

BTW, I don't plan to OC the computer YET... So a stock setup is fine for now.

Thanks!

- John

My Sparkle 400w 20 pin PSU works fine with nf4 ultra-D. You can only plug 20 pin to 24 pin hole in one position, so you will find it how. My rig has 2 optical drive , one 180gb HD, radeon x800 XL and 1g Kingston hyperX. The system runs so far so good.

 

[slash196]

Okay, I have a problem, but it's not the ram. I ran memtest for 40 HOURS, no errors. So i think Hey, the voltage bump solved my problem! So I start it up, put prime on Blend, and get a BSOD 5 minutes later. However, I ran the first test for overnight, no errors. I'm running the second test through school today. If that works, then I'm stumped. BTW, voltage is at 2.9.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

If you've run Memtest and found no errors in ram, I wouldn't run Blend in Prime. Do Small FFTs instead to stress mainly the CPU.

What are your complete settings?:

LDT
FSB
Ram timings
Ratios
etc
etc

 

[edjacobson]

I used the DFI nF4 Ultra-D for my first PC build. After reading this entire thread I'm left with the impression that I'm one of the few people who managed to have no initial stability issues or physical damage to the motherboard upon delivery. Booted, posted, and loaded XP (from previous box) faster than I could smack the keyboard to get into BIOS. I was impressed.

Mykl, that is good news. I am about to embark on my first build tonight. Parts are in my signature.

1. Did you put two sticks of RAM in at initial boot up, or did you start with 1 stick in Slot 2?

2. Are you using the stock BIOS or did you load a newer version?

3. Which ethernet port are you using? Does it matter?

4. Any tips or suggestions?

 

[CheesePoofs]

I'm having this issue where every few boots the loading bar will go about half way, stop, go some more, stop, and keep doing this. It takes forever to boot when this happens, so I just restart and it goes away. Is there any way to fix it?

 

[jabronidan89]

Cheesepoofs, unplug all your USB devices, then try.

 

[Mykl]

Originally posted by: edjacobson

I used the DFI nF4 Ultra-D for my first PC build. After reading this entire thread I'm left with the impression that I'm one of the few people who managed to have no initial stability issues or physical damage to the motherboard upon delivery. Booted, posted, and loaded XP (from previous box) faster than I could smack the keyboard to get into BIOS. I was impressed.

Mykl, that is good news. I am about to embark on my first build tonight. Parts are in my signature.

1. Did you put two sticks of RAM in at initial boot up, or did you start with 1 stick in Slot 2?

2. Are you using the stock BIOS or did you load a newer version?

3. Which ethernet port are you using? Does it matter?

4. Any tips or suggestions?

I installed both sticks, one in slot 4 and the other in slot 2. No errors shown after 12 hours on Memtest. CPU-Z reports that memory is running in dual channel mode.

I was running stock BIOS with no issues. In the process of tracking down the source of my network connection issues I updated to 2/17, still solid... no problems.

I'm using the onboard nForce networking controller with the Marvell controller disabled. FYI, the nForce controller is the one closer to your audio ports.

If I remember correctly I didn't need to make any jumper adjustments to the board. Everything was good to go out of the box. Overall, aside from the ethernet "issue" I had everything went very smoothly for me. The only tip I can give you is that if you're using a 20 pin power supply to be extremely careful to ensure sure that it's attached correctly. Aside from that, this whole thing has been a plug and play affair for me.

Good luck!

 

[CheesePoofs]

Originally posted by: jabronidan89
Cheesepoofs, unplug all your USB devices, then try.

How would that help? All I currently have plugged into the USB is my keyboard and mouse, and a joystick that isn't plugged in, so its taking no power off of the USB port.

 

[thanatos355]

what bios are you guys running? i'm using the 1/25 revision and i'm having the same 'pci lock' issue that *cant remember who* is having. it's like the pci auto-lock isnt working. so, what version are you using?


edit: is that the version that came on the board, or a beta you flashed yourself?

 

[darkswordsman17]

Yeah, I haven't had any problems with mine either.

I've decided to go ahead and get the SLI-DR board now, as I'm really wanting the extra SATA ports and the SLI bridge (and like the other stuff that comes with it).

 

[thanatos355]

update: i flashed to the 2/01 beta bios, the one used in the anandtech review, and my pci auto-lock prob is fixed. running at 220 (1980mhz on the cpu) right now.

 

[skgarach]

need some help please.

I just installed my new nforce4 ultra and i'm not getting any sound. The drivers are installed and everything shows up fine in device manager. I'm just not getting any sound. The 3.5mm jack is plugged into the correct output (top middle) and there's no audio whatsoever. Anyone experience anything similar or offer any advice? Thanks.

EDIT: I'm referring to the onboard sound.

 

[imported_doc007]

Did you mess with or take off the jumpers on the Karajan audio modual?