The way I see it, if your completely in to benching and exotic cooling for extreme overclocking, go with the DFI.
After two months of researching my first build which is in my sig at the bottom, I can honestly say I'm happy with everything but my case. I considred DFI also, simply because of all the voltage options you have, it makes for the best overclocking possabilities. I went with the Asus, the biggest reason being is because of the way the spacing is between the two PCI-E slots. If you compare it all to the other boards you'll notice that it provides you with the most space between the two video cards. If you ever plan on using the SLi function of the board, you'll greatly appreciate this. The main thing that all Computer Buffs strive to do is get the best cooling. There is no doubt you'll get the best cooling for your SLI cards compared to the rest of the boards, it's spaced out perfectly. The layout of the motherboard is probably the best out there, everything is where its suppose to be.
In terms of overclocking, I got my 3700 San Diego running 24/7 at 2.8GHz. The board and the CPU will go higher, it's my memory that's holding me back. At 2.8GHz, it's prime95 stable for 12+ hours and I've played BF2 on it for 5 hours straight once with no hickups what so ever.
Like alot of people have said, the Asus A8N-SLi Premium can OC just as good as a DFI. Actually, let me rephrase that, it'll give you respectable Overclocks that is actually useful. Meaning you can run with the OC 24/7 without a problem. I'm sure you can probably OC with a DFI a little higher, but I can't say if people with that OC that high actually run their system with that OC every day all day.
If the memory your running doesn't require extremely high voltages to reach it's peak, meaning over 3.0V, then I don't think there's really any other advantage to the DFI.
In all honestly, I've read more people having problems with DFI than the Premium board.
Which ever way you choose, good luck.
After two months of researching my first build which is in my sig at the bottom, I can honestly say I'm happy with everything but my case. I considred DFI also, simply because of all the voltage options you have, it makes for the best overclocking possabilities. I went with the Asus, the biggest reason being is because of the way the spacing is between the two PCI-E slots. If you compare it all to the other boards you'll notice that it provides you with the most space between the two video cards. If you ever plan on using the SLi function of the board, you'll greatly appreciate this. The main thing that all Computer Buffs strive to do is get the best cooling. There is no doubt you'll get the best cooling for your SLI cards compared to the rest of the boards, it's spaced out perfectly. The layout of the motherboard is probably the best out there, everything is where its suppose to be.
In terms of overclocking, I got my 3700 San Diego running 24/7 at 2.8GHz. The board and the CPU will go higher, it's my memory that's holding me back. At 2.8GHz, it's prime95 stable for 12+ hours and I've played BF2 on it for 5 hours straight once with no hickups what so ever.
Like alot of people have said, the Asus A8N-SLi Premium can OC just as good as a DFI. Actually, let me rephrase that, it'll give you respectable Overclocks that is actually useful. Meaning you can run with the OC 24/7 without a problem. I'm sure you can probably OC with a DFI a little higher, but I can't say if people with that OC that high actually run their system with that OC every day all day.
If the memory your running doesn't require extremely high voltages to reach it's peak, meaning over 3.0V, then I don't think there's really any other advantage to the DFI.
In all honestly, I've read more people having problems with DFI than the Premium board.
Which ever way you choose, good luck.
