Asus vs DFI

[saurongt]

Well, trying to chose a mobo for a amd64 3200+, essentially came down to ASUS A8N5X ATX and DFI Ultra-D, links follow. No, i don't really care about firewire, and yes, i would like to overclock some. Also, reliability is an important factor. Thanks.

[dog2525]

the dfi has the best overclocking junk in it so far. but you will need at least 480 watts with good rails and nice memory. OCZ works the best

[saurongt]

I was thinking of this supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931
Will that be good for the boards, even with overclocking?

Also, I've heard some things about this DFI card needing some bios flashing for stable operation after oc'ing. Is that a big challenge?

[chris000001]

that bios flashing is probably for it to work with corsair ram...dfi and corsair didnt get along very well untill a recent bios update

but other than that i dont think dfi needs a bios flash for OC'ing considering thats what the lanparty series excells at

[saurongt]

Well, I'm probably going to use ocz anyway.
Here's the link for the board, btw:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152

Also, will it support sli (having 2 pci-x 16x slots)? There is another more expensive DFI that looks the same, but has 'sli-D' in its name, instead of "ultra-d". Specs look exactly the same, except the sli one has raid 0+1, but no integrated audio. So does SLI work on any board with enough pci-x slots, or does it require a special one?

[The Element Master]

I thinking the second board is the SLI version of the nforce 4 chipset

[The Element Master]

FYI the SLI-DR is $40 more than the UT version.

[Ominous Gamer]

Well, I'm probably going to use ocz anyway.
Here's the link for the board, btw:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152

Also, will it support sli (having 2 pci-x 16x slots)? There is another more expensive DFI that looks the same, but has 'sli-D' in its name, instead of "ultra-d". Specs look exactly the same, except the sli one has raid 0+1, but no integrated audio. So does SLI work on any board with enough pci-x slots, or does it require a special one?


That Ultra-D motherboard is not an SLi certified board, you however can hack it into an SLi board.

Google it.

sig

Just so you know,that PC3200 stick is running at PC2700;)

[dog2525]

the ulta D is the same exact motherboard as the Sli-d. the only diffrence is that the ulta is sli disabled and comes with no sli bridge.
all the info that you need is here.http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/index.php?s=
and if you want to mod the ulta to the SLi this procces is easy.http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10736

[saurongt]

Thanks, that helps a ton.

[AKHandyman]

I was thinking of this supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931

The Antec brand of their True Power series is an excellent choice for power supplies ... can you get that with their True Control voltage control?
Edit: yup ... they have it ... get this one ... at NewEgg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103933)

[BAM!]

i've tried both before. i had the A7N8X back in the Nforce 2 days. and was very happy with it. and now i have the DFI ultra-D board. sure it has the most comprehensive overclocking option of all but it too means that the user needs a certain level of knowledge and expreience to play with it. i definintely wouldn't recommand the DFI to any novice or moderate overclocker. because he or she will most likey end up in frustration just to get it to setup and run correctly. the choice is yours. if you get the DFI, you'll most likely end up with a slightly higher overcloking result with days and weeks of tweaking and flashing bios and testing and testing and some more testing. asus might make your life a lot easier with reasonable overclocking result.

[stlouis1]

asus has always made the most reliable boards from my experience, i till have a socket 7 asus board thats still running solid. i even bridge connections on the board where there could have been jumpers to overclock it. and again, still going strong. im buying an asus a8n sli premium soon since im upgrading. had anough problems with my msi. i ordered a dfi once and it stayed on backorder for weeks so i cancelled it. my abit board was great, i liked it, but im sticking to what i kno this time

[saurongt]

The Antec brand of their True Power series is an excellent choice for power supplies ... can you get that with their True Control voltage control?
Edit: yup ... they have it ... get this one ... at NewEgg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103933)

Bought the first one already. People have had some issues with the true control one, i hope the one i ordered turns out alive and reliable.:)

[studbolt]

asus has always made the most reliable boards from my experience, i till have a socket 7 asus board thats still running solid. i even bridge connections on the board where there could have been jumpers to overclock it. and again, still going strong. im buying an asus a8n sli premium soon since im upgrading. had anough problems with my msi. i ordered a dfi once and it stayed on backorder for weeks so i cancelled it. my abit board was great, i liked it, but im sticking to what i kno this time



Amen brother.
After my last upgrade i used asus. From the time i opened the case to the time i had the new asus motherboard posting was a hour and a half. And that includes mounting the cpu,fan,memory and removing the old mobo.

All in all flawless.

Warrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Asus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!