It's Arrived! The DFI LanPartyUT NF3-250GB

SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
edited November 2004 in Hardware
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2198

2 Words: Must Get.

:thumbsup: :wow: :thumbsup:
The DFI reached memory performance levels that no other board, AMD or Intel, has been able to reach. For the first time, we saw that DDR600 and above is possible. The performance at these kinds of memory overclocks is impressive, and we believe that the DFI is capable of squeezing whatever performance that you can get from your Socket 754 CPU and high-speed memory.

To put it simply, the DFI nF3 250Gb is the best overclocking Athlon 64 board that we have ever tested. The range of options in every area is superb, and no one will feel that they are left short with this DFI board. For best performance, you should use one DIMM, but performance with 2 DIMMs is also impressive, as the DFI is as good or better with 2 dimms than the best of the Athlon 64 boards that we have tested. If you plan to buy a Socket 754 Athlon 64 and overclock it, this is the board to buy.

If you want to go to Athlon 64, but the price scares you off, start with a DFI LANParty UT nF3 250Gb. Then add any Socket 754 chip that you can afford. We are confident that your end result will be the best performance possible with the chip and memory that you choose.

Comments

  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited September 2004
    Me wants one too but I hope that they have sorted out their quality problems & crappy official bios support issues.

    Better get saving I suppose.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    Dayamm :wow:

    I want :(
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    I have one coupled with a 3200 CH CG on it's way :)
    There is a 3700 CH CG in the same package as well, but it's not mine :(
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    Sounds great, but I wouldn't get one of them if they paid me to take it. DFI means the same thing as GARBAGE. They get their performance by doing thigs that are out of spec and not quite on the upNup.

    I used to have to argue with DFI about their out of spec designs when I was at Adaptec. Most of their boards were wrong in one place or another and we always got the calls cause the RAID controllers pushed the limit on the bus. THey were out of spec and wouldn't change it and we got the A** chewing. After the reponses I got from them - They could not give me a DFI board :rarr:
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited September 2004
    If they give you one I call dibs on it.:D
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    Like missileman, I can remember when DFI was one of the crappiest brands out there. Their super socket 7 boards were absolute garbage. I bought quite a few boards that ended up dying and taking out other pieces with them before I wrote them off into the "never again" category (A dubious distinction shared ONLY with IBM deathstar hard drives).

    I hope their new engineering staff (some dude from Abit), and some new QC fixed whatever issues they were having about 4-5 years ago.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    I also remember when no one would ever consider buying an AMD chip, or an nVidia video card, or an MSI board for overclocking, or...
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited September 2004
    Mackanz wrote:
    I have one coupled with a 3200 CH CG on it's way :)
    There is a 3700 CH CG in the same package as well, but it's not mine :(


    Mack, I'd really be interested to see what overclock you get as I too have a 3200 CH CG but at present it only has a mild overclock in my ass-us board.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    Do they call this a 'soft launch'?
    Pricewatch only has one source listed.
    This might force me into 64 at last.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    Thrax wrote:
    I also remember when no one would ever consider buying an AMD chip, or an nVidia video card, or an MSI board for overclocking, or...

    These words will come back to haunt you some day when you get caught buying an Intel CPU....
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited September 2004
    edcentric wrote:
    Do they call this a 'soft launch'?
    Pricewatch only has one source listed.
    This might force me into 64 at last.

    Very few made it to North America, and most of them were snatched up through pre-orders.

    NCIX.com has them on back-order until later this month for both Canada & the US.

    I know GameVE is carrying them (there's another store as well).

    I was told that local DFI distributors weren't getting them for another couple weeks. Hopefully then can hurry their asses up so I can actually build the new system I want!
  • croc_croc_ New
    edited September 2004
    SimGuy wrote:
    http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2198

    2 Words: Must Get.

    :thumbsup: :wow: :thumbsup:

    I had it on auto reply from zipzoomfly ever since I read that awhile back. I just got an email today, they are in stock $139. Too bad I'm broke now :(
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited October 2004
    It finally arrived. All i need now is the hammer. Supposed to arrive in a week.
  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited October 2004
    I just bought a DFI board last month. The onboard LAN (It's an nForce 2 Ultra based board) refuses to work, no matter what drivers I use, or how recent a Windows install. It gets detected by the drivers no problem, only it simply cannot sucsessfully regester an IP from the network. I've also read other people have been expirencing the same sort of behaviour with other on-board components as well.

    It will take a lot for me to get one of their boards again. Just as well though, because my NF7-S is still has no trouble beating A64 based machines.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2004
    The same network problem has bested my friend with an NF7-S and numerous people with 8RDA3+ boards.

    It's not DFI-specific.
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited October 2004
    TheSmJ wrote:
    I just bought a DFI board last month. The onboard LAN (It's an nForce 2 Ultra based board) refuses to work, no matter what drivers I use, or how recent a Windows install. It gets detected by the drivers no problem, only it simply cannot sucsessfully regester an IP from the network. I've also read other people have been expirencing the same sort of behaviour with other on-board components as well.

    It will take a lot for me to get one of their boards again. Just as well though, because my NF7-S is still has no trouble beating A64 based machines.
    That's a chipset bug, not DFI specific. Which connector is it? The 10/100 or the gigabit? I'm using that board as well, no problem at all. Disable the one that you don't use in bios if you haven't tried that. Try this, read the mac adress on the connector, and type it in the bios as it's set to auto by default.
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited October 2004
    Very Very nice
  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited October 2004
    Mackanz wrote:
    That's a chipset bug, not DFI specific. Which connector is it? The 10/100 or the gigabit? I'm using that board as well, no problem at all. Disable the one that you don't use in bios if you haven't tried that. Try this, read the mac adress on the connector, and type it in the bios as it's set to auto by default.


    It's an nForce2 board, not the one this thread is about.
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited October 2004
    TheSmJ wrote:
    It's an nForce2 board, not the one this thread is about.


    Its the N-Force 2 board Mack is refering too. On my LanParty Ultra B the gigabit lan doesn't work, it's very common as has been mentioned. Still sucks that it doesn't work though.
  • floppybootstompfloppybootstomp Greenwich New
    edited October 2004
    One sweet board, by the look of it, I'm tempted to go 64 Bit.

    Absolutely brilliant RAID options.

    I've never used a DFI board, so I found that article interesting.

    Shame about the LAN prob mentioned here though :(
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited October 2004
    Well, as far as i know, this 250GB UT board is more a tweaker board than a feature board. I plan to overclock the hell out of it and i have a far better pci nic (can't beat Intel on their NIC's) than the onboard.
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited October 2004
    After a couple of weks testing, my personal opinion is so-so. It performs awesome out of the box, and your systems is really flying. However, vcore stability over 1.75V on the cpu is a terrible when you clock the cpu as high as possible.

    The usual 2X512mb problems at high clocks is still there, as with every other board. The best i get with 2X512 stable is 260 ht 1:1 at 5,2,2,2 with BH5 or 5,2,2 cas 3 with OCZ EB memory. 1 stick of 256mb BH5 is another thing though, 270 at 5,2,2,2 isn't a problem if you give it enough juice.
    Not bad at all out of the box on air and everything. But i'm not putting the Prometeia on this board though. I probably get another 300 mhz extra, but as long as the vcore fluctuate above 1.75, i'm gonna hit a wall before the cpu tops out. I have a pair of 3700 Platinum Rev 2 from OCZ coming, and they are using the finest batch of TCCD chips on those, i'll see if i can get closer to 300 ht 1:1.

    But for a watercooled rig, or high end air, this must be the best board you can get on S754. The bios support is nice. The newest one have memtest built in into the bios so you won't have to boot from the cd or floppy. There's also a bios version that have up to 4V vdimm which is great for those who have BH5. Make sure your PSU's 3.3 line is at least .25V over the cdimm chosen as the vdimm feeds from the 3.3V line.
  • croc_croc_ New
    edited October 2004
    Mackanz wrote:
    After a couple of weks testing, my personal opinion is so-so. It performs awesome out of the box, and your systems is really flying. However, vcore stability over 1.75V on the cpu is a terrible when you clock the cpu as high as possible.

    The usual 2X512mb problems at high clocks is still there, as with every other board. The best i get with 2X512 stable is 260 ht 1:1 at 5,2,2,2 with BH5 or 5,2,2 cas 3 with OCZ EB memory. 1 stick of 256mb BH5 is another thing though, 270 at 5,2,2,2 isn't a problem if you give it enough juice.
    Not bad at all out of the box on air and everything. But i'm not putting the Prometeia on this board though. I probably get another 300 mhz extra, but as long as the vcore fluctuate above 1.75, i'm gonna hit a wall before the cpu tops out. I have a pair of 3700 Platinum Rev 2 from OCZ coming, and they are using the finest batch of TCCD chips on those, i'll see if i can get closer to 300 ht 1:1.

    But for a watercooled rig, or high end air, this must be the best board you can get on S754. The bios support is nice. The newest one have memtest built in into the bios so you won't have to boot from the cd or floppy. There's also a bios version that have up to 4V vdimm which is great for those who have BH5. Make sure your PSU's 3.3 line is at least .25V over the cdimm chosen as the vdimm feeds from the 3.3V line.

    Sweet!! Good info. Memtest built in? Thats pretty spiffy.
  • jchanbrjchanbr Brazil - São Paulo
    edited November 2004
    Waiting a little and buy this one instead ;)

    DFI Lan Party SLI-D socket 939 NF4

    008.JPG

    []'s
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited November 2004
    8 SATA Ports - Fantastic! Going to cost ~$200 bucks though
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    You need a hell of a 12V rail to use all 8 ports, 5-6 fans and a couple of atapi's though. I think many will have to upgrade their psu pretty soon.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited November 2004
    If they have that many HDDs and fans I think they could afford a nice PSU.:)
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited November 2004
    Mackanz wrote:
    You need a hell of a 12V rail to use all 8 ports, 5-6 fans and a couple of atapi's though. I think many will have to upgrade their psu pretty soon.

    I created a Dual ATX power cable so that 2 PSUs both power up at the same time. The main 600wPSU powers th Mobo, CPU & Video, while the 2nd PSU powers all of the drives.

    Dual ATX PSU Mod
  • croc_croc_ New
    edited November 2004
    Mackanz wrote:
    After a couple of weks testing, my personal opinion is so-so. It performs awesome out of the box, and your systems is really flying. However, vcore stability over 1.75V on the cpu is a terrible when you clock the cpu as high as possible.

    The usual 2X512mb problems at high clocks is still there, as with every other board. The best i get with 2X512 stable is 260 ht 1:1 at 5,2,2,2 with BH5 or 5,2,2 cas 3 with OCZ EB memory. 1 stick of 256mb BH5 is another thing though, 270 at 5,2,2,2 isn't a problem if you give it enough juice.
    Not bad at all out of the box on air and everything. But i'm not putting the Prometeia on this board though. I probably get another 300 mhz extra, but as long as the vcore fluctuate above 1.75, i'm gonna hit a wall before the cpu tops out. I have a pair of 3700 Platinum Rev 2 from OCZ coming, and they are using the finest batch of TCCD chips on those, i'll see if i can get closer to 300 ht 1:1.

    But for a watercooled rig, or high end air, this must be the best board you can get on S754. The bios support is nice. The newest one have memtest built in into the bios so you won't have to boot from the cd or floppy. There's also a bios version that have up to 4V vdimm which is great for those who have BH5. Make sure your PSU's 3.3 line is at least .25V over the cdimm chosen as the vdimm feeds from the 3.3V line.

    I'm thinking about purchasing this board and an A64 3400+. Would you recommend the 3400+ clawhammer(2.2ghz 1MB cache mobile) or the newcastle(2.4ghz 512K cache desktop) for the better o/c? I have BH5, plan to mod my psu's (trueblue 480) 3.3v line and have great air cooling. I just need to know which cpu to get. :)
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    I know you didn't ask me, but I would wait for the nForce4 and buy a 90nm Winchester 3000+.

    It's pretty much silly at this point to buy 754 and an nForce3.
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