W1zzard
07-04-2005, 03:04 PM
[pagE=Introduction & Features]
Introduction
DFI has always been a company for the enthusiasts, their products are definitely targeted to that user group.
Their "LanParty" series are engineered to be an overclocker's dream.
When I saw the need to get a review platform for AMD Socket939, I asked a few people which board could be recommended. Most people said "get the DFI LanParty".
Since I'm not really into SLI I opted to save a few bucks and buy the DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D. This is the smaller brother of the SLI version. Technically the two boards are identical, except that the Ultra-D uses NVIDIA's nForce4 Ultra, instead of the SLI version.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/nf4.jpg
The nForce4 is NVIDIA's latest chipset for the AMD64 platform. After the enormous sucess of the previous nForce chipsets the expectations were high, but NVIDIA was able to deliver another great chipset. It boasts with features like integrated Gigabit Ethernet and SATA-II support for a theoretical 300 MB/s HDD transfer rate. RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1 are possible as well.
What I learned after I got this board, is that it can be modded to SLI by a simple chipset mod (article here (http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/AMD/120)).
Unfortunately DFI does not include an SLI bridge with the Ultra-D, so in order to be able to actually use SLI you will have to get a bridge somehow.
Features
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="resulttable">
<tr>
<th colspan="2">DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Processor</th>
<td>AMD Athlon64 / FX Socket 939</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>FSB</th>
<td>2000 MT/s HTT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Chipset</th>
<td>NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory</th>
<td>4x 184 Pin DDR, Dual Channel DDR 200/333/400, up to 4 GB </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>BIOS</th>
<td>AwardBios</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Slots</th>
<td>2x PCI-E x16<br />
1x PCI-E x1<br />
1x PCI-E x4<br />
2x PCI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>HDD Connectivity</th>
<td>2x ATA-133<br />
4x SATA-II</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Networking</th>
<td>10/100/1000 Mbps - NVIDIA nForce4<br />
10/100/1000 Mbps - Marvell 88E8001</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Ports</th>
<td>10x USB 2.0 (6 on Back Panel)<br />
1x Serial header on-board<br />
2x IEEE1394 (1 on Back Panel)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Audio</th>
<td>8 Channel Realtek ALC850 Audio, <br />
S/PDIF in/out</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Form Factor</th>
<td>ATX 293 x 305mm</td>
</tr>
</table>
Specifications from DFI
CPU
AMD Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 / Sempron
Socket 939
Chipset
NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra
Front Side Bus
2000MT/s HyperTransport interface
Memory
Four 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets
Supports dual channel (128-bit wide) memory interface
Supports up to 4GB system memory
Supports DDR266, DDR333 and DDR400 DDR SDRAM DIMM
BIOS
Award BIOS
CMOS Reloaded
CPU/DRAM overclocking
CPU/DRAM/Chipset overvoltage
4Mbit flash memory
Power Management
Supports ACPI STR (Suspend to RAM) function
Wake-On-Events include:
- Wake-On-PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse
- Wake-On-USB Keyboard/Mouse
- Wake-On-LAN
- RTC timer to power-on the system
AC power failure recovery
Hardware Monitor
Monitors CPU/system/chipset temperature
Monitors 12V/5V/3.3V/Vcore/Vbat/5Vsb/Vchipset/Vdram voltages
Monitors the speed of the CPU fan, Fan 2 and chipset fan
CPU Overheat Protection function monitors CPU temperature during system boot-up
Audio
Karajan audio module
- Realtek ALC850 8-channel audio CODEC
- 6 audio jacks
- 1 CD-in connector
- 1 front audio connector
S/PDIF-in/out interface
LAN
Dual Gigabit LAN - Vitesse VSC8201 Gigabit Phy and Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit PCI
Fully compliant to IEEE 802.3 (10BASE-T), 802.3u (100BASE-TX) and 802.3ab (1000BASE-T) standards
IDE
Two IDE connectors that allows connecting up to four UltraDMA 133Mbps hard drives
NVIDIA RAID allows RAID arrays spanning across Serial ATA and Parallel ATA
RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1
Serial ATA with RAID
Four Serial ATA II ports
SATA speed up to 3Gb/s
RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1
NVIDIA RAID allows RAID arrays spanning across Serial ATA and Parallel ATA
IEEE 1394
VIA VT6307
Supports two 100/200/400 Mb/sec ports
Rear Panel I/O Ports
1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port
1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port
2 S/PDIF RCA jacks (S/PDIF-in and S/PDIF-out)
Karajan audio module (6 audio jacks)
1 IEEE 1394 port
2 RJ45 LAN ports
6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports
I/O Connectors
2 connectors for 4 additional external USB 2.0/1.1 ports
1 connector for 1 external IEEE 1394 port
1 connector for 1 external serial port
1 front audio connector for external line-out and mic-in jacks (on the Karajan audio module)
1 CD-in internal audio connector (on the Karajan audio module)
1 S/PDIF connector for optical cable connection
1 IR connector
4 Serial ATA connectors
2 IDE connectors
1 floppy connector
1 24-pin ATX power connector
1 4-pin ATX 12V power connector
2 4-pin 5V/12V power connectors (FDD-type and HDD type)
1 front panel connector
5 fan connectors
4 diagnostic LEDs
EZ touch switches (power switch and reset switch)
Expansion Slots
2 PCI Express x16 slots
1 PCI Express x1 slot
1 PCI Express x4 slot
2 PCI slots
PCB
ATX form factor
24cm (9.45") x 30.5cm (12")
[pagE=Packaging]
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package1.jpg)
The motherboard comes in the typical DFI LanParty anime style package.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package2.jpg)
On the backside there is a picture of the board with the usual product information.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package4.jpg)
When you open the package, you find the accessories in two "sections" of the package. This helps keep it a bit cleaner.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package5.jpg)
Under the cables and manuals you find the motherboard safely wrapped into an anti-static bag.
Contents
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/contents.jpg)
You will receive:
Motherboard
Users Manual, DIY Installation Guide, Addendum
2x IDE Cable, 1x Floppy Cable, 2x SATA Cable, 1x SATA Power Adapter
IO Shield
Driver CD, SATA Driver Floppy
Two bags with jumpers
Jumper Puller
Karajan 8 channel audio module
[pagE=Board Layout]
Board Layout
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/board_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/board.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/back_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/back.jpg)
Click here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/board_fullsize.jpg) for a 3000x2500 high-res shot of the board (3 MB download), the backside is here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/back_fullsize.jpg).
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/cpuarea_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/cpuarea.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/mosfet_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/mosfet.jpg)
There is plenty of space around the CPU area. All MOSFETs have heatsinks on them to reduce thermal stress.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/io_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/io.jpg)
PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse, SPDIF, Audio, Dual Gigabit Ethernet, six USB Ports. On the backside panel the most important connectors are included. The layout does not really follow the ATX specification, except for the PS/2 ports and the networking. But since an IO shield is included this is no big issue.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/dimm_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/dimm.jpg)
The motherboard's memory slots have been color coded for easy dual-channel configuration. To run your memory in dual-channel mode you have to put the modules into slots of the same color.
Connectors
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/atx_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/atx.jpg)
Both the 24-pin ATX power connector and the ATX12V connector are placed in the best possible location I could imagine. Great work on this, DFI.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/extrapwr_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/extrapwr.jpg)
If you think your board needs more juice, DFI has added a 3.5" Floppy and a 5.25" Power connector the board. These supply additional power to the motherboard and help reduce the stress on the regular ATX power cables. Electrically, the 12V of ATX Power, ATX12V, 5.25" and 3.5" are connected together, same for the 5V line.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/ata_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/ata.jpg)
You will find two parallel ATA ports on this motherboard, for a total of four IDE devices. Both ports are provided by the nForce4 chipset and are spec'd to run at up to 133 MB/s.
While SATA-II is not much of a performance improvement, having four 300 MB/s capable ports is definitely a nice thing. The 90° angled connector is for the floppy, if you are one of the last people on this planet to use them. The HDDs can also be run in RAID 0, RAID 1 or RAID 0+1.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/headers_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/headers.jpg)
Some manufacturers color-code the Reset/Power/LED connectors, so it is easier to spot which pins belong together. DFI does not do this, but the pins are clearly labelled.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/jumpers_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/jumpers.jpg)
DFI has added a load of jumpers all over the board. While the other ones deal with SPDIF and USB power, these three are certainly more interesting.
From left to right:
Safe Boot: In case you are unable to start your system during your overclocking adventures, you switch this jumper to the 2-3 position when the system is powered down, wait a few seconds then switch it back to 1-2. Now all overclocking settings are reset, while the other CMOS settings are saved.
Speaker On/Off: Having a PC speaker onboard is crucial when it comes to detecting bootup problems. For day to day usage it might be annoying. switching this jumper into position 1-2 disables the onboard speaker. This is the default position. In my opinion it would have made more sense to enable it by default, since during the first install, there could be some problems.
Clear CMOS: When this jumper is set to 2-3 it will clear all contents of the CMOS. This is useful when the system does not boot or after upgrading your BIOS.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/dimm4v_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/dimm4v.jpg)
Another useful jumper is this block. In the default position, the memory voltage is generated from the 3.3V supply. In case you want to run your memory at a higher voltage you switch this jumper to position 2-3 and the range of possible DDR voltages is increased up to 4.0V. The heatsink you see on the picture, is cooling the DDR Voltage MOSFET, on the 4V setting it tends to get very hot. If you don't need more than 3.3V on your memory, better go with the 3.3V setting where you won't have to worry about MOSFET heat.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/ezswitch_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/ezswitch.jpg)
One of the most wanted features by overclockers are those little push buttons. One button is for power, the other one for reset. For quick builds this saves you from connecting switches to the headers, or using screwdriver to turn on the system. I like the buttons DFI used a lot, they are big and have a clearly defined switch-point.
[page=Layout continued]
Slots
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/slots_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/slots.jpg)
Even more jumpers. Traditionally, SLI has been switched by the use of a little switch card. DFI uses a big block of jumpers here. In the package of the motherboard you will find a jumper pulling tool which helps getting these big blocks out.
The placement of the PCI-E x1 slots is very convenient, it allows use of one slot, even when the system is running with two SLI cards.
Cooling
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/chipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/chipset.jpg)
The northbridge cooler is small and not located very well. If you install two video cards, there is not much airflow left, since the VGA cards are right above it. While the cooler is not the quietest, its fan noise is not annoying at all.
Chips
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/it8712f_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/it8712f.jpg)
ITE's 8712F is monitoring temperature, fan speed and voltages.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/lan1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/lan1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/lan2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/lan2.jpg)
The Vitesse CIS8201 LAN Controller is used to implement Gigabit Ethernet via NVIDIA's nForce4 chipset. A Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet controller is used for the second Gigabit Ethernet port.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/ieee1394_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/ieee1394.jpg)
Firewire (IEEE1394) comes from VIA. Their VT6307 chip is used.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/audio1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/audio1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/audio2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/audio2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/audio3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/audio3.jpg)
For audio, DFI has thought of another interesting solution. All audio related circuitry is on a little PCB, which is plugged into the motherboard. Realtek's ALC850 8-channel sound chip is used there. If you don't need sound - don't plug the card in. According to DFI, the reason for an extra card is "to isolate the audio analog ground from digital ground eliminating noise signal and producing crystal sound output". Well, they probably mean crystal clear. I don't see a reason why this could not be done via regular circuitry, but still, it's a nice addon.
[pagE=BIOS]
BIOS
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_bios_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_bios.jpg)
DFI uses an Award WorkstationBios which is heavily customized. I am missing a feature to load a fail-safe configuration on the main page.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_standard_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_standard.jpg)
On the Standard CMOS page you can change date/time, configure your harddisks and floppies.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_advbios_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_advbios.jpg)
Advanced Bios lets you change the order in which drives are tried at bootup, keyboard settings and also disable the full screen logo if you want to see what's going on during POST.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_advchipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_advchipset.jpg)
Under Advanced Chipset you find options to enable certain chipset features. Spread spectrum is a feature to reduce EMI interference on the clock signals. When enabled, it varies the actual clock very slightly and so distributes the actual EMI energy on a broader frequency range. Sometimes it makes your overclock more stable, sometimes it does not.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_peripherals_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_peripherals.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_ide_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_ide.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_raid_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_raid.jpg)
On this page you can change several USB settings, enable/disable certain devices like floppy, onboard audio and serial port. The subpage IDE Function setup lets you tweak your IDE controller. If you want to use the integrated RAID controller of the nForce4 chipset you can enable it on the RAID Config page.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_power.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_pnp_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_pnp.jpg)
Nothing special is to be found under Power Management and PnP/PCI Configurations.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_monitoring_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_monitoring.jpg)
The Hardware Monitoring page shows the essential temperatures, fan speeds and voltages. Also you can define temperatures at which the fan outputs are completely off or running at maximum.
Memory Timings
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram2.jpg)
Memory timings and related options can be configured under Genie BIOS Setting, DRAM Configuration. DFI has done a great job here, every memory related timing, no matter how unimportant it might seem to the average user is changeable here.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram.jpg)
DRAM Frequency Set lets you change the divider your memory is running at. The options are very complete and range from 1:2 up to 1:1. Options to run your memory higher than your FSB are not available here, they do not work in all systems anyways.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_cas_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_cas.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_tras_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_tras.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_trcd_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_trcd.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_trp_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_trp.jpg)
You can change the major timings CAS Latency (tCL), Active-to-Precharge Delay (tRAS), Rad-to-Cas Delay (tRCD), and RAS Precharge Time (tRP). Additional timings you can change are CPC, tRFC, tRRD, tWR, tWTR, tRWT, tREF, tWCL. There are even more options, it is probably best if you take a look at the pictures.
[pagE=BIOS Overclocking]
BIOS Overclocking
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_oc1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_oc1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_oc2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_oc2.jpg)
The Genie BIOS Settings page is home to all frequency and voltage tweaking settings, and there are a lot of them.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_fsb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_fsb.jpg)
The FSB is selectable between 200 and 450 MHz. 450 might sound like a lot, but there are people who can actually run that fast. In our testing the chipset would not go above 365 MHz, but you have to consider that we had the Ultra version of the chipset. NVIDIA is probably binning their chips, so chips which can run faster will become SLI versions.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_ldt_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_ldt.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_ldtwidth_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_ldtwidth.jpg)
The Athlon64 connects chipset and CPU via the HTT, which runs at a multiple of the FSB. Once you start overclocking your CPU a lot, you should drop that divider, so that the HTT runs in spec and does not limit your clocks, increasing HTT does not increase performance since the bus will never be saturated, even at the default speed. This is what the LDT/FSB ratio setting is used for. By changing the option LDT Bus transfer width you can change the number of lines the LDT bus uses.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_multi_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_multi.jpg)
Unlike Intel CPUs, AMD's processors have a selectable multiplier (only downwards). This allows you to boost your performance even more, if your memory can handle the speeds. The available options here are great, even half multipliers are listed, even though they might not work as expected.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_pcie_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_pcie.jpg)
PCI-Express bus frequencies can be selected from 100 to 145 MHz.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vidstartup1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vidstartup1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vidstartup2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vidstartup2.jpg)
By raising your CPU core voltage you can get some extra overclocking headroom out of your processor. The option VID Startup defines the voltage at which the CPU is run during first initialization stages, some boards don't offer this setting and run the CPU at its default during POST, but at the high FSB setting from the BIOS, so the CPU might not boot up.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vid1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vid1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vid2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vid2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vidspecial_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vidspecial.jpg)
VID control sets the CPU voltage after POST, the available options are very fine-granular, going in 0.025V steps from 0.8V to 1.55V. If 1.55V is not enough for you, no problem, DFI has added a "special control" setting. This allows you to increase CPU voltage even more. For example if you run at 1.55V and select "Above VID 110%" here, your CPU will run at 1.55V * 1.10 = 1.705V.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vldt_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vldt.jpg)
The LDT voltage can be selected from 1.20V to 1.50V which seems to be a good range.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vchipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vchipset.jpg)
So is the Chipset voltage setting. Up to 1.8V seems to be fine for everybody, especially if you consider that some people killed both chipset and CPU by voltmodding their chipset voltage too high.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vddr_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vddr.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram03_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram03.jpg)
To overclock your memory some more, you have to increase the memory voltage. The DFI LanParty is one of the few boards offering voltages of more than 3.3V. To enable these higher voltages you have to move a jumper on the motherboard from 3.3V to 4V. After doing this, your memory options will go up to 4.0V in 0.1V steps. Please note that when running in 4V mode, the memory voltage MOSFET will get very hot. There is also a setting for even more memory voltage, if you enable this it will increase all memory voltage by 0.3, if the current setting is not 3.2V.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_memtest_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_memtest.jpg)
A revolutionary new BIOS feature is the integrated MemTest86+. If you enable the "Run MemTest86+" option, the system will not boot from disk, but execute a version of MemTest from the BIOS. This allows you to check system stability very quick, without experiencing long boot-up delays.
On the overclocking page you can also tweak certain LAN chip settings and disable the second Ethernet interface and the IEEE1394 chip. I think these options should go elsewhere, for example Integrated Peripherals.
CMOS Reloaded
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_reloaded_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_reloaded.jpg)
Another extremely useful feature in the BIOS is the CMOS Reloaded page. You can save all BIOS settings to one of four banks, which can be loaded again later. Another way to load a certain bank is to define a hotkey which has to be pressed during system startup.
The settings here are saved to the BIOS chip's flash memory, so they are not lost if you perform a CMOS reset or remove the battery.
[page=Performance: Test systems]
Test Systems
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "K8SLI"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Albatron K8SLI, Bios 1.07a</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 2700 is 9x300 FSB, Mem ratio 2:3 (=200 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "LanParty NF4"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra-D, Bios 5.10-2 Fix</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 2700 is 9x300 FSB, Mem ratio 2:3 (=200 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "P4 3.0F"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 3.0F (S775; 2MB; Prescott)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE, Bios 1.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB OCZ PC2-5400 EB 4-2-2-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 4500 is 15x300 FSB, Mem Ratio 1:1 (=300 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "P4 2.4C"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 2.4C (S478; 512KB; Northwood)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT IC7, Bios 2.8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 256MB Generic PC3200 2.5-3-3-6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X800 XT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Antec TrueControl 550W</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 3400 is 15x283 FSB, Mem Ratio 2:3 (=188 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Sandra & Everest]
SiSoftware Sandra
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/sandraint.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/sandrafloat.gif
Sandra's CPU Benchmarks are only CPU dependant, so it is normal that both boards perform the same here. Small differences are caused by minor inaccuracies in execution time measurement.
Lavalys Everest
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/everestread.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/everestwrite.gif
DFI has been releasing many BIOSes, which are always optimizing memory performance a little bit more. As you can see the time spent was worth it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/everestlatency.gif
It seems DFI has also optimized the memory latencies of the integrated memory controller on the Athlon64.
[pagE=Performance: SuperPi]
SuperPi
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/superpi1m.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/superpi32m.gif
Even though DFI has the better memory subsystem, the Albatron board can keep up.
[page=Performance: PCMark04 & 3DMark01]
PCMark 2004
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/pcmark2004.gif
Here the DFI board is a bit slower than the competition from Albatron, also it seems that the Albatron board is gaining more from overclocking.
3DMark 2001
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/3dmark2001.gif
At stock clocks, the DFI board is slower, but the more rewarding overclocking of the K8SLI makes it come out top when overclocked.
[page=Performance: CineBench & Kribibench]
CineBench
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/cinebench.gif
In Cinebench both nForce4 boards show the same performance. Intel's HyperThreading technology makes the P4s take the performance crown here.
KribiBench
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/kribibench.gif
The board from Albatron takes a small lead over the board from DFI.
[page=Performance: Comanche 4 & Quake 3]
Comanche 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/comanche4.gif
In Comanche4 the LanParty dominates all other test systems.
Quake 3 Arena
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/quake3.gif
Same picture in Quake3 Arena, except for the overclocked P4 which seems to benefit a lot from the huge bandwidth of the DDR2 memory.
[page=Performance: Audio RMAA]
Rightmark Audio Analyzer
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/rmaa.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/loopback_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/loopback.jpg)
We used Rightmark Audio Analyzer together with a loop-back cable to analyze the quality of the on-board audio solution.
Summary
<table width="600" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:</strong></td>
<td>+0.81, -5.55</td>
<td>Poor</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Noise level, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>-75.1</td>
<td>Average</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Dynamic range, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>76.2</td>
<td>Average</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>THD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.050</td>
<td>Average</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.082</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Stereo crosstalk, dB:</strong></td>
<td>-76.4</td>
<td>Very good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD at 10 kHz, %:</strong></td>
<td>4.683</td>
<td>Very poor</td>
</tr>
</table>
General performance: Average
Frequency Response
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/fr.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Frequency range</strong></td>
<td><strong>Response</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-12.18, +0.81</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-5.55, +0.81</td>
</tr>
</table>
Noise Level
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/noise.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power, dB:</td>
<td>-72.4</td>
<td>-72.7</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>-74.4</td>
<td>-75.1</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Peak level, dB FS:</td>
<td>-60.8</td>
<td>-60.5</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>0.32</td>
<td>-0.49</td>
</tr>
</table>
Dynamic Range
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/dynamics.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range, dB:</td>
<td>+72.8</td>
<td>+72.3</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>+76.2</td>
<td>+76.2</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>0.33</td>
<td>-0.48</td>
</tr>
</table>
THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/thd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD, %:</td>
<td>0.0501</td>
<td>0.0539</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.0668</td>
<td>0.0686</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0722</td>
<td>0.0771</td>
</tr>
</table>
Intermodulation distortion
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/imd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.0816</td>
<td>0.0820</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0706</td>
<td>0.0700</td>
</tr>
</table>
Stereo crosstalk
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/cross.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>L <- R</strong></td>
<td><strong>L -> R</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB:</td>
<td>-75</td>
<td>-73</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 1 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-74</td>
<td>-75</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 10 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-74</td>
<td>-70</td>
</tr>
</table>
IMD (swept tones)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/imdswept.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 5 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.2127</td>
<td>0.2129</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 10 kHz, %:</td>
<td>2.2171</td>
<td>2.2106</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 15 kHz, %:</td>
<td>11.6583</td>
<td>11.6266</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Audio Games]
Quake 3
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/q3asound.gif
Comanche 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/c4sound.gif
[page=Sound Levels]
Sound Levels
In order to give a measurement of how loud this board is, we used an IEC651 Type II sound level meter on the dbA slow setting.
The distance between fan and sound level meter was 10cm. Please note that this is very little, compared to the "standard" measurements, which are made at 1m distance. We had to do this, to get proper readings with our sound level meter, because we obviously can't spend thousands of dollars on audio measuring equipment.
All tested fans were connected to an external 12V lab PSU. 12V is the maximum rated fan speed. Some motherboards/video cards use slower fan speeds and slowly ramp them up with temperatures. This is also the reason, why the X800 series seems to have such a "loud" fan. During normal usage its fan is usually running at 33% to 66%.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/soundlevel.gif
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" class="resulttable">
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Common sound levels </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ambulance siren</td>
<td align="right">120 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Crying baby </td>
<td align="right">110 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Shout (5 feet) </td>
<td align="right">100 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Truck</td>
<td align="right">90 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Urban street</td>
<td align="right">80 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Automobile interior </td>
<td align="right">70 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Normal conversation (3 feet) </td>
<td align="right">60 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Office, classroom </td>
<td align="right">50 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Living room </td>
<td align="right">40 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bedroom at night </td>
<td align="right">30 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Whispering at (5 feet)</td>
<td align="right">20 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Rustling leaves </td>
<td align="right">10 dbA </td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Overclocking]
Overclocking
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/maxfsb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/maxfsb.jpg)
In order to find the overclocking potential of the DFI LanParty NF4, we put a Dangerden TDX waterblock on our CPU and set the multiplier to 4x with a memory divider of 2:1. This is to make sure that neither the CPU nor the memory are limiting our overclock here.
I was a bit disappointed by the maximum FSB of 363 MHz, especially after hearing that Mar's board does way over 400 MHz. One possible explanation might be that NVIDIA is speed-binning their chipsets. Those which can reach higher speeds are turned into the SLI version, the slower ones end up on Ultra boards. Nevertheless, as long as an AMD64 board gives you 350 MHz, it is pretty much guaranteed, your memory or CPU will be the limiting factor, once you use a performance optimized setting.
Above settings might give impressive FSB speeds, but performance is lacking, because the memory is running very slow.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/maxperf_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/maxperf.jpg)
For more real-life overclocking we left the multiplier at 9x and slowly increased the FSB. Since our memory can not run that fast, we had to drop the memory ratio to 2:3 which means the memory was running at DDR400 while the CPU ran at 2700 MHz. The board was no limiting factor here at any time, the CPU's limit is around 2700 MHz.
After playing with this board for a while I must say this is an awesome overclocking board. It offers all the features and settings you may want, plus a few extra BIOS tweaks. The option to run your memory at a voltage higher than 3.3V is pretty unique in the motherboard business. Other things like five fan headers, heatsinks on all parts that could become hot and the additional power connectors complete the package.
What I miss a little bit is an own overclocking software by DFI. If I consider their talent for building overclocker boards - Wow their overclocking software would rock.
[page=Value & Conclusion]
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
With a street price of about $130 this board is quite expensive for an nForce4 Ultra board.</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Great overclocking features
Awesome BIOS, full of overclocking options
Good performance
Well thought out layout
Two GigE network ports
Can be modded to SLI
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
On-Board Audio could be better
No SLI (but can be modded)
No own overclocking software included
</td></tr>
<tr><th>9.5</th>
<td>If you are an overclocker looking for an Athlon64 Socket939 motherboard, you have found the right one. The overclocking possibilities are endless and the board will most probably not be the limiting factor in your hunt for the maximum clock.<br />
While this board is definitely stable, users who are just looking to get going with AMD64 without spending too much time for tweaking could probably save a few dollars and get a cheaper board with less overclocking features.<br />
People who need SLI can either get this board and mod it, or buy the bigger model, the DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR.</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td><img src="http://www.techpowerup.com/images/editorschoice.gif"></td></tr>
</table>
Introduction
DFI has always been a company for the enthusiasts, their products are definitely targeted to that user group.
Their "LanParty" series are engineered to be an overclocker's dream.
When I saw the need to get a review platform for AMD Socket939, I asked a few people which board could be recommended. Most people said "get the DFI LanParty".
Since I'm not really into SLI I opted to save a few bucks and buy the DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D. This is the smaller brother of the SLI version. Technically the two boards are identical, except that the Ultra-D uses NVIDIA's nForce4 Ultra, instead of the SLI version.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/nf4.jpg
The nForce4 is NVIDIA's latest chipset for the AMD64 platform. After the enormous sucess of the previous nForce chipsets the expectations were high, but NVIDIA was able to deliver another great chipset. It boasts with features like integrated Gigabit Ethernet and SATA-II support for a theoretical 300 MB/s HDD transfer rate. RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1 are possible as well.
What I learned after I got this board, is that it can be modded to SLI by a simple chipset mod (article here (http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/AMD/120)).
Unfortunately DFI does not include an SLI bridge with the Ultra-D, so in order to be able to actually use SLI you will have to get a bridge somehow.
Features
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="resulttable">
<tr>
<th colspan="2">DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Processor</th>
<td>AMD Athlon64 / FX Socket 939</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>FSB</th>
<td>2000 MT/s HTT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Chipset</th>
<td>NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory</th>
<td>4x 184 Pin DDR, Dual Channel DDR 200/333/400, up to 4 GB </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>BIOS</th>
<td>AwardBios</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Slots</th>
<td>2x PCI-E x16<br />
1x PCI-E x1<br />
1x PCI-E x4<br />
2x PCI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>HDD Connectivity</th>
<td>2x ATA-133<br />
4x SATA-II</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Networking</th>
<td>10/100/1000 Mbps - NVIDIA nForce4<br />
10/100/1000 Mbps - Marvell 88E8001</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Ports</th>
<td>10x USB 2.0 (6 on Back Panel)<br />
1x Serial header on-board<br />
2x IEEE1394 (1 on Back Panel)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Audio</th>
<td>8 Channel Realtek ALC850 Audio, <br />
S/PDIF in/out</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Form Factor</th>
<td>ATX 293 x 305mm</td>
</tr>
</table>
Specifications from DFI
CPU
AMD Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 / Sempron
Socket 939
Chipset
NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra
Front Side Bus
2000MT/s HyperTransport interface
Memory
Four 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets
Supports dual channel (128-bit wide) memory interface
Supports up to 4GB system memory
Supports DDR266, DDR333 and DDR400 DDR SDRAM DIMM
BIOS
Award BIOS
CMOS Reloaded
CPU/DRAM overclocking
CPU/DRAM/Chipset overvoltage
4Mbit flash memory
Power Management
Supports ACPI STR (Suspend to RAM) function
Wake-On-Events include:
- Wake-On-PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse
- Wake-On-USB Keyboard/Mouse
- Wake-On-LAN
- RTC timer to power-on the system
AC power failure recovery
Hardware Monitor
Monitors CPU/system/chipset temperature
Monitors 12V/5V/3.3V/Vcore/Vbat/5Vsb/Vchipset/Vdram voltages
Monitors the speed of the CPU fan, Fan 2 and chipset fan
CPU Overheat Protection function monitors CPU temperature during system boot-up
Audio
Karajan audio module
- Realtek ALC850 8-channel audio CODEC
- 6 audio jacks
- 1 CD-in connector
- 1 front audio connector
S/PDIF-in/out interface
LAN
Dual Gigabit LAN - Vitesse VSC8201 Gigabit Phy and Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit PCI
Fully compliant to IEEE 802.3 (10BASE-T), 802.3u (100BASE-TX) and 802.3ab (1000BASE-T) standards
IDE
Two IDE connectors that allows connecting up to four UltraDMA 133Mbps hard drives
NVIDIA RAID allows RAID arrays spanning across Serial ATA and Parallel ATA
RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1
Serial ATA with RAID
Four Serial ATA II ports
SATA speed up to 3Gb/s
RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1
NVIDIA RAID allows RAID arrays spanning across Serial ATA and Parallel ATA
IEEE 1394
VIA VT6307
Supports two 100/200/400 Mb/sec ports
Rear Panel I/O Ports
1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port
1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port
2 S/PDIF RCA jacks (S/PDIF-in and S/PDIF-out)
Karajan audio module (6 audio jacks)
1 IEEE 1394 port
2 RJ45 LAN ports
6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports
I/O Connectors
2 connectors for 4 additional external USB 2.0/1.1 ports
1 connector for 1 external IEEE 1394 port
1 connector for 1 external serial port
1 front audio connector for external line-out and mic-in jacks (on the Karajan audio module)
1 CD-in internal audio connector (on the Karajan audio module)
1 S/PDIF connector for optical cable connection
1 IR connector
4 Serial ATA connectors
2 IDE connectors
1 floppy connector
1 24-pin ATX power connector
1 4-pin ATX 12V power connector
2 4-pin 5V/12V power connectors (FDD-type and HDD type)
1 front panel connector
5 fan connectors
4 diagnostic LEDs
EZ touch switches (power switch and reset switch)
Expansion Slots
2 PCI Express x16 slots
1 PCI Express x1 slot
1 PCI Express x4 slot
2 PCI slots
PCB
ATX form factor
24cm (9.45") x 30.5cm (12")
[pagE=Packaging]
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package1.jpg)
The motherboard comes in the typical DFI LanParty anime style package.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package2.jpg)
On the backside there is a picture of the board with the usual product information.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package4.jpg)
When you open the package, you find the accessories in two "sections" of the package. This helps keep it a bit cleaner.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/package5.jpg)
Under the cables and manuals you find the motherboard safely wrapped into an anti-static bag.
Contents
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/contents.jpg)
You will receive:
Motherboard
Users Manual, DIY Installation Guide, Addendum
2x IDE Cable, 1x Floppy Cable, 2x SATA Cable, 1x SATA Power Adapter
IO Shield
Driver CD, SATA Driver Floppy
Two bags with jumpers
Jumper Puller
Karajan 8 channel audio module
[pagE=Board Layout]
Board Layout
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/board_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/board.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/back_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/back.jpg)
Click here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/board_fullsize.jpg) for a 3000x2500 high-res shot of the board (3 MB download), the backside is here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/back_fullsize.jpg).
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/cpuarea_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/cpuarea.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/mosfet_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/mosfet.jpg)
There is plenty of space around the CPU area. All MOSFETs have heatsinks on them to reduce thermal stress.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/io_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/io.jpg)
PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse, SPDIF, Audio, Dual Gigabit Ethernet, six USB Ports. On the backside panel the most important connectors are included. The layout does not really follow the ATX specification, except for the PS/2 ports and the networking. But since an IO shield is included this is no big issue.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/dimm_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/dimm.jpg)
The motherboard's memory slots have been color coded for easy dual-channel configuration. To run your memory in dual-channel mode you have to put the modules into slots of the same color.
Connectors
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/atx_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/atx.jpg)
Both the 24-pin ATX power connector and the ATX12V connector are placed in the best possible location I could imagine. Great work on this, DFI.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/extrapwr_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/extrapwr.jpg)
If you think your board needs more juice, DFI has added a 3.5" Floppy and a 5.25" Power connector the board. These supply additional power to the motherboard and help reduce the stress on the regular ATX power cables. Electrically, the 12V of ATX Power, ATX12V, 5.25" and 3.5" are connected together, same for the 5V line.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/ata_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/ata.jpg)
You will find two parallel ATA ports on this motherboard, for a total of four IDE devices. Both ports are provided by the nForce4 chipset and are spec'd to run at up to 133 MB/s.
While SATA-II is not much of a performance improvement, having four 300 MB/s capable ports is definitely a nice thing. The 90° angled connector is for the floppy, if you are one of the last people on this planet to use them. The HDDs can also be run in RAID 0, RAID 1 or RAID 0+1.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/headers_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/headers.jpg)
Some manufacturers color-code the Reset/Power/LED connectors, so it is easier to spot which pins belong together. DFI does not do this, but the pins are clearly labelled.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/jumpers_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/jumpers.jpg)
DFI has added a load of jumpers all over the board. While the other ones deal with SPDIF and USB power, these three are certainly more interesting.
From left to right:
Safe Boot: In case you are unable to start your system during your overclocking adventures, you switch this jumper to the 2-3 position when the system is powered down, wait a few seconds then switch it back to 1-2. Now all overclocking settings are reset, while the other CMOS settings are saved.
Speaker On/Off: Having a PC speaker onboard is crucial when it comes to detecting bootup problems. For day to day usage it might be annoying. switching this jumper into position 1-2 disables the onboard speaker. This is the default position. In my opinion it would have made more sense to enable it by default, since during the first install, there could be some problems.
Clear CMOS: When this jumper is set to 2-3 it will clear all contents of the CMOS. This is useful when the system does not boot or after upgrading your BIOS.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/dimm4v_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/dimm4v.jpg)
Another useful jumper is this block. In the default position, the memory voltage is generated from the 3.3V supply. In case you want to run your memory at a higher voltage you switch this jumper to position 2-3 and the range of possible DDR voltages is increased up to 4.0V. The heatsink you see on the picture, is cooling the DDR Voltage MOSFET, on the 4V setting it tends to get very hot. If you don't need more than 3.3V on your memory, better go with the 3.3V setting where you won't have to worry about MOSFET heat.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/ezswitch_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/ezswitch.jpg)
One of the most wanted features by overclockers are those little push buttons. One button is for power, the other one for reset. For quick builds this saves you from connecting switches to the headers, or using screwdriver to turn on the system. I like the buttons DFI used a lot, they are big and have a clearly defined switch-point.
[page=Layout continued]
Slots
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/slots_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/slots.jpg)
Even more jumpers. Traditionally, SLI has been switched by the use of a little switch card. DFI uses a big block of jumpers here. In the package of the motherboard you will find a jumper pulling tool which helps getting these big blocks out.
The placement of the PCI-E x1 slots is very convenient, it allows use of one slot, even when the system is running with two SLI cards.
Cooling
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/chipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/chipset.jpg)
The northbridge cooler is small and not located very well. If you install two video cards, there is not much airflow left, since the VGA cards are right above it. While the cooler is not the quietest, its fan noise is not annoying at all.
Chips
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/it8712f_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/it8712f.jpg)
ITE's 8712F is monitoring temperature, fan speed and voltages.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/lan1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/lan1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/lan2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/lan2.jpg)
The Vitesse CIS8201 LAN Controller is used to implement Gigabit Ethernet via NVIDIA's nForce4 chipset. A Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet controller is used for the second Gigabit Ethernet port.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/ieee1394_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/ieee1394.jpg)
Firewire (IEEE1394) comes from VIA. Their VT6307 chip is used.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/audio1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/audio1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/audio2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/audio2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/audio3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/audio3.jpg)
For audio, DFI has thought of another interesting solution. All audio related circuitry is on a little PCB, which is plugged into the motherboard. Realtek's ALC850 8-channel sound chip is used there. If you don't need sound - don't plug the card in. According to DFI, the reason for an extra card is "to isolate the audio analog ground from digital ground eliminating noise signal and producing crystal sound output". Well, they probably mean crystal clear. I don't see a reason why this could not be done via regular circuitry, but still, it's a nice addon.
[pagE=BIOS]
BIOS
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_bios_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_bios.jpg)
DFI uses an Award WorkstationBios which is heavily customized. I am missing a feature to load a fail-safe configuration on the main page.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_standard_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_standard.jpg)
On the Standard CMOS page you can change date/time, configure your harddisks and floppies.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_advbios_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_advbios.jpg)
Advanced Bios lets you change the order in which drives are tried at bootup, keyboard settings and also disable the full screen logo if you want to see what's going on during POST.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_advchipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_advchipset.jpg)
Under Advanced Chipset you find options to enable certain chipset features. Spread spectrum is a feature to reduce EMI interference on the clock signals. When enabled, it varies the actual clock very slightly and so distributes the actual EMI energy on a broader frequency range. Sometimes it makes your overclock more stable, sometimes it does not.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_peripherals_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_peripherals.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_ide_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_ide.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_raid_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_raid.jpg)
On this page you can change several USB settings, enable/disable certain devices like floppy, onboard audio and serial port. The subpage IDE Function setup lets you tweak your IDE controller. If you want to use the integrated RAID controller of the nForce4 chipset you can enable it on the RAID Config page.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_power.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_pnp_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_pnp.jpg)
Nothing special is to be found under Power Management and PnP/PCI Configurations.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_monitoring_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_monitoring.jpg)
The Hardware Monitoring page shows the essential temperatures, fan speeds and voltages. Also you can define temperatures at which the fan outputs are completely off or running at maximum.
Memory Timings
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram2.jpg)
Memory timings and related options can be configured under Genie BIOS Setting, DRAM Configuration. DFI has done a great job here, every memory related timing, no matter how unimportant it might seem to the average user is changeable here.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram.jpg)
DRAM Frequency Set lets you change the divider your memory is running at. The options are very complete and range from 1:2 up to 1:1. Options to run your memory higher than your FSB are not available here, they do not work in all systems anyways.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_cas_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_cas.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_tras_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_tras.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_trcd_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_trcd.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_trp_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_trp.jpg)
You can change the major timings CAS Latency (tCL), Active-to-Precharge Delay (tRAS), Rad-to-Cas Delay (tRCD), and RAS Precharge Time (tRP). Additional timings you can change are CPC, tRFC, tRRD, tWR, tWTR, tRWT, tREF, tWCL. There are even more options, it is probably best if you take a look at the pictures.
[pagE=BIOS Overclocking]
BIOS Overclocking
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_oc1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_oc1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_oc2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_oc2.jpg)
The Genie BIOS Settings page is home to all frequency and voltage tweaking settings, and there are a lot of them.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_fsb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_fsb.jpg)
The FSB is selectable between 200 and 450 MHz. 450 might sound like a lot, but there are people who can actually run that fast. In our testing the chipset would not go above 365 MHz, but you have to consider that we had the Ultra version of the chipset. NVIDIA is probably binning their chips, so chips which can run faster will become SLI versions.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_ldt_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_ldt.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_ldtwidth_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_ldtwidth.jpg)
The Athlon64 connects chipset and CPU via the HTT, which runs at a multiple of the FSB. Once you start overclocking your CPU a lot, you should drop that divider, so that the HTT runs in spec and does not limit your clocks, increasing HTT does not increase performance since the bus will never be saturated, even at the default speed. This is what the LDT/FSB ratio setting is used for. By changing the option LDT Bus transfer width you can change the number of lines the LDT bus uses.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_multi_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_multi.jpg)
Unlike Intel CPUs, AMD's processors have a selectable multiplier (only downwards). This allows you to boost your performance even more, if your memory can handle the speeds. The available options here are great, even half multipliers are listed, even though they might not work as expected.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_pcie_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_pcie.jpg)
PCI-Express bus frequencies can be selected from 100 to 145 MHz.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vidstartup1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vidstartup1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vidstartup2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vidstartup2.jpg)
By raising your CPU core voltage you can get some extra overclocking headroom out of your processor. The option VID Startup defines the voltage at which the CPU is run during first initialization stages, some boards don't offer this setting and run the CPU at its default during POST, but at the high FSB setting from the BIOS, so the CPU might not boot up.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vid1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vid1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vid2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vid2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vidspecial_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vidspecial.jpg)
VID control sets the CPU voltage after POST, the available options are very fine-granular, going in 0.025V steps from 0.8V to 1.55V. If 1.55V is not enough for you, no problem, DFI has added a "special control" setting. This allows you to increase CPU voltage even more. For example if you run at 1.55V and select "Above VID 110%" here, your CPU will run at 1.55V * 1.10 = 1.705V.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vldt_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vldt.jpg)
The LDT voltage can be selected from 1.20V to 1.50V which seems to be a good range.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vchipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vchipset.jpg)
So is the Chipset voltage setting. Up to 1.8V seems to be fine for everybody, especially if you consider that some people killed both chipset and CPU by voltmodding their chipset voltage too high.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vddr_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_vddr.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram03_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_dram03.jpg)
To overclock your memory some more, you have to increase the memory voltage. The DFI LanParty is one of the few boards offering voltages of more than 3.3V. To enable these higher voltages you have to move a jumper on the motherboard from 3.3V to 4V. After doing this, your memory options will go up to 4.0V in 0.1V steps. Please note that when running in 4V mode, the memory voltage MOSFET will get very hot. There is also a setting for even more memory voltage, if you enable this it will increase all memory voltage by 0.3, if the current setting is not 3.2V.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_memtest_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_memtest.jpg)
A revolutionary new BIOS feature is the integrated MemTest86+. If you enable the "Run MemTest86+" option, the system will not boot from disk, but execute a version of MemTest from the BIOS. This allows you to check system stability very quick, without experiencing long boot-up delays.
On the overclocking page you can also tweak certain LAN chip settings and disable the second Ethernet interface and the IEEE1394 chip. I think these options should go elsewhere, for example Integrated Peripherals.
CMOS Reloaded
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_reloaded_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/b_reloaded.jpg)
Another extremely useful feature in the BIOS is the CMOS Reloaded page. You can save all BIOS settings to one of four banks, which can be loaded again later. Another way to load a certain bank is to define a hotkey which has to be pressed during system startup.
The settings here are saved to the BIOS chip's flash memory, so they are not lost if you perform a CMOS reset or remove the battery.
[page=Performance: Test systems]
Test Systems
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "K8SLI"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Albatron K8SLI, Bios 1.07a</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 2700 is 9x300 FSB, Mem ratio 2:3 (=200 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "LanParty NF4"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra-D, Bios 5.10-2 Fix</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 2700 is 9x300 FSB, Mem ratio 2:3 (=200 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "P4 3.0F"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 3.0F (S775; 2MB; Prescott)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE, Bios 1.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB OCZ PC2-5400 EB 4-2-2-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 4500 is 15x300 FSB, Mem Ratio 1:1 (=300 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "P4 2.4C"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 2.4C (S478; 512KB; Northwood)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT IC7, Bios 2.8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 256MB Generic PC3200 2.5-3-3-6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X800 XT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Antec TrueControl 550W</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 3400 is 15x283 FSB, Mem Ratio 2:3 (=188 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Sandra & Everest]
SiSoftware Sandra
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/sandraint.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/sandrafloat.gif
Sandra's CPU Benchmarks are only CPU dependant, so it is normal that both boards perform the same here. Small differences are caused by minor inaccuracies in execution time measurement.
Lavalys Everest
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/everestread.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/everestwrite.gif
DFI has been releasing many BIOSes, which are always optimizing memory performance a little bit more. As you can see the time spent was worth it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/everestlatency.gif
It seems DFI has also optimized the memory latencies of the integrated memory controller on the Athlon64.
[pagE=Performance: SuperPi]
SuperPi
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/superpi1m.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/superpi32m.gif
Even though DFI has the better memory subsystem, the Albatron board can keep up.
[page=Performance: PCMark04 & 3DMark01]
PCMark 2004
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/pcmark2004.gif
Here the DFI board is a bit slower than the competition from Albatron, also it seems that the Albatron board is gaining more from overclocking.
3DMark 2001
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/3dmark2001.gif
At stock clocks, the DFI board is slower, but the more rewarding overclocking of the K8SLI makes it come out top when overclocked.
[page=Performance: CineBench & Kribibench]
CineBench
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/cinebench.gif
In Cinebench both nForce4 boards show the same performance. Intel's HyperThreading technology makes the P4s take the performance crown here.
KribiBench
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/kribibench.gif
The board from Albatron takes a small lead over the board from DFI.
[page=Performance: Comanche 4 & Quake 3]
Comanche 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/comanche4.gif
In Comanche4 the LanParty dominates all other test systems.
Quake 3 Arena
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/quake3.gif
Same picture in Quake3 Arena, except for the overclocked P4 which seems to benefit a lot from the huge bandwidth of the DDR2 memory.
[page=Performance: Audio RMAA]
Rightmark Audio Analyzer
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/rmaa.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/loopback_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/loopback.jpg)
We used Rightmark Audio Analyzer together with a loop-back cable to analyze the quality of the on-board audio solution.
Summary
<table width="600" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:</strong></td>
<td>+0.81, -5.55</td>
<td>Poor</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Noise level, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>-75.1</td>
<td>Average</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Dynamic range, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>76.2</td>
<td>Average</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>THD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.050</td>
<td>Average</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.082</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Stereo crosstalk, dB:</strong></td>
<td>-76.4</td>
<td>Very good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD at 10 kHz, %:</strong></td>
<td>4.683</td>
<td>Very poor</td>
</tr>
</table>
General performance: Average
Frequency Response
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/fr.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Frequency range</strong></td>
<td><strong>Response</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-12.18, +0.81</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-5.55, +0.81</td>
</tr>
</table>
Noise Level
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/noise.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power, dB:</td>
<td>-72.4</td>
<td>-72.7</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>-74.4</td>
<td>-75.1</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Peak level, dB FS:</td>
<td>-60.8</td>
<td>-60.5</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>0.32</td>
<td>-0.49</td>
</tr>
</table>
Dynamic Range
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/dynamics.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range, dB:</td>
<td>+72.8</td>
<td>+72.3</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>+76.2</td>
<td>+76.2</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>0.33</td>
<td>-0.48</td>
</tr>
</table>
THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/thd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD, %:</td>
<td>0.0501</td>
<td>0.0539</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.0668</td>
<td>0.0686</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0722</td>
<td>0.0771</td>
</tr>
</table>
Intermodulation distortion
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/imd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.0816</td>
<td>0.0820</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0706</td>
<td>0.0700</td>
</tr>
</table>
Stereo crosstalk
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/cross.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>L <- R</strong></td>
<td><strong>L -> R</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB:</td>
<td>-75</td>
<td>-73</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 1 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-74</td>
<td>-75</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 10 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-74</td>
<td>-70</td>
</tr>
</table>
IMD (swept tones)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/imdswept.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 5 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.2127</td>
<td>0.2129</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 10 kHz, %:</td>
<td>2.2171</td>
<td>2.2106</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 15 kHz, %:</td>
<td>11.6583</td>
<td>11.6266</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Audio Games]
Quake 3
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/q3asound.gif
Comanche 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/c4sound.gif
[page=Sound Levels]
Sound Levels
In order to give a measurement of how loud this board is, we used an IEC651 Type II sound level meter on the dbA slow setting.
The distance between fan and sound level meter was 10cm. Please note that this is very little, compared to the "standard" measurements, which are made at 1m distance. We had to do this, to get proper readings with our sound level meter, because we obviously can't spend thousands of dollars on audio measuring equipment.
All tested fans were connected to an external 12V lab PSU. 12V is the maximum rated fan speed. Some motherboards/video cards use slower fan speeds and slowly ramp them up with temperatures. This is also the reason, why the X800 series seems to have such a "loud" fan. During normal usage its fan is usually running at 33% to 66%.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/soundlevel.gif
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" class="resulttable">
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Common sound levels </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ambulance siren</td>
<td align="right">120 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Crying baby </td>
<td align="right">110 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Shout (5 feet) </td>
<td align="right">100 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Truck</td>
<td align="right">90 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Urban street</td>
<td align="right">80 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Automobile interior </td>
<td align="right">70 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Normal conversation (3 feet) </td>
<td align="right">60 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Office, classroom </td>
<td align="right">50 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Living room </td>
<td align="right">40 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bedroom at night </td>
<td align="right">30 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Whispering at (5 feet)</td>
<td align="right">20 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Rustling leaves </td>
<td align="right">10 dbA </td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Overclocking]
Overclocking
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/maxfsb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/maxfsb.jpg)
In order to find the overclocking potential of the DFI LanParty NF4, we put a Dangerden TDX waterblock on our CPU and set the multiplier to 4x with a memory divider of 2:1. This is to make sure that neither the CPU nor the memory are limiting our overclock here.
I was a bit disappointed by the maximum FSB of 363 MHz, especially after hearing that Mar's board does way over 400 MHz. One possible explanation might be that NVIDIA is speed-binning their chipsets. Those which can reach higher speeds are turned into the SLI version, the slower ones end up on Ultra boards. Nevertheless, as long as an AMD64 board gives you 350 MHz, it is pretty much guaranteed, your memory or CPU will be the limiting factor, once you use a performance optimized setting.
Above settings might give impressive FSB speeds, but performance is lacking, because the memory is running very slow.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/maxperf_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/DFI/LPNF4UD/images/maxperf.jpg)
For more real-life overclocking we left the multiplier at 9x and slowly increased the FSB. Since our memory can not run that fast, we had to drop the memory ratio to 2:3 which means the memory was running at DDR400 while the CPU ran at 2700 MHz. The board was no limiting factor here at any time, the CPU's limit is around 2700 MHz.
After playing with this board for a while I must say this is an awesome overclocking board. It offers all the features and settings you may want, plus a few extra BIOS tweaks. The option to run your memory at a voltage higher than 3.3V is pretty unique in the motherboard business. Other things like five fan headers, heatsinks on all parts that could become hot and the additional power connectors complete the package.
What I miss a little bit is an own overclocking software by DFI. If I consider their talent for building overclocker boards - Wow their overclocking software would rock.
[page=Value & Conclusion]
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
With a street price of about $130 this board is quite expensive for an nForce4 Ultra board.</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Great overclocking features
Awesome BIOS, full of overclocking options
Good performance
Well thought out layout
Two GigE network ports
Can be modded to SLI
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
On-Board Audio could be better
No SLI (but can be modded)
No own overclocking software included
</td></tr>
<tr><th>9.5</th>
<td>If you are an overclocker looking for an Athlon64 Socket939 motherboard, you have found the right one. The overclocking possibilities are endless and the board will most probably not be the limiting factor in your hunt for the maximum clock.<br />
While this board is definitely stable, users who are just looking to get going with AMD64 without spending too much time for tweaking could probably save a few dollars and get a cheaper board with less overclocking features.<br />
People who need SLI can either get this board and mod it, or buy the bigger model, the DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR.</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td><img src="http://www.techpowerup.com/images/editorschoice.gif"></td></tr>
</table>