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New DFI nF4 Ultra-D build...so perty!

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TimoneX

Closet Elitist Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2002
Okay I ordered this board from ZZF tuesday night & ordered the vid card from the egg a few minutes later. Both arrived today(Fri around 3:30 pm). Rather fast service from both vendors I'd say. This setup will almost certainly end up water cooled but I'm going with air for now. I'll be using a relatively lackluster TT venus(yeah I know...don't bother :p). I'm also short one 24 pin PSU so I'll be using a 400watt fortron unit for the time being. Additionally my 2x512 OCZ PC3200 plat r2 modules are on loan to a friend who'll almost certainly be buying them so I'm down to using 2x512 OCZ PC4kEL modules for the time being. These will only do around 225 in DC on the neo2 and that's with 2.5-3-3-7 1T timings at 2.8v. I'm curious to see if they do better on the DFI board, but I'll likely end up with an OCZ VX kit on this board. I'm likewise starting out with my 3200+ winchester & 2x160Gb maxtor raid0 array from my neo2 setup for the time being. The processor is w/o an IHS so I will have to substitute a modded HS bracket I keep around with sanded pegs for the stock Lotes bracket.

Here is the complete list of toys I'm starting with:

DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D(R.A02)
ADA3200DIK4BI CBBHD 0444RPAW(stripped neked)
TT Venus blah blah cooler(will almost certainly be tossed in favor of DD RBX)
2x512Mb OCZ 4000EL
Albatron 6600GT PCI-E 128Mb(newegg $150 refurb...yes I am cheap)
Fortron 400w FSP400-60GN
2x160 Maxtor Diamondmax plus 9 Sata drives in a 16k RAID0 stripe
Liteon XJ-HD166s DVD ROM(Pata)
Liteon LDW-811s DVD+/-RW(Pata)

All of this will eventually be going into a Chieftec aluminum case.
 
Thanx I'm going to be getting it together tonight...hopefully. I'm particularly interested in comparing my nF3 HD & network throughput scores to the nF4 setup.
 
Thanx guys. Just got it up and running on the bench. Absolutely no problems whatsoever with install. Currently installing drivers and couldn't resist the urge to take it to [email protected].
 
Snapped a couple of it on the bench. Kind of a mess though. :)
 

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Now I've gone and done some painting on the nF4 ultra chip. Specifically I used conductive paint to close the bridge that enables SLI functionality. I only have one PCI-E card and I'm not particularly interested in SLI, but I am the curious sort. Here is what happened when next I booted:
 

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I also snapped off some everest screenies before and after the mod just to see what would change. Here's the before and after. I found it rather interesting though I've no idea what if any effect it will have on performance. The video system was as you might imagine really goofed up when I got into windows following the Ultra to SLI conversion. I had to re-install the platform and video drivers.
 

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The display driver recognizes the system as SLI capable now too and this is the 66.93 driver. I was under the impression that nVidia had altered the driver so it wouldn't recognize a modded Ultra as SLI.
 

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wow, i'm so jealous. i really can't wait until this summer when i can afford a 939 dfi setup. it's going to be really interesting to see if and/or when nvidia will fix the ultra -> sli mod with its drivers. it would be so incredibly awesome if it turned out to be unfixable via drivers. i guess we'll see....
 
Well there's also the matter of the SLI bridge to worry about. It seems unlikely nVidia can prevent people from running SLI on modded Ultras with driver changes alone. They're just too easy to hack up. They'll alter the chip itself if they're serious about stopping it, and they do seem to be serious. :)
 
Yeah yeah :) The TT is ever so slightly better than stock and it was only a few bucks more. Even slung that TT fan on my memory just for you guys. :)

I've hit my first snag. It seems one of the security updates hosed down network access manager and active armor. It brough network access to a crawl and prevented access to several websites...including <gasp> OC forums!!! I'm in the process of trying to figure out which was the guilty party, but the silly updates make me restart every single time I remove one so it's going to take me awhile to figure this out.

The board does seem to overclock somewhat better than the neo2 as 270x10 has been stable so far. The only stress testing I've done though is SuperPi 1M. The neo2 would present me with a BSOD at 270x10 with the same processor & memory regardless of voltage.
 
I am liking that I see the SLI working. I am about to order an Ultra-D and hope I get one that can still be modded. Or else I will be selling it later this spring when I decide to end up going SLI.
 
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