[Indyxc1]

SO I'm looking to get a socket 939 DFI board to overclock an Opteron.

I've been doing some research here and on DFI-Street.com. First AMD + First DFI board, but I've been OC for 10+ years.

Anyway, I narrowed it down to a DFI Board, but which one:

Everyone seems to buy the ULTRA-D found here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813136152

And do the SLI/SATA 2 mod.

But why does no one by the SLI-D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813136158

For 20 bucks more, might as well get the bridge, and skip the mod. Does the ULTRA-D include better OC features?

Essentially, where can I find the difference between all of DFIs high end NF4 boards?

I want a stable, good oc board, and a board that can do sli, as cheap as possible.

Thanks
Indyxc

[EvilCloudStrife]

nope the ultra-d is the same motherboard as the sli-d. you dont need to do the sata2 mod on the ultra-d, just the sli mod. when you do the sli mod the 2 boards are exactly the same. the bios is the same, the motherboard layout is the same. everything is the same. the fact of the matter is that the sli motherboard wasnt that cheap when everyone was buying a dfi ultra-d. for $20 more, heck.. just go for it if you want, if not get the ultra-d.. its all the same in the end

[Indyxc1]

Ah, thank you sir!

The confusing thing is, the Ultra-D by the name seems like it has more features than just the SLI-D.

I just found this post by R-Gone litteraly 20 seconds after I posted this:

"DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR Full meal deal with FrontX that works with the correct 'outputs' and LanParty transpo carry case and sleeving to match cabling of the mobo. "R" gives 4 additional Sata ports.

DFI LanParty UT NF4 SLI-D No "R" so standard 4 sata ports and UT so the shipping package is not as complete for all the extras of NF4 SLI-DR. All actual motherboards are the same basic fab.

DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D NO SLI and No extra 4 sata ports and of course none of the extra goodies in the full meal deal NF4 SLI-DR.

RGone..."

So if anyone else finds this in the future: All boards are essentially the same, minus the number of SATA ports, and the packaging content

The benefit of going with the SLI-D over the Ultra-D is you don't have to do the mod, and it comes with the PCI-Express Bridge.

[soundx98]

But then again you are probably going to need to replace the TIM on the chipset cooler anyways, so you might as well kill two birds with one stone.
Ultra-D at NewEgg for $113.00
Good luck with the build

[Indyxc1]

I ended up with the SLI-D.

What do you mean by replacing the TIM anyway?

[soundx98]

Sorry - Thermal Interface Material - lil yellow thermal pad that it comes stock (stuck between chip and chipset HSF). You can lower the temps by using a high quality compound such as As5, Ceramique, or Shin-Etsu

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23611

http://www.angrygames.com/chipset_clean-1.htm

hope this makes it clear.

[Crispy]

I'm looking at both of these boards too, but I read that DFI put epoxy or something on chip so you can't bridge connections. Is this true? Also the SLI-D seems to have more RAID Configurations. Does the SLI-D also have the nVidia nTune? Doesn't mention in the links. The SLI-D only SATAI and SLI, while the Ultra-D is SATAII and no SLI. So either way you need to mod something. One isn't easy to Mod/bridge then the other would it? Are the RAID Configurations worth the extra money considering you gotta Mod the board one way or another to get both of them to have SATAII and SLI?
Also what about the SLI Infinity? That board is cheaper than Both and has SLI and SATAII already and more RAID Configs then the Ultra-D. Sorry don't mean to HiJack you're post but I had questions also about these 3 boards.

[soundx98]

Ultra-D and above are ALL SATA II. Ultra-D can be modded to SLI. yes, newer boards have some epoxy over the two contact points but still easy to mod.

SLI-DR has 4 additional SATA ONE ports off the Sil 3114 controller. The NV RAID is much faster so many never use the SIl Image Controller. ALL Can use NVtune but it is not recommended on the DFIs as the bios gives you much bewtter control than Automatic settings that NTune uses. Really recommend you DO NOT use NTune with these boards as many have had issues using it.

Infinity SLI is a good board but not everyone gets the high OCs they do with the LanParty series. A bios may fix some issues with the Infinity and temp readouts. Remember that whichever you chose, nothing is guaranteed about overclocking.

As much as I like my Ultra-Ds, the associated components (PSU, RAM. and CPU) are going to determine the final overclock. Chipset mod to SLI is easy and like I said you'll probably want to go with a better TIM than supplied stock anyway. If you plan on overclocking IMO I'd stick with the LanParty's to be safe.

The cost difference between the boards is minimal when looking at the price of the entire system but don't let a little work on the chipset scare you. The BigToe modded bioses seem to be a lot more compatible with different memory (and all the bioses you'll want to try are on Tmod's CD which makes flashing a no brainer).

[gvblake22]

My SLI Infinity did 300mhz HTT just fine. Would probably do higher but never got around to testing it.