Switch to a DFI from NF7-S?

[JoT]

People who have switched (I do indeed mean you HAVE USED BOTH), is it really worth it to switch to a DFI? It's getting time to order a new mobo, and I can either replace my current NF7-S (I burned out the SATA, so I need a new board to use a Raptor), or I can buy a DFI.

So is it really worth it? I've heard of severe cold boot problems when overclocking. I've been happy with the NF7-S so far, got to 210 FSB on my 1800 DLT3C, could get higher I expect, but Corsair RAM and me are having a battle right now.

Also, if I do go DFI, is there really any benefit in getting the UltraB over the Infinity? My current case revolves around the red of the NF7-S, and I would love to get an even more red mobo (the NF7 is freaking orange, man), but if it can be justified, I can get the black board and paint the green with a sharpie or something (eww, green).

I appreciate your input, guys.

[Note to Sentinal: Stay the **** away from this thread, I'm tired of hearing of your horror stories with the NF7-S--NOT EVERY BOARD IS THAT BAD, MAN; RMA, start over, and deal with it.]

 

[TheWiz]

RE

I have both running...

I just recieved my DFI Inf uII and what a pain this board has been.


My previous 2500mhz stable 1800+ will not run anything over 2300mhz with this board. 2 days of testing, flashing diff bios's and still cannot get this thing stable. If I bump the vcore above 1.75 the board reboots under load...no matter the mhz/fsb.

I have remounted my waterblock and it's making excellent contact. Temps are high 30's load. Ram is memtest and prime stable.

Really seems as if OVP is kicking in even at 1.8vcore on this DFI board. I would love to know if there was a way around this.

Abit NF7:
220fsb
2500mhz @ 1.8v

DFI inf:
200-240 (still testing)
2300mhz @ 1.7v


There is ALOT of fsb potential with this board....to bad my max stable MHZ is effected by vcore issue. Anyone know a fix for this?


HTH

 

[JoT]

No one else with any other experiences? I know there's somebody else

 

[mata2974]

I did the same switch a mth ago. Here is my take. Abit will not go over 230FSB DUAL channel (only one in a thousand) and that can be bad if you live by FSB and play a lot of games. The DFI will get you 240-260 without a problem or any mod, but you need to have good ram. I dont know how much I can stress this. BH-5 is a must in order to enjoy the benefits of this mobo. There is absolutely no reason to go DFI if you dont have BH-5 ram!!!If you just upgraded from NF7-s with your CH-5 or BH-6 ram you will be unhappy for sure.
Vcore on this DFI mobo is limited to 2.00V and the mobo undervolts like crazy, so if you had a CPU that liked high vcore you will be sorry on this mobo, (unless you wanna do the vcore mod, which is tricky and can void your warranty) but hey, you can always compensate the loss of MHZ to the gain in bandwidth (High FSB with DFI). Other than that I dont see any other advantage of the DFI.
Now "TheWiz" your problem is bios, believe me, thats what my board used to do. Try the bios modded by tictac (just remember these are hacked bios and always carry some risk) mine was giving all hell on earth untill I installed tictac modded bios 12/18 whiich work wonders. You can download them from here

 

[Mr.Rotory]

Well I was contemplating and have even ordered (thank god its sunday) the DFI Infinity, now i'm having second thoughts, big time. I love my NF7-S there are no problems, I can run 250*11 and no sweat, not to mention the voltages are perfect. Hmm, i'm thinking on a no, however I dont like the fact that all of the newer nf7's are made a little cheaper then mine, ie all that have the plastic lever are supposedly made with cheaper stuff. Hmm, dam this, I need to make decision today. Anybody else some input please?

 

[TheWiz]

RE

Now "TheWiz" your problem is bios, believe me, thats what my board used to do. Try the bios modded by tictac (just remember these are hacked bios and always carry some risk) mine was giving all hell on earth untill I installed tictac modded bios 12/18 whiich work wonders. You can download them from here

Well, I tried every bois on that page....and tested all morining. I still cannot use any voltage over 1.75 vcore.

I read on other forums that my 1800+ DLT3C is the cause...do to the low default voltage.

Wish I had another cpu to test this....guess I'm stuck at this speed...no biggie. Still lovin the fsb on this board.

 

[JoT]

Dang, thanks for the responses guys. I think I'll just order another NF7-S

 

[deeppow]

Re: RE

I have NF7, NF7-S and DFI nF2 Ultra Infinity. I've found the failure rate on new boards to be about the same for Abit and DFI, took me 3 tries on both (reseller was Newegg) to get a working board. I would hope others have had better luck.

I think the DFI is a little better in that there are more chipset and dimm voltages. This does give me about 10Mhz higher fsb on the DFI, see sig, than what I've gotten out of any NF7.

I don't call that a clear winner.

Well, I tried every bois on that page....and tested all morining. I still cannot use any voltage over 1.75 vcore.

I read on other forums that my 1800+ DLT3C is the cause...do to the low default voltage.

I have the same problem on my current DFI board too with an 1800 DLT3C. 1700 DLT3C behaves similarly too. The chips ran at about 2.450Mhz with 1.9V on my NF7. If I crank the voltage up on the DFI, it won't boot. Could you point me at the forum discussion of this TheWiz?

Has anyone tried the L12 wire trick on this problem? Don't know why it should help but strange things do happen.

 

[TheWiz]

RE

I have the same problem on my current DFI board too with an 1800 DLT3C. 1700 DLT3C behaves similarly too. The chips ran at about 2.450Mhz with 1.9V on my NF7. If I crank the voltage up on the DFI, it won't boot. Could you point me at the forum discussion of this TheWiz?

The place where I read about the DLT3C cpu issues with the DFI Infinity, is currently down. I will post the threads when they get everything back up.

I'm going to order a mobile 2500+ barton and see if this board behaves the same. Really too bad as this board just rocks on the FSB, but what good is fsb when I have to run 200-300mhz slower.

 

[deeppow]

Re: RE

I'm going to order a mobile 2500+ barton and see if this board behaves the same. Really too bad as this board just rocks on the FSB, but what good is fsb when I have to run 200-300mhz slower.

Hummmm... Great minds. I ordered the moblie 2500 barton and it should be delivered today or tommorrow at the latest. I'll let you know the results if you want to wait. On the other hand, results from 2 tries would be interesting too.

 

[Top Hat Theater]

I switched from an NF7-S to the Infinity and haven't looked back. I'm so happy with this board as I can run it at 250MHz 2-2-2-11 without modding it whereas my NF7 topped out at 230MHz and couldn't enable the CPU Interface when either a 10 or 10.5 multiplier was used. My memory bandwidth is close to 4000MB/s which I didn't think I'd ever see without going to the dark side or picking up an A64.

~THT

 

[-=Ambush=-]

THT are you getting any apparently typical problems with the DFI? Cold boot? Sound issues? Onboard LAN issues?

I just ordered and M-XP 2500+ off newegg along with a refurbished DFI LP B (*crosses fingers*)

With my mushkin black lvl 2, I hope to get 2.7-2.8 on air (*crosses toes*)

But i just hope i don't have any issues.

 

[TheWiz]

RE

Deeppow,

Here's one of the thread over at amdb forums that discuss this DLT3C issue.
Click

 

[mata2974]

Now DFI may be cool and give high FSB, but because of less voltage options I will choose NF7, believe me I have owned both. My 1700XP chip would do 2714MHZ (12.5X217)on NF7 at 2.1 volts all stabe, but on my DFI Ultra, it wont even do 2400mhz even though its at 240FSB (240x10) when I put 2.00 volts which translate to 1.97volt (undervolting WTF!!) it wont even boot or boot with errors. I am going back to my NFS. So with this experience, I dont see why buying a 2500XP mobile with a DFI mobo makes sence if you are aiming for high megahetz