Which 939 NF4 mobo is best?

[icesaber]

so a $15 thermalright on the nb won't help, huh? or is that just too far out of the budget?
I just ordered the chaintech. it'll be a few more weeks until I get the whole system up and running (budget) but I'll let you guys know about my findings.
I personally have no bias against chaintech. the only company I have any bias against isn't a real bias because I know they're a good company. my beef was the lack of a pci lock on the asus a7v600-x, but I don't hold it against them so I guess I shouldn't really call it a bias.
I also like the layout of the board, the dimm sockets remind me of the msi k8n neo2, another board I debated before NForce4 was released. most of the mosfets are also bunched so sinking them should be relatively easy. I don't need 2 lan sockets (I have pci cards if necessary) so that's no issue either.
honestly I can see just from the pictures that the stock nb cooler is anemic. my solution: buy, run at lower fsb, replace cooler when you want to move it higher.

 

[dippy_skoodlez]

I don't need 2 lan sockets (I have pci cards if necessary) so that's no issue either.
honestly I can see just from the pictures that the stock nb cooler is anemic. my solution: buy, run at lower fsb, replace cooler when you want to move it higher.

Yea.. I dont ever run a stock NB or sb cooler... lol..

If its not cooling well enough, wht the *@% are you complaining and not getting a better one? I mean, what are you using for your cpu? stock?



All chaintech anything i have seen run warm... just begs for some nice cooling. Give it, and it can be your friend for a while

 

[johan851]

No offense, but unless you've actually owned or dealt with a DFI, it's hard to make such a conjecture. Believe it or not, DFI boards are of some of the highest quality, and their features are not "glitz and glam." Correct me if I'm wrong, but there is nothing superficial about a 3.3 vdimm option for a chipset where most other boards only offer about 2.9 (NF2 specifically).

I would've agreed with you until I purchased my DFI NFII board. It has great options and is a good overclocker, but...man, the quality just sucks. It's like a group project where one person did A work and the other person did nothing. But it does seem like they've fixed their issues, so I might be willing to check out DFI again.

 

[bla403]

For 939 Go with the Epox 9nda3+.
I tried an a8v and couldnt be stable over 220fsb,
got my epox running really nice check sig. Newest beta bios unlocks vcore adjustments up to 1.85V, if u have a cooler that can use it.
All the ram and usb coldboot issues are solved with the new bios, and the onboard nic runs great. Best board ive ever had.

 

[deception``]

I would've agreed with you until I purchased my DFI NFII board. It has great options and is a good overclocker, but...man, the quality just sucks. It's like a group project where one person did A work and the other person did nothing. But it does seem like they've fixed their issues, so I might be willing to check out DFI again.

I had my fair share of problems with my first couple of boards, too. However, most issues with the DFI have been resolved through the various bios updates by either Oskar himself or third-party modders. My point was not to say that DFI never had issues or still does not; rather, it is simply unfair to compare the stability of a motherboard that's over 2-years-old to that of a board that's barely a year old. Obviously, the more mature motherboard will typically always be more stable (and rightfully should be, given it's age).

deception``

 

[johan851]

Fair enough.

 

[K4mui]

No offense, but unless you've actually owned or dealt with a DFI, it's hard to make such a conjecture.

Well, I did have a DFI-S754, and I sold it... it was slow.

Just slow. Nothing to change that.. I needed 2-2-2-timings at 10x240 to catch up to Kv8Pro @2.5-3-3-timings. Same clocks.
Ridiculous...

Now everybody's telling me (in the US-forums, and only there!) that there is some tweak, but I didn't find anything to change the 'speed', which wasn't a speed at all

 

[deception``]

Well, I did have a DFI-S754, and I sold it... it was slow.

Just slow. Nothing to change that.. I needed 2-2-2-timings at 10x240 to catch up to Kv8Pro @2.5-3-3-timings. Same clocks.
Ridiculous...

Now everybody's telling me (in the US-forums, and only there!) that there is some tweak, but I didn't find anything to change the 'speed', which wasn't a speed at all

Well, I'm very sorry to hear that. But I'm pretty sure that you were overlooking some feature and/or setting to keep the DFI on par. One thing I have learned in working with the UI, LP B, and UT is that these boards are very flexible and leave a lot of control up to the user. Conversely, they also require a good amount of tweaking and messing around before you find the right settings. So I do sympathize with you and your situation, but I'm also sure that, had you given it some more time, you would have found the problem.

In no way do I mean to exclusively endorse DFI motherboards, but I do have a profound appreciation for their work. Nonetheless, DFI are enthusiast motherboards, and require a lot more patience and care than the average board. Because of this, often times we find that we simply cannot treat these boards like our older NF7-S or KV8 (an example), as DFI's are a bit more methodical and follow lengthy, yet necessary processes to produce great results. As a result, I have found that, in almost every situation in which I have encountered a problem, it has been directly related to user error and/or impatience on my behalf. So being able to overcome these issues and still have a stable, yet highly overclockable system definitely appeals to me.

The same can be said for AMD as a whole. As Sentential said not too long ago, AMD's are enthusiast chips. Typically, they require more work to get up and running than the average Intel, but the results can be very pleasing once the work has been done. Furthermore, the knowledge one gains in troubleshooting and tweaking is often more valuable than the problem itself. So this is why I have a very profound respect for DFI and almost anything that requires some hard work and diligence to get up and running.

deception``

 

[bobmanfoo]

Can you point out where you have seen an SLI board for $220 please?

CK

Directron.com $215 and Zipzoomfly.com $200 shipped, price gouging newegg has it for 269$

 

[K4mui]

@deception, I had this board for nearly five weeks, and I was among other users in the german forums- we all encountered the same problem, we did not find anything to speed up this board.
Of course it was frustrating, seeing users with e.g. Kv8Pro getting way better results.
Maybe we all gave up too early, but it was strange anyway. At last my DFI didn't perform as expected, though it ran very smoothly and flawlessly.
Not to say it ran perfectly- I was very pleased with this fact!

I will keep my eye on DFI's performance, S754 might just have been a single occasion, I am looking forward to their nF4Ultra-release

Good night to all, regards, Kamui

 

[Yuriman]

How does the asus perform? Is it reliable? Worth getting over the chaintech? I will be going with an nvidia card.

 

[deception``]

The Asus should perform well, but their voltage options tend to be on the conservative end. Nonetheless, I would recommend it over the Chaintech anyday. I would recommend my DFI thread to you as a starter for any s939/NF4 setup, but If I remember correctly you have already gone over it before.

deception``