DFI LP UT CFX3200-DR VS. Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe

DFI LP UT CFX3200-DR or Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe

  • DFI LP UT CFX3200-DR

    Votes: 23 57.5%

  • Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe

    Votes: 17 42.5%
  • Total voters
    40
  • Poll closed .
Well, if you insist on Crossfire then I suggest the ASUS. I say this because there's no reason to use Crossfire when SLI is so much more mature and fast. But then again, I'm not here to start a war. ASUS for sure.

Oh yeah, I don't think you're going to get real experience here for several reasons. #1 being that Crossfire is unpopular all around, and #2 being that ATI's chipsets are unpopular here due to the bad marketing they've received from [H]ardOCP.
 
InorganicMatter said:
Well, if you insist on Crossfire then I suggest the ASUS. I say this because there's no reason to use Crossfire when SLI is so much more mature and fast. But then again, I'm not here to start a war. ASUS for sure.

Oh yeah, I don't think you're going to get real experience here for several reasons. #1 being that Crossfire is unpopular all around, and #2 being that ATI's chipsets are unpopular here due to the bad marketing they've received from [H]ardOCP.
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Just trying to get info from those who have it:). i know sli is more popular then crossfire, but i just wanted to see which of these cf boards are better for cf:).

HDR+AA :)
 
InorganicMatter said:
Well, if you insist on Crossfire then I suggest the ASUS. I say this because there's no reason to use Crossfire when SLI is so much more mature and fast. But then again, I'm not here to start a war. ASUS for sure.

Oh yeah, I don't think you're going to get real experience here for several reasons. #1 being that Crossfire is unpopular all around, and #2 being that ATI's chipsets are unpopular here due to the bad marketing they've received from [H]ardOCP.
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But both SLI and crossfire can max out a lot of the games and those to come. I'll take the IQ. A game like Oblivion could be a sign of the future too. It runs great on ATi hardware. It's simply not worth the sacrifices to get Nv for me. Because when only raw fps is considered they trade blows with the GTX's winning more?

I was actually going to go SLI to avoid switching boards, and dump my XT. I'm going to switch boards and hope I can squash any bugs, because I simply can not give up HDR+AA in the game I play the most right now, and HQ AF. I had a GTX 256 back in the day.. the so-so AF didn't bother me too much, but now I appreciate it being gone. It would have been a cheaper endeavor, but I simply can not bring myself to do it. They'll have another stab at my money with GF8's, when I'm sure it will all be fixed. All companies have to ride the wave a bit before reinventing the wheel.
 
People honestly seem to have the least complaints about the Abit AT8 32x right now. The DFI is simply too much money for me. I'm hesitant to pull the trigger on something like that. If conroe is most of what it's cracked up to be, this could be a short stay. Someone correct if I'm wrong also, but the Asus has really crappy cpu vcore options.

People say the AT8 board is only hitting 270 though. But many many times the first release bios on a board has been bad for OC'ing in my experience. The XS guys are putting the boards through there paces and I'm sure will test them first day on a bios. I do have to pull the trigger on something. My x1900XT Crossfire Edition shipped today. I should try to have my board by next weekend the latest unless I want a second radeon looking at me.

Be nice. I have the obligatory two gigs of ram and a fast cpu etc. Good clocking Opty 170. Will definitely be my sickest rig ever. Think I might have to get raptors. Only thing missing now. :)
 
im trying to make a decision as well... i may shine away from DFi just because i don't think they are as stable as other brand manufacturers.

anyone know main differences between asus mvp, and mvp deluxe?
 
I hear you. My DFI NF4 doesn't hibernate properly. Which is kind of OK because I'm weary of my PC falling asleep under my prometia. I don't use the heater. Just insulation.

Oh, and I know the fan on the DFI Crossfire from my NF4, I hate it. I put the ol' copper iceberg on instead since I had it sitting around. Well I see you have one NF4 too. So you probably have your own opinion.
 
i got a dfi lp sli-dr expert in my main:) so far haven;t had any problems, heres the situation

i got a crossfire x1900xt, x1900xt, and pair of 7900gtx on the way, at this point i may just keep one x1900xt and resell the rest. just realized i took a big hit because of the IRS. (~$20k with every right off known to man)

but you never know i may change my mind, when all the hardware gets ;) here.
 
I guess the people voting don't actually have them like you asked. Unless they are not saying anything. Please do!
 
texuspete00 said:
I guess the people voting don't actually have them like you asked. Unless they are not saying anything. Please do!
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Ya this is exactly what i didn't want to happen, people voting based on things they have heard or on their specific model.
 
I can't comment on the DFI board specifically but I have had another DFI board and was marginally happy with it.


I can comment on the Asus A8R32-MVP deluxe.

So far it has been a real workhorse. The issues I have with the board are minor.

-USB keyboard won't work while in the BIOS have to use a PS2.

-Will only let you increase your Vcore by +100 or + 200mV above factory max volts for your chip.

-Has sneaky install of an Anti-virus program...I hate them almost didn't catch the install and was a royal pain to remove it.

-The initialization screen stalls on "USB initialization" for about 20 seconds? Seems like 3 days though while it is happening.

-If you don't turn off 2 settings in the BIOS ....boot settings config> Wait for "F1" if error:-----------disable and Full screen logo:------------------------------------------------disable and you are playing with OC'ing you end up having to wait a while to get into windows or even hit F2 depending on the issues.


Just make sure to get the newest BIOS as always. The shipped BIOS sucked.

My board so far has been very stable and is overclocking nicely. I can run the board all the way to 400HT with the CPU and RAM throttled back.

Max overclock with 1:1 on ram so far has been 270HT with prime 95 stable on both cores. max with a divider is 300ish.... so far Stock volts, stock heatsink.

Havent had enough time off work to really play with the OC yet, should have final results in the next two weeks while on vacation.


I have seen nothing but praise for the DFI part but have no personal knowledge of it.

If you ask me from everything I have read you better have one hell of a OCable CPU and RAM to ring either board out as both have no issues running 400FSB.
 
Reagent said:
I can't comment on the DFI board specifically but I have had another DFI board and was marginally happy with it.


I can comment on the Asus A8R32-MVP deluxe.

So far it has been a real workhorse. The issues I have with the board are minor.

-USB keyboard won't work while in the BIOS have to use a PS2.

-Will only let you increase your Vcore by +100 or + 200mV above factory max volts for your chip.

-Has sneaky install of an Anti-virus program...I hate them almost didn't catch the install and was a royal pain to remove it.

-The initialization screen stalls on "USB initialization" for about 20 seconds? Seems like 3 days though while it is happening.

-If you don't turn off 2 settings in the BIOS ....boot settings config> Wait for "F1" if error:-----------disable and Full screen logo:------------------------------------------------disable and you are playing with OC'ing you end up having to wait a while to get into windows or even hit F2 depending on the issues.


Just make sure to get the newest BIOS as always. The shipped BIOS sucked.

My board so far has been very stable and is overclocking nicely. I can run the board all the way to 400HT with the CPU and RAM throttled back.

Max overclock with 1:1 on ram so far has been 270HT with prime 95 stable on both cores. max with a divider is 300ish.... so far Stock volts, stock heatsink.

Havent had enough time off work to really play with the OC yet, should have final results in the next two weeks while on vacation.


I have seen nothing but praise for the DFI part but have no personal knowledge of it.

If you ask me from everything I have read you better have one hell of a OCable CPU and RAM to ring either board out as both have no issues running 400FSB.
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Thanks for taking the time to write this, this will help me alot in determining which board to buy.
 
Even though you can find me in the other threads about problems with my ASUS i would still recommend it. Setting up and installing the board was a breeze without any hiccups. The only driver issue i ran into was with my Realtek HD drivers that would cause my computer to take several minutes to shut down, but i dont blame the board for this. Mine shipped with the 0202 bios which is the original and i have heard some people are now getting theres with the 0311 bios version which is great.

Unfortunately i had to RMA mine as it had a leaky capacitor(whining sound under load). Again, everyone who had this issue and sent it back for another got a good working board. I purchased mine from newegg on the first of April and it came with the original bios and the problem :eek:
However, a couple of days ago they were out of stock of the board so all of the ones they have now should be free of the initial goof ups...I hope. Ill post back next week when i get another ASUS from the egg and let you know more of what i think. For the most part though most people had their bug issues fixed with a simple bios update.

I vote for ASUS...yet reserve my respects to DFI as another good board
 
Starting to swing towards the uber expensive DFI. Even with AM2 and Conroe set to murder my resale value. :(

DFI's slot layout is unmatched IMO. I could use my wireless NIC and A2ZS and just hope a physX card comes out in pcie in a timely manor.
 
texuspete00 said:
Starting to swing towards the uber expensive DFI. Even with AM2 and Conroe set to murder my resale value. :(

DFI's slot layout is unmatched IMO. I could use my wireless NIC and A2ZS and just hope a physX card comes out in pcie in a timely manor.
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there is always something new going to come out, to kill our resell value :)
 
I'd go with the DFI, it has the engineering layout of the DFI Venus, and the goodness of dual 16x PCI-E slots and crossfire support, and oskar wu behind it....but like many other people in this thread, i haven't used either board.
 
alright i think i'll give the DFI a go, only if i can manage to get a deal, if not my sli-dr expert/x1900xt should be good enough
 
ill lay out why i voted for DFI.

Asus, hit or miss. some oc good..some just suck. pure suckage.

Abit, unknown...doesnt know if its good or bad. might be good...but im hearing 270 htt max.

DFI. Solid boards...as much tweaking as you can shake a stick at. Max OC out of the both for sure. worth the money...yes. Drivestrengths out the WAZOO. dram timings out the wazoo. tweaking out the wazoo. Thumbs up out the wazoo. :)
 
SSPX0005.jpg


aren't they purdy, they just need a motherboard now!
 
IMO Its a wash.

I havent had any stability issues with my motherboard or hardware at all. I did fall victim to the usb problems when I first installed windows. Ran Asus Update, updated my bios. Now I can use my g15 keyboard to move around in there. YAY!

The machine does take a while to post however its a minor bother imo. Being if I watercool in the future which I think I am it will give the water time to start cylcing and cool down. Its not necessarily that damn long but I am just saying.

I have the Asus mobo. I got it because I am an Asus junkie pretty much.

I started my rig out with an Asus A8N_SLI Premium in a btx case mind you. I never had any problems with this board besides a ton of bluescreens which I found out after I had switched the mobo out with a dfi Lanparty NF4-UT SLI Expert that it was indeed the 32 bit driver for my saitek x52 which caused the bluescreens.

The DFI Ran slightly more stable but my internet connection would always drop from the board for some reason I dont know why and a lot of my programs I would have to set processor affinity. With the Asus that wasnt even necessary. And its not necessary with this one.

I would also like to add I am running windows 64 and was impressed the ULI raid driver disk actually had updated raid drivers for windows 64 otherwise I wouldnt of been able to use my 160 dollar software.

I am happy with the asus, the layout of the board is pretty nice, it consumes less power than the A8N32SLI it isnt covered in heavy ass heat pipes and runs pretty cool in my lian li v1100B 37 degrees on air to be exact.

So I mean its all up to you, DFI is for extreme overclocking and I personally wouldnt buy another dfi motherboard unless I was into ultra overclocking on a watercooled pc. Which I am not!

I am only considering watercooling for my stock clock system now because my x1900xt runs at 80 degrees full load and I would prefer to have it run at 40 degrees at full load while not sounding like a blender.
 
I have been working with the A8R32 for a few months. We just received the CFX3200. It took me a total of 3 hours to decide to install the DFI board in my personal system. I was having multiple problems with multiple A8R series boards. The DFI board just plain works better.

Issues with the Asus board.

1) Graphical (noise) problems with 1900 CF on an analog monitor.
2) USB issues. (30+ sec load bios hang with a USB hub attached.)
3) Random performance issues and hangs. <---- newest bios fixs many but still not all.
4) Very poor OC. My FX60 sample cpu that ran 100%stable at 3GHz on both a Manta reference and RDX200 would not even boot Windows on this board. FSB OC was also inconsistent.

Overall this board need work. Asus makes great products but this is not the best effort from them. I hope they fix the problems the board has great potential.

Issues with DFI board.
1) DIMM voltage default is too high in bios. (2.67 V) Just set to 2.5-2.6 (or leave at higher voltage for OC.)
2) Shutdown issue. Occasionally after powering down the board will spontaneously power back up. (Issues also exsits with the RDX200.) Not all boards do it and it does not happen all the time.

As it is easy to see the DFI board is far less issues. It is one of the best boards I have used out of the box in over a year.

Also the DFI has a functional RAID controller. (The Asus RAID controller only has one SATA conector internal and the other external so no internal RAID unless you use the SB SATA.) The DFI has 8 SATA ports.

So obviously my vote goes to DFI. If you are wanting CF this board should be on your short list.
 
I have not experience with the DFI or Abit board but do have the Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe and have had zero problems with it; even with USB hard drives connected.


I have not tried to push the system for very long as I have been too busy with Oblivion to care but has reached levels never achieved with my old DFI RDX200 board.

Overall I am very very happy with the board and performance.

Only issues I ever have with DFI is the BIOS takes too much tweaking for good performance.
 
R1ckCa1n said:
Only issues I ever have with DFI is the BIOS takes too much tweaking for good performance.
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only if you want ram performance...which if your lucky...at best...will at 1 or 2 fps. you can just set your ram at a lower divider and just say "yup whatever, those two fps dont matter"

anyways, ram tweaking is easy. with A64 tweaker its easy as pie. spi 32m to be exact :p
 
R1ckCa1n said:
Only issues I ever have with DFI is the BIOS takes too much tweaking for good performance.
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:confused:

just leave the stuff you don't understand on auto, and it's effectively an asus board with a bright color scheme ;)
 
thanks guys, just read through all the posts. I been watching this poll since i first started this thread; and i must say things are very close.

The most important opinions are those from people who own either board and are currently running crossfire.

Thanks again guys, still leaning towards DFI at this point.

EDIT - a bit disappointed eclipse didn;t throw his .02cents in regarding the board.:)
 
Layout for the DFI is MUCH better IMO, and if you want to be able to control everything, like you should be able to do, get the DFI!
 
amd ati FO SHO said:
thanks guys, just read through all the posts. I been watching this poll since i first started this thread; and i must say things are very close.

The most important opinions are those from people who own either board and are currently running crossfire.

Thanks again guys, still leaning towards DFI at this point.

EDIT - a bit disappointed eclipse didn;t throw his .02cents in regarding the board.:)
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lets jsut say eclipse hates Asus more then a fat kid hates health food. 2t issues, 2gig issues...everything.
 
I didn't vote because I don't have any experience with the DFI board.

That being said I do have the ASUS and am happy. No major problems. I works as advertised and at stock. It has headroom for OC, but in my mind inability to OC is NOT the fault of the manufacturer.

You might want to check this review out for ASUS with the new 404 bios.
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2743

And check out this long running post, it goes back to release date, about the ASUS board and problems people have had, just remember people like me that don't have any problems rarely post. :)
http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=100818&page=1&pp=15
 
I started out with a Biostar board, nice overclocker, didn't get what I wanted from my graphics card though. Switched to the A8R32-MVP... Ok, this is where it gets ugly. The big problem with this board is that it is inconsistent. Sometimes a setting would work perfectly, other times it would be completely screwy, making rebooting after a bios change a hassle. It was difficult to see the logic behind what worked and what didn't. Eventually I got the board to OC to its maximum 1T mem timing of a FSB speed of 322. This yielded a rock stable OC of 2740Mhz or thereabouts. Which was also as fast as I could get it to go. I wanted to crack 2800Mhz with my X2 3800 but it just woudn't do it. Thats fine, a stable 2740Mhz OC is nothing to complain about. Ok, but the USB and the BUZZING NOISE were very much worth complaining about. If you have a USB mouse plugged in the pointer will occassionaly stop responding, this is apparently an issue with the USB on some copies of this board. Also, just being on causes the board to make a horribly annoying buzzing noise, but throw on a USB hard-drive and that noise gets LOUD. You know, I'd rather be stabbing my eardrums with a pair of scissors kind of loud.

Alright, the A8R32-MVP is solid performance-wise, it has issues, some are addressed by the BIOS, some are a result of the board just being a cheap piece of shit IMHO.

Enter the DFI CFX3200. HOORAY. It works fine right off the bat, no weirdness, I'm getting solid performance from my graphics cards, and getting ready to delve into overclocking. If you heard that overclocking was complicated on this board, I guess it is, there are lots of settings in the BIOS.

Bottom line, both boards are solid and fast once you actually get it working, but initially, it seems like the DFI has fewer problems. The A8R32-MVP is on its way back for a full refund.

Me personally, I am avoiding ASUS boards like the plague from now on. Too many stories of shit going wrong with them. I know there are LOTS of happy customers, but there are just too many instances of shitty boards making it throuch QC.

So yes, I voted for the DFI.
 
amd ati FO SHO said:
EDIT - a bit disappointed eclipse didn;t throw his .02cents in regarding the board.:)
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as ccu implied... you don't want to hear my comments on asus. i can summarize it in two words though ;)


also, the tweakability that can be had from the dfi is simply stunning. not many other boards give you the possibility of running 4 sticks at 1T & 200mhz :D
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
also, the tweakability that can be had from the dfi is simply stunning. not many other boards give you the possibility of running 4 sticks at 1T & 200mhz :D
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how about zero boards. besides the pci-e slot dual spaced DFI boards. and dont even say camp intel...cause they are stuck at 2t FOR LIFE.
 
The DFI CFX 3200 is an awesome enthusiast board with a wonderful rich BIOS.

I tried an Abit AT8 32X and was plague by memory incompatiblity, cold reboot issues with CAS 2, and a very poor location of the CMOS jumper that requires you to remove both your sound card and one crossfire video card to access.

They say you can use a uguru panel on the front of the computer to reset the CMOS, however it doesn't come with the board and I could not find one on line to purchase.

The DFI resets easy, just press the power|reset switch and turn off the PSU at the same time to restore defaults. I like the "CMOS reloaded" feature too, where you can save up to four complete BIOS settings. I have a slow one, a medium, medium high, and extreme saved.

With the DFI board even with Crossfire installed you have two PCI slots that may be used and one PCI-e.

Voltages are rock solid and very flexible. It is a board that requires a lot of tweaking and rewards you for it. If you are a plug and play sort of fellow or into light OCs I'd say try the Abit or Asus. You best find out which memory the Abit "likes" before you buy it. Ask users on the forums and don't use the official support list as some they say work, do not.

If you are going Crossfire the DFI and Asus have the best layout.
 
The problem with ABIT is the company is going in the shitter according to a few sources and the guy that coded their previous mainboard bios' left to work for DFI and thats why their bios' are so much more what Abit's used to be.

The Asus board just had a new bios released and Anandtech.com did a review on it and are VERY happy with the results of the new bios. I personally have not experienced this memory hum? That people have been getting!

I havent flashed my bios to the newest version yet, im still using 0311, the newest is 0404 I believe.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2743

Just thought I would throw that out there for the people having issues. Also I fixed whatever that boot lag issue was, its in power management, boot configuration.

Disable wait for F1 if error and disable full screen logo. Board boots to windows under 1 minute now instead of the 3 minutes it took before.
 
ive had mixed results with my ASUS A8R-MVP Deluxe........it works great untill i overclock. I get blue screens when playing COD2 for about 10 min. My memory is at ddr 500 1:1 with 2.5-3-4-8 and im still having problems. Voltage is at 2.9, with my DFI Ultra-D i was at ddr 570 1:1 with tighter timmings(2.5-3-3-6) and never got any problems. I tried everything and just so no one makes the mistake of taking me fopr a newb, ive been overclocking motherboards for years and years now. Its not me, ive checked EVERYTHING twice or more. I might RMA, im giving it one more chance and if i see any blue screens at all im getting a new board.
 
Tripp17 said:
ive had mixed results with my ASUS A8R-MVP Deluxe........it works great untill i overclock. I get blue screens when playing COD2 for about 10 min. My memory is at ddr 500 1:1 with 2.5-3-4-8 and im still having problems. Voltage is at 2.9, with my DFI Ultra-D i was at ddr 570 1:1 with tighter timmings(2.5-3-3-6) and never got any problems. I tried everything and just so no one makes the mistake of taking me fopr a newb, ive been overclocking motherboards for years and years now. Its not me, ive checked EVERYTHING twice or more. I might RMA, im giving it one more chance and if i see any blue screens at all im getting a new board.
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I had to change the Trwt and async latency numbers around on my board to get the RAM to run at spec speeds. made the difference from 230HT to 270 which is the memories limit @ 3-4-4-8.
 
Im just curious on how many people who own the A8r32 are having problems with the 0311 bios coming stock?

I ordered my asus board April 5 and it shipped from the egg with the 0211 bios, and needless to say i had a leaky capacitor along with a burning hot northbridge at stock settings. Well i rma'd my board only to see that newegg was out of stock so i was thinking this might be a good thing since maybe they would get in a newer shipment. Fortunately they did, my new board has just arrived with the 0311 preinstalled :D

I will install everything tonight or tomorrow but for those of you still looking at getting the A8R32, keep in mind that most of the problematic boards came from the first batch and the newer ones may/may not have the same amount of problems. I'll verify this in the next couple of days but i truly feel this might be the case. Of course, im sure someone out here with a newer board will have some problem with their board ;)

Eclipse, look for me in the memory forums soon. Ill need some help with my tccd mem(stupid heatspreaders) :D
 
Got the DFI in. I'm not sure I'm going to try my OCZ 600. I got the approved sparkle 650w for $91 coming in tommorrow. Looks to similar to the fortron (same make) but is real skimpy on connectors, no sleeving, has an 80mm fan that is probably louder. Trying to save money, but I'm already so far in, maybe I should have sprung. Want to buy a stacker of some kind too.

Hope I can get it together for this weekend. Results from the table top. DFI, Opty170, x1900XT crossfire. :) My Ram's not really so hot though.
 
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