DFI AMD 64 SLI board in stock!

burningrave101 said:
It was 16x/2x that worked with modded Ultra chipset. x8/x8 is the nVidia specified mode for SLI chipsets.
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Here is what Anantech wrote about the Ultra/SLI mod:
Anandtech said:
We set the jumpers to SLI, attached the top bridge from an SLI board, since the Ultra boards do not ship with an SLI bridge, and fired up the system. The system was immediately recognized as an SLI chipset on boot and in Windows XP by our latest 71.40 Forceware drivers. Our little bit of very easy modification had "turned" the Ultra chipset into SLI. We no longer had driver limitations and performance was now exactly the same as the performance that we achieved with a normal SLI chipset.
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I was talking about nVidia anyways but its funny how DFI doesn't support this mod even though they made sure it was well known that the board would support a SLI config with a modded chipset in order to make it a prime selling point for the board. It wasn't until nVidia put the clamps on DFI that this all changed.
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Agreed.
 
blink182prj said:
The x16 slot CAN be used, as I have previously stated, just like a x1 slot. You can put a PCI-E card from x1-x16 into one of these x16 slots. Additionally, while it is not likely that anything other than video cards will use all that bandwidth, it is certainly possible that future expansion cards could use the x16 slots. There is absolutely nothing wrong with including two x16 slots on a PCI-E board.
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There is nothing wrong with it but i dont see the reason why they would include an extra x16 slot when nothing other then a video card would need that amount of bandwidth. Its a worthless added feature now.
 
burningrave101 said:
There is nothing wrong with it but i dont see the reason why they would include an extra x16 slot when nothing other then a video card would need that amount of bandwidth. Its a worthless added feature now.
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Cost of manufacturing maybe, only one PCB needed for the whole NForce 4 Lanparty line? If this is the case, makes me wonder which idea came first, economical (Hey, let's build all of our boards with 2 x16 slots so we can pretty much just build the same board regardless except for the chipset and some other small details...and HEY we can also unofficially advertise how the Ultras can be modded to work like a SLI, could boost sales...) or performance (You know...we could let it "accidently" slip how it's pretty easy to mod the Ultra chipsets to a SLI...and then point out how our boards all have 2 x16 slots...and it will be cheaper for us to build that way too...don't need two PCB's on hand, just one...). If I had to guess, economical was the first idea, even if the ease of modding the chipset was probably known by DFI at the same time.
 
Arvig said:
Cost of manufacturing maybe, only one PCB needed for the whole NForce 4 Lanparty line? If this is the case, makes me wonder which idea came first, economical (Hey, let's build all of our boards with 2 x16 slots so we can pretty much just build the same board regardless except for the chipset and some other small details...and HEY we can also unofficially advertise how the Ultras can be modded to work like a SLI, could boost sales...) or performance (You know...we could let it "accidently" slip how it's pretty easy to mod the Ultra chipsets to a SLI...and then point out how our boards all have 2 x16 slots...and it will be cheaper for us to build that way too...don't need two PCB's on hand, just one...). If I had to guess, economical was the first idea, even if the ease of modding the chipset was probably known by DFI at the same time.
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I dont see how having just one PCB design would save them any money. A single reference design for the board would cost them next to nothing to produce and if anything using slower x1 slots instead of high-speed x16 slots ought to save them money instead of costing them money.

The design for the Ultra-D and SLI version aren't exactly the same anyways because the SLI versions have added features like a Silicon Image RAID controller for an added 4 SATA ports.
 
burningrave101 said:
I dont see how having just one PCB design would save them any money. A single reference design for the board would cost them next to nothing to produce and if anything using slower x1 slots instead of high-speed x16 slots ought to save them money instead of costing them money.
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We are probably taking pennies difference here going from a 16x slot to a 2x slot.
The design for the Ultra-D and SLI version aren't exactly the same anyways because the SLI versions have added features like a Silicon Image RAID controller for an added 4 SATA ports.
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Those are surface mounted and all they need to do is not load the chip inserter with the SI chip or the extra SATA connectors, a simple feat and presto a new board. I have a feeling that Arvig's assumption is correct. They knew at some point the Ultra could be modded, whether that was before or after they designed the SLI board we will never know. It's still the exact same motherboard.
 
burningrave101 said:
I dont see how having just one PCB design would save them any money. A single reference design for the board would cost them next to nothing to produce and if anything using slower x1 slots instead of high-speed x16 slots ought to save them money instead of costing them money.
.
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One thing to consider is that "next to nothing" per individual board can be siginifigant when it comes to producing large numbers of the same item over and over again.

Also remember that labor costs money too. If they can do the NForce 4 line of motherboards as the same board for almost the whole run, only having to grab the ones designated as Nforce 4 Ultra board for when they put in the chipset, then they have saved money, much less labor used in manufacturing then if they have to make them as two boards from the start.

One thing I didn't remember until now is I think NVidia has a surcharge on the SLI chipsets maybe? Here, look at this article, it mentions that there's an extra $50.00 charged to use the SLI chipset and to place logos on the box:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20863

There's much of the incentive right there, although I still do argue the points I made above too.
 
Just got my Ultra-D today! Yessssss! But....the switches for the onboard power and reset buttons were broken on delivery. Should I be worried about these? Since these parts are broken, I'm worried others might be too. Think I should RMA it? I probably will not use these functions very often, but I'm just worried there might be more broken than the switches that I have not yet seen.
 
blink182prj said:
Just got my Ultra-D today! Yessssss! But....the switches for the onboard power and reset buttons were broken on delivery. Should I be worried about these? Since these parts are broken, I'm worried others might be too. Think I should RMA it? I probably will not use these functions very often, but I'm just worried there might be more broken than the switches that I have not yet seen.
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I just got mine last night, now I'm waiting for the rest of my new parts to get here. (any minute)

When you say "broken" do you mean physically? ie. "extra pieces"

If you mean they simply aren't working, have you tried turning the connectors around? (not trying to be a smart-ass, just trying to cover all the bases of your problem)
 
burningrave101 said:
There is nothing wrong with it but i dont see the reason why they would include an extra x16 slot when nothing other then a video card would need that amount of bandwidth. Its a worthless added feature now.
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I don't think you would get the whole x16 bandwidth out of the slot even though it is a x16 slot. I thought I read somewhere that there was a limit of 20-24 PCI-E lanes. I think the whole point WAS to include it as a SLI mod of the ultra chipset but without the SLI bandwidth (x2 and x16 vs. "SLI" x8 and x8 according to anandtech). Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see how you would get the whole x16 bandwidth out of the slot if you already had a x16 vid card. If you could get the whole bandwidth, why not have x16 and x16 SLI instead of x8 and x8?
 
kirbyrj said:
I don't think you would get the whole x16 bandwidth out of the slot even though it is a x16 slot. I thought I read somewhere that there was a limit of 20-24 PCI-E lanes. I think the whole point WAS to include it as a SLI mod of the ultra chipset but without the SLI bandwidth (x2 and x16 vs. "SLI" x8 and x8 according to anandtech). Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see how you would get the whole x16 bandwidth out of the slot if you already had a x16 vid card. If you could get the whole bandwidth, why not have x16 and x16 SLI instead of x8 and x8?
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Yes your correct that you wouldn't get the full x16 bandwidth if you were running more then one video card but a x1 PCI-E slot is suppost to provide all the bandwidth any add-on card, besides a video card, would need.

And when you mod the Ultra chipset doesn't it run in normal x8/x8 mode? I thought it only rat the x16/x2 mode before they modded the chipset so that the nVidia drivers recognized it as a SLI chipset.
 
dIsRuPtIvE said:
I just got mine last night, now I'm waiting for the rest of my new parts to get here. (any minute)

When you say "broken" do you mean physically? ie. "extra pieces"

If you mean they simply aren't working, have you tried turning the connectors around? (not trying to be a smart-ass, just trying to cover all the bases of your problem)
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Yeah, I mean physically broken. A spring, various jumpers, two stiches and two switch covers were rolling around in the anti-static bag. I don't have my proc or RAM yet, so I'm not sure if anything works. The board does get power from my 20 pin 410W PSU (i.e. the Northbridge fan turns on and the video card fan turns on plus the standby power light, the DRAM power light and the 4 diagnostic LEDs come on indictating I don't have a processor in the board). So yeah, physically broken...
 
blink182prj said:
Yeah, I mean physically broken. A spring, various jumpers, two stiches and two switch covers were rolling around in the anti-static bag. I don't have my proc or RAM yet, so I'm not sure if anything works. The board does get power from my 20 pin 410W PSU (i.e. the Northbridge fan turns on and the video card fan turns on plus the standby power light, the DRAM power light and the 4 diagnostic LEDs come on indictating I don't have a processor in the board). So yeah, physically broken...
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Well I wouldn't hesitate RMAing it then. That board has taken some nasty blows for it to arrive in that condition.
 
Erc said:
damn that was fast ....



Where are thee ????


LP%20nF4%20%20SLI-DR.jpg
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Ultra-D..exactly the same board minus additional 4 sata port and silicon chip. I use SLI bridge from Neo4..
dfi1.JPG
 
dIsRuPtIvE said:
Well I wouldn't hesitate RMAing it then. That board has taken some nasty blows for it to arrive in that condition.
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Agreed. I'd both be calling and e-mailing the reseller you got it from on that, it's worth waiting a week or even two and not risk putting anything into that board if it arrived with actual parts broken off.
 
centvalny said:
Ultra-D..exactly the same board minus additional 4 sata port and silicon chip. I use SLI bridge from Neo4..
dfi1.JPG
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LOL...well, that's one way to get a SLI bridge part, cannibalize it from another board.

I'm only half joking when I say I expect to see those little SLI bridge parts selling on eBay for more then a complete motherboard now. ;)

Anyway, good luck on the chipset mod, looks like you're going to give it a go. :)
 
It looked like the SLI bridge came with the Ultra-D in the Newegg pic. Is that correct?
 
kirbyrj said:
It looked like the SLI bridge came with the Ultra-D in the Newegg pic. Is that correct?
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That was an early picture taken from the DFI website. DFI has plainly stated that the SLI bridge will only ship with SLI boards and the Ultra is not one of them (see DFI.)
 
I got mine today and after alittle bit of trouble....i was able to get the thing rock stable and i havent had time for much of an overclock as of yet, but for the hell of it, i brought it to 275 fsb with the memory at 1:1. So i have a 3.0 gigahert processor and my memory is at 550. Not bad for the first day.....not bad at all. I used to have an Asus A8N-SLI and i could only get 245 fsb stable......
 
i had one of these ordered, but the place said they never really had them and they had no idea when they'd get them in!

so now, im looking and not seeing these anywhere.

i can wait tho, im on the asus a8n and at 2.5ghz stable.. which isnt bad.. but i think i can hit much higher with this dfi.

at least i can wait since i am not waiting on the DFI to get the system up.
 
housecat said:
i had one of these ordered, but the place said they never really had them and they had no idea when they'd get them in!

so now, im looking and not seeing these anywhere.

i can wait tho, im on the asus a8n and at 2.5ghz stable.. which isnt bad.. but i think i can hit much higher with this dfi.

at least i can wait since i am not waiting on the DFI to get the system up.
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Newegg & Zipzoomfly has had them off and on, you could always check there, and if they don't have them now click on their e-mail notification button...and hope you get the e-mail fast enough, if they are still selling as hot as they have been.
 
Arvig said:
LOL...well, that's one way to get a SLI bridge part, cannibalize it from another board.

I'm only half joking when I say I expect to see those little SLI bridge parts selling on eBay for more then a complete motherboard now. ;)

Anyway, good luck on the chipset mod, looks like you're going to give it a go. :)
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with 201 bios. TCCD431 memory have to run at 3.1V to be stable at htt 300 and up..Vcore really help...
3432.JPG

3432-1.JPG
 
What is up with those temps? Did you drop an overheating engine in there? lol. That is some shit right there. I don't know if the overclock is worth the temps... lol















I seriously doubt those are real temps... :rolleyes:
 
LOL, the DFI Nf4 boards use a trick when they go sub-zero. It will auto add 255C to whatever the actual temp is. This is supposed to help the Winchester cold boot issue, but it has not been tested yet.

In the example above, the actual temp would be -13C, since you take 242-255. I'm sure the LS is reading lower (i'd guess around -30 to -35C), but their temp sensors are known to be off. Take it with a grain of salt.
 
What to do? I'm really interested in this board but I want to make sure I'll have the SLi option down the road. What are the chances that this is one of the SLi-moddable chips (assuming that Nvidia may be making physical alterations to the NF4 chipset to prevent the mod), AND I'll be able to get a hold of an SLi bridge later on?
 
It is still...I got this Ultra-D on Tue.. ;) imo newegg and zzf try hard to exhaust this first batch of Ultra-D (with pressure from nvidia)......with crazy sale price...from $179 when it first released...
 
This is the latest ..almost 3.5Ghz..Gskill LE starts to become bottleneck...screen shot ok...still have to tweak memory config in bios. Htt 312x11-3V and 1:1 stable benched. I will try 3d benches...:D
34654jd.jpg

91602ks.jpg
 
Booby McNipples said:
Screw it, I'm going for it. I can always sell it. :)
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SLI really isn't all that beneficial yet and probably wont be for a while till it has more time to mature. As cheap as motherboards are you can always upgrade to a SLI capable board down the road when you decide to go with a SLI config.
 
burningrave101 said:
SLI really isn't all that beneficial yet and probably wont be for a while till it has more time to mature. As cheap as motherboards are you can always upgrade to a SLI capable board down the road when you decide to go with a SLI config.
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Its so much fun playing with this board :D It will be a while untill I find the highest stable timings and configs for tccd431/fx55. After that, time to torture the 6800Us and 3d benches :D
 
Got My ultra D ordered today. Hopefully I get one of the modable boards. Still pretty low price. like 157.00 shipped from New Egg.This will eventually replace my Neo2 which i belive is the nail in my ass keeping me from Ocing to the full potential of the Chip. Neo 2 production date is 0409. Now I just need to get a vid card. I assume that If I wanna check the Board for its OC abillity I can run a inexpensive PCI vid card and run the mem and Cpu to see how it does. So Cent are you planning on detailing the mods you are doing to the board. Any tips pointers or the such that may help.

TheCpt.
 
Hey Centalvny, what rev. is your NF4 chip? mines an A3 and I am wondering if that's what you have too. I have yet to try the SLi mod but I did get it up and running tonight with absolutely no issues.
 
Booby McNipples said:
Hey Centalvny, what rev. is your NF4 chip? mines an A3 and I am wondering if that's what you have too. I have yet to try the SLi mod but I did get it up and running tonight with absolutely no issues.
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A3 and board is A02..
Capt, I'm pretty sure all the ultra-d stocks at the retail channels up until now still modable. Imo, thats why all on sale ;) ..Nvidia want to exhaust all DFI initial first batch of ultra-d to clear the way for second batch which impossible to mod.
edit: I'm runnin with a single 6600GT....heres AM3 scorehttp://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=890056250...Just got x850xt replacement (for a doa board) from ATI today :D will see how [H]ard she can run ;)
With Ultra-D, you will be busy tweakin the memory settings on bios and my tccd ran at 2.9/3.0V...
 
burningrave101 said:
SLI really isn't all that beneficial yet and probably wont be for a while till it has more time to mature. As cheap as motherboards are you can always upgrade to a SLI capable board down the road when you decide to go with a SLI config.
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I dont know about that,i have one with 2 6600 GT's running at 6800 ultra speed for a lot less money.
 
centvalny said:
A3 and board is A02..
Capt, I'm pretty sure all the ultra-d stocks at the retail channels up until now still modable. Imo, thats why all on sale ;) ..Nvidia want to exhaust all DFI initial first batch of ultra-d to clear the way for second batch which impossible to mod.
edit: I'm runnin with a single 6600GT....heres AM3 scorehttp://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=890056250...Just got x850xt replacement (for a doa board) from ATI today :D will see how [H]ard she can run ;)
With Ultra-D, you will be busy tweakin the memory settings on bios and my tccd ran at 2.9/3.0V...
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Thanks man, I have the same rev's. I went looking for conductive paint this morning and so far all I've found is some aluminum paint at home depot. I'll paint a strip and put a meter to it and see what happens. *crosses fingers....
 
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