dfi infinity vs. abit nf7-s

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rogue_jedi

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 6, 2002
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i need a new mobo to replace my asus a7n8x-dlx that died (got water on it, then stopped working when i put it in a case. still have to check if it's shorted, but i doubt that because it powers up enough to tell me my good ram is bad)

i'm torn between the dfi infinity and the abit nf7-s. i don't really need the dual lan capabilities of my asus (heh i almost typed ass there... a dual lan ass would be really strange) and i didn't like it much anyway (only 1.85 vcore - i didn't get a tornado to run a 1.85vcore, and now i have watercooling too) i can't decide which one to get. my brother has the dfi pro875 lanparty, and it is a really sweet board. however, the dfi board has that damned resistor problem.

which side of the board has the offending resistors on it? if its the back it doesn't make a difference to me.

which board would you recommend to me? the price difference is only $4 so id doesn't make a difference (heh...)

thanks in advance.

edit: hey wow i just realized i'm a [H]ard|Gawd!!! w00t
 
I have a Lan Party and love it... the infinity should do nicely....

Either way you will end up with up with a great board...
 
i would go with the DFI b/c
1) its slightly cheaper: about 5 bux or so
2) it's IDE arrangement is at the edge and is vertical, where the NF7-S has it horizontal ( harder to organize )
 
right, but if the mounting holes have the resisters on the cpu socket side of the board on the infinity, i can't use it because of how my waterblock mounting mechanism works. if they're on the back then i can use it fine. (custom waterblock + don't really want to re-engineer the mounting design much)
 
I didn't have any clearance or mounting issues with my maze 3....

I'm in love with my infinity.
 
let's try putting it this way: which side of the infinity are the resistors near the mounting holes on?
 
I owned the ABIT NF7-S Rev.2 board for almost 9 months, one of the best boards I hever had

Recently I got a DFI Ultra Infinity and have never looked back.

Abit who?

Hope that helps :p
 
Originally posted by rogue_jedi
let's try putting it this way: which side of the infinity are the resistors near the mounting holes on?
Click to expand...

and again, i still don't know:eek:

but the infinity is my top choice if the mounting holes aren't screwed up.
 
I am going to be the black sheep but...

I had a DFI board and hated it! It would not lock the pci/agp at all! And with sata that is a BIG deal!!!!
 
Originally posted by [H]'er
I am going to be the black sheep but...

I had a DFI board and hated it! It would not lock the pci/agp at all! And with sata that is a BIG deal!!!!
Click to expand...

How did you know it would not lock the AGI/PCI? I thought all nforce3 boards locked this inless you changed it?
 
Originally posted by eddie500
How did you know it would not lock the AGI/PCI? I thought all nforce3 boards locked this inless you changed it?
Click to expand...


You mean nforce2?

nforce3's are A64 platforms



Originally posted by [H]'er
I am going to be the black sheep but...

I had a DFI board and hated it! It would not lock the pci/agp at all! And with sata that is a BIG deal!!!!
Click to expand...

We are not talking about all DFI boards, just the Infinity, and the Infinity has both
 
Originally posted by rogue_jedi
let's try putting it this way: which side of the infinity are the resistors near the mounting holes on?
Click to expand...
check out newegg pics, im not exactly sure where the resistors are but im gonna guess its on the front as i havent seen a mobo with them on the back yet
 
i have the dfi nf2 ultra b and i love it. However, dfi boards are known to have qc issues so check your board before you install anything. ie cpu socket
 
i looked around, and it turns out the resistors ARE on the top. not cool, unless the holes are A)the large size mounting holes or B) there is enough room to bolt a #6 nylon nut to each hole without crushing the resistor.

that said, the nf7-s is looking better due to the qc issues mentioned with the infinity and also the 2.3vcore i saw mentioned on one site (i don't need vdimm nearly as much, my ram does 250fsb 3-4-4-8 timings at 2.7volts; haven't tried pushing it... yet) can anyone confirm/deny this vcore setting? (i wanna break 2ghz before my paly gets ditched/unlocked)
 
They are the larger size mounting hole.... the resistors worried me a bit when I was putting on my alpha 8045.

It will be ok if you use caution and common sense.
 
The NF7-S has resistors on the top and crowding the holes too. I have both and neither will let you just plop the full size nuts on top. Only one hole on the abit is not crowded.

I would find something else to base your decision on like vcore (abit) or fsb prowess (probably infinity). I know the infinity gets more flack for its layout but theres nothing your average watercooler hasnt faced before.
 
why are you running 3-4-4-8 memory on an amd platform in the first place? Even then, the nf7-s wont do 250 fsb without a hell of a fight.
 
i know its kinda a retarded questions but i was looking for its website before but i cant find it....someone tell me?

thanks
 
i was testing the memory on my brother's intel box (2.4C @ 3.0) and ran it 1:1 but dropped the timings to make sure they wouldn't get in the way. the memory can also run low latencies tho:D.

the abit looks nice methinks (i need the vcore. probably not the extra .3volts, but you know i'll use it:))

o yeah, which size holes are on the abit?

CSx-2011 - i moved to WC from an 8045 w/ a tornado. noise got to be to much for me tho;)

edit: thanks for the thread move:cool: probably should have realized it should be here in the first place tho
 
what's the max vcore on the Infinity? I just ordered one yesterday :D

I'd rather have the vdimm myself, I've got 1 gb of BH-5 ready to be abused, so i think 250 @ 2-2-2-11 will be attainable at 3.3v (3.2?) If my 1gb doens't cooperate i can try my 512 :D
 
I hate my infinity, i had an nf7-s before it. The cmos relaoded is poorly implemented. It takes me at least 2-3 reboots before settings take effect. Which makes OC'ing harder rather than easier. It gave me sirens at 220 fsb, vs my nf7-s which did 230 fsb easy. This is the second infinity ive gotten to play with, and they both blow nuts.
 
Infinity max voltage settings.

Max Vcore: 2.0v
Max Vdd: 1.9v
Max Vdimm: 3.3v

I hate my infinity, i had an nf7-s before it. The cmos relaoded is poorly implemented. It takes me at least 2-3 reboots before settings take effect. Which makes OC'ing harder rather than easier. It gave me sirens at 220 fsb, vs my nf7-s which did 230 fsb easy. This is the second infinity ive gotten to play with, and they both blow nuts.
Click to expand...

Man, you must of gotten shitty Infinity's, because mine does 260 FSB into windows and 242 FSB (ram limited) Prime stable at 3.3v/1.9v. I heard the Made in China ones are alot worse, due to some production anomaly. The Made in Taiwan ones are the ones that everyone is doing these crazy FSB's on. Which is what I have. Do you have China ones? :confused:
 
I dont know, there is a white smudge under "Rev A" on the mobo, dunno what that means.

So are you saying you dont get the same problem? This is what i do

1: Set bios settings
2: Save and exit
(upon reboot i enter bios once again)
3: Save it in cmos reloaded

Now from this point i can either load my saved settings or just go and "save and exit". Either way they both yield the same results. Upon the reboot (where i expect my saved settings to be in place), i have all the settings except the multiplier and fsb adjustments. All voltage and mem timings have been saved. Now from here i have to let it get into windows, then rebootand go back to bios. Then i just go to save and exit and finally my settings are in place. As you can see this is a major pain in the ass. This WILL be the last DFI board i ever buy.
 
1: Set bios settings
2: Save and exit
(upon reboot i enter bios once again)
3: Save it in cmos reloaded
Click to expand...

you are using an extra step not needed.

put your settings in the bios, then save in Reloaded, and F10 (save and exit).

basically swap step #2 and #3...except you dont have to enter bios again unless you want to make different changes.


there is no difference in boards made in Taiwan and China.

QC problem = a batch of boards got past QC at factory that had warped sockets. Simply have your vendor exchange it with another if you get one (you should always look at your board carefully before you attempt to install it to see if there are any defects).
 
Originally posted by fLiPaChu
what the, where do you check the made in taiwan / china labels? i must know!

flip
Click to expand...

me too, i get mine tomorrow (guessing)
 
hey it's AG! haha, didn't know you existed at [H] but thanks, I'm gonna go with AG on this one.

flip

edit: i'm sure it doesn't matter for the LanParty B's right?
 
i'd go with the NF7-S. bought it for my bro's setup and it works great. bios is excellent and system is stable. bios is made so easy to OC that retards could figure it out. you won't regret it.
 
Originally posted by Angry_Games
you are using an extra step not needed.

put your settings in the bios, then save in Reloaded, and F10 (save and exit).

basically swap step #2 and #3...except you dont have to enter bios again unless you want to make different changes.


there is no difference in boards made in Taiwan and China.

QC problem = a batch of boards got past QC at factory that had warped sockets. Simply have your vendor exchange it with another if you get one (you should always look at your board carefully before you attempt to install it to see if there are any defects).
Click to expand...

I got this from your FAQ thread on amdmb.

"In order to use CMOS Reloaded you must first have one of the motherboards mentioned above. After booting the board, you should enter the BIOS and select whatever options are necessary for your system to run. Save these settings and exit the BIOS. When the computer reboots, enter the BIOS again, then go to the CMOS Reloaded section in the main BIOS screen. At this point you can save your settings as one of the four profiles by selecting "backup." You can then rename the profile to your liking with up to three lines of text"

This was typed up by someone else but it was linked in your thread. My the other DFI board is a taiwan board, while mine is china. Both exhibit the same symptoms of my problems. Now i have done my settings the way you say, and that dont work either (still requires a reboot after getting into windows). Maybe it is because im using other profiles than #1?
 
Originally posted by sKiTz0
why are you running 3-4-4-8 memory on an amd platform in the first place? Even then, the nf7-s wont do 250 fsb without a hell of a fight.
Click to expand...
I managed to get mine stable for about 5 minutes, then it went to [H]ell :/, had it going at 253 x 9.5, 240 just recently was proven really unstable, I am thinking it is my northbridge cooling, because it was burning hot to the touch after shutting down, just like my southbridge was before I added extra cooling :)
 
If you have the cash get the LanParty B if not then it's pretty much a toss up between the two boards- Go with what is cheaper then. I notice that on Newegg the Infinity is about $95 and the NF7-S is keeps flirting with the $100 mark. I think it has probably been said before but make sure your HSF is compatiable with the layout of the DFI boards.

Hey Angry_Games! Would you know if the DFI boards can use that Abit IDE to SATA bridge?
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-999-402&catalog=353&depa=1

I would love to get the Infinity but I want to have my IDE drives on different channels (I know but I'm picky about this kind of stuff) and I just got a 120gig IDE HD but I still need to upgrade the board. The inclusion of it with the Abit board makes it a pretty tempting choice for me but if it does work I could just get the adapter and the Infinity. :D
 
i'd like to check if my heatsink is compatible, but its custom and i'm still building it:D

maybe one of you kind folk with an infinity could send it to me so i could test it? i promise not to break anything on it (too badly:D) i'd pay shipping (if it wasn't too much):cool:







j/k :p
 
which size mounting holes are on the nf7-s? still haven't decided on which mobo yet, but straight a's this quarter won't hurt my chances of getting the one i want:D
 
Does anyone here have enough in depth knowledge of these two boards to know which one is going to be more forgiving to bad power?

For instance I know that most of the NFII gigabyte boards thrash any powersupply that is even thinking of being light on the 12v rail... Would ya'll think that the Infinity and the NF7-S are on a pretty similar plane in that respect?
 
I managed to get mine stable for about 5 minutes, then it went to [H]ell :/, had it going at 253 x 9.5, 240 just recently was proven really unstable, I am thinking it is my northbridge cooling, because it was burning hot to the touch after shutting down, just like my southbridge was before I added extra cooling
Click to expand...

That sounds about right, these chips get hot at high clocks.
You might also consider putting a heat sink on the clock generator as seen here.

We were running into the exact same issue with our sample of the LAN Party II UltraB. Up to 220-230 MHz, the board behaved very civilized, going beyond that point resulted in freezing of the system or exit of the application to the desktop.
Click to expand...

Check it out, 260MHz FSB with minimal effort isn't anything to scoff at.
 
switching over to the PC4000 DIMMs allowed to run up to 265 MHz bus speed (3:4:4) and 2.9V. Increasing the voltage did not increase stability. 3DMark2001 SE or 3DMark2003 crashed at that speed, which required to lower the bus speed to 262 MHz.
Click to expand...
:eek: I was planning on getting PC3500 hoping that they would help when it comes to OCing and now I know! Damn! I want an Infinity now!
 
The infinity has the Soundstorm, right? Does it do coax out, or optical? I want/need coax.... and I don't want to get an A7N8X-Deluxe... don't have the cash!

Somebody plz tell me....
 
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