EPoX or DFI?

[SomeoneWhoIsntMe]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152
DFI LanParty UT nF4 Ultra-D

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813123251
EPoX EP-9NPAJ SLI

I can get either one of these motherboards, and I plan on overclocking an Opteron 144 or 146 with not that great of RAM, so I need a good OCing motherboard. Which one do you guys think I should get, and why?

 

[solus]

I didn't realize that those boards supported Opterons... as a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure they are only S939... the Opterons are 940, no?

 

[SpeedRunner]

I've had to replace 2 epox boards. Go with DFI.

 

[SomeoneWhoIsntMe]

I didn't realize that those boards supported Opterons... as a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure they are only S939... the Opterons are 940, no?

Wow, you don't freqent the AMD forum much, do you? They came out with socket 939 opterons.

 

[Ozymandias]

What kind of RAM are you planning on using? It'll make a big difference with the DFI board. Generally, the rule of thumb is to avoid using Value RAM with the DFI boards, but there are exceptions. I'm one of them, but YMMV. However, anything above Value RAM should work fine. Also, be sure to use the 704-BTA BIOS if you go with the DFI board. People have gotten higher o/c's and you can get more types of RAM to "play nice" with that revision.

You can also mod the Ultra-D to a SLI-D. The only thing that'll be missing is four SATA ports. The boards (Ultra-D vs. SLI-D) overclock the same, in case you were wondering.

Whatever board you choose, be sure to back it up with a quality powersupply. You won't be able to get by with some Powmax or Deer POS, even if it's a 1,000W PSU.

 

[Superfly3176]

Epox, I got one and its 1337. Rock solid.

 

[SomeoneWhoIsntMe]

Whatever board you choose, be sure to back it up with a quality powersupply. You won't be able to get by with some Powmax or Deer POS, even if it's a 1,000W PSU.

520w PowerStream good enough?

edit: this is the RAM I'm planning on getting, there's just no reasonably priced not-value 1 gig sticks, and 4x 512 is a bad idea with A64s, from what I've heard.

 

[Ozymandias]

Yes, the Powerstream is good enough. I was just making sure.

As for the RAM, here's the word straight from a OCZ rep on the DFI-Street boards:

The memory should work fine....it probably won't OC very well...but the IC's used in the modules shouldn't have any issues running on the board.

So, if you're going to o/c, you'll have to do it with a divider, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. With the A64's CPU speed is most important. As long as you don't dip too far below 200MHz on the RAM, you don't really have to worry about memory bandwidth.