Just about to build a new Games Rig and am going down the SLI path. As I only upgrade every 3 years or so I want to build the best I can at the mo. I just posted a poll here to get a feel for the best approved SLI 6800 Ultra's out there. This poll however is to find out which is the best MB available. One major concern I have is I understand there are issues with Watercooling the NB as its usually under one of the PCI-E slots. Any additional feedback on the MB's would be good as well, as there is quiet a price difference between them. Also anyone set up an SLI Rig with a MB not listed on SLIZone? Thanks in advance.
I personally like DFI Lanparty.... YMMV though. They look cool, and are good for the 'wow' factor at parties. Depends what you want really...
I've tested four of that list, and the DFI comes up trumps to be honest. It's a seriously kickass board, but the MSI is a very good second - it just lacks the voltage adjustment that the DFI has.
For sheer overclocking, the DFI. However the A8N-SLI-Del is much better laid out, and AFAIK it's the only one you can watercool the NB without a custom block.
In terms of the northbridge, I agree... but I actually think that the layout of the DFI board is much more inspired and well thought-out. You don't have to remove the primary video card to remove the memory for a start.
I can personally recommend the Asus A8N-SLI-Deluxe. It may not overclock like the DFI board but i see your not really wanting to do that anyway........besides if you stick a couple of Gainward Golden Samples in there you won't need to anyway.....believe me! As you can see from the picture it also lends itself well to watercooling....even the NB More pictures later on in >>this thread<< BTW, i also turned the mounting hardware round on the bottom block so it doesn't interfere at all with the NB hose
MSI because the DFI isn't worth the $$ tbqh (unless you are a really hardcore overclocker ). .. and my experiances with ASUS boards have been pretty bad, so i steer clear of them (mainly quality control issues with things going bang).
it depends whether you consider watercooling the MCP a requirement, or not. I don't believe that it requires watercooling - I've hit 400MHz FSB on a stock board without changing anything. I'd possibly go so far as to say that aside from the inability to cool the chipset, the DFI is 'the best enthusiast motherboard made to date' - that's a pretty bold statement to make, but I am that impressed with it. This is coming from someone who has had four DFI motherboards memory controller's die on me inside the first 6 weeks over the course of the last 8 months. This DFI motherboard seems to have addressed those issues, and I've used the board rather rigorously for over 2 1/2 months now. It doesn't paint the rosiest picture for DFI in the past, but the Infinity/LANParty Socket A was a seriously underspecced board - the components were poor quality and not up to their job. The LANParty i865PE was a little lacking in quality too, as was the LANParty 925X-T2 - the latter was nearly there. NVIDIA themselves are very impressed with the motherboard, and the reason why I haven't reviewed it sooner than now is because I *know* there have been issues with DFI motherboards in the past - I've experienced them first hand on more than one occasion. The SLI-DR has been used for 10 weeks, maybe more, and I've yet to encounter a stability issue with it. I guess I should also list the boards I've used ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe DFI Lanparty NF4-SLI-DR Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI MSI K8N Diamond
Thanks all for the feedback. I don't know what I expected from this thread, but its certainly a mixed back . Maybe I shouldn't be considering WC the NB? The main reason for going the WC route is not for ability to overclock but to keep everything quiet. I will be using Aqua Computer stuff, with the intention of running 4x 120 (2in - over 2x120 Rads and 2out) in a Lian-Li V1100 at minimum speed, just ticking over as such. They can then be brought up to full speed by the AC Aquaero when needed, such as games etc. The last thing I want is a little highspeed buzzing fan on the NB to ruin that beautifull silence From what I can see the Asus board is the only one that offers this. or is there a NB cooler that will fit the other makes?
Check out this thread for some discussion/links to DFI chipset blocks, although I'm still not sure if they're out yet. I'm not convinced that there actually is a good way to cool an NF4 chipset that's got a graphics card sitting on top of it at the moment, it's quite annoying that most manufacturers just haven't considered this at all. I can't even fit my beloved MCX-159 onto my MSI Neo2's southbridge without risking fouling the graphics card. bigz - what you fail to mention is that nearly all of those DFI boards (as well as the s754 board, which has reliability too) were famed as great overclockers, I can't speak for the 925 but we all know what the NF2 *could* do, and the 865 Lanparty was certainly no slouch either. Reliability has been DFI's problem, and now they seem to have cracked it. I'm building my mate a system with a DFI NF4 Ultra-D this week, and I'm really looking forward to having a play with this highly recommended board.
Well... remember that the mem controller is on the CPU So they'd have had to do something thoroughly wrong to cause it to die on an A64 setup.
I think the 925X-T2 had a couple of records on it too - Fugger has used it quite extensively. It's all down to the reliability though, and the NF4 series and the Socket 754 LANParty seem to have cracked it.
I thought that was the as-yet unreleased 925XE board? Though maybe he was using the 925X board first... At any road, I think DFI have definitely learnt their lesson from the first round of Lanparty boards. Everyone bought one, most of them broke, they went back to the drawing board. Kudos for sorting it out You can't tell I'm a total fanboy, can you?
No not at all For some reason I have still been seeing DFI motherboards at my local Fry's Electronics for sale at low prices due to returns; Perhaps they still need a little more tweaking than most people are used to. These are brand new Nforce 3 and 4 boards I am talking about.
I dunno about chipset cooling, my Chaintech VNF-4 (the only other clocker in the area of the DFI, and with single card) has heat issues with LAN if it's been run hard for a while, to the pint of if it were physically possible to put a nb cooler on it I would. The card is interfering with the fit of the block, and i'm looking at throwing my koolance pump in this rig for a secong loop in my PC-60 just to cool the NB. It's that stinkin' bad. On the up side, man the thing is nice... Clocks for days if you set it up right...
