|
|
|
Written by Vikram Chand
|
Wednesday, 11 January 2006
|
Rated  5 out of 5 Stars
|
|
Page 1 of 4
Party Mobo!
A little more than a month ago I built a computer for a new customer of mine; he wanted a very fast computer but he did not want to spend over a thousand dollars on just the processor.
So I recommend the AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 processor and this DFI LanParty UT nF4 SLI-DR motherboard. As always, I went online to newegg.com and ordered it for about $170 plus shipping. The reason recommended this motherboard to my client is that one of my best friends has this and is always telling me to try them
FEATURES AND DESIGN :
This particular motherboard has a lot of features that a gamer, enthusiast, or even some professionals would like. First of all, the yellow and orange color combinations are somewhat nice if you have a case with a window (if you have lights, it would look even better). After reading many reviews about this motherboard and its predecessors, I did notice that DFI made some very nice changes on the layout of the components, and addressed a few issues that were present in previews versions. The position of the processor socket is in the center of the board and as far away from other components as possible. This is a 939 pin boards that is compatible with the AMD Athlon 64/FX, Opteron, and even some Sempron processors. One thing I did notice is that there is not enough room around the processor socket if you want to use a big heatsink and fan, but you will be fine if you use the stock heatsink and fan. Another good thing that DFI did was to put more room for the memory sticks and video cards.
Another thing I noticed (you can call it an issue) is that the 24 pin ATX and the 4 pin 12V connectors are right next to each other. It absolutely makes sense to put these power connectors together, but I do not know why most other manufacturers put them on different sides of the boards. One more thing that I liked about the power connectors is that DFI put a stickers on it to put minimum requirements; for an AMD Athlon 3400+ combined with a pair of 6600 GT video cards, you would need a minimum of 350 watt power supply. I know it seem a bit low, so my minimum recommendation would be about 400 to 450 watts.
You also have an option to connect up to about 10 or 12 hard drives to this motherboard if you wanted. It also supports RAID (Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks) configurations and also has 4 SATA (Serial - Advanced Technology Attachment) ports.
This board also features a two of PCI-E x16 (Peripheral Component Interconnect - Express) slots to fit two nVidia SLI (Scalable Link Interface) video cards. It has x1 and x4 PCI-E slots and a two standard PCI slots. There is a set of jumpers in between the x16 and x1 slots that will allow you to switch between VGA (Video Graphics Array) or SLI modes. In VGA mode you will only be able to use one video card, but two in SLI mode which will give you more graphic power. Therefore, the SLI mode will run at 2x8 and the VGA mode will run at 1x16. Unlike some other motherboards that have a card that you have to flip to enable/disable SLI, this uses the jumpers. I have heard many stories that the card easily fall out, but with these jumpers you will not have that problem.
There are many things on the back of this motherboard; it still has PS2 ports (for a mouse or keyboard), but who uses those nowadays when we have USB (Universal Serial Bus). There are six USB 2.0 ports available on the back and on top of that you can add two more with the on board connectors. There is a firewire port on the back and you can add one more with the on board connector. You will also find that this has two, yes two, LAN (Local-Area Network) connectors that provide high speed connectivity.
There is also a semi-on board sound available on this board. Meaning, it will not operate unless you insert another card in the 14 pin connector. I think DFI made it this way because they put so much on the board and they simply ran out of room. The 7.1 channel sound is very good and it does sound nice, but if you are like some hardcore music junkies, you would want to use your own sound card for better quality.
|
|
Last Updated on Friday, 28 August 2009 |
|
|
