Narrowed it down to three!

[Jimmy255]

Hi hi!
I have narrowed my new motherboard selection down to three choices. These links are to also show the price difference.

ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 SLI

DFI LanParty UT eXpert NF4 SLI-DR

DFI LanParty nF4 SLi-DR

I'm having trouble seeing any real difference between the two DFI boards, is there anything special or is it just purdy extras?

Anyway, I was looking for some opinion on which board people may choose and why. Note that I already have all the other gear (pci-e card, athlon 64 cpu etc) which I am transplanting to my new board.

Opinions very very welcome!

 

[Jimmy255]

*bump* Cmon....even if you own one and just want to say "yeah this kicks ass!"

 

[SolMiester]

How many systems you built?, if only a few, you may want to steer cleer of DFI, hard to get stable

 

[Ryan Norton]

Seems like you are going for an uber-ish rig, prioritizing OCability, etc. With that in mind, have you ruled out the A8N32-SLI for any reason except that you can't seem to get it right now? It's the only AMD mobo with 2x16x PCIe, and the 8-phase voltage regulator setup seems to make it pretty beastly.

I have a 3500+ on an MSI Neo4 Platinum because SLI didn't interest me at the time... I considered the DFI boards because they seemed so well-designed, but I also think I've heard more complaints about DFI. They seem finicky, but I have no firsthand experience.

 

[Jimmy255]

Ryan: I did consider that board but it blows out my price range completly! I am dissapointed I cannot wait for dual 16x boards to become a little more affordable. At the moment it's selling at ~$450. Then again....(maybe if I find something under my bed to eBay!)

Does the A8N32-SLI have any of the problems associated with older Asus boards? (as pointed out in the "official motherboard choice" thread)

 

[Ryan Norton]

Heh, I don't know about compatibility problems like the other Asus boards, since the A8N32 blew out my price range too, even at the non-inflated price of $200-250 it's supposed to sell for assuming good supply. I have not read much about it since I ruled it out of my purchases, but I have come across a couple comments here and there which suggest that, if my funds were unlimited, my attitude towards the board would not be "GREAT let me buy this right now and it'll work perfectly out of the box!" but more like "Hmm, I can afford it, but I should spend some serious internet time determining exactly how likely a conflict between a component I already own is"

 

[Wentelteefje]

How many systems you built?, if only a few, you may want to steer cleer of DFI, hard to get stable

DFI is great, but that's indeed a disadvantage... Very picky on RAM too... However, if you want to overclock, I guess that "only" an Abit will do just as great...

 

[Jimmy255]

^^ LOL thanks for that Actually I've managed to get a hold of the Asus A8N32 beast cheapish so I'm thinking I might go with that.

The whole point of this upgrade is to undo the mistake of not waiting for a 939 pci-3 board a year ago (although they were not too flash). So if I get the dual 16x, although it won't make a hint of difference with the one videocard I am going to buy, when I get another in a few months time it will, hopefully, be worth it. Spending for the future and all that.

Although the anandtech review was interesting. No huge differences in performance, although there were increases. Yet at the end they said "despite this, this board is a keeper"

Plus it'll just WORK, unlike DFI which I am already scared about with my ****** ram.