DFI CrossFire Mobo in the [H]ouse

[Chilly]

So Kyle, I know you don't want to do a full blown review on a motherboard sent by the manufacturer because it might be cherry picked, but why don't you do some internal testing with it? You don't HAVE to write a review but it might be good to have as controlled variable or reference point. Sure it may be custom made or whatever but it could help with troubleshooting issues.

Or you could send it to me....

Except in most cases cherry picked means they tested a couple of their boards and that the one they “cherry picked” is one that works the best, overclock’s the best and is the most stable, it doesn’t mean they custom built him a motherboard . (mind you I doubt DFI would send him a cherry picked motherboard, mainly because it take time money and effort, and contrary to the belief of others while [H]ard|OCP is big, its not THAT important in the review world)

 

[CrimandEvil]

Except in most cases cherry picked means they tested a couple of their boards and that the one they “cherry picked” is one that works the best, overclock’s the best and is the most stable, it doesn’t mean they custom built him a motherboard . (mind you I doubt DFI would send him a cherry picked motherboard, mainly because it take time money and effort, and contrary to the belief of others while [H]ard|OCP is big, its not THAT important in the review world)

I would think that they'd have a couple of these boards already set a side for these kinds of situations.

 

[FrgMstr]

OK, there will be another editorial run about this situation. As for now, we have stopped testing on this board.

 

[Juic3]

GREAT ! Im about to check this one out, hehe sometimes I forget about checking out hardocp and head straight to forums.

BTW does anybody know if the sapphire board is gonna hit retail ?

 

[Spank]

BTW does anybody know if the sapphire board is gonna hit retail ?

pure crossfire, innovation and performance are all in stock at e-tailers here in sweden

 

[Netrat33]

damn...not looking good.

I currently have a x1800xt still wrapped up and still trying to decide to keep it our not (sli or crossfire...or maybe neither)

I almost felt ready to break down and buy this board but...really more an an Asus/msi/abit fan
these posts from kyle...not sounding that good.

 

[pjladyfox]

damn...not looking good.

I currently have a x1800xt still wrapped up and still trying to decide to keep it our not (sli or crossfire...or maybe neither)

I almost felt ready to break down and buy this board but...really more an an Asus/msi/abit fan
these posts from kyle...not sounding that good.

I'm actually somewhat relieved that I waited myself. With both the MSI RD480 NEO2 and Asus A8R-MVP to be released any day now I'm having trouble deciding which I wish to go with. The Asus is nice and stable but is short on the extras. However, the MSI RD480 NEO2 has all the goodies and, if my current MSI is any indication, will be rock stable as well.

I'm just glad that, while I enjoy the hardware, I'm not into the overclocking thing which simplifies things a bit. ^__^

 

[HybridHB]

damn...not looking good.

I currently have a x1800xt still wrapped up and still trying to decide to keep it our not (sli or crossfire...or maybe neither)

I almost felt ready to break down and buy this board but...really more an an Asus/msi/abit fan
these posts from kyle...not sounding that good.

Im in the same boat as you. I jsut ordered an X1800 XT and dont even have a PCI-E board. I refuse to buy DFI's after owning a couple. I have my heart set on the Sapphire Crossfire board but they dont seem to wanna release them here .

 

[CrimandEvil]

pure crossfire, innovation and performance are all in stock at e-tailers here in sweden

Seems these crappy boards are mostly getting dumped in Europe.

 

[HybridHB]

Are they crappy? All the reviews ive seem make them sound really good. A few XS members have them too and theyre getting 340+ HTT on them. I hear all crappy stuff about the DFI's though, but thats not really a surprise.

 

[xX_Jack_Carver_Xx]

They are "crappy" in that they dont perform as insanely as the DFI NF4 boards do. Example, memory bus speed only making it to 240-ish Mhz where with the same ram DFI NF4 board gets to 260-270Mhz (BH5/VX type) or CFire gets to 270Mhz instead of 300-320Mhz (TCCD ram).

A pretty significant deficit in performance. Especially since most of the memory controler function is on the A64 itself.

But it is early, and the DFI NF4 boards had issues for months, but once OskarWu got the bios straightened out, they are the best of the best now.

There is still on issue, the Vtt supply "glitches" at high current loads (like with 4x512M sticks of BH5 or TCCD) and this limits the max OC....still! Once this is settled (will require a mod soldered in) the 250Mhz 4x512M 2T the board does easily now, will hopefully rise to 260-270Mhz with the same ram. This Vtt issue might be affecting the CFire board, the symptoms are similar to NF4 boards with severe glitching on Vtt. Hopefully someone with the proper instruments will investigate.

 

[pjladyfox]

They are "crappy" in that they dont perform as insanely as the DFI NF4 boards do. Example, memory bus speed only making it to 240-ish Mhz where with the same ram DFI NF4 board gets to 260-270Mhz (BH5/VX type) or CFire gets to 270Mhz instead of 300-320Mhz (TCCD ram).

A pretty significant deficit in performance. Especially since most of the memory controler function is on the A64 itself.

But it is early, and the DFI NF4 boards had issues for months, but once OskarWu got the bios straightened out, they are the best of the best now.

There is still on issue, the Vtt supply "glitches" at high current loads (like with 4x512M sticks of BH5 or TCCD) and this limits the max OC....still! Once this is settled (will require a mod soldered in) the 250Mhz 4x512M 2T the board does easily now, will hopefully rise to 260-270Mhz with the same ram. This Vtt issue might be affecting the CFire board, the symptoms are similar to NF4 boards with severe glitching on Vtt. Hopefully someone with the proper instruments will investigate.

So, basically these "crappy" boards are only that way for overclocking or am I mis-understanding something? I do find it somewhat odd that everyone seems to be focusing on the overclocking aspect more than the overall stability with normal timings and hardware. I mean, would'nt you not wish to find out if the board is stable normally and how it performs before you overclock?

Also, and this is one nitpick as well that seems to be a trend across all the reviews I've seen so far, how hard during the review would it be to verify how many open PCI slots there are after fitting a double-slot X850? A lot of this has been guesswork based upon photos of the board and older ones that were shown early in the year on some systems that had both slots populated with double-slot cards. I don't know about the rest of you but that would be high on my priority list since I'd wish to see if I could fit a good PCI SATA and/or USB/Firewire card so I would not have to use the onboard one.

Lastly, what's with the lack of PCI slots to begin with? After doing some digging last nite in prep for purchasing either the MSI, Sapphire, or Asus board the only PCI-E 1x cards I could find was a TV Tuner, a handful of USB/Firewire cards (some not even available yet), and a couple of network cards. No sound cards, no video capture cards, heck not even any analog modem cards. Now, granted, most boards will have a lot of this stuff already built into it but if you buy a board, do not wish to go with integrated sound, SATA, NIC, or USB, and plan on running a pair of double-slot cards you're pretty much hosed for options.

And now you've got AMD saying their new socket will be out middle of next year. Blech. Oh well, I did not get into this hobby expecting to be board that's for sure. ^__^

 

[Chilly]

So, basically these "crappy" boards are only that way for overclocking or am I mis-understanding something? I do find it somewhat odd that everyone seems to be focusing on the overclocking aspect more than the overall stability with normal timings and hardware. I mean, would'nt you not wish to find out if the board is stable normally and how it performs before you overclock?

Also, and this is one nitpick as well that seems to be a trend across all the reviews I've seen so far, how hard during the review would it be to verify how many open PCI slots there are after fitting a double-slot X850? A lot of this has been guesswork based upon photos of the board and older ones that were shown early in the year on some systems that had both slots populated with double-slot cards. I don't know about the rest of you but that would be high on my priority list since I'd wish to see if I could fit a good PCI SATA and/or USB/Firewire card so I would not have to use the onboard one.

Lastly, what's with the lack of PCI slots to begin with? After doing some digging last nite in prep for purchasing either the MSI, Sapphire, or Asus board the only PCI-E 1x cards I could find was a TV Tuner, a handful of USB/Firewire cards (some not even available yet), and a couple of network cards. No sound cards, no video capture cards, heck not even any analog modem cards. Now, granted, most boards will have a lot of this stuff already built into it but if you buy a board, do not wish to go with integrated sound, SATA, NIC, or USB, and plan on running a pair of double-slot cards you're pretty much hosed for options.

And now you've got AMD saying their new socket will be out middle of next year. Blech. Oh well, I did not get into this hobby expecting to be board that's for sure. ^__^

Yea!, DFI boards are known for being crappy when there new, the few that work thou are amazing, and once they get problems fixed, weither thru bios or something else, they work amazingly at high stable overclocks.

Chilly

 

[revenant]

yeah - with new hardware comes new bioses... those bioses need to mature a bit, but this is the bit which scares me the most about these new boards... whew.

 

[Digital Viper-X-]

nah I think hes just pointing out DFi = good when works

Amen, I don't think I've had 1 single Issue with my DFI board =) and thats running 2GB ram @ 250 1:1 with the cpu at 250 =p
I LOVE DFI!