DFI LanParty NF4 Expert - initial impressions

[yomi]

ok, now that the tech team has a board, I'll start with an easy thread (before the the flood of "IT WONT BOOT HELP!!!!" threads start coming, because we know they will no matter how good the board is lol) and you guys that have one, can give initial impressions

 

and those who might want one, can ask questions

 

 

 

 

here's the setup I plugged in to test first:

 

4000+ San Diego

NF4 Expert (whatever bios it came with, haven't looked yet)

2x 6600GT SLI

2x512MB GEIL ONE BH-5

Skyhawk 520w psu

WD Raptor 36GB SATA

some crappy cd-rom

some floppy drive

Thermalright XP-90 + 92mm fan

 

 

 

my first impression was....wtf, why won't my SLI bridge fit????

 

then i realized that the slots have been moved apart and I was trying to use my normal SLI bridge from previous NF4 LP boards lol

 

 

my next impression is 'different layout of sorts, but almost identical bios!' which is a good thing...as i slammed a 4000+ and some BH-5 in it and jacked it up to 250x11 @ 2-2-5-2-7-17-2-2-1-2-Auto-Auto-Enable-Auto-0-Auto-7.0ns-Fastest-5.5ns-256-Disable-16x-7x-Disable (4 burst)

 

 

letting it run memtest for a little bit why i try to figure out wtf my Sapphire X800GTO2 won't run Aquamark3d anymore.....(if anyone has one of these modded cards to 16-pipe, let me know if it runs Aquamark for you)

 

anyway, I've also added a new category as you can see, the Expert is now listed along with all the other NF4 boards.

 

HEY MAN AQUAMARK HAS A PATCH FOR X800> SERIES VIDEO CARDS YOU HAVE TO DOWLOAD FROM THEIR WEB SITE IT'A SMALL FILE YOU HAVE TO COPY THEN PASTE TO AQUAMAR INSTALLED DIRECTORY

[Trevor]

Watch the caps man

 

Luckily my 570w skyhawk has the 8pin so I guess It wont be a problem with this board right?

[Pyr0]

great, my tagan psu has the 8 pin plug too

[Angry_Games]

HEY MAN AQUAMARK HAS A PATCH FOR X800> SERIES VIDEO CARDS YOU HAVE TO DOWLOAD FROM THEIR WEB SITE IT'A SMALL FILE YOU HAVE TO COPY THEN PASTE TO AQUAMAR INSTALLED DIRECTORY

got a link for this?

[Angry_Games]

well its a good thing I went ahead and am returning the card as Aquamark is no more (try finding their website on the internet)

 

I will be changing the OC Database and Stock Speed Database requirements to no longer having to run Aquamark since it is no longer supported and now it looks like there might be some cards that it won't run on

 

 

but its ok since I plan on getting an XFX 7800GT and that will give me 2 of them for SLI

[Angry_Games]

ps i just received my Panasonic PV-GS150 DV camera so I'll be doing another video (I hope)

[Logger]

I got the Aquamark Patch from Viper John

 

http://www3.telus.net/~3wiebes/Aqua3%20dll%20Fix.zip

[Expert user]

I have 2x512 TMSP UTT and 2x512 hyperX bh-5 running 1T (default timings for everything ekse)!!!, but i have yet to test stability. However my system would not boot with 2x256 of hyperX bh-5 and 2xcosair BH-6. Now to over clock this two gigs....

[Wildstaroct]

Angry - can you pls let us know (after proper testing of course) whether you believe this new board is ready to go and a viable successor to SLI-DR? Thx.

[jetjaguar]

got mine today .. coming from an sli-dr and an opty 150 that did 2950 @ 1.4vcore .. now i cant get stable on the expert .. thinking of going back until some of the issues are fixed .. afraid of my cpu dying .. the people over at xs have lost like 3 x fx-57s .. etc .. crazy

[ukdave]

well its a good thing I went ahead and am returning the card as Aquamark is no more (try finding their website on the internet)

 

I will be changing the OC Database and Stock Speed Database requirements to no longer having to run Aquamark since it is no longer supported and now it looks like there might be some cards that it won't run on

 

Bahh holy sept 2005

[smooth22]

Where can we buy the board now!! I've been wait for the board to be released.