DFI NF4 Ultra & NF4 SLI Infinity Review --- TheThirdMedia Hardware

Introduction

For me at least, it's hard to believe it has been almost two years since DFI made their first real splash in the enthusiast motherboard market with the LANParty Pro Revision B boards. Since then, DFI has churned out quality board after quality board, among them the NF4 Ultra and SLI, which I feel are currently the finest boards available for any platform when used correctly.

Featuring extreme overclocking, great performance, and the best bundle on the market, DFI has firmly entrenched itself at the top of the enthusiast motherboard market.

Today, we look at a completely different line from DFI, the NF4 Infinity Series. Gone are the incredible bundles, crazy colors, and every other bell and whistle. However, don't let looks deceive you, as underneath a very plain looking exterior lies everything we have come to expect from DFI, great performance and value. With the release of the Infinity Series boards, DFI hopes to continue its march toward market domination by targeting the budget motherboard market.

Lets take a closer look at the two boards we are going to focus on today, the DFI Infinity NF4 Ultra, and Infinity SLI.

CPU	Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 / Sempron	Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 / Sempron
Chipset	NVIDIA nForce4 nForce4 Ultra	NVIDIA nForce4 nForce4 SLI (Scaleable Link Interface)
FSB	2000MT/s HyperTransport interface	2000MT/s HyperTransport interface
Memory	Four 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets Supports dual channel (128-bit wide) memory interface Supports up to 4GB system memory Supports PC2100 (DDR266), PC2700 (DDR333) and PC3200 (DDR400) DDR SDRAM DIMM	Four 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets Supports dual channel (128-bit wide) memory interface Supports up to 4GB system memory Supports PC2100 (DDR266), PC2700 (DDR333) and PC3200 (DDR400) DDR SDRAM DIMM
BIOS	Award BIOS 4Mbit flash memory	Award BIOS 4Mbit flash memory
Power Management	Supports ACPI STR (Suspend to RAM) function Wake-On-Events include: - Wake-On-PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse - Wake-On-USB Keyboard/Mouse - Wake-On-LAN - Wake-On-Ring - RTC timer to power-on the system AC power failure recovery	Supports ACPI STR (Suspend to RAM) function Wake-On-Events include: - Wake-On-PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse - Wake-On-USB Keyboard/Mouse - Wake-On-LAN - Wake-On-Ring - RTC timer to power-on the system AC power failure recovery
Hardware Monitor	Monitors CPU/system temperature Monitors VCC3/12V/3.3V/5VSB/Vbat voltages Monitors the speed of the cooling fans CPU Overheat Protection function monitors CPU temperature during system boot-up	Monitors CPU/system temperature Monitors VCC3/12V/3.3V/5VSB/Vbat voltages Monitors the speed of the cooling fans CPU Overheat Protection function monitors CPU temperature during system boot-up
Audio	6-channel audio CODEC S/PDIF-in/out interface	6-channel audio CODEC S/PDIF-in/out interface
LAN	Vitesse VSC8201 Gigabit Phy Fully compliant to IEEE 802.3 (10BASE-T), 802.3u (100BASE-TX) and 802.3ab (1000BASE-T) standards	Marvell 88E1111 Gigabit Phy Fully compliant to IEEE 802.3 (10BASE-T), 802.3u (100BASE-TX) and 802.3ab (1000BASE-T) standards
Storage	IDE Supports two IDE connectors that allows connecting up to four UltraDMA 133Mbps hard drives NVIDIA RAID allows RAID arrays spanning across Serial ATA and Parallel ATA RAID 0 and RAID 1 SATA Supports four Serial ATA ports SATA speed up to 1.5Gb/s NVIDIA RAID allows RAID arrays spanning across Serial ATA and Parallel ATA RAID 0 and RAID 1	IDE Supports two IDE connectors that allows connecting up to four UltraDMA 133Mbps hard drives NVIDIA RAID allows RAID arrays spanning across Serial ATA and Parallel ATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, JBOD SATA Supports four Serial ATA ports SATA speed up to 1.5Gb/s NVIDIA RAID allows RAID arrays spanning across Serial ATA and Parallel ATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, JBOD
Rear Panel I/O	1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port 2 S/PDIF RCA jacks (S/PDIF-out and S/PDIF-in) 1 parallel port 1 serial port 1 IEEE 1394 port 1 RJ45 LAN port 4 USB 2.0/1.1 ports Line-in, line-out and mic-in jacks	1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port 2 S/PDIF RCA jacks (S/PDIF-out and S/PDIF-in) 1 parallel port 1 serial port 1 IEEE 1394 port 1 RJ45 LAN port 4 USB 2.0/1.1 ports Line-in, line-out and mic-in jacks
I/O Connectors	3 connectors for 6 additional external USB 2.0/1.1 ports 1 connector for 1 external IEEE 1394 port 1 front audio connector for external line-out and mic-in jacks 1 CD-in internal audio connector 1 S/PDIF connector for optical cable connection 1 IrDA connector 4 Serial ATA connectors 2 IDE connectors 1 floppy connector 1 24-pin ATX power connector 1 4-pin ATX 12V power connector 1 front panel connector 3 fan connectors	3 connectors for 6 additional external USB 2.0/1.1 ports 1 connector for 1 external IEEE 1394 port 1 front audio connector for external line-out and mic-in jacks 1 CD-in internal audio connector 1 S/PDIF connector for optical cable connection 1 IrDA connector 4 Serial ATA connectors 2 IDE connectors 1 floppy connector 1 24-pin ATX power connector 1 4-pin ATX 12V power connector 1 front panel connector 3 fan connectors
Expansion Slots	1 PCI Express x16 slot 2 PCI Express x1 slots 3 PCI slots	2 PCI Express x16 slots (operate at x8 bandwidth) 2 PCI Express x1 slots 3 PCI slots
PCB	ATX form factor 22cm (8.66") x 30.5cm (12")	ATX form factor 24.4cm (9.6") x 30.5cm (12")

As you can see, these boards feature many of the same qualities found on the LANParty series boards. Let's take a look at the layout of both boards before we move on to some testing.

[Pages]
   [1]· Page 1 - Introduction
   [2]· Page 2 - Layout
   [3]· Page 3 - Layout continued
   [4]· Page 4 - BIOS
   [5]· Page 5 - Test Setup
   [6]· Page 6 - Benchmarking
   [7]· Page 7 - Benchmarking continued
   [8]· Page 8 - Overclocking
   [9]· Page 9 - Final Thoughts
   Next Page



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