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Overclocking

Overclocking on the DFI nF4 SLI-DR still comes in at a blistering rate. In SLI mode, the board stayed stable at 359, which is a bit shy of the 365 that was achieved with the Ultra-D board. Despite bumping up the LDT and Chipset Core voltage, the board would lock in Prime95 at 360. In single card mode we did not have a lot more luck - 360 stayed stable for 22+ hours but beyond that Prime95 would tend to lock up. Again, additional voltage to both the LDT (HyperTransport) bus and the chipset did not seem to help with stability. While the SLI-DR did not set any new lab records, it shows that the Ultra-D is not a random fluke. A couple things of note - with some of the failed overclocks, a reboot put the BIOS back into default settings. For those that have spent hours tweaking the memory just right, it might be an idea to take advantage of the CMOS Reloaded feature so settings do not get wiped out accidentally for the one time the FSB gets pushed a bit too high.

Say cheese! The nF4 SLI-DR stayed composed during 22+ hours of Prime95 with a 360Mhz FSB before we stopped testing

Conclusions

Like the nF4 Ultra-D, DFI has once again, unsurprisingly put together a very solid board with the SLI-DR variant and has shown that the overclocking abilities of the Ultra-D are not an one off fluke. With the full blown LanParty package, DFI has included a lot of items that should be of interest especially for those who are getting active in the modding and LAN party scene. Some of the nice value-added items include a case carrying strap, UV cable wrap and the FrontX kit (although the choice of some of the FrontX components are a little questionable from my perspective). Aesthetically the look of the board is top notch; the large aluminum mosfet coolers sitting between the bright UV reactive plastic stands out but is not overwhelming. Overall, the design of the board is well thought out. A couple minor gripes include the placement of the USB headers, optional molex and floppy power connectors which we would like to see closer to the edge of the board. Conversely, having the DIMM modules above the processor should work better in cooling high voltage memory modules. The processor socket is located in a very central location on the board which means that large cooler units like the Zalman will not be impeded by the power supply or anything of the sort. DFI accordingly pairs a premium audio solution with their Karajan audio module as opposed on an arguably premium motherboard instead of plunking down the ALC850 codec directly onto an electrically noisy mainboard.

The DFI BIOS is very robust and in particular the memory adjustment options are second to none. If the answers we got from the question about the use of the USB transfers options are any indication, DFI is providing a very direct interface to the workings of the nForce 4 chipset, and throwing caution completely to the wind so that there are few limits for the savvy end user as it seems like anything that can be possibly tweaked with the nForce 4 chipset is fair game. Some of the other BIOS highlights are the extreme voltage options, a built in version of MemTest+ and the CMOS Reloaded feature which allows the end user to save different configurations. Another bonus is support for single slot SLI cards; right now it looks like the only one will be the Gigabyte 3D1 but ASUS does have a 3D1 clone and a 6800Ultra SLI monster on a single board also coming out and I have no doubts that DFI will end up supporting both of these as well.

The benchmarks are generally very good for the nF4 SLI-DR as it was near the top of the pack for the most part and never really ran into any serious drops in performance unlike the two Gigabyte SLI boards that were looked at. While the integrated memory controller of the Athlon 64 lineup has sometimes limited performance differences, there are still gaps of about 10% between the fastest and slowest boards.

Overclocking results were excellent - the FSB stayed stable at 359 in SLI mode and 360 in single card mode but it is a few megahertz short of what we were able to get out of the Ultra-D. However this is by far, a lot higher than what we have been able to squeeze out of other Socket 939 boards thus far.

There is not a whole lot more to say about the DFI LanParty nF4 SLI-DR that we have not already said about the Ultra-D. This should be on the short list of boards to get for anyone that has the slightest inclination to tinker and is also looking for a SLI board. This is a board that will let power users squeeze as much performance out of their 939 chip as possible. It is not often that it can be claimed that one particular part will never hamper a spirited overclocking attempt but the nF4 SLI-DR is one of those rare cases where there should be no doubts about its pedigree.

Special thanks to NCIX for providing us with the board sample!