dfi-rd580 crossfire due soon? (gibbo?)

Gerard · 12 Apr 2006 at 15:24

Take it dfi havn't moved on the price of this then?

StuRReaL · 12 Apr 2006 at 15:27

It looks like a really good board in fact its the best thought out of all SLI and Crossfire boards, however it has one problem it doesn't provide enough internal USB headers so I can use the cases front panel and my card reader, which is a shame really.

Heres what i'm after in a mobo

1) A free 1x PCI-E slot, as I might want to add a PCI-E 1x card at some point (you never know)

2) All the SATA ports on a single controller allowing mixed mode raid, say raid 0 for booting and a single drive as just a disk (that can't be hard surely?)

3) 2 USB headers on the mobo (so i can connect the front panel usb and my card reader)

4) Maybe a crossfire and a non-crossfire option.

5) Dual lan

6) A PCI slot, why do manufacturers seems to think no one uses them? do they not understand their onboard audio controllers lick balls? do they not understand that some of us enjoy music and thus want a good soundcard, with dolby digital (soundstorm) and good DACs?

The other SATA problem is when i want mixed mode raid and some random disks I can't and need an extra sata controller but then that comes back to no pci slots.

Please someone get a motherboard designed correctly, in fact they should get me to design them.

Jimi · 12 Apr 2006 at 15:31

Designing them is one thing, getting all that to work without any problems is another. If the MB manufacturers were going to put all that on, they would probably have to make the boards bigger.

StuRReaL · 12 Apr 2006 at 15:39

Jimi said:
Designing them is one thing, getting all that to work without any problems is another. If the MB manufacturers were going to put all that on, they would probably have to make the boards bigger.

Nah their half way there to layout nirvana, look at the DFI RD580 u can use double slot cards in both pci-e slots and still have pci-e x1 slot u can use, it has dual onboard nics and two pci slots free when using xfire so we can have sound card and another card. In fact the only thing DFI have have screwed up on is putting 6 usb ports on the back, i'd rather have 4 with the option of 6 on the back so I can have the potential of a card reader and front panel usb.

If only other companies followed suit and nvidia and ati made a single chip chipset, which supported mixed mode raid with enough ports then you'd save more board space.

andyr · 12 Apr 2006 at 15:44

Reading the thread on the xtreme forum it seems the only complaint so far is it working well with infineon chips which are the ones on mushkin redline

good job i kept my old corsair tcccd aswell

SimonMaltby · 12 Apr 2006 at 15:57

Well, despite all my comments about the price... I have ordered one.
Not from OCUK i'm sorry to say... I found another site that clearly made a mistake with pricing as got it for same price OCUK were - pre price rise. They have also now increased and are very similar.

On balance this board looks like the best option for me. The Asus is doing great, but with a vopo LS on the way (he says hopefully, as its taking its time) the vcore limited to 1.6 of the Asus is too restrictive. The DFI goes to 2.1 as far as i can tell.

Only a couple of complaints / querys - Only one on board USB plug... LS will take that, meaning no front USB for the case

and i'm unsure if the board has optical out... a must for me.

What does look good is the space between the GPU's the Abit looks very tight there, the DFI is using the space very well.

Anyway... time will tell - just a waiting game now.

Dr Who · 12 Apr 2006 at 16:11

StuRReaL said:
It looks like a really good board in fact its the best thought out of all SLI and Crossfire boards, however it has one problem it doesn't provide enough internal USB headers so I can use the cases front panel and my card reader, which is a shame really.

Heres what i'm after in a mobo

1) A free 1x PCI-E slot, as I might want to add a PCI-E 1x card at some point (you never know)

2) All the SATA ports on a single controller allowing mixed mode raid, say raid 0 for booting and a single drive as just a disk (that can't be hard surely?)

3) 2 USB headers on the mobo (so i can connect the front panel usb and my card reader)

4) Maybe a crossfire and a non-crossfire option.

5) Dual lan

6) A PCI slot, why do manufacturers seems to think no one uses them? do they not understand their onboard audio controllers lick balls? do they not understand that some of us enjoy music and thus want a good soundcard, with dolby digital (soundstorm) and good DACs?

The other SATA problem is when i want mixed mode raid and some random disks I can't and need an extra sata controller but then that comes back to no pci slots.

Please someone get a motherboard designed correctly, in fact they should get me to design them.

You should take a look at the Sapphire then...

2x PCI-E slots useable with 2 ATI double width cards in use, plenty of USB headers (2 onboard, 2 internal), PCI Slot still useable for sound 4 sata 1 ports, 2 sata 2 ports and 2 IDE ports..

Dual ethernet, 10/100 for internet, and gigabit for home network...

Its pretty much all you wanted...

StuRReaL · 12 Apr 2006 at 16:20

Dr Who said:
You should take a look at the Sapphire then...

2x PCI-E slots useable with 2 ATI double width cards in use, plenty of USB headers (2 onboard, 2 internal), PCI Slot still useable for sound 4 sata 1 ports, 2 sata 2 ports and 2 IDE ports..

Dual ethernet, 10/100 for internet, and gigabit for home network...

Its pretty much all you wanted...

Which board is that then? baring in mind i have a sapphire pure innovation at the moment and it totally sucks, and all their new bios's make the boards worse. If you mean the new board they've done with the single pci slot then no thats completely pointless as the pci slot is useless and i need that for a soundcard and I need the second nic.

Dr Who · 12 Apr 2006 at 16:28

A9RD580ADV Pure Crossfire Advantage

PC-A9RD580Adv Specifications

ATI CrossFire(TM) Xpress 3200 RD580+SB450
AMD socket 939 - Athlon 64 4800+, Athlon FX-60, Athlon X2
1000MHz Front Side Bus
Support for up to 4GB Dual Ch, DDR-400 - 4 memory slots
2* PCI-E x16, 2* PCI-Ex1; 2*PCI
Onboard HD 8 Channel Sound
2*ATA133, SATA RAID 0/1 (4), SATA-II RAID 0/1 (2)
USB 2.0 (4+4), SPDIF, 1*Parallel
Gbit LAN and 10/100 LAN

http://www.sapphiretech.com/en/products/mainboards_specifications.php?gpid=142

Gibbo reckons under 100 squids

:cool:

StuRReaL · 12 Apr 2006 at 16:32

Dr Who said:
A9RD580ADV Pure Crossfire Advantage
http://www.sapphiretech.com/en/products/mainboards_specifications.php?gpid=142

Gibbo reckons under 100 squids

Hmmm yeah but still one of the PCI slots is unuseable

although the price is very good, the DFI still looks better due to having the second free pci and 8 sata ports, plus as I said earlier sapphire are really bad when it comes to bios's the new bios for the pure innovation actually breaks it more than it already is.

Sumanji · 12 Apr 2006 at 17:19

andyr said:
Reading the thread on the xtreme forum it seems the only complaint so far is it working well with infineon chips which are the ones on mushkin redline

Sorry do you mean the DFI is NOT working well with Infineon chips?

Cheers,

Suman

Jimi · 12 Apr 2006 at 17:21

Sumanji said:
Sorry do you mean the DFI is NOT working well with Infineon chips?

Cheers,

Suman

I posted I link to the thread on the XS forums where Tony has said there is a problem with the DFI board only liking Infineon chips a couple of pages back. He said to reflash as soon as you get the board.

andyr · 12 Apr 2006 at 17:46

Jimi said:
I posted I link to the thread on the XS forums where Tony has said there is a problem with the DFI board only liking Infineon chips a couple of pages back. He said to reflash as soon as you get the board.

hi , i read it as not liking infineon chips , but i hope your right , but i read a test done be AndreYang and it seems to like everything very much

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=94341

page 4 is the good bit about infineon chips but he recons anything bought in 2006 is not as good as the old chips

Mekrel · 12 Apr 2006 at 17:47

bmorgan98 said:
I too am waiting for that price to drop as this is my next big purchase shifting from abit av8 (POS) to dfi rd580.

off topic i know but ??? fully integrated is there a guide on the net as to how to do this?

Theres a lot of ways, either manually or using nlite.

I used to do manually as nlite used to have problems, but the author has it sorted now since RC3.

http://www.nliteos.com/

Gibbo · 12 Apr 2006 at 17:59

Gerard said:
Take it dfi havn't moved on the price of this then?

Nope they sent me an email with a PDF showing their motherboard to be 0.4% quicker than the Asus board. I think they believe this justifies the extra cost, LOL. :confused:

However it does clock a lot better when running Crossfire but the premium is still too much. If they don't sell then obviously they will drop the price but people are still buying them so will just have to wait and see.

Explicit · 12 Apr 2006 at 18:00

Well these are showing as 'in stock' now...but it looks like DFI has still got its head too far up its rear.

If the SLI-DR Expert costs £146, why does the crossfire one cost £176? Does it cook, clean and iron?

The Abit RD580 (£140, in stock) is using the same ULi 1575 chipset so that can't be the justification.

edit: just saw Gibbo's reply

M1keMK · 12 Apr 2006 at 18:29

Well, i have shipping confirmation so mine should be here tomorrow all being well! Just in time for bank hol weekend - plenty of time to play around with it

sgoaty · 12 Apr 2006 at 18:56

I am a huge DFi fan and i was looking forward to buying this board to replace my Ultra-D but as its been said before £150 is a steeply price motherboard £176 is just sheer abuse of reputation.

KELTICKNIGHT · 12 Apr 2006 at 19:21

for me to buy this xfre dfi would cost me before shipping which is 22 euros and the dfi mobo is €264,total =€286 ,tooooo much :eek:

sapphire32 xfire is €210,total €232 :eek:

think i'll go single g-card route

mobo makers are getting as bad as g-card makers
:eek:

harris1986 · 12 Apr 2006 at 19:35

agreed, far too expensive and tbh i can see there being a lot of bugs with this board to start with, i have heard a rumour on the grapevine that people are experiencing a few probs with it. So i'm just going to sit on a sli-D for the time being until all is worked out by which time conroe will be around (hopefully) and i can switch to that and pwn u alll hehehehhe