Spec me a 939 mobo ... DFI or ASUS?

A.N.Other

A.N.Other

A.N.Other

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I'm looking to replace my Sapphire Pure Innovation mobo and need some advice :). I have a X2 3800+, a X1900XT and some DDR400 Corsair XMS.

I'm going to be water cooling this and clocking it (a lot), so here's the question... ASUS or DFI? I know that DFI hold the clocking crown but I believe that ASUS are more reliable. There are issues with the onboard firewall and all that stuff that come with the DFI boards but are these a serious problem (I want to be able to leave this on 24/7/365 - so no BSODs)? The ASUS boards are passively cooled as well, which is good for the silence of water cooling.

The boards I was looking at were the Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe and either the DFI SLI-DR or the Ultra-D. At the minute, I'm probably leaning toward the ASUS.

Are there any issues / well known problems with these that I should know about? What are your opinions - I'm open to completely different suggestions? Thanks guys :)
 
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My mate has the Asus AN832 and it's chipset gets pretty damn hot when overclocking his 3800, so if your watercooling make sure you get some decent cooling on the chipset!
 
I had a Ultra-D and once it was setup it was rock solid and clocked effortlessly, been held back by every processer I have tried in it (3000+, X2 3800, oppy170)
Replace the stock chipset cooler with a zalman passive one and make sure theres some air blowing on it and it will be fine :)

Its only when you seriously push them and don't know what you are doing that issues seem to appear. The boards will all be the stable revisions with the working bios' (early ones were a bit sketchy)

I've not used the asus, but I wouldn't hesitate to recomend the DFI.
 
I have the A8N32-SLI and seems very stable at stock (unsurpringsly), doesn't get that hot for me either but is definately a good 10 degrees hotter than the A8N-SLI Deluxe I had before. There is an included blower/fan for watercooling that sits on top of the passive cooling near the CPU, not sure how effective it is.

Can I ask why you ruled out the A8R32-MVP? You do have an X1900 after all ;)
 
Tetras said:
I have the A8N32-SLI and seems very stable at stock (unsurpringsly), doesn't get that hot for me either but is definately a good 10 degrees hotter than the A8N-SLI Deluxe I had before. There is an included blower/fan for watercooling that sits on top of the passive cooling near the CPU, not sure how effective it is.

Can I ask why you ruled out the A8R32-MVP? You do have an X1900 after all ;)
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I've always been an ATI person (all of my PCs so far), so when I came to build this one, I got the Sapphire Pure Innovation. That had the Radeon Xpress 200 chipset. This board has been nothing but trouble to me - I've even had to RMA (getting another the same). I don't know if that is purely down to Sapphire or if it was the chipset (or whatever), but that board has the same one, so I'm staying away from it.

It's a pity I've been left with that bad experience, as I would always support the small guy (i.e. ATI) and that board is probably fine. However, I'm not taking any chances. :( I'm not going to be going crossfire, so losing that ability and wasting the SLi ability of a new board doesn't bother me.
 
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Tetras said:
There is an included blower/fan for watercooling that sits on top of the passive cooling near the CPU, not sure how effective it is.

;)
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You should take that extra blower off... my mate did. it actually dropped his temps!! weird i know!
maybe it was just blowing hot air off the cpu fan onto the chipset or something
 
I haven't installed it as in the package I got there is a note in the manual and on the fan(s packaging) itself that it should only be used for watercooling, prolly cos it obstructs the airflow in an air cooled rig.
 
If you are relatively confident in the bios then definately go for the dfi. What ram are you using btw? Generally on a Dfi you will get best results and rock solid stability if you manually select values in the bios, if you are a person for sticking everything on auto and leaving it the dfi is not for you. :)

You know that top figure in the 3800x2 clocking table was on my trusty dfi ultra-d. (from purple shirt world = ohhh the shame lol) :D
 
It's also well worth considering the Abit AN8 32X against the Asus A8N32.
More than a few people reckon that it's better & it seems to use considerably less power & hence generate less heat than the Asus (strange as they both use the same chipset but it's been shown in a few reviews).
 
the DFI over the Asus for me tbh, but have you looked at the Foxconn NF4K8AC the lastest revision is a great clocker for the money
 
I'm looking for a 939 mobo as well but for my Opty 146, what are the differences between the Asus A8N-E Ultra, A8N-Sli-SE and the A8N-Sli-Premium board?

Which of the three would you guys recommend, I'm not running dual GC so SLI is not important.

Cheers
 
What do you guys think of this board:

Abit KN8 Ultra nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-087-AB)

Dont fancy going for an Asus A8N due to the chipset fan issues.
 
I'd spend the extra £9 on the KN8 SLi cos it has passive cooling (no whiny chipset fan to die on you).

Simple difference between the A8N-E and A8N-SLI series is the A8N-E has an nForce 4 Ultra and the A8N-SLI has nForce 4 SLI. In practical terms that means the A8N-E has a PCI-E 4x slot instead of the second x16 on the A8N-SLI boards (though it runs at 8x in SLI mode).

Other differences (not exhaustive) would be the A8N-SLI SE only has 6 channel sound (8 on A8N-E and 8 HD enabled on A8N-SLI Premium). The Premium has 2 gigabit ethernet ports (1 on others), Firewire (not on others), passive cooling (chipset fan on others), WinDVD suite (not with others), extra 4 SATA ports with Silicon Image 3114R (only 4 on others) and optical S/PDIF Out (included on A8N-E, not on A8N-SLI SE).
 
Mr Mister said:
If you are relatively confident in the bios then definately go for the dfi. What ram are you using btw? Generally on a Dfi you will get best results and rock solid stability if you manually select values in the bios, if you are a person for sticking everything on auto and leaving it the dfi is not for you. :)

You know that top figure in the 3800x2 clocking table was on my trusty dfi ultra-d. (from purple shirt world = ohhh the shame lol) :D
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Yer, I'm fine with BIOS fiddling :)

Thanks for the input, guys! I'll probably try and get myself a DFI then, as I think for the OCing its worth it.
 
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