nForce4 Ultra Roundup: Charting the Mainstream
by Wesley Fink on July 5, 2005 10:28 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D: Features and Layout
| Specification | DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D |
| CPU Interface | Socket 939 Athlon 64 |
| Chipset | nForce4 Ultra (single chip) |
| BUS Speeds | 200MHz to 456MHz (in 1MHz increments) |
| PCI/AGP Speeds | Asynchronous (Fixed) |
| PCI Express | 100MHz to 145MHz in 1MHz increments |
| Core Voltage | Auto, 0.8V to 1.55V in 0.025V increments (Normal) PLUS *104%, 110%, 113%, 123%, 126%, 133%, 136% (Special - to 1.85V) |
| CPU Startup Voltage | Startup, 0.825V to 1.550V in 0.025V increments |
| DRAM Voltage | 2.5V to 3.2V in 0.1V increments (3V jumper) 2.5V to 4.0V in 0.1V increments (5V jumper) |
| Chipset Voltage | 1.5V, 1.6V, 1.7V, 1.8V |
| Hyper Transport Ratios | Auto, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 |
| LDT Bus Transfer | 16/16, 16/8, 8/16, 8/8 |
| LDT Voltage | 1.2V, 1.3V, 1..4V, 1.5V |
| CPU Ratios | Auto, 4x to 25x in 0.5x increments |
| Cool'n'Quiet MAX FID | Auto, 8.0 to 13.0 in 0.5x increments |
| DRAM Speeds | Auto, 100, 120, 133, 140, 150, 166, 180, 200 (Plus DDR433, 466, 500 with Rev. E Processor) |
| Memory Command Rate | Auto, 1T, 2T |
| Memory Slots | Four 184-pin DDR Dual-Channel Slots Unbuffered ECC or non-ECC Memory to 4GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 2 x16 PCIe Slots 1 x4 PCIe 1 x1 PCIe 2 PCI Slots |
| SLI Setup | Six 16-pin Jumper Blocks |
| Onboard SATA | 4-Drive SATA 2 by nF4 |
| Onboard IDE | Two Standard NVIDIA ATA133/100/66 (4 drives) |
| SATA/IDE RAID | 4-Drive SATA 2 PLUS 4-Drive IDE (8 total) Can be combined in RAID 0, 1 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 10 USB 2.0 ports supported nF4 2 1394A FireWire ports by VIA VT6307 |
| Onboard LAN | Dual Gigabit Ethernet PCIe by Vitesse VSC8201 PHY PCI by Marvel 88E8001 |
| Onboard Audio | Karajan Audio Module based on Realtek ALC850 8-Channel codec with 6 UAJ audio jacks, CD-in, front audio, and coaxial SPDIF In and Out |
| Other Features | AMD X2 Support with 5/10/2005 or higher BIOS Diagnostic LEDs, Power and Reset momentary switches |
| BIOS | Award 7/01/2005 Release |
The DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D was tested when it was launched in DFI nForce4: SLI and Ultra for Mad Overclockers. We also included the DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR in our SLI roundup in nForce4 SLI Roundup: Painful and Rewarding. This is significant because the designs of the Ultra and SLI versions of the DFI are exactly the same. Both board layouts are essentiallly the same - the only difference is the SLI chipset on the SLI and Ultra chipset on the Ultra. As we detailed in Morphing nForce4 Ultra into nForce4 SLI, the SLI and Ultra chipsets are exactly the same, with the SLI features turned on in the SLI chipset. NVIDIA has modified the nForce4 chipset, making it more difficult to convert the Ultra to nF4, but the principles are still the same.
For more information on the features or layout of the DFI, please refer to any of these aforementioned reviews.
Chaintech VNF4-Ultra: Overclocking and Stress Testing
DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D: Overclocking and Stress Testing
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vijay333 - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
oh...final system will have 4-5 HDs, standard DVD reader/writer along with (most likely) a 6800Ultra or a X800XL...Xenoterranos - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Anandtech did toy with a listening test a while back (I really don't remember much about it, other than the fact that they should have used Klipsch proMedia Ultra 5.1 speakers...)vijay333 - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Maybe I missed this info in the article somehow, but could you provide the minimum/recommended PSU wattages for the motherboards? esp the DFI and the Epox. I have a Antec 400W Smartpower PSU right now, but read a few posts on newegg that this might not be enough? Hope I don't need to upgrade this too along with the mobo, cpu and gpu...vijay333 - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
knitecrow - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
I have a comment about audio -- a topic that most sites ignore.Shouldn't there be a blind listening test?
i mean cpu utilization is fairly useless. If i am listening to mp3s i care more about the quality than cpu utilization.
flatblastard - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
I stopped reading on page 4 upon discovering the round-up. No explanation needed...Wesley Fink - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
g33k -The DFI was more a control to demonstrate SLI and Ultra performance were the same other than SLI video. Drivers have updated and we retested everything on the DFI as a sanity check. We ran benchmarks and not a full review, but it was hard to ignore the excellent performance.
There is also a comment in our Final Words that the MSI Ultra board should also be considered a winner, since the SLI version was a Gold Editors Choice in the SLI roundup, and the Ultra should perform the same.
g33k - Tuesday, July 5, 2005 - link
Along the same logic though, I'm curious as to why you chose to review the DFI Ultra-D when you reviewed the SLI version of this board earlier as well?.g33k - Tuesday, July 5, 2005 - link
Jeez, read Wesley's comments, he just answered why he did not review, the MSI board. It was already reviewed in the SLI roundup.Wesley Fink - Tuesday, July 5, 2005 - link
"As you can see, none of the onboard audio solutions were quite as low in CPU utilization as the Creative SoundBlaster Live! Chip, which is used on the MSI K8N Neo4 SLI Platinum tested in the nForce4 SLI roundup."Since this is still nF4 we included components tested on all nForce4 boards. The Ultra version of the MSI, BTW, uses the Realtek ALC850 chipset and not the Sound Blaster Live!. The SB Live! is only used on the MSI SLI.