DFI boards

[Kraeoss]

hi guys i've been researching mthoerboards for a while now and i keep seeing these boards. so i just wana ask how good are they compared to known brands like asus msi gigabyte.


thanks

 

[o1die]

Very good. But the bios has a host of adjustments for overclockers. A good tweaker's board, but not always an easy setup.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: Kraeoss
hi guys i've been researching mthoerboards for a while now and i keep seeing these boards. so i just wana ask how good are they compared to known brands like asus msi gigabyte.


thanks

Most people would say that DFI boards are finicky. The reason for this is that DFI has usually been geared towards enthusiasts, and they're going to recommend higher-end components (RAM, PSU, etc). The only other complaint that has been had recently is that DFI a couple years ago decided to stop actively participating in its user community directly. Up until that point, they were regarded pretty damn highly.

You want stability = Gigabyte or Asus
You want quality = Asus first, Gigabyte close second
You want enthusiast level performace = DFI and the higher end Asus models
You want ease of use = MSI
(These are my opinions personally, having used all of these brands before)

 

[Skott]

I agree with the others. DFI is good quality but because they are aimed at the more hard core enthusiasts who overclock and the fact the BIOS allows for so much tweaking many will find it fustrating to use and figure out. Mainly the newbies that are not overclocking experienced. Once properly tweaked though DFI mobos shine and shine well. I also agree that since DFI stopped actively communicating with the community they have suffered.

 

[Gillbot]

Originally posted by: SunnyD

Originally posted by: Kraeoss
hi guys i've been researching mthoerboards for a while now and i keep seeing these boards. so i just wana ask how good are they compared to known brands like asus msi gigabyte.


thanks

Most people would say that DFI boards are finicky. The reason for this is that DFI has usually been geared towards enthusiasts, and they're going to recommend higher-end components (RAM, PSU, etc). The only other complaint that has been had recently is that DFI a couple years ago decided to stop actively participating in its user community directly. Up until that point, they were regarded pretty damn highly.

You want stability = Gigabyte or Asus
You want quality = Asus first, Gigabyte close second
You want enthusiast level performace = DFI and the higher end Asus models
You want ease of use = MSI
(These are my opinions personally, having used all of these brands before)

+1

They are very finicky and I'll never buy another.

 

[CrisisDog]

I have two DFI Lanparty X48 / DDR2 boards and will definitely agree that they're finicky. I only went with them as I wanted to set up water cooled rigs and they didn't have any huge heat sinks to remove off of the north and south bridge, and I like the fact that the sound card on this model is on a seperate board and can be removed without having to look at twice the amount of audio ports when I throw in a X-Fi card. My big problem is I can't get either system stable above 1600MHz FSB. Well, I kinda can by enabling spread spectrum for PCI-Express, but I would think that I should not need to do that, especially when most people say this option causes instability. One system is a E8600 @ 4.0GHz (x10 multiplier), the other a Q6700 @ 3.6 GHz (x9 multiplier). Can't get either an additional megahertz above the top rated FSB of 1600, no clue why this would be a "ceiling" and it does not appear to be processor limitation.

 

[exar333]

Originally posted by: Skott
I agree with the others. DFI is good quality but because they are aimed at the more hard core enthusiasts who overclock and the fact the BIOS allows for so much tweaking many will find it fustrating to use and figure out. Mainly the newbies that are not overclocking experienced. Once properly tweaked though DFI mobos shine and shine well. I also agree that since DFI stopped actively communicating with the community they have suffered.

+1.

I ran DFI boards exclusively from AXP-2500M days all the way through A64X'2s, but when they shut down DFI Street (IMHO - their best connection to the community) they have suffered a lot. They lost a lot of newer and intermediate "tweakers" as they simply gave up on getting their board stable and/or getting everything out of it they could. Bad move DFI.

Asus/MSI for me now.

 

[evident]

i've had nothing but great experiences with my 754 and 939 DFI lan party ultra MB's.

 

[34Ford]

I have been running a DFI Ultra II M2 for over a year now with no issues.
Back when I bought it there was a lot of good threads on here, but now like everything else it getting dated.

So now I have to re-learn a new MB technology over again.

 

[Twsmit]

If you do a google search for the dfi forums you can find their new forum. Not as good as DFI street, but still pretty useful and get more and more active everyday.

I've have my P35 DFI board and previously owned a Lan Party NF4 DFI board. Both were solid and good for overclocking. I agree that the bios can be intimidating however you can either leave thing at their default settings 90% of the time, or check out the DFI forums and get an idea of what each and every setting means.

For the most part with their "consumer" DK Dark series and Bloodiron boards, the bios are slightly less complicated and are usually fine if left on their auto settings except for voltage, FSB and cpu multiplier.