MSI vs DFI

[Spartan Mustang]

I have read some great reviews of MSI and DFI's new Nforce $ SLI boards but no review that compares the two side byy side. It would seem that both are excellent mother boards but i cant deside witch one to buy. Please give me some advise... thanks

 

[imported_PanicAttack]

Hard OCP is very pleased with their MSI SLI board. Best OCin they have ever seen if your into that sort of thing.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzE0

 

[Vedder323]

Wow, thats higher than the DFI board isnt it?

 

[zakee00]

Originally posted by: Vedder323
Wow, thats higher than the DFI board isnt it?

no, i know of alot of DFI NF4s that do 400+HTT
link
i would say dfi, you get 4v dimm!!!:shocked:!!!

 

[McArra]

Originally posted by: zakee00

Originally posted by: Vedder323
Wow, thats higher than the DFI board isnt it?

no, i know of alot of DFI NF4s that do 400+HTT
link
i would say dfi, you get 4v dimm!!!:shocked:!!!

That's pointless if he buys/own TCCD chips in the memory. And MSI has a great onboard sound: Sound Blaster Live! 24bits 7.1....

I vote MSI

 

[RichUK]

Originally posted by: McArra

Originally posted by: zakee00

Originally posted by: Vedder323
Wow, thats higher than the DFI board isnt it?

no, i know of alot of DFI NF4s that do 400+HTT
link
i would say dfi, you get 4v dimm!!!:shocked:!!!

That's pointless if he buys/own TCCD chips in the memory. And MSI has a great onboard sound: Sound Blaster Live! 24bits 7.1....

I vote MSI

just to let you know that onboard sound is nice (especially SB live 24bit) but i have read somwhere that with the onboard sound enabled it actually takes up bout 10 to 15% of the CPU ussage, which is a bad thing if you are looking to OC and get the best results

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: Spartan Mustang
I have read some great reviews of MSI and DFI's new Nforce $ SLI boards but no review that compares the two side byy side. It would seem that both are excellent mother boards but i cant deside witch one to buy. Please give me some advise... thanks

I usually buy msi for both my video card and motherboard so my vote is for msi!

 

[RichUK]

Originally posted by: nemesismk2

Originally posted by: Spartan Mustang
I have read some great reviews of MSI and DFI's new Nforce $ SLI boards but no review that compares the two side byy side. It would seem that both are excellent mother boards but i cant deside witch one to buy. Please give me some advise... thanks

I usually buy msi for both my video card and motherboard so my vote is for msi!

i have the MSI K8N NEO2 PLAT.. and am very happy with that so far, so i vote for MSI to .. but from what i have seen the DFI is a pretty good OCer and if and when i upgrade that might sway me there way, and dont forget the fact that it has 4volt vdimm to me that is quite amazing, just imagine using OCZ 3200 VX at 250Mhz 3.4vdimm HTT and timings of 2-2-2-5/10, and you wont need to use the OCZ voltage booster, now that is tastey

 

[Macro2]

If you need a parallel or serial port then the MSI is the better choice.

 

[JBT]

DFI x 1 million

 

[w00t]

Originally posted by: JBT
DFI x 1 million

 

[McArra]

2 mllion yet! LOL, funny sentence.

 

[Rivian]

Personally, I cant stand MSI's web support, their site is riddled with errors, finding the downloads you need is unnecessarily difficult, and there's a lack of support for anything but windows.

I've just recently received my DFI board and havent yet entertained much of their support, however they're downloads are decidedly much easier to navigate too,IMO.

A note of caution though, my DFI Lanparty Ultra has a daughter board that is used for audio out and it's rather large. I had to dremel my 120mm fan to get them to fit together in the case. Also, if you're into legacy support, the DFI has no parrallel/serial connectors. Only pinouts for a COM port.

 

[Macro2]

pinout on for an com adaptor placed in a PCI hole on the case?

I guess if you need parallel you can get a usb to parallel adaptor. They make same for a usb to serial.

 

[kindest]

i like MSI and check out the other thread with msi tech support.

msi is a great company for support apparetnly.
:shocked:

but i dont think you can go wrong between the dfi or msi.

 

[amheck]

Originally posted by: RichUK

just to let you know that onboard sound is nice (especially SB live 24bit) but i have read somwhere that with the onboard sound enabled it actually takes up bout 10 to 15% of the CPU ussage, which is a bad thing if you are looking to OC and get the best results

Can anyone verify this?

 

[Megatomic]

I don't do DFI. My wife's MSI KT266A board (the premium MSI board of it's time) is still running right this minute, that's over 4 years of service.

I tried 2 DFI boards, both were dead on arrival (one actually POSTed but the onboard LAN was borked).

 

[McArra]

Originally posted by: amheck

Originally posted by: RichUK

just to let you know that onboard sound is nice (especially SB live 24bit) but i have read somwhere that with the onboard sound enabled it actually takes up bout 10 to 15% of the CPU ussage, which is a bad thing if you are looking to OC and get the best results

Can anyone verify this?

Link , that's what most sound cards take so don't be fooled by that. Have a look at the review.

 

[acivick]

MSI did do a good job with the onboard audio. But personally, I already own an Audigy 2, so that really wouldn't affect my decision too much. My vote is for DFI, just because of the excellent community they have and the level of support they provide. Just take a look at dfi-street.com and you'll see what I'm talking about.

They do get minus points for not including parallel/serial ports, but that's becoming less of a problem nowadays. I typically disable my serial ports anyway and almost all new printers come with USB connections, which the DFI board provides no less than 6 of. It is kind of a bummer for those of us with older printers though. My Laserjet 5 just wouldn't forgive me.

 

[PascalT]

I've been debating wether or not to use my sb live. On one hand the sound quality on the onboard dfi's sound is better, but does it really suck down cpu power? from that link it seems like it does.. I doubt pci sound cards take so much?

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: acivick
My vote is for DFI, just because of the excellent community they have and the level of support they provide. Just take a look at dfi-street.com and you'll see what I'm talking about.

You do know how DFI-Street.com got it's start, right? The DFI support guys that run the site (I know it's not hosted by DFI itself) got fed up with the complaints that they received while helping out at AMDMB.com. They were unable to censor the posts made by members there (AMDMB.com forums admins refused to give them Mod status) so they quit helping there and started DFI-Street.com where they have godlike control over what is posted there. Granted, some of the complaints made at AMDMB.com were more like flames in many cases, but yeah...

Now I'm not saying that their help is not nice, it really is uncommon to see that level of support from a manu, but the motives for DFI-Street.com are not as altruistic as you make out.

 

[acivick]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Now I'm not saying that their help is not nice, it really is uncommon to see that level of support from a manu, but the motives for DFI-Street.com are not as altruistic as you make out.

Be that as it may, as you hinted at, it is difficult to find a manufacturer that is so willing to try and help out every Joe Schmoe that can't get memory x to work with motherboard y. I know, for instance, when I had trouble with my old Asus MB I could bearly get in contact with someone who was willing and able to help me, let alone get the info I needed to fix my problem. The fact that there even were any DFI reps at AMDMB says something.

Anyway, to address the CPU utilization questions, if you look at the UT2K4 numbers HERE, you'll see that average PCI CPU utilization is in the 10-15% range when all the audio bells and whistles are turned on. In any case, the onboard Creative card is miles ahead of some of the other onboard AC97 audio solutions of other MBs.