CES 2005 Wrap-Up: Gadgets, Cars and Babes

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Bradford Day
Kurtis

Jan. 23, 2005

Specifications

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DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR & UT NF4 Ultra-D

DFI was showing off five motherboards in their suite; however it was the LANParty UT NF4 Ultra-D and LANParty NF4 SLI-DR that held the spotlight. These two boards are DFI's latest offering which both support dual PCI-Express graphics cards. The main difference between the two boards is the NF4 Ultra-D board supports SLI but uses the cheaper NF4 Ultra chipset. A couple different companies have shown off their boards which use a modified Ultra chipset to support SLI, but unfortunately, nVidia is none too pleased.

The LANParty NF4 SLI-DR is DFI's top-of-the-line offering which has almost any feature you could ask for, and then some. The SLI-DR is nVidia's SLI implementation with an x16 PCI-E which can be used as a single x16 slot or two x8 slots. There is also an additional x4 as well as x1 PCI-E slot. As for storage, the SLI-DR has eight SATA2 connectors and supports up to RAID 5.

The UT NF4 Ultra-D is DFI's lower cost SLI-capable board based on the NF4 Ultra chipset. The features of the Ultra-D are very similar to the SLI-DR and the boards actually have the same physical layout. The NF4 Ultra chipset has been tweaked to allow dual PCI-Express graphics but each use x2 PCI-E. DFI says the performance is about 10% lower than the SLI-DR board when using dual graphics. This board only has 4 SATA2 connectors and does not support RAID 5.

Both the UT NF4 Ultra-D and NF4 SLI-DR feature Dual Gigabit LAN, up to 10 USB 2.0 connections and 2 Firewire connections as well as a high-definition version of the Realtek audio codec on a Karajan module for the best possible Signal-to-Noise ratio. Both boards feature a memory voltage capable of reaching 4 volts (default is 2.5v) and a core voltage is capable of reaching 2.1 volts (default is 1.5). These boards also have large mosfet heatsinks which should aid in the stability of the board, especially when overclocking. While we won't be able to tell until we actually test the boards, these look like they will be awesome overclocking machines.

In order to save costs, these motherboards use jumpers instead of a switch-able PCB card to enable the use of two PCIE graphics cards. This method is just as effective and any way DFI can lower the cost of such high-end boards is a good move in my opinion. On both the Ultra-D and SLI-DR, the chipset is cooled by a unique "magnetic levitation" fan. These fans not only use magnetism to propel the fan, but to also lift it up from its axis. The fan doesn't actually make any physical contact when spinning and thus reduces noise and wear. This allows for higher speeds, less noise and a longer lifetime.

The DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR will be around $199 while the slightly lower performing LANParty UT NF4 Ultra-D will be around $140-150.

DFI's Other New Boards

DFI also had a couple other boards in their suite. Here are a few pictures which include each boards specifications. The LANParty UT nF3 Ultra-D on display is not in its final state. It will have a black PCB and glowing connectors just like the other boards in the LANParty series.

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Page 3 of 5

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Page 1: The Last of the Showfloor
Page 2: Corsair XMS Xpert Memory & Water Cooling
Page 3: DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR & UT NF4 Ultra-D
Page 4: The Cars of CES
Page 5: CES Booth Babes

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