DFI nF4 SLI-DR

DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR
Motherboard Specs
SLi graphics card bridge	Karajan Audio(Theater like7.1 /8ch supported)
Dual Gigabit LAN	nF4 chipset supported Serial ATA(3Gb/s)
100% Japanese Capacitors	UV sensitive slots
UV kits(Round Cables & Cable sleeving bundled)	New FrontX panel
PC Transpo	EZ-on / EZ-touch onboard switch button
RAID(with nVIDIA nVRAID)	nVIDIA nTune(embedded overclocking solution)
nVIDIA ActiveArmor	CMOS reloaded®
All New Genie BIOS
Taken from DFI's website.

It takes a lot of guts to show up to a party uninvited, yet that’s essentially what DFI did when it announced a lower-priced, uncertified SLI motherboard, the nF4 SLI-DR. Of course, a lot has changed since the enthusiast-oriented second tier manufacturer showcased the board in its suite at CES earlier this year. More significantly, DFI earned an NVIDIA certification--a stamp of approval that says the nF4 SLI-DR will work with any SLI-capable graphics card you throw at it.

DFI's nF4 SLI-DR

Back panel with Karajan audio

Audio vacancy

Because DFI wasn’t privy to NVIDIA’s SLI recipe early on in the design process, its nF4 SLI-DR uses a non-standard mechanism for switching between single- and dual-card modes. That is, instead of employing a reversible card, you have to move six sets of jumpers in order to make the switch. Fortunately, DFI includes a BIOS chip-removal tool that does an effective job of grabbing those jumper blocks.

More elegant passive cooling

Eight more SATA ports

Silicon Image in the house

Like most other SLI boards, the x16 PCI Express slots on the nF4 SLI-DR are two slots apart--just enough to accommodate two GeForce 6800 Ultra boards, but not enough to work with a pair of Leadtek’s super-sized 6800 GTs. There’s one x1 slot between the two graphics connectors, one x4 slot above the top graphics slot, and two standard PCI slots below. If you’re wondering how the connectivity adds up when the nForce4 only offers 20 lanes of PCIe, consider that each graphics slot consumes eight in an SLI configuration. If you’re using a x4 device, it must exist alone. Otherwise, you can plug a x1 device in each of the extra slots (the x4 slot accepts x1 peripherals).

Non-standard SLI selector

More auxiliary juice for SLI

Can you spare a floppy power plug?

As with ASUS’ board, DFI does a lot of things right with its layout. The memory slots are at the top of the board with enough space to accept any module sporting heat spreaders or a set of Corsair Xpert modules. There’s plenty of room around the processor interface and all power connectors are located at the back of the board to avoid blocking airflow to vital components. The active cooler sitting atop NVIDIA’s nForce4 SLI chipset is directly under the first PCI Express x16 slot, which might be problematic for cooling, but everything else is otherwise easily accessible.

Easy power-on and reset switches

Lots of goodies