The DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR

Final Thoughts

I have to say that flaws were few and far between with this board. I did not really care for the SLI jumper assembly. Changing from ‘Normal’ to ‘SLI’ was a bit of a pain (six separate jumpers to be move). I?d like to see DFI refine this system in the future. I have never seen a larger or more customizable BIOS. The problem here is that unless you know exactly what you are doing, you could really muck things up. The BIOS issue isn?t a complaint or even a problem, just something you need to be aware of. I also had a small issue with my video card resting on the chipset fan housing, but that was easily fixable and I only mention it because these NF4s tend to run pretty warm. I also think the placement of the chipset makes it nearly impossible to use an aftermarket cooler or water cooling, though I also need to mention that this is not a problem unique to the SLI-DR, but to all NF4 boards in general.

I have heard of some people having issues with different types of memory in this board. While I didn’t have any major memory issues it should be noted that I only tested the NF4 SLI-DR with Corsair XMS4400C25PT as well as Kingston HyperX PC4300 without issue. Chances are you are not using those modules, so be sure to check out DFI’s list of supported memory when you buy this board.

Moving right along, this board has probably the nicest and cleanest layout I?ve seen yet. Everything is grouped together well with cooling and ease of installation in mind. The performance was everything I could have hoped for. Our results found this board to be extremely stable at both stock speeds and when overclocking to the highest FSB we could. While my best O/C without any errors in memtest86 was 265×10 (2.65GHz), I have been running my system well over 2.7GHz without issue.

It is worth mentioning that for a price less than most other SLI boards, you get everything you could need or want to set up a super gaming system. DFI included their typically strong bundle with the gamer in mind, although there is nothing really new about this except the Front X panel, I do have to say it is still the finest bundle on the market. I’m not sure what else I can say other than this board is the best I?ve ever used, and that includes some damn fine boards from ABIT and ASUS. DFI has definitely established themselves as top dog with the LANParty NF4 SLI-DR.

The Legit Bottom Line

Hands down the best motherboard I’ve ever used. The LANParty NF4 SLI-DR is an awesome performer that really shows what AMD’s socket 939 is capable of. Couple that with the best bundle available and this board is the standard all others should be judged against.