AMD chip & mobo with maximum overclocking potential

[Arcon]

well if you put any stock in online reviews (and i do if they're done by reputable sources), then without a doubt the DFI LANparty nf4 SLI-DR:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2358&p=1

[singularity2006]

I've had some really wild luck overclocking ABIT and Soyo boards. Soyo's are unusually user friendly for overclocking. ABIT's are just nice boards overall... u wuB 'em. :)

[bmwolf]

I second the DFI. I don't own one but i believe it is now common knowledge that they are the best overclockers. I have a Asus A8N-SLI Premium and it overclocks my 4400+ nicely. Also Asus should have a new board out that should be very nice, called the A8N32-SLI Deluxe(see link). As for the processor, I'd be going for a X2 3800+. Better suited for what you'll be doing than a single core processor.

http://hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=739

http://www.hardforum.com/
Good place to start!

[qwatkins]

well if you put any stock in online reviews (and i do if they're done by reputable sources), then without a doubt the DFI LANparty nf4 SLI-DR:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2358&p=1

Arcon, Thanks, I read the article and it was quite compelling, have you used any DFI boards before or known someone who has one? If so, what kind of overclocks are you/they getting? Also how is the long-term reliability with those?

I've had some really wild luck overclocking ABIT and Soyo boards. Soyo's are unusually user friendly for overclocking. ABIT's are just nice boards overall... u wuB 'em.

Thanks, what kind of overclocks are you getting with your ABIT? I've heard of Soyo but not sure about their long-term reliability at an overclocked rate (i.e. is there trouble with cans bursting and such?)

...I second the DFI...

Thank you, and thanks for the links.

[lots]

Soyo used to be over priced trash :) But I have not seen anything from them as of late.

[bmwolf]

I thought they went under?

[sl3966]

I would like to second the bids for the DFI board and the X2 3800+ I have mine overclocked to 2.7GHz stable and I am still on air cooling. The 4400 has a bigger cache but I have not had any personal experience overclocking them.

[qwatkins]

What about Iwill? Any thoughts

[Arcon]

i havn't used DFI personally, my current board is an albatron which has a lot of voltage controls but is missing PCI-AGP lock which is not good for OCing.

for all your questions on OCing this is the place to go:

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/index.php

remember an overclock is also dependant on the make of chip and quality of memory, in addition to motherboard features. eg. an X2 3800+ simply has a lot of headroom for OC, and some people have OC'd to 2.6 - 2.8GHz stable on air, but the higher you go the more experienced you have to be at it.

[SweetDreamz]

Like other have said, definitely the DFI board.

But DFI boards don't like Corsair RAM too much. Know many people who had problems with it. Don't know if the new ones fixed it but I highly doubt it. So just keep that in mind. Other than that, the features for OC is just awesome for the DFI board.

[deathman20]

I just recently switched to a DFI board. I was an intel guy and I loved Abit mobo's, and if I wanted all the fancey SLI features I'd probley of gotten the Fatility Abit mobo.

Truely, DFI has lots of features, I got the LanParty Ultra-D. It can be SLI enabled if I wish to in the future by just linking a set of pins if not mistaken. So far my new system is rock solid and I'm starting to like the DFI's options. It did take a little while to get off the ground though which was frustrating.

DFI is known as the overclocking kings though with many voltage options built into the motherboard, Epox boards I guess was second in line (forgot which one) but those are the 2 people recommened me right away.

[qwatkins]

...for all your questions on OCing this is the place to go:

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/index.php

Arcon—thanks for the tips I'll check that out

SweetDreamz—you mentioned that Corsair doesn't work well, what about Patriot, I read some reviews that this brand was killer, any insight?

deathman20—Cool, thanks for the inside


well, it looks like DFI is the board of choice with, probably, an X2

[deathman20]

A good site to try out is www.dfi-street.com (http://www.dfi-street.com) I had lots of luck at that site with getting help at starting off since right out of the box my board didn't like my ram/cpu. So I had to try different things to get the board to boot so I could flash the new bios. All in all it worked after clearing the cmos and making sure it was booting up in safe settings. Wierd thing what ever it was but all is good.

[lots]

What about Iwill? Any thoughts
IWill hasnt been making much in the way of consumer boards. They have been doing alot with dual Opteron Nforce4 boards though.

[qwatkins]

deathman20—Dang, that site looks like the nitty gritty. I just skimmed it but can see that I will be spending some time there, thanks

lots—Thanks. Out of curiosity, do you know if Iwill is the only one who has a dual opteron offering that will allow non-ECC memory?

[lots]

All Opterons 2xx and up require registered memory. This is not something that can change, because the memory controller is built into the CPU. So having a board that does not have the registered requirement on the Opteron platform, is somewhat difficult to do. Though, its not like ECC registered ram is any more expencive. It is on average 5 or so dollars more, so no big hit in the wallet. However, you do get a more stable system at the cost of some performance.

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