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DFI LanParty nF4 SLI-DR Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Thursday, June 02, 2005
Conclusion
When SLI was first announced the enthusiasm here in the Ninjalane Labs for the new technology was crazy. Everyone was running around trying to get their hands on something SLI enabled in hopes of making that big score and upgrade to SLI. Since then the enthusiasm has died down, but not much, especially after spending some extensive time gaming on the DFI LanParty SLI-DR.
DFI has once again created a monster of a motherboard that pushes the limits of enthusiast motherboard technology. It was mentioned that overclocking has started taking over as a hardware enthusiast pastime with several groups being very animate over who has the highest overclock or best memory performance. As everyone knows the key to a good overclock is having a good motherboard.
Overall we were very pleased with the LanParty SLI-DR, the system ran great however didn't happen to win any speed races when it came to our benchmarks. I think we can safely say this was due to driver support at low resolutions and the fact that running SLI does indeed take more CPU time than running a single card. Something to think about if your system is intended to do more than just gaming.
The BIOS was also another spot we felt could use some improvement, currently the SLI-DR BIOS contains support for every major system tweak known and a few we have never seen before. To some this is a great opportunity while to others could just be confusing the issue. For us there is a fine line between offering excellent overclocking controls and going overboard with the additional features even if it will eventually hurt performance.
The look and layout of the LanParty SLI-DR is like no other, power is routed away from the major heat produces to ensure a smooth airflow pattern and you will be sure to turn heads at the next LAN party due to the UV reactive expansion slots.
DFI has once again created a monster of a motherboard that pushes the limits of enthusiast motherboard technology. It was mentioned that overclocking has started taking over as a hardware enthusiast pastime with several groups being very animate over who has the highest overclock or best memory performance. As everyone knows the key to a good overclock is having a good motherboard.
Overall we were very pleased with the LanParty SLI-DR, the system ran great however didn't happen to win any speed races when it came to our benchmarks. I think we can safely say this was due to driver support at low resolutions and the fact that running SLI does indeed take more CPU time than running a single card. Something to think about if your system is intended to do more than just gaming.
The BIOS was also another spot we felt could use some improvement, currently the SLI-DR BIOS contains support for every major system tweak known and a few we have never seen before. To some this is a great opportunity while to others could just be confusing the issue. For us there is a fine line between offering excellent overclocking controls and going overboard with the additional features even if it will eventually hurt performance.
The look and layout of the LanParty SLI-DR is like no other, power is routed away from the major heat produces to ensure a smooth airflow pattern and you will be sure to turn heads at the next LAN party due to the UV reactive expansion slots.
Now for the ever popular list of Good things and Bad things. 
The Good Things
Sweet Black PCB
Excellent Stability
Great Tweaking Experience
Accepts Large Heatsinks
Extensive Onboard Cooling Methods
Nice Layout
Excellent Stability
Great Tweaking Experience
Accepts Large Heatsinks
Extensive Onboard Cooling Methods
Nice Layout
The Bad Things
BIOS is confusing to novice users
Impossiable to run SLI with dual monitors (without reboot)
UV Slots obscured by expansion cards and memory, thus limiting viewability
Impossiable to run SLI with dual monitors (without reboot)
UV Slots obscured by expansion cards and memory, thus limiting viewability
Ninjalane Rating
I would like to thank DFI for helping to make this review possible.
