DFI Lanparty differences

[F6Hawk]

Looking at Newegg, I see the following DFI mother boards for AMD 939 (my system will be x2, just haven't decided on the speed yet):

#1) $89 - DFI nF4-DAGF Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4-4X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

#2) $96 - DFI nF4 Ultra-Infinity Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

#3) $117 - DFI LanParty UT nF4-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4-4X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

#4) $122 - DFI nF4 SLI Infinity Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

#5) $128 - DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

#6) $163 - DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

#7) $167 - DFI LP UT nF4 SLI-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

#8) $189 - DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

First off, from what I have read, all of these will work for x2, correct? I mean, there is nothing special required of the mobo to be able to run x2, except socket 939?

Second, what are some of the differences between the boards? (All I have ever used are Asus & a friend's Soyo)

For example, #1 is a DAGF, whereas #2 doesn't have D-anything.

#'s 3, 5, & 6 have UT in the description, 3, 5, & 7 are D's, while 6 & 8 are DR's. It seems all of these have been recommended at least once, but shirley there are some that are better than others based on features I may need, not just price. Paying an extra $50-80 does not bother me, if I am getting something useful out of it.

I have never OC'd before, but plan on doing so with my new system, but nothing too extreme. (I will probably add a water solution, but perhaps not at first) From all the reading I have been doing on here, DFI seems to be the board of choice, particularly for OCing, so that is what I plan on going with, just trying to decipher the DFI code.

RAM, I think OCZ or the g-stuff (can't recall the name right now), probably 2 gigs, as I plan on doing some video editing with the rig when not playing games.

eVGA 7800GTX seems to be the most preferred video solution here... but do I need SLI? I am not an extreme gamer by any means; my current rig gets about 19-25 fps on AAO, so anything will be a huge improvement. But if I buy a SLI mobo, I can always add another card later, eh? But some on here seem to think the 7800GTX will handle just about anything out there at the moment, and I want to put money where it will do the most good.

HDDs, prolly a Raptor for Windows, and a 300/500Gb for data files.

Thanks for your input, I have learned a lot in the short time I have been on these forums. With your guidance, I think I will soon have a rocking system!

 

[PZEROFGH]

124 arent lanparty

some of them have the special UT

3 is NF4 only

 

[F6Hawk]

124 arent lanparty

some of them have the special UT

3 is NF4 only

Ok, so what exactly is LanParty? 5,6,7,8 are dual LANs.

What is the special UT?

nF4 only, as opposed to...?

 

[PZEROFGH]

NF4 chipset other then nF4 ultra chipset . or the ultra-D

and the NF4 SLI chipset, and then theres the D and the DR version.

 

[Flanker]

The DAGF is almost non-existent nowadays so you should just ignore that.

The Infitinies are Value motherboard, no overclocking there.

No one really uses the Lanparties for actual LAN-parties, despite the name. I don't know what the "UT" means, but it usually designates a cheaper version of the motherboard. For example; the #6, $7, and #8 motherboards are exactly the same, except #6 doesn't support the Sempron processor...which doesn't really matter since there are no Socket 939 Semprons that are avaliable as Retail...I really don't see the difference between #7 and #8 that would make a price difference...

#5, despite the "UT" designation, is the motherboard of choice for non-SLI overclockers. It is EXACTLY like the SLI-D and SLI-DR motherboards (#6, #7, and #8) except that the chipset has had two resistor pads have been disconnected disabling SLI. The Ultra-D can be easily modded using a pencil and to enable SLI.

As for #3, the chipset is regular nForce4 which doesn't overclock AS WELL as the nForce4-Ultra and nForce4-SLI chipsets.


As for the rest; You don't need SLI. A single 7800GTX will handle any game out there at max settings. But yea, if you get an SLI motherboard, you can add another video card later on. Get the eVGA version though, some of the others are a bit bulk and it might be hard to add another one in the limited space.