![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , December 15, 2003
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
DFI LANParty NFII ULTRA B
The NFII ULTRA B is a new revision of an old DFI favorite. The Lan Party series has a lot of extras to offer, but what about the performance and stability?
BIOS
DFI chose to design the NFII ULTRA B’s bios around the Phoenix AwardBIOS. The BIOS itself has been heavily optimized for enthusiast use. Most of the enthusiast friendly modifications are centered around the Genie BIOS Setting menu. The layout and function of the menu is very reminiscent of ABIT’s SoftMenu BIOS interface.
The Advanced Chipset Features menu contains various options for squeezing every last bit of performance out of all chipset related areas, including the memory and AGP buses.
The System Performance option controls how aggressively the CPU and memory interface interact with one another. The option offers various preset performance selections, as well as a user configurable Expert mode. Expert mode opens all CPU and memory related options to user configuration. The CPU Interface option controls how aggressively the CPU bus timings are set. The Memory Timings option controls the DRAM’s interaction with the rest of the system. Like the System Performance option, the Memory Timings option has a variety of preset selections, as well as a user configurable Expert Mode. Expert Mode allows for full user control of all memory settings listed under the Memory Timings option in the menu.
Memory timing options available include CAS latency, Active to Precharge delay (shown as T(RAS), RAS to CAS delay for reads (shown as T(RCD-Read)), RAS to CAS delay for writes (shown as T(RCD-Write)), RAS Precharge delay (shown as T(RP)), bank cycle time (shown as T(RC)), and refresh row cycle time (shown as T(RFC)). On all memory timing settings, setting a lower number causes the system memory to function more aggressively.
The SuperBypass, Sync Mod Memory Bypass, and Data Scavenged Rate options determine how aggressively the memory controller operates. DFI also included driving strength and driving slew rate options for each DIMM slot. Both options determine how strong of a signal is sent from the memory module to the rest of the system.
The PC Health Status menu contains real time statistics of all BIOS monitored system temperatures, fan speeds, and voltages. Although DFI does not include a user configurable system shutdown based on temperature, there is a hard coded Shutdown Temperature defined.
Through the CMOS Reloaded menu, DFI offers you a centralized location from which to save and reload customized BIOSes. Not only that, but you have the option of custom naming the saved BIOSes as well. Up to 4 BIOSes can be stored at any one time. This is a great feature and will save you a lot of time in the event of a needed BIOS reset.