Wheelman [PT]
28-04-2004, 22:04
In not a geek (http://iamnotageek.com/printer.php?aid=6)
Today I'm bringing you guys an alert and letting you know how badly DFI has dropped the ball on a couple models of their boards. Not only did DFI miss it but so did countless people who have posted reviews of the board. With the little plastic clips on the CPU socket being so easy to break from wear and tear alot of manufacturers are using the little holes around the socket to mount their heatsinsks. Everybody who's into watercooling uses the holes around the CPU socket. What happens where there's a problem with them?
The boards:
DFI Infinity NFII Ultra
DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra B
Infinity:
http://iamnotageek.com/images/dfi/image003.jpg
http://iamnotageek.com/images/dfi/image001.jpg
http://iamnotageek.com/images/dfi/image002.jpg
Lanparty:
http://iamnotageek.com/images/dfi_topright.jpg
http://iamnotageek.com/images/dfi_topleft.jpg
http://iamnotageek.com/images/dfi_bottomleft.jpg
The images on the right are of the lanparty board. On both of these boards there are multiple resistors dangerously close to the holes. When you're mounting a waterblock or any of the better air coolers you are going to have to be EXTREMELY careful or you could potentially break or break off one of these resistors. Some heatsinks and waterblock's use a straight screw bolt up from back side of PCB. You'll have to check with the manufacturer before you buy anything.
Why is this an article you say? DFI is marketing the LANparty board specifically at the kind of people using some of these big heatsinks and waterblocks. The same crowd the board is marketed towards are the kind of people that want to use these holes. I haven't seen anything on the front pages of any news sites about this. All of the users of these boards need to know they should proceed with extreme caution. If they don't, they can very easily render their board unusable and have to RMA it. I have heard from several sources that they are not having a problem with exchanging the boards. Who wants to deal with an RMA?
There's been a lot of people actually breaking the resistors while installing their heatsink! It is possible to install most of the heatsinks that use these holes if you're extremely careful and do a little bit of modifying. My suggestion is to use the clip on heatsinks with these boards! Unless you're an experienced user just avoid the high end heatsinks with these boards. If you're planning on watercooling I'd probably avoid these boards completely.
DFI made one significant design mistake to bring down an otherwise great board. There's nothing DFI can do to fix this. All that can be done is to alert YOU the consumer. I have heard from several people that DFI did RMA their boards with the broken resistor. I do not know for sure if they will take back any board that this happens to. I'll post the official statement from DFI when I get it.
Se percebi a modo isto pode ser problematico se forem usados os buracos para fixar um bruto cooler.
Vejam os restos do artigo no link lá em cima.
Today I'm bringing you guys an alert and letting you know how badly DFI has dropped the ball on a couple models of their boards. Not only did DFI miss it but so did countless people who have posted reviews of the board. With the little plastic clips on the CPU socket being so easy to break from wear and tear alot of manufacturers are using the little holes around the socket to mount their heatsinsks. Everybody who's into watercooling uses the holes around the CPU socket. What happens where there's a problem with them?
The boards:
DFI Infinity NFII Ultra
DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra B
Infinity:
http://iamnotageek.com/images/dfi/image003.jpg
http://iamnotageek.com/images/dfi/image001.jpg
http://iamnotageek.com/images/dfi/image002.jpg
Lanparty:
http://iamnotageek.com/images/dfi_topright.jpg
http://iamnotageek.com/images/dfi_topleft.jpg
http://iamnotageek.com/images/dfi_bottomleft.jpg
The images on the right are of the lanparty board. On both of these boards there are multiple resistors dangerously close to the holes. When you're mounting a waterblock or any of the better air coolers you are going to have to be EXTREMELY careful or you could potentially break or break off one of these resistors. Some heatsinks and waterblock's use a straight screw bolt up from back side of PCB. You'll have to check with the manufacturer before you buy anything.
Why is this an article you say? DFI is marketing the LANparty board specifically at the kind of people using some of these big heatsinks and waterblocks. The same crowd the board is marketed towards are the kind of people that want to use these holes. I haven't seen anything on the front pages of any news sites about this. All of the users of these boards need to know they should proceed with extreme caution. If they don't, they can very easily render their board unusable and have to RMA it. I have heard from several sources that they are not having a problem with exchanging the boards. Who wants to deal with an RMA?
There's been a lot of people actually breaking the resistors while installing their heatsink! It is possible to install most of the heatsinks that use these holes if you're extremely careful and do a little bit of modifying. My suggestion is to use the clip on heatsinks with these boards! Unless you're an experienced user just avoid the high end heatsinks with these boards. If you're planning on watercooling I'd probably avoid these boards completely.
DFI made one significant design mistake to bring down an otherwise great board. There's nothing DFI can do to fix this. All that can be done is to alert YOU the consumer. I have heard from several people that DFI did RMA their boards with the broken resistor. I do not know for sure if they will take back any board that this happens to. I'll post the official statement from DFI when I get it.
Se percebi a modo isto pode ser problematico se forem usados os buracos para fixar um bruto cooler.
Vejam os restos do artigo no link lá em cima.