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| DFI LAN Party NFII UltraB Faster Than The Speed of UV | ||
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Review by MS, January 25, 2004 |
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AMD AthlonXP 2500+: | |
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DFI NFII UltraB At: |
Summary
An old rule of thumb from racing states that any race car runs best just before it breaks. If the same rule is applied to any PC platform, it would say that any platform evolves to its highest potential just before it reaches the end of life phase. The above statement is actually a self-fulfilling prophecy since in almost all cases will there be an evolutionary improvement of any product until a point is reached where the returns are so diminishing that it is easier and more economic to start from scratch.
Needless to say that approaching the End of Life is not synonymous with immediate discontinuation of the product. Rather, in most cases, there is still a long way to go, however, in most cases, this will also involve quite a bit reduced prices for e.g. the processor. This, in turn will make the platform even more attractive from a price performance standpoint. It is not surprising that the nForce2 Ultra400 falls into this category and some mainboard manufacturers are battling it out, pushing the platform to the absolute limit, way beyond its original specifications. How much is there to be gained, and more importantly, what other precautions are to be taken to capitalize on the improvements? Does a 260 MHz bus frequency for stable operation sound appealing?
DFI uses the most elaborate package and the probably most extensive hardware bundling we have seen. Naturally, this drives up the price a bit but there are certainly enough users who are willing to pay the extra for all the goodies included.
There are newcomers and there are newcomers who make a splash. And there is DFI, God knows what that stands for. However, they do make some of the hottest hardware in the current scene. Compared to the ABIT and ASUS, DFI also looks comparably small, however, if innovation is indicative of the growth potential of a company, we can expect quite a bit from DFI in the near future.
In every company, there are a few "blue ants", however, "blue ants" alone don't "make" a company. That is, in every company, there are some key individuals that are instrumental in the success or failure by means of their personal engagement and capabilities. Some of these individuals are legends in their own time. One example is a young Taiwanese engineer known by the name of Oscar Wu, who came to fame some 5 years ago through his instrumental role in the design of the ABIT BH6, and the subsequent "continuous beta support" with BIOS versions that caused a lot of headaches for the users but also provided invaluable feedback from legions of overclockers. In the end, the result was a better product.
Coincidentally, Oscar is the new kid on the block with DFI, apparently determined to help them shed the old, plebeian company image by putting some screaming technology behind the screaming exterior of DFI's LAN Party and Infinity series. Simultaneously, the PR department at DFI has been ramped up. After some escapades with Scott Thirlwell (ex ABIT and back), Vivian Lien (ex FiringSquad and Soyo) has taken the place of Wonder-Woman at DFI (I know she's going to kill me for that).
Bottom line is that all switches appear to be set in the right direction, that is, towards success, and the trend could not have come at a better time, as the first faint whiffs of an economic rebound are rustling some leaves.
Change of topic: The only thing that is more boring than reading perpetual hardware reviews is to write them - just kidding. However, the only thing that makes any article worth reading is that the author has actually something to say, be that positive or negative and suffice it to say that it is much more rewarding to say something positive and then stand behind it, than being negative. Sometimes, you have to live with a product for some time to come to appreciate it but sometimes, it just hits you over the head. And sometimes, even that is not enough, there are things that were left out and that are just dying to be added or being modified. And then, only then, is it really worth looking at the product -- after unleashing all its potential and pulling every register in the book. Welcome to the LAN Party from Hell, er, Demonic Forces Inc. (or was that Diamond Flower International?)
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