Since some time, DFI Global Support Forum is out of reach.

Could it mean that DFI Consumer Motherboards branch has definitely gone?

Regards,
Luca

Yes, they have/will shut it down.

Yep, they're dead. At least the consumer arm anyway.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mother ... -for-dfi/1

First Abit, now DFI
Not that Asus or GB boards are bad, not at all. It's just that to buy a different-than-others board with better-than-average features, you now have smaller choice...

...and Epox, disappeared maybe five years ago.

MSI has been putting out some really nice products lately, I'd definitely consider them to be up there with ASUS and Gigabyte in terms of features and quality.

epox was the best aside from Abit.

sux.

Hmmm... I dunno how late it is lately, but I have two MSI board right now, both IGP (GeForce 9300 and 785G) and not so old: BIOS always carefully undocumented as any big manufacturer, their Cell menu has often failed to accomplish any OC, their memory performances leave a lot to be desired, and their fan controllers are inadequate.

I still have an "infamous" DFI IGP which I withdraw from service last spring (after dealing with their a bit overrated support service): with all its weaks it's still more probably that not overall preferable over those MSI.

I still also have in service an Abit P35 and a DFI P965: wonderful critters to this day, still smell like new.

Regards,
Luca

yeah, msi is ok.

It is like modern asus, it's just ok.

There arent any high quality board manufacturers at all.

Which 785G board? The E65 version? I always thought that one looked really nice, but haven't used one personally. It varies from board to board I'm sure, a top dollar Gigabyte board is probably better than a budget MSI, but my current MSI has more fan control options than my old Gigabyte. The MSI has target temperature for the CPU fan control, whereas the Gigabyte didn't have any way to adjust the PWM profile, and the profile Gigabyte used was way to aggressive, ramped the fan up a lot faster than necessary. Even my budget ASRock motherboard I bought four years ago supported this, you had a couple different PWM profiles to choose from for the CPU fan controller (quiet, performance, options like that). Also, a lot of MSI boards have the active phase switching, which seems to reduce idle power consumption. SPCR reviewed a handful of 785G boards including the 785GM-E65 and it was the most power efficient, thanks to active phase switching I'd assume. I think ASUS and Gigabyte offer a feature similar to active phase switching, but it requires you to use software in Windows to take advantage of this, whereas the MSI stuff is all done in hardware and is OS independent.

Plus MSI sells those high end boards with all tantalum caps (super, super high quality, no other motherboard maker offers this AFAIK), their Lightning and Hawk video cards come with high quality components, good coolers, and ability to tweak voltage. etc.

I dunno, I think they have a lot of really nice and innovative products, and I think over the next couple years Gigabyte will fall out of favor among enthusiasts and MSI will step up and take their place (and ASUS will just continue to make nice products like they have for the last couple decades). Just my $0.02, though.

Have you tried the upper tier Asus mainboards? They are getting a lot of praise.

I heard crossfire IV had an ill placed NB heatsink on 50% of them, but aside from that super quality.

marvel ethernet too!

My DFI Lanparty motherboard ($200 939 board) is the only brand new product that I have ever been so disappointed with that I chucked into the trash. Every time I started the thing the bios went back to default and had to be manually reset every single time - tech support could not fix it or give me an RMA. Replaced with an Asus and all was good for years. Selling this system to a friend now.
Steve

I'd assume this is one of the first things tech support suggested, but did you try replacing the CMOS battery?

I miss Epox. They made nice boards.

I use nothing but MSI anymore, like them a lot.

I was sold on Intel the moment I tried out their D875PBZ 'Bonanza' motherboard. I use nothing but Intel when I build Intel systems. To put it in short: best BIOS change log in the industry, edited English on documentation and BIOS, extremely easy BIOS updates (Windows, ISO, floppy), easy to find drivers and software, quality ethernet and audio controllers, minimalistic set of features that are relevant (nothing stupid like 4 different Realtek ethernet controllers on the same board), and decent support. When my Bonanza system started to randomly reboot, I called their support line and they assisted me in diagnosing the issue. We eventually determined that the CPU was faulty and they immediately issued an RMA number for me. Less than a week after they had received my defective CPU, I received a brand new retail one in the mail. I have nothing but good things to say about Intel, especially since my D975XBX2 has been running rock solid for the past 3 years.