VR Features

Walkabout in SLS (18-3-2006)

DFI Lanparty nF4 SLI-DR Venus

Written by Stratix and filed under Sim Lim Square > Editorials
Published on March 18, 2006, 12:00 pm

Source: VR-Zone
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After looking at a bunch of newly launched graphics cards, we popped over to DAT Computers and found a top end NVIDIA nForce 4 SLI board to go with the top end NVIDIA cards. The DFI Lanparty nF4 SLI-DR Venus is one board that promises to send hardcore enthusiasts drooling. The difference between this board from DFI's predecessors is that the Venus board is actually a 1000-pieces-only limited edition board that features aluminum cased capacitors - said to be of a higher quality then the normal capacitors on other motherboards. Being a limited edition board, the SLI-DR Venus comes with a very unique drawer styled packaging for that added style and class. This board goes at $549, but if you're a Club VR member, you're entitled to purchased it at a discounted price of $509! More info on this over here.

 

The packaging of the DFI Lanparty nF4 SLI-DR Expert Venus. This is not just a normal paper type packaging, but a solid case that houses your limited edition board inside.

 

When the case is opened up, the board could be found on the upper compartment, while the other bunch of accessories is found at the lower drawer as pictured here.

 

This is how the board looks like. The layout of the components are kept the same like it's non-Venus SLI-DR Expert board.

 

The difference between this board from the rest would be the use of aluminum canned capacitors through out the whole board. Every single capacitor used would be like the ones pictured here. Top end high quality stuff here!

 

The nForce 4 SLI chipset comes with in-built Gigabit LAN, with the Physical Hardware Layer is provided by this Vitesse VSC8201RX chip.

 

Since this board comes with dual Gigabit LAN connectors, the other LAN port is powered by this Marvell 88E8001 controller.

 

The audio department on the SLI-DR Venus is fully separated on a daughter board, which DFI calls the Karajan Audio port. This daughter card is already pre-fitted on the board, and is powered by the Realtek ALC850 sound chip, providing 8 channel audio.

 

The Venus provides 8 SATA ports, with 4 SATA 3.0GBps from the NVIDIA nForce 4 SLI chipset. The other 4 ports is controlled by the Silicon Image Si3114 controller, providing another 4 SATA 1.5GBps connectors.

 

The rear I/O connectors on this DFI Venus board. Apart from the usual USB/PS2/Firewire/Dual LAN/Audio ports, this board does not come with any legacy ports at all.

 

We must highlight that the UV IDE rounded cables from the bunch of accessories given are different from what's given on the older DFI boards. The UV cables bundled with the Venus are of a higher quality, and probably provides a better glow under UV lightings.