NForce4 Ultra moded to SLI!?

[fivecheebs]

nah ... surely not .... well it can be easy right?

Wrong! If you dont need the bells and wistles of the SLI boards but want multi GPU loving then you can mod an NF4 Ultra chipset to be an SLI chipset, or so it seems. Anandtech (http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2322) have been testing the theory out with the DFI ultra and SLI offerings and it appears to be incredibly simple using a pencil or conductive paint, much like the old t-bird unlocking trick. The only thing you have to do after that is source the SLI bridge that would not normally come with the SLI chipset.

Interesting to say the least ... ive been wondering if im going to need 8 sata channels lol

[Nexxo]

And when you've done that, watercool (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20808) those SLI suckers! :D

[Yellowsnow17]

Maybe I'm missing something but how will you get a second PciE connector with this mod? The NF4U does not support dual cards by default, therefore any mobo with the NF4U chipset won't have two pciE x16 slots in it, right? Do you just put the card in one of the smaller pciE slots or how does it work?

Also, if you are willing to spend the money for SLI, why bother taking a shortcut like this? Protect your two card investment and pay the extra 50 bucks for a legitimate NF4 SLI board :)

[fivecheebs]

Nexxo, now theres a neat solution. cheers for the link :)

Yellow, well, anand has said that they expect to try this out on other boards but at the moment they can only say that it works for the DFI boards. The DFI, and others like the MSI, have more than one 16x PCI-e slot as they were able to get a kind of SLI with but, iirc, at 16x and 2x with the ultra chipset that performed about 80% of a full SLI setup. Nvidia didnt like this so they made changes to thier forceware drivers to check for the chipset on the board. The DFI ultra and SLI are exactly the same board layout and apparently this is why it works. When you do the mod it gives the option for SLI setup in 8x+8x and 16x+2x However because of the lack of support from the forceware drivers there probably wont be many Ultra boards out there that have the correct hardware.

At least that is my rudimentary understanding.

I do agree though yellow, it may be worth the extra for a propper SLI board, especially if your waiting for the next revesion boards. I still think this is interesting none the less :)

[Fibbles]

I think it's pretty cool.

That double cooler is ugly, but it does have a support bracket so it doesn't rip the cards out of the sockets, cause it looks heavy.

[Pug]

A 'kind of SLi'??... :unsure:

Excuse me while I wait & see while others do it first... ;) :D

[Starbuck3733T]

Amen pug, amen.

[fivecheebs]

A 'kind of SLi'??... :unsure:

Excuse me while I wait & see while others do it first... ;) :D
The only "kind of SLI" is on the ultra boards that have dual 16x pcie slots. The modded DFI ultra is true SLI from what anand said... but yea the wise will allways wait to see how others cope, just like waiting for the next reision of a motherboard. Anyone remember the probs with the first nforce 2 asus boards?

[Fibbles]

Not to spoil anyones dreams... I found something... Something scary... very... scary... :eek:!

http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzEx

[Starbuck3733T]

Woah.

I'm hesitant since its hardocp... but they've gotten better over the years. it used to stand for Hardly _something_ Reviews Destroy Overall Chances _something_. damnit. I wish i hand't forgot it... it was funny.

[fivecheebs]

Well, its still very early and id guess at this stage that its the normal release before ready attitude...... i guess time will tell..... I wont be going SLI for a while anyway, but i may well be buying an SLI capable board soon(ish)

[Fibbles]

Woah.

I'm hesitant since its hardocp... but they've gotten better over the years. it used to stand for Hardly _something_ Reviews Destroy Overall Chances _something_. damnit. I wish i hand't forgot it... it was funny.That and the tabloid style reporting. Something I thought was funny was when they said Innovatek stuff was bad because the tube ID was too small, but they have no problem reccomending Koolance, with its 6mm ID, for "hardcore" OC'ing no less.

Still though, I'm wondering why Nvidia chose not to make it all hardware like 3Dfx's SLI. They did go through the trouble of buying 3Dfx.

[Pug]

I thought the C stood for credibility but I'm not gonna go looking for fear of another inter-forum doodab... :unsure:

[Fibbles]

I thought the C stood for credibility but I'm not gonna go looking for fear of another inter-forum doodab... :unsure:
I've heard it before and I take the 5th (for us Americans), for the same reason Pug cited...