LinuxQuestions.org
Support LQ: Use code LQ3 and save $3 on Domain Registration
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > HCL > MotherBoards > DFI
Reload this Page DFI NFII Ultra AL
User Name
Password

Notices

Search · Register · Submit New Product ·
 

DFI NFII Ultra AL
Reviews Views Date of last review
1 55253 12-12-2004
spacer
Recommended By Average Price Average Rating
100% of reviewers $64.00 9.0



Description: Socket A CPU

* AMD Athlon(TM) XP 266/333/400MHz FSB
* AMD Athlon(TM) 200/266MHz FSB

Memory

* Dual channel memory interface
* Up to 3GB memory (unbuffered DIMM)
* Supports PC1600 (DDR200), PC2100 (DDR266), PC2700 (DDR333) and PC3200 (DDR400) DDR SDRAM DIMM, 2.5V type
* Three 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets

BIOS

* Award BIOS, Plug and Play compatible
* Genie BIOS provides:
- CPU/DRAM overclocking
- CPU/AGP/DRAM/Chipset overvoltage
* Flash EPROM for easy BIOS upgrades

Hardware Monitor

* CPU/system temperature
* ±12V/5V/3.3V/VBAT(V)/5VSB(V) voltages
* CPU/chassis fan speed
* Displays temperature, voltage and fan speed
* CPU temperature protection function monitors CPU temperature during system boot up

Connectors

* Audio - AC'97 2.2 S/PDIF extension compliant codec
* Audio - 6-channel audio output
* LAN - nVIDIA® nForce2 MCP and ICS1893 Phy chips
* LAN - Integrated IEEE 802.3, 10 BASE-T and 100 BASE-TX (compatible PHY)
* IDE - ATA/33, ATA/66, ATA/100 and ATA/133 hard drives
* IDE - UDMA Modes 3, 4, 5 and 6 Enhanced IDE (up to 133MB/sec.)
* Serial ATA (SATA) - Marvell 88i8030 chipset
* Serial ATA (SATA) - compliant with SATA 1.0 spec @ 1.5Gbps
* AGP - 8x (up to 2132MB/sec.) or 4x (up to 1066MB/sec.)

Rear Interface Panel I/O Ports

(4) USB 2.0/1.1 ports
(1) RJ-45 LAN port
(2) DB-9 16550 UART serial ports
(1) DB-25 parallel port
(1) PS/2 mouse port
(1) PS/2 keyboard port
(3) Audio jacks: line-out, line-in & mic-in

I/O Connectors

(1) connector for USB 2.0/1.1 & (2) additional external USB 2.0/1.1 ports
(1) connector for external game/MIDI port
(1) front audio connector for external line-out and mic-in jacks
(2) internal audio connectors (AUX-in and CD-in)
(1) 4-channel audio output connector
(1) S/PDIF in/out connector
(1) connector for IrDA interface
(1) connector for serial ATA interface
(2) IDE connectors
(1) floppy connector
(1) Wake-On-LAN connector
(3) fan connectors for CPU fan, chassis fan and second fan

Expansion Slots

(1) AGP slot - 8x/4x AGP
(5) PCI slots

Power Management

* Supports ACPI STR (Suspend to RAM) function
* Wake-On-Events include:
- Wake-On-Keyboard/Mouse
- Wake-On-USB
- Wake-On-Ring (external modem)
- Wake-On-LAN
- RTC timer to power-on the system

Dimensions

* ATX spec
* 12" (30.5 cm) x 9.64" (24.5 cm)

_______________________________________
[root@localhost ~]# /sbin/lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (different version?) (rev c1 )
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 1 (rev c1)
00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 4 (rev c1)
00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 3 (rev c1)
00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 2 (rev c1)
00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 5 (rev c1)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 ISA Bridge (rev a4)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce2 SMBus (MCP) (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Ethernet Controller (rev a1)
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AC97 Audio Contr oler (MCP) (rev a1)
00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 External PCI Bridge (rev a3)
00:09.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IDE (rev a2)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (rev c1)
Keywords: dfi, nfii ultra al, socket a, usb, lan, agp 8x, s/pdif, dimm, sata, udma 133, 400FSB
Chipset: nVIDIA® nForce2 (nForce2 Ultra 400, nForce2 MCP)
Connection Type: S/PDIF, USB 2.0/1.1, Parallel, Serial, Serial ATA, UDMA 100/133, 10 Base-T/100 Base-T LAN, IrDA, WOL (Wake-On-LAN), Game/MIDI Port,


Author
Post A Reply 
Old 12-12-2004, 06:16 AM   #1
t3gah
 
Registered: Dec 2004
Distribution: SuSE, RedHat, ubuntu, Debian
Posts: 734

Rep: Reputation:
Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid? (in USD): $64.00 | Rating: 9

Kernel (uname -r): 2.6.9-1.667
Distribution: Fedora Core 3, Yoper 2.1, Debian (Helix 1.5), Slackware 10.0, Knoppix 3.6, SuSE 9.1 Personal



The system refused to get past ISOLINUX with either Adaptec AHA-2940U/W or AHA-2940AU SCSI controllers with "BIOS Support for bootable CD-ROM" option enabled in the "CTRL A" SCSISelect Utility and a Toshiba XM-6401B CD-ROM drive or Plextor PX-W1210S CD-RW drive.

With the "BIOS Support for bootable CD-ROM" setting disabled, the motherboard BIOS set to boot CD, A, HDD-0, the installs all went smoothly. It was suggested to perform a BIOS flash upgrade to eliminate the errors because they pointed to a "broken BIOS", but no flash BIOS upgrade was performed. All distro's installed flawlessly once the install CD's were booting off an IDE CD-ROM drive via the onboard IDE controller.

The folks at SYSLINUX (http://syslinux.zytor.com/) reported the distro's I tried all have a new "El Torrito" bootable CD-ROM emulation which is not compatible with the SCSI controllers set to boot from the controllers.

I'd like to point out that the Adaptec controllers worked fine with the OSes for CD, CD-RW and SCSI DAT anyway once the operating systems were installed. So there is no problem with having Adaptec controllers installed. Just as long as you don't intend to boot the CD using the SCSI controller BIOS.

Test System Spec:
DFI NFII Ultra AL BIOS - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor - AMD XP3000+ Barton Core 333FSB
RAM - Ultra 512MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz
Video Controller - ATI Radeon 9200 128MB w/TV Out (AGP 8X)

* Note: The BIOS update from esupport.com costs $69.95!
______________________________________________
Error messages with the Adaptec's booting the SCSI CD-ROM's -

isolinux: Extremely broken BIOS detected

Yoper 2.1
---------
ISOLINUX 2.11 2004-08-16 isolinux: Loading spec packet failed, trying to wing it...
isolinux: Extremely broken BIOS detected, last ditch attempt with drive = 9F
isolinux: Disk error 01, AX = 4209, drive 9F
Boot failed: press a key to retry...


Debian (Helix 1.5)
---------
ISOLINUX 2.04 (Debian, 2003-06-06) isolinux: Loading spec packet failed, trying to wing it...
isolinux: Extremely broken BIOS detected, last ditch attempt with drive = 9F
isolinux: Disk error 01, AX = 42BD, drive 9F
Boot failed: press a key to retry...


Fedora Core 3
-------------
ISOLINUX 2.11 2004-08-16 isolinux: isolinux: Loading spec packet failed, trying to wing it...
isolinux: Extremely broken BIOS detected, last ditch attempt with drive = 9F
isolinux: Disk error 01, AX = 426F, drive 9F
Boot failed: press a key to retry...


Knoppix 3.6
-----------
ISOLINUX 2.04 (Debian, 2003-06-06) isolinux: isolinux: Loading spec packet failed, trying to wing it...
isolinux: Extremely broken BIOS detected, last ditch attempt with drive = 9F
isolinux: Disk error 01, AX = 4231, drive 9F
Boot failed: press a key to retry...


SuSE 9.1 Personal
-----------------
ISOLINUX 2.08 0x4072248c isolinux: Disk error 01, AX = 4240, drive 9F


***** FOR ALL INSTALLS I HAD THE MOTHERBOARD BIOS FOR ACPI DISABLED. *****
 




  



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:42 AM.

Contact Us - Advertising Info - Rules - LQ Merchandise - Donations - Contributing Member - LQ Sitemap -
Main Menu

My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
identi.ca: @linuxquestions
Facebook: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration