DFI 855GME-MGF Motherboard Review - Small form factor
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With the chip's laptop origins in mind, the DFI 855GME-MGF retains a small form factor in mATX. This makes it easier to integrate into many of the Home Theatre PC cases out there --- after all, this is potentially competition to the VIA EPIA for low power situations. Hiding under that low power facade, though, is more than just something to use to control your entertainment system.
In fact, I think DFI is moving in a completely different direction, given how they outfitted the board. To me, this board has "server" written in bold lettering on its PCB. Where would I get a crazy idea like that? Well, the first indication was the rather large slot sitting between the two common PCI ones. That slot is the lesser known PCI-X, a 64 bit 66MHz Barry Bonds version of the weaker 32 bit 33MHz PCI bus. On the desktop there is significantly less need for such a robust bus format compared to that of a server running a RAID 5 array, or multiple gigabit Ethernet connections.
Also present is Intel's 6300ESB south bridge, instead of the mobile spec ICH4M or any of the typical desktop wares. That's where the power for the PCI-X comes from. Normally this feature is found in a discreet chip on the board. Instead Intel took their ICH5 chipset and grafted on a PCI-X controller. There is a caveat though: since it's only running at 66MHz, many dedicated chips can run the bus at 133MHz and 64 bits. Even so, that's a far more robust implementation than most situations are going to need. And with only the one slot, the extra total bandwidth is less of a problem. Considering there is absolutely no room on the PCB for another large ASIC, it's the only way DFI was going to be able to add in that feature. Being a micro-ATX board this means you only have that PCI-X slot, and two 32 bit PCI slots for normal consumer devices.
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