DFI LANParty PRO875 Review - DFI LANParty PRO875 Review
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Manufacturer: | DFI |
| Product: | LANParty PRO875 Canterwood Mobo |
Price: | USD$196 |
Availability: | NOW |
Reviewed By: | Jim "Justi" Miller |
Review Date: | June 2003 |
DFI LANParty PRO875 Canterwood Motherboard
LAYOUT AND DESIGN:
This is the one area of a motherboard review that may not make or break a board, but in my opinion is relatively important. It shows us how much common sense they put into their design. First, let's take a look at a few full on shots of the board..
You'll notice the orange UV-Sensitive color of all of the ports built onto the board, including the P4 cooling cage. This is a very nice touch that goes nicely with the rest of the components they've included in the LANParty package.
As with every motherboard review, there's a few area's of interest that we'd like to point out specifically...
AGP Slot Location:
Take a close look at this image:
If you look at the image above you'll see that there is a good bit of space between the bottom of the DDR sockets and the video card, in this case a FIC Radeon 9800 Pro. This is a HUGE plus for this board! They have actually lowered the AGP port to the position usually occupied by the #1 PCI slot in standard boards.
Our own Dan "the man" Reis can tell you from experience that having your video card butting up against the DDR slots is bad news. He had an nVidia 5800 sample that he stupidly (yes I said STUPIDLY!) busted two capacitors off of by removing DDR and having the retention arm smack of the caps! By lowering the AGP slot DFI has left plenty of room to take DDR in and out of the board. This board only has five PCI slots but with the amount of on-board goodness (LAN, sound, etc) the need for six PCI slots is a thing of the past. Big props to DFI for making this adjustment!
ATX Connectors Location:
This is probably one of my biggest things to look for in a board layout, the location of their ATX1 and ATX2 connectors. DFI has placed their ATX1 connector in the second smartest possible location.
They placed it near the top along the right side edge of the board. The best place in my opinion for it is along the top edge on the right side of the board. All the same, this location will do nicely and is worlds better than what we usually see on boards from other manufacturers, which is the middle of the board on the left.
The one additional thing I'd have liked to see DFI do with this matter is to have the four pin ATX2 connector along side of their ATX1. However, it too is at least near the top and on the right side of the board. The reason this is so important to me is that who wants to rout wires perfectly, spending ALL that time, only to have to route a thick ATX cable over the top or along side of their CPU. Nice work to DFI for the location of their jacks.
IDE Connectors:
One area that I'd have liked to see DFI do something differently is their IDE connectors. They have them placed relatively smartly, but they are still standing up...
Now in contrast, look at the way ABIT has laid down their IDE connectors on the ABIT IS7..
By laying down the connectors it allows you to smoothly route your IDE connection cables laying flat along the side of the case.
DFI's standing the IDE's up is not something that will count against them really, but in my personal preference I prefer them lying down.
Pentium4 Socket Position:
This is not something that I suppose makes a difference one way or the other, but I wanted to mention it as it struck me as odd. DFI has rotated the P4 socket 90deg counter clock wise from what we are used to seeing on motherboards. This in no way affects performance or anything else, but was different so we wanted to show you..
AGP Card Locking Device:
I won't go so far as to say that there is no need for an AGP card locking tab, but I will say that traditionally they are a pain in the rear. If you're running a tiny AGP card then there's typically no problems, but if you're running a full size AGP, or even a medium sized one, they are annoying. This design, while still a pain in the butt, is a little better than we typically see.
This one you simply apply a little bit of pressure upward to lock the card in place, and reverse that to get it out. In a normal configuration you have to rotate a tab that is usually right behind a capacitor on the video card and a straight up b$%# to get to. So while I still don't LIKE AGP locks, this one on the DFI is bearable.
I/O Panel:
There is nothing outrageously special about this but did want to mention one thing. Notice how clean this is as far as no useless ports hanging around. The LANParty comes with the capabilities that the rest of the full featured boards have, but DFI was smart enough to know what was really used and what was not. The additional audio I/O's, IEEE's, etc are included on PCI slot add-on cards. This way what you are going to use is right there, and you have the option to use the others, but your layout stays clean and not crowded.
Like I said, nothing major, but a nice piece of detail I'm happy to see.
I won't go so far as to say that there's nothing else that warrants mentioning, but I will say that I'm pretty sure you get the picture! Ready to check out the BIOS, benchmarking, and overclocking performance? Thought so.
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