Introduction

Back when Socket A, and later Socket 939, were the preferred platforms for enthusiasts, one motherboard company emerged as the king of overclocking, DFI. DFI's LanParty boards had it all: colorful UV reactive components, excellent BIOS conducive to overclocking, rock-solid stability, and excellent reliability.

So now that the most enthusiasts are using Intel Core 2 processors, and Asus and Gigabyte appear to be the hot upper-end enthusiast motherboard manufacturers at the time, where has DFI gone? DFI is still here, still producing LanParty motherboards, and apparently making their way back into the fray, considering that recently they released an Intel X38 board, and are presently taking pre-orders for their new X48 board.

Today we will be looking at the DFI LanParty UT IFCX3200-T2R/G. It is an LGA775 motherboard powered by the ATI RD600 chipset, and featuring ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 IE. This board has been around for some time but is still available, and at an excellent price, I might add. So rather than spend time comparing it to newer boards with newer chipsets that cost up to triple the price, I am going to attempt to review it on its own merits, and look at it more as an economy board rather than the upper-end board it was a year ago.

Specs/Features

CPU
- LGA 775 socket for: Intel Core2 Quad, Intel Core2 Extreme, Intel Core2 Duo, Intel Pentium D or Intel Pentium 4
- Supports Intel Enhanced Memory 64 Technology (EMT64T)
- Supports Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST)
- Supports Intel Hyper-Threading Technology
- Supports 1066/800MHz FSB

Chipset
- ATI chipset
- Northbridge: ATI RD600
- Southbridge: ATI SB600

Memory
- Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM sockets
- Supports DDR2 667 and DDR2 800 DIMMs
- Supports dual channel (128-bit wide) memory interface
- Supports up to 8GB system memory

Expansion Slots
- 3 PCI Express x16 slots for ATI CrossFire and ATI Physics
- 2+1 Configuration (2 Graphics + 1 Physics)
- 2 ATI CrossFire graphics cards (each operates at x8 bandwidth).
- 1 ATI Physics graphics card operates at x2 bandwidth.
- 3 PCI slots

BIOS
- Award BIOS
- CMOS Reloaded
- CPU/DRAM overclocking
- CPU/DRAM/Chipset overvoltage
- 8Mbit flash memory

Audio
- Karajan audio module
- Realtek ALC885 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- 6 audio jacks
- 1 CD-in connector
- 1 front audio connector
- DAC SNR/ADC SNR of 106dB/101dB
- Full-rate lossless content protection technology
- S/PDIF-in/out interface

LAN
- Marvell 88E8052 and Marvell 88E8053 Gigabit PCIE LAN
- Fully compliant to IEEE 802.3 (10BASE-T), 802.3u (100BASE-TX) and 802.3ab (1000BASE-T) standards

IDE
- Supports one IDE connector that allows connecting up to two UltraDMA 133Mbps hard drives

IEEE 1394
- VIA VT6307
- Supports two 100/200/400 Mb/sec ports

Serial ATA with RAID
- Four Serial ATA ports supported by ATI SB600
- SATA speed up to 3Gb/s
- RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1
- Four Serial ATA ports supported by Promise PDC40719
- SATA speed up to 3Gb/s
- RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and RAID 5

Rear Panel I/O Ports
- 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port
- 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port
- 2 S/PDIF RCA jacks (S/PDIF-in and S/PDIF-out)
- Karajan audio module (6 audio jacks)
- 1 IEEE 1394 port
- 2 RJ45 LAN ports
- 6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports

Hardware Monitor
- Monitors CPU/system/chipset temperature
- Monitors 12V/5V/3.3V/Vcore/Vbat/5Vsb/Vdimm/Vchip voltages
- Monitors the speed of the cooling fans
- CPU Overheat Protection function monitors CPU temperature during system boot-up

PCB
- ATX form factor
- 24cm (9.45") x 30.5cm (12")

Packaging

The IFCX3200-T2R/G (which for brevity I will from this point on refer to as simply "LanParty") is packaged in this bright orange box, something I would expect from DFI. The rear of the box describes some of the major features. Inside, we see that the box is crammed full of stuff, I will go into detail of the bundle a little later.