The MB that breaks the limitation of ram:DFI LANParty NF680I

Recently, the hottest chipset of NVIDIA must be NForce 6 series (Intel
platform).
In fact, 680i is the highest model of them all, which has SLI x16 + x16
/EPP/QuickSync technology¡K.etc. The publicity of NV 6 series is ¡§on the rise¡¨
these days, even though the Intel chipsets are so strong in the market.

Not long ago, I released a review of 680i¡¦s reference board.
That is also the board of many others manufacturer too (same board,
just print their logos on) No matter the spec. or design of it is also real
excellent; particularly the
DDRII OC parts is defeats all Intel chipsets. But it was pity that the
reference board of 680i only can reached 470MHz when installed with my X
6800 CPU. Besides, I tried 965 mobo equipped with the same CPU, it ran
around 500MHz¡K later on, some of the mobo manufacturers tried to design
their own 680i. but seems non of them could do better than the NV reference
board.

Now, what I¡¦m going to test is the overclock-oriented motherboard, DFI.
The LANParty UT NF680i LT SLI-T2R is the highest-end of DFI¡¦s LP product.
It adopts 680i LT chipset; it is exactly the same spec to 680i. Maybe
the ¡§production quality¡¨ is a bit different to 680i.

First of all, we check the package design first; it¡¦s really ¡§fashion-look¡¨
this time.



The inside package contain 3 different parts.
The 1st part: NB Heat sink.



The installation guide of NB heat sink and the paste.



Imprint Fins of NB heat sink with a LP logo.
It is optional to install a 6 x 6 cm FAN,
a great help to a high performance NV chipset.



¡§Copper bottom¡¨ design. I heard that this NB heat sink will be sell
independently¡K



The 2nd part, Accessory



Inside:
Includes User menu, driver CD, SLI bridge, IO shield, connect cables,
Karajan audio module and RAID driver disk.



The 3rd part: the board itself



DFI LANParty UT NF680I LT SLI-T2R





Lower left of the board: 3 x PCIe x16, 1x PCIe x4, 3 x PCI slots.
http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/4043/d680lt11cm9.jpg


The lower right parts:
Power/ Reset button & Debug LED light.
Pure copper South bridge
6 ports of SATAII, which supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 functions
Built-in Silicon Image SiI3132 chip.
2 stackable SATAII ports with RAID function too.
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135 [...] t12kf8.jpg


Upper left of the board
IDE 24-pin power and 4 dimm DDRII slots
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135 [...] t13rl6.jpg


The upper left parts:
Unique 6-phase digital PWM design, except the better power supply stability,
it also provide a bigger space for a ¡§huge¡¨ CPU cooler.
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135 [...] t14er3.jpg


IO output
6 x USB2.0 (total up to 10 ports), Dual gigabit LAN, 1394 ports
(audio module not installed)
http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/6747/d680lt15ls7.jpg


Northbridge
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230 [...] t16ho7.jpg


There is a cushion pad between the heat sink and the surface of the chip.
Just follow the instruction, the chip won¡¦t be damage¡K
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135 [...] t17lm9.jpg

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/395/d680lt18dn0.jpg


The system details:
CPU:INTEL Core 2 Duo E6420
MB: DFI LANParty UT NF680I LT SLI-T2R
DRAM: CORSAIR TWIN2X2048-10000C5DF
VGA:MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-HD-OC
HD: WD1600AAJS
POWER: Thermaltake Toughpower 850W
Cooler: Thermaltake V1
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135 [...] t19vv1.jpg

I recommended that install a additional fan with the NB, especially when OC
over 400MHz¡K(BTW, V1 is really helpful, the air flow can help NB too, it¡¦s
strong)

The drivers installation interface:
http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/9919/d680ltosop1.png


CPU: 266X8=>2133Mhz 1.3V
DRAM: DDRII 800 CL3 3-3-9 1T 2.19V
NB:1.18V

SP2004 steady¡K
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135 [...] 800id7.png

DDRII 800 CL3 3-3-9 1T is a option that 680i reference board can¡¦t be
reached.
I knew the revised version BIOS released, the reference board can works
normally at last. But the voltage is higher than DFI680i LT a little bit.


CPU: 266X8=>2133Mhz 1.3V
DRAM: DDRII 1066 CL4 4-3-9 2T 1.98V
NB:1.18V

SP2004 steady¡K
http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/9 [...] 066lj9.png


I tried to show the performance between 680i and 680i LT when equipped
with X6800ES CPU¡K (It ran steady at FSB470MHz)
CPU: 450X8=>3600Mhz 1.4V
DRAM: DDRII 1310 CL4 4-4-4 2T 2.67V
NB:1.48V

Super PI 1M
http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/9 [...] 01mif8.png


DFI 680i LT NB after increasing a little voltage, 500MHz FSB is easy to reach.
Further, the highest voltage is 3.04V; it¡¦s a wider range of voltage settings
than 680i reference board. For my personal experience, this is the first time I
reached 1300(CL4) with 2G DDRII memory. Quite cool¡K

DFI did the best to make LT better than the hottest NV 680i reference board
(by their R&D design). Moreover, the FSB and DDRII performance are
obviously better than the reference board. It improves the FSB¡¦s limitation
between different CPU of Intel.
Further, it also pushes the memory performance to a highest place under all
Intel platform.

Most of Mobo manufacturers sell the 680i reference board awhile ago and
some of them have their own design too¡K DFI was late in launch their 680i
LT as usual, but, the refined package design, thoughtfulness HW & BIOS
design and OC performance are still the reason why enthusiasts like it.
I¡¦ll post a detail review about BIOS and some extreme OC test a bit later.

The up-coming reviews:
ATI RADEON HD2900XT 512MB CrossFire
The ultra-high VGA product line.
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135 [...] t20qp3.jpg


Thermaltake Toughpower 850W
High C/P ratio and high power output Active PFC PSU
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135 [...] t21uj3.jpg


Updated Seagate 7200.7 160GB HD, for increase the performance,
I brought the WD 1600AAJS 160GB 8Mb cache memory. (a latest version)
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338 [...] t22ew2.jpg