cpu's have FSB WALL.. :D
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cpu's have FSB WALL.. :D
- There is not one single cap near the cpu!
- One motherboard standoff hole is blocked by the heatpipe going from the SB to the NB.
- There looks to be plenty of room around the motherboard standoff holes, looks clear of wiretraces -- unlike the P965-S.
- There looks to be plenty of room around the cpu retention holes, looks clear of wiretraces.
Great job on the review, excellent qual pictures! It's nice that it's being updated with suggestions here, but it'd be even nicer if I could read it lol. Seriously, I'd love to see a translation, I think it'd be well worth the time.
Spot on about the upper vid card slot and ram. Seems simple enough to swap the slot with the pci-e 1x slot below. I'm no engineer, but it can't be that difficult to swirl the wiretraces a little bit to put the upper vid one slot lower. It's either a major oversight, or far too many technical issues with swapping those slots.
Personally, the green is very garish to me. The DFI trademark black yellow/orange has a higher contrast and more pleasing to the eye under any light. Ever notice that most of the street signs that signify dangerous or important info are always colored black and orange or yellow? It's because the high contrast makes them stick out from the regular signs.
Otherwise, it seems like a stellar board with lots of the DFI trademark innovation! The heatsink at the I/O plate and cluster of voltage regulator components near it and the cpu give it a clean high tech look and should get great cooling with most cases exhausting near it and many cpu coolers able to direct airflow right over it on the way out of the case. Lots of fan headers (6), manual says CPU, Chassis and NB fans are controllable.
This is one I'd like to buy! I'll hold out to see if they release a black/yellow version first. :D
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CPUs definately have a dramtic effect on FSB. My first E6400 would only do 430mhz fsb, no matter what multiplier, my next e6400 would do 495mhz fsb tested on DS3 and DFI P965, my e6600 wouldn't for 495 fsb on my DFI no matter what multiplier until I put it under cold, at which point it did 533mhz. My latest 3070 does 497mhz fsb on DFI P965 under dry ice no matter if I use the 10x multipler or 6x.
CPU has a very strong effect on FSB these days, even more so than mobo in my tests.
Sorry but the RAM placement isn't a problem. I have the RD600 board which is exactly the same and I can put in and take out RAM with my POV 8800GTX all day long until the cows come home.
All I do is release the lever near the card a small tad, and release the lever opposite and the RAM lifts out. Doesn't make it any harder in my view.
Good point, I've done the same with a few mobos here. The ram usually has not too much trouble getting out when the lock is just far enough open that the keyway is clear. It doesn't have to be all the way open.
But I beg to differ in that it's still a PITA in my view -- while the above technique is often preferable to pulling the vid card. On one system recently, a large HSF exasperated the situation and I simply pulled the vid card since it was running open air and easy enough. Far easier to design a board so that it completely solves the issue, and a lot of the latest mobos have the pci-e 1x slot on top and the first vid slot below it. Otherwise, the ram is always too close because it can't move up any higher.
Some people say, "You can't think of everything...", but DFI (and other high end) nearly always does think of everything, and that's what makes it an enthusiast level player.
I sure would like to know if it is indeed an oversight, or simply a too costly technical difficulty to swap the first two slots. It just isn't in character for DFI to do this without good reason.
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1:1 of course, 4:5 was a crapshoot on P965:D Only person I ever saw do well with 4:5 was coop. 1:1 530fsb on DFI P965 was cake, if you couldn't do that it was probably the cpu holding back the board. Every DFI I saw that was well set up did that kind of FSB without breaking a sweat. God I loved that board, looking through the BIOS the first time on my P5k was so depressing:( Should've ordered the P35 Infinity.