LANPARTY DK X38-T2R The all new party crasher

What do you guys think about this board? Is it better than the DFI LP DK P35-T2RS€112. I am considering getting this X38 or will it be a waste of money?
LANPARTY DK X38-T2R €160. Meanwhile i woun´t be crossfiring any card in near future;)
LINK
http://us.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_prod...7;20DK&SITE=US

Specification
CPU
LGA 775 socket for:
- Intel® CoreTM2 Quad and Intel® CoreTM2 Duo
Supports Intel Enhanced Memory 64 Technology (EMT64T)
Supports Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST)
Supports Intel Hyper-Threading Technology
Supports 1333*/1066/800MHz system bus speed
*Available only on CPUs that support 1333MHz FSB


Chipset
Intel chipset
- Northbridge: Intel X38 Express chipset (with Intel Fast Memory Access technology)
- Southbridge: Intel ICH9R


Memory
Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM sockets
Supports DDR2 667/800 MHz
Delivers up to 12.8Gb/s bandwidth
Supports dual channel (128-bit wide) memory interface
Supports up to 8GB system memory
Supports unbuffered x8 and x16 DIMMs


Expansion Slots
2 PCI Express (Gen 2) x16 slots (PCIE 1 and PCIE 3)
- 2-way CrossFire at x16/x16 bandwidth
1 PCI Express x4 slot (PCIE 2)
3 PCI slots

It all depends upon you're expectations are and what cpu you are putting into it. All the DK boards have 4 phase power, unlike the LT or UT's. Some will argue that for a quad, the 4 phase will not give you enough stable power for a quad core. The DK P35 seemed to handle quadcore Q6600's decently. max fsb seemed to be around 450-475 for that one. DFI just came out with a DK X48. Motherboardpro has it in stock. Simliar DK board, just the X48 chipset. Most seem to go with the LT versions around here and go for max clocks. The DK's do seem to produce some very good overclocking results judging from the posts here.

bios is very imature,
some mem settings are off by 2
volts cant go below defaults
has trouble with 45nm procs at about 470-5 fsb
hangs sometimes after setting certain volts on nb (hard reset fixes)

cant recomend this board till they work on the bios some more
perhaps dfi need more time to reverse other manufaturers bioses lol
maybe ill try to flash x48 bio on it, looks like identicle board

the DK is more of a midrange so there arnt many people here who would get one, but if u want a work station or something that isnt oced (or oced past 400fsb) then this would be a great board (or high oc 8 series)

or something to learn to tweak ram with, it has most of the settings that the LT/UT have but it has amplitude instead of gtl phase

I will be putting a Q6600 on it and am aiming for a 3.4Ghz as 24/7 clock.
My ASUS P5N-E became naughty (random rebooting even with settings that use to work before), it use to stable at 3.2ghz then 3.1ghz and now am at stock speed. Well the P35 and X38 has the same lay out and the only difference is the dual pci-e 16x and the X38 NB chip. If there woun´t be a significant gain in overclocking with it then i have to settle for the P35. Like i wrote in my first post, i don´t intend running a dual vga card.

go for the DFI X48 DK. It has 8 phase digital PWM.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nzbleach

go for the DFI X48 DK. It has 8 phase digital PWM.

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That woun´t be a bad idea, :rolleyes: but am low on cash. I intend spending €160 maximum. Meanwhile you have the DK P35, how is the preformance and stability?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nzbleach

go for the DFI X48 DK. It has 8 phase digital PWM.

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DK x38 and x48 are exactly the same pcb lol

MB pro says 8 phase digital
http://www.motherboardpro.com/DFI-La...ard-p-557.html

Quote:

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CPU
Socket-775 for Intel Core TM2 Quad, Core TM 2 Duo, Core TM2 Extreme
Socket-775 for Intel Pentium® D
8 Phase digital PWM

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it also has a soldered bios block so thats another down side

yeah but theres a header on there to plug in a chip somehow so your not totaly stuck with the soldered on chip

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lome

yeah but theres a header on there to plug in a chip somehow so your not totaly stuck with the soldered on chip

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As it relate to most users they will still be stuck. The connector is pretty much useless unless one has access to a SPI serial flash programmer.

Praz, is that accurate about the PWM power phase for the DK X48? Looking at the picture of the motherboard @ motherboardpro, it looks like 4 phase PWM, not 8.

This pic is from DFI's site and I only see 2 coils by each PWM. That should be only a 4 phase PWM.

If u consider the DK X38, for the same price I would get a P35 LP LT, better voltage regulations.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mc2k

If u consider the DK X38, for the same price I would get a P35 LP LT, better voltage regulations.

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It goes for €184 without shipping
http://www.alternate.de/html/product...&l3=Sockel+775

DFI LANPARTY DK P35-T2RS €104
http://www.alternate.de/html/product...&l3=Sockel+775

DFI LANPARTY DK X38-T2R €144,44
http://www.trend4pc.de/product_info....oducts_id/1282
Most are not instock in this shop.

My budget is maximum €160 including shipping:confused:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lome

DK x38 and x48 are exactly the same pcb lol

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Pls. what does this 4 and 8 phase PWM do:confused:
I don´t have any idea of what you guys are writting.
Call me stupid, but can someone explain it in a lame man language:shrug:

Quote:

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Pls. what does this 4 and 8 phase PWM do

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The PWM or Pulse Width Modulator, regulates power to the cpu. The trend has been to go from analog PWM's to digital PWM's.

Older P35 boards, like the ABIT IP35, used an analog 4 phase PWM that could power the Q6600 quads very well. The higher end boards switched over to 6 or 8 phase PWM's. The "budget" boards, like the DK boards use 4 phase PWM's. The Blood Iron (DFI's P35 budget board) had a 4 phase PWM that did not seem to do well at all with quads. However, DFI's subsequent DK boards, even though they use 4 phase PWM, seemed to do ok with quads. DFI seems to have implemented a better (more durable) 4 phase PWM in these boards.

However, an 8 phase PWM will run comparatively cooler and supply stable power more efficiently than a 4 phase PWM.

That's how I understand it.

I haven't seen the board with the heatsinks removed. I've been told that it utilizes 4 phases, 2 FETs per phase.

Thanks Praz, what I was mistakenly calling coils in my earlier post are correctly named fets.

Those are indeed coils. The FETs are under the heatsinks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sailindawg

The PWM or Pulse Width Modulator, regulates power to the cpu. The trend has been to go from analog PWM's to digital PWM's.

Older P35 boards, like the ABIT IP35, used an analog 4 phase PWM that could power the Q6600 quads very well. The higher end boards switched over to 6 or 8 phase PWM's. The "budget" boards, like the DK boards use 4 phase PWM's. The Blood Iron (DFI's P35 budget board) had a 4 phase PWM that did not seem to do well at all with quads. However, DFI's subsequent DK boards, even though they use 4 phase PWM, seemed to do ok with quads. DFI seems to have implemented a better (more durable) 4 phase PWM in these boards.

However, an 8 phase PWM will run comparatively cooler and supply stable power more efficiently than a 4 phase PWM.

That's how I understand it.

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Thanks pal for explaining to NOOB.
Well i ordered the DK LP P35 T2RS some mins back and i have two weeks to return it if i don´t like it or find any fault with the board.

Quote:

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Those are indeed coils. The FETs are under the heatsinks.

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Thanks for setting me straight on that!!
;)

I got mine from TrendPc and am very happy, apart from that my OCZ Reaper HPC PC2-8000 wont boot in it at all, running my Q6600 @ 3GHZ with all stock setting and Vcore, waiting for RAM to get sorted b4 I really push it to the maximum.

R4z

I got the all Solid aluminum capacitor board, with 5 fan header. Boy am lucky, so far so good, am running this baby on 3.1Ghz all setting on auto. The bios is equally loaded with.......damn!!! I don´t know what to change to go higher on my oc. Hellppppp!!!!:confused:
I don´t need new chipset waterblocks as my old one fited prefectly(Warrant void):am: . Thanks once more to all that helped me out on this;)
This board just turned me into an OC noob, please can someone save me some time by posting his setting. I know my english sucks, am so damn sorry:yepp:

this is what DFI say about the PWM's on the Dark series boards which I found on Clunk's forum

" DK series are using Intersil newer PWM IC which has support Intel SMbus interface to control Vcore voltage,
it is 4 phase (16 MOSFET) pwm solution. Generally somebody called it is a Digital PWM as well, because it is control via SMbus.

But it still base on traditional PWM structure (PWM IC+MOSFET), its power tranfering efficiency is not higher as like Volterra solution ( Digital control bus design without mosfet circuit)."

my head hurts, all this voltage talk, no wonder i havent been over here for so long...lol feel so n00bish all this talk.

curropt bios on dk means RMA only...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Unoid

curropt bios on dk means RMA only...

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I hope you are joking, cos i don´t have any warrant on my DK after removing the NB heatsink:mad: Please April is already gone, make my day and tell me that one can correct a corrupt bios without RMA:shrug:

Shocker, if you fail on a bios flash your a goner. I dunno what that has to dowith NB sink :P

I'm still waiting for my new Dk from Newegg. Bios Corruptness sucks. wish they had a removable bios chip in the dk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Unoid

Shocker, if you fail on a bios flash your a goner. I dunno what that has to dowith NB sink :P

I'm still waiting for my new Dk from Newegg. Bios Corruptness sucks. wish they had a removable bios chip in the dk

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My board has a sticker on the NB heatsink and am watercooling The cpu, nb and sb. When this sticker is tampered or the nb heatsink is removered then the rma will no longer counting:(. How did your bios get corrupt and what model of the board do you have. My is the all solid cap model and if flashing the bios means corruption(bios) then i have to stick to my current bios for now.

On the DK P35 board if a BIOS flash results in the board needing to be sent for RMA there will most likely be a charge for flashing if the warranty sticker has been removed.

The DK X38 comes with he northbridge heatsink not attached. You put it on yourself. The Dk x38 also doe snot have a removable bios chip.

Vista x64 + winflash = instant crash when you try to update bios. No warrenty was voided. DFI's own website has instructions to follow which were faulty. DFI was made aware of vista x64 + winflash problem by me last week. I hope they put a disclaimer up.

When I get my dk X38 next week I will even be scared to boot from CD/floppy to update zie bios.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shocker003

My board has a sticker on the NB heatsink and am watercooling The cpu, nb and sb. When this sticker is tampered or the nb heatsink is removered then the rma will no longer counting:(. How did your bios get corrupt and what model of the board do you have. My is the all solid cap model and if flashing the bios means corruption(bios) then i have to stick to my current bios for now.

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Shocker, I'm an american born german. if that makes sense. Germans parents. Weinbrenner ;-)

As has already been said, if one does not attempt to bypass kernel mode driver signing WinFlash will not run. If this is circumvented a user should be competent enough to understand the consequences.

Praz is right. All end users fault and responsibility. Can't ever trust a companies website when it comes to your own Hardware.
Besides the bios issue I like the DK. Funny thing is I have a 8800gt no ATi for crossfire. Kinda defeats the purpose.