Not long ago, DFI was famed for its LP NF4 series motherboard.
At that time, LP series board was attracted most of enthusiasts with its OC
ability, fully Japanese capacitors and SLI “switchable” function.
DFI LANParty series is mainly focus on high-end performance and OC product.
Of course, those are a bit expensive… Recently, some models like RD600 or
680i LT…etc. even though the performance of them are still up to standard,
but the “launch time” was a bit too late. It lost so much market opportunity.
The Intel’s P35 chipset is launched in June officially. Fortunately, this time
will not be lag behind the Intel’s launched time. DFI is ready to launch its P35
model in August.
As usual, they’re going to release the highest-end version first, which provides the unique heat pipe solution, “Transpiper”.
It is DFI LANParty UT P35-T2R.
The package design adopts the new design, since 680i.
It uses blue to be the main color, which is my favorite color too.
1st box, Accessories
Insides the box…
Cables, menu, Multi-language quick installation guide, drivers CD…etc.
The noteworthy features are the Brand new sound card and that copper pieces.
A close-up on brand new audio card,
This is called “Bernstein Audio”, an add-on card style.
The first on board audio supports “Full-Rate Lossless Content Protection codec”. It is 7.1 +2 channels.
That is really attractive that on board audio can be like this.
The 2nd box, The Transpiper,
This gear is just like a secret weapon of DFI. An adjustable heat pipe cooler,
It can be mounted onto different places of the board. Further, you also can
extend it to outside of the chassis for a better heat dissipation.
Inside the box…
The heat pipe itself. Screws for secure (also can secure a fan on it)
Installation guild…
The 3rd box is contains the motherboard itself. fully solid capacitors are
almost a must of highest-end motherboard.
Lower left of the board:
3X PCI-EX16 (PCIE1 at x16, PCIE3 at x4 or x1 and PCIE4 at x1)
1X PCI-EX1
3X PCI
The port that right below VIA chipset is the audio module “connecting port”
Lower right of the board:
1 x Floppy disk,
8 x SATAII (ICH9R+JMB363)
ICH9R, which supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5
JMB363, which supports RAID 0, 1
Upper right of the board:
1X IDE
4 x DIMMs of DDRII, which supports 667/800/1066
a mark, printed “Made is Taiwan” up there…
Upper left of the board:
The 8-phase digital PWM, that is enough to provide stable power for Quad
cores CPUs.
IO parts:
6 x USB 2.0
1 x 1394
Dual Gigabit LAN (Supports Teaming function)
North Bridge cooler
South Bridge cooler
It can mount the joint of Transpiper on to the surface.
This area likes a last part before the “terminal” of the whole heat pipe.
The heat of the system will be conducted through here to Transpiper
(outside). Besides, it has a copper “bridge” to connect the CPU and PWM.
That’s for help to carry out the heat from CPU.
A powerful motherboard needs a powerful DDRII memory too…
Corsair PC8888 can reached a good record with 680i ,like:
DDRII 1310 CL4 4-3-3 2T’s PI 1M
A guide for installation
A boot-up screen of this series
Drivers’ interface,
The E6850 of my own…frankly, it is not that hard to reach FSB500.
But in DFI’s P35, I was surprised it can be easier to get into OS with FSB522.
Most FSB of the CPU can be overclock to around 480 to 550MHz. I tried the
same CPU with other brand’s P35 motherboard. They can’t turn-on the
system when FSB is over 510MHs. DFI LP UT P35-T2R levels up the FSB to a next level.
I just got this motherboard yet. LANParty series always bring me something
new about their design and technology.
This model is obviously had creativity and innovation, especially the heat pipe design.
Aside from this, the OC performance is really up to the standard.
Only if you have a good CPU, you can reach FSB600 easily.
Recently, I saw a review of this model, which ends up with an amazing FSB670 record.
I believe that most of enthusiasts are look forward to see a better record than DFI NF4 age.
The BIOS options and OC introduction will be updated soon. Thank you!!
The 2nd half of my review
BIOS options
Boot-up screen
The main options for tweaking
Somehow it’s a “characteristic” of Intel chipset when overclocking…
it will shutdown after tweaking. For that, DFI has 2 different modes to chose:
Mode 1) when the system was boot-up, it will run a little “diagnose”.
If the CPU frequency doesn’t change too much, it will skip the “shutdown”
function and rewrite the clock generator directly.
Mode 2) no matter how little the clock or DRAM’s ratio has been changed, the system still “shutdown” and reboot by itself.
Clock VCO Divider
This function is use to fix the clock generator’s divider and “NB Strap” by its
jumper. Then, system wouldn’t be reboot again because it presumed itself is
not in an overclock status. (this function needs to cooperate with particular
jumper)
CPU FSB range: from 200 to 700MHz
Boot-up clock
This function can help you out by setting a lower boot up clock as a buffer,
when your FSB is tweaked too high in the beginning.
Memory Speed ratio option is really plentiful
CPU related functions
DRAM Timing details
Voltage related settings
The CPU voltage can be separated into 2 sections:
1st section is from 0.44375 to 1.6000V
2nd section is 100.23~ 130.00%
The range of DRAM: 1.710 to 3.040V
PC health status
I found that the “copper bridge” over the CPU and PWM area is a sufficient
way to dissipate heat form both of them. Hence, if the CPU cooler has a
better dissipation,
It’ll help to carry out heat from other chipsets. .On the contrary, if the
Transpiper shows a better performance of heat dissipation, it also will help
CPU to carry out apart of the heat. I think they help each other….
The Transpiper can be extended to outside of the chassis. And let the PSU
fan to carry out the heat from inside the chassis. I think if I put a 8 x 8cm
fan onto south bridge part, the effect of heat conduction will be double.
he cooler installed
The copper bridge helps two parts to conduct heat.
Of course the thermal paste is needed...
Test system detail
CPU:INTEL Core 2 Duo E6850
MB: DFI LP UT P35-T2R
DRAM:CORSAIR Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF
VGA:ELSA 860GT PH2 256B3 2DT RH
HD:WD1600AAJS
POWER:Corsair HX620W Modular Power Supply
Cooler:Thermaltake V1
At the previous part, I have already showed you the FSB test.
It’s a pity I only have a Intel E6850 CPU, which is not that good in FSB tweaking.
Generally speaking, most of P35 board in market might be stable at FSB500.
But if the FSB overclock than 505 or above, that will made the system unable
to boot up or can’t made the OS start up smoothly. DFI’s LP UT P35-T2R can
get into OS stably under FSB522, more than that, it also can completely
finished a Super PI 32M.
Once I have a better CPU, I’ll update a extreme FSB OC review then.
Actually, there was several very good review of FSB record around some HW sites.
6th Aug. version BIOS has enhanced DRAM’s performance of this board.
It particularly improves a lot when memory such like Corsair’s advanced “tall”
PCB modules. First, you can try to make the “CLK fine delay” option into 6.
(Notice: if you use this setting for “short” PCB DDRII modules, it may caused
hanging or shut down) Somehow, different PCB modules needed different LCK
fine delay settings, it has to spend so much time to find the answer.
If you follow the golden ratio of 500/1200 in DDRII CL5 5-5-15, I found that,
it only need 1.95V (BIOS default is 1.972V), 2 Super PI 32M can be done steady.
Even though the Enhance Data transmitting/ addressing has been set to “Auto”, the bandwidth’s performance is still better than some others.
For Intel chipset, It is really not easy to reach DDRII 1100~1200 under the
setting of “CL4”. On the other hand, the system also took only 2.44V (BIOS
default is 2.47V) to finish 2 Super PI 32M stably. Under same “golden ratio
500/1200, DDRIICL4 4-4-9
The “bandwidth” looks great when memory under testing.
This is a quite outstanding OC record of Intel platform.
It finished the task under 1200 CL5 low voltage and 1200 CL4 settings.
3DMark2003 test.
DFI LP UT P35-T2R
The merits:
1)A good look and tasteful package design and related design
2)100% Japanese solid capacitors, 3 slots of PCIe x 16, which supports
CrossFire and physics rendering.
3)A unique heat piper cooler, Transpiper. It is real sufficient for heat
dissipation for inside or outside of the chassis.
4)Rich BIOS options for OC and voltage, especially an enhancement for Intel
chipset’s characteristic that forced to shutdown and decrease voltage.
5)8 phases digital PWM and independent Bernstein audio module.
6)Seems the best FSB OC for all P35 board in the market. DDRII performance
is almost the same.
Defects:
1)It almost like a common failing that DFI’s LP board is apparently higher price
in market. This model cost around USD$290.(I knew some area has priced
USD$260)
2)It should have a more detail but easy understanding install menu for
Transpiper to let users to install it quickly.
3)DFI P35 launched into market later than others manufacturer almost 2
months (before, they almost release new products that later than others up
to half year. It much better, but hope they can improve that after)
I heard a lot about X38 in this half year. Maybe most of mobo manufacturers
will launch their X38 in 1 or 2 months. But, leading brands keep launching new
P35 products. It proves how “charming” the P35 can be… Besides, X38 only
born for DDR3, of course it has a better bandwidth for Crossfire. The spec.
comparison between P35 and X38 is quite similar to 965 and 975.
However, It is good to see that DFI did a good job with its LP P35. Obviously,
they have some improvements on OC ability and product’s creativity.
I agree this is a good choice when you want to have a try of P35 high-end motherboards.
This is my brief introduction though.
If I have found some thing further on audio or OC settings, I’ll update that to
you guys. Thanks!!
windwithme next test...which one do you want to see?!
BIOSTAR TD35D3-A7 Deluxe
MSI P35 Diamond
DFI BLOOD-IRON(INFINITY P35)
ASUS P5K-Permium
GIGABYTE P35-DS3P
BENQ 241WZ
8/27 Update
500/1200 CL5 5-5-9 1.85V
2 Super PI 32M stably
E6700 555Mhz
2 Super PI 32M stably
Linear Mode
