Conroe Buying Guide: Feeding the Monster
by Gary Key & Wesley Fink on July 19, 2006 6:20 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
DFI Infinity 975X/G
Basic Features
One of the more anticipated boards we looked forward to after our Computex 2006 visit was the DFI Infinity 975X/G motherboard. Of course, we understood this would be an Infinity series and as such would be lacking the normal bells and whistles along with the almost legendary overclocking ability of the LanParty series. However, knowing DFI's ability to extract performance out of chipsets in just about any price range we expected some great things with this board. While the board did not disappoint us we were let down a little with its overclocking ability (based on expectations), but more importantly we're disappointed with its current street price of $249.
We know the Intel 975X chipset is expensive and the current lack of 975X Core 2 Duo capable boards from suppliers like MSI, Foxconn, ECS, and Abit are helping to keep the prices high. We believe DFI had a golden opportunity to bring this board to market around the $200 price point and really generate some price/performance excitement. Do not get us wrong, we really like the board but think the pricing structure needs adjustment just like the overclocking ability we will discuss shortly.
DFI's attention to detail is evident in the layout of the board and throughout the BIOS options and feature set. The board has the ability to run ATI CrossFire with dual X8 PCIe capability along with the fact that only one slot (PCI) is physically not available when installing a CrossFire solution. While DFI does not use a heat pipe solution to keep the MCH and ICH chipsets cool, we did not have any thermal issues with the board while overclocking or testing CrossFire. The BIOS options are not as extensive as the LanParty series, but they certainly provide more than enough choices for most performance or enthusiast users.
Basic Performance
The performance of the board was very good along with exceptional stability in all areas. In fact, with some additional BIOS tuning we are certain this board has the ability to hold a performance lead in most of the stock setting results. With this said, our issue or maybe our perception is that the board could have been much better in the overclocking area as we "only" reached a stable FSB setting of 383 with our X6700. Our X6800 with the multiplier dropped was only able to achieve a FSB of 385 before hitting the proverbial brick wall. Otherwise, we had no issues to report except that if you want to use RAID you need to lock SATA at 100MHz fixed or it will not work.
Overclocking
While an overclock to 383FSB is certainly nothing to sneeze at, we were hoping for at least a 400+ FSB capability on this board. Some users have had success with taking this board over 400FSB with a 4:3 memory ratio, but it seems a majority of boards are ending up around the 375FSB range. Our board would not boot at anything higher than a 385FSB with the current BIOS. We could not exceed a 334FSB at a 1:1 ratio due to the memory strap timings in the BIOS. While these numbers are very good, it is still disappointing as we know this board still has a lot of potential left in it.
The performance, stability, and BIOS features of this board are well worth a price around $200 and a premium over the mainstream P965 boards considering the current market situation. Let's just hope that DFI can lower the price and raise the FSB overclocking abilities as they do have a winner on their hands if they accomplish this task. UPDATE - This board is now available for around $190 making it a highly recommended choice for those users who are not into extreme overclocking.
Basic Features
| DFI Infinity 975X/G | |
| Market Segment: | High-End/Performance |
| CPU Interface: | Socket T (Socket 775) |
| CPU Support: | LGA775-based Pentium 4, Pentium D, Core 2 Duo |
| Chipset: | Intel 975X + ICH7R |
| Thermal Design: | 6-phase power Passive Northbridge/Southbridge Cooling |
| Bus Speed Support: | 1066/800MHz |
| Bus Speeds: | 266 to 533 in 1MHz Increments |
| Memory Ratios: | Auto, 400, 533, 667, 800 |
| PCIe Speeds: | Auto, 100MHz~200MHz |
| PCI: | Fixed at 33 |
| SATA Clock: | PCIe Clock, Fixed at 100MHz |
| Dynamic Tuning: | Manual, Default, Easy Overclock CPU Turbo Add-On - +1MHz to +30MHz PCIe Turbo Add-On - +1MHz to +15MHz |
| CPU VID Offset: | Default, +12.5mV to +787.5mV in +12.5mV increments |
| CPU VTT: | 1.20V, 1.25V, 1.30V, 1.35V |
| CPU Clock Multiplier: | Auto, 6x-50x in 1X increments if CPU is unlocked |
| DRAM Voltage: | 1.90V to 2.65V in .05V increments |
| DRAM Timing Control: | Auto, 9 Options |
| NB Voltage: | 1.60V to 1.75V in .05V increments |
| Memory Slots: | Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 8GB Total |
| Expansion Slots: | 2 - PCIe X16 (X8 for Multi-GPU) 1 - PCIe X4 1 - PCIe X1 2 - PCI Slots 2.3 |
| Onboard SATA/RAID: | 6 SATA 3Gbps Ports - Intel ICH7R (RAID 0,1,1+0,5,JBOD) 1 SATA 3Gbps Ports - JMicron JMB360 (e-SATA) |
| Onboard IDE: | 1 Standard ATA133/100/66/33 Port (2 drives) Intel ICH7R |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394: | 8 USB 2.0 Ports - 4 I/O Panel 4 Headers 2 Firewire 400 Ports by VIA VT6307 - 1 I/O Panel 1 Header |
| Onboard LAN: | Gigabit Ethernet Controller Realtek RTL8111B |
| Onboard Audio: | Realtek ALC882 HD-Audio 8-channel CODEC |
| Power Connectors: | ATX 24-pin, 8-pin EATX 12V, 4-Pin 12V Molex |
| I/O Panel: | 1 x e-SATA 1 x LPT 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x RJ45 1 x IEEE-1394 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 2 x S/PDIF (Optical + RCA) 8-Channel Audio I/O |
| BIOS Revision: | AWARD 0707 |
One of the more anticipated boards we looked forward to after our Computex 2006 visit was the DFI Infinity 975X/G motherboard. Of course, we understood this would be an Infinity series and as such would be lacking the normal bells and whistles along with the almost legendary overclocking ability of the LanParty series. However, knowing DFI's ability to extract performance out of chipsets in just about any price range we expected some great things with this board. While the board did not disappoint us we were let down a little with its overclocking ability (based on expectations), but more importantly we're disappointed with its current street price of $249.
We know the Intel 975X chipset is expensive and the current lack of 975X Core 2 Duo capable boards from suppliers like MSI, Foxconn, ECS, and Abit are helping to keep the prices high. We believe DFI had a golden opportunity to bring this board to market around the $200 price point and really generate some price/performance excitement. Do not get us wrong, we really like the board but think the pricing structure needs adjustment just like the overclocking ability we will discuss shortly.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
DFI's attention to detail is evident in the layout of the board and throughout the BIOS options and feature set. The board has the ability to run ATI CrossFire with dual X8 PCIe capability along with the fact that only one slot (PCI) is physically not available when installing a CrossFire solution. While DFI does not use a heat pipe solution to keep the MCH and ICH chipsets cool, we did not have any thermal issues with the board while overclocking or testing CrossFire. The BIOS options are not as extensive as the LanParty series, but they certainly provide more than enough choices for most performance or enthusiast users.
Basic Performance
The performance of the board was very good along with exceptional stability in all areas. In fact, with some additional BIOS tuning we are certain this board has the ability to hold a performance lead in most of the stock setting results. With this said, our issue or maybe our perception is that the board could have been much better in the overclocking area as we "only" reached a stable FSB setting of 383 with our X6700. Our X6800 with the multiplier dropped was only able to achieve a FSB of 385 before hitting the proverbial brick wall. Otherwise, we had no issues to report except that if you want to use RAID you need to lock SATA at 100MHz fixed or it will not work.
Overclocking
| DFI Infinity 975X/G Overclocking Testbed |
|
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Dual Core, 2.67GHz, 4MB Unified Cache 1066FSB, 10x Multiplier |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.525V (default 1.2V) |
| Cooling: | Tuniq Tower 120 Air Cooling |
| Power Supply: | OCZ GameXStream 700W |
| Memory: | Corsair Twin2X2048-PC2-8500C5 (2x1GB) (Micron Memory Chips) |
| Hard Drive | Hitachi 250GB 7200RPM SATA2 16MB Cache |
| Maximum OC: (Standard Ratio) |
383x10 (3-3-3-9) 3830MHz (+43%) |
While an overclock to 383FSB is certainly nothing to sneeze at, we were hoping for at least a 400+ FSB capability on this board. Some users have had success with taking this board over 400FSB with a 4:3 memory ratio, but it seems a majority of boards are ending up around the 375FSB range. Our board would not boot at anything higher than a 385FSB with the current BIOS. We could not exceed a 334FSB at a 1:1 ratio due to the memory strap timings in the BIOS. While these numbers are very good, it is still disappointing as we know this board still has a lot of potential left in it.
The performance, stability, and BIOS features of this board are well worth a price around $200 and a premium over the mainstream P965 boards considering the current market situation. Let's just hope that DFI can lower the price and raise the FSB overclocking abilities as they do have a winner on their hands if they accomplish this task. UPDATE - This board is now available for around $190 making it a highly recommended choice for those users who are not into extreme overclocking.
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WynX - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
Great article!!!Really waiting for the nforce 5 series (to be mature too).
wheelconnector - Saturday, August 19, 2006 - link
Heyon the review here it says that the 975xbx can support ddr2 800MHz memory speeds, but anywhere else that I've checked, claims that the board only supports speeds upto 667MHz. Can the board take 800MHz out of the box? or will I have to mess around with it to accept the RAM?
thanks a lot
LeeKay - Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - link
I hope u still have your mushkin XP2-8000 (redline) and never sent it back.Here is my hardware.
--------------------
P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe / P5B Deluxe.
Asus Silent tower CPU cooler.
E6600 Processor.
2x1GB Mushkin Redline DDR2 1000Mhz / 2x1GB OCZ Platnium 800MHZ
2x 150GB Raptors,
1x Seagate 300GB Drive,
Powerstream 600Watt PSU
2x EVGA 7950GX2
Coolermaster Stacker.
Plexter SATA 755 Drive
Liteon IDE drive
Mitsumi Floppy Drive
Creative Labs X-Fi Extreme gamer.
Here is my problem..
P5N32 SLI SE DELUXE
I put 2 sticks of ram in the system with the video card will not post. I have to remove one stick of ram and leave one stick in B1 or B2. It will not boot from a cleared bios with a stick in A1 or A2. I then have to go in the bios and set the memory below or at 800Mhz for it to post with 2 sticks of ram in it. Even then when I put the two sticks in and go to the bios it shows only 1024MB or system ram. But the post screen clearly shows 2048. There is nothing wrong with this memory. It ran fine with the P5B motherboard.
When using the OCZ it posts no problem but again shows 2048MB at post and in bios and the OS only shows 1024MB Avalible.
Asus Tech support is the worst in the world. They instantly tell you its a faulty board this and that. But its not its the bios I am 100% sure it is.
Could you Anandtech please setup a test bed with the 0121 bios and try it. If it has no issue could you please try 0204 revision and then tell me. I have the same motherboard revision as you show in the picture.
Thanks in advance.
Bugs66 - Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - link
I see more and more older boards with Core 2 Duo support. Such as the Asus P5PE-VM which is 865G, AGP, and DDR400. I am very curious how performance is hit using the older chipset. These boards are great for folks who do not want to toss their RAM, video card, etc unless there is a huge difference.Thanks for the great writeup.
trajan - Saturday, July 29, 2006 - link
The article mentions these will be coming out soon for socket 775/Conroe. Anyone know when? I've been surfing around for hours trying to find info on it. I know NVidia has made the NForce 500s for Intel but none of the board manufacturers lists any info at all.Just trying to decide if I should go ahead and get the ASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe (I want to run SLI) or if it's only a short wait for something better.. !
Thanks
rallyhard - Monday, July 24, 2006 - link
Thanks for the great review.I was going back and referencing some information from it today and noticed that in the P5W-DH Deluxe Basic Features table, you have the number of IDE ports listed incorrectly as one. There are actually two ports, one provided by the JMicron JMB363, and the other from the ICH7R southbridge. I got that info from the Asus website.
Is that the other IDE port over below the last PCI port?! If so, that's rediculous.
But this is one of very few Core 2 Duo supporting motherboards that I've seen that have 2 IDE ports, so I might just have to get it.
Gary, I look forward to the upcoming review you mentioned earlier in these comments of the Biostar motherboard with the VIA VT6410 controller. IDE performance continues to be important to me, and will for quite some time with the investment I've already made in hard drives. NEVER AGAIN will I get burned by an under-reviewed, underperfoming chip like the IT8212F!
Thanks again for your quality reviews.
thedjvan - Sunday, July 23, 2006 - link
I am very impressed with this guide, looks like a lot of hard work went into it!I have a question though. I am using the release of Conroe as an excuse to build a whole new system. After reading your guide in addition to others, I've decided on the E6700 and the DFI board (as I don't plan on OCing much, if at all).
However, the video card I had chosen is a X1900XTX, as I have read many bad reviews on the 7900 series having assorted problems with heat and other issues.
Now, having read this, I see that Conroe isn't playing nice with my chosen vid card, possibly due to driver issues. My question: Have you guys received any word from ATI, or has a new driver been pushed out yet that brings its performance up to par where it should be? There's absolutely no reason the Nvidia card should be blowing it away, especially on HL2 and other typically ATI friendly games.
If not, should I forget the ATI card and take a chance on one of the Nvidia cards, or simply go with the ATI card and hope they push out new drivers soon? The AMD/ATI aquisition further complicates the situation... I somehow doubt they'd do any favors for intel based systems.
thedjvan - Sunday, July 23, 2006 - link
No edit button :(I meant a X1900XT, not the XTX version. I'll keep my $100, thanks :)
thedjvan - Sunday, July 23, 2006 - link
Sorry, one more quick question. Is the Zalman CNPS9500 compatible with the Conroe?Gary Key - Sunday, July 23, 2006 - link
Yes...works very well by the way. ;-)