Last month DFI introduced their new series of high-end motherboards targeted at enthusiasts, gamers and high-end users in general. They dubbed this new series of motherboards the “LAN Party” series. It became clear after meeting with DFI last month at E3 that DFI wants to take a good portion of their desktop motherboard lineup and market them to power users.

Power users inevitably spend more on motherboards than budget users or middle range users, which is one big reason DFI is targeting this market (of course, high-priced motherboards mean nothing to manufacturers if they’re production costs are too high). Now the only problem is volume, so DFI needs to sell as many of these LAN Party boards as possible.

This is why DFI has sent us their PRO875 LAN Party board. Find out just how serious DFI is about producing power motherboards with the “LAN Party” series, and why it truly is targeted at LAN parties, among other things...

DFI PRO875: Basic Features

Motherboard Specifications
CPU Interface	Socket-478
Chipset	Intel 82875P MCH (North Bridge) Intel 82801EB ICH5 (South Bridge)
Bus Speeds	up to 400MHz (in 1MHz increments)
Core Voltages Supported	up to 1.85V (in 0.05V increments)
I/O Voltages Supported	N/A
DRAM Voltages Supported	up to 2.70V (in 0.1V increments)
Memory Slots	4 184-pin DDR DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots	1 AGP 8X Slot 5 PCI Slots
Onboard IDE RAID	HighPoint HPT372 ATA133 Controller
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394	Eight USB 2.0 ports supported through South Bridge No IEEE-1394 FireWire
Onboard LAN	Intel PRO/1000CT Gigabit LAN (CSA bus)
Onboard Audio	C-Media CMI9739A codec
Onboard Serial ATA	Two SATA connectors via ICH5R (RAID 0/1 only)
BIOS Revision	5/16/2003 BIOS date

DFI decided to go with a lesser known codec in the form of C-Media’s CMI9739A. In general you should be able to get fairly decent sound quality from this codec.

DFI is yet another manufacturer to implement Intel’s new CSA (Communications Streaming Architecture) bus for Gigabit Ethernet.  Currently the only CSA compliant GbE controller is Intel’s PRO/1000CT, an expensive solution but the only ticket to CSA support on 875P/865PE motherboards. DFI includes support for CSA by using this PRO/1000CT chip; this controller is also found on several other motherboards including Gigabyte's 8KNXP/Ultra, MSI's 875P Neo-FIS2R, ABIT’s IC7-G, Albatron PX865PE Pro II, and Soyo's 875P DRAGON 2. The average desktop user won't have much of a use for this technology, but anyone that is transferring a significant amount of data over gigabit Ethernet will enjoy the bus. We've illustrated the benefit of CSA technology in previous articles, an example of which can be found here in our 875P chipset article.

DFI included some fairly nice I/O ports to their PRO875 board. This includes two PS/2 ports, two serial ports, one parallel port, four rear USB 2.0 ports, one Gigabit LAN port, and Mic In, Line In, and Line Out, which drive the onboard sound. One rear IEEE 1394 FireWire port would have been a nice touch, but since the PRO875 doesn’t come with IEEE 1394 FireWire to begin with so this is a moot point. 

Like all motherboards with an 875P/ICH5(R) chipset combination, there are two Serial ATA connectors located next to the ICH5(R) South Bridge. In case you’ve forgotten, the new ICH5 South Bridge has its own link that allows a stream of 266MB/s of data to each of the two Serial ATA connectors, which is certainly better than the PCI bus constrained 133MB/s. This is good for users that have so lots of devices running through the PCI bus, which makes native SATA support a plus. 

The PRO875 utilizes HighPoint’s HPT372 controller for onboard IDE RAID, capable of RAID 0, 1, and 0 + 1 support. This ATA133 complaint controller is capable of supporting up to two IDE drives via the two orange IDE connectors located at the bottom of the motherboard. In combination with the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors, two Serial ATA connectors, and the two HighPoint RAID connectors the PRO875 is capable of supporting up to a total of ten IDE drives.

One of the nicest things the PRO875 brings to the table is its bundle of accessories. The most interesting piece is the PC Transpo, which is essentially a light backpack for carrying your tower around; mostly to LAN parties (hence the reason DFI is marketing the PRO875 as a “LAN Party” motherboard). This backpack is a very nice feature to have if you’re someone who travels a lot and doesn’t want to sacrifice any performance like you would have to by carrying a laptop around. This is truer for gamers more than any other audience, especially when you consider the large gap in performance between mobile and desktop GPUs. Of course, if you’re not really a hardcore gamer and can’t stand lugging around your tower in a backpack, the PC Transpo probably isn’t a benefit for you.

Another accessory included with the PRO875 is a FrontX panel which includes two USB 2.0 ports and two audio ports for sound. DFI also includes a two-port USB 2.0 bracket to round out the eight possible USB 2.0 ports you can use with the PRO875. FrontX is an excellent addition to the PRO875’s accessory package as it is convenient for those that don’t like to hook up their USB and/or audio devices to the back of their tower.

DFI PRO875: Board Layout

DFI’s engineers clearly have listened to our requests in terms of laying out components, as the DFI PRO875 is one of the best laid out motherboards we’ve ever come across.  

Let’s start off by looking at the position of the ATX (20-pin) connector. DFI very nicely arranges the ATX connector on the right-hand side of the motherboard about one inch from the top of the PCB. If you’re using a standard PSU and not a high-quality PSU, placing the ATX connector here will reduce the clutter and greatly minimize the obtrusive ATX wires from obstructing the installation/uninstallation of the CPU HSF, memory modules, and any other components that you may decide to modify or uninstall in that area. If you’re using a high-quality PSU with an extra-long ATX connector then you have nothing to worry about, but the ATX connector location is still excellent for those users that can’t afford the best PSUs.

Next, we see that the ATX12V connector is located in a fairly unique location, between the DIMM slots and the CPU socket. It too is about one inch low from the top of the PCB. This location is ideal as placing the ATX12V connector here stops the ATX12V cable from running directly over the CPU HSF, which otherwise would mean you would have to unhook the ATX12V line to uninstall your HSF. Again, like the ATX cable, higher quality PSUs have an extra long ATX12V cable, so this won't be an issue with these particular PSUs. Still, there are lots of users using standard PSUs who will be affected by this issue.

One layout arrangement we always like to see implemented properly on a motherboard is the location of the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors. DFI does an admirable job of placing these two connectors far up on the motherboard, well above the halfway point. By placing these two connectors here you avoid the issue of having your bundled IDE cables unable to reach the upper bays of your ATX case. Otherwise you might be forced to install your optical drives in the 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th etc. bays, which would make the front of your case look rather ridiculous with the 1^st bay missing a drive. The Primary and Secondary IDE connector location on the PRO875 also allows you to maneuver the IDE cables away from the center of the case, which reduces any potential clutter.

We would like the Floppy connector’s location better if the HighPoint RAID connectors weren’t placed so close to and just below the Floppy connector. It will be quite a hassle to organize (and especially remove/replace) your Floppy drive or RAIDed hard drives with the connectors placed the way they are on the PRO875. Clutter will become an issue if you desire to keep things clean, organized, and ready for future upgrade. This is the only complaint we have about the PRO875’s layout, though it’s a relatively large one.

We like the fact that DFI went for a passive North Bridge HSF for the PRO875. There should be enough room between the passive North Bridge heatsink and the AGP slot for users to add additional cooling to their video cards, but certain HSFs may not fit unless you adjust the North Bridge heatsink 45 degrees. Though the heatsink gets quite warm during FSB overclocking, it’s within acceptable levels. If you’re obsessed with keeping your PC quiet and your components cool, you can always opt for a quite additional fan, the Panaflo L1A isn’t a bad choice.

We love the fact that DFI leaves ample room between the DIMM connectors and AGP slot so that users aren’t forced to uninstall their video card if they need to simply install or uninstall some memory. Unscrewing your video card, unplugging your VGA cable, and physically uninstalling your video card from the AGP slot is quite a long task to perform if you’re simply trying to swap memory. This is yet another layout feature DFI implemented as a result of reader and user requests.

The USB 2.0 headers are located almost a full inch from the bottom of the PCB, smack dab between the PCI slots and the Floppy connector. This location is ideal as there are two PCI slots just waiting to be filled if you ever feel the need to expand your options beyond the four rear USB 2.0 ports already available onboard.

DFI PRO875: BIOS and Overclocking

Not surprisingly we see another manufacturer utilize the famous Award BIOS. This time it’s DFI with their 875P-based PRO875 LAN Party motherboard.  

The PRO875’s PC Health section includes several standard and some fairly interesting readings. These readings include System and CPU temperatures, CPU, AUX, and Chassis fan speeds, Vcore, PSU readings (all rails), and the battery voltage reading. Some of the nice additional features is an option for shutting down your system when your CPU reaches a certain maximum sustainable temperature; in the PRO875’s case the maximum temperature it will allow is 95C, or 203F. Unfortunately there was quite a bit left out in this section that we would have liked to have seen included, namely a fan control option for all onboard fan headers and readings on VDIMM and VAG. This is still a nice section, but one that could definitely get better.  

Moving on we see the standard bare Advanced Chipset Features section that includes the usual memory timing options, from CAS Latency, Precharge to Active, Active to Precharge, and Active to CMD to a nice additional option called “DRAM R/W timing”, which is available up to Fast mode. All in all a very quaint Advanced Chipset Features section, but one that is still far behind BIOSes we’ve seen from Socket A motherboards. This section certainly isn’t bad compared to other 875P BIOSes we’ve seen from other manufacturers.  

DFI does not skimp on the FSB adjustments and so allows up to 400MHz FSB (1.2GHz effective) in 1MHz increments to be selected in the “Genie BIOS” section. This section holds most of the tweaking options in the PRO875 BIOS, including FSB, AGP/PCI lock, Vcore, VDIMM, VAGP, and even the ability to disable onboard components such as CSA Gigabit Ethernet and HighPoint RAID controllers. Including onboard components options in the Genie BIOS section is an excellent idea, as this one section houses not just performance tweaking options but also motherboard functionality options. This makes for a very nice all-in-one BIOS section. If only DFI had added memory timings options and memory frequency options it would have made the Genie BIOS section perfect in terms of ease of use and simplicity.

There’s nothing interesting to report as far as memory divider options are concerned. The DFI PRO875 offers DDR memory frequencies of 266MHz, 320MHz, and 400MHz with an 800MHz FSB processor installed. Fortunately the lack of extensive memory divider options isn’t a big deal, so don’t be alarmed, we’re merely anxiously awaiting the day when users can adjust their memory frequency in 1MHz increments like they can do with the FSB. Hopefully that day comes sooner rather than later.

VDIMM selection is limited to just 2.7V in the PRO875’s BIOS. Default VDIMM is set to 2.5V, as is usually the case these days, though there are some motherboards that set VDIMM as high as 2.6V on default. We would have like to have seen a 2.8V option, or even higher actually, as the more choice users have the better. Still, if you’re using high quality PC3200 (or higher) memory, you won’t be needing more than 2.7V unless you’re really trying to squeeze out every last MHz. If you’re that type of user the PRO875 isn’t for you, but if you’re not you have absolutely nothing to worry about in terms of VDIMM options (and the low VAGP, which we will get into in just a moment).

Thankfully DFI does not make the same mistake that several motherboard manufacturers have made with the BIOS Vcore options. In the PRO875’s case, Vcore is available up to 1.85V in 0.05V increments. Though the increments in which you are able to adjust Vcore aren’t as fine as most motherboard’s BIOSes (0.025V or lower), 1.85V is still an excellent Vcore maximum for this type of motherboard. It doesn’t matter that the PRO875 undervolts to 1.48V or so with the 2.4C processor we used, as you’ll still be able to get well over 1.80V anyway. This high of a Vcore is not at all necessary unless you’re simply going for an overclocking/performance record in 3DMark or something like that, so we suggest you stray no higher than a 1.70V maximum if you want to push your CPU and motherboard to the limit without scrapping them within a matter or weeks or a couple of months.

As always we see the ever prominent AGP/PCI lock present in this Intel chipset-based motherboard’s BIOS. For some odd reason DFI does not allow any AGP or PCI tweaking to be done, just a 66MHz/33MHz or Auto setting is available. This will definitely disappoint some hardcore overclockers out there.  

The VAGP adjustments available in the PRO875 BIOS aren’t spectacular. You’re able to tweak VAGP up to 1.6V from 1.5V, which will not be enough for the more serious users that are going to push their P4 boards to the edge. We’ve found that 1.65V is all that is needed the vast majority of the time, but it never hurts to include more options and so, as we hope will happen with VDIMM adjustments soon, DFI will release a new BIOS with better VAGP selection.  

FSB Overclocking Results

The following is our 800MHz FSB setup we used for FSB overclocking on the PRO875:

Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed
Processor:	Pentium 4 2.4GHz (800MHz FSB) CPU - HT Disabled
CPU Vcore:	1.525V (default)
Cooling:	Intel Retail HSF & Thermal Pad
Power Supply:	Enermax 350W

As we first noted in our ABIT IC7-G review, we are now running all FSB overclocking tests using a retail 2.4C processor for our Pentium 4 motherboard reviews.

It’s fairly obvious that our 2.4C processor (and from reports we’ve seen on the web, most 2.4C processors) is capable of at least 270MHz FSB on 865PE and 875P motherboards. Clearly this was the case with the ABIT IC7-G, which was able to reliably operate at 270MHz FSB (as you’ll see in our 865PE/875P roundup, even higher with later BIOS revisions). The Albatron PX865PE Pro II among many other boards we’re in the final stages of testing is yet another good example of the 865PE and 875P's FSB overclocking potential.

The DFI PRO875 turned out no different. In fact, we were a somewhat taken aback by the PRO875’s excellent FSB overclocking results. So far the DFI PRO875 is the highest overclocking Pentium 4 motherboard we’ve come across, coming in at just over 282MHz FSB (or about 1130MHz FSB). We won’t know who the true FSB overclocking king is until we finish all our 865PE/875P motherboard testing for the roundup due this week, but 282MHz FSB is most definitely impressive nonetheless. To put this overclock into perspective, a 282MHz FSB is just shy of a one full GHz overclock (from 2.4GHz to nearly 3.4GHz).

The only downside about FSB overclocking with the PRO875 is that recovering from too high a FSB value isn’t all that good. Clearing the CMOS via jumper doesn’t do the trick; you must uninstall and reinstall battery as well. But there were no issues at 282MHz FSB while stress testing within Windows, and all cold and warm boots worked just as they should (no non-POST issues like we had using aggressive timings with Corsair TwinX modules).  

DFI PRO875: Stress Testing

We managed to stress test the PRO875 in several different areas and configurations, including:

1. Chipset and motherboard stress testing was conducted by running the FSB at 282MHz
2. Memory stress testing was conducted by running RAM at 333MHz and 400MHz in dual DDR operation at the most aggressive timings possible.

Front Side Bus Stress Test Results:

As usual we ran a large load of stress tests and benchmarks to ensure the PRO875 was absolutely stable at each overclocked FSB speed we experimented with. We ran our usual array of stress tests, including Prime95 torture tests, which were run in the background for a total of 48 hours.

We also proceeded to run lots of other tasks such as data compression, various DX8 games, and light apps like Word and Excel while Prime95 was running in the background. Finally, we reran our entire benchmark suite, which includes Sysmark 2002, Quake3 Arena, Unreal Tournament 2003, SPECviewperf 7.0, and XMPEG. In the end, 282MHz FSB was the highest overclock we were able to achieve on the PRO875 with our conservative overclocking setup without encountering any reliability issues.

Memory Stress Test Results:

The following memory stress test gauges how well the PRO875 is able to handle dual DDR333 mode with all memory banks filled. This has proven to be a simple task for the vast majority of Dual Channel DDR Pentium 4 motherboards based on SiS and Intel chipsets, so let's see if the PRO875 is any different:

Stable Dual DDR333 Timings (4/4 banks populated)
Clock Speed:	166MHz
Timing Mode:	N/A
CAS Latency:	2.0
Bank Interleave:	N/A
Precharge to Active:	2T
Active to Precharge:	5T
Active to CMD:	2T
Command Rate:	N/A

As usual we see that a dual DDR400 desktop motherboard is easily capable of the most aggressive memory timings in dual DDR333 mode. This has been proven time and again in our past motherboard reviews, a complete index of which you can find over here. The Stress Testing sections of those reviews will contain memory timing results that you should be able to attain assuming you've put together a similar hardware configuration as listed in the Performance Test Configuration sections of those reviews.

The following memory stress test is obviously a bit more strenuous on the memory subsystem than most memory stress tests, as it tests the rare occasion that a desktop user will install four DIMMs running in dual DDR400 mode at the most aggressive memory timings available in the BIOS:

Stable Dual DDR400 Timings (4/4 banks populated)
Clock Speed:	200MHz
Timing Mode:	N/A
CAS Latency:	2.0
Bank Interleave:	N/A
Precharge to Active:	3T
Active to Precharge:	6T
Active to CMD:	2T
Command Rate:	N/A

These are excellent timings for the PRO875 to be hitting with all memory banks occupied at this aggressive a memory speed. This is certainly comparable to many other motherboards, so it isn’t really a surprise. 

We tested all these memory timings with several stress tests and general apps to make sure they were stable. We started off by running Prime95 torture tests; a grand total of 24 hours of Prime95 was successfully run at the timings listed in the above charts. We also ran Sciencemark (memory tests only) and Super Pi. All three stress tests could not make the PRO875 fail at the timings listed in the above charts.

For more information on memory compatibility and performance with 865PE and 875P motherboards be sure to consult our 865PE/875P Memory Compatibility Guide.

DFI PRO875: Tech Support and RMA

For your reference, we will repost our support evaluation procedure here:

The way our Tech Support evaluation works is first we anonymously email the manufacturer's tech support address (es), obviously not using our AnandTech mail server to avoid any sort of preferential treatment. Our emails (we can and will send more than one just to make sure we are not getting the staff “on” an "off" day) all contain fixable problems that we have had with our motherboard. We then give the manufacturer up to 72 hours to respond over business days and will report not only whether they even responded within the time allotted but also if they were successful in fixing our problems. After publishing the review, if we do eventually receive a response we will go back and amend the review with the total time it took for the manufacturer to respond to our requests.

The idea here is to encourage manufacturers to improve their technical support as well as provide new criteria to base your motherboard purchasing decisions upon; with motherboards looking more and more alike every day, we have to help separate the boys from the men in as many ways as possible. As usual, we are interested in your feedback on this and other parts of our reviews so please do email us with your comments.

DFI’s easily obtainable RMA policy can be found by visiting their U.S. website at http://www.dfiusa.com and by clicking on the “support” hyperlink at the menu listed on the left of their home page which makes for simple, straightforward access. If you would like to RMA your DFI motherboard, DFI suggests that you should first contact the vendor you purchased your motherboard from before reaching out to DFI’s tech support and RMA

DFI's tech support response time did not disappoint us. DFI's response came in just 44 hours after our original email. The tech support rep was very caring and it was clear that he truly wanted to solve our problem. All in all a good experience. Hopefully the bigger motherboard makers follow in the footsteps of smaller companies like DFI in terms of tech support.

DFI will also provide you with further technical support on their home page by clicking here.

Overall DFI offers very systematic instructions for motherboard returns as well as any technical support questions. The whole process was a breeze for the most part and thankfully there wasn’t a “labyrinth of links” to go through in order to acquire tech support information, which is always nice. DFI has done a superb job of making this somewhat of a priority and many customers will find this sort of access a nice breath of fresh air.

Performance Test Configuration

Performance Test Configuration
Processor(s):	Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (800MHz FSB) - HT enabled
RAM:	2 x 256MB Corsair PC3200 TwinX Modules
Hard Drive(s):	Western Digital 120GB 7200 RPM Special Edition (8MB Buffer)
Bus Master Drivers:	875P: Intel INF Update v5.00.1012, no 875P IAA available at time of publishing
Video Card(s):	ASUS V8460 Ultra NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600
Video Drivers:	NVIDIA Detonator 44.03
Operation System(s):	Windows XP Professional SP1
Motherboards:	Albatron PX865PE Pro II (865PE) @ 200.08MHz FSB DFI PRO875 LAN Party (875P) @199.40MHz FSB Gigabyte 8KNXP (875P) @ 200.38MHz FSB

All performance tests run on 865PE and 875P-based motherboards utilized two 256MB Corsair TwinX PC3200 modules set to CAS 2-2-2-5 timings running in dual channel DDR400 mode. Any other performance-enhancing timings (like Command Rate or Bank Interleave) were enabled in 865PE and 875P-based motherboards that contained such timings.

Unfortunately we were unable to find a SiS 655 motherboard (and that includes the Gigabyte SINXP1394 used in our 800MHz FSB preview) that could run an 800MHz FSB CPU, with or without HT enabled. We were also unable to find an E7205, 850E, or SiS R658 motherboard that could run these same 800MHz FSB processors. There's a possibility that your motherboard vendor will release a BIOS update to enable 800MHz FSB support on these boards, but we've been told this is highly unlikely, so don't hold your breath. Therefore, users should not expect their current SiS 655, SiS R658, E7205, or 850E motherboard to run an official 800MHz FSB Pentium 4 processor.

Content Creation & General Usage Performance

For our Content Creation & General Usage performance we continue to use SYSMark 2002. The applications benchmarked include:

• Internet Content Generation: Adobe Photoshop 6.01, Adobe Premiere 6.0, Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 7.1, Macromedia Dreamweaver 4, and Macromedia Flash 5
  
• Office Productivity: Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Microsoft Access 2002, Netscape Communicator 6.0, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred v.5, WinZip 8.0, and McAfee VirusScan 5.13

For more information on the methodology and exactly what SYSMark does to generate these performance scores check out BAPCo's SYSMark 2002 Whitepaper.

Unreal Tournament 2003 Performance - High Detail

High End Workstation Performance - SPEC Viewperf 7.0

The latest version of SPEC Viewperf proves to be an excellent stress test for memory bandwidth and overall platform performance as you're about to see. The benchmarks included version 7 of the benchmark suite are:

3ds max (3dsmax-01)
Unigraphics (ugs-01)
Pro/Engineer (proe-01)
DesignReview (drv-08)
Data Explorer (dx-07)
Lightscape (light-05)

For more information on the tests run visit SPEC's page on the new Viewperf benchmark.

High-End Workstation Performance (continued...)

Final Words

After testing the DFI PRO875 for several days we came to a few conclusions:

1. The DFI PRO875 is a superb motherboard for FSB overclocking. So far it’s the highest FSB overclocker we’ve seen, beating out P4 motherboards from ABIT, Albatron, Gigabyte and others. However we haven’t retested ASUS or MSI’s latest P4 motherboards yet, but you’ll be seeing those results in our 875P roundup soon.

2. The DFI PRO875 is a great choice for users that demand some of the best onboard features available on a desktop motherboard today, including the 875P North Bridge/ICH5R South Bridge combo, Serial ATA and IDE RAID support, CSA Gigabit LAN, and accessories like the FrontX panel and PC Transpo backpack, among other features and accessories. The PRO875, of course, also brings the fast performance you would expect from a motherboard based on Intel’s 875P chipset. Though the DFI PRO875 is a bit slower than other 875P motherboards (partly due to the low FSB the PRO875 defaults to) the difference is so minute that no user should base their 875P motherboard purchase on the premise that it’s faster than other 875P motherboards, as all 875P motherboards perform virtually identically. We can’t stress this point enough.

3. For a high-end Pentium 4 motherboard the PRO875 is very competitively priced, at just under $200 at several U.S. retailers, including Newegg. Considering the abundant amount of accessories and onboard features, DFI does an excellent job of keeping this board within reach of hardcore gamers. It’s quite clear that DFI didn’t skimp on other, more subtle onboard components like capacitors, as we were able to successfully overclock the PRO875 to exceptional levels.

In the end we can say that we were more than surprised to see DFI introduce such an incredibly good motherboard, even despite our fairly good experiences with their past motherboards. We would recommend the DFI PRO875 to any user looking for a feature-filled and highly overclockable motherboard at a competitive price point.  By far the biggest downside to the PRO875 is the fact that Intel’s 865PE chipset is virtually as fast as the 875P, at a noticeably lower cost.  Stay tuned for our 865PE and 875P roundup to see what motherboard you should be looking towards as your next upgrade.