Test: DFI Lanparty UT CFX3200-DR/G

Konklusion

Det har været en sand fornøjelse at teste det nyeste udspil fra DFI på ATi siden. Xpress3200 er helt bestemt bedre end Xpress200, men det skal DFI naturligvis ikke have æren for. Til gengæld skal de have æren for at udnytte chipsettet fuldt ud, fordi de har så overdrevet mange BIOS settings og gode køleløsninger monteret på bundkortet. DFI kalder deres bundkort her for det hurtigste CrossFire bundkort nogensinde, og noget siger mig de har ret. Der er virkelig muligheder i dette bundkort!

Ydelsen er god, designet er helt i top sammen med BIOS mulighederne. De ekstra egenskaber som giver muligheden for at benytte flere BIOS saves, S-ATA raid på ULi chippen, det gode lydkort og ikke mindst UV portene er med til at trække dette kort helt til tops.

Innovation & Teknologi
Der er benyttet Xpress3200 som har vist sig at være et ganske godt og stabilt chipset. Tydeligvis er en stor del af sygdommene fra Xpress200 rettet her, og DFI har præsteret at smide et godt bundkort på gaden. At man har valgt en Sil3114 raid controller er jeg ikke særlig positiv over, men det er også hvad jeg kan finde på denne front. Et 4-tal her.

Tilbehør:
Det er bestemt en god pakke DFI har smidt af sted med dette kort. UV reaktive seriel kabler, runde IDE kabler og oveni det kommer det sædvanlige. Der er ikke noget "vildt" med der kan trække karakteren op på 5, men alligevel er det en over middel bundle, så et 4-tal igen.

Design & Layout:
Her står kortet rigtig stærkt! Ideen med at flytte RAM slots på den anden side er god, den sorte PCB sammen med de UV reaktive porte fungerer super godt. Der er ingen problemer overhovedet, heller ikke med grafikkort og RAM slots. Alt i alt et super godt layout som er rigtig flot. Et suverænt 5-tal her.

Software & BIOS
DFI's stærke side er uden tvivl deres BIOS, og det har ikke ændret sig på dette bundkort. Dette er det første LAN-Party bundkort jeg har testet, og jeg er mildest talt voldsomt imponeret. Der er så mange muligheder for at tweake RAM og for at overclocke systemet. Der er taget hensyn til overclockerne, ved at man kan gemme forskellige BIOS indstillinger i systemet, hvilket gør det til en leg at overclocke, uden at skulle begynde forfra hver gang. Et 5-tal her, endda med pil op hvis det var muligt.

Ydelse
Desværre er ydelsen ikke højere end dets forgængere, i hvert fald ikke medmindre man leger med CrossFire løsningen. Dog skal det siges at ydelsen absolut heller ikke sakker bagud på nogen områder! Jeg giver 3 i ydelsen.

Pris:
Prisen på bundkortet herhjemme ligger omkring 1.600,- hvilket må siges at være en del for et bundkort. Trods det, er det alligevel langt fra det dyreste bundkort, så prisen må siges at være lidt over middel. Det resulterer i et 3-tal, da man får en del for pengene.

---

UK Summary

It has been quite a pleasure to review this new motherboard from DFI with the ATi chipset. Xpress 300 is defiantly better than Xpress200, but the credits are going to ATi, not DFI. In return DFI shall have the credit of using the chipset to its maximum because of the excessive many setting options in the BIOS and the good cooling solutions mounted on the motherboard. DFI call their motherboard the fastest CrossFire board ever, and something tells me that the might be right. There is tons of possibilities with this motherboard.

The performance is good and the design in top and also the BIOS possibilities. The extra settings that give you the possibility for extra BIOS saves, S-ATA RAID on the ULi chipset, the good sound card and nevertheless the UV reactive slots are some of the elements that make this board fantastic.

Innovation / Technology
They use Xpress3200 that have showed to be a good and stable chipset. Obviously a lot of the teething troubles from Xpress 200 are gone and DFI has acquired to launch a good motherboard on the marked. That they have chosen to use Sil3114 RAID controller is a little negative to me, but it is all I am upset about. 4 points are given.

Bundle / Accessories
It is an extremely good bundle DFI has enclosed with this board; UV reactive serial cables, round IDE cables and besides that the usual are enclosed too. There is nothing special that can make me give the highest score so I give a score of 4.

Design & Layout
This is where the card shows itself. The idea with moving the RAM slots to the other side is good; the black PCB combined with the UV reactive ports looks super nice. There are no problems at all, neither with the graphic card and RAM slots. All in all a super layout which is very nice. Topscore is given - 5 points.

Software & BIOS
DFI's strongest side is in no doubt their BIOS and it haven't changed on this motherboard. It is the first LAN-party board I ever tested and I am mildly said extremely impressed. There are so many features to tweak your RAM and over clock the system. There is taken good care of the over clockers with the feature that you can save different versions of BIOS settings, which makes it like playing a game to over clock, without having to start all over again if the system fails. I give a score of 5. I would even give 5+ if I could.

Performance
Unfortunately the performance isn't higher than the predecessor, absolutely not if you don't use the CrossFire solution. It must be said that the performance not is worse than the Xpress200 chipset, not at all. I give a score of 3.

Price
The price of the motherboard is 1.600,- DKK, which is much of a board. In spite of that it is far from the most expensive motherboard, so the price is defiantly over average score; it results in a score of 3 because you get a lot of your money.