A Closer Look At The DFI UT P45-T2RS.
There's no doubt that the UT P45-T2RS is a fine looking motherboard, but DFI have taken a rather unusual step backwards with the cooling solution and have used the same kind of set up as their original
UT P35-T2R. The main disadvantage with this kind of cooling is that if you want to add any kind of after market cooling to the North Bridge, you will have to remove the entire heatpipe assembly and then buy extra cooling for the
PWM and South Bridge.
The entire board is decked out with high quality Japanese, solid capacitors and the
PCB actually looks more black than previous models.
Click image for full size, high resolution.
The observant among you will probably have noticed the apparent lack of
BIOS chip - All previous LT and UT models have had a removable
BIOS chip and this model is slightly different. Instead of the old postage stamp sized chip and cradle, we now have a tiny little clam shell design, which is just over 10mm square and it is located directly below the South Bridge heatsink, just to the right of the red and blue jumpers. Simply lift open the "shell" to reveal a tiny
BIOS chip - marvellous! This same design will be implemented on the forthcoming X58 boards and will no doubt free up some valuable
PCB real estate.
One thing that almost scuppered me today was that I had left the clam shell case open and I forgot about it - I was finishing off the photography and I flipped the board over and the
BIOS chip was catapulted across the room, luckily, I saw it land, otherwise I would have been up the proverbial creek without a metaphorical paddling device.
To give an idea of the size, here's the
BIOS chip sat on a UK .20p coin.
The North Bridge heatsink is a fairly large cast aluminium affair and has a slightly dirty look to it - I remember that the P35's heatsink was the same as this.
The South Bridge heatsink is quite large and relatively flat - There's not a huge amount of heat generated here, so this will be fine.
Also of note in this area are:
- 8x SATA II sockets
- 3x Dual USB 2
- 1x PATA
- LED/Power jumpers
- LED post code display
- EZ Clear switches (more on these later)
- Buzzer
An overhead shot - You can see the new
BIOS chip holder in it's closed position.
Next we have the rear I/O panel and nestled in between is the
PWM heatsink which is machine cut from a single block of cast aluminium. We already know that this
PWM heatsink design works well and only really needs a bit of a breeze across it when under load.
- PS2 Keyboard
- PS2 Mouse
- PWM Heatsink
- 1x Firewire
- 6x USB 2
- Dual Gigabit Lan
Here we can see the other side of the
PWM heatsink and we can also marvel at the uncluttered CPU socket area. As I always mention at this point, this is great if you are going to be using sub zero cooling as the low profile round the socket makes it easier to lay your insulation.
An overhead view of the CPU socket area and
PWM heatsink.
The now familiar green and yellow memory slots can support up to 16GB of
RAM in the form of 4GB modules. There are a couple of heatsinks for the memory power circuitry at the top right and bottom centre of the picture and also a 24 pin ATX socket and a single
PATA connector. There's not much else out of the ordinary here, but it's worth pointing out that the heatpipe coming from the North Bridge heatsink will obstruct one of the board's mounting holes.
Next, we have the
PCI/
PCI-E 2 slots.
Click image for full size, high resolution.
There are three physical 16x
PCI-E 2 slots, the top one runs at 16x, the second at 4x and the third can run at 2x. Alternatively, you could run the top two at 8x each for Crossfire and the bottom one at 2x for Physics if required. The entire switching process is automatic and is controlled by the six oblong IC's between the first two 16x
PCI-E 2 slots (see the pic below).
We also have three
PCI slots and a single 1x
PCI-E 2 slots.
Another new feature on the UT is the on board power and reset switches - the previous kind were quite pointed and not very aesthetically pleasing. I'm happy to report that the new switches look and feel great....they remind me of something though....
Ahem.
Finally, a shot of the entire board.
Click image for full size, high resolution.
Next, the Genie
BIOS...
DFI Lanparty UT P45-T2RS - Living Review
