DFI LANPARTY DK 790FXB-M3H5 Living Review

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DFI LANPARTY DK 790FXB-M3RH5 Living Review

Thanks to DFI we've got a chance to review their new AMD3 board the LANPARTY DK 790FXB-M3H5 . The motherboard is based on the AMD 790FX chipset designed for AMD 45nm Phenom II CPUs.
The board uses DDR3 ram and is packed with the DK features we have come to love in this successful series of high performance, mid priced range of motherboards. See Official Specifications below for full details.

We'll be using the AMD Phenom™ II x4 945 which is also brand new, so much so there are no details up at the time of writing this.
The 945 (HDX945FBK4DGI) brief is:

• 3.0 GHz Rated (15x200mhz)
• x4 Cores
• Memory controller rated for DDR2-1066/DDR3-1333
• Cache = L2 = 4×512 KB L3 = 6Mb
• HT 4000Mhz
• TDP= 125W
• Socket - AM3

So let's get on:

Index
Useful Links

• DFI LANPARTY DK 790FXB-M3H5 Bios Template

Motherboard
1) The Package
2) Official Specifications
3) Overview
4) Motherboard first look
5) Motherboard A closer Look
6) Motherboard - Detail
7) Motherboard - Close Up
8) Accessories and extras
9) Components and Test setup
Bios
10) Bios - General Bios 1 of 4 Dual Mode Access Easy & Advanced
11) Bios - General Bios 2 of 4 Standard Cmos Features, Advanced Bios Features, Advanced Chipset Features
12) Bios - General Bios 3 of 4 Integrated Peripherals
13) Bios - General Bios 4 of 4 Power Management Setup,PnP/PCI Configurations, PC Health Status ,Cmos Reloaded
14) Genie Bios - Main Menu 1of3
15) MCI Memory Timing 1of3
16) MCI Memory Timing 2of3
17) MCI Memory Timing 3of3
18) Dram Configuration ODC Sub Menu
19) Genie Bios - Main Menu 2of3
20) Genie Bios - Main Menu 3of3
21) CPU Features Sub Menu
22) PWM Settings
Clocks and Benching
Phenom II x4 945
23) 1st Shot stock voltages 3,150Mhz 15x210 @1333 1,400 6-6-6-20
24) Ganged v Unganged Ram
25) 3,300Mhz 220x15 @1333 1,466Mhz 7-7-7-19
26) 3,450 15x230 @1066 1,226Mhz 6-6-6-16
27) 3,600 15x240 @1066 1,279Mhz 6-6-6-16
Phenom II x4 955
Air
28) AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE Retail
29) Stock vcore 1.35v - 3,600 - 18x200 1600Mhz 8-8-8-21
30) 3,800 - 19x200 1600Mhz 8-8-8-21
water
31) 3,900Mhz 19.5x200 @1,333Mhz 6-6-6-17
32)3,900Mhz 19.5x200 @1,600mhz 8-8-8-21
33) 4ghz 20x200@1333 6-6-6-17
34) 4,00Mhz 20x200 @1,600mhz 8-8-8-21

Phenom II x4 965
35) Introduction
Air
36) 3.8Ghz 19x200 1600Mhz 8-8-8-21
37) 3.9Ghz 19.5x200 1600Mhz 8-8-8-21
Water
38) 4.0Ghz 20x200 1600Mhz 8-8-8-21

39) Conclusion and final thoughts

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DFI's Artwork is always classy and the box for the 790FXB is no exception:
Front:





Rear, showing some key features:

Click to Enlarge


Motherboard is securely packed under a tray holding the manuals and accessories:

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Official Specifications

CPU

• AMD® Phenom™ II processor
• HyperTransport 3.0 (5200MT/s) HyperTransport 1.0 (2000/1600MT/s)
• AMD OverDrive provides tuning options using the new “Advanced Clock Calibration” overclocking feature.
• CPU Socket 938 AM3 45nm

Chipset

• AMD chipset - Northbridge: AMD 790FX - Southbridge: AMD SB750

System Memory

• Four 240-pin DDR3 DIMM sockets
• Supports DDR3 1600(O.C.)/1333/1066 MHz
• Delivers up to 21Gb/s bandwidth at 1333MHz
• Supports dual channel (128-bit wide) memory interface
• Supports non-ECC unbuffered DIMMs
• Supports up to 16GB system memory. Note:Windows® 32-bit operating system is unable to accurately detect more than 4GB system memory. Therefore, if you are using this operating system, we strongly recommend that you install less than 3GB system memory.

Expansion Slots

• 3 PCI Express (Gen 2) x16 slots - 2-way CrossFire at x16/x16 or x16/x4 bandwidth - 3-way CrossFire at x16/x16/x4 bandwidth
• 3 PCI slots

BIOS

• Award BIOS
• CMOS Reloaded
• CPU/DRAM overclocking
• CPU/DRAM/Chipset overvoltage
• 8Mbit SPI flash memory

Audio

• Realtek ALC885 8-channel HD Audio Codec
• High-performance DACs with 106dB dynamic range (A-Weight), ADCs with 101dB dynamic range (A-Weight)

LAN

• Marvell 88E8056 PCIE Gigabit LAN controller
• Fully compliant to IEEE 802.3 (10BASE-T), 802.3u (100BASE-TX) and 802.3ab (1000BASE-T) standards

Serial ATA with RAID

• Supports up to 6 SATA devices
• SATA speed up to 3Gb/s
• RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1 and RAID 5

IDE

• One IDE connector allows connecting up to two UltraDMA 133Mbps hard drives

Rear Panel I/O

• 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port
• 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port
• 1 optical S/PDIF-out port
• 1 coaxial RCA S/PDIF-out port
• 6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports
• 1 RJ45 LAN port
• Center/subwoofer, rear R/L and side R/L jacks
• Line-in, line-out (front R/L) and mic-in jacks

Internal I/O

• 3 connectors for 6 additional external USB 2.0 ports
  1 connector for an external COM port
  1 front audio connector
  1 CD-in connector
  1 IrDA connector
  1 CIR connector
  6 Serial ATA connectors
  1 40-pin IDE connector
  1 floppy connector
  1 24-pin ATX power connector
  1 8-pin 12V power connector
  2 4-pin 5V/12V power connectors (FDD type)
  1 front panel connector
  6 fan connectors
  EZ touch switches (power switch and reset switch)

Power Management

• ACPI and OS Directed Power Management
• ACPI STR (Suspend to RAM) function
• Wake-On-PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse
• Wake-On-USB Keyboard/Mouse
• Wake-On-Ring
• Wake-On-LAN
• RTC timer to power-on the system
• AC power failure recovery

Hardware Monitor

• Monitors CPU/system/chipset temperature
  Monitors 12V/5V/3.3V/Vcore/Vbat/5Vsb/Vdimm/Vchip voltages
  Monitors the speed of the cooling fans
  CPU Overheat Protection function monitors CPU temperature during system boot-up

PCB

• ATX form factor
• 24.5cm (9.64") x 30.5cm (12")

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Overview




AMD 790FX with SB750
42 Lanes of PCIE 2.0



Supports CrossFire X
32 Lanes dedicated to Graphics, with compatible with 3 & 4x Crossfire configurations.

Features


4-Phase Digital PWM + 1-Phase NB Digital PWM


Replaceable Cooling System
One of DFI's best features , the Chipsey cooler is removable to let you add an after market cooler or waterblock.


LANParty adopts solid capacitors for the best stability.

Realtek ALC885 for 8CH HD Audio

Debug LED

Gigabit LAN by Marvell 8053

Fluorescent Slot & Connectors

Auto Boost System

Genie BIOS

CMOS Reloaded

3 PCI, 2 IDE


6 SATAII Ports with RAID Function
[B]
12 USB 2.0 Ports

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Motherboard first look

Click pictures to Enlarge

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Motherboard A closer Look
Click pictures to Enlarge

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Motherboard - Detail
Click pictures to Enlarge

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Motherboard - Close Up

Backside of board good to see both Chipset and PWM cooling heatpipes are bolted in place. Only the SB750 uses push pins.


PCI Slots from Left:

• PCIE-1 x16
• PCI-1
• PCIE-2 x16
• PCI-2
• PCI-3
• PCIE-3 x16 Note: PCIE 1 & 2 are served from the 790FX Chipset and can support 2x16 Crossfire. PCIE 3 is served from the SB 750 with x4 bandwidth. Options are controlled by the 3 jumpers JP11 ,JP 12 and JP14

Note: as usual on DK boards there are 2x floppy drive power sockets (see either side of PCI-1) , to provide additional power. DFI recommend connecting these if running multiple graphics cards. Personally I always connect them as it helps stability and probably helps getting the max out of the Hybrid 4 Phase PWM.


Rear Panel


From Left:

• PS/2 Mouse
• PS/2 Keyboard
• Optical S/PDIF-Out
• Coaxial S/PDIF-Out
• Clear Cmos Jumper (Note: If your putting the motherboard in a case swap the jumper to one of the longer black ones. see Rear Clear CMOS Jumper )
• USB 0-1
• USB 4-5
• Lan
• USB 2-3
• Sound - Center/subwoofer, rear R/L and side R/L jacks, Line-in, line-out (front R/L) and mic-in jacks

Sata
This must be one of the most uncluttered board I've seen with nothing to block add on cards.
6 Sata II Ports, supports Raid0 , Raid1, Raid0+1and Raid5
Sata ports from left 0-1, 2-3,4-5


CPU Socket

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Components and Test setup
CPU - Phenom II 945 HDX945FBK4DGI


Cooling
Thanks to Noctua for sending us the AMD fitting kit:

I can use my favourite air cooler:
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366

DDR3
I'll be using the following during this review, stuff i've been running on P45/X48 and Nehalem :

Micron D9JNL
Cellshock DDR3 1600 7-7-7-14 2x1GB CS3222271
Cellshock DDR3 1866 8-8-8-16 2x1GB CS3222770
Samsung HFC-0
G.SKILL PI Black DDR3 PC 12800 CL8 6GB kit (F3-12800CL8T-6GBPI-B)

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Accessories and extras


IDE & Sata Cables


Smart Connect
THe little black jumpers come in handy, use one on the raer clear CMOS jumper.


Manuals & DVD


Rear I/O Panel


Crossfire Bridge