DFI LanParty DK P55-T3eH9 Living Review

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DFI LanParty DK P55-T3eH9 Living Review

DFI are now entering the P55 market with their new DFI LanParty DK P55-T3eH9 board. This board is a new product that extends the highly succesful, mid price, DK range. It's the first time that the DK has been the first to market on the launch of a new Intel chipset, usually it's the higher priced UT boards. Perhaps given the recession and P55 being a more mainstream chipset, than say the X58, has caused this.

Compared with previous DK boards the P55-T3eH9 has several new features that we'll check out in this review:

• A new updated Digital PWM, 8+1 Phase with up to 90% power efficiency.
• Bios secure, a unique mini usb port is provided to enable bios flashing from a second pc.
• DFI have teamed up with Creative to add X-Fi Xtreme fidelity codecs etc., to bring enhanced sound performance.
• Extreme Cooler design heatpipes.

INDEX

Useful Links:
Bios Template
Foxconn LGA 1156 Issue
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O
Voltage Measuring Points

BTA Bios
BTA P55DKA12


Motherboard
1. The Package
2. Official Specifications and Features
3. What's New?
4. P55 Chipset
5. The Motherboard first impressions
6. Motherboard a closer look
7. Round the Motherboard Detail 1 of 4 - Chipset/PCH Area
8. Round the Motherboard Detail 2 of 4 - PCI-E Slots
9. Round the Motherboard Detail 3 of 4 - Rear I/O and PWM
10. Round the Motherboard Detail 4 of 4 - Ram Slots
11. Motherboard Underside
12. Accesories and Extras
13. Components and Test Setup
14. Build -Air Cooling Clearance.

Bios
15. Genie Bios Menu
16. CPU Configuration Sub Menu
17. Voltage Control Sub Menu
18. Dram Timing Sub Menu
19. Post Screen Features and Bios Now with Boot Menu

Clocks
20. 3.7Ghz 178x21 @x10 1,780 8-8-8-22
21. 3.83Ghz 21x182Mhz Ram x10 8-8-8-22
22. 3.92Ghz 21x187Mhz Ram x10 1,860 8-8-8-22
23. 4.02Ghz 21x191Mhz Ram x10 1,910 8-8-8-22
24. Turbo Mode
25. 4.1Ghz -195x21 @10 1,950 8-8-8-22
26. 4.2Ghz 22x191 Ram 1,913 Mhz 9-9-9-24

Conclusion



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The Package

I'm usually the first to open the product but seems someone else was after a sneak peak of DFI's new board


The DK House style artwork is continued on the box, this time in a nice blue.


Front



Rear
Seems cutoms guy was in a rush, managed to rip the box on the left hand fastener.

Click Pic to enlarge


The outer carton contains DFI's usual white inner Lanparty box, with the manuals and accesories on top.


With the motherboard in a secure anti-static bag underneath.

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Official Specifications and Features
official Site

• CPU
  • LGA 1156 socket for:
  • - Intel® Core i5 Lynnfield processors
  • Supports Intel® Turbo Boost Technology
• Chipset
  • Intel® P55 Express chipset
• System Memory
  • Four 240-pin DDR3 DIMM sockets
  • Supports DDR3 1800(O.C.)/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066 MHz
  • Supports up to 16GB system memory
  • Delivers up to 21Gb/s bandwidth at 1333MHz
  • Supports dual channel (128-bit wide) memory interface
  • Supports non-ECC unbuffered DIMMs
• Expansion Slots
  • 2 PCI Express (Gen 2) x16 slots
  • - Single at x16 or Dual at x8/x8 transfer rate lanes
  • 1 PCI Express (Gen 2) x16 slot at x4 transfer rate lanes
  • 2 PCI Express x1 slots
  • 2 PCI slots
• BIOS
  • AMI BIOS
  • 8Mbit SPI flash BIOS
  • CMOS Reloaded
• Graphics
  • Multiple GPUs
  • - 3 graphics cards in 2-way SLI or CrossFireX configuration
• Audio
  • Realtek ALC885 High Definition audio CODEC
  • 8-channel audio output
  • DAC SNR/ADC SNR of 106dB/101dB
  • Full-rate lossless content protection technology
  • Optical S/PDIF-out and coaxial RCA S/PDIF-out interfaces
• LAN
  • Intel 82578DC Gigabit Ethernet PHY
  • Fully compliant to IEEE 802.3 (10BASE-T), 802.3u (100BASE-TX) and 802.3ab (1000BASE-T) standards
• Serial ATA
  • Intel chip
  • - Intel Matrix Storage technology
  • - Supports up to 6 SATA devices
  • - SATA speed up to 3Gb/s
  • - RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and RAID 5
  • JMicron JMB322
  • - Supports up to 2 SATA devices
  • - SATA speed up to 3Gb/s
  • - RAID 0 and RAID 1
• Power eSATA
  • JMicron JMB363 PCI Express to SATA and PATA host controller
  • - Supports 1 Power eSATA device
• IDE
  • Supports up to 2 IDE devices
  • UltraDMA 100Mbps
• Rear Panel I/O Ports
  • 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port
  • 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port
  • 1 Clear CMOS switch
  • 1 BIOSecure mini-USB port
  • 1 coaxial RCA S/PDIF-out port
  • 1 optical S/PDIF-out port
  • 1 Power eSATA port
  • 6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (one shared with Power eSATA)
  • 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
• BIOSecure Module
  • One BIOSecure mini-USB port at the rear panel
  • By connecting the provided SPI link cable to the BIOSecure mini-USB port, the board serves as an SPI writer allowing you to flash the system board’s BIOS on the board per se or remotely from another board
  • USB powered - no additional power required
• Internal I/O
  • 4 connectors for 8 additional external USB 2.0 ports
  • 1 connector for an external COM port
  • 1 front audio connector
  • 1 CD-in connector
  • 1 S/PDIF connector
  • 1 IrDA connector
  • 8 Serial ATA connectors
  • 1 40-pin IDE connector
  • 1 floppy connector
  • 1 24-pin ATX power connector
  • 1 8-pin 12V power connector
  • 1 4-pin 5V/12V power connector (FDD type)
  • 1 front panel connector
  • 5 fan connectors
  • 1 download flash BIOS connector
  • 1 diagnostic LED
  • 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 KB/Mouse and Wake-On-USB KB
  • Wake-On-LAN
  • RTC timer to power-on the system
  • AC power failure recovery
• Hardware Monitor
  • Monitors CPU/chipset/PWM temperature and overheat alarm
  • Monitors CPU/DRAM/VTT/CPU_PLL/+3.3/+5/+12/+5VSB/Vbat voltages
  • Monitors the speed of the cooling fans
  • CPU Overheat Protection function monitors CPU temperature and fan during system boot-up - automatic shutdown upon system overheat
• PCB
  • 4 layers, ATX form factor
  • 24.5cm (9.64”) x 30.5cm (12”)

Sound Features
DFI LANParty Provides Superb Audio Experience

In order to bring consumers the best and amazing audio experience, DFI LANParty launched it’s the latest DK P55-T3eH9 with the Sound Blaster X-Fi technology, which comes from Creative and offers incredible surround sound. Instead of spending almost $100 for extra X-Fi audio card, users can still obtain the same audio effect with DK P55-T3eH9. No matter which kind of music, movies, or games you are listening, watching, or playing, DK P55-T3eH9 can deliver premium audio effect and bring you the most realistic and immersive experience.

One of X-Fi features, EAX® ADVANCED HD 4.0 is special for gamers. It offers the state-of-the-art multi-environment rendering and reverb modeling, and therefore delivers the most realistic 3D gaming experience to users. With it, gamers will feel as being in the game. Sound Blaster motherboard also adopts native OpenAL support, which is cross-platform 3D Audio API. Many games and music application developers use it to render marvelous 3D audio simulation. As a result, with our DK P55, awesome 3D audio experience can be assured.

As for X-Fi CMSS-3D, it can deliver incredible 3D surround sound effect from just a pair of stereo headphones. The conversation of the movies will be just like happening around you. Listening music with it will make you feel as attending a live concert. In addition, with X-Fi Crystalizer, the details and vibrance of mp3 or wma, which is lost during the compression process, can be restored. Users can gain the best audio experience from original signal and high definition.

Moreover, because of changes in Windows Vista’s DirectSound3D implementation, certain legacy DirectSound3D games will have audio compromised. It results in only stereo output without surround sound. Integrated Alchemy is a powerful tool and enables restoration of the EAX effects and full surround sound for these games run in Windows Vista. Therefore true 3D games can still be fully delivered to users.

Other audio effects, such as EAX®reverbs, Smart Volume Management and a 10-band graphic equalizer can also improve your audio more. Now LANParty DK P55-T3eH9 is equipped with the Sound Blaster X-Fi technology and brings the most amazing and realistic whole new audio experience to you.

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P55 Chipset

P55 is Intel bringing I7 to the mass market. To achieve this at a lower selling price base some things have been lost and these are:

* Remove a memory controller channel - Reverting back to dual channel from Tri Channel X58
* QPI link is replaced by the DMI link

Having removed a memory controller channel, much of the 1366 CPUs pin out is redundant so enter Socket LGA-1156

The DMI link is the link between the Chipset and the CPU it's rated at a bandwidth of 2 GB/s. This is ample for USB and SATA but is a bottleneck for a 16x PCI-E slot which has bandwidth of 164GB/s.

To maintain Graphics bandwidth Intel has created 16 PCIe 2.0 lanes onto the CPU.
There are x4 additional lanes supported from the PCH (Platform Controller Hub) see below.
P55 is therefore further simplified without the IOH (Input/output Hub) of the X58 chipset.

For comparison see X58

So basically graphics is now left with a similar bandwidth comparison as we have seen previously with X48 v P45 for example.
So to the X58 allows 2x16 with a 3rd running at x8 giving a total of x40
The P55 has x20 as described above, x16 via CPU and x4 from PCH offering:
1x16 single card + 1x4 for other add-on cards eg RAID etc.
Or 2 x8 dual cards + 1 x4 for physics card or other.

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The Motherboard first impressions
The board is certainly very strinking colourwise. I can think of a few football fans who'll be delighted with the colour scheme Wolves and Hull City
I particularly like the Chipset/PCH area with it's partial cover showing the heatsink below.
DFI have decided to retain a full heatpipe between PCH and PWM, placing a radiator to aid cooling in the middle of the board.
Click Pics to enlarge

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Motherboard a closer look

There is reasonable space between first PCI-E slot and memory, even space for ram clips , unlike Asus P7P55D



Slots Left to right:

• PCI 2
• PCI 1
• PCIE 5 - x16 or x8 in Crossfire/SLI
• PCIE 4 - x1
• PCIE 3 - x4
• PCIE 2 - x1
• PCIE 1 - x16 or x8 in Crossfire/SLI

Note There is still a floppy power 12v connection between slots 4 and 5.



Nice Clean CPU area. Nice to see a Lotes socket after the Foxcon socket Issues



A couple of shots of the socket and the heatpipe:

The PWM cooler and the central cooling radiator are a nice low profile which don't obstruct any large Air cooler, as we'll see see later in the build.







CPU socket with the heatpipe radiator at the bottom.


heatpipe radiator

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Round the Motherboard Detail 1 of 4 - Chipset/PCH Area



A few shots of the sata ports and PCH:


Unlike many other P55 boards DFI have chosen to connect the PCH with a heatpipe.


There are 6 x Intel Matrix Ports 2x Jmicron JMB322 Ports


Case Power Connection


On Board Power and Reset buttons.
note to the left, the clear Cmos jumper (red) with secondary RTC Reset jumper(Blue) in front.


USB Headers - these are double headers so can manage up to eight USB devices.

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Round the Motherboard Detail 2 of 4 - PCI-E Slots



Legacy section
Com port and floppy drive header. I personally am a bit disapointed that this hasn't been ditched.


Moving round the corner we see the the ITE Super I/O integrated chip with the DFI Post LED to the right on the corner.



Extreme left RealTek ALC885 Soundchip
Front audio Header
5/12v floppy power header between PCI-E slots four and five.
IrDa Header

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Round the Motherboard Detail 3 of 5 - Rear I/O and PWM





Rear I/O
Left to right and Top to Bottom:-

* PS/2 mouse port (green)
* PS/2 keyboard port (purple)
* Clear Cmos button
* BioSecure mini Usb.
* Coaxial S/PD IF Out port
* Optical S/PD IF Out port
* USB port 11
* Power eSATA or USB port 10
* USB ports 9 and 8
* Lan
* USB ports 12 and 13
* Audio I/O Ports



New devices a closer look:
Left the Clear Cmos jumper if earlier DK products has been replaced by a small button. To use it you'll need to stick a needle or something through a hole in the Rear I/O panel. Right the Mini USB connection for BioSecure.



12volt CPU Power socket. Blue jumper is PS/2 Power Select. Note the cantilevered shape on the right side of the PWM cooler facing the Rear I/O panel.

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Round the Motherboard Detail 4 of 4 - Ram Slots

Ram Slots are nicely placed, with a fractionally bigger gap between the CPU socket and first ram slot, than other boards, which means you can more likely manage to use tall ram modules in the first slot. So no conflicts with that big air cooler. (See Build) There is also little interference with first PCI-E slot.