Conclusion.
As this has been a mini review, the tests that I've conducted haven't been as extensive or prolonged as usual, so this review only gives a snapshot of this board at the time of purchase as I have used the shipping
BIOS for all the tests.
The
BIOS needs some work, but keep in mind that this is a pre-retail board and shipping
BIOS, so as soon as I see any improvements, I will update the review - I'm confident that any issues will be resolved fairly quickly.
DFI claim 570FSB for the T2RSB Plus, unfortunately, I was unable to hit more than 520 and after that, the board would hard lock up and that would require the battery to be removed for at least an hour before it would
post again.
DFI also provided their settings that they used to reach 520-570FSB, but they resulted in the hard lock/battery out scenario again - I'm going to try another
CPU this week, so I'll update as soon as I have any news.
The new cooling works well, especially if you remove the upper North bridge heatsink and fit an after market cooler to the base. Water blocks work particularly well, but you need to be really careful when tightening them or the entire assembly will bend and lose contact with the
NB IHS.
The
CPU area is slightly cluttered on two sides and this is to be expected when using an analog hybrid
PWM setup. Sub zero users will find they need to do a little more work on the insulation - No big deal, but worth a mention.
For me, the board behaved impeccably for most of the time and up to 520FSB the overclock recovery felt much improved over recent
DFI boards.
ABS is a great addition and could prove to be an invaluable tool for novices and seasoned overclockers alike.
Disk performance was good and in line with other ICH9R boards. The fact that this is a mid range board and has 8x
SATA sockets will appeal to many.
As usual with
DFI boards, the layout is fantastic and there was nothing glaringly obvious that needed changing.
Price - This is a difficult one to pass judgement on because
(at the time of writing this) we don't have anyone selling them in the UK and looking at overseas prices, the T2RSB+ is priced only fractionally lower than the LT X48-T2R. I will update this once I know more details.
To sum up, I really like the
DFI DK X48-T2RSB Plus, it is definitely a cut above the regular DK boards, overclocks well, looks fantastic and has ever-so-slightly improved cooling over it's predecessor. I would say to anyone that's looking for a mid range board with great overclocking potential, a huge amount of features and stunning looks, then the
DFI DK X48-T2RSB+ should be in your short-list.
Pros
- Overclocks Well
- Stable At High Clocks
- Improved Cooling
- Ability To Fit Water Block To The North Bridge While Keeping The Rest Of The PWM Cooling In Tact
- Improved Overclock Recovery up to 520FSB
- Excellent Build Quality
- Looks Fantastic
Cons
- Appears To Be At The Same Price Point As The LT X48-T2R
- North Bridge Heatsink Base Could Be More Rigid
- Overclock Recovery >520FSB Doesn't Work Properly Yet
Conclusion.
Linear Mode
