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DFI Lan Party NFII Ultra B - PAGE 2
Terren Tong - Wednesday, July 28th, 2004

Specification

CPU
  • AMD Athlon XP 266/333/400MHz FSB
  • AMD Athlon 200/266MHz FSB
  • AMD Duron 200/266MHz FSB
  • CPU Socket
  • Socket A
  • Chipset
  • nVIDIA nForce2 chipset
    - nForce2 Ultra 400 - nForce2 MCP-T
  • Memory
  • Supports dual channel memory interface
  • Supports up to 3GB memory (unbuffered DIMM)
  • Supports PC1600 (DDR200), PC2100 (DDR266), PC2700 (DDR333) and PC3200 (DDR400)
    DDR SDRAM DIMM, 2.5V type
  • Three 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets
  • BIOS
  • Award BIOS, Windows® 95/98/2000/ME/XP Plug and Play compatible
  • Genie BIOS provides:
    - CPU/DRAM/AGP overclocking - CPU/AGP/DRAM/Chipset overvoltage
  • 4Mbit flash memory
  • CMOS Reloaded
  • Power Management
  • Supports ACPI STR (Suspend to RAM) function
  • Wake-On-Events include:
    - Wake-On-PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse - Wake-On-USB - Wake-On-Ring (external modem) - Wake-On-LAN - RTC timer to power-on the system
  • AC power failure recovery
  • Hardware Monitor
  • Monitors CPU/system temperature
  • Monitors ±12V/5V/3.3V/VBAT(V)/5VSB(V) voltages
  • Monitors CPU/chassis fan speed
  • Read back capability that displays temperature, voltage and fan speed
  • CPU Temperature Protection function monitors CPU temperature during system boot-up
  • Audio
  • Realtek ALC650
  • AC97 2.2 S/PDIF extension compliant codec
  • Supports Microsoft® DirectSound/DirectSound 3D
  • AC97 supported with full duplex, independent sample rate converter for
    audio recording and playback
  • S/PDIF-in/out interface
  • 6-channel audio output
  • LAN
  • nVIDIA nForce2 MCP-T and ICS1893 Phy
    - Full duplex support at both 10 and 100 Mbps
  • Realtek RTL8110S Gigabit LAN
    - Full duplex support at 10, 100 and 1000 Mbps
  • IDE
  • Supports ATA/33, ATA/66, ATA/100 and ATA/133 hard drives
  • UDMA Modes 3, 4, 5 and 6 Enhanced IDE (data transfer rate up to 133MB/sec.)
  • Serial ATA with RAID
  • Silicon Image Sil3114 PCI to Serial ATA controller
  • Supports four SATA (Serial ATA) interfaces which are compliant with SATA 1.0
    specification (1.5Gbps interface)
  • Supports RAID 0 and RAID 1
  • IEEE 1394
  • nVIDIA nForce2 MCP-T and Agere FW803 Phy chips
  • Supports three 100/200/400 Mb/sec ports
  • AGP
  • Supports AGP 8x up to 2132MB/sec. and AGP 4x up to 1066MB/sec. bandwidth
    for 3D graphics applications
  • Rear Panel I/O Ports
  • 1 PS/2 mouse port
  • 1 PS/2 keyboard port
  • 1 DB-9 serial port
  • 1 DB-25 parallel port
  • 4 USB 2.0/1.1 ports
  • 2 RJ45 LAN ports
  • 2 S/PDIF RCA jacks (S/PDIF-in and S/PDIF-out)
  • 3 audio jacks: line-out, line-in and mic-in
  • 2 audio jacks for center/bass and rear out
  • I/O Connectors
  • 1 connector for 2 additional external USB 2.0/1.1 ports
  • 3 connectors for 3 external IEEE 1394 ports
  • 1 front audio connector for external line-out and mic-in jacks
  • 2 internal audio connectors (AUX-in and CD-in)
  • 1 S/PDIF connector for optical cable connection
  • 1 connector for IrDA interface
  • 4 Serial ATA connectors
  • 2 IDE connectors
  • 1 floppy connector
  • 2 ATX power supply connectors
  • 3 fan connectors for CPU fan, chassis fan and 2nd fan
  • 4 diagnostic LEDs
  • 1 diagnostic LED connector for external 4 diagnostic LEDs display
  • EZ touch switches (power switch and reset switch)
  • Expansion Slots
  • 1 AGP slot that supports 8x/4x AGP
  • 5 PCI slots
  • PCB
  • 4 layers, ATX form factor
  • 30.5cm (12") x 24.5cm (9.64")
  • Features and Package

    The LanParty is a full featured board and comes in one of the largest motherboard boxes that we have seen.

    A lot of extra functionality comes via external chips unlike the Athlon 64 chipsets such as the Nforce 3 250Gb and the Via K8T800. A total of four SATA ports are available courtesy of a Silicon Image SATA Raid controller chip while Gigabit ethernet capability is provided by a Realtek chip. An additional LAN port form the Nvidia MCP is also present so the LanParty can double up as a router also.

    Because this board is part of the LanParty series, DFI also includes a lot of extras including a modular front panel connector, a carrying strap for the PC as well as UV reactive IDE cables. The modular front panel is useful for those with cases that do not have firewire and audio jacks up front. It also provides the same diagnostic LED readout on the front of the case instead of inside the motherboard. Aesthetically it could use a bit of work being a boring beige color. The carrying strap is quite useful as larger computer are usually pretty awkward to carry around but the handle provided by the LanParty makes transport much more bearable.

    The large box allows DFI to individually package all the other components in their own separate boxes. While it does not add to the performance, the aesthetics of the packaging is top notch.

    A lot of NForce pundits bemoan the fact that Soundstorm is a rarity on the southbridge with the majority of manufacturers taking the MCP route instead of the MCP-T. Fortunately for end users, DFI has chosen to put the MCP-T onto the LanParty board something that will surely be a factor for the discerning end user that DFI is targetting.

    next: The Board »

    Article Index

    1.Introduction
    2.Specifications & Features
    3.The Board
    4.The BIOS
    5.Installation & Test Setup
    6.Synthetic Benchmarks
    7.Audio Tests
    8.Game Benchmarks
    9.Conclusions

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