Historically, DFI has focused more on
developing basic motherboards strong on functionality and
stability, leaving the flashy presentations and excessive
bundles to motherboard manufacturers that cater to the
enthusiast set. But recently the company has undergone
a bit of a metamorphosis, moving from bland to grand, with
the release of their LAN Party line of motherboards, as well
as their brown bag equivalents. Clearly, DFI felt it
was time to get into the mainstream arena and challenge some
of the old dogs on the block.
Along with the attention
received with the LAN Party line, this exposure has helped
to bring their other, less flashy products to the forefront.
There are users who simply do not want or need all of the
extras that come with the LAN Party line. So to cover
all of the bases, customers have the choice of buying just
the motherboard to save cost. Today, we are going to
take a look at the standard Infinity 865PE package that
foregoes the excessive bundling and focuses more on
performance and innovative features.
Features
of the DFI Infinity 865PE
Features and Functionality
CPU
Intel® Pentium® 4
Processor with Hyper-Threading Technology
- 800MHz/533MHz system data bus
Intel® Pentium® 4 Northwood processor
- 533MHz/400MHz system data bus
Intel® Celeron® Northwood processor
- 400MHz system data bus
Memory
Four 184-pin DDR
DIMM sockets
Supports dual channel (128-bit wide) memory
interface
Supports up to 4GB system memory
Synchronous operation with processor system bus
- PC2100/PC2700/PC3200 (DDR266/DDR333/DDR400) with
800MHz FSB CPU. DDR333 will
run at 320MHz memory frequency when used with 800MHz
FSB CPU.
- PC2100/PC2700 (DDR266/DDR333) with 533MHz FSB CPU
- PC2100 (DDR266) with 400MHz FSB CPU
Supports non-ECC (x64) DIMM using 128Mb, 256Mb or
512Mb
Supports unbuffered DIMMs
BIOS
Award BIOS,
Windows® 98SE/2000/ME/XP Plug and Play compatible
Genie BIOS provides:
- CPU/DRAM overclocking
- AGP/PCI/SATA overclocking
- CPU/DIMM/AGP overvoltage
Flash EPROM for easy BIOS upgrades
4Mbit flash memory
CMOS Reloaded
Super Patch
Power Management
Supports ACPI STR
(Suspend to RAM)function
Wake-On-Events include:
- Wake-On-Keyboard/Mouse
- Wake-On-USB Keyboard
- Wake-On-Ring (external modem)
- Wake-On-LAN
- RTC timer to power-on the system
Hardware Monitor
Monitors
CPU/system temperature and overheat alarm
Monitors CPU/1.5V/5VSB/VBAT/3.3V/5V/±12V voltages
and failure alarm
Monitors CPU/chassis/2nd fan speed and failure alarm
Automatic chassis/2nd fans on/off control
Read back capability that displays temperature,
voltage and fan speed
Opened chassis alarm
Audio
C-Media CMI9739a
6-channel codec
20-bit stereo full-duplex codec with independent
variable sampling rate
High quality differential CD input
True stereo line level outputs
S/PDIF-in/out interface
LAN
Realtek RTL8110S
Gigabit LAN PCI controller
Full duplex support at both 10, 100 and 1000 Mbps
PCI IDE
Supports ATA/33,
ATA/66 and ATA/100 hard drives
PIO Mode 4 Enhanced IDE (data transfer rate up to
14MB/sec.)
SATA IDE with RAID
Silicon Image
Sil3112A PCI to Serial ATA controller
Supports two SATA (Serial ATA) interfaces which are
compliant with
SATA 1.0 specification (1.5Gbps interface)
Supports RAID 0 and RAID 1
IEEE 1394
VIA VT6306 PCI
1394 integrated host controller
Supports three 100/200/400 Mb/sec ports
AGP
Supports 1.5V AGP
8x (2.13GB/sec.) and AGP 4x(1066MB/sec.) for 3D
graphics
applications (AGP 2x and 3.3V AGP card are not
supported)
Supports AGP 3.0 and AGP 2.0 spec.
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
1 1394 port
1 RJ45 LAN port
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
2 connectors for
4 additional external USB 2.0/1.1 ports
2 connectors for 2 external IEEE 1394 ports
1 front audio connector for external line-out and
mic-in jacks
1 connector for an external game/MIDI port
2 internal audio connectors (CD-in and AUX-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 connectors (20-pin and 4-pin 12V)
1 Wake-On-LAN connector
1 opened chassis alarm connector
CPU fan, chassis fan and 2nd fan connectors
Expansion Slots
1 AGP slot
5 PCI slots
Compatibility
PCI 2.2 and AC
?97 compliant
Intel AGP version 3.0
PCB
4 layers, ATX
form factor
30.5cm (12") x 24.4cm (9.6")
The Bundle:
Like we said
earlier, this product is the standard edition, scaling down
the contents of the package to the the bare essentials.
The unit came with a User's Manual and RAID Manual covering
the installation of the board, configuration and RAID setup.
We did find the User's Manual to be a bit brief, covering
the mere basics of this board. The RAID Manual, on the
other hand, was a little more thorough, covering the entire
setup process in detail. The board also came with two
SATA cables, one IDE and one Floppy cable, although sadly no
SATA power adapters were provided. The package also
included an I/O Shield, Setup CD and RAID Drivers Floppy
Disk.
Click to Enlarge
Overall, the
bundle is in line with what one would expect to get with a
basic motherboard package. Next we'll take a closer
look at the DFI 865PE Infinity motherboard and assess its
quality.
