Conroe Buying Guide: Feeding the Monster
by Gary Key & Wesley Fink on July 19, 2006 6:20 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
DFI Infinity 975X/G
Basic Features
One of the more anticipated boards we looked forward to after our Computex 2006 visit was the DFI Infinity 975X/G motherboard. Of course, we understood this would be an Infinity series and as such would be lacking the normal bells and whistles along with the almost legendary overclocking ability of the LanParty series. However, knowing DFI's ability to extract performance out of chipsets in just about any price range we expected some great things with this board. While the board did not disappoint us we were let down a little with its overclocking ability (based on expectations), but more importantly we're disappointed with its current street price of $249.
We know the Intel 975X chipset is expensive and the current lack of 975X Core 2 Duo capable boards from suppliers like MSI, Foxconn, ECS, and Abit are helping to keep the prices high. We believe DFI had a golden opportunity to bring this board to market around the $200 price point and really generate some price/performance excitement. Do not get us wrong, we really like the board but think the pricing structure needs adjustment just like the overclocking ability we will discuss shortly.
DFI's attention to detail is evident in the layout of the board and throughout the BIOS options and feature set. The board has the ability to run ATI CrossFire with dual X8 PCIe capability along with the fact that only one slot (PCI) is physically not available when installing a CrossFire solution. While DFI does not use a heat pipe solution to keep the MCH and ICH chipsets cool, we did not have any thermal issues with the board while overclocking or testing CrossFire. The BIOS options are not as extensive as the LanParty series, but they certainly provide more than enough choices for most performance or enthusiast users.
Basic Performance
The performance of the board was very good along with exceptional stability in all areas. In fact, with some additional BIOS tuning we are certain this board has the ability to hold a performance lead in most of the stock setting results. With this said, our issue or maybe our perception is that the board could have been much better in the overclocking area as we "only" reached a stable FSB setting of 383 with our X6700. Our X6800 with the multiplier dropped was only able to achieve a FSB of 385 before hitting the proverbial brick wall. Otherwise, we had no issues to report except that if you want to use RAID you need to lock SATA at 100MHz fixed or it will not work.
Overclocking
While an overclock to 383FSB is certainly nothing to sneeze at, we were hoping for at least a 400+ FSB capability on this board. Some users have had success with taking this board over 400FSB with a 4:3 memory ratio, but it seems a majority of boards are ending up around the 375FSB range. Our board would not boot at anything higher than a 385FSB with the current BIOS. We could not exceed a 334FSB at a 1:1 ratio due to the memory strap timings in the BIOS. While these numbers are very good, it is still disappointing as we know this board still has a lot of potential left in it.
The performance, stability, and BIOS features of this board are well worth a price around $200 and a premium over the mainstream P965 boards considering the current market situation. Let's just hope that DFI can lower the price and raise the FSB overclocking abilities as they do have a winner on their hands if they accomplish this task. UPDATE - This board is now available for around $190 making it a highly recommended choice for those users who are not into extreme overclocking.
Basic Features
| DFI Infinity 975X/G | |
| Market Segment: | High-End/Performance |
| CPU Interface: | Socket T (Socket 775) |
| CPU Support: | LGA775-based Pentium 4, Pentium D, Core 2 Duo |
| Chipset: | Intel 975X + ICH7R |
| Thermal Design: | 6-phase power Passive Northbridge/Southbridge Cooling |
| Bus Speed Support: | 1066/800MHz |
| Bus Speeds: | 266 to 533 in 1MHz Increments |
| Memory Ratios: | Auto, 400, 533, 667, 800 |
| PCIe Speeds: | Auto, 100MHz~200MHz |
| PCI: | Fixed at 33 |
| SATA Clock: | PCIe Clock, Fixed at 100MHz |
| Dynamic Tuning: | Manual, Default, Easy Overclock CPU Turbo Add-On - +1MHz to +30MHz PCIe Turbo Add-On - +1MHz to +15MHz |
| CPU VID Offset: | Default, +12.5mV to +787.5mV in +12.5mV increments |
| CPU VTT: | 1.20V, 1.25V, 1.30V, 1.35V |
| CPU Clock Multiplier: | Auto, 6x-50x in 1X increments if CPU is unlocked |
| DRAM Voltage: | 1.90V to 2.65V in .05V increments |
| DRAM Timing Control: | Auto, 9 Options |
| NB Voltage: | 1.60V to 1.75V in .05V increments |
| Memory Slots: | Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 8GB Total |
| Expansion Slots: | 2 - PCIe X16 (X8 for Multi-GPU) 1 - PCIe X4 1 - PCIe X1 2 - PCI Slots 2.3 |
| Onboard SATA/RAID: | 6 SATA 3Gbps Ports - Intel ICH7R (RAID 0,1,1+0,5,JBOD) 1 SATA 3Gbps Ports - JMicron JMB360 (e-SATA) |
| Onboard IDE: | 1 Standard ATA133/100/66/33 Port (2 drives) Intel ICH7R |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394: | 8 USB 2.0 Ports - 4 I/O Panel 4 Headers 2 Firewire 400 Ports by VIA VT6307 - 1 I/O Panel 1 Header |
| Onboard LAN: | Gigabit Ethernet Controller Realtek RTL8111B |
| Onboard Audio: | Realtek ALC882 HD-Audio 8-channel CODEC |
| Power Connectors: | ATX 24-pin, 8-pin EATX 12V, 4-Pin 12V Molex |
| I/O Panel: | 1 x e-SATA 1 x LPT 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x RJ45 1 x IEEE-1394 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 2 x S/PDIF (Optical + RCA) 8-Channel Audio I/O |
| BIOS Revision: | AWARD 0707 |
One of the more anticipated boards we looked forward to after our Computex 2006 visit was the DFI Infinity 975X/G motherboard. Of course, we understood this would be an Infinity series and as such would be lacking the normal bells and whistles along with the almost legendary overclocking ability of the LanParty series. However, knowing DFI's ability to extract performance out of chipsets in just about any price range we expected some great things with this board. While the board did not disappoint us we were let down a little with its overclocking ability (based on expectations), but more importantly we're disappointed with its current street price of $249.
We know the Intel 975X chipset is expensive and the current lack of 975X Core 2 Duo capable boards from suppliers like MSI, Foxconn, ECS, and Abit are helping to keep the prices high. We believe DFI had a golden opportunity to bring this board to market around the $200 price point and really generate some price/performance excitement. Do not get us wrong, we really like the board but think the pricing structure needs adjustment just like the overclocking ability we will discuss shortly.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
DFI's attention to detail is evident in the layout of the board and throughout the BIOS options and feature set. The board has the ability to run ATI CrossFire with dual X8 PCIe capability along with the fact that only one slot (PCI) is physically not available when installing a CrossFire solution. While DFI does not use a heat pipe solution to keep the MCH and ICH chipsets cool, we did not have any thermal issues with the board while overclocking or testing CrossFire. The BIOS options are not as extensive as the LanParty series, but they certainly provide more than enough choices for most performance or enthusiast users.
Basic Performance
The performance of the board was very good along with exceptional stability in all areas. In fact, with some additional BIOS tuning we are certain this board has the ability to hold a performance lead in most of the stock setting results. With this said, our issue or maybe our perception is that the board could have been much better in the overclocking area as we "only" reached a stable FSB setting of 383 with our X6700. Our X6800 with the multiplier dropped was only able to achieve a FSB of 385 before hitting the proverbial brick wall. Otherwise, we had no issues to report except that if you want to use RAID you need to lock SATA at 100MHz fixed or it will not work.
Overclocking
| DFI Infinity 975X/G Overclocking Testbed |
|
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Dual Core, 2.67GHz, 4MB Unified Cache 1066FSB, 10x Multiplier |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.525V (default 1.2V) |
| Cooling: | Tuniq Tower 120 Air Cooling |
| Power Supply: | OCZ GameXStream 700W |
| Memory: | Corsair Twin2X2048-PC2-8500C5 (2x1GB) (Micron Memory Chips) |
| Hard Drive | Hitachi 250GB 7200RPM SATA2 16MB Cache |
| Maximum OC: (Standard Ratio) |
383x10 (3-3-3-9) 3830MHz (+43%) |
While an overclock to 383FSB is certainly nothing to sneeze at, we were hoping for at least a 400+ FSB capability on this board. Some users have had success with taking this board over 400FSB with a 4:3 memory ratio, but it seems a majority of boards are ending up around the 375FSB range. Our board would not boot at anything higher than a 385FSB with the current BIOS. We could not exceed a 334FSB at a 1:1 ratio due to the memory strap timings in the BIOS. While these numbers are very good, it is still disappointing as we know this board still has a lot of potential left in it.
The performance, stability, and BIOS features of this board are well worth a price around $200 and a premium over the mainstream P965 boards considering the current market situation. Let's just hope that DFI can lower the price and raise the FSB overclocking abilities as they do have a winner on their hands if they accomplish this task. UPDATE - This board is now available for around $190 making it a highly recommended choice for those users who are not into extreme overclocking.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
123 Comments
View All Comments
Bochista - Thursday, July 20, 2006 - link
With the release of new Quad SLI beta drivers I would like to know what board is compatible with both the Conroe & Quad SLI. Being CPU bound in graphics I think it would very interesting to see. The ASUS P5N32-SLI SE is not on the Quad-SLI list. The Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe is not either.Bo
Gary Key - Thursday, July 20, 2006 - link
It should be on the list shortly. This is the board that NVIDIA has been using to test and display Quad SLI on with Conroe. We also understand this board will probably make its way into several Quad SLI systems according to NVIDIA. It will be interesting to see how this board performs against the nF590 in a couple of weeks. ;-)
jonmcguffin - Thursday, July 20, 2006 - link
If Core 2 Duo is sucking up so much less energy, why have I not heard anything about the need to NOT buy the 500-650 watt power supplies. It would seem to me that a processor and mainboard that consumers so little power would not need anything more than a good 350 or 400 watt power supply, even in an SLI configuration.It would be nice to see something written up in your review that stated...
Hey, these processors are going to require X amount of power on the lower end and X amount on the higher end. Given power supplies are typically only 75-80% efficient and leaving another 10-15% left over in overhead, you should be using power supplies with a watt rating of X.
Jon
Gary Key - Thursday, July 20, 2006 - link
Jon,Anand went over the power requirements in the CPU review article. However, from a platform level the current 7900GTX and X1900XT cards in SLI or Crossfire will require a very good 500+ watt (on the edge with CrossFire) power supply with Conroe, AM2, or Netburst CPUs. In fact, we highly recommend and use 700+ watt machines in our systems to ensure proper power delivery when running SLI or CrossFire while overclocking. The power requirements of the next generation GPUs for SLI or CrossFire will require 700w power supplies and we generally will see 900+ watt supplies for those who expect to overclock both the CPU and GPU. While we have seen the CPUs reduce their power requirements over the last two years (except at the high end until Conroe, AM2 EE is great), the GPU requirements along with the platform chipsets (ATI RD580 is the exception currently) have sky rocketed. By the time you add a couple of large hard drives, optical drives, SLI or Crossfire, and a FX60 or 955XE, you are already limited by the typical 400~500 watt power supply. While Conroe will make a difference compared to most Netburst based CPUs and the upper end AM2 processor series, it is not enough to even think about dropping below 500w at this time. In my personal systems, the first item I budget for is a really good power supply, never skimp on proper rail voltages and quality, it is the basis for a trouble free system.
Hope this helps....
ninethirty - Friday, July 21, 2006 - link
Would you guys mind doing some tests to back that up in Part 2? Reading SilentPCReview.com, there's some pretty convincing arguments that the need for higher wattage is overblown. And 900W+ is hard to believe...pretty soon you'll be talking about dedicated wall sockets.I think most folks are talking about one video card, not SLI. I'd like to issue a challenge: try a test with the Core 2 Duo, a Geforce 7600GT like in the "Building a Better Budget PC" article, and a 300W Seasonic PSU (or any 80% efficient, true-to-ratings). Then, see how it effects overclocking. That PSU can run an AMD64 x2 3800+ and a 7900GT, why couldn't it run the Core 2 Duo with voltage to spare?
There, I've thrown in my gauntlet.
jonmcguffin - Thursday, July 20, 2006 - link
#1) Paul - My point in bringing up the Digital Thermal Sensor capability of the Core 2 Duo chip and it's "possible" support on the P965 was mainly just to show that there may in fact be certain features the P965 has that are superior to the 975X. Certainly not planning any extreme overclocking and a good HSF is certainly a priority, but still utilizing the Core 2 Duo chip to its fullest abilities is important to me and that means a motherboard that supports this Core 2 Duo feature. If P965 boards support this feature out of the box and the 975X boards don’t, it’s a factor that could play into my purchasing decision.#2) Thanks Gary & Wesley for the explanation on why you didn't include the AB9 Pro motherboard. That makes perfect sense. It seems to me this is the board to target but to be at this point in the game and NOT have a mature enough BIOS to manipulate RAM settings is a little concerning to me. This coupled with Abit's financial issue's in the past almost have me fearful of taking a chance on this board.
I hope in your roundup article you will provide some insight into all this business with 12-phase power and solid state capacitors. What does this mean to the over clocker or the serious workstation user?
Lastly.......
Slightly off-topic here but PERHAPS something you two could include in your more extensive roundup of the next Core 2 Duo motherboards or maybe in a separate article.
On-Board Audio……….
This may be old hat to many here, but this is an issue that I haven't seen addressed anywhere recently. On-Board audio solutions have "evidently" been creaping up on SB products for sometime now. A better explanation as to the feature benefits of some of these on-board solutions (RealTek 882D, 882, 883, 885, 888, ADI, etc) and how they are implemented would be helpful.
#1) Top of this list is the confusion regarding digital audio & HD Audio. Seems every mobo now includes either Optical or Coax digital out on their back plates. What does tihs mean to the gamer, the audio professional, audiophile, or just the everyday computer user who wants to hook up an external amp and some higher end speakers and listen to very high quality stereo music. What the heck is HD Audio and what does that mean? How does it apply to the various groups I mentioned above?
#2 – If I’m going to use the digital out on my board, what difference does it make what onboard or offboard sound solution I use. If the computer is spitting out bit-by-bit digital audio data, isn’t a RealTek ALC650 digital out everybit as good as a Creative Labs SoundBlaster X-Fi Platinum Edition?
#3 – What is the deal with all the new audio codec’s out and their supposed support for Dolby Digital. What does this mean to the consumer? I would imagine 90% of all computer users here and a similar vast majority elsewhere don’t use anything more than a simple 2.1 configuration or perhaps headphones. 7.1 or 7.2 sound is worthless. Does Dolby Digital provide any extra benefits to these 2.1 or headphone listeners? Does it play back my music from .MP3’s or iTunes sound any better?
#4 – What really is EAX and is there that big of a difference between EAX 3.0 – EAX 5.0? And again, how does this relate to digital audio. If some external source is doing the audio conversion, do these technologies even matter?
These may appear to be rather easy questions to answer, but the reality is that we’ve been bombarded so badly with marketing by Creative and others with audio that most of us really don’t know what the heck it is we’re buying.
Personally, the quality of audio output is really important to me. I mostly listen to music and occasionally will play a few games. One BIG question for me is do I save $125 and go with on-board “digital” audio or not.
Thanks!
Jon
Paladin165 - Thursday, July 20, 2006 - link
7.2 sound??ic144 - Thursday, July 20, 2006 - link
Just by looking at this article, you can see how much attention is on Intel's Core 2 Duo. I don't remember so much attention was invested for the AMD Athlon64 FXs when they were launched. LOL.Wesley Fink - Thursday, July 20, 2006 - link
We looked back at the launch review of A64 on Sept. 23, 2003. As you can see for yourself at http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?... the AMD won Business Winstone and the Intel 3.2 won the MMC Winstone. Gaming results were split, with A64 winning most and the Intel 3.2 winning Quake 3. A64 led in Workstation development and Intel in Encoding. In other words, A64 won by a small margin. The AMD lead grew over time and our coverage continued to grow.We can't remember the last time a new CPU was laucnched that was 20% to 30% faster than the competition in everything we tested. There are really no weaknesses we have found in Core 2 Duo performance. This is a once in a decade event. AMD has responded with massive price cuts that position their new CPUs much more in line with Core 2 Duo based on performance, but they really don't have an answer to conroe, since almost every Conroe chip is faster than the fastest A64. We wish AMD did have a quick fix, since competition is good for buyers.
We are fans of performance at AT, and we have been very supportive of A64 as it took the performance lead and extended it over the past 2+ years. However, those who ignore the current Cnroe advantage are not looking at performance, they are speaking from emotion. Conroe performance can not be ignored or twisted with GPU-bound benchmarks to show show something that is simply not true. Things will likely shift again in the future - AMD has shown itself to be very resilient - and we will loudly proclaim AMD's lead if they regain the performance crown.
MadBoris - Thursday, July 20, 2006 - link
I owe Anandtech much, you guys have consistently provided excellent quality info for years.Thx for another great article, I'm looking forward to part two.
You guys have peaked my curiosity on the tuniq tower. I didn't see it reviewed here yet. Is it that much better than the competition, it's definitely beastly looking?