DFI LANParty UT ICFX3200-T2R: ATI's, err, AMD's RD600 finally arrives

Initial Thoughts

We have been a bit overwhelmed while testing this board over the course of the last week. The sheer number of BIOS settings and tweaks available has sent us into a constant scurrying mode to find the proper settings for improving performance and retaining stability at the same time. This is not to say it has not been fun; it has, but we figure the typical enthusiast is going to need three or four solid days with the board before locking in on a few preferred settings. We say a few preferred settings as this board's personality and performance changes tremendously when swapping out memory or CPUs. Any changes require additional tuning routines to extract the best possible performance from a given set of components.

We found ourselves constantly changing a set of conditions and then testing them non-stop to figure out if what we thought would work actually did. Sometimes we saw tremendous improvements, and other times we witnessed erratic behavior from the board. The most difficult part of the performance tuning has been trying to figure out what happens when you change an obscure setting and how it interrelates with the rest of the BIOS tweaks. During our initial testing phase, we were presented with a beta BIOS build that opened up further memory options in the BIOS that allowed us to improve both overclocking stability and memory performance. It also changed our way of thinking about tuning the board. Although DFI ships an extensive user's manual, there is not a chart that specifies each BIOS setting and how it interrelates with other settings in the same group. This board requires you to get down in the mud with it and work for its performance potential. The potential is certainly there; it just requires a lot of effort on your part and for it you will be rewarded with an extremely stable and excellent performing motherboard.

The board's overall performance falls in the middle when compared to the venerable Intel 975X and the new hotshot (hot in more ways than one) NVIDIA 680i. This is not necessarily bad and not what we initially expected, but considering the performance of the original reference board, ATI (now AMD) has come a long way with it. We doubt they would have progressed this far without the assistance of DFI but we are glad to see another alternative chipset in the performance market for the Intel Core 2 Duo processors. The sheer flexibility of the memory controller and memory tuning options will allow you to tweak this board for your particular usage unlike any other board currently on the market. For once, we believe those of you who have purchased high-end memory will have a motherboard that can actually take advantage of it in several different ways, and at the same time users with lower end memory are still able to extract the best performance possible.


We witnessed very good performance results from the shipping 12/01 BIOS but we did run into a few issues such as the USB keyboard issue during RAID setup (sometimes it worked, other times not), the PC Health section in the BIOS would lock up occasionally depending upon the fans utilized, and we could not always depend on getting an additional couple of percent improvement in memory performance when setting the burst rate to 8 when dropping our latency timings. We have seen worse shipping BIOS releases and even worse mature production BIOS releases, but currently we are totally blown away by the beta 12/07 BIOS when it comes to extracting the best possible performance from this motherboard. However, with the new options comes a penalty: we just could not get into the BIOS during a warm reboot. We had to shutdown and clear the CMOS or cold reboot the board at least three times to even have a chance at entering the BIOS. Fortunately, DFI includes their CMOS reloaded program so our basic profiles are saved for quick retrieval. DFI is working around the clock to address these issues and others so we feel very confident in the future of this motherboard regarding technical support.

We hope our performance preview provided some necessary details and results about this unique motherboard. Our coming in-depth review will go over the BIOS in detail (once we have a non-beta version), provide performance settings for both stock and overclocked conditions, widen the scope of both application and gaming benchmarks, include quad core performance, and introduce the audio, networking, and complete storage options available to users. In the meantime, we would like to say that our audio testing has progressed very well and we did not notice any significant issues with our Creative X-Fi card while operating with or without RAID enabled. This also holds true for the included Karajan audio system although we wish Realtek would get EAX 2.0 working correctly again. The Marvell network controllers have not given us any grief nor have the USB or Firewire controllers with external storage solutions.

We expect to see retail availability of the ICFX3200 very shortly. However, we have no idea what the future brings from AMD/ATI, as the best may be yet to come or this may truly be a one hit wonder for the Intel market. Also, RD600 may not truly provide the most compelling platform for some people until R600 graphics cards become available and BIOS tuning is completed. Final street prices are also going to be important, considering the performance and value available from DFI's own 975X Infinity, but the LANParty UT ICFX3200-T2R/G definitely offers more in the way of tweaking and tuning options for the serious enthusiasts.

It has taken too long for this board to arrive to the market place but the extra time seems to have paid off with a board that while not perfect is very good. Stability and overall performance are very competitive, and overclocking at this point is among the elite; just remember, you will have to work for that performance but the satisfaction of having done so is well worth it - at least for the serious enthusiasts. We highly commend DFI for persevering and bringing a product of this caliber to market. For those of you looking for the ultimate flexibility in an Intel based motherboard along with excellent stability up to the board's limits, then we suggest you seriously consider the DFI LANParty ICFX3200-T2R/G.