LANParty UT ICFX3200-T2R/G review - Package, Layout and Features
Author: Grga Curkovic
Date: 04 Feb 2007

The board comes in a pretty standard size box. The front of the box is decorated by DFI like drawings while the back site has a list of main features. Apart from the motherboard itself, the box contains a graphical quick installation guide, extensive multi language user?s manual (the cover is mainly in pink so it looks like a Barbie house manual), Karajan audio module, CD and floppy with drivers, LanParty sticker nad a bundle of cables. The bundle is decent apart from the fact that there are only 2 SATA cables while to board can support up to 8 SATA devices.
The motherboard coloring follows the LanParty UT series, the PCB is black and connectors are made of yellow and orange UV sensitive plastic. The board follows a pretty much standard layout, you can check it out on the picture. The whole audio solution is placed on a separate module called Karajan audio module. This is nothing new to DFI boards. This is solution we highly regard since it removes the audio from the PCB. The problem is that there is much interference in the PCB which can distort the analog audio signal which does not occur if you place the whole audio solution on a separate module. You can see that there are 3 PCI-Express x16 slots on the board. Unlike RD600 for AMD that has more than enough PCI-Express lanes, the RD600 for Intel features only 20 PCI-Express lanes. This is very interesting, but also quite logical. Intel already has a Crossfire ready motherboard based on 975 series chipset that features two PCI-Express x16, but x8 electrical slots so the RD600 is not meant to bring Crossfire to Intel platform. Considering the fact that AMD purchased ATi, it may not be in their interest to provide Intel with a better Crossfire solution then they already have. So it seems that x16 Crossfire will be an AMD exclusive for the time being. To get back to the currently discussed board, the upper two PCI-Express slots are meant for graphics cards, while the third one is x2 electrical. If you install one graphics card in the upper slot the board should redirect all 16 lanes to that slot, if you install two cards the board should switch and provide 8 lanes for each graphics card. Now, the operative word in the last sentence is should since this feature didn?t work for us. We used our standard 7900GTX and the board wouldn?t post if the card was installed in the upper PCI-Express slot, so we had to settle for PCI-Express x8 in the middle slot. One neat thing DFI implemented on this board is the fact that there is no slot under the first PCI-Express slot. Since many graphics cards today use two slot cooling in most situations you end up with a blocked slot, with this board it won?t happen. Both the northbridge and southbridge are passively cooled which makes this board silet. However if you plan to overclock you must make sure you are supplying the northbridge with enough airflow because it tends to get really hot. There is a floppy connector, a PATA connector and 8 SATA connectors on the board. 4 of the 8 are operated by the SB600 southbridge while Promise?s PDC40719 controller operates the remaining 4. The board supports a total of 10 USB 2.0 ports. 6 are available on the rear panel and 4 via headers on the board. Apart from the 6 USB 2.0 ports, the rear panel features 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports, a FireWire, 6 audio jacks via Karajan module, S/PDIF in and out and 2 PS/s ports. Though this should go without saying on modern enthusiast boards we decided to mention that there are power-on and reset switches on the PCB. There are 5 additional fan headers, and ITE IT8718F chip that takes care of hardware monitoring and fan rotation speeds. There is also a 2 digit LCD screen that greatly helps in determining what went wrong during POST. One interesting innovation this board carries are the voltage regulators. Unlike boards we?ve seen so far, this board uses 6 phase regulation via voltage regulators with digital feedback.