One thing common with DFI products is that its synonymous with reliability, quality & in some areas, speed.

The Good

The Layout

With a 4/3/1 expansion slots configuration (PCI/ISA/AGP), the board is adequately equipped for expansion, considering this is a Super-7 board & that the board has a Baby-AT form factor!

Both AT & ATX power connectors are available on board. This is very flexible. If buying a new casing & want to save cost, pick up an AT-casing & if you want to have a better looking case or want the advenced power-managment controls, pick up an ATX casing. Better still if your upgrading, because you'll definitely have either one of those power connectors!

Surprsingly the board has 3 DIMM slots, which is unusual for a baby-AT board. A definite bonus! This was achieved by removing 2 SIMM slots from the initial board's design of 2 SIMM & 2 DIMM slots. This is a good sign as you can see that DFI has made an effort to change their board's design quickly for the ever-changing needs of the computer industry.

This board uses DIP switches for changing the cpu-core voltage, multiplier setting & FSB speed. It is all contained in 1 simple DIP switch block, conveniently located in a corner of the board, which is still extremely accesible once you have installed the board in the case with all connections! The ZIF socket-7 is also well located next to the DIP switch block. This makes it a snap when changing processors or changing the settings.

Both the above mentioned components & the voltage-regulators are grouped together & lay in the path of an optional casing-fan, should you wish to install one. Now that's a thoughtful design! In my opinion, it is better to have the extra casing fan just for the added insurance that your system is well ventilated. The two L2-cache chips are rated at 5ns. There is also an AGP fan connector.

The board was so compact, that there was no space on it to print the DIP switch settings, meaning you have to look into the manual. But to counter this DFI has a large sticker of settings to be pasted within your casing, elimintaing the need of a manual most of the time. A good move.

The Installation

This part is a breeze! If all your connections are right, the board boots up straight away & assunming you are an upgrader, your win-95/98 will kick in and take-over in initialising & installing new devices. All that without having to load & set any parameter within the Bios! Of course if you want to reap the full benefit of a new board, go ahead & tweak it to your delight. Within the Bios you'll find a useful column that will tell you the current cpu-temperature, fan speed & voltages which is very accurate! You can set the alarm to sound if your processor exceeds a certain pre-set or your own temp. Same goes for the high excess or high drops in fan-speed & voltages. Oh yes, the Bios is the familiar Award Bios. Once your up & running, the board is rock-stable.

Try using the DFI system monitor software in windows 95/98 that tells you the current cpu-temperature, fan speed & voltages. Here too you can set alarms. It is very much more accurate & is quick to reacte to changes than some other motherboard system monitors. Now you can monitor your system conditions while fiddleing in the Bios & while working in windows. I like that!

Just some general advive to those upgrading their motherboards (this & all other brands/types of boards): Before installing the new m/board, proceed to Control Panel, then System, then Device Manager. Remove all the devices possible from the sections - Hard-Disk controllers, USB controllers & System Devices, But keep System Timer, System CMOS/Real time clock & system speaker from the System Devices section. Now you should shut-down your PC, NO RESTARTING. Eagerly dismantle your old board out & fix in the new one. Pop in all connections & Power-up! Adjust your Bios if neccesary, then allow your win 95/98 to detect all the new devices found on your board. Allow the system to restart; maybe a few more restarts are needed before all device are installed. Then your job is done!

The Manual is neat, simple & has almost all the information you need. Although not as comprehensive as an Asus/Abit/AOpen manual, it still has all the info you need to run & manage the board. The included DFI Driver setup CD contains the VIA AGP VxD, VIA BusMaster drivers, VIA PCI patch, DFI System monitor & few others that finish the contents of the CD. As usual, by the time a pc-product arrives with its drivers, there might be newer versions of those drivers on the web, so check thier website - www.dfiweb.com

The Test

Here are a few Benchmarks I ran. They seem to be very good & stand well with the competition.

Wintune 98 Result for AMD K6-2- 300 Mhz @ 3 x 100 Mhz

Wintune 98 Result for AMD K6-2-300 @ 3.5 x 100 Mhz

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The Bad

When you have an AGP card installed in a baby-AT board, and you fit the board in a casing, be it AT or ATX, depending on the casing design, you might have to run the com port ribbons under the AGP card's front notch before screwing them on to the left-side of the AGP board. No real trouble but it is cumbersome in the begining & for novices. It would be nice if the Bios allows you to set the CPU settings instead of openning up the case. All these are very trivial.

One drwaback is that it's not a true overclocker's board as it does not support anything beyond the 100MHz FSB. Multiplier settings are up to 4.5x & the board only supporting standard voltage settings. This makes overclocking limited but still very possible with the available settings. More multiplier settings might be added as CPUs evolve.

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Conclusion

What's not to like? If you ain't an overclocker who's looking for more then 100MHz FSB, then this must be one of your top choices in buying a new motherboard. With a very competitive price, a nice 1 year, 1 to 1 exchange warranty(These boards are so well done, I doubt if you need a warranty!), good serive, I would pick this board as one of my perosnal favourites.

Rating

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