DFI LANParty DK 790FX-B M2RSH

Stability

With our second DFI board, we had marginally better results than the first, but we still couldn't manage to stretch out a perfect result. As usual we reset the BIOS settings to their default values and let DFI take over - is the board able to withstand both a Prime95 torture test on all cores of our Phenom II X4 940 and 3DMark06 looping over the top, testing the graphics sub-system?

Unfortunately not.

Continually, we found that Prime95 would crash out in the background as soon as 3DMark pressed the system. 3DMark would happily run for hours and hours on its own though, so it's a partial victory for the DFI, but we did have to compensate with some additional airflow over the VRM/northbridge heatpipe area because it eventually got too hot to touch. This is in an air conditioned lab at 21ºC, let alone a 30-40ºC case.

Overclocking

Overclocking turned out well, as our unlocked Phenom II X4 940 was happy running 3.8GHz with 1.6V. The Black Editions are happy to keep going, just as long as there is voltage and the DFI is happy to oblige on this front.

Actually, most of this performance was more of a mistake on our part: it wasn't our intention to exceed 1.5-1.55V, but thanks to DFI's awkward "+ voltage" setting in the BIOS, it was hard to know where we were ending up. The core voltage on the BIOS menu above it also doesn't change with the setting and only reflects the setting last inputted - so it's always good to remember where you started from.

On the HyperTransport front, we hit 250MHz HTT easily with very little extra HTT and NB core voltage, but again the DFI makes it hard to know whether "NB" = CPU Uncore area or the 790FX specifically. Without dropping the multiplier on the CPU or HTT bus - 250MHz is a great result and shows DFI has certainly engineered some extra overhead.

Conclusions

We've had quite a few troubles with our DK790FX-B M2RSH to date, the first one died unexpectedly but beforehand we were having constant overheating problems. DFI claimed the Phenom II X4 940 was 140W, and therefore not supported by the board, but we confirmed with AMD it's a 125W part. Regardless, with a premium 790FX board like this one, we thoroughly expect DFI to support upwards of 140W considering the effect of overvolting and overclocking without the need for extra fans (or it should at least provide one like Asus) to cool the VRM heatsink.

Having simply killed our first board during a photo shoot, we got another from DFI that proved to be much better. This one required no extra cooling on the VRM/northbridge heatsink during testing, even though it will withstand finger melting temperatures to some degree. With that said though, it still required extra cooling when we were stability testing the board and even then it didn't manage to get through with 100 percent success.

We feel that DFI is dropping features to the competition: it's lacking BIOS redundancy to protect against bad flashes, it's lacking a beefed up cooling solution and its bundle, manual, and extra BIOS features (i.e. other than core enthusiast) need an overhaul. It's difficult to differentiate what the UT, LT and DK stand for these days as we were told last year at Computex the DK would be a better "value" option and the ABS system will attract new members the DFI fold.

The ABS system is a fantastic ease of use tool, but this isn't backed up by a set of BIOS options that are easily understood as well - the learning curve is still very steep. To DFI lovers already having learnt the ropes, it will no doubt appeal to them, but DFI needs to get its branding sorted so potential customers know what they are looking to buy. Currently there is no LT or UT option for AM2+ - so DK has lost the "value" orientation already.

There's no extra SATA ports, no eSATA, the clear CMOS jumper on the rear I/O should be a button or switch to make it far, far easier to use and if we're really harsh the nuts and bolts for the northbridge heatsink are still just as rubbish as they were on the P45 T2RS. And that's before we take the board's lacklustre gaming performance into account.

After a long passage of overt negativity, on the plus side DFI has still made a great looking board with well laid out connectors and an expansion socket layout that is well tailored for multi-GPU. It has buttons and a two digit POST readout, its general performance is good outside of gaming and as usual the jewel in the crown is overclocking performance.

Final Thoughts

The short answer is that unless you're only interested in maximising the overclocking potential of your CPU, the DFI LANParty DK 790FX-B M2RSH doesn't hit the right spot because it really lacks on virtually all other important fronts. As much as we don't like the MSI board we've also tested here, the DFI does little to stand out above even this low bar and the few positives are largely countered by an overwhelming "meh" experience.

We used the Asus M3A79-T for several months and certainly feel that it's a better board - it may not be as sexy looking, but it's better featured, far more compatible with different memory and more tolerant to BIOS abuse. The DFI works well enough, and it's certainly not a bad board, but there are better options out there.

• Performance
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• 7/10

• Features
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• 6/10

• Value
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• -
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• 6/10

• Overall
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• -
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• 7/10

Score Guide