DFI LANParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 Review

Stability

As usual we reset the BIOS to its default values and loaded up both Prime 95 torture test and 3DMark 06 looping to see if the board could withstand the stress to CPU power draw, memory and PCI-Express for 24 hours. Apart from a fan to cool the CPU heatsink, there was no other used, meaning the heatsinks and heatpipes have to withstand very little airflow and still keep cool.

We started the DFI off in the morning, and checked it early afternoon - at which time it was still running just fine. Later in the day before we went home for the evening we checked it again to find a blank display and an unresponsive system. We had to hard reset to fix the situation. On further inspection we checked the heatsinks for the CPU power hardware and 790FX northbridge- both were very hot indeed. We can only allude that overheating was at least, partially responsible, but either way extended stability doesn't seem to be the DFI's strong point.

Conclusion

£140 for a motherboard that has no eSATA, no extra SATA ports, no Firewire and barely enough power hardware to handle an overclocked CPU. Where's the value? Yes, it's a 790FX, but the CrossHair III Formula is better featured for £10 less, to name a single example.

It wasn't a good board with the original AM2+ M2RSH and it's still not. DFI needs to go back to the drawing board and not be lazy. There are so many changes that need to be made to the design: STOP using floppy connectors for additional PCI-Express power, STOP using craptacular bolts and screws on the heatsinks and STOP using a jumper on the rear I/O for the clear CMOS. A momentary button really does not cost that much.

The 790FX heatsink does get very hot as expected but surprisingly enough even when overclocked hard, the board does not overheat with elevated voltages and we could benchmark it without extra airflow over the power hardware. That said, for extended load without an additional fan sees it hard lock after several hours.

Generally the performance is not great stacked up against other 790FX-AM3 boards either. Not once did the DFI come out much more favourably than the competition in any of the tests, at best it only musters performance that's "as good as" other boards. It pretty much does everything "quite well", which shouldn't be faulted - the board works and overclocks, which is more than we've seen others capable of. However, to do things better it does not. Well, maybe the forced all over colour scheme is a bonus... as long as you like yellow.

The DFI does the job and it overclocks, but there wasn't a compelling reason to buy the M2RSH and DFI still hasn't changed that with the M3H5 either. In light of other, much better AM3 boards, this further compounds DFI's problem to make a gripping board recently, as the LANParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 is really one to not bother with.

• Performance
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 6/10

• Features
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 6/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Overall
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• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 6/10

Score Guide