DFI P965-S

[lopri]

I recently acquired this board and it's by far the easiest and the fastest P965 board I've ever tested. I bought it for $139 but I've heard the price went down recently ($119~$129 maybe?) so my personal opinion is the best bang for the buck especially if you like to tweak out for more performance. But the thing is this board has very very well optimized BIOS out-of-the-box, so you won't really need much tweak.

This board offers just everything that P965 has to offer, maybe except eSATA. Full length x16 PCI-E slots and al solid capacitors, and the board just gives typical DFI feel - which, to me, means 'solid like a rock'. It maybe just that my components were the perfect combination for this board, but then again there isn't really anything special about it.

CPU: E6600
Memory: Buffalo Firestix PC8000
PSU: Corsair 520W

After installation, my first boot was 4x400 (3.20GHz) at everything default. Didn't mess with the voltage or anything. (As a matter of fact, the vDIMM was defaulted to 1.90V so I lowered to 1.80V later on) Other than that, it was rock solid.

Next up was 9x400. This time, all I had to change was the vCore. Everything else intact. Prime stable for 8+ hours. Memory timings were automatically set to 4-4-4-12 and subtimings are ideally configured already. It's like the BIOS did all the tweakings for me.

Total time wasted for this setup: approx. 5 mins. (no kidding)

What the hell, let's try 8x450! (DFI board lets you run 450FSB under 1066FSB)
It needed about 0.2V for both NB and memory. And that's about it. Rock solidness.

After an hour or so, there wasn't much to do. It was probably the easiest OC'ing I've ever done. For $129, I'd say it's a bargain. (compared to less performing $200+ boards with blings)

 

[lsman]

what can we saw..
http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40381

 

[brencat]

Wow. The P35-T2R looks like yet another great board from DFI. And it may be coming out (late!) just in time for X38 launch too. So many great products to choose from these days...

 

[lopri]

Figured you guys would need pics to believe.

1. 
   This is with everything default 1
   This is with everything default 2
   
   This is with everything default except vCore 1
   This is with everything default except vCore 2
   
   Fast enough?

To be honest I've got bored with this board after a couple days, but that says a lot, IMO, for folks who want stability and performance at the same time. This board will give you the best performance with the least amount of hassle.

 

[brencat]

To be honest Lopri, I personally think you just had a really good & easy experience with the Dark. And I'm also surprised that the PSU gave you no issues. DFI's boards are typically not for novices (given the many bios options), and there have been more than just a few instances of PSU issues - particularly from modular ones like the Corsairs. Specifically, I remember the 620HX being on the 'friendly' list, but other people had trouble with it -- and you have the smaller 520HX too. I think the 700W OCZ GameXtreme non-modular was the only slam dunk with this board.

Anyway, while the Dark may be the best of the P965s, I'd reckon the lack of a Penryn upgrade path is going to put off a lot of folks.

 

[bigsnyder]

I hope DFI is quicker coming to market than they were with their P965 board.

 

[lopri]

I may be a lucky case in that I didn't experience any of the horror stories on the forum WRT this board. I wouldn't put this board with the newly introduece P35 boards. DFI P965P-S is targetting mid-range, and silmilarly spec'ed P35 boards are going for $200+. And I know some initial P35 boards boast Penryn support, but well, 'support' isn't good enough in this day night, I'd think? Knowing the past couple years of mobo market, by the time Penryn ships, there will be improved versions of P35 boards.

I guess it's a matter of personal taste, in that sense. (i.e. mature/solid P965 vs future-proofing P35), but the price diference is still there. Looks like this board might finally retire my Socket 939 rig.

 

[brencat]

You certainly have a point there about cost, as I'm sure the new DFI P35 will debut close to $200 -- especially if it's a Lanparty series as the Computex pictures seem to suggest (i.e. the surface of the mobo). For the record, if I was going P965 today, I would most certainly select the Dark as cost/performance wise + bios support, there is no competition. And I especially like the strap selection feature which they and Abit have.

 

[mgutz]

the two Dark i tried had a high pitch squeal and is a known problem that plagues some of these boards. i wasn't too happy the motherboard was the loudest part of my silent HTPC. i didn't see much of an improvement over a DS3 3.3 board in terms of overclocking but that is likely is due to overclockability limits of newer C2Ds. to be fair i had cold boot issues with the DS3.