Best choice of Quad core overclocking, the DFI LANParty DK P35 T2RS shows off!

[windwithme]

The hottest Intel Bearlake chipset is replaced Intel P965 series at the moment.

I think most of the overclockers remember that DFI’s NF4 motherboards.
It has an excellent performance in OC and stability.
Important, it only cost you a reasonable price only.

DFI launched many high-end products while in this “year of Intel”.
The LANParty DK P35 series has a total of 3 different models.
The value price one quite has the same momentum which likes NF4 Ultra D before

There are 2 different sub-models for LANParty DK P35 Series:
1.Solid aluminum capacitor + ICH9R
2.High-end Japanese capacitor + ICH9
What I knew about the price is around US$155 to 170.

I arrange the highest model of DK P35 for my lab test.
(Solid capacitor + ICH9R)
The package is all in black color. Refer to the theme “Dark”


The accessories inside:
Menu, driver’s CD, IO shield, ICH9R, cables…etc.


DFI LANParty DK P35 T2RS

[windwithme]

The lower left of the board:
1X PCI-E X16
2X PCI-E X1
3X PCI
1X Floppy


The lower right of the board:
A Black heat sink for SB to loss heat.
6X SATAII,支援RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and RAID 5
Built-in onboard Power/Reset button


The upper left of the board:
4X DIMM DDRII,533/667/800/1066
1X IDE,UltraDMA 33/66/100Mbps
24Pin power Input


The upper left of the board:
4-phase digital PWM design + 16Mosfit and Mosfit heat sink.
8Pin voltage Input

[windwithme]

IO
6 x USB2.0
Realtek ALC885HD 8ch audio, S/PDIF-out
Red Jumper is a convenience function for clear CMOS.


The size of Northbridge heat sink should be fit for most of cooler in market.
Besides, there is no more warranty sticker’s issue.



Start-up screen


BIOS’ main page

[windwithme]

BIOS’ options


The CPU FSB- 200 to 700MHz


Boot up Clock from 100 to 400 MHz
This function is to let the clocking can lock in a no.
that you pick in Boot-up clock function.
It helps to increase the success rate when extreme OC.


DRAM multiplier ratio

[windwithme]

CPU Feature


DRAM Timing, I think this is DFI’s expertise.




According to each option to adjust, maybe you can gain a highest OC record.

[windwithme]

Voltage related page


CPU Voltage +12.5 to 787.5mV


DDRII voltage -1.800 to 3.375V


PC Health Status


The DK and UT version’s BIOS are almost the same.
But DK version doesn’t have “Vcore Droop Control” option

[windwithme]

The Test details
CPU:INTEL Core 2 Extreme QX6800
MB: DFI LANParty DK P35 T2RS
DRAM:CORSAIR Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF
VGA:ELSA 8800GT 512M
HD:Seagate 7200.10 320G
POWER:Corsair VX450W Power Supply
Cooler:Thermaltake V1


The DFI monitoring software and utility install pages.


Stable in FSB500 (Quad core)
CPU: 500X7=>3500 MHz 1.28V
DDRII: 1000 CL4 4-3-9


About 3D
8800GT 600/ 1800

3DMARK2003

[windwithme]

3DMARK2005


3DMARK2006


About DRAM
CPU: 400X8=>3200Mhz
DDRII: 1200 CL5 5-5-15 1.98V
Steady in Dual SP 2004 Blend mode


DDRII 1200 CL4 4-4-9 2.47V

[windwithme]

CPU: 400X9=>3600Mhz
DDRII 1200 CL4 4-4-9
Performance and bandwidth


After I spent a lot of time to adjust a suitable “Clock fine delay” value,
the system ends up in 400/ 1200MHz stably(further, it reached CL4)


QX6800, the limit of FSB: 515MHz
A single Super PI 32M finished stably!


45nm E8500
4G 1.28V, Dual SP2004 finished stably.


The latest Nov. BIOS of DK P35 supports 45nm CPU.
Merits:
1)There is an ID of “Dark” from outside to inside. Looks good
2)All in solid capacitors and on board Power/ Reset button and those Mosfit heat sink
3)Rich Bios options for tweaking, particularly in DRAM’s ratio
4)The FSB record is almost the fastest of all P35 boards in market.
It rocks me when DRAM can reach 1200 & CL4 level.
5)High C/P ratio in DFI LANParty series

Drawbacks:
1)The timing of launching this model is a bit too late to others in market
2)DFI product is being harder to find in channels, it’s inconvenience to buy
3)Although the 3-way Crossfire is not that popular in market yet,
but if the board has one more PCIe x16 slot, the expansibility must be better.

I tried to use QX6800 CPU for a record of DK P35, but my highest record is only FSB485MHz.
Aside from this, the performance of Dual core CPU is a bit weaker than UT P35.
But you still can reach FSB550 to 580 if your CPU is good enough.

DFI LANParty DK P35 Series provides a “overclockable” BIOS and features,
that make users have an good OC environment; DFI features 4-phase PWM this time.
Although it looks a bit weak,
but it equipped with 16 mosfit within which gains a stronger performance than 6, 8-phase digital PWM.
It has been a long time that DFI created a high C/P ratio model like NF4 Ultra-D.
DK P35 is a similar model and has good performance too.
Hope DFI could continue to launch more and more good C/P ratio models to satisfy users.

Next Review of mine. Thermaltake QFan Toughpower 650W

[ANZAC_ELITE]

Nice review mate.

A question for you, vdroop control work? I'm looking at the 3.6GHz screens with the vcore at 1.36v, how true is that to the bios setting?

It's a shame you never ran 3DMark06 at 3.6GHz, I think you'd have cracked 14K with the 8800GT (the 169.02 driver??)