Gawd I Love the Smell of a New Motherboard

Yup, My new DFI 875P-T came in today. Day-Glo orange cables and all. The case I got yesterday has an acrylic side panel. That might have been a mistake. Might should have gotten a non-see thru panel. This thing is prolly gonna light up the whole room. Comes with some kind of carrying strap. Guess that's part of the "Lanparty" branding. Like I'm gonna strap up the 20" tall mini tower and lug it around Procs due in tomorrow.

Guess I'll be doing some backup and getting ready to build this sucker. If I get all backed up early enough, I'll start putting it together. Might get most of it done tonight so I just have to put the proc and HSF on tomorrow. And let the fun begin.

OK, the owners manual says it comes with 1 orange SATe cable. That upset me because I was afraid I was going to end up with 1 orangs and one gray. Please to see there were really 2 Orange SATA cables in the bag.

There are two nifty switches next to the BIOS. One is an "On" and the other is "Reset". So you can bench test without having to jump the little pins.

Heatsink in the NB is big. But I'll prolly replace it with some type of active cooling.

I think I've counted 24 MOFSETS to sink.

If you use GAME/MIDI ports, the connector is in a funny place. Between the PCI slots.

All those caps around the CPU socket don't look so bad F2F. They are outside of the lines that are supposed to be reserved for CPU area. And they are not taller than the CPU socket. Most of the HSF I've seen for it so far are tapered up slightly. They should easily clear the caps.

I wish I'd known this part before I bought my case. I bought an aluminum case. There is a connector for a set of 4 diagnostic LED.s They light up in different sequences as the mobo goes thru the boot up. That's a good idea. But they fit into a black housing that goes into one of the 5.25" bays. Again, it is *black*. My case is silver. This is going to be ugly if I put it in. Guess I'll have to see how it works out. If I had known, I might have gotten a black case.

Same RAID controller as my Abit mobo. Maybe I can salvage my RAID.

OK that's all for now. I'm gonna put into my case.

BigStan said:

There are two nifty switches next to the BIOS. One is an "On" and the other is "Reset". So you can bench test without having to jump the little pins.

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IMO, this is one dayem nice feature - I'm getting to the point I don't even bother w/a case anymore. I just set the mobo on top of the box it comes in, & hook up the peripheral components around the box/mobo perimeter. Hey, at least my 'case temps' are nice!

I think I've counted 24 MOFSETS to sink.

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I think I like it this mobo, already.

OK that's all for now. I'm gonna put into my case.

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I don't recall us crossing paths before, BigStan, but I'm glad I'm getting a chance to see you beta a mobo that's on my 'short list' for my next build. Thx for your 'running' commentary. I hope you get the 14X multi. It's my understanding that all LGA775 3.4's & 3.6's have the PRB set to '1', & will therefore multi down to 14X, irrespective of the stepping (all LGA775 P4E's are D0 steppings at-this-point-in-time, anyway, IIRC).

We've found, when testing the S478's 3.2 P4E's, only the (one) C0 stepping had the PRB set to 1. They DO multi down.

The (two) 3.2 P4E D0's steppings both have PRB = 0. They DO NOT multi down.

Good Luck, & looking forward to your posts!

Strat

subscribes

Does that board have more than 2 SATA ports?

scanido said:

Does that board have more than 2 SATA ports?

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Nope. That is plenty isn't it?

Hi Stratcat, Nice to meet you. We haven;t crossed paths much because I'm fairly new to this forum. Post mostly over at the Abit Forums.

OK - I'm nervous now. Checked UPS tracking # and it didn't say "On Truck For Delivery" like FedEx does. Still showing today for scheduled delivery.

In addition to those diagnostice LEDs that are supposed to attach to the *black* bay attachment, apparently there are two other devices that go there. One appears to be a tiny USB, prolly for a digital camera cord. The other, I have no idea what it is. I'll have to look thru the manual to see if I can find something I don't recognize. Maybe that will be it. I've pretty much decided that this black 5.25 bay cover is not going to get installed. The only item I care about is the 4 Diagnostic LEDs. I think I'll cut a hole int the back of the case, of try to mount them on the HD cage.

Got the mobo mounted, and PSU, floppy, CDROM and HD installed last night. Got all the little reset, LED etc wires plugged in.

Studied the CPU socket. If you haven't seen one yet, it is quite different. The pins are not on the CPU. They are in the mobo socket. There is a small plastic cover over the socket attached to the bracket that holds the CPU down. It just snaps off. Those pins in there are like *really* tiny. If you bend them you are screwed. Mobo is ruined and not covered under warranty. Interesting idea of Intel's. To move the responsibility of the pins off to the mobo manufacturers. If you bent a pin on a socket 478 proc, sometimes you could straighten it out. Not anymore. Oh well. If my LGA 550 really does have the multiplier unlocked, I won't be changing procs anywhere near as often as I used to. So maybe it will work out.

If you haven't seen it already, here is a review over at pcstats. http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1662&page=1
They got a 3.2 proc up to 257fsb. Is it OK to dream that my 3.4 will go to 257fsb?

BigStan said:

They got a 3.2 proc up to 257fsb. Is it OK to dream that my 3.4 will go to 257fsb?

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The hell with the dream, make it a reality. What memory are you pairing up with mobo/proc? Plat Rev 2? Chomping at the bit to see how this baby performs for you.

I'm about ready to go put a up close and personal *** whipping on Newegg if they don't get their own credit card system worked out here soon. It's been like 6 weeks now. There killing me.

I'm going to start with my tried and true Adata. They are good to 278 1:1, 300 5:4. When I know what the proc can do, then I'll try figure out what the best mem is. I have some BH-5 that do 240 1:1 2,2,2,5 and crank out some good bandwidth. They are a possibility also. If I get lucky and hit 250+, I'll prolly try to settle in with the OCZ 3200 Plat Rev2.

malinois1 said:

Nope. That is plenty isn't it?

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I wouldn't think plenty, but enough for most people!

This board looks pretty good, I like how they integrated LGA775 & 875P.

My proc came in a little while ago. Guess I'll be trying to fire this rig up this evening. Wish me luck guys.

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Thanx Stratcat.

The HSF of this proc comes with that goopy putty looking stuff. It's coming off and some AS Ceramique's going on. It has diagonally opposed push pins to hold it on. You point the notches on the pins towards the HSF and push 'til they click. They go all the way thru the mobo. Problem is how am I going to get them out when I change HSF. Looks like I might have to take the whole mobo out and push them back thru. Well, I'll play with that a little later.

OK guys, last post for a while. I have to pull some stuff off of this rig to get the new one going. Hopefully my next post will come from the DFI!

BigStan said:

OK guys, last post for a while. I have to pull some stuff off of this rig to get the new one going. Hopefully my next post will come from the DFI!

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Hopefully that doesn't stand for Dead Fu***** Intel. Good luck Bro be sure to bring screenshots when you come back.

OK - I'm posting this to you on the DFI. Plugged the whole thing together, turned it on and got the beeep beeep sh*t. Frantically looking around for what wire got crossed up and discovered, in my excitement, I forgot to put the mem in.

OK here is the great news, It ships with the 14 multi BIOS option already installed. Really! I'll post a CPUz in a bit. I don't know if it works for all procs, but it is working for my 3.4. I was all worried about having to do a BIOS update. No need.

No screen shots or benchies yet. Still working on getting a feel for it. The BIOS has this neat freature where you can save a set of setting with a nema and just call up those setting when you need them. I think you can save 3 sets. So I can set up 24/7 setting, then go fool around. WhenI'm done I can just recall my regular setting without having to try to memorize all of them.

OK one quick pic. CPUz with 17 multi. I'll be back in a few minutes with the 14 mult.

tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.

OK - That BIOS made a liar out of me. You can select the 14 multi, but it won't save it. It overides it goes back to the 17 to boot. I guess I'll have to flash the BIOS.

Well, that BIOS flash didn't work. It said my BIOS ROM was write protected. Then it said I had the wrong update for my BIOS. Glad it was smart enough to figure that out and not crash my BIOS. Guess that project will have to wait a 'till tomorrow.

Gonna OC a little. Back later.

*twich* *jolt* *starts convulsing* Come on back with those OC reports! My DFI and p4 3.2e 540 processor is on its way! i'm dyin to see what your finding out!

hey ive been following the thread closely and will be buying this board but i have a question does the boaed have a 20 or 24 pin atx connector i was w0ndering if my antec 550 will work??