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Initial test of a Super-value motherboard, DFI INFINITY P965-S Dark!!

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windwithme

Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Infinity P965-S has been launched into market about a month.
Some of articles in different forum are showing that Infinity P965-S’s OC
ability is above the standard…

I’d like to make an introduction about OC and related features about this
board.

The package design is emphasize the “Dark” , Dark color like style.
Recently, the package designs of DFI mid-range or high-end product also
have their own style.
d965s1gw9.jpg



The bundled accessories
No matter, the menu or driver CD are also use dark color style.
d965s2wr6.jpg



The motherboard itself…
The “dark style” is applied to PCB and NB/ SB heat sink.
d965s3jd4.jpg


d965s4lv4.jpg



The lower left of the board:
2 of PCI-e x16 and support CF mode(x16 + x4)
2 of PCI-e x1
The rest are 2 of traditional PCI slots.
d965s5mw1.jpg



The lower left of the board,
South bridge is adopted ICH8R
Built-in “on board” power and reset button
8 of SATA2 slots, which are supports RAID0,1,0+1, 5.
d965s6nn6.jpg



The upper left of the board:
4 DIMMs for DDR2 memory
A 24 + 8 Pin power input and a IDE device.
d965s7gk5.jpg



The upper left of the board:
There is a nice arrangement around the CPU area;
it’s enough space to equip any big size cooler.
Then, 4-phase digital PWM is adopted.
d965s8ar2.jpg



I/O parts…
The S/PDIF output and the High-definition 8 channels audio
d965s9yu7.jpg



DFI has chosen a bigger heat sink for the North Bridge this time.
d965s10gf9.jpg
 
About the BIOS part:
The main page
d965sb1qc8.jpg



The main “adjusting page”
d965sb2vt4.jpg



CPU information
d965sb3hn1.jpg



DRAM options page:
The BIOS options of INFINTY are a little “user friendly” than other series.
d965sb4jm8.jpg


d965sb5qa8.jpg



Range of FSB: 266 to 700MHz
d965sb6xy5.jpg



DDRII clocking ration: 533/ 677/ 800
d965sb7iq0.jpg



Voltage options page
d965sb8sk5.jpg



The highest voltage that we can add is 0.7875V.
d965sb9gn8.jpg



The highest voltage for DDRII that I can reach is 3.375V. really a wide range.
d965sb10ps3.jpg
 
2 VTT options that you needed to take care, if you reached FSB500 or
above.
d965sb11iq2.jpg



NB voltage
d965sb12tz9.jpg



System for the test
CPU:Intel Core 2 Duo E6420
MB: DFI INFINITY P965-S DARK
DRAM:CORSAIR TWIN2X2048-10000C5DF
VGA:ELSA GLADIAC 860GTS
HD:Seagate 7200.7 80GB
POWER:Corsair HX620W Modular Power Supply
Cooler:TT Big Typhoon VX
d965s13ob8.jpg



DARK, driver installation page
d965s3500dridj9.png



CPU overclock parts….
It is easy to reach 500MHz, without any additional voltage
for VTT and NB
5001X7=>3508Mhz
DDRII 1002 CL4 4 3-9 2.33V( a tight setting for DDRII)
SUPER PI 32M 14m03s

d965s3500spimy4.png



DDRII 1002 CL5 5-5-15 2.04V(auto setting of DDRII )
SUPER PI 32M 14m26s

d965s3500dpidlv4.png



Dual Super PI 32M

d965s3500dpivn1.png



The limit of the FSB is approximately 505 MHz,
which’s without any additional voltage for chipset.
Of course, it’s related to CPU itself.

d965s505pind7.png



I have made a strict parameter for DRAM settings of INFINITY P965-S…
Then, there is a very good result from Super PI.

CORSAIR TWIN2X2048-10000C5DF
d965s12nu7.jpg



DDRII 1200 CL5 5-5-15 2.33V
SUPER PI 32M

d965s1200ea9.png
 
ELSA GLADIAC 860GTS
d965s11dt0.jpg


VGA: 675Mhz/2.02GHz

3DMARK
d965s2003tm1.png



3DMARK2005
d965s2005nk2.png



3DMARK2006
d965s2006nk4.png



DFI INFINITY P965-S DARK

The advantages:
1)For a fully solid capacitors version, the price is really reasonable.
2)The BIOS has a gigantic options for tweak, particularly the voltage options
3)It is not hard to let the CPU reached FSB500MHz without any additional
voltage.
4)DRAM can reach 1200 level. So far, only ASUS P5B high-end model can
does the same


The defects:
1)Late market launching, might be lost some opportunity in market.
2)There is no Dark logo for the opening scene, when the system gets start.

DFI has a good improvement these days….
Such like product package….from RD600 to now 965S, 680i….they truly found
their “characteristic” in concept. Further, the OC ability is a main advantage
of DFI boards as the past. Compares to other products that based on P965,
DFI’s INFINITY P965-S DARK is almost one of the best board in the industry.
It’s also a very good Intel platform too.

The next test:
The OC master of integrated platform>> BIOSTAR TA690G AM2
d965s14rd5.jpg
 
Wow, excellent that is really nice review along with a kickass motherboard, would be nice if my P5B had that type of interface. Also cute keychains :O

Looks for price* $140!!! Hell yes. If I need a build this is mine.
Also good enough to go out of stock on Newegg :)
 
Windwithme will post very similar or identical reviews of boards at several sites simultaneously-- it's his usual practice


Good stuff, Windwithme, very nice work as usual.
 
Thanks for the info windwithme, I think I might have to pick one of these mobos up when I do my C2D in a month or 2.
 
This looks very nice. DFI can engineer stuff up their with the bigger companies. It's just too bad they are often late to make their releases, I know the custom engineering takes time but they really need to release these boards earlier. We're close to P35 release replacing P965.
 
Nice presentation windwithme.:thup:

I'd like to add a couple to the "con"..
My voltage reads were way off. Especially the 5 and 3.3. Just the way the bios reads 'em . Checked them with a dmm and they were correct.
When choosing 450 fsb, it would read out at 3589, not 3600. Choosing 451 it would read 3620. This would happen with various programs, not just one. Maybe a bios glitch, don't know, but it would be nice if it was addressed.
Southbridge sits underneath the video card.

Pro's; performance for the price.
I like the bios selections for the ram. Reminds me of the "amd" days..:)
 
I copied all of the settings you linked in your article(for starters) but noticed I didn't have the "channel 1 & 2 clk fine delay" options why do you think that is ? thanks

I really wish I had more time...I am using stock cooling...but my bios is reporting 27c which I know is wrong...I am crashing with the settings you linked...at 333x8 :( I put my ram to 2.35volts too.....I need to read more :(


*EDIT*

I am going to upgrade my bios...I have heard of issues with my power supply...also, it's just an all around good idea
 
Last edited:
OnDborder said:
treepop, try these out.. http://csd.dficlub.org/forum/showpost.php?p=18694&postcount=4
Funny you don't have the channel clk settings. I just left mine at "auto" when running the "enhanced" settings for now.. Mine crashed when I set mine to 2,1. So when I have more time I'll tweak on it..
What bios are you running? I see they made the 424 official.

I am running the realease bios.

Wierd, the "beta bios" on the DFI website are 4/02/07 while the stable release versions are 4/24/07.

Isn't that odd?
 
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