Closer Look

DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR mainboard doesn’t really differ that much form the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI based mainboards in terms of supported features. The newcomer from DFI supports all contemporary Socket 939 processors including the dual-core Athlon 64 X2 and Athlon 64 FX. It features four DIMM slots for DDR SDRAM.

Just like the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI based mainboards, DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR is equipped with two PCI Express x16 graphics slots. It allows installing two RADEON graphics cards and using them in ATI CrossFire mode. As you already know, SLI mode is supported only by mainboards on NVIDIA chipsets that is why it would make sense to use two GeForce based graphics cards in this mainboard only if you need multi-monitor configurations. Two PCI Express x16 slots on this board are only formally x16. There is the total of 16 PCI Express lines allocated for both PCI Express slots. It means that when there are two graphics cards installed they are connected to the chipset via the PCI Express x8 bus. However, if there is only one graphics card installed into this system, it receives the fully-fledged x16 PCI Express bus at its disposal. The second PCI Express x16 slot will work as a PCI Express x1 in this case. You switch between the PCI lines distribution modes on the DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR in the BIOS, there are no special jumpers or configuration cards included.

Besides the graphics card slots, this mainboard also features three PCI slots and one PCI Express x1 slot for expansion cards, which should be more than enough for almost any system.

Since Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire chipset consists of two chips: the RD480 North Bridge and SB450 South Bridge, the latter chip is responsible for most external interfaces support. I would like to say that we have already made some critical comments about the ATI SB450 chip for its relatively scarce features, however, it looks like the mainboard manufacturers do not have any other alternative at this time. Some mainboard guys used to replace the ATI SB450 chip with the ULi solution, however ULi has been acquired by ATI’s major competitor, NVIDIA, so this option is no longer available as well. So, they had to put up with the drawbacks of the SB450 and enrich the feature list with the help of additional onboard controllers. All in all, SB450 provides the support for 8 USB 2.0 ports, two Parallel ATA channels, four Serial ATA channels and integrated sound (plus a few older interfaces that we will not even mention here).

Six USB 2.0 ports out of eight laid out on this mainboard are located on the rear panel, and the remaining two ports are designed as onboard pin-connectors. Since the mainboard’s accessories bundle is not very rich, the additional bracket for the case rear panel with a couple of extra USB ports is not available, so cannot really use this connector. So the only way you could actually use these two ports is if your case has a few USB ports on the front panel. The integrated sound on the DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR is implemented in a very interesting way. DFI has traditionally placed the analog part of the sound tract on an individual card called Karajan audio module (I believe it was named after the well-known Austrian conductor Gerbert von Karajan). We wouldn’t dare to evaluate how precisely this name represents the sound quality on the mainboard we are reviewing today. The only thing we would really like to stress is the fact that this Karajan audio module is based on the top 8-channel High Definition Realtek ALC882 codec. In other words, DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR features an Azalia-quality sound tract: 8 channels (7.1), 24bit, 192kHz sample rate, 103dB SNR.