Besides the analog part of the sound tract, the Karajan module also carries 6 audio-jacks laid out on the mainboard rear panel, which can be used to connect different combinations of different devices, because the ALC882 codec allows reassigning the ports.

I would also like to say that only the analog part of the sound tract of DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR was moved to the separate card. The digital part is laid out on the mainboard PCB that is why you see coaxial SPDIF In and Out on the mainboard rear panel. The important thing is that these digital Input and Output can work even when the Karajan module is not installed.

Integrated sound is one of the major strengths of the ATI SB450 South Bridge. For example the Serial ATA controller integrated into this chip doesn’t look very attractive any more. I would even say that there are much more successful rivalry solutions out there these days. The thing is that those four Serial ATA ports of the DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR mainboards that are implemented via the South Bridge cannot boast any contemporary features of the Serial ATA-II standard. They support neither NCQ, nor higher 3Gbit/s bandwidth. Even those RAID arrays that can be built with this controller can only be of type 0 or 1 and can consist of two hard disk drives, no more than that.

The additional Serial ATA RAID controller integrated onto the DFI mainboard is the Silicon Image SiI3114 is also not the latest solution out there. Although the four ports it provides allow building RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 arrays, it doesn’t support NCQ and limits the maximum channel bandwidth to 1.5Gbit/s. However, the biggest drawback of this particular controller is the regular PCI bus it uses to connect to the chipset South Bridge. As a result some high-speed RAID arrays may slow down.

The FireWire bus is also implemented via an additional onboard chip. It is the VIA VT6307 controller. One of the two IEEE1394 ports this controller supports is laid out on the mainboard rear panel, and the other one is only available as an onboard pin-connector. There is no bracket with the second IEEE1394 port included with the mainboard, so you will actually be able to use it only in a few cases.

Since the ATI SB450 South Bridge doesn’t have an integrated network controller, the network support of the DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR mainboard is also provided by additional onboard chips. Following the latest trend in this direction, DFI decided to equip its platform with two Gigabit network controllers: Marvell 88E8053 and Marvell 88E8001. I have to admit though that it looks a little bit unusual: the first controller is connected to the chipset South Bridge via the high-speed PCI Express x1 bus, while the second controller uses the regular PCI bus. As a result, the first port can guarantee higher peak bandwidth than the second one, even though the theoretical characteristics of the two are the same.

Summing up our story about the onboard features of the DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR I would like to say that this solution offers much better sound quality than the mainboards on NVIDIA nForce4 chipsets, but cannot boast the best Serial ATA support. The Serial ATA controller employed on NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra/SLI based mainboards complies with the Serial ATA-II standard, i.e. supports NCQ and the maximum data transfer rate of 3Gbit/s. And the Gigabit network controller integrated into the NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra/SLI chipset offers hardware-software Firewall, which is absent by the Marvell chips used on the DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR solution.