As the DFI has been out for some time, the overclocking performance has already been well documented. However, all of these were with the older BIOS. ByteSizedReviews is the first site to evaluate the overclockability of the board with the latest 913 Beta BIOS installed. As with other DFI boards a huge number of twaks are available, and despite the fact that this is an Infinity series board rather than a LanParty, you certainly won’t be left wanting for voltage options.
FSB can be set from 266 to 533, with adjustable multipliers for supporting processors. SATA and PCI-E frequency can be independently set (101MHz provided the best overclockability for us) and you have the potential for some huge voltage increases. The CPU can be increased by a whopping 787.5mV, memory voltage up to 2.65V and Northbride to 1.75V. CPU VTT Voltage can also be tweaked to provide even finer control.
With the latest BIOS a huge number of DDR2 memory options are now available. By setting all of the driving force settings to 3x we were able to extract extremely fast DDR settings at the highest dividers with no issues. You can get the 913 Beta Here.
The highest FSB we were able to reach with our particular sample was 390MHz FSB, which was fully Prime95 stable overnight and passed 10 loops of Memtest 86. With our X6800 test chip we were able to get up to 3.8GHz with full stability (though with water cooling and plenty of voltage). This is 300MHz faster than we were able to get out of the Asus P5W DH. Clearly although the Asus has a somewhat higher FSB ceiling in some circumstances, the voltage supplied by the DFI is of a higher, more consistent quality. For this reason, we strongly recommend the DFI for users of the E6700 or above.
Conclusion
The DFI Infinity is a mature Core 2 Duo motherboard that provides the best stock speed performance of any board we have tested. Although not a LANParty series, it also provides the most comprehensive array of voltage and overclocking options we have yet seen. Although the FSB ceiling of the board is not the highest we have looked at, the board provides an extremely robust platform for overclocking with rock solid voltages and the finest control over DRAM settings we have seen on an Intel board. With the new 913 Beta BIOS the performance, overclocking and overall robustness of this platform makes it an incredibly rewarding board to use, and it comes highly recommended.
Click for an explanation of our awards.
Pros
- Superb stock performance
- Generally excellent layout
- Great voltage and overclocking options
- The most stable CPU voltage output - New BIOS is superb Cons
- Power connectors in awkward position
- FSB ceiling lower than some
