DFI Infinity 865PE (Springdale) Motherboard Review

DFI is marketing the 856PE Infinity as an overclockers board so lets see what is under the hood. The advanced chipset section of any BIOS normally contains the memory configuration info. Performance Mode has three modes of operation with User Define being the most flexible. Chipset Enhancement is either enabled or set to auto and most of the Dram Timings are adjustable except for the memory frequency. The reason for this is related to a new BIOS feature that DFI calls "Super PATCH" This feature, when enabled, will boost memory performance well above normal. Here is a clip from the DFI press release.
"Extending the lead in designing motherboards for the enthusiasts, the 865PE INFINITY is the first to feature DFI's new Super PATCH technology. Leveraging the advanced features the Intel i865PE chipset offers, Super PATCH enables the INFINITY model to deliver supreme performance gain over competition in benchmarking software including 3Dmark2001SE, PC Mark 2002, and Comanche 4.0"

The Super PATCH does wonders, as you will see in the benchmarking section.

One thing that overclockers look for in any motherboard is a wide variety of voltage options to help aid in system stability at higher frequencies. The 865PE Infinity supports a wide range of processor and memory voltages including a maximum 1.975v on the Vcore and 2.9v max Vdimm. Not too shabby and well beyond what I would call a recommended voltage setting.

Along with "Super PATCH" DFI is debuting another new BIOS feature called CMOS Reloaded. Not to be confused with the lame cliffhanger release of the Matrix II the CMOS Reloaded technology is actually rather cool.

One thing that all of us have run into in the past is losing all of your custom BIOS settings due to having to reset the CMOS. Well with the CMOS reloaded technology you can save your settings (up to two configurations) and restore them as needed. Just about every BIOS that I have come across always has an optimized and fail-safe configuration and CMOS reloaded just extends this feature by allowing the user to save and name their custom BIOS settings.

The process is pretty simple really, In the CMOS reloaded screen you will be presented with a screen similar to the one in the photo. To save your settings select the Backup option and press enter. This process takes a considerable amount of time so be patient. Once the settings are saved you can rename the config by choosing Rename. Now in the event of a failure like CMOS reset simply go back into the CMOS reloaded screen, select the config you want, and choose load. Loading a config only takes a few seconds so you will be back online before you know it. Keep in mind that you may have to reconfigure your saved settings if you make any hardware changes; luckily the process is not very difficult.