DFI Infinity 865PE (Springdale) Motherboard Review

After the benchmarks were completed I had a daunting task of deciding what board in the Ninja Lane Labs "stash" was worthy enough to go head to head with the 865PE Infinity. So I started looking through some old benchmark numbers and a startling trend was unfolding in front of me. There wasn't a single board that could touch it. The 865PE Infinity posted higher memory scores than any of the previous Springdale boards and even edged the Canterwood from the top spot. Gaming benchmarks told a similar story and really it wasn't until we moved into DDR500 territory that the numbers started to equal out. The hard thing to fathom was that this board is using the i865PE (Springdale chipset).

I can honestly say I like this board and in more ways than one. As I mentioned before I am a sucker for a sexy red PCB though looks are not everything. Board performance is well above what I expected and the layout, though compact, is still very usable. So what is wrong with the board? To be honest... nothing, the 3.0Ghz P4 was easily overclocked to 3.5Ghz though we did have a problem running our 2.4Ghz at 1000Mhz FSB. Further investigation is yet inconclusive but I suspect that the chipset enhancement is causing memory instability, a future BIOS revisions should take care of everything.

Now for the ever popular list of Good things and Bad things.

Dual Channel DDR 400
Sexy Red PCB
Super PATCH
CMOS Reloaded Tech.
SerialATA w/RAID
800Mhz Pentium 4 Processor Support
Very Strong PCB, (i.e. no flexing)

No Active Northbridge Cooling