After careful consideration I have decided to transfer all hardware review activities to a new domain. I purchased Hardwareasylum.com in 2012 and have been working hard to build a new and improved Ninjalane on that domain. If you are reading this you have reached one of the archived articles, news, projects and/or reviews that were left behind during the site migration.
Please update your bookmarks and be sure to visit the new and improved Ninjalane at Hardwareasylum.com
DFI Infinity NF650i "Dark" Motherboard Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Thursday, July 12, 2007
Board Layout and Features Cont.
Motherboard cooling is very important to the overall health and stability of your system. To tackle the cooling issue some mobo makers have opted for elaborate heatpipe solutions with roller coaster loops or vast cages of vertical cooling fins. Others have remain traditional with separate heatsink and fan combos.
DFI introduced a very unique copper heatsink combo for the NF650i Ultra that places the fan vertically in the center of the heatsink directly over the chipset. This puts air movement closer to where it needs to be however also blocks air movement directly over the chipset core where cooling is most important. During our testing the Northbridge heatsink ran very hot but at a very consistent temperature meaning the fan was working. Sadly to attain this the fan also ran at full RPM within minutes of being turned on.
DFI introduced a very unique copper heatsink combo for the NF650i Ultra that places the fan vertically in the center of the heatsink directly over the chipset. This puts air movement closer to where it needs to be however also blocks air movement directly over the chipset core where cooling is most important. During our testing the Northbridge heatsink ran very hot but at a very consistent temperature meaning the fan was working. Sadly to attain this the fan also ran at full RPM within minutes of being turned on.
If you wish to remove or replace the fan you can do so by removing the two screws at the base of the heatsink.
The Southbridge chipset uses a more traditional passive copper heatsink and also happens to be right next to the primary drive connections. There are a total of 4 SATA2 ports with full RAID support and a single PATA IDE port with the typical 2 drive connection standard.
