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DFI LanParty Pro875 (Canterwood) Motherboard Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Board Layout and Features
Power Supply
Typically you will find the power supply located between the CPU socket and the ATX connector but on the DFI LanParty Pro875 the entire unit is running across the top of the board above the CPU socket. By doing this the processor socket is moved down and away from the top of the computer case and in many instances into a more direct line with the natural airflow of your case. The only drawback that I can see is instead of having a compact power supply design all of the components are spread out thus increasing the power leads to the CPU and chipset.
Northbridge cooling is handled by a rather large passive heatsink. Considering the "Enthusiast" nature of the LanParty series it would have been nice to see an active cooler in this spot.
Under the cooler you will see the standard TIM that has become commonplace with every Springdale and Canterwood board that we have reviewed. Using a TIM isn't really a bad thing but as you can see from the photo you don't really get direct chip to heatsink contact like you would with thermal paste. As usual the TIM was removed and replaced with a small dab of Artic Silver III.
Under the cooler you will see the standard TIM that has become commonplace with every Springdale and Canterwood board that we have reviewed. Using a TIM isn't really a bad thing but as you can see from the photo you don't really get direct chip to heatsink contact like you would with thermal paste. As usual the TIM was removed and replaced with a small dab of Artic Silver III.
Like all boards in the LanParty series the Pro875 features a HighPoint 1.5 RAID controller. This controller supports 4 modes of operation RAID 0 (Striping) RAID 1 (Mirroring) RAID 1+0 (4 drives Mirroring + Striping) and RAID 1+5 (a two drive version of RAID 1+0).
The LanParty Pro875 also comes equipped with the ICH5R Southbrige that supports 2 Serial ATA drives in either stand alone or RAID configurations. Considering that the Serial ATA controller has different bandwidth requirements it is not directly connected to the ATA100 controller.
The LanParty Pro875 also comes equipped with the ICH5R Southbrige that supports 2 Serial ATA drives in either stand alone or RAID configurations. Considering that the Serial ATA controller has different bandwidth requirements it is not directly connected to the ATA100 controller.
Also in the above photos you will see the 4 diagnostic LEDs above the ATA drive connector and to the left of the BIOS chip. These will light up and indicate the different stages of operation and even let you know if there are any errors. The decoder table is located in the manual.
