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DFI LanParty Jr 790GX Motherboard Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Sunday, December 07, 2008
Conclusion
MicroATX is one of those form factors that really does not get much attention, this is mainly from the market being flooded with mediocre board designs specifically designed for low cost all-in-one systems. Of course it would be easy for DFI to position a board in this space; in fact their industrial side of the house does that very thing for many system builders around the world, however for this product to get LanParty branding DFI needed to bring something special to the market. From this the LanParty Jr 790GX- M2RS was created, and with it maybe the most unique motherboards we have ever reviewed here at Ninjalane.
True to the majority of MicroATX motherboards we are presented with a complete all-in-one motherboard that only needs memory and a processor to run. The onboard GPU will handle video output so once you hook up the rest of your peripherals you’ll be ready to start computing. This is where most motherboard makers would stop but instead DFI is giving us the full power of the 790GX chipset including 2 16x PCIe video slots, full CrossFireX, and Hybrid CrossFire for those of us on a budget. Combine that with 6 SATA ports, RAID and digital audio and you have the makings of a tiny little workstation.
Overall we really enjoyed the LanParty Jr 790GX-M2RS, performance was great. There is no surprise that the Phenom processor is a major pain to overclock, despite our splurging on the Black Edition. Though after a few tweaks and adjustments we were able to post a nice 3Ghz overclock that was only limited by our cooling method.
The future is unclear for the LanParty Jr but personally we feel there is an untapped market for the MicroATX form factor so we hope to see more items like this in the near future.
As with all of our LanParty board reviews we have a grip of glamour photos of the 790GX under the purple glow of UV
True to the majority of MicroATX motherboards we are presented with a complete all-in-one motherboard that only needs memory and a processor to run. The onboard GPU will handle video output so once you hook up the rest of your peripherals you’ll be ready to start computing. This is where most motherboard makers would stop but instead DFI is giving us the full power of the 790GX chipset including 2 16x PCIe video slots, full CrossFireX, and Hybrid CrossFire for those of us on a budget. Combine that with 6 SATA ports, RAID and digital audio and you have the makings of a tiny little workstation.
Overall we really enjoyed the LanParty Jr 790GX-M2RS, performance was great. There is no surprise that the Phenom processor is a major pain to overclock, despite our splurging on the Black Edition. Though after a few tweaks and adjustments we were able to post a nice 3Ghz overclock that was only limited by our cooling method.
The future is unclear for the LanParty Jr but personally we feel there is an untapped market for the MicroATX form factor so we hope to see more items like this in the near future.
As with all of our LanParty board reviews we have a grip of glamour photos of the 790GX under the purple glow of UV
Glam Photos
Now for the ever popular list of Good things and Bad things. 
Good Things
MicroATX motherboard form factor
CrossFire support (Hybrid and CrossFireX)
Onboard RAID
Onboard Graphics (HD 3300)
Digital Audio
HDMI
Did we mention the board is small?
CrossFire support (Hybrid and CrossFireX)
Onboard RAID
Onboard Graphics (HD 3300)
Digital Audio
HDMI
Did we mention the board is small?
Bad Things
Small motherboards don't fit into standard cases very well
Limited room for large heatsinks
Onboard video switch difficult to access
If you go CrossFire that will be all the cards you can install
Limited room for large heatsinks
Onboard video switch difficult to access
If you go CrossFire that will be all the cards you can install
Ninjalane Rating
We would like to thank DFI Inc. for helping to make this review possible.
