Shootouts

AMD 790FX 4-Way Motherboard Roundup

By Zachary Chan - 10 Mar 2008

DFI LANParty DK 790FX-M2RS

DFI LANParty DK 790FX-M2RS

The next board we have in our roundup is DFI's LANParty DK 790FX-M2RS. As with DFI's LANParty line, the 790FX-M2RS sports a striking mix of colors with bright yellow, UV sensitive components on a dark PCB board. It is also the only board that doesn't feature any fancy cooling technologies. The 790FX-M2RS comes with standard passive heatsinks that cover the chipset and MOSFETs. This may seem out of place in today's proliferation of exaggerated heat-pipes and proprietary cooling technologies, but then the 790FX chipset is supposed to run very cool, and these small heatsinks are sufficient to do the job properly. In the course of our testing, we can attest to this, as the 790FX chipset only gets slightly warm to the touch even under load.

The DFI LANParty DK 790FX-M2RS motherboard.

Rear I/O panel of the DFI LANParty DK 790FX-M2RS.

Small, passive heatsinks are all what the chipset needs, and the DFI 790FX-M2RS never breaks a sweat.

Unlike the rest of the boards, the 790FX-M2RS only features three PCIe x16 slots, which means that it can 'only' accommodate up to a 3-way CrossFireX setup (though we feel it's more than necessary for most users). The board doesn't have any PCIe x1 slots, and instead, the rest of the expansion slots are made up of standard PCI. With only three PCIe x16 slots, the 790FX-M2RS actually has very good spacing, making it possible to install really large graphics cards with really huge coolers.

'Only' three PCIe x16 slots for the DFI.

Built for modders, gamers and overclockers, the 790FX-M2RS belongs to a classic generation of motherboards with a specific function, instead of being overloaded with everything. That basically means that the board is pretty slim in features. DFI only included the necessary features to get by, and the only extra controller onboard is a Marvell 88E8053 for the Gigabit LAN port. The board offers only four SATA 3.0Gbps ports supported natively via the SB600 Southbridge, with no extra storage options and no FireWire support. Onboard HD Audio is available, and powered by a Realtek ALC885 CODEC.

The most simple of features and peripherals, nothing more.

Easy power and reset buttons on the PCB.

Since the board isn't so packed, the 790FX-M2RS sports a pretty ideal layout in terms of component placement and accessibility. We would have liked a slightly better grouping around the CPU socket area though. The CPU has ample space only on three of the four sides, with the topmost DIMM slot sitting a little too close to the socket retention unit. Larger CPU coolers actually overlap the DIMM slots when installed, and while it could have been intentional to provide better airflow to your RAM, it does make it a hassle when you need to swap memory in or out.

Top DIMM pair is too close to the CPU socket.

Overall, the DFI 790FX-M2RS is a very straightforward motherboard. It doesn't boast of too many proprietary features and components. DFI generally leaves the chipset to take care of the users needs and focuses on tweaking the board for overclocking, something that DFI users will be familiar with.

Most people know that the AMD Phenom processors offer higher granularity in terms of processor multiplier control, with 0.5x multipliers, but the 790FX-M2RS offers a lot more tweaking functions built into its BIOS, and these are what make the 790FX-M2RS desirable for overclockers. We will be covering more on the overclocking aspects of each board later on in the article.

CPU sub-menu with advanced options to tweak CPU and integrated NB multipliers.

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