Package and Contents

Box and bundle

I was kind of surprised when I had the box in my hands the first time as it seemed that DFI restyled the exterior, making it sparkle and shine in my hands. No wonder then that I couldn't wait to finish the tests with the E8500 CPU in order to start with this motherboard.

On the back of the box, we find the usual information regarding the chipset features and information about what makes this motherboard special, such as 8-channel audio, dual GBit lan and the extensive BIOS.

Inside the box, we can find a smaller box containing all the accessories and beneath that of course the motherboard itself. Let's open the smaller box first in order to find out more about the accessories that DFI decided to include.

Accessories: part1: 4 x Sata cable Floppy disk cable Pata cable 2 x Molex-to-sata power cable Bernstein audio module connector Cooling paste for the chipset cooling A set of jumpers

As we were not able to display all the accessories in one picture, we give you part two containing: Dfi warranty policy Dfi manual Chipset cooler installation guide Chipset cooling Floppy disk containing the sata raid drivers I/o back panel Bernstein audio module

The Bernstein audio module is quite elaborate; having everything you need for 8-channel surround sound on-board.

Motherboard

First thing that struck me when I had a closer look at the motherboard is the similarities with the P35 motherboard it seemed that only the chipset cooling was different. However this shouldnt come as a surprise as I already mentioned that the X38 is basically a high end P35 chipset.

The socket area is easy to insulate, an important aspect if you look to subzero cool your CPU for extreme action.

The I/O connections on the back of the motherboard: PS/2 keyboard and mouse connector Firewire connector

 6 x Sata connector 2 x GBit lan

This is the hardly noticeable difference with the P35: three PCIe slots of which two of them x16.

The internal connections are: Connector for an external COM port Connector for an IEEE 1394 port Connector for the Bernstein audio module Front audio connector (on the Bernstein audio module) CD-in connector (on the Bernstein audio module) S/PDIF connector (on the Bernstein audio module) IrDA connector CIR connector 8 Serial ATA connectors IDE connector Floppy connector Front panel connector 6 fan connectors Diagnostic LED EZ touch switches (power switch and reset switch) 4

Last but not least, the memory slots. When overclocking with two memory sticks, use the green slots as those will provide extra headroom of about 20-25MHz according to user reports.

Read more: http://www.madshrimps.be/articles/article/676/DFI-Lanparty-LT-X38-T2R-S775-MotherboardReview/1#ixzz2dl6tbw1M