by Doors4ever
07/10/2009 | 12:31 PM
The term “dark horse” began as horse racing parlance. A dark horse is a race horse that is not known to gamblers and thus is difficult to place betting odds on. This way it has nothing to do with the horse’s color, unlike the hero of our today’s article. DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboard belongs to “LANPARTY DK” series, where “DK” stands for “dark” that is why the well-known saying came to mind. However, let’s not hurry to draw the conclusions just yet. There is some probability that the not very well-known DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 will outperform all the LGA1366 mainboards we tested before and take the first place in this unofficial but obvious competition. Well, the review will answer all our questions and we are going to start it, as usual, with taking a look at the products and its packaging.
The box with DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboard looks quite ordinary. Thin colorful slip-cover hides a white box of thick cardboard that contains the mainboard with all bundled accessories:
Additional stickers on the front of the box tell us that they have fixed Intel OC power off issue and included Smart Connectors into the accessories bundle – a block of connectors with explanatory marking that makes it much easier to connect front panel cables, USB and IEEE1394 ports to the board. The back of the box tells a little more about a few other distinguishing features of this product.
Inside the box we find a mainboard, of course, and the following accessories:
You are already familiar with one DFI mainboard on Intel X58 Express chipset that we have reviewed before: see our DFI LanParty JR X58-T3H6 MicroATX LGA1366 Mainboard Review for details. So, it is totally natural that we will try to compare them with one another from time to time. Speaking of the boards’ accessories bundles, we can conclude that they are practically identical. The only difference is that DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 has more Smart Connectors: it features an additional IEEE1394 and an extra USB connector.
DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 looks quite traditionally: the layout is close to classical, all color connectors should glow in UV light.
The top part of DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 PCB is practically ideal: there is enough room around the processor socket for large CPU coolers; the six-phase processor voltage regulator circuitry, just like the rest of the board, uses only solid-state capacitors; PATA and power connectors are very conveniently located; there are six DDR3 DIMM slots onboard.
Speaking of the lower part of the DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 PCB we have to draw your attention to the cooling system. The chipset South Bridge is topped with a small heatsink that is fastened with plastic spring push-pins. A massive heatsink over the chipset North Bridge is connected to a large heatsink on the voltage regulator MOSFET with a heatpipe. These two are mounted using reliable screw-on retention.
The bottom part of DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 PCB has three PCI Express 2.0 x16 graphics card slots. Two green slots can work at full speed, while the yellow slot can only provide PCI Express 2.0 x4 speed. Moreover, there are two regular PCI slots and one PCI Express x4 slot. There are two power connectors delivering additional power to PCI Express x16 slots when high-performance graphics cards are installed. They look like floppy power connectors.
As for the drives, the board is equipped with eight Serial ATA connectors that also support RAID. Six of them are implemented in Intel ICH10R South Bridge, and another two together with a PATA connector supporting up to two devices – via an additional JMicron JMB363 controller. The mainboard features six fan connectors and has a pin-connector for a COM port.
Among the peculiarities of DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 board we have to point out two barely noticeable buttons: Power On and Reset. By pressing them both at the same time you can reset the BIOS parameters back to their nominal values. There is also a POST indicator and an unusually large number of jumpers. Among them there is a group called “CPU FSB Select” that allows setting a startup frequency, but the available choices including FSB 800, FSB 1066 and FSB 1333 are of no real practical value. Another group called “CPU VTT Select” seems much more interesting, as it allows increasing this voltage from the nominal 1.2 V to 1.4 V or even 1.6 V.
By the way, a little below SATA connectors we found a group of contact spots with typical markings: “CPU”, “CPU VTT”, “CPU PLL”, “DRAM”, etc. We believe that they can be used to monitor the corresponding mainboard voltages using a special tester device.
We have already seen similar voltage control implementations on Foxconn BloodRAGE and EVGA X58 SLI Classified mainboards. However, there is no mention of this feature in DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 manual. Anyway, we are going to dwell on the supporting documents and material later in this review.
The mainboard connector panel has almost all ports and connectors a contemporary mainboard should have. The only one missing is probably the eSATA. The ClearCMOS jumper is only convenient to work with if the board is on a test stand, otherwise a button would be way better. There are the following connectors:
You can get a better idea of the location of different mainboard components by looking at the layout from the mainboard user manual:
We are going to wind up this part of our review with a detailed list of technical specs from the official manufacturer's web-site:
DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 doesn’t belong to the most known DFI solutions from elite “LANPARTY UT” or “LANPARTY LT” series, but everything about it, including the attention to details reveals no restrictions of any kind. On the contrary, the board seems to be perfectly balanced in terms of features and some of its components are extremely well put together. Some drawbacks such as the absence of eSATA ports, not the best location for the FDD connector, identical Power On and Reset buttons and a Clear CMOS jumper instead of a button on the back panel are pretty minor and should merely be pointed out, but not really focused upon.
In our previous DFI mainboard review we mentioned that the most significant change in the supporting documents was the release of a special manual with pretty detailed description of numerous BIOS parameters related to overclocking and system performance increase. In this respect we have no more reasons for complaints. From now on the supporting documentation will not only tell you about the functionality of certain BIOS parameters (during the tests of DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 they released the third version of this manual already). These documents will also contain general information about Intel X58 Express chipset and Nehalem processor family, reveal memory subsystem configuration specifics and provide examples of successful Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition processor overclocking.
Instead, we now have a few things to say about the common mainboard manual. DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 is bundled with a big book, which is, however, just a brief assembly guide translated in several different languages. Among other things, it doesn’t have any information about the correct order of DIMM modules installation, which would be typical for documentation of this sort. This is extremely important info, in my opinion, because it contradicts the practical experience of those users who have been dealing only with DDR or DDR2 memory before. The recommendation for these memory modules has always been to use the DIMM slots closest to the CPU, while with DDR3 things are different: you have to start from the DIMM slots farthest to the CPU socket. It has to do with termination on the DIMMs themselves instead of the mainboard. You can find all the necessary information about proper memory modules installation in the full version of the user manual available on the DVD disk bundled with the board. It can also be downloaded from the DFI web-site. Unfortunately, the memory slots are numbered wrong on the pictures, that is why you may get the false impression that the modules should first be installed into the DIMM slots closest to the CPU socket.
There were no mistakes like that in the docs for DFI LANPARTY JR X58-T3H6 mainboard. However, the most convenient approach has been implemented in the supporting documents for Intel DX58SO mainboard. Besides a text explanation, there are also illustrations that make it absolutely clear that the memory modules must be installed into the DIMM slots farthest from the CPU. All possible installation variants are illustrated like that. The picture below is for the case when only one memory module is used.
Incorrect instructions for memory modules installation are the most serious problem of all that we noticed. This mistake may result in system instability or even complete startup failure of DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboard. As for the smaller issues, there are also quite a few of them. We have already mentioned that there is no mention of the PCB contact spots anywhere in the manual or on schematics. In the meanwhile, these contacts allow monitoring all most important voltages. I also discovered an undocumented LED next to the 24-pin power connector. Moreover, there is no mention of different operation models for PCI Express 2.0 x16 graphics card slots anywhere in the supporting documents. These are just the issues that we came across during a quick look at through the manual topics of primary interest to us. So, I suspect that I may encounter more issues if I take a real close look at it later on.
I also noticed a few strange things on the official DFI web-site. We got our DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboard sample with a very early BIO version from February 2009. Of course, I had to update the BIOS before starting any tests. I could easily find the latest available BIOS version 508, but then my eye caught a warning message telling you to update ABS before updating the BIOS.
I would like to remind you that ABS (Auto Boost System) is DFI’s brand name technology and also utility that allows saving, loading and exchanging BIOS settings profiles. No problem, let’s do what they say. We moved to the sub-section of the site with the ABS updates and come across a completely opposite requirement to update the BIOS before updating the ABS.
Well, looks like we will have to wait until DFI decide on their end in what order we are supposed to update everything. And in the meantime, let’s check out the functionality of DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboard BIOS.
DFI LANPARTY JR X58-T3H6 and DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboards are very different externally, but the functionality of their BIOS is practically the same. So, those of you who have already read the corresponding chapter of our DFI LANPARTY JR X58-T3H6 mainboard review, where we discussed all the functions in great detail, we will simply refresh a few things pointing out the most significant ones.
Let’s start with “PC Health Status” section that offers excellent functionality for controlling the voltages, temperatures and fan rotation speeds. The rotation speed of three fans may be set in dependence on the corresponding temperatures. Also, you can set maximum allowed CPU temperature, by reaching which the board will shut down.
The next section is huge and is called “Genie BIOS Setting”. It contains all parameters related to system overclocking and performance optimization.
If you have specific questions about any of the parameters, please, consult the above mentioned manual with detailed description of all BIOS settings. Everything is pretty clear here. The only thing I would like to point out specifically is the following. When you set the memory frequency manually, the mainboard automatically sets the Uncore frequency (frequency of the North Bridge part integrated into the CPU). However, you can still adjust this frequency independently and automatic adjustment is merely a recommended setting.
“Genie BIOS Setting” section has three sub-sections. The first one is called “CPU Feature”. It contains all parameters related to CPU and processor technologies.
“DRAM Timings” sub-section, of course, works with memory subsystem configuration.
“Voltage Settings” sub-section contains a lot of parameters related to voltages and power-saving functions.
“CMOS Reloaded” section allows you to quickly save and load four BIOS settings profiles. Each may be given a detailed three-line description. The system automatically saves a configuration profile into the fifth available slot after every successful POST pass, so you can use it, too.
It is hard to find anything wrong with the BIOS functionality of DFI mainboards and DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 is certainly no exception. The only thing that almost all contemporary LGA1366 mainboards have, except DFI ones, is XMP (eXtreme Memory Profile) technology support. However, it is no big deal and you can do just fine without it. We used to complain about a lot of undocumented parameters, but not any more: they did come up with an extensive manual that is being constantly updated. I’d like to believe that other mainboard makers will follow DFI’s example in terms of both: number of BIOS parameters as well as the way all of them are documented, but will leave out mistakes and inaccuracies.
All our tests were performed in the following system:
We used Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x86 operating system with Service Pack 2, a set of chipset drivers version 9.1.0.1012, and ATI Catalyst 9.6 graphics card driver.
We have already mentioned some of the operational peculiarities of DFI LANPARTY JR X58-T3H6 mainboard, but we didn’t really dwell on them. It was a small microATX mainboard that is why DFI engineers definitely had to apply extra effort to make sure that none of the important functions would be sacrificed. They might have had to accept a few compromises that led to certain unwanted consequences. Now that we have tested DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 we can conclude with certainty that these drawbacks are typical of the entire family of DFI mainboards based on Intel X58 Express. The most significant problem is exceptionally “unique” implementation of Intel Turbo Boost technology. Let’s check out how it is implemented on DFI mainboards using real examples.
When there is no load, the processor clock frequency multiplier and Vcore get reduced due to Intel power-saving technologies. This is what all Intel Core i7 processors do on all mainboards, including DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6.
As soon as CPU utilization increases, the processor clock frequency multiplier may be increased even above its nominal value due to Intel Turbo Boost technology. However, a lot here depends not only on the mainboard, but also on the type of workload and on the CPU nominal. To make sure that the processor power consumption stays within the acceptable TDP of 130 W existing for all contemporary Intel Core i7 CPUs, top Bloomfield processors will continue working with their default multiplier until the load lowers a little. After that they will increase the multiplier. Our Intel Core i7-920 CPU is the junior model in the family, its default frequency is only 2.66 GHz and its multiplier equals 20. Top CPU models will work even in nominal mode at frequencies over 3 GHz and with multipliers around 24-25. However, the clock multiplier of the Intel Core i7-920 processor can increase to 21 or 22 maximum, so it can’t possibly hit 3 GHz barrier, and hence these limitations aren’t valid for it. In any case and under any load, the power consumption of Intel Core i7-920 processor will stay at an acceptable level that is why in nominal mode its multiplier will increase to 21 even under the highest possible load. It will happen on all mainboards except those from DFI.
The screenshot below shows that beneath the Lavalys EVEREST CPUID utility there was a window of LinX program that was used to load the CPU. The load in this case was maximal (eight threads), the CPU was working in its nominal mode, but its clock multiplier remained at 20 for some reason.
Only when the number of computational threads drops to 4, DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 agrees to increase the multiplier to 21.
Most users will hardly be happy about this implementation of Intel Turbo Boost technology on DFI mainboards, but we can’t really consider it a drawback. The CPU works with its nominal multiplier at a lower Vcore of only 1.136 V in our case, which lowers its overall heat dissipation and power consumption levels. Namely, this particular peculiarity allowed us to put together a compact system around DFI LANPARTY JR X58-T3H6. Of course, proper choice of a system case and cooling system are also important parts of this success, but relatively low CPU power consumption under heavy load on this DFI mainboard is also a worthy contribution.
Energy-efficiency is always good, except those situations when you have to sacrifice some of the performance for it, and this is exactly what is happening with Intel Core i7 processors in DFI mainboards. Is there a way to change this implementation of Intel Turbo Boost technology and replace it with a more common and better performing version? In fact, there is and a fairly simple one. If you set the “Set VR Current Limit Max” parameter of the “CPU Feature” section to “Enabled”, the clock frequency multiplier will increase to 21 even with five or more computational threads loading the CPU. And here is proof that this is really so: LinX utility creates eight threads, but the CPU clock multiplier has still been increased to 21.
Despite the simplicity of this change, you still have to pay a price for it. You have to pay special attention to the processor core voltage in this case. The nominal Vcore of our Intel Core i7-920 CPU sample is 1.225 V, and in this case it has even increased above that under higher load. So far, it is not a big deal, but its negative effect will show fully very soon, during CPU overclocking experiments.
However, since we came to talk about energy-efficiency, let’s measure the power consumption using Extech Power Analyzer 380803 device. This device is connected before the system PSU, i.e. it measures the power consumption of the entire system without the monitor, including the power losses that occur in the PSU itself. When we took the power readings in idle mode, the system was completely idle: there were even no requests sent to the hard drive at that time. We used LinX program to load the CPU. This time we didn’t just measure the power consumption in idle mode and during maximum CPU utilization. For more illustrative picture we also created a graph showing the power consumption growth depending on the increase in CPU utilization as the number of active computational threads in LinX changed. We are going to compare the performance of DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 against that of Gigabyte GA-EX58-Extreme. To ensure that the comparison is fair, we enabled “Set VR Current Limit Max” parameter on DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6, i.e. even under heavy load both mainboards increased the frequency of our Intel Core i7-920 processor to 2.8 GHz.
The results turned out pretty interesting. In idle mode the power consumption difference between the two boards is not very big and makes only 10 W. However, as the workload increases, DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 loses more and more, so that the maximum difference starts to exceed 40 W. It is a pretty serious number already. Of course, there can be multiple explanations to that. For example, the efficiency of boards’ processor voltage regulator circuitries may differ dramatically. However, I believe that the increased Vcore on DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 also contributed to this defeat. The higher the CPU utilization, the lower drops the processor core voltage on Gigabyte GA-EX58-Extreme, while on the DFI board it, on the contrary, increases above the nominal leading to increased power consumption.
But how will the two boards compare in terms of performance? During our DFI LANPARTY JR X58-T3H6 tests, this comparison didn’t produce the best results. They could be partially explained by the known issue with Intel Turbo Boost technology implementation, which wouldn’t allow the board to increase the processor clock multiplier under heavy load. Therefore, this time we are not going to deal with this implementation and will go back to multiplier increase to 21 with the help of the above described “Set VR Current Limit Max” parameter. Let’s check out the results now:
Don’t’ be surprised at the significant advantage DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboard demonstrated in Everest tests. At first we tried to explain the lower performance of Gigabyte mainboards in these tests by the fact that they do not increase the clock frequency multiplier to 22 often enough. However, looks like this peculiarity is typical of all Gigabyte mainboards on Intel X58 Express chipset, because they always lose to their competitors in these tests. Why do we refer to this problem as “peculiarity” but not “drawback”? Well, the thing is that it only shows in these synthetic memory tests and nowhere else. The lower performance in Everest tests doesn’t prevent Gigabyte solutions from running at least as fast or even faster than their competitors in all other benchmarks based on real applications. Things turned out exactly the same this time, too: DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 is not always too far behind Gigabyte GA-EX58-Extreme, but it is a pretty noticeable difference.
As a result, DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 performance tests in nominal mode turned out not very pleasing. If we leave all settings at their default values, the board will be relatively economical, but will lose in performance tests because of specific Intel Turbo Boost implementation. If we change the way this technology works, the mainboard power consumption increases significantly, but performance-wise it gets close to the competitor but still cannot really catch up with it. Loet’s see if things get any better during overclocking.
All defect-free mainboards work fine in nominal mode. If any sort of problems show, they get even worse during overclocking. However, in case of DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 everything got off to a good start. With the multiplier lowered to 12, DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 worked just fine with the base frequency increased from the nominal 133 to 215 MHz. as we have already mentioned, it doesn’t support XMP (eXtreme Memory Profile) that records advanced memory settings in the modules SPD: frequency, timings and voltages. However, it doesn’t at all mean that the board works poorly with the memory subsystem. You can usually select the corresponding profile in the mainboard BIOS and all settings that need to be adjusted to increase the working memory frequency will be changed automatically. DFI mainboard also allows us to set the frequency of our Kingston HyperX KHX14900D3T1K3/3GX modules to their nominal value of 1866 MHz. However, you will need to adjust all frequencies, timings and voltages manually.
Moreover, DFI LANPARTY JR X58-T3H6 mainboard could only deal with high memory frequency when the CPU was working in its nominal mode: during overclocking we had to lower the memory speed. In this respect, DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 is way better than its sister. S we will see later one from the screenshots, it could easily increase the memory frequency even during CPU overclocking. However, two peculiarities of DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboard did step in during our overclocking experiments and had a pretty negative effect. I am talking about the specific implementation of Intel Turbo Boost technology and increased CPU core voltage when we try to change the former with the “Set VR Current Limit Max” parameter.
Let’s take a look at specific examples here. We managed to increase the base frequency to 181 MHz without touching the processor voltage. In this case the memory could work stably at frequencies over 1800 MHz with 8-8-8-22-1T timings, just like on other good mainboards. In idle mode, the processor clock multiplier and core voltage lower.
Under maximum processor workload created by eight computational threads of LinX program, the multiplier doesn’t change and remains at its nominal value of 20.
This time the CPU is overclocked, its heat dissipation and power consumption have increased compared to the nominal mode. Therefore, only when the number of computational threads in LinX program dropped down to two the board let the multiplier be increased to 21.
The funny thing is that we could sometimes see the multiplier increase to 22, although even in the nominal CPU mode it appeared fairly rarely.
Only with the help of “Set VR Current Limit Max” parameter we can get the processor clock frequency multiplier to increase to 21 under heavy load. But take a look how greatly increased the CPU Vcore! The screenshot below shows that it is at 1.28 V and the maximum voltage we registered was 1.3 V. Although in fact, we didn’t increase it in the mainboard BIOS and it was supposed to equal 1.225 V or even lower under serious workload.
Formally, the BIOS of DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboard doesn’t have a special parameter preventing the voltage from dropping under heavy load. As they claim, the “Power Saving” parameter in the “Voltage Setting” sub-section is responsible for it.
In reality, there is no noticeable effect from changing the “Power Saving” parameter or the next parameter called “Super VID”. The voltage continued dropping under load, but as soon as “Set VR Current Limit Max” parameter was enabled started to increase clearly. We have already seen many times that the mainboard increase the voltage quite significantly instead of maintaining it at a certain level under heavy load. For example, one of the latest mainboards we reviewed, Intel DX58SO, was exactly like that. Looks like DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 is also not free from this problem.
It is interesting that there is a special parameter preventing the voltage from dropping under load, as described in the previous versions of documentation on the features of DFI LANPARTY JR X58-T3H6 BIOS. The picture from the second version of the mainboard manual shows “Vcore Droop (LoadLine) Scale” parameter, the third from the top:
In our recent Intel DX58SO mainboard review we mentioned that all mainboards capable of keeping processor core voltage from dropping under heavy load have only two possible choices: either to prevent it from dropping or not. Intel DX58SO mainboard supports three possible settings. It can be set to prevent the voltage from dropping, not to prevent it from dropping and to partially prevent. It is funny, but “Vcore Droop (LoadLine) Scale” parameter on DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 also supported three possible settings: 100, 75 and 50%. Looks like DFI engineers, just like Intel engineers, are very well familiar with the problem of voltage increase under heavy load that is where these strange interim values come from. The difference from the Intel board is that there is simply no specific parameter for preventing the voltage drop in the DFI mainboards BIOS anymore. DFI boards select the appropriate modes on their own, but they always increase the CPU Vcore instead of maintaining it on the set level.
So, what do we get here? Overclocking by raising the base frequency to 181 MHz is a success on DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboard, but it will always lose to Gigabyte GA-X58-Extreme and other similar solutions because it is unable to increase the clock multiplier to 21 under heavy load. We tried reaching higher CPU frequencies, just like we did with Intel DX58SO, but we failed because the processor Vcore dropped too much under heavy load. Of course, we could increase the core voltage in the BIOS beforehand, but in this case Intel processor power-saving technologies would stop working and we lost even that small advantage that we had. If we enabled “Set VR Current Limit Max” parameter, the voltage increased so much that the cooling system failed and the board again wouldn’t reach higher frequencies. That is why we can conclude that more or less optimal overclocking result on DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 can only be achieved at 181 MHz base frequency, although in this case there are two possible outcomes. We can increase the clock frequency multiplier to 21 under heavy load and in the board will consume more power because of the increased processor core voltage, or we can leave the multiplier at its nominal value and the board will run slower in heavy-duty applications because of that, but its power consumption will be lower.
The specifics of the mainboard behavior during overclocking, availability and operability of certain features and technologies – all these are extremely important factors that should in the end determine if this particular mainboard meets your needs or not. To make it easier for you to draw the final conclusions basing on what we have just discussed, we summed up everything we know about DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboard behavior during processor overclocking in a table below:
Let’s start the discussion of test results obtained during CPU overclocking on DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboard with comparative performance charts. We are going to compare our today’s hero against Gigabyte GA-EX58-Extreme again. The first table is for the common behavior of the DFI mainboard, when the multiplier sometimes may increase up to 22, but stays at 20 under heavy load:
If we disregard the results of the memory subsystem tests, we will see approximate parity almost everywhere, except the benchmarks that can parallel the load well enough, such as Cinebench 10, Fritz Chess Benchmark, 3DMark Vantage CPU Tests, Custom PC Bench 2007. In these tests DFI mainboard normally falls behind by about 3.5-5%, although in Custom PC Bench 2007 Multitasking Test the gap increases to almost 7%.
Now let’s change the way the board reacts to overclocking by setting “Set VR Current Limit Max” parameter to “Enabled”. Now the multiplier will increase to 21 even under heavy load and there is some hope that DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 will catch up with its competitor.
And it did! Once again memory subsystem tests aside, DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 runs almost as fast as its competitor in resource-hungry applications. And now let’s see what price we had to pay for this parity. Let’s take a look at the power consumption charts showing how it increased depending on the load changes. Just like during the performance tests, DFI board will be tested in overclocked mode with two implementations of Intel Turbo Boost technology. Gigabyte GA-EX58-Extreme will be its competitor again.
Once again the results appeared very illustrative. In idle mode when the CPU utilization is minimal, the power consumption of both mainboards is almost the same, and after that they both go their separate ways. Gigabyte solution maintains average level of power consumption, while DFI mainboard appears more energy-efficient if we leave its default implementation of Intel Turbo Boost technology in place (orange line on the diagram). It is quite logical, since the CPU in this case works at lower frequency and with lower Vcore. Unfortunately, all these achievements are smoothed over by lower performance in heavy-duty multi-threaded applications, as we have just seen from our performance comparison. If we change the corresponding parameters of the DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboard and it starts to increase the multiplier even under serious loads, the mainboards’ performance evens out, but only at the expense of higher power consumption of the DFI board (red line on the diagram).
To make sure that you don’t remember just the words “lower performance” or “higher power consumption” let’s recall everything we know about DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboard, especially since our today’s face to face meeting got off to a very promising start. We pointed out that the board comes with pretty acceptable accessories bundle and has very good design. The list of its features and specifications is as good as that of other mainboards based on Intel X58 Express chipset. Yes, there are some mistakes in the documentation, but they can be easily fixed in the new manual revisions. The BIOS functionality makes a great impression, but unfortunately, the results of our practical experiments spoilt the overall positive mood. Situations when we are unhappy with CPU overclocking results are not so rare, but in this case we already had issues during the tests in nominal mode.
I am sure you will be pretty upset if the solution you have been waiting for proves unable to perform up to your expectations. We want the CPU to work at its full potential, all processors technologies – performance-enhancing as well as power-saving - to be up and running the way they are supposed to. Unfortunately, DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 mainboard doesn’t let this happen. It makes you face a choice: either have a relatively energy-efficient system, which, however, will lose to competitors in heavy-duty multi-threaded applications, or have a system performing as good as the competitors, but with higher power consumption rates. As for us, users, we definitely want our systems to be both: fast and economical. And most importantly, we know for a fact from our previous mainboard reviews that it is possible.
All we have just said doesn’t mean that we can’t recommend DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6. A lot depends on your work preferences and priorities, on the type of applications you run most of the time, on the application field for your computer system. Take another look at the benchmark results obtained today – the difference is not always significant and it is not even noticeable in some applications at all. The system will consume more power only if you decide that you need to catch up with other mainboards in performance. If you don’t really care about DFI LANPARTY DK X58-T3eH6 falling a little behind, then it may turn out even more energy-efficient than many others out there. In a number of cases it also means that the board will be quieter, which is another important factor to consider. As always, the choice is yours. Our today’s review is no recommendation, but also not a sentence. It is merely some food for thought that should help you make the right purchase for your specific needs.