Product Listing

DFI LANParty UT X48-T2R (Intel X48)

By Vincent Chang - 31 May 2008

Introduction

Introduction

Intel's enthusiast grade X48 chipset slipped into retail channels with a conspicuous lack of fanfare. A cursory search of the major board vendors showed that they have not issued any press releases about their X48 products and we doubt that they will ever do so. At least their websites are updated with their X48 models. While we are unsure why Intel and its board partners have kept the X48 on such a low profile (the fact that the X48 is essentially identical to the X38, with only a minor update to make 1600MHz FSB official, could be a reason), the boards themselves have been available in the market for a little while now (though slow to trickle into retail).

So far, we have seen the Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6, which retained DDR2 memory while being identical to the manufacturer's X38 version. Next up is DFI's take on this chipset, the DFI LANParty UT X48-T2R, featuring a rather unique and 'exterior' extension to the usual passive heatsinks found on a motherboard. This is none other than a Thermalright Flame-Freezer cooling solution, which you'll see more of later in this article.

A distinctive black and green board from DFI. As usual with the LANParty series, the green slots on the board are UV reactive and will glow against the black PCB under ultraviolet light. This is complemented by the included cables which are also UV reactive.

Like other DFI motherboards, this black and green X48 board glows under ultraviolet light, the better for it to stand out in a LAN party, where everyone will be presumably be toting their PCs proudly. We found the following accessories in the package:-

  • 4 x SATA data cables
  • 4 x SATA power converter cables
  • 1 x 80-conductor Ultra ATA data cable
  • 1 x floppy drive data cable
  • 1 x Bernstein audio module with cable
  • 1 x Transpiper kit (with metal pipe and thermal paste)
  • 1 x copper plate with mounting screws
  • RAID driver diskette
  • I/O shield
  • Driver CD
  • User manual

Due to the presence of the extended Thermalright heatsink, the usual number of I/O ports at the rear have been reduced to the more important Gigabit LAN, USB 2.0 and PS/2 ports. Don't fret, DFI has a separate audio module with all the necessary ports.

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