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Motherboards

DFI LANParty KT400A Motherboard

Date: 2003-06-13 | Author: Shane Unrein
Company: DFI

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Introduction

I will give you approximately two seconds to figure out DFI's target market for their new LANParty line of motherboards...time's up! Hard one, isn't it?! Most enthusiasts' and LAN gamers' eyebrows probably perked up just from seeing the review title and product name (the acronym "LAN" seems to spark a lot of interest for some reason...could it be related to gaming or something?).

I know when I first saw the phrase "DFI LANParty" my curiosity was peaked, and I had to know exactly what DFI was selling so I started investigating. What I found definitely was not disappointing. DFI offers a Canterwood, nForce2 and KT400A LANParty board. On top of getting your choice of the hottest chipsets, you also get plenty of standard goodies in every LANParty box, like FrontX, UV reactive round cables, UV reactive slots, dual LAN, RAID 1.5 (yup, 1.5 -- DFI has something new for the RAID world), and much more. I haven't seen a package this extensive since Chaintech's 7NJS Zenith... So, let's dig in and take a closer look at what the LANParty KT400A has to offer!


Specifications

Here's a long list of specs ripped from DFI's web site.

CPU
 
  • AMD Athlon XP 266/333+MHz FSB (max. 400MHz)
  • AMD Athlon 266MHz FSB
  • CHIPSET
     
  • VIASUP>® KT400A and VT8235CD
  • SYSTEM MEMORY
     
  • Supports up to 3GB memory (unbuffered DIMM)
  • Uses PC1600 (DDR200), PC2100 (DDR266), PC2700 (DDR333)or PC3200 (DDR400) DDR SDRAM DIMM, 2.5V type
  • Three 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets
  • L2 cache memory - Athlon XP / Athlon processor: built-in 256KB Level 2 pipelined burst cache
  • BIOS
     
  • Award BIOS, Windows® 95/98/2000/ME/XP Plug and Play compatible
  • Genie BIOS provides: - CPU/DRAM overclocking in 1MHz stepping - CPU/AGP/DRAM/Chipset overvoltage
  • 4Mbit flash memory
  • POWER MANAGEMENT
     
  • Supports ACPI specification and OS Directed Power Management
  • Supports ACPI STR (Suspend to RAM) function
  • Wake-On-Events include: - Wake-On-Ring (external modem) - Wake-On-LAN - RTC timer to power-on the system
  • HARDWARE MONITOR
     
  • Monitors CPU/system temperature
  • Monitors 12V/5V/3.3V/CPU/VBAT(V)/5VSB(V)/DDR/AGP voltages
  • Monitors CPU/chassis fan speed
  • Automatic chassis fan on/off control - this prevents system overheat and prolongs fan life
  • Read back capability that displays temperature, voltage and fan speed
  • CPU Fan Protection function monitors the CPU fan during system boot-up
  • CPU Temperature Protection function monitors CPU temperature during system boot-up
  • AUDIO FEATURES
     
  • AC'97 2.2 S/PDIF extension compliant codec
  • Supports Microsoft® DirectSound/DirectSound 3D
  • AC’97 supported with full duplex, independent sample rate converter for audio recording and playback
  • 6-channel audio output
  • LAN FEATURES
     
  • Uses VIA VT6103 Phy chip - Integrated IEEE 802.3, 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX compatible PHY
  • Uses Realtek RTL8101L fast ethernet controller - Integrated IEEE 802.3, 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX compatible PHY
  • ATA RAID
     
  • RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 1.5
  • Two independent IDE channels support 4 hard disk drives (UDMA modes 33/66/100/133 or EIDE)
  • Supports PIO modes 0/1/2/3/4, DMA modes 0/1/2 and UDMA modes 0/1/2/3/4/5/6
  • PCI IDE INTERFACE
     
          
  • Supports ATA/33, ATA/66, ATA/100 and ATA/133 hard drives
  • UDMA Modes 3, 4, 5 and 6 Enhanced IDE (data transfer rate up to 133MB/sec.)
  • SATA IDE INTERFACE
     
  • Uses Marvell 88i8030 chip
  • Supports one SATA (Serial ATA) interface which is compliant with SATA 1.0 specification (1.5Gbps interface)
  • IEEE 1394A INTERFACE
     
  • Uses VIA VT6306 chip
  • Supports three 100/200/400 Mb/sec ports
  • CPU SOCKET
     
  • Socket A
  • Equipped with a switching voltage regulator that automatically detects 1.100V to 1.850V
  • ACCELERATED GRAPHICS PORT (A.G.P.)
     
  • Supports AGP 8x up to 2132MB/sec. and AGP 4x up to 1066MB/sec. bandwidth for 3D graphics applications
  • REAR PANEL I/O PORTS
     
  • 4 USB 2.0/1.1 ports
  • 2 RJ45 LAN ports
  • 2 DB-9 serial ports
  • 1 DB-25 parallel port
  • 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port
  • 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port
  • 3 audio jacks: line-out, line-in and mic-in
  • I/O CONNECTORS
     
  • 1 connector for 2 additional external USB 2.0/1.1 ports
  • 3 connectors for 3 external IEEE 1394a ports
  • 1 connector for 1 external game/MIDI port
  • 1 connector for external line-out and mic-in jacks
  • 2 internal audio connectors (AUX-in and CD-in)
  • 1 4-channel audio output connector
  • 1 S/PDIF-in/out connector
  • 1 connector for IrDA interface
  • 2 RAID IDE connectors
  • 1 connector for serial ATA interface
  • 2 IDE connectors
  • 1 floppy connector
  • 2 ATX power supply connectors
  • 1 Wake-On-LAN connector
  • 3 fan connectors for CPU, chassis and second chassis fans
  • EXPANSION SLOTS
     
  • 1 AGP slot that supports 8x/4x AGP
  • 5 PCI slots
  • PCB
     
  • 4 layers, ATX form factor
  • 30.5cm (12") x 24.5cm (9.64") All specifications above are subject to change without prior notice.
  • Now that we're done with the boring stuff, let's move on to the more exciting stuff like package contents and features.


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