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DFI LanParty KT400A
I must admit that I like the box art. I like the fact that it's not just some random 3D image that many vendors throw onto their boxes to make their stuff look intimidating and exciting - I have never seen art on a motherboard packaging before.
The LanParty is filled with a ton of extras and just about everything you need to run your box short of a case, RAM, CPU, HSF, Hard Drive, and Video Card. Starting from the quick user guide, clockwise: Quick User Guide, Driver CD, HighPoint RAID Drivers, LanParty case badge, LanParty sticker, LanParty Features, LanParty Manual, Two UV-Reactive IDE connectors, One UV-Reactive Floppy Connector, SATA Power Connector, SATA Data Connector (Not Shown), ATX I/O Backplate, FrontX and Components, SPIDIF and Gameport connectors, PCTranspo, and finally the KT400A motherboard itself.
The included FrontX connectors include Firewire, USB 2.0, as well as a headphone and microphone port. It is plane to see that the box is modular, but not completely so. There is nowhere other than the far right slot to put the USB 2.0 connectors, and the audio and Firewire ports cannot be moved to the rightmost slot. However, it is modular in that you can choose where you want the connectors to be (first, second, or third slot, top or bottom.) I just would have liked to see an adaptor of some sorts that allowed for the FrontX to be completely modular.
The PCTranspo is another "goodie" that DFI includes with their motherboard that can easily cost you 30 USD or more. I tested it on both my Cooler Master and Fong Kai cases, and the PCTranspo had no problems holding on to either of them. The pouch is also a nice touch.
The layout of the board overall has benefits and drawbacks. Relating to placement, I feel the placement of the power connectors is kind of awkward as the PSU's wires will have to snake past the HSF and stay on top of the CPU's neighboring capacitors. However, if the connector were to be placed next to the CPU, both the CPU socket, Northbridge, and possibly the RAM slots would have to be moved down. The RAM sockets are placed perfectly where they are, you won't find any interference from them, however it is possible that there might be some interference with the capacitors surrounding the AGP slot if a card with a bulky cooling solution is used. Also, DFI used a rather interesting trick to fit some leads where they weren't supposed to go - more on that a bit later. Other than those minor squabbles, the board layout seems quite fine to me.
The IDE and floppy connectors were towards the top of the board (CPU at the top, PCI at the bottom) and the RAID and SATA connectors were towards the bottom, which is quite understandable, as that's where most RAID solutions would be kept. There also should be little trouble reaching the SATA cable from bottom of the board to a hard drive towards the top.
Next is the CPU socket. To be quite honest, the positioning of the actual socket threw me off at first. I was surprised to see that the socket "faced" the I/O connectors. By "faced" I mean that the CPU lock-in lever is depressed towards the I/O connectors. This gave me much grief as there are several capacitors surrounding the CPU socket, and a whole row of them were about 4 cm away from the HSF retention teeth on the socket. This caused HSF application a bit tricky, and I definitely would have preferred to have those capacitors farther back.
The LanParty sports the four holes that surround the CPU for larger heatsinks, which many KT400 and nForce2 motherboards lacked. Remember however that the socket is placed in a "non-traditional" direction, so the holes are not where one might expect them.
The Northbridge utilizes a passive heatsink, bringing the total sound output for the board to 0 dB.
The I/O back panel too struck a weird chord within me. This was the first Athlon motherboard I had seen with dual LAN controllers, and I honestly did not expect it from the motherboard. To keep the I/O connectors compact, two combination LAN/USB 2.0 housings were used for a total of two LAN ports and four USB 2.0 ports. Accompanying were the standard PS/2 ports, printer port, two serial ports, and audio input and output.
Something that I did not appreciate are the DIP switches on the motherboard. I guess even today DIP switches are being used as a method for setting things, but I don't really see the purpose for it - I'm sure that DFI could have come up with a better solution. This will also cause problems when people want to unlock their processor or use DDR400 memory speeds and forget about the DIP switches.
The Realtek RTL8101L is used to provide a second LAN port. The chip is located directly to the left of the AGP slot.
I mentioned before that this motherboard is "unconventional," here is more proof of that. The AGP slot and PCI slots are all colored bright neon green and are UV reactive. The retention clip on the AGP slot is also one I have never seen before - the plastic acts as its own spring, and you simply push it away from the PCI slots to release the video card.
The Southbridge just kind of hangs out there, lonely and uncovered. It doesn't generate too much heat, and doesn't even require a heatsink.
DFI also put a SATA controller on the motherboard. However the VT8235 does not support SATA - I believe that DFI went with a third party SATA controller because they wanted to have PATA available to the user also.
The RAID controller that comes with the motherboard is a Highpoint controller that proclaims it has support for RAID 1.5. This is not the appropriate place to discuss the origins and meanings of RAID levels, but through deduction I've figured that RAID 1.5 is a two-drive array that consists of read-striping through mirroring. The RAID controller will stripe read off of each drive, while keeping both drives mirrored.
The VIA VT6306 is a PCI 1394a Integrated Host Controller, that is, the Firewire controller. At the bottom of the board we see the Firewire headers on the motherboard.
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DFI LanParty KT400A: One of the most unique looking motherboards makes it's way into the test labs at VL. Can the LanParty's beauty be backed up by it's performance?
