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Hardware DFI MI P55-T36 mini-ITX motherboard review

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Lizard, 13 Jan 2010.

  1. Lizard

    Lizard @ Scan R&D

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  2. Elton

    Elton Officially a Whisky Nerd

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    An awesome motherboard as far as I can see, and once they lower the price...perfect.

    Harkens back to the good old DFI days huh?
     
  3. yakyb

    yakyb i hate the person above me

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    Lovely little board was surprised by some of the benchmark results

    would love a Little ITX machine but have to be honest would need to be a little less powerful than the one shown something like a 530 would be perfect
     
  4. Digi

    Digi The not-so-funny Cockney

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    Seems strange to give it 7/10 for performance when it did so well in the majority of benchmarks to boards nearly twice as much.

    If I was making a small case build I'd love to go for something like this. But I never will. :(
     
    Last edited: 13 Jan 2010
  5. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    The problem with really powerful tiny setups are the graphic cards. Even the small HD5750 and GT240 are already one centimeter longer than this. And plug in the 6-pin power and the difference is some 5 centimeters. Really despite the mini-ITX board, a proper gaming computer just won't fit into a tiny cube.

    Good board nonetheless.
     
  6. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    Because overclocking is much more limited - in total overclock and in what the BIOS offers that's stable.

    The Gigabyte UD2 and UD3 we tested for CustomPC can also achieve what the more expensive boards can do, but are cheaper than this.
     
  7. phinix

    phinix RIP Waynio...

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    I have this mobo with i5, 4GB Ram and GTX 295 - perfect little thing! :) I love it!
     
  8. Redsnake77

    Redsnake77 Useless Idiot

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    Power consumption figures would have been nice to see, but good review otherwise.
     
  9. Baz

    Baz I work for Corsair

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    MASSIVE gfx card on a tiiinny mobo. Epic.
     
  10. barndoor101

    barndoor101 Bring back the demote thread!

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    umm, where?
     
  11. Digi

    Digi The not-so-funny Cockney

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    Makes perfect sense then, cheers for clearing that up.
     
  12. Scootiep

    Scootiep Minimodder

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    Considering this for an HTPC/light gaming build with a dedicated GPU. Any comments on how the on-board audio fared? Not really concerned about storage space as I currently have a dedicated NAS in the works.
     
  13. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    Two TWO. :duh:

    :):) No Probs!
     
  14. slipperyskip

    slipperyskip Member

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    Could you describe the case that you used for testing? I'll have to assume you used a microATX case since there is no such thing as a mini-ITX case that supports a 750W PSU. Mini-ITX boards command a premium for their small size and if you install them in a micro ATX case then you have thrown that premium away. I would have rather seen a test involving the performance that could be squeezed out of scaled components like a picoPSU or other common mini-ITX power supply. Performance per total cubic-inch system size is the how these boards should be measured. IMHO, of course.

    Yes, it is very cool to plug a huge power guzzling graphics card into a tiny mini-ITX board but at the end of the day..it's just stupid.
     
  15. bigsharn

    bigsharn Officially demotivated

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    :waah: I WANT IT SO BADLY!
     
  16. jrs77

    jrs77 Modder

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    This board basically enables us to build something comparable to the Shuttle PCs.

    If you're not into extreme GFX-cards, but pair this board with something more reasonable like a ATi 5770, then you can actually squeeze all the stuff into a box of (30x30x18cm), with watercooling ofc!

    If I wouldn't have a good set of hardware allready, I would definately go for this board.
     
  17. HourBeforeDawn

    HourBeforeDawn a.k.a KazeModz

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    to bad whatever card u throw on that will overtake the board but for a super lean lan machine this would be great
     
  18. slipperyskip

    slipperyskip Member

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    It would be interesting to adapt this board to the Silverstone SG05 or SG06 mini-ITX case. More interesting (to me) would be a mini-ITX board that supports the on-chip graphics solution of the new Intel CPUs.
     
  19. jhanlon303

    jhanlon303 The Keeper of History

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    Put it in the Lian-Li Q-07 with a mATX PSU or the soon to arrive Q-08 for more ITX room. The lack of video out is probably going to be problematic to most ITX builders who embrace minimal cases.
    we'll see how it builds up

    john
     
  20. slipperyskip

    slipperyskip Member

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    The 8-pin ATX12V requirement is something that has to be worked around. I'm assuming there is an adapter out there somewhere.
     
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