DFI MI P55-T36 mini-ITX motherboard review

Conclusion

DFI has made a difficult board to quantify: on one hand it's a super-duper, small form factor motherboard that works in almost every way. We've certainly not seen one this small be capable of so much processing power to date. It has many full fat features: premium sound with all the outputs, Creative X-Fi, a couple of DIMM slots and full performance potential with some overclocking for good measure. Throw in three SATA and ten USB ports and there's certainly enough for a small build. The MI P55-T36 is a great package.

Mini-ITX will always mean you have to sacrifice something, but it's not without its fundamental faults though. During our first round of overclocking before Christmas we pushed it very hard and the board decided to corrupt the SATA bus and hose the whole Windows install. Geee, Thaanks. We had to start again from fresh, which is always, always frustrating. To be honest, we think that was an overheating issue of the P55 PCH, so be warned.

Overclocking in general felt a bit haphazard because despite the good show of features and the CMOS Reloaded presets working perfectly, there was little else that proved stable. And then there's the fundamental question of "how much voltage until I actually, really blow it up?" I have to admit, I haven't come across that like though in several years, and the feeling is no longer exciting, it's unnerving because that's an expensive CPU, memory and motherboard to send to Silicon Heaven.

Physically I will not gloss over the fact it's difficult to setup - like all mini-ITX boards you have to build it from the middle outwards: trying to get to the fan header by the CPU socket or use the SATA ports when the graphics card and memory are installed is impossible, unless you are Dave Needlefingers; Edward Scissorhands brother.

That said, is it somewhat forgivable though? We have never demanded much from other mini-ITX boards, and what other options are there? Like all DFI's, it requires its own learning curve, so to some (long time DFI fans) these might be curious quirks, while I warn others will find it just a hassle.


All weighed up, we really do really like the MI P55-T36 for its innovation and have to commend DFI for trying something the big motherboard makers have completely ignored. But, you've got to really want the size of mini-ITX over micro-ATX to grit your teeth and accept the further limitations in its size. That's not counting how big a performance graphics card is too - in some cases they are twice the size of the DFI, so inevitably this makes your case bigger anyway. So much for a small build.

I suppose it is ideal for the upcoming SilverStone SG07, and with that in mind for the score, while it's certainly not for everyone, if you are really into small form factor PCs and don't need heavy overclocking - this could prove perfect.

• Performance
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Features
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• 9/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• 8/10

• Overall
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• 8/10

Score Guide