bit-tech.net

DFI MI P55-T36 mini-ITX motherboard review

Comments 1 to 25 of 40

Reply
Elton 13th January 2010, 10:14 Quote
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?
yakyb 13th January 2010, 10:16 Quote
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
Digi 13th January 2010, 11:51 Quote
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. :(
Jipa 13th January 2010, 11:58 Quote
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.
Bindibadgi 13th January 2010, 12:49 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by Digi
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 live to go for something like this. But I never will. :(

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.
phinix 13th January 2010, 12:59 Quote
I have this mobo with i5, 4GB Ram and GTX 295 - perfect little thing! :) I love it!
Redsnake77 13th January 2010, 13:00 Quote
Power consumption figures would have been nice to see, but good review otherwise.
Baz 13th January 2010, 13:11 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by phinix
I have this mobo with i5, 4GB Ram and GTX 295 - perfect little thing! :) I love it!

MASSIVE gfx card on a tiiinny mobo. Epic.
barndoor101 13th January 2010, 13:26 Quote
Quote:
Four 1.65V DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 8GB of memory

umm, where?
Digi 13th January 2010, 14:30 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
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.

Makes perfect sense then, cheers for clearing that up.
Scootiep 13th January 2010, 14:35 Quote
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.
Bindibadgi 13th January 2010, 15:57 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by barndoor101
umm, where?

Two TWO.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Digi
Makes perfect sense then, cheers for clearing that up.

:):) No Probs!
slipperyskip 13th January 2010, 16:43 Quote
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.
bigsharn 13th January 2010, 16:58 Quote
:'( I WANT IT SO BADLY!
jrs77 13th January 2010, 17:45 Quote
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.
HourBeforeDawn 13th January 2010, 18:27 Quote
to bad whatever card u throw on that will overtake the board but for a super lean lan machine this would be great
slipperyskip 13th January 2010, 18:35 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by jrs77
This board basically enables us to build something comparable to the Shuttle PCs.

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.
jhanlon303 13th January 2010, 18:58 Quote
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
slipperyskip 13th January 2010, 19:07 Quote
The 8-pin ATX12V requirement is something that has to be worked around. I'm assuming there is an adapter out there somewhere.
jrs77 13th January 2010, 20:26 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by slipperyskip
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.

ATi or nVidia onboard-GFX beats the integrated GPU of intel any day, so there's allready boards, that have way better on-board-graphics then the new i3 or i5 will provide.
stonedsurd 13th January 2010, 20:48 Quote
No, in this form factor there's only ION and the odd nvidia 9300 mITX board.
Bufo802 13th January 2010, 21:14 Quote
Might use this for a small m-itx or m-atx build I'm planning, though maybe by then some more will be out with usb3 and new sata etc.
jrs77 13th January 2010, 23:03 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by stonedsurd
No, in this form factor there's only ION and the odd nvidia 9300 mITX board.

You should do a little bit of research I think. There's mITX boards available with AM2 + nVidia 8200 or AM2 + ATi HD3200 aswell ;)
slipperyskip 14th January 2010, 00:53 Quote
I would like to see the Core i5-661 benchmarked against all those onboard graphics chips especially at higher resolutions. On-die graphics is suppose to provide crazy memory bandwidth.
jrs77 14th January 2010, 01:15 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by slipperyskip
I would like to see the Core i5-661 benchmarked against all those onboard graphics chips especially at higher resolutions. On-die graphics is suppose to provide crazy memory bandwidth.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3704

Here you go.

But for the price of the i5-661 you can get loads more bang for the buck, if you pair an i5-750 + an nVidida or ATi onboard-GFX.

The only reasonable CPU with integrated GFX here would be the i3-530 and intel admits this themselves actually, if you ask them.
Log in

You are not logged in, please login with your forum account below. If you don't already have an account please register to start contributing.



Discuss in the forums

More About...