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DFI MI P55-T36 mini-ITX motherboard review

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Nature 14th January 2010, 06:54 Quote
Mr. Swinburne Me thinks you over scored the features since it has no built in WiFi, sata 6gb/s, or usb 3.0. All things you'd want in a media cube under the TV.
stonedsurd 14th January 2010, 07:16 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by jrs77
You should do a little bit of research I think. There's mITX boards available with AM2 + nVidia 8200 or AM2 + ATi HD3200 aswell ;)

Whoops. I was thinking about Intel only
Bindibadgi 14th January 2010, 08:26 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nature
Mr. Swinburne Me thinks you over scored the features since it has no built in WiFi, sata 6gb/s, or usb 3.0. All things you'd want in a media cube under the TV.

Mr. Nature. I respect your opinion, however you will NOT need any of those things. :) If you seriously want a media centre and you want to stream data then WiFi is certainly a poor choice. Plus, where would it go? I'd rather have the PCI-Express x16 port frankly - you can buy USB WiFi dongles if you need it.

SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0 is also unnecessary and you won't find either of these on any other mini-ITX board. Only some P55 have them, and they command and extra cost we don't recommend spending. Yet.

If it had all these things then it would get a 10.
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.

It's on our to-do lists.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jhanlon303
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

John, we have a H55 mini-ITX board from Zotac on the way mate ;) ;) This will be perfect for you.
logan'srun 14th January 2010, 09:50 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bindibadgi

John, we have a H55 mini-ITX board from Zotac on the way mate ;) ;) This will be perfect for you.

I needs now!!! When will this be out? I'm very interested in a very SSF for Shats and giggles to build for my son and would like to see how the two would compare against each other. Of course I would prefer something with onboard GFX as long as it supported (at the least) 720p playback.
phinix 15th January 2010, 08:52 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by Baz
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.

Yep, it is massive. I had to make so support, cause card was bending the mobo:) Now it is all working on test bench, but soon it will go to my NanoTower:D
Nature 15th January 2010, 09:12 Quote
When I think of the itx format I think of accessability, interaxtivity, and convienience.

Why not wireless N w/ antenna onboard? Can't Win7 act as a router with your connections? Lot's of options w/ wifi.
Why no State-of-the-art usb 3.0 and SATA 6gbs? As you said you'll find find no other itx board with any of these three... features...
Bindibadgi 15th January 2010, 09:51 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nature
When I think of the itx format I think of accessability, interaxtivity, and convienience.

Why not wireless N w/ antenna onboard? Can't Win7 act as a router with your connections? Lot's of options w/ wifi.
Why no State-of-the-art usb 3.0 and SATA 6gbs? As you said you'll find find no other itx board with any of these three... features...

mini-ITX is about space saving. There is physically limited space on the motherboard to include everything like extra chipsets for USB 3.0 and SATA 6G. Plus, you DONT NEED either of those two: those are performance additions which mini-ITX is not primarily designed for. It still has enough of SATA, eSATA and plenty of normal USB which everything uses: that is convenient.

As for wireless-n: you can buy USB dongles. You don't need everything on board, all the time, however if you do really want it then the Zotac H55 board above does include it!
darkb 17th January 2010, 10:39 Quote
I've built a sweet little lan box using the SG05 with this mobo, i5 750, 4gb ram, Original HD4870 and a 128GB Falcon ssd. I'll be upgrading to a corsair H50 WC setup and HD5850 in the next month or so. Had awesome fun setting this box up yesturday =)

I don't know about other uses, but this motherboard seems perfect for the Silverstone SG05 or 06. The cases look tiny, but it still doesn't really convey the size.. you can't fit a 12" cold cathode in this case, it's too small for even that. Yet it can match my main pc in games.
PureSilver 17th January 2010, 10:47 Quote
Argh. I keep wanting to buy one of these and build a super-small uni computer, but I just can't justify it when I know the graphics card and the PSU to power them both will make it the size of an mATX anyway.

What's the most powerful graphics card that's shorter than 20-25cm? Anybody? Or is the best option for tiny gaming a Clarkdale i6** with IGP?

[EDIT]In fact if anyone can come up with a decent graphics card that will fit a normal mITX case I'll have that, too[/EDIT]
darkb 17th January 2010, 13:16 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by PureSilver
What's the most powerful graphics card that's shorter than 20-25cm? Anybody? Or is the best option for tiny gaming a Clarkdale i6** with IGP?

[EDIT]In fact if anyone can come up with a decent graphics card that will fit a normal mITX case I'll have that, too[/EDIT]

The new Radeon HD5670 maybe ? ~17cm long, 61W TDP, single slot quiet cooling solution, no external power connector.. 14W idle too.
Nature 18th January 2010, 09:58 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nature
When I think of the itx format I think of accessability, interaxtivity, and convienience.

Why not wireless N w/ antenna onboard? Can't Win7 act as a router with your connections? Lot's of options w/ wifi.
Why no State-of-the-art usb 3.0 and SATA 6gbs? As you said you'll find find no other itx board with any of these three... features...

mini-ITX is about space saving. There is physically limited space on the motherboard to include everything like extra chipsets for USB 3.0 and SATA 6G. Plus, you DONT NEED either of those two: those are performance additions which mini-ITX is not primarily designed for. It still has enough of SATA, eSATA and plenty of normal USB which everything uses: that is convenient.

As for wireless-n: you can buy USB dongles. You don't need everything on board, all the time, however if you do really want it then the Zotac H55 board above does include it!

There is no need to include "extra" chipsets as usb 3.0 and sata 6gbs are backwards compatible and can replace the 2.0 and 3gbs. Furthermore having an antenna for wireless N usually has better signal strength than a USB dongle, and since there's no pci or pci express x1 slot it makes even more sense if you have a wireless router in the house and have a big family on their laptops.

I'm just curious as to your score: 9/10. There have been other dfi motherboards you personally have reviewed in the past that have a lot less of a score for example the lan party junior...

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2008/11/24/dfi-lanparty-jr-p45-t2rs/14
Bindibadgi 18th January 2010, 10:01 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nature
There is no need to include "extra" chipsets as usb 3.0 and sata 6gbs are backwards compatible and can replace the 2.0 and 3gbs. Furthermore having an antenna for wireless N usually has better signal strength than a USB dongle, and since there's no pci or pci express x1 slot it makes even more sense if you have a wireless router in the house and have a big family on their laptops.

I'm just curious as to your score: 9/10. There have been other dfi motherboards you personally have reviewed in the past that have a lot less of a score for example the lan party junior...

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2008/11/24/dfi-lanparty-jr-p45-t2rs/14

You do need extra chipsets: An NEC one for USB and Marvell for SATA 6Gbps. That takes up valuable board space (not to mention complex trace routing and possibly extra PCB layers) and adds extra cost. USB 2.0 and SATA 3Gbps are native to the P55 PCH, so are all included in the cost of the board anyway.

Only Zotac includes WiFi-n on its boards. No one else does. I would say that makes it a "nice to have" niche feature rather than one of necessity. But again, it depends on cost. That's likely a $10 part, which would make a £110 motherboard £115-£120 in a price sensitive market.

Finally, you're talking 2008, and P45. The two are entirely non-comparable.
PureSilver 18th January 2010, 11:28 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by darkb
The new Radeon HD5670 maybe ? ~17cm long, 61W TDP, single slot quiet cooling solution, no external power connector.. 14W idle too.

Hmm, nice find! I need some benchmarks on those... *Goes Googling*
akibro 20th January 2010, 19:28 Quote
wow, small and insane, looks like I shall be ordering one soon
jrs77 31st January 2010, 20:21 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by darkb
I've built a sweet little lan box using the SG05 with this mobo, i5 750, 4gb ram, Original HD4870 and a 128GB Falcon ssd. I'll be upgrading to a corsair H50 WC setup and HD5850 in the next month or so. Had awesome fun setting this box up yesturday =)

I don't know about other uses, but this motherboard seems perfect for the Silverstone SG05 or 06. The cases look tiny, but it still doesn't really convey the size.. you can't fit a 12" cold cathode in this case, it's too small for even that. Yet it can match my main pc in games.

Hey darkb, could you tell me, how you got around the problem with the ATX-power?

Seeing, that the Sugo SG05 has only 24+4 and that the board has 24+8 connectors left me wondering.
And can you tell me, if the 300Watt PSU of the Sugo has any issues of running the board + i5-750 + 4870 + HDD ???
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