New DFI Mini-ITX MI P55-T36

NichoTL said:
Yeah I think as we said in the past, mini ITX is the new mATX. I think manufacturers need to wake up and smell the coffee. 60cm-high towers triple-GTX295 (or whatever) with 1200W PSU will/should become a thing of the past. The new standard is mATX, and the new SFF is mini ITX, especially with 1-chip chipsets.
My pet peeve now is graphics cards manufacturers who seem to want to produce bigger and more power-hungry cards. Why did all of a sudden AMD produce a 5870 slightly longer than 10.5in? Until now their 4870/4890 were much shorter. And what do we hear from nVidia? They want to produce a 2-billion transistor GPU. How are they going to cool that? 13" triple slot cards? I mean what the hell. Anything bigger than a 5770 (ok then, a 5850) is ridiculous. I just sold my GTX 260 and when I took it out of my case I realised I had forgotten how big it is. Ridiculous (I know I said it already, but I like it).
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Profit margin, I guess.

New case, new power supply and new motherboard mean new production lines. That means more investment.

With current economy, I doubt it that business will change its product unless there is huge demand for ITX and MicroATX computers.
 
Raz1r said:
Great! Now what the hell am I gonna put it in?

I've not found one suitable mini ITX case that supports high-end graphics cards. I guess my dream of a GTX 295 in a mini-ITX package is still impossible.
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This will change in January.
 
Raz1r said:
Great! Now what the hell am I gonna put it in?

I've not found one suitable mini ITX case that supports high-end graphics cards. I guess my dream of a GTX 295 in a mini-ITX package is still impossible.
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Lian Li PC-Q08

10_px400.jpg


;)
 
Hm, the P55 chipset supports 6 x SATA 2.0 ports according to Wiki. Based on that, I wish they had put in a 4th internal SATA port. I usually go with 1 system drive, 2 storage drives, and an optical drive. It would've been great if I could keep that all internal (though, now that I think about it, is there an mITX case that even supports 3 hard drives?).
 
King of Heroes said:
Hm, the P55 chipset supports 6 x SATA 2.0 ports according to Wiki. Based on that, I wish they had put in a 4th internal SATA port. I usually go with 1 system drive, 2 storage drives, and an optical drive. It would've been great if I could keep that all internal (though, now that I think about it, is there an mITX case that even supports 3 hard drives?).
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Well for you could always go for one big storage drive (1.5 to 2 TB is doable) instead. ANd yeah we are talking about miniITX so you can't have it all...
 
I'm planning to build a mITX power rig, with new Fermi card and SSDs in RAID, but with 3 SATA I will have to cheat a bit. Two SSDs in RAID and one storage SSD but then slim dvd will have to be installed with external sata...
 
phinix said:
I'm planning to build a mITX power rig, with new Fermi card and SSDs in RAID, but with 3 SATA I will have to cheat a bit. Two SSDs in RAID and one storage SSD but then slim dvd will have to be installed with external sata...
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Pass the Dutchie on the left hand side...
 
There is also another tower case that is designed to hold mini-ITX or mini-DTX motherboards.
However if you live outside Japan you must take precedengs that exceed value of the product. Especialy when commonly availaible alternative is on its way.
It has two 5,25" front bays, internal bays for four 3,5" devices mounted in perpendicular orientation. The case supports standard ATX power suplies of length up to 180 mm (istalled with included extension bracket). The design allows to install additional two 3,5 inch bays at the cost of space required to fit high end segment video subsystems. When this option is ommited you can take advantage of 290 mm internal length of case. Even Radeon HD5870 does not reach up to that length.
I personaly like that it is aluminium instead of steel with plastic front panel. Veraiety of options make it even more desirable.
http://www.abee.co.jp/Product/CASE/acubic/T20/index.html
 
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Lol dvd drives are overrated in today's world. Most PC games are purchased from Steam or instant digital downloads. Three satas seems to be the sweet spot.
 
phinix said:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1034885367#post1034885367
:p
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I was referring to the obvious, how should I say, lack of discernment in your choice of components:
- RAID of SSD? silly. No TRIM. Wear-levelling algorithms are by-passed. Performance dependent on the RAID-host. It's very good for benchmarks but doesn't make much sense in actual use.
- Storage SSD? It's kind of an oxymoron, no? Most SSD benefits will be lost. Apart from noise and power that is.

If you really want to go down that path, you should stick your 2 system SSDs in a Patriot Convoy XL. The Convoy handles the RAID and you only use one SATA port on your mobo. Now I don't know anything about its performance.
 
phinix said:
I'm planning to build a mITX power rig, with new Fermi card and SSDs in RAID, but with 3 SATA I will have to cheat a bit. Two SSDs in RAID and one storage SSD but then slim dvd will have to be installed with external sata...
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Get a 5.25-inch external enclosure and hook up the optical drive through USB. Save the eSATA port for something important.
 
seanclayton said:
Lol dvd drives are overrated in today's world. Most PC games are purchased from Steam or instant digital downloads. Three satas seems to be the sweet spot.
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That is very convenient. Especialy with the realese of Modern Warfare 2 that has been held of by tomorrow. I would say that POST code display and reset onboard button are waste of space if i did not know how hard can it be for DFI to solve compatibility issues.
 
fr500 said:
This board doesn't include an IGP, that consumes power too, not having an IGP should make cooling the chipset and overclocking a bit better than on the Zotac board.
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The IGP is never that much of a power hog. Most lowest-power desktop Intel chipsets have come from the "G" or "Q" series, not "P" or "X". To this day, G31 is still undefeated, with sub-30W low-end PCs somewhat easily manageable.

And if G33/G35 had been around long enough (to have received all those extra power saving features most motherboards now have), then probably we could have had even better power figures, since the southbridge might be from a smaller manufacturing tech.

Also, IGPs usually shut down when a GPU takes over the PEG slot. There are only so many lanes available for graphics... And keep in mind that the P55 "PCH" really is an ICH10R southbridge with some tweaks. Seriously, I can't understand why Intel can have such a HUGE markup on such a simple chip... You could probably build a socket LGA1156 and have like ICH7 as the "PCH"... It still connects through DMI, after all...

And now that I think of it, that could actually kill several birds with one stone... lower-priced LGA1156 boards and cheaper ION motherboards, since the manufacturers could pick up the bargain-bin Atom+ICH7 combo instead of the more expensive single Atom package...

Let's just hope nobody over at Intel is reading this, right? lol

King of Heroes said:
(though, now that I think about it, is there an mITX case that even supports 3 hard drives?).
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Try this one. Not quite mini-ITX, more of a mini-DTX case, but it has 4x3.5'' bays, one 2.5'' bay (perfect for an SSD boot) AND one Slim ODD bay.

Though you might want to get the 180W PSU version, a PCIe riser card and a short single-slot (or water-cooled) graphics card, else it won't fit. It's a NAS case, after all... hehehe

Cheers.

Miguel
 
DFI "officially" launched this mobo on their website today if anyone is interested.

http://www.dfi.com.tw/portal/CM/cmp...sWindow?action=e&windowstate=normal&mode=view

CPU

* LGA 1156 socket for:
- Intel® Core i5/i7 Lynnfield processors
* Supports Intel® Turbo Boost Technology

Chipset

* Intel® P55 Express chipset

System Memory

* Two 240-pin DDR3 DIMM sockets
* Supports DDR3 1600(O.C.)/1333/1066 MHz
* Supports up to 8GB system memory
* Delivers up to 21Gb/s bandwidth at 1333MHz
* Supports dual channel (128-bit wide) memory interface
* Supports non-ECC unbuffered DIMMs

Expansion Slots

* 1 PCI Express (Gen 2) x16 slot

BIOS

* AMI BIOS
* 32Mbit SPI flash BIOS
* CMOS Reloaded

Audio

* Realtek ALC885 High Definition audio CODEC
* 8-channel audio output
* DAC SNR/ADC SNR of 106dB/101dB
* Full-rate lossless content protection technology
* Optical S/PDIF-out and coaxial RCA S/PDIF-out interfaces

LAN

* Intel 82578DC Gigabit Ethernet PHY
* Fully compliant to IEEE 802.3 (10BASE-T), 802.3u (100BASE-TX) and 802.3ab (1000BASE-T) standards

Serial ATA

* Supports up to 3 SATA devices
- Intel Matrix Storage technology
- SATA speed up to 3Gb/s
- RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and RAID 5
* Supports 1 Power eSATA device

Rear Panel I/O Ports

* 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port
* 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port
* 1 Clear CMOS switch
* 1 coaxial RCA S/PDIF-out port
* 1 optical S/PDIF-out port
* 1 Power eSATA port
* 6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (one shared with Power eSATA)
* 1 RJ45 LAN port
* Center/subwoofer, rear R/L and side R/L jacks
* Line-in, line-out (front R/L) and mic-in jacks

Internal I/O

* 2 connectors for 4 additional external USB 2.0 ports
* 1 front audio connector
* 1 CD-in connector
* 1 S/PDIF connector
* 1 IrDA connector
* 3 Serial ATA connectors
* 1 24-pin ATX power connector
* 1 8-pin 12V power connector
* 1 front panel connector
* 2 fan connectors
* 1 download flash BIOS connector
* 1 diagnostic LED

Power Management

* ACPI and OS Directed Power Management
* ACPI STR (Suspend to RAM) function
* Wake-On-PS/2 KB/Mouse
* Wake-On-USB KB
* Wake-On-LAN
* RTC timer to power-on the system
* AC power failure recovery

Hardware Monitor

* Monitors CPU/chipset/PWM temperature and overheat alarm
* Monitors CPU/DRAM/VTT/CPU_PLL/+3.3/+5/+12/+5VSB/Vbat voltages
* Monitors the speed of the cooling fans
* CPU Overheat Protection function monitors CPU temperature and fan during system boot-up - automatic shutdown upon system overheat

PCB

* 6 layers, Mini-ITX form factor
* 17cm (6.7”) x 17cm (6.7”)
MI-P55-T36%28R-640%29.jpg

MI-P55-T36%282-640%29.jpg
 
DFI's site is wierd, so the hotlink doesn't work.

Just search for the 1156 socket boards. There are only two from DFI, anyways.
 
works for me :) Just got to dfi's LanParty website and it is the first picture you see and click on it. I posted the relevant info!
 
Faaawk, i want one! Mix witha nice gpu, that mini itx box that Lan Gear are promising.. and DAMN! it'd be awesome...
 
very promising mobo and then coupled with that new pc-q08 case... i think i just splurged my pants :eek:

when this crap comes out..it shall be me new buildz
 
From the DFI site:

"*MI P55-T36 can be furnished in ATX case. If you want to put in a mini-ITX case, these products are suggested:
For VGA card, please choose thickness is less than 3 cm and length is less than 9”.

This is why ITX doesn't interest me much. If you can't run the bigger better cards its mostly useless to me as a gamer. Its like telling me I can go out and race with the big boys and their souped up V8s but I have to do it with a 4 cylinder. :(

nVIDIA & AMD need to shrink their cards! :mad:

Edit: Don't confuse my post with not supporting ITX. I think its great that we PC enthusiasts get more options especially in a smaller package but we need to get the rest of the industry on board with it as well.
 
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Skott said:
From the DFI site:

"*MI P55-T36 can be furnished in ATX case. If you want to put in a mini-ITX case, these products are suggested:
For VGA card, please choose thickness is less than 3 cm and length is less than 9”.

This is why ITX doesn't interest me much. If you can't run the bigger better cards its mostly useless to me as a gamer. Its like telling me I can go out and race with the big boys and their souped up V8s but I have to do it with a 4 cylinder. :(

nVIDIA & AMD need to shrink their cards! :mad:
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Don't worry, the board will hold more than that if you get the right case. It isn't a mobo limitation.
 
Well, my Zotac fried shortly after installing windows so I sent it back for return. Then I figure I'll give try again and sent email yesterday to change it back to exchange rather than return and guess what? I just sent email back asking to switch back to return!!! I'm getting this board......and i5 750......and RAM..... damn I'm spending money again! :D
 
commissioneranthony said:
That's strange, the 8pin header is almost like an i/o port. What? I wouldn't hot swap an 8pin every day...
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That's probably because they had nowhere else to put it...

4-pin connectors can be squeezed to rather small places, 8-pin ones can't, unfortunately.

Add to that the fact that Socket 1156 is actually bigger than Socket 775 AND it needs a truckload more traces around it, you run out of space to put a CPU power connector close to it in such tight quarters very quickly.

That being said, and while I'd like to see more ports on the backplate, my guess is that moving the connector would mean either dropping dual-channel (and effectively reducing maximum memory to 4GB) or putting the connector in somewhere that would make it too messy when used with large coolers (and even normal ones would have a tough time... Either way, it would be a BIG no-no for the board.

I have ASRock mobos that route the 24-pin connector right above and parallel to the PEG slot, and it's a bloody mess to have clean cable runs... Believe me, you DON'T want to have that problem on your hands...

Cheers.

Miguel
 
It's because I'll be using 2 PWM fan(Push/Pull) with Y spliter. I'm pretty sure I'll be ok as fans that I'm using requires low AMP but just wanted to be safe side.

NichoTL said:
That's a very unusual question, and can I ask why you're asking it?
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HaxEJxuK said:
It's because I'll be using 2 PWM fan(Push/Pull) with Y spliter. I'm pretty sure I'll be ok as fans that I'm using requires low AMP but just wanted to be safe side.
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Probably around 1.5A give or take, but I wouldn't try to get close to that number. A safe range would be 5w-10w per header. I don't think I need to say - do not overload it; you'll regret it! ;)
 
Thanks, I should be OK as I'm going to use 2 Xigmatek 120mm which uses .2A each. Only .4A total for 2 fans. :)

E.E.L. Ambiense said:
Probably around 1.5A give or take, but I wouldn't try to get close to that number. A safe range would be 5w-10w per header. I don't think I need to say - do not overload it; you'll regret it! ;)
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Yeah, they didn't bring out the flare for this one :)

As for the fans...yeah, I think 2x120mm would be fine. You use about 1.25 Watts per fan..so I doubt you will fry the mobo with under 3 watts.
 
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