DFI AD77 Infinity KT400 - First Look

Author : Wayne Date : 4th September 2002

The Motherboard :

Overall I find the motherboard layout to be fairly clean and tidy but not without faults. The ATX power connector placement is sure to bring a few moans as is the number and position of the jumpers. Most of the jumpers are tucked away between slots and connectors and are a real bitch to get at without tweezers, unless you're related to Edward Scissor Hands. This is a great "anti-fiddling" feature often favoured by OEMs to stop buyers messing with things but for the regular user it's a right royal pain in the ar posterior. DFI need to consider those taller, extended type jumpers that would make it a whole lot easier to get a grip on them. You'll also notice that the position of the single RAID IDE connector (in red) could make it difficult to fit long cards in the first three PCI slots. It doesn't however interfere with the AGP slot which is where you're most likely to be using longer cards, particularly if you're a GeForce4 Ti user!

Click for a larger image

You'll find jumper switches on the board for disabling the audio (2 of them), clearing the CMOS (not unusual), CNR primary/secondary setting, PS2 power select, CPU FSB (100,133 and 166MHz), 3.3v PCI standby and Serial-ATA/RAID functionality.

The AD77 Infinity also features a basic four LED POST diagnostic function (end of PCI slot 3 below ~ LED 6-3).

 

Socket Clearance :

Socket clearance is actually pretty good apart from the rogue capacitor top right. Good news is that the four HSF mounting holes remain in-situ.

Power :

As you'd probably expect a three phase power scheme is incorporated to offer clean, uninterrupted power at all times.

Memory :

DFI are offering four DIMM slots (maximum 16GB memory unbuffered DIMM)
on the AD77 Infinity using either PC1600 (DDR200), PC2100 (DDR266), PC2700 (DDR333) or PC3200 (DDR400) though I couldn't find any specific information on what configurations are supported. I don't have enough DDR400 here to test the various configurations but I can say that our Corsair XMS3200 CAS2 ran perfectly happily in DIMM 1 at 200MHz (400MHz DDR) though only at CAS 2.5. Based on what I've seen and heard about the KT400 and its lack of official DDR400 support it'll be down to motherboard manufacturers to ensure correct operation of DDR400 on their motherboards and I suspect this will only be achieved fully by the costly option of adding an additional layer to the board design. This should allow more flexibility over the way the traces are laid down. No doubt we will see the big names doing this and charging a little extra for the privilege.

IEEE 1394a (FireWire) :

The VIA VT6306 is a single chip 1394a solution. Compliant with OHCI 1.1 specifications it offers data transfer rates of up to 400Mbps .

In VIA's own words " The VIA Fire II VT6306 provides direct connectivity between the PCI and 1394 serial buses. With three ports, the VIA Fire II VT6306 is designed to provide scalability and manageability in IEEE 1394 network solutions for home networking and multiple PC access to a single Internet connection. Each individual port detects connected device types and automatically configures data speeds to either 100, 200 or 400 Mbps, speeds well suited to multi-streaming I/O requirements. A programmable PCI power management mode (specification 1.1) shuts down power to unconnected ports while the sleep function maximizes power efficiency of connected ports. "

Connectors/Audio :

Yes, the now aging PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors are still their along with two serial and a parallel port. To the right of these are four USB2.0/1.1 ports and an RJ45 LAN port offering integrated IEEE 802.3, 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX. To the right of course are the audio connections, MIC IN (pink), LINE IN (blue) and line out (green). To use the 6 channel audio function you need to purchase an optional bracket with the additional port on it. The same applies for using the integrated S/PDIF and MIDI port functions both of which require an optional connection bracket not supplied. Audio is handled by the VT8235 South Bridge offering AC97Microsoft DirectSound/DirectSound 3D support and full duplex, independent sample rate converter for audio recording and playback.

RAID :

RAID is catered for with the HighPoint HPT371 offering a single channel ATA33/66/100/133 interface. While this limits your RAID arrays to only two drives it's probably actually better suited to the domestic market where dual channel, four drive setups are still something of an extravagance. RAID 0 (striping) and RAID 1 (mirroring) are on offer

 

 

Serial-ATA :

Serial-ATA is handled by the increasingly popular Marvell 88i8030. The Marvell 88i8030 is SATA 1.0 compliant and offers 1.5Gbps peak transfer rates. Companies expected to use Marvell's Serial-ATA technology include Fujitsu, Western Digital, Samsung and Maxtor. At present our evaluation AD77 board is only able to reach a 1.0Gbps transfer rate which is expected to be increased in the next revision. Unfortunately the Marvell chip supports only a single serial-ATA port.

 

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