DFI LANPARTY DK X38-T2RB LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Great Motherboard

Reviewed By: lavaandy on 8/10/2008

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Great 0Cer it will rock your socks right off. This is a good solid motherboard based on a good chipset. DFI always makes a good product and you can count on this one to make you very happy.

Cons: Because it is based on the x38 chipset, it is limited when it comes to 0vercl0cking 45nm quad core cpus.

The passive cooling system is large(NOT REALLY A CON) thus it may be difficult for larger heatsinks to fit. However my Thermaltake Big Typhoon does fit, however its a very snug fit.

Other Thoughts: Consider DFI's P45 offerings. They cost the same if not less than the x38, x48 and they are great with 45mn Quad cores.

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Great bargain motherboard!

Reviewed By: IceboX on 12/4/2008

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

Pros: Excellent features for the cost. Great chipset. Looks awesome with UV/Blue LED Case Fans. (Using an Antec Nine-Hundred myself.) Stable BIOS and overclocks like a champ. No issues with Memory compatibility.

Cons: None. This is truly the best motherboard I've worked with since I started building my own computers 10 years ago.

Other Thoughts: Here are my pc spec's for anyone who is interested in comparing setups for compatibility and what not.

Case : Antec Nine-Hundred
Motherboard : DFI LanParty DK X38-T2RB
CPU : Intel E8400 (C0 Stepping)
CPU Cooler : Xigamatek HDT-S1283
Memory : G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 2DDR2 1000 Model F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ
HDD : Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB
Video Card : Sapphire ATI Radeon 4850 (512MB)

I got the motherboard as an open box item, and to my surprise everything was still in the box as it was retail. Got a killer deal. $125 at the time. Now as for the motherboard, I got a stable overclock on the CPU using 9x multiplier to 4.05GHz. The memory is running at 930Mhz or so (Writing review from work and not sure exactly.) at 4-4-4-12 timing. At full load using Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste, it's hitting 57-59 degrees Celsius. I couldn't be happier. And as far as upgrading the BIOS through Windows, I did it 3x without any issues. Check my wishlists for comple

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HAd 88 eror trouble, but Newegg service is the best

Reviewed By: cheapy on 9/25/2009

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: less than 1 day

Pros: Technically, to me, the board looked to be the best, with 2 PCIe 16 and 3 PCI slots and massive cooling, and all sorts of fancy overclocking stuff (I didn't get to try)

Cons: I got this code 88 error. Once early on, which I somehow fixed by switching the video card, but then a 2nd time when I tried using a PCI LAN card (I was having trouble with O/S updates downloading). Even after taking all the cards out, etc, I couldn't get past the code 88, so Newegg issued an RMA for the card.

Other Thoughts: I was amazed tonight to get a call from Newegg with regards to the board and the RMA. Most companies don't care or take the time to followup and make sure they have a satisfied customer that will be back again for the next system, but Newegg does! The board gets 1 star for not working for a whole day, but I added a star for Neweggs customer support coming thru and saving the day. I ordered another eVGA board from them to match my other one from a year ago. Its always nice to have multiple systems with easily swapped parts.

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Reviewed By: BloodComet on 8/20/2009

Tech Level: average - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Really straightforward setup, built in heatsink seems to be working really well. Plenty of room for expansion and upgrades.

Cons: Said heatsink is VERY limiting when it comes to installing another. I had bought 2 heatsinks for my computer that this motherboard was going to be going into, a 20 dollar Rosewill one, and a Zalman 9500A, which DOES NOT fit with this system, I spent over thirty minutes trying to make it fit, and after many cases of trial and error, the only way I could find to make the heatsink fit is to melt the retention bar into the LGA 775 bracket that came with it, and personally, I don't think it's -that- worth it. Other problem I had is that the connecting cables for your drives are rather limited for stock, and since this was my first motherboard purchase, I was a bit let down by that.

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Nice Motherboard, but configure your ram

Reviewed By: Mike on 6/4/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Very sturdily constructed board, with a lot of nice features. The bios genie makes testing new configs and rolling back from them a snap. Also, the CMOS reset pin is on the back panel, so you can reset the CMOS without opening the machine at all... pretty awesome if you are doing any overclocking. :)

Cons: There aren't many, but some of the connector placement doesn't make a ton of sense... the fp_audio connector is directly underneath pci-express 16x slot 0. If you are running dual video cards or want to have your card in the top slot, you likely won't be able to use the onboard fp_audio connector.

Also, no firewire... but not a huge deal.

Other Thoughts: I had an issue when I first installed this board, it apparently dislikes working automatically with certain memory modules, primarily 2x2gb modules it seems. I installed this mainboard with 8gb of memory of this type... first boot posted and seemed to be in order. After that, it would not post again. The lcd display on the mobo proved very handy in troubleshooting this issue.

The machine would turn on, display C1, then 25, 26, and it would subsequently reboot.
Upon reboot, it would just hang at the C1 error code.

To fix this, install one memory module, flash the bios, and it should boot. When it boots, go into the BIOS and set the memory voltage to whatever the manufacturer recommends... for G Skill it is 18-19v and I think Corsair is 21v. Save, shutdown, install the rest of your memory, and boot up. With the proper settings and a little luck you should be good to go.

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