DFI NT70-SA i850 socket 478
Thursday, December 20, 2001
Overall Quality Evaluation
The evaluation table below shows both the strong and weak points of the tested motherboard. No need to remind you that performance is not the sole purchasing criteria in a motherboard. Most of today's motherboards exhibit performance very close to each other, so we need additional information in order to help us distinguish the real advantages of a motherboard compared to its competitors. This is exactly where this evaluation table comes in handy.
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DFI NT70-SA i850 socket 478
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Feature
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Evaluation
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Design Originality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Component Layout
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Heatsink space around CPU
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Capacitiors
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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CPU Retention Mechanism
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Amounts of Expansion Slots
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Amount of Memory sockets
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Ease of installation
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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BIOS Setup Design
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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1
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Performance
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Overclockability
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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1
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Stability
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Bundled Software
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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3
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Bundled Hardware
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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2
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Users Manual Quality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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3
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Packing Quality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Features supported
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ATA100
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PC133
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Wake On LAN
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Modem ring
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Pwr Fail Res
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5
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Features supported (suite)
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Diag
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AMR
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Mouse Pwr On
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Susp. to RAM
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Susp. to Disk
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3
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Features supported (suite)
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IRDA
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SCSI
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Keyb. Pwr On
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Hardw. mon.
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Vcore adj.
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3
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Features supported (suite)
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RAID
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Alarm
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Jumperless
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L2 latency adj.
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IRQ assign.
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4
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Total Score obtainned for this motherboard
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77 points out of 100
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Features color codes: Blue = supported, Red = optional, Black = not supported
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The weak points
Can't adjust the Vio voltage
Can't adjust the Vcore voltage
Can't adjust memory timing settings
Can't adjust the FSB frequency
Could use an additional expansion slot
The strong points
Permits manual assignment of IRQs
Integrated network controller
Integrated RAID controller
Conclusions
To summarize our results, we'd have to say that the DFI NT70-SA compares badly to the Abit TH7-II RAID, even if they do share most of their features in common. The fact that the DFI board includes no Overclocking features to speak of weighed heavily against it, as did the lack of the all the small refinements that are most of the time included in Abit's motherboard. In short, the NT70-SA, while not a bad board per-see, is certainly stripped of everything but the bare necessities. That said, it did put out some nice performance figures. We can only hope, though, that its price tag is lower than the TH7-II RAID's $162us. Otherwise, its in for a rough ride in the marketplace...
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