DFI PW65-E i810E ATX

DFI's PW65-E includes Award's new 6.00 PG BIOS, which is very easy to use and has a panel on the right offering explanations of the various settings. DFI made no drastic changes in its solution which results in a very manageable BIOS with most options easily found. The board can be considered "jumperless" since it can be configured in the BIOS independent of jumper settings. DFI was more than generous with included FSB settings of 66 / 66.8 / 72 / 75 / 83.3 / 89.1 / 100 / 100.2 / 100.9 / 105 / 107 / 110 / 114 / 117 / 119 / 121 / 124 / 127 / 130 / 133 / 133.6 / 135 / 137 / 140 / 145 / 150 / 153 / 157 / 159 / 162 MHz -- all available in the BIOS. If voltage tweaking was enabled in the BIOS, this board could be considered one of the best i810E overclocking motherboards.

After running our arsenal of tests, the DFI was solid in non-overclocked and overclocked situations. The performance of the PW65-E was about average, scoring similarly in Sysmark and Winstone against the rest of the i810E competition.

For hardware monitoring, the board sports the Winbond W83627HF chip, which provides more than adequate hardware monitoring. In fact, the PW65-E monitors 7 voltages, 3 fan speeds, and CPU temperature. Also, the CPU temperature is read from the on die thermal diode instead of being reported via thermistor. By including three fan connectors, there should be plenty of cooling options. One is placed next to the CPU slot, one below the PCI slots, and one below the floppy connector.

DFI has placed two compact LEDs on the board -- the DIMM standby power LED which is illuminated when the system is running or when suspended and the PCI standby power LED, which is lit when running, soft-off, and in suspend mode. The DIMM standby power LED is especially useful given the Suspend to RAM (STR) options prevent a user from changing the system while it is powered. On the flip side, other than the two lights, the power management options are the same as most other boards these days. For the users who wish the computer to turn on in the presence of network activity or an incoming call, both wake on LAN and wake on modem ring headers are available. Also, the BIOS can be set to turn on the system at a specific time so the computer can wake up before you. The CPU fan can be shut off when the system suspends in order to quiet things down a bit. ACPI support is built into the BIOS for added power management under an ACPI compliant OS like Windows 98 or Windows 2000. The system can be configured to power on via hot key or mouse click. Another nice feature that is often disregarded is the added ability to choose what power state to return to after a power outage (or when using a surge protector). If 24/7 system operation is mandatory, this feature is perfect.

The DFI manual is in four languages, which is great for international business but can be somewhat confusing as well. There is a plentitude of information within the manual on the jumper settings, BIOS setup and the included software. The driver CD that DFI included has all chipset and driver updates making it simple to get the system up and running. Along with the INF update for the i810E chipset and the video and sound drivers, a hardware doctor utility is included to monitor the included functions. Also, a very descriptive quick-start guide allows board installation without cracking open the manual. The box also includes a case-mountable second serial port; this is necessary for all i810E boards considering the on-board video card supplants the second serial port on the ATX I/O panel.