| DFI P55 MI-T36 | |
| Market Segment | P55 General Use/HTPC |
| CPU Interface | LGA-1156 |
| CPU Support | LGA-1156 i5/i7 Series of Processors |
| Chipset | Intel P55 Express Chipset |
| BCLK Speeds | 100-500MHz in 1MHz increments |
| DDR3 Memory Speed | 800, 1067, 1333 Frequency Ratios |
| Uncore Frequency | Fixed at 16x or 18x according to CPU model class |
| Core Voltage | 1V ~ 2V in 0.0125V increments |
| CPU Vdroop Compensation | On/Off (Super VID) |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | Dependant on Processor, all available multipliers supported |
| DRAM Voltage DDR3 | Auto, 1.20V ~ 2.60V in 0.1V ~ 0.02V increments (1.50V base) |
| DRAM Timing Control | tCL, tRCD, tRP, tRAS, + 9 Additional Timings |
| DRAM Command Rate | Auto, 1N, 2N & 3N |
| PCH Voltage | Auto, 1.05V ~ 1.35V in .15V increments, 1.05V Base |
| CPU VTT (Uncore) Voltage | CPU Default ~ +0.697V in 0.05V ~ 0.06V increments |
| CPU PLL Voltage | 1.8V ~ 2.1V in 0.1V increments, 1.80V Base |
| Memory Slots | Two 240-pin DDR3 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered DDR3 Memory to 8GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 1X PCIe 16X Slot |
| Onboard SATA/RAID | 3x SATA 3.0Gbps Ports - Intel Chipset Hot Plug and NCQ Support, RAID 0, 1, 5 RAID 0+1 Support & Intel Matrix Technology Support |
| Onboard USB 2.0 | 10 USB 2.0 ports (6) I/O Panel, 4 via brackets |
| Onboard LAN | Intel 82578DC X1 (PCI/e) |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC885 High Definition Audio Codec, 7.1 Channel, with Creative X-FI support via drivers. |
| Power Connectors | ATX 24-pin, 8-pin EPS 12V |
| I/O Panel | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard, 1X PS/2 Mouse 1 x RJ45 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 (1 X eSATA combo) 1X Coaxial S/PDIF, 1X Optical Toslink 6 Audio I/O jacks |
| Fan Headers | 1 CPU + 1 Additional Header |
| Fan Control | Full temp/speed fan control for both headers via BIOS or OS software. |
| Package Contents | SATA Cable X4, SATA Power Cable X2, I/O Panel X1, 1X User Manual, Driver DVD X1, Creative X-Fi Driver CD X1, 2 X Smart connectors for front panel I/O. |
| BIOS Revisions Used | P55MIB02 |
| Warranty | 3 year standard (location dependant) |
DFI includes the Realtek ALC 888 HD audio codec, Intel 82578DC LAN (PCI-E), JMicron JMB363 eSATA, and full support for the Core i7/i5 S1156 processor series. Creative X-FI drivers are included in the package, but you don't get any kind of Dolby Surround sound processing features in the bundled software.
DFI bundles the following with the board:
4 X SATA Cables
2X SATA Power Cables
1X I/O Panel
1X User Manual
1X Driver DVD
1X Creative X-FI Driver CD
2 X Smart connectors for front panel I/O
One of the software tools bundled with the board is a very basic overclocking utility called EZ Tuner.
EZ Tuner allows on the fly changes to processor VCore and also changes to BCLK within the OS as well as monitoring primary voltage rails and processor power monitoring. There are no options for changes to VTT or VDimm unfortunately, although the MI-T36 is limited in the overclocking department anyway.
AS with all DFI boards you also get Smart Guardian.
Smart Guardian offers temperature and power monitoring as well as comprehensive fan speed control for both fan headers.
The BIOS layout is generally good and offers a significant number of settings for overclocking although some of the settings seem out of place on this board given the power delivery limitations. You get fine control over DRAM reference voltage settings as well as options for adjusting compensation levels to critical signal lines. The latter is a feature we've only seen available on the more expensive EVGA boards.
BIOS flashing is taken care of within the OS only, DFI include a little tool called EZ-Flash. We prefer BIOS level utilities personally, especially when there's no redundancy, as you've only got a single BIOS chip on this board.
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yacoub - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
Is Gary Key still writing for Anandtech? I noticed he hasn't posted in a while and his email address @anandtech bounced the other day, though I've successfully emailed him there before and gotten responses.If he left, where did he go? His motherboard reviews were usually thorough, superb, and very much appreciated.
(Your review is fine, I am just wondering what happened to Gary Key.)
JarredWalton - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
I can confirm that Gary left us to go work for someone else last month. I'm sure he'll still read the site, but his new job prevents him from writing for us now. We wish him the best, though!yacoub - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
Ah okay, thanks for the update. I guess he's working for one of the companies who make products you guys review, not another news site? :)JarredWalton - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
Yeah, I thinks it's okay for us to mention he's at ASUS now.yacoub - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
Oh very cool! :)vol7ron - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
I like to see more reviews of mini-ITX. Cases and boards.This is the year of the HTPC.
DigitalFreak - Monday, January 4, 2010 - link
Surprisingly enough, the price isn't bad. $134 @ Newegg.fr500 - Tuesday, April 6, 2010 - link
Hi anandDid you tell DFI about the reboot loop problem, S1 works fine but the GPU fan ramps up to 100% on S1 so it's unusable, and S3 has the aforementioned problem of random waking up and get stuck in a reboot loop.
S3 is VERY important on an HTPC board imho. S4 works too but it's still too slow for day to day usage.
If it can't be fixed guess I'll have to clock down to stock overclocking via software when gaming or get a passive cooled GTS250 instead of the current active cooled one.