DFI Lanparty Blood Iron P45-T2RS Elite Motherboard Review

Long-term Impressions

Before we make our final conclusions on the BI P45-T2RS Elite, we will first outline our thoughts regarding how the board will function in the long-term. For the most part, long-term impressions of the DFI LP BI P45-T2RS Elite are quite positive. The board has solid capacitors and a strong build quality, a cool chipset, the MOSFETS do not get overly hot and voltage is solid. Cool parts are generally durable parts and we have no long-term worries whatsoever seeing a chipset running under 40C. The only potential negative issue that we feel could arise would be running the board at high voltages over a long period. A four phase PWM and four layer PCB are not exactly built to maintain high voltages over long periods. However if overclockers use the board for short benching sessions and run lower voltages for 24/7 use, it should last for years to come.


Conclusion

While the Lanparty BI P45-T2RS Elite didn’t wow us with a hundred features and goodies included in the box; in terms of motherboard performance for a low price, DFI has a sure-fire winner on its hands. We feel that users who are looking to buy a board in this price range will be very pleased with this board’s overclockability, BIOS options and the included software. If you like all of the extras, DFI’s UT series is the way to go but if you want a budget board that performs like an enthusiast board this one is worth a look.

It is hard to think of any negative points or downsides about CMOS Reloaded and ABS II. We were able to use DFI’s preset OC profiles in CMOS Reloaded without any issue and a decent overclock was easier than we expected. This should delight novice users that want a quick boost to their FPS in games or just a faster system in general. ABS II allows for easy trading of overclocking settings with friends or even sending in an .abs file to tech support if you are having troubles. Smart Guardian is also a nice addition, and users can get different skins to customize the look while monitoring voltages and temperatures. Even enthusiast users will like the advanced BIOS options, excellent FSB capabilities and relatively bug free operation. The board will POST like nobody's business (even with unstable settings) and this saves a lot of tedious CMOS resets if you run some DOS stability checks. DFI has had plenty of time to work on the P45 chipset BIOS and we feel it is now at a level users demand.

Although the Northbridge heatsink on the BI P45-T2RS Elite may be basic, temperatures of the P45 chipset were very cool. Why add extra cost to a motherboard to put a fancy heatpipe or active cooler when a chip speced to run at 80C is only running in the 30s? On top of that the BI P45-T2RS Elite has very good Vdroop control and even at .3v over VID, droop remained in check. This shows us that DFI has done well making the best of a somewhat limited 4 phase PWM.

So what are you missing out on by buying a $100 USD motherboard? Well the main thing is CrossFire capability. However, DFI also makes a Lanparty BI P45-T2RS Elite with two PCI-E slots for your CrossFire needs for only a few dollars more. If we were out shopping for a budget board, we would likely grab the CrossFire version. A couple other things we like that the board doesn’t have are on-board power and reset switches and a Firewire port. Again though, these features are available on higher-end DFI boards.

To sum this all up, the features on this board work great and the little DFI extras like CMOS Reloaded and the Auto Boost System are icing on the cake. The Elite overclocked quite well and we were able to max out our chip with next to no headaches. Not to mention the fact that we didn't reach the FSB limit of the board even at 625Mhz and you can see why we like this little powerhouse so much. For those looking for a budget board that will be a decent overclocker, DFI’s Lanparty BI P45-T2RS Elite should be perfect. For those looking for CrossFire and a box full of extras, some higher end boards would probably be a better fit.


Pros
- Excellent value for the price
- Quality design, solid capacitors, runs cool
- The DFI BIOS is a tweakers dream
- Solid overclocker
- Huge FSB capability
- ABS and CMOS Reloaded


Cons
- 0 availability in Canada at the time of this review
- No CrossFire
- Warranty is only 1 year