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Features:
IDE and SATA controllers:
ICH5R & HPT 372N
DFI Infinity 875 utilizes both Intel ICH5R and HighPoint 372N RAID controller. ICH5R provides two UDMA 100 IDE ports and two SATA 150 ports, which can be also configured to RAID 0 or RAID 1. HighPoint 372N is an IDE RAID controller and provides two UDMA 133 ports, which support RAID 0, RAID 1 and mysterious RAID 1.5. So you can plug totally eight IDE devices and two SATA devices to a DFI Infinity 875.
I tested all controllers as usual. For IDE I used IBM 80GB 120GXP HDD and for SATA tests I used Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA HDD. Next graphs shows HDTach 2.7 results.
HDTach 2.7
| Average read speed | CPU Utilization | |
| DFI Infinity 875 ICH5R SATA | 46.2MB/s | 2.7% |
| DFI Infinity 875 HighPoint 372N | 39.4MB/s | 2,3% |
| DFI Infinity 875 ICH5R PATA | 39.1MB/s | 3% |
There is no direct comparison yet because this is first motherboard that I test with HDTach 2.7. Though I'm happy to report that everything seems to be fine. CPU Utilization is very good and there are no bandwidth issues. For a little comparison I can tell that with Asus A7N8X MCP CPU utilization was around 25%, which is normal for Nforce2 chipset but still nowhere near ICH5R and HighPoint 372N.
If I had to think something that I would have done different that would be few extra SATA ports. Two is enough to most but nowadays people are buying more and more SATA devices and soon it won't be enough.
Audio:
C-Media CMI9739A
Intel 82801EB and C-Media CMI9739A is not the best audio configuration that exists but it is actually quite capable one. Analog outputs sound quality is its biggest weakness and it isn't either best solution for gaming. I however decided to try its digital output and to my surprise it turned out to be quite excellent.
RightMark Audio Analyzer 5.1 Analog
| General performance | Notes | |
| Terratec SoundSystem DMX 6Fire 2496 (dedicated sound card) | Excellent | Very good analog outputs |
| Philips Acoustic Edge (dedicated sound card) | Good | One of the best sound cards when using digital output |
| CMI9739A (integrated DFI Kt400A) | Average | Listening experience was better that test results |
| CMI9739A (integrated Epox PDA2+/DFI Infinity 875) | Average | Listening experience was worse that test results |
| Soundmax AD1985 (integrated) | Good | Probably best integrated audio device. |
| VIA Envy24PT (integrated) | Good | Excellent features |
Tests are driven by using analog output and input (16-bit 44KHz).
RightMark Audio Analyzer 5.1 Digital
| General performance | Notes | |
| CMI9739A (integrated DFI Infinity 875) | Excellent | Digital output is very solid but input could be better |
| Philips Acoustic Edge (dedicated sound card) | Excellent | Record holder |
Tests are driven by using digital output and input (16-bit 48KHz).
Digital S/PDIF output seems to be very nice compared to analog. You will get superior sound quality but won't be able to use analog 5.1 outputs. I recommend that if you need 5.1 outputs, buy a good soundcard, but if you need only stereo sound, use digital.
LAN:
Intel 82547EI
Intel's gigabit full-duplex 82547EI ET network controller is absolutely fastest and most advanced network solution out there. It's a bit pricey and most motherboard manufacturers tend to use a bit cheaper solutions like 3Com or Realtek. 82547EI utilizes CSA bus and thus even if you are transferring files at gigabit speed PCI bus won't be blocked up and that is definitely a good thing.
| Transfer rate | CPU load | |
| Nvidia MCP 10/100 (AMD) | 9692kB/sec | 10-20% |
| RTL8101L 10/100 (AMD) | 9692kB/sec | 30-40% |
| VIA VT6103 10/100 (AMD) | 9692kB/sec | 20-30% |
| 3Com 3C940 10/100/1000 (P4) | 9692kB/sec | 4-10% |
| BroadCom BCM5705 10/100/1000 (P4) | 9692kB/sec | 4-10% |
| Intel 82547EI ET LAN (CSA)(P4) | 9692 kB/sec | 2-15 % |
Maximum transfer rate was tested using SiSoft Sandra 2003 and CPU load test was performed by transferring big file from machine to machine at the same time as I manually monitored CPU load. Transfer rate is limited by another system which I use on the tests.
100Mbps network doesn't strain these gigabit network controllers very much. Speeds and CPU loads are very near each others at P4 systems.
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