Verdict: Another DFI masterpiece, but the price is high

DFI has a reputation for producing very tweakable motherboards and the company is held in high regard by the overclocking community.

The RDX200 CF-DR, however, has suffered from more than a few teething problems. The early production model we saw had a very fussy BIOS and was also unstable during testing.

Fortunately, the engineering wizards at DFI have got their act together, and transformed the RDX200 CF-DR into a truly great motherboard.

I'll start with the overclocking, as that's what most people buy DFI motherboards for. The RDX200 CF-DR was one of just two motherboards that could overclock our test CPU, an Athlon 64 X2 4200+, to a 250MHz FSB, thanks to its awesome voltage controls. The BIOS can send up to 2.1V to the CPU, 4.03V to the RAM and 1.5V to the Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition chipset. With the CPU multiplier dropped to 4x, the RDX200 CF-DR would benchmark stably with a 350MHz FSB.

Like the MSI RD480 Neo 2-FI, the RDX200 CF-DR has widely spaced high-speed PCI-E slots, making it much easier to install graphics cards with oversized coolers. The RDX200 CF-DR also supports HD Audio via a Realtek ALC880 chip. In addition to the high-speed PCI-E slots, there are three PCI slots and a single 1x PCI-E slot. The very basic ATi SB450 Southbridge only provides four RAID-capable S-ATA ports, which DFI has chosen to supplement with a Silicon Image controller that adds a further four RAID-capable S-ATA ports. Having gone to the expense of adding an extra S-ATA controller, we can't understand why DFI didn't use a chip that supports S-ATA II, especially as this is a high-end, performance-focused motherboard. Six USB 2 ports and a single FireWire port round off the specification.

The RDX200 CF-DR is the best laid-out CrossFire motherboard in production, and it's also the fastest and most overclockable. The only downside is its lack of a S-ATA II controller and its high price, but if you want to make the most of your Socket 939 CPU and CrossFire-compatible graphics cards, then it's worth saving for.

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