Now, however, you shouldn’t fear any more that you may accidentally chip the side of the micro-chip when installing the heatsink. The Intel X38 chip is topped with the same heat-spreader as contemporary processors, and invites you to check out different thermal compounds and heatsinks for maximum efficiency:
You can fasten an additional cooling fan on the side of the chipset heatsink with two enclosed wire clips. Although it can hardly be called “fastening”. The fan seems to be just slightly pressed against the heatsink:
The clips can be installed on the opposite side of the heatsink, too, thanks to corresponding retention holes in the plates, which is very convenient. For example, we didn’t have any problems when we installed Zalman CNPS9700 LED CPU cooler, however there was very little room left between the cooler and the chipset heatsink, so that no fan would fit there. I have to admit that it is a definite drawback, as you may be simply unable to install any larger processor coolers onto DFI LANParty LT X38-T2R mainboard.
However, I have to be fair to the chipset North Bridge cooler and say that it is efficient enough for the hot X38 chipset. It is fairly rare that we didn’t have to bother with additional heatsink cooling even during extreme overclocking of a quad-core Kentsfield processor. We even suspected that the heatsink is not warming up too well because of the poor contact between the heatsink base and the chipset. However, our concerns were unjustified: even after we reinstalled the heatsink, there was no need for an additional fan.
In conclusion to our heatsinks discussion, we would like to say a few words about the cooling system used for the eight-phase digital processor voltage regulator circuitry. The massive aluminum heatsink is placed in such a way that it could be cooled with the airflow generated by the CPU cooler immediately ousting hot air outside the system case.
Overclocked quad-core processor on Kentsfield core does heat up a lot and the heatsink cannot remain cool anyway. However, its temperature is not even close to the scorching-hot PWM heatsink on the four-phase voltage regulator of abit IX38 QuadGT mainboard.
If we look at the top part of DFI LANParty LT X38-T2R mainboard, we should definitely point out the eight-pin ATX12V power connector located very close to the processor voltage regulator, very conveniently located 24-pin power connector and IDE connectors. Now let’s move on to the lower part of the mainboard PCB.
The main difference between the Intel X38 Express chipset and its predecessor is the support of two second-generation PCI Express x16 slots. Moreover, the two graphics cards installed in them will work at their full speed of x16. The third PCI Express x16 slot, if available, belongs to the first generation and works at x4 only. DFI LANParty LT X38-T2R mainboard boasts the exact same configuration. Besides, it is also equipped with one PCI Express x1 slot and three PCU slots.
Intel ICH9R South Bridge supports six SATA ports and allows building RAID arrays of the following types: RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 0+1 and RAID 5. JMicron JMB363 controller provides another two SATA ports (yellow color) that also support RAID. The mainboard is equipped with a POST-indicator, Power On and Reset buttons (if the mainboard has power you can clear CMOS by pressing both of them at the same time). The front panel connectors are all color-coded. The mainboard rear panel carries PS/2 connectors for keyboard and mouse, IEEE1394, two RJ45 and six USB ports.
I have to say that DFI LANParty LT X38-T2R PCB layout is overall very nice and makes a very good impression. We haven’t mentioned two small aluminum heatsinks sitting on top of heated components and the mainboard’s ability to support six fans. If you counted eight fan connectors, you should keep in mind that two four-pin connectors next to the top PCI Express x16 slots are for additional graphics card cooling only.
There is nothing in the design of DFI LANParty LT X38-T2R that we could complain about, but there are a few things that strike us as questionable. For example, the FDD connector sits very low. Then, it could have been nice to have at least one eSATA on the rear panel. The IEEE1394 connector in front of the first PCU slot shouldn’t cause any inconvenience if you use an additional bracket for the case rear panel. But will the cables be long enough if you decide to have it connected to the front or top case panel? I believe that a dozen onboard jumpers are a little excessive, too. And of course, we have already mentioned the large North Bridge chipset heatsink.
