The latest and greatest from AMD, being the Athlon 64-bit processor, has been readily available for quite a few months now. Most motherboard manufacturers have been busy rushing their Athlon64 solutions to the market. There are of course those who have chosen to watch the whole scenario pan out from the sidelines. While the AthlonXP is such a high selling part, there are those who have not found the need to support the latest Athlon64 processor so early. One of these manufacturers is DFI, whom you would have assumed to be almost the first in line. Personally, I would have expected to see DFI extremely enthusiastic to offer an Athlon64 based LanParty motherboard utilizing either the nForce3 or K8T800 chipset. Nevertheless this was no to be, and instead DFI has decided on updating their current top of the range AthlonXP (Socket A) motherboard. The LanParty series now has three Socket A members, two of which are based on the NVIDIA nForce2 400 Ultra chipset. Strangely enough DFI offer just one VIA based LanParty motherboard which supports the old KT400A chipset. There is little difference between the latest Socket A solution for VIA, being the KT600, and the older KT400A chipset, which is why DFI saw no need to update this product. Therefore the latest LanParty to boast support for the AthlonXP processor is based on the ever so popular nForce2 chipset.

Replacing the LanParty NFII Ultra is the new B revision; the LanParty NFII Ultra B brings forth a number of new features, along with a slightly modified board design. When I reviewed the original LanParty NFII Ultra motherboard back in June of this year (2003), I found the product very remarkable. The LanParty concept itself was a remarkable aspect of the motherboard, making it very unique from anything else the market had on offer. Being unique was important mid way through this year, and nothing has changed to this date. In fact it could be said that offering a unique motherboard package is more important than ever with the dawn of the Athlon64 platform.

By now all motherboard manufacturers have begun to realize this and there are several examples of new ideas being put into action. A recent example that can be found on all of the latest motherboards from Abit is called Guru. This is a cleverly designed piece of hardware that allows the user to overclock the FSB of their processor in a Windows based environment. While DFIs LanParty idea is not quite as complex as Abits OC Guru, it does hold its own unique value. No other manufacturer supplies their motherboards with UV sensitive rounded ATA cables, PC Transport case, Front FX panel, Accessories kit and much more. This is what makes the LanParty series so special.

However, I have already discovered all the goodies found within the LanParty kit. Today I will learn what gives the LanParty NFII Ultra B the right to replace our old favorite DFI LanParty NFII Ultra motherboard. What features have DFI included? Has the board design been improved? Does the board offer better performance and stability? Well all these questions and more will be answered by the end of this review...