Presentation and Bundle
Like the older revision, the LanParty B packaging is a large multi-layered box affair. A fair bit bigger than most ATX motherboard boxes, it needs to be due to DFI's inclusion of everything bar the kitchen sink.
Click for a picture of the first layer of items (~42KB)
Click for a picture of the second layer of items (~20KB)
If you look at the first layer of internal boxes, the motherboard gets the most area, along with the double height box for the PC Transpo case carrying 'bag'. It's simply an assembly that fits around your standard sized mid-tower ATX case, allowing you to carry it easily to LAN parties. Click here for a picture (~46KB). As Tarinder mentions in his review of the original board revision, don't attempt to carry a Prometeia or VapoChill system with it, since we can't be held responsible for the ensuing chaos and 25 years of orthopaedic visits for the herniated discs.
Pulling out the motherboard box, which along with the board itself, carries the manual and a quick start booklet, gives you access to three smaller boxes. I'll cover their contents in turn.
The rounded cable box contains, you guessed it, the cables in the shot above. A single UV reactive floppy cable (of decent length) and a single UV reactive rounded IDE cable, again of decent length. Two rounded IDE cables would have been nice, but one is better than a pair of regular ribbon style cables in my eyes.
The accessory box gives you two SATA data cables, single SATA power, the ATX I/O shield, two FireWire ports on a flyoff PCI shield plate, some thermal paste for your CPU, a big LanParty sticker for your case/monitor/cat and a small bag containing a case badge and five long motherboard jumpers. Hurrah, every motherboard should come with them, especially the longer kind with plastic tabs for ease of use. A nice touch by DFI. I scribbled a black 'F' on the big LanParty sticker and pretended I had friends coming round for a flan party.
FrontX are a company that supply 5.25" drive bay mounting kits for popular ports, such as audio sockets, FireWire and USB. You get a housing, pictured above, into which you slot different pieces of the FrontX puzzle, like a 5yr old kid's toy. The kit supplied with the DFI gives you a single powered FireWire port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, two speaker input sockets for headphones and microphone, along with the four LEDs for POST monitoring mentioned on the previous page. The mounting bay has a drop-down cover that hides the bay contents. A selection of coloured doors would be nice, to replace the biege one that matches the FrontX bay and ports, but I guess you can paint it yourself if needed. It comes off quite easily, should you be that way inclined. A useful inclusion to an already feature packed board, allowing you to make full use of all the boards serial bus I/O capabilities, along with useful case mounted POST monitoring and audio I/O.
Manual
The manual and quick start guide are excellent. The multi language manual itself actually contains less useful information than the quick start guide, which has more of a hand in helping you setup the board. Both are well written and easy to follow and in the case of the quick start guide, colourful and nicely illustrated. DFI go the extra mile with the manuals for you, much like the entire LanParty board experience in general. Excellent.BIOS now.
