For a DDR2 board the gaming performance is very good, outperforming even the Nvidia nForce 780i SLI board in all of our gaming tests. It can't keep up with the DDR3 boards, but buying 4GB of DDR2 is still a fraction of the cost of even 2GB of DDR3 -- that alone will offer significant headroom for games as well.

It is more expensive than its X38 brethren and you'd be hard pressed to tell the two apart if they were standing side by side. However, if you were concerned about price you'll probably want to wait for the P45 launch anyway. It's not power friendly either, but DFI has never claimed to even care -- it's not about the latest bandwagon, it's about being true to its core, of which it does in spades. The incredible north bridge heatsink and its simple interchangeability is no greater example of this -- you're free to replace it with anything you like because they are no heatpipes.

If you love your DFI boards then you'll be onto a winner with the LANParty LT X48 T2R -- everything you need out of Intel's X48 chipset is provided and there's a lot of fun and time investment to be had with it. After talking to BIOS engineers and others in DFI's QA team, the limitations we've been finding are essentially chipset level and there's plenty of beta BIOS out there to try on DFI communities that only add to its true, core-enthusiast appeal. However finding these places and knowing who to ask isn't the most obvious thing on earth -- DFI should fill its manual with more BIOS details, overclocking tips and support forum links for new DFI owners can dive into. This "left to get on with it" is harsh to say the least.