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A few months ago, I heard from a forum member asking whether we've seen or heard of a microATX motherboard from DFI that has dual PCIe slots for graphic cards, and therefore allowing the support for Crossfire mode. When I asked our forum member why he wanted such a motherboard, his answer was simple ... to build a portable mini PC that's small enough to be carried around to Lan Parties, and has enough power to play all the latest graphic intensive games. I must admit , it was the first time I heard of such a motherboard, and we found it a struggle to find such a product.

Then out of the blue, DFI contacted us and ask whether we would like to take a look at their new range of LanParty motherboards. At first I thought it's going to be their new motherboards sporting Intel's new X58 chipset, but unfortunately it wasn't to be. However, having said that, DFI did use a new chipset on their new motherboard ... it was the AMD's 790GX chipset with onboard Radeon HD 3300.

The new range of motherboards from DFI is called LanParty JR (Junior), and surprisingly these new motherboards feature dual PCIe slots for graphic cards supprting Crossfire mode. Yup, our forum member was right. They do exist and DFI are one of the first manufacturers to have produced such motherboards.

Most microATX motherboards usually will only feature one PCIe slot for a dedicated graphics card. And the main reason for this is the lack of space on the actual PCB board. However for DFI, this isn't enough. They decided to include 2 PCIe slots ... thus giving users the option to support Crossfire mode. It seems that they want to target their new LanParty JR motherboards at the gaming enthusiasts, who regularly go to Lan Parties ... knowing more and more of them would prefer to carry a mini portable PC instead of a cumbersome large ATX full tower case.

We've already seen what the AMD 790GX chispet can do. You'll find more information in our previous reviews of the ECS A790GXM-A and the ASRock AOD790GX/128M. With onboard graphics in the form of a Radeon HD 3300 using SIDEPORT memory and supporting Hybrid graphics, CrossfireX and DX10, the AMD 790GX chipset is touted to be by far the best all-in-one solution available.

In this review will be taking a look at the DFI LanParty JR 790GX-M2RS motherboard. It utilises AMD's 790GX chipset along with their SB750 southbridge. It features onboard graphics in the form of a Radeon HD 3300 using SIDEPORT memory and supporting Hybrid graphics, CrossfireX and DX10. DFI's LanParty series also contain some unique features, such as the mini heatpipe chipset cooler, the UV-reactive slots and connectors as well as a diagnostic LED and internal power-on and reset switches. The kind of features normally found on higher-end motherboards.

It'll be interesting to see how well the DFI LanParty JR 790GX-M2RS will perform against others in its class. We expect the performance to be similar, but what makes this motherboard different is the extra features and their GENIE overclocking BIOS.

We'll be testing the DFI LanParty JR 790GX-M2RS with our AMD Quad Core Phenom ES @ default 2.6Ghz, Kingston HyperX DDR2 PC2-9200 2Gb Kit, PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 860W PSU and a 24" Samsung SyncMaster 245B LCD monitor. Windows Vista with native DX10 was used as our OS.

Ok, let's not waste any more time and take a closer look at the specifications of the DFI LanParty JR 790GX-M2RS Motherboard.