DFI LANParty story – how gaming PC components were born –

Recently, in connection with the demise of eVGA, we were nostalgic about the era when not four, but 10-12 motherboard manufacturers competed for the favors of users. The companies tried different tactics: some focused exclusively on the favorable price, others started their conquest with product lines designed for unique appearance, functions and target group.

ROG – Republic of Gamers, ASUS’ own sub-brand, which has grown enormously in the last two decades, is often mentioned, but they were by no means the first to think that a separate business could be built for gamers. DFI, also starting from Taiwan, smelled the opportunity very well and wanted to stand out from the big ones with stronger production volume in such a way that it built its own image, product range and reputation through its motherboards. We longed for them, dreamed of them; then the hard financials wiped it all out.

Why did everyone think they were Dutch?

There is no particular clue as to the origin of this misconception, but during conversations we have repeatedly heard that DFI is also special because it is managed by a Dutch team, and that is certainly why it uses the orange color on the packaging and on part of its motherboards. Since it has the letter D in its name, like Dutch, many people have already seen this theory confirmed, even though, as we wrote above, everything started from the Taiwanese headquarters, and although a Dutch office joined the company group later, only the implementation of the supply and commercial goals for the European continent helped him.

However, if we look at the fact that nowadays the manufacturer strangely does not remember its gamer PC past, and even denies it, then we would still prefer the Dutch character. However, DFI did not cease to exist, it merely changed its strategy, applied new business processes, and closed the distribution of its products intended for end users in 2012. Of course, there would be no problem with this, it was probably a logical decision by senior management in order to survive, but officially there is no trace left of what it put on the desktops of millions of users in the 2000s.

However, the LANParty series definitely deserves more than the mention “we produced PC motherboards and received a creative award for this”, since users loved the company’s boards, not only the appearance, but also the tuning functions convinced many. Regardless of the platform and processor, the LANParty sets performed well, and the unique coloring was embedded in the modding craze that would come with the later gamer revolution and made machine building a popular hobby.

Overpriced chick? Not a bit

From many tests at the time, it can be read that the majority of journalists were not at all fainted by the UV-reagent motherboard expansion slots and CPU cooling frame, and the fluorescent coating of the visually enhancing tapered IDE cables only increased the division. Many users were fans of these, while others hated the manufacturer’s products for this very reason and pointed in the direction of big brands with traditional motherboard colors.

There was no shortage of ports and connectors on DFI’s high-end cards, and it was a clear goal for the company that it could win against the big guys only in the top category. Extra SATA ports, RAID controller, start button integrated on the printed circuit board, additional interfaces, jumpers and, if necessary, a circuit board providing extra audio channels; it was all part of the standard equipment. Unpacking it was a great experience, even though the box graphics look awfully ugly to today’s eyes, many people still loved it and preserved it for posterity.

However, for experienced users, the detailed and stable operation of the BIOS meant much more than overclocking, as well as the engineering work that sometimes resulted in unusual motherboard layouts. All this in order to have a better RAM support or to fit the power supply circuits in such a way that no heat sinks are left on either side. In general, Intel kits did not need to touch the scheme recommended by the processor manufacturer, but nForce chipsets required engineering know-how to dissipate the heat generated by the SLi and the control chip.

A quiet, closed Party with a heavy heart

It could not have been an easy decision, and the underlying reasons have not been made public since then, in any case, the manufacturer did not communicate the termination of the LANParty series in the way the community would have expected. One of the most unpleasant stories was widely publicized during Computex 2010: an editor of bit-tech.net went to the company’s office in Taiwan and tried to find out what was going on with motherboards intended for gamers. Well, from the answers obtained with great difficulty from one of the employees, it became clear that there will be new products at the exhibition stand, but only for industrial use. As soon as the questions specifically related to LANParty products, the answers were denials, parries and side conversations.

It is disrespectful and saddening, as the manufacturer disregards its own history and invested resources with this attitude, while the DFI user base has become a DFI fanbase, which is disappointed to learn of the decision. Looking back on what happened, problems were already visible with the last generation: new products came less and less, interesting developments on LANParty motherboards became rarer, there were fewer models, and then the entire product line was shot down. The memories remain, and another strigula in the line of defunct legendary motherboards.