Fortunately, motherboard manufacturers have found new and exciting ways to make their products unique. Robust overclocking features and the latest integrated peripherals have been popular avenues of differentiation, and bundles have grown from including just the bare essentials to occasionally being a motherboard's biggest selling point. Today, motherboard boxes are almost the size of small briefcases, just so they can accommodate all the extra goodies.

The latest manufacturer to produce a feature-packed, bundle-rich motherboard is DFI, a company known more for products suitable for corporate PC makers than hardcore PC enthusiasts. But corporate types are clearly at the bottom of DFI's priority list with its new LANParty line, which is squarely targeted at PC enthusiasts, case modding fanatics, and gamers who regularly drag their PCs out of the house. Today, we're looking at DFI's LANParty KT400A and NFII Ultra motherboards, which are based on VIA's KT400A and NVIDIA's nForce2 Ultra 400 chipsets, respectively. Does the LANParty line have what it takes to entice late-night, Mountain Dew-guzzling fraggers? Which Socket A LANParty board is the pick of the litter? Keep reading to find out.

The specs
Since we'll be contrasting two LANParty boards today, I've lined up their spec sheets for easy comparison. Despite being based on different chipsets, the two boards actually share a lot as far as specs go. Check it out:

Clearly, the LANParty KT400A and NFII Ultra boards offer very similar capabilities and features. However, those features and capabilities are often powered by different chips, which should yield layout, BIOS, and performance differences. What makes each LANParty board unique? Let's start with the layouts.