OVER THE PAST few years, motherboard manufacturers have struggled mightily to differentiate their products from the competition. Robust overclocking features and the integrated peripherals have been popular avenues of differentiation, and bundles have grown from including the bare essentials to being a motherboard's biggest selling point. Today, motherboard boxes are almost the size of small briefcases 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 for PC enthusiasts. 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.