The first thing that catches your eye is the PCB's color which is red
and orange. But later you understand that it has also other interesting
features.
Accessories:
-
Package of a standard design;
-
Documentation: user manual in English, brief installation manual in 6 languages;
-
Cables: 2 ATA66/100/133 and FDD;
-
Bracket with 2 USB ports;
-
Bracket for the rear computer panel;
-
Diskette with drivers for IDE RAID;
-
CD containing:
-
drivers;
-
DirectX 8.1;
-
Norton Antivirus 2002;
-
WinDVD 2000 v2.1;
-
3Deep;
-
BuzzSoft SoftPostCard;
-
BuzzSoft SoftCopier;
-
BuzzSoft SoftCardManager;
-
BuzzSoft SoftBulkEmail.
The layout has typical drawbacks: audio-ins are in front of the PCI,
and the IDE RAID and FDD are behind them. When a video card is installed
it's difficult to handle the memory modules, connectors for the brackets
with USB ports and an additional power supply connector are in bad positions.
It's not difficult to reach the only jumper when the board is already installed.
Its functions are shown on the textolite.
The 3-channel switching voltage regulator incorporates 5 capacitors
of 3300 uF and several less capacious ones.
The following controllers are integrated:
-
audio controller based on the chipset's capabilities and Avance Logic ALC650
AC'97 codec supporting 5.1 audio systems and having connectors for front
audio inputs/outputs and for SPDIF;
-
network controller based on the chipset's capabilities and supporting 10
BaseT/100 BaseTX;
-
IDE RAID controller based on the HighPoint HPT372 chip supporting RAID
0, 1 and 0+1 on the protocols up to ATA133.
Non-unsoldered connectors: none.
The system monitoring is supported by the Winbond W83697HF chip. What
is controlled:
-
processor voltage, AGP bus, memory, +3.3, +5 and +12 V, VBAT and +5 V Standby;
-
speed of 2 fans;
-
temperatures of the processor (a built-in thermo diode of the processor
and an external sensor in the socket), and the board (a built-in sensor).
There are 2 connectors for adjustable and 3 for unadjustable connection
of fans (one of them is connected to a fan on the heatsink of the chipset's
north bridge).
Brief characteristics of the board: memory slots - 4 DDR SDRAM;
expansion slots - AGP/ 6 PCI; I/O ports - 2 COM/ LPT/ 2 PS/2/ 6 USB 2.0;
dimensions - 305x245 mm.
Adjustment can be carried out with:
| jumpers and switches |
Jumper to clear up the CMOS |
|
| Jumper to select a mode of the CPU-NorthBridge bus |
Hardware/Software |
| BIOS based on the AwardBIOS 6.00PG of Phoenix |
Setup of memory timings |
+ |
CAS Latency, Bank Interleave, Precharge to Active, Active to Precharge,
Active to CMD, Burst Length, Queue Depth, DQS Drive Strength, DQS Input
Delay, DQS Output Delay, MD Drive Strength, CMD Drive Control, DRAM Access,
Command Rate, Write Recovery Time, tWTR, DCLK Output Delay. |
| Setup of memory frequency |
+ |
By SPD, DDR200, DDR266, DDR333, DDR400 |
| Setup of AGP bus |
+ |
|
| Setup of PCI bus |
+ |
|
| Changeable scaler of AGP and PCI buses |
+ |
FSB:AGP:PCI=3:2:1, 4:2:1, 5:2:1 |
| Manual assignment of interrupts |
+ |
|
| Changeable FSB frequency |
+ |
100-250 MHz in 1MHz steps |
| Changeable CPU multiplier |
+ |
x5-x22.5 |
| Changeable core voltage |
+ |
1.1-2.325 V in 0.025V steps |
| Changeable memory voltage |
+ |
2.55-3.25 V in 0.1V steps |
| Changeable chipset voltage |
- |
|
| Changeable AGP bus voltage |
- |
|
We used the latest available version of the BIOS - BIOS B8.
The board doesn't have lots of controllers though it provides modern
functionality, which, together with an excellent speed and impressive overclocking
scores, makes me think that this model is going to be one of the most popular
on the KT400 chipset.
Test results:
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