The board is the top in the line and has perfect functionality and a good accessory
pack.
Accessories:
- Package of a new design with an insect
drawn on it (though I noticed no bugs during the tests:);
- Documentation:
user manual, IDE RAID installation manual and poster with brief installation steps
- all in English;
- Cables: FDD, 1 SATA, 3 ATA66/100/133;
-
Bracket with Com and Game ports;
- Bracket with Mic-In, Earphone-Out
and S/PDIF In/Out (Coaxial and TosLink);
-
Bracket with 4 USB 2.0 ports;
- Bracket with 2 FireWire ports;
-
Bracket for the rear computer panel;
- 2 CDs containing:
- drivers;
- PC-cillin 2000;
- InterVideo WinDVD;
-
InterVideo WinRip;
- InterVideo WinCinema.
The layout has some downsides: IDE RAID are behind PCI connectors, it can be
hard to plug in cables into some connectors along the left side of the board,
especially to the FDD. Multiple connectors around the memory slots and a video
card inserted may lock access to the memory modules. It's not difficult to reach
the jumper and switches when the board is already installed. Their functions are
shown on the textolite.
The 3-channel switching voltage regulator incorporates
3 capacitors of 2200 uF and 3 of 1500uF. There are also voltage regulators for
the AGP bus (3 capacitors of 1000 uF) and for the memory (1 of 1000 uF).
Integrated controllers:
- audio controller based on the VIA Envy24PT
chip; 7.1 audio system supported, front audio inputs/outputs and SPDIF connectors
provided;
-
network controller based on the Intel 82547EI (Kenai II CSA), 10BaseT/100BaseTX/1000BaseT
(Gigabit Ethernet) supported;
- IDE RAID controller based on the
Promise PDC20276 chip supporting RAID 0 and 1 on the ATA133 protocol;
-
FireWire bus controller based on the VIA VT6307 chip.
Technologies
supported:
- BIOS Mirror (Flash EEPROM backup chip soldered out);
-
Voice Genie (voice alert in case of problems during booting).
The
red LED indicates +5 V supplied in the StandBy mode. The board is protected from
video cards which do not support 1.5 V.
Non-unsoldered connectors: none.
System monitoring is supported by Winbond W83627HF-AW chip. It controls:
- processor voltage, +3.3, +5 and +-12 V, VBAT and +5 V Standby;
-
speed of 3 fans;
- temperatures of the processor (built-in sensor)
and the board (built-in sensor).
There are 3 connectors for adjustable
connection of fans (one of them is connected to a fan on the north bridge's heatsink).
Brief
board's characteristics: memory slots - 4 DDR SDRAM; expansion slots - AGP/
5 PCI; I/O ports - 2 COM/ LPT/ 2 PS/2/ 8 USB 2.0 / 2 FireWire; dimensions - 305x245
mm.
Settings:
| jumpers and switches |
Jumper to clear up the CMOS |
|
| Switches to choose language of Voice Genie function |
English/ Japanese/ Chinese/ German |
| On/off Switch for BIOS Mirror function |
|
| On/off Switch for AGP protection |
|
| BIOS based on the Phoenix AwardBIOS 6.00PG |
Setup of memory timings |
+ |
CAS Latency, RAS Precharge, RAS to CAS Delay, Precharge Delay |
| Setup of memory frequency |
+ |
DDR/CPU = Default, 1.33x, 1.6x, 2.00x, 2.50x, 2.66x |
| Setup of AGP bus |
- |
|
| Setup of PCI bus |
- |
|
| Changeable scaler of AGP and PCI buses |
+ |
AGP(PCIx2) = 66-76 MHz in 1MHz steps |
| Manual assignment of interrupts |
+ |
|
| Changeable FSB frequency |
+ |
100-333 MHz in 1MHz steps |
| Changeable CPU multiplier |
+ |
x8-x50 |
| Changeable core voltage |
+ |
0.8375-1.6 V in 0.0125V steps |
| Changeable memory voltage |
+ |
2.55-2.85 V in 0.1V steps |
| Changeable chipset voltage |
- |
|
| Changeable AGP bus voltage |
+ |
1.5-1.8 V in 0.1V steps |
We used the BIOS R1.00 as the latest available
version.
The board sports rich changeable settings, a good overclocking
potential, good functions and an excellent though not unique accessory pack -
this board could be the best on this chipset if it didn't yield to the leader.
Anyway, this is one of the best boards, and its performance will rise even more
with the new BIOS versions.
Test results:
