Heir To The BX: 18 Pentium III Motherboards Using The 815 Chipset – THG.RU

Round up: 18 Boards with the 815 Chipset

On October 29, Intel will likely release the fourth Pentium generation, running at 1.4 and 1.5 GHz clock speed. This new CPU is supposed to work at 100 MHz system speed, yet quad pumped like AGP4x, increasing the bandwidth of the new CPU-bus to virtually 64-bit at 400 MHz. This newcomer will once more require a new motherboard.

Until then there are four processors to chose from: AMD’s Duron and new Athlon as well as Intel’s Celeron and Pentium III. Both the Duron and the Celeron are low-cost processors, which might not offer highest performance, but an excellent price/performance ratio. Intel’s Celeron is not able to compete with high performance of AMD’s Duron, but it runs on less expensive platforms. For more details, please refer to our review of the Duron processor.

Comparing the Athlon and the Pentium III is more difficult. Both are fast and tend to perform very similarly. Some normal applications as well as all FPU-intensive software will be faster on the Athlon, other titles, like many 3D-games, can benefit more from the Pentium III. AMD and Intel are using a socket for both their low-end and their performance processor families.

The question whether to buy Athlon or Pentium III will not be answered here. Some people prefer the Athlon simply because they don’t want to support Intel, others will only rely on Intel products. In my opinion, the price for the whole system (CPU, motherboard, RAM) should be the factor with most influence on your buying decision. This article deals with 18 Socket 370 motherboards for Intel’s Pentium III or Celeron processors.

One of the most performance critical factors is the platform. While there is only one performance chipset available for the new Athlon, VIA’s KT133, there are five options for the Pentium III: The Intel 440BX, Intel 820, Intel 840, Intel 815 and VIA’s 694X. The fastest platform comes with a special disadvantage. At 133 MHz front side bus clock, Intel’s BX chipset still provides best performance, but at the risk of running the chipset and AGP beyond specification. Nobody wants to talk about i820 and i840 chipsets anymore, since its Rambus architecture is not fast enough to justify the high memory and chipset prices. There are still the VIA 694X and Intel’s 815 chipset left. Both provide similar performance, whereas only the Intel chipset is available with an integrated UltraATA/100 controller (815E).

The 815 Chipset

With the introduction of the 820 and 840 chipsets, Intel wanted to replace SDRAM-memory with the much more expensive and questionably performing RDRAM. Thanks to several embarrassing mistakes – e.g. ‘Caminogate’ and the MTH issue – the i820 and i840 chipsets never became successful. RDRAM based systems have still not proven to be able to beat SDRAM machines, particularly not at the same price point. Only dual-channel RDRAM computers with Intel’s 840 chipset can provide better performance in some workstation applications, but at much higher prices.

Actually, the 815 chipset is not only replacing the good old 440BX chipset, but can also be seen as inexpensive and fast alternative to the rather useless 820 chipset. In addition, its integrated graphics makes an AGP graphics card obsolete for people who only run office applications. Still you have got the option to supply your own AGP 3D-accelerator as well. i815 offers most of the important goodies of i820, but it lacks dual processor support and it can’t host more than 512 MB of memory. i810 forces you to use its integrated graphics solution and it only supports PC100 SDRAM, so it’s far from an alternative to either i820 or i815, unless you are into building an inexpensive system with average to low performance

If there wasn’t the rather high price and limited supply, i815 could be an excellent choice for system integrators: Intel chipset, good performance, no need for a graphics card, inexpensive on-board sound and network solutions and it is easy to upgrade.

The GMCH (Graphics and Memory Controller Hub), former North Bridge, is the first of two essential elements of the 815 chipset. It includes the CPU interface, SDRAM controller, graphics controller and external AGP interface and a power management controller. The motherboard manufacturer has the choice of two different ICH chips (I/O Controller Hub, former South Bridge) to go with the ‘GMCH’. The 82801AA supports UltraATA/66 and two USB ports. Its bigger brother, the 82801BA, supports UltraATA/100, four USB ports, a high priority PCI interface for 1394-controllers, integrated LAN controller and runs at 1.8 instead of 3.3 V. The following table will show you all differences:

What about AMR and CNR?

On most i815-motherboards you might either find Audio/Modem Riser or Communications and Network Riser slots. I think the descriptions already give away what those components are good for, so I am not going to start an excursion into these two slots. The idea might be good, but in reality it is almost impossible to get an AMR or CNR modem. In my opinion, choosing a PCI device is the best you can do, because you can keep using this card for some years to come. Maybe your next motherboard will not have the AMR or CNR slot anymore, which might force you to get a PCI model anyway.

AMR and CNR are targeted to OEMs, who always try to find the least expensive way of adding features to their systems. People who build their own systems should not bother with this stuff and motherboards that are targeted to the retail market can do just fine without CNR or AMR slots.

Memory Matters

There is one issue, which might cloud the bright picture of Solano, as it is restricted to 512 MByte RAM only. That should be enough for most of us, but high-end video or audio applications eat RAM like a horse. In that case, the VIA 694X chipset might be the better choice.

As the memory clock can only be either 100 or 133 MHz, you will finally have to kiss goodbye to any 66 MHz SDRAM DIMMs. There are several ways of clocking your system and memory:

Memory Matters, Continued

This time, I included several common types of SDRAM memory. Every board was tested with my Crucial PC133 CL2 SDRAM, but I also tried the following modules on each candidate:

Corsair PC133 SDRAM, CL2 (Double Sided, Micron Chips, 64 MBit, 7 ns)

Kingston PC133 SDRAM, CL3 (KTC-EN133/128, Single Sided, Infineon Chips, 128 MBit, 7.5 ns)

Memory Solution PC133 SDRAM, CL3 (Double Sided, 64 MBit, 7.5 ns)

Mushkin PC133 SDRAM, CL2 (Double Sided 64 Mbit, 7 ns)

Mushkin PC150 HSDRAM, CL2 (Double Sided, 64 Mbit, Enhanced Memory Solutions Chips, 6.6 ns)

PQI/Taiwan PC133 SDRAM, CL3 (Double Sided, 64 Mbit, 7.5 ns)

Viking PC133 SDRAM, CL3 (Single Sided, Toshiba Chips, 128 Mbit, 7.5 ns)

Wichmann Workx PC133 SDRAM, CL3 (Double Sided, Infineon Chips, 64 Mbit)

The Corsair and Mushkin memory modules always worked properly. I got some problems with both Kingston and Viking, likely due to their single sided design and 128 Mbit chips.

It was interesting to see that only the Asus, ABit and AOpen motherboards work with the HSDRAM module. Please note that most of the memory I used is quality SDRAM which usually is more expensive than standard no-name SDRAM sold by most discounters.

Unfortunately, Intel added another restriction to the Solano chipset which affects the installation of DIM modules. You are only allowed to have four rows of SDRAM, e.g. two double sided DIMMs (two rows each) or four single sides modules. You can also use one double sided and two single sided of course. If you installed several modules and experience hang ups, check their structure and try running the system with only one DIMM.

Keep Cool(er)

I got several emails from readers complaining about motherboards on which you cannot use several kinds of CPU coolers because of capacitors or other components mounted too close to the socket. As there is no real standard for the spacing between socket and the surrounding components, I’m not quite sure if it would be right to blame the motherboard companies for that. For the time being, I will include tests with several different coolers in every motherboard round up. I’m not going to remove a motherboard from my recommendations list if one out of maybe five coolers cannot be used. Only if certain components are placed too close to the socket that hardly any cooler can be used, I will have this have an influence on the test result. Here are the coolers which I used:

This model can easily be fixed with a little hook, but this hook is interfering with the first DIMM socket of the Gigabyte, MSI and Shuttle boards.

That’s one of the larger coolers we have. Originally it was designed for Athlon or Duron systems, but I decided to use it for this round up as well.

The third one is a standard cooler with Papst fan.

The Boards

ABit SE6

Board Revision: ?
BIOS Version: June 19, 2000

The latest ABit motherboard comes with their Soft Menu II, giving you all CPU setup and overclocking options directly in the BIOS. Lots of FSB speeds between 66 and 153 MHz are available. I’m just missing faster speeds than 153 MHz. The Asus CUSL2 and MSI’s board proved that 166 MHz are no problem for the chipset. I suppose it’s the clock generator, which does not support faster clock speeds. ABit is the only manfacturer that lets you select the in-order queue depth (1 or 4).

The common hardware features do not differ very much from the competitors: 6 PCI slots, CNR, UltraATA/100, AGP 4x, AC97 sound system with 3 line-ins, three DIMM sockets and 3 fan headers. Memory compatibility was quite good: All DIMMs except the HSDRAM DIMM from Mushkin worked properly. The board’s design is not perfect: The lower DIMM locks interfere with the AGP card if they aren’t closed and the floppy connector is placed right in front of two PCI slots. As you have four more, that should not really pose a problem. To ease this little inconvenience, a piezo speaker is already on-board and will make the system speaker obsolete.

There is not much more to say about the ABit board. It’s fast, runs very stable and offers excellent overclocking features. It’s a typical ABit board. Just the cables for the USB ports 3 and 4 and the COM2 cable are not supplied by default.

AOpen AX3S Pro

Board Revision: 1
BIOS Version: 1.02 (July 7, 2000)

Motherboards of Aopen’s Pro series always come with great features and the golden chipset cooler, which make the AOpen boards look different. Besides the common hardware (5 PCI, CNR, 3 DIMM, AC97 sound, UltraATA/100), the AX3S Pro comes with AOpen’s ‘Die Hard BIOS’, which basically is a dual BIOS. A little jumper on the lower left edge lets you chose whether you want to boot from the primary or the backup ROM. All actual shipments of this motherboard include a lever (so-called controller) which has been mounted into a slot cover. If your BIOS upgrade fails or a virus destroys it, you don’t even have to open the case any more. Just put the lever in the opposite position to change the active Flash ROM.

The on-board AC97 sound system has three internal line-in ports – which are important for users with several multimedia cards. The three DIMM sockets will hold up to 512 MB SDRAM. The AX3S Pro is one of the motherboards that worked with Enhanced Memory Systems’ HSDRAM. Actually the AOpen board did not have any difficulties with any of the 8 different DIMMs, which is a respectable result.

AOpen includes an USB adapter cable so that you can use the ports 3 and 4 without additional hardware. The COM2 port is available on the motherboard, but no cable is provided. In my opinion the USB adapter cable is more important than the second serial port, so I can live with that. All AOpen Pro motherboards do also come with a proprietary bus interface called GPIO. AOpen is currently designing hardware adapters that are supposed to make use of it. The interface is supposed to control every kind of external hardware, e.g. a radio control. Basically, you can realize such ideas with PCI hardware as well, but the GPIO would be a much cheaper solution.

AOpen AX3S Pro, Continued

AOpen is selling their high end motherboards in this new package for some weeks now. The package allows every interested person to take a first look at the motherboard. Particularly the golden heat sink is of course visible as well. Inside this nice box, there is a driver CD and another disc with Norton Ghost and Norton Anti Virus. The manual is comprehensive, complete and very easy to understand. Right now, AOpen is concentrating on multi-language versions of their products. We already got a German version of this motherboard as well, which makes a very professional impression. Attempts of most manufacturers to translate manuals into other languages didn’t be very professional so far, although Abit made a pretty good job of that.

Two jumper sets define the basic bus speed range (66/100/133 MHz), everything else is done in the BIOS. Here you can select FSB speeds up to 166 MHz. Unfortunately, the memory is only operated at 140 MHz when choosing the 166 MHz setting. According to AOpen technicians, this limitation is founded in the clock generator. At 166 MHz FSB and 140 MHz memory clock (asynchronous), the system is basically not faster than at 150/150 MHz.

Overclockers are giving the option to alter the CPU core voltage between 1.3V and 3.5V.

Asus CUSL2

Board Revision: 1.02
BIOS Version: 1001

Asus equipped their Solano 2 motherboard with an AGP Pro slot. Don’t worry if you only have a standard AGP connector, since the AGP Pro slot is not faster. It was designed for high-end graphics cards, which need even more power than GeForce models. The Asus BIOS differs completely from all others. You can either setup your processor using the on-board DIPswitches or use the soft setup. If you decide for the BIOS setup, you may choose from many different FSB speeds up to 200 MHz (185 MHz still boots up!) and alter the CPU core voltage as well. If you set an exaggerated clock speed that does not work, the board will automatically launch this BIOS menu after you reset the system. Other motherboards require the CMOS settings be deleted in order to make the system working again.

The CUSL2 comes with 6 PCI slots and 2 CNR. The locks of the three DIMM sockets will not interfere with an AGP card even if they are opened. I could install each of my three CPU coolers without problems as well. Best news from the memory tests: The Asus is the other of the two motherboards that worked with all the different DIMMs! In addition, Asus is again on the top of most benchmark charts.

Our sample did not include a sound system, but the CUSL2 is also available with AC97 sound. Asus is the only manufacturer which includes both a COM2 cable and the cable to make use of three more USB ports. The manual is comprehensive, detailed and easy to understand. Performance and stability are on a very high level.

Azza 815TX

Board Revision: 1.2
BIOS Version: 1.0

Azza sells two 815 motherboards. The 815TX and the bigger brother 815TX5, which comes with 5 USB ports. Both have the same basic features: AGP 4x, 4 PCI, 3 DIMM, AC97 sound system using an Analog Devices codec and the AMR slot. Even though the AMR or CNR slots will likely never be used, the placement between the AGP slot and the first PCI has the advantage that the space between graphics card and the first PCI card will be empty. This will help that fast graphics cards do not get too hot.

The board layout does not give any reason to complain. All three CPU coolers can be used smoothly. Full size expansion cards can be used in every slot. The second serial port had to give way to the monitor jack. Hence COM2 has been placed at the very bottom of the board and can be reactivated using an adapter cable. Unfortunately, this cable is not included in Azza’s package. Three fan headers should be enough to keep the system cool.

I found two interesting features on this board. The first one is called AIR Bus (Azza Intelligent ROM) and is a proprietary interface for a security module called KeyBIOS. This little box is fully programmable via special software provided by Azza. On the one hand, it works as a security system that denies system access if the KeyBIOS box should be absent. The second feature is BIOS recovery. Different from other companies, Azza does not equip their boards with two BIOSes, but with the AIR Bus option to have the BIOS completely restored. In my opinion, this approach only makes sense if you need the security option as well. Otherwise the purchase of the motherboard plus the KeyBIOS box will be more expensive than another motherboard with dual BIOS.

Feature number two is a TV-out. Azza provides a fully featured connector (between GMCH and the external connectors). All you need is the TV-Out Adapter from Azza. Unfortunately, the Azza website does not provide much information. Of course you will find BIOS updates and product specifications, but detailed feature descriptions (e.g. of AIR Bus and KeyBIOS) are missing. Even the manual does not include more information besides a warning that the wrong TV adapter may destroy the motherboard…

The CPU FSB setup is done via DIPswitches, whilst the multiplier is set within the BIOS. Even though the 815TX actually is not an overclocking motherboard, it can be operated at several different system speeds between 66 and 150 MHz. Two jumpers have an influence on the processor voltage. If JP2 is open, the voltage range will be limited between 1.3 and 2.0 V. Since you cannot alter the core voltage manually, this feature seems to be pretty useless. On the other hand, the jumper will also prevent over-voltaging e.g. by a defective power supply. With Jumper JP3 closed, the CPU voltage will be raised by 0.05V. That is not enough for hardcore overclocking, but could help to make to make the system more stable at increased clock speeds.

Azza 815TX, Continued

Keyboard and mouse power on is supported and can be disabled by setting JP1. All other functions besides CMOS reset are accessible over the Award BIOS.

The Performance of the 815TX motherboard is within the expected range. As with most other boards, stability was no issue during the tests. At the fastest SDRAM timings, the board did not fail in the SPECviewperf benchmark. All SDRAM DIMMs except the Mushkin HSDRAM worked properly at their default timing settings.

I was a bit puzzled when I first read the following notice in the manual:

In fact I faced exactly this problem, as the board didn’t want to start up until I tried the third power supply. I really hope that Azza is going to fix this soon, since this “little inconvenience” could increase the motherboard return quote tremendously. From experience, most people do not read the manual (do you do your RTFM?) and even less people have two or more spare power supplies to try out another one.

The shipment does not include a COM2 cable, but in return you will get a detailed manual and three CDs. One contains Linux Mandrake, the second an introduction to the AIR Bus technology and several CD-ROM drive tools and CD no. 3 includes all necessary drivers and the INF-update for Windows 95/98.

If the 815TX works with your power supply, you will get a fast and reliable product at a comparatively attractive price.

Chaintech CT-6OJV

Board Revision:
BIOS Version:

Chaintech and Siemens do not equip the GMCH chip (Intel 815 Graphics and Memory Controller Hub) with a cooler. As the board does only support clock speeds up to 150 MHz, that’s basically not necessary. Both the placement of the FDD connector and the DIMM sockets are not chosen very well. The floppy cable will interfere with almost any AGP card and the DIMM locks have to be closed in order to install memory.

6 PCI slots are ready for your hardware. The sound system uses the Crystal codec 4299 from Cirrus Logic. There is also an alternative version of the 6OJV available with a Creative sound chip. Three line-ins are on the motherboard, labeled as aux-in, mono-in and CD-in. And there is some margin left for a second flash chip; the manual calls this TwinBIOS technology. Unfortunately neither this chip nor the Creative sound system was equipped on our test sample. A nice detail is the integrated piezo speaker.

Chaintech included a so-called Instant Recovery Utility into the system BIOS. In a special sub-menu outside the regular BIOS you may backup or restore your system. The BIOS includes an item called hardware reset protect. I think you can imagine what this does: If you need to set up a presentation computer e.g. at a shopping center, you can prevent the system to reset after pushing the reset button without opening the case and removing the cable.

There are almost no jumpers on the board as the CPU setup is done in the SeePU(tm) BIOS sub menu. You may set FSB speeds of up to 150 MHz, but an item to alter the processor core voltage is missing. What I liked is the option to completely release the FDD interrupt in case you don’t want a floppy drive.

Chaintech’s motherboard passed all tests without any problem. The HSDRAM DIMM and the Viking module did not work at all, but all other types of SDRAM can be used. Inside the package you will merely find the necessary things: 80-pin IDE and FDD cable. A COM2 connector is missing and as far as I know, the version with two additional USB ports does not include the adapter cable either.

Both performance and stability are on a high level, just like we wanted to see it. The illustrated good manual will give you every interesting kind of information. You will also have to take a look into the manual before plugging in the power switch, power LED, reset and other cables, because they are not labeled at all on the board.

Chaintech boards are usually available for a nice price; if you can live with a little design weakness and without advanced overclocking features, you will get a reliable motherboard with lots of resources.

DFI CS35-EC

Board Revision: 2
BIOS Version: July 12, 2000

The CS35-EC is a MircoATX motherboard. Nevertheless, it is not worth less than its competitors, as it comes with the ICH2 chip. Thanks to this, an UltraATA/100 controller is available as well as 2+2 USB ports. DFI even includes an adapter cable for the second COM port, which is not bad for a MicroATX motherboard that is usually meant for meagerly equipped office computers only. In the last VIA motherboard round up, Gigabyte used an AGP card lock. DFI took over the idea and ships their CS35-EC motherboard with this mechanical lock as well. Most users won’t ever need it, but people who have to carry around their computer can be sure that the AGP card stays plugged in tightly. OEMs will definitely love this feature, as it helps to make sure that their systems will work right out of the box after shipment.

Three DIMM sockets are more than I would expect from a MicroATX motherboard. But that’s not all. DFI equipped an AC97 sound system, using Analog Devices’ AD1881 codec and four (!) internal line-ins. That’s more than the competition provides. A little piezo speaker is also placed on the motherboard, thus you do not need the system speaker any more.

To setup your CPU, first you need to choose the system speed: 66, 100 or 133 MHz. In the BIOS you may choose overclocked speeds afterwards. The board offers full monitoring options, but you cannot select a shutdown temperature.

Testing the different memory modules was a pleasure with this board. Everything except the HSDRAM DIMM worked. Only few components are placed around the CPU socket, thus it was no problem to use each of the three CPU coolers. DFI placed three fan headers on the board, again more than I would expect. All connectors are clearly labeled, so that you won’t need the manual to attach the power, reset and LED cables. If anybody needs the second COM port or more than the two external USB ports, one will have to get the proper adapter cable, as DFI did not put them inside the box.

Finally, stability and performance are on a quite high level, underlining the good impression of this motherboard.

Elitegroup P6ISM

Board Revision: Pre-release
BIOS Version: unknown

I’m sorry to say that I could not get the ECS board working at all. Thus the benchmark results and talk about BIOS is missing. From the hardware point of view everything is available: 3 PCI, UltraATA/66 controller, 2 DIMM sockets, Realtek LAN on-board, C-Media PCI sound chip on-board (2 line-ins), 2+2 USB ports and two fan headers. This configuration is better than average for a MicroATX motherboard.

The P6ISM seems to be perfect for standard computers within an office network. The integrated graphics will be enough for common Windows applications. If some computers need better 3D graphics performance, they can be upgraded with fast AGP cards without changing the rest of the system: The drivers for the sound and network chips will stay the same, making maintenance in a network easier.

There is enough space for a third DIMM sockel on this board. If you should want it, you may also ask for this option. I don’t expect this board to be significantly slower or faster than others, as the performance of Solano systems is quite balanced.

Epox EP-3S1A

Board Revision: 1.0
BIOS Version: July 12, 2000

The Epox motherboard also comes with an Analog Devices codec, enabling AC97 sound features. Also available is a version with a PCI sound chip. Both versions will include three input connectors (CD, modem, aux) in order to attach multimedia hardware; only the PCI sound version has a digital SPDIF connector as well. Other hardware features are three DIMM sockets for up to 512 MB SDRAM, five PCI, AMR and UltraATA/66 controller. Generally, the board is very well designed and all connectors are clearly labeled.

Epox is a supporter of soft setup, thus the processor setup is done in the BIOS. Here you can chose FSB speeds up to 150 MHz and raise the CPU core voltage by 0.05, 0.1 or 0.15 Volt. The BIOS gives you the option to disable on-board components. It was quite surprising that Windows 2000 would not boot as long as the USB controller is disabled in the BIOS. The OS crashed at the moment you have to enter username and password. After fixing this problem by enabling the USB controller, the board still crashed frequently. It took some time to find out that it was the Crucial memory, since I’ve never experienced problems with this DIMM before. Of course I went ahead and tried the other DIMMs as well. The SDRAM from PQI and Viking also crashed, but a good piece earlier. With the PQI memory, the BIOS stopped with “memory test fail” which is an error message I haven’t seen for years. Using the Viking memory had the system crashed during memory test as well. Mushkin’s PC150 HSDRAM also did not work, which is not abnormal within the test bed.

After getting the system running stable, everything worked to my perfect satisfaction. Epox’s manual holds extensive information about the motherboard setup, BIOS, software setup and even some pages about Norton Ghost, which is included for free.

Gigabyte GA-6OXM7E

Board Revision: 1.0
BIOS Version:

Gigabyte’s 815E motherboard comes with a strange name and a cool turquoise PCB. And it is a feature monster: 6 PCI, 4 DIMMs, CNR, UltraATA/100 controller, Creative sound chip, 2+2 USB ports (adapter not included), piezo speaker on-board, DualBIOS(tm), Wake on Everything and basically a good layout. On the second look, I could not install one of our CPU coolers when a DIMM was installed in the first slot, because the latch would require the space where the DIMM is placed. I also doubt that it is really necessary to equip a Solano board with 4 DIMM slots. Two reasons speak against it: Solano does not support more than 512 MB RAM. Furthermore, if you really want to install four DIMMs, you may only use single-sided ones. Two double sided, one double and two single sided, or four single sided DIMMs can be used on i815 boards.

The DualBIOS(tm) feature is well known and very useful in order to improve system availability. Lots of jumpers can be found on this motherboard, even though the processor setup is done entirely in the BIOS. One jumper seems to be quite useful: If you put JP15 to 2-3, the system will boot up in safe mode. This can be a real advantage if you over-tuned the computer. On the other hands, e.g. the Asus board automatically determines whether the system is workable or not and goes directly to the BIOS if the answer is “no”. Still setting this jumper is at least better than erasing all CMOS settings.

The 6OXM7E failed the memory tests when equipped with Mushkin’s HSDRAM, PQI or the Viking memory. All other DIMMs worked properly. I had the problem that I could not get my 3COM 905TX network card running if it was plugged into PCI slot 5 or 6. In slot 1, 2, 3 or 4, everything worked fine. I tried to get some information about this at Gigabyte’s website, but the only stuff I found is that you cannot download any sound drivers for the Creative chip from the Gigabyte homepage. I had to go to the Creative homepage and download the drivers for their Vibra 128 PCI card.

Performance and stability was quite well with the Gigabyte board. Even though the four DIMM sockets might not be very meaningful, the 6OXM7E is still one of the best featured Solano motherboard available.

IWill WO2-R

Board Revision:
BIOS Version:

IWill has become a big supporter of IDE RAID. Their actual Solano motherboard comes with the ICH2 chip, enabling UltraATA/100 mode. But it seems as if that was still not enough after a look at the board: An ATA/100 IDE RAID controller chip from American Megatrands (known for BIOSes) is also present. All you need is at least two hard drives which can either be stripped in order to improve performance, or you use one as a mirror of the other one. That increases the data safety tremendously, as it’s unlikely that two hard drives crash at the same time. Striping two hard drives will double the disk subsystem’s bandwidth; three will almost give you triple the transfer speed. Using four drives will finally add only some extra percent. Using a disk drive stripe set is a good decision if you are working with large amounts of data intensively. If you are only using office software or games, you will hardly ever take the disk array to the limit.

IWill does not use an AC97 codec but integrated the PCI sound chip HSP56 from C-Media, which comes with two line-ins and a jumper to disable it. Three fan headers are ready for additional cooling devices. All four IDE connectors (two for the ICH2 UATA/100 controller and two for the RAID chip) are placed side by side. That saves space on the motherboard, but makes it difficult to attach four cables – a little chaos is probable.

IWill offers bus speeds up to 200 MHz. Below this rather high setting you may chose several speeds between 66 and 166 MHz which should be no problem for the board. It will be more difficult to get high quality SDRAM to run 150+ MHz. We tested our 8 different DIMMs at 133 MHz, 7 of them worked fine. With the HSDRAM module the system would not even start up – just as what we saw with most of the other boards. Make sure the lower DIMM locks are closed before installing an AGP card, as the open locks are right in front of the slot.

There are only a few jumpers on the board, since most things can be set up in the BIOS. I personally like jumpers to enable or disable hardware features. That’s what IWill did for the IDE RAID controller and the sound chip. The COM2 connector is present on the motherboard; you only need to attach the serial cable that is included in the box. By the way, due to the additional IDE RAID chip, two 80-pin cables are provided.

The manual is even more than comprehensive. 160 pages are quite a lot. Hardware, software, system configuration and setup and the BIOS are described in detail.

Iwill’s WO2-R proved to be a great featured motherboard with excellent performance and admirable stability. That’s what we want to see!

Jetway 616AF

Board Revision: ?
BIOS Version: A01 (July 5, 2000)

The 616AF is equipped with the ICH1 chip (UltraATA/66). Besides the common features (5 PCI, AMR, 3 DIMMs, 2+2 USB), this board has an AC97 sound system with two line-ins and a chassis intrusion detector.

The Wake On LAN jack is present, whilst Wake On Ring has not been included. Jetway uses Award’s fashioned white BIOS status screen. By pressing the TAB key, you can still see the familiar Award boot up screen.

Jetway includes the option to select the AGP mode, which is basically not necessary, as the AGP will always run in the fastest possible mode.

The BIOS was slightly modified: IDE, I/O and integrated peripherals setup have been organized into new sub-menus each. Also within the BIOS you may chose FSB speeds up to 160 MHz. As with most other boards, you have to select the speed range (66/100/133 MHz) via some jumpers.

The Jetway board passed the memory test with an average result: Viking’s SDRAM did not work on it, also the HSDRAM from Mushkin failed to boot. With all other memory, the system started properly and passed all tests.

The board is fast and absolutely stable. In addition, it should be available at an interesting price point.

MSI 815E Pro / MS-6337 Pro

Board Revision: 1
BIOS Version: 1.1 (July 25, 2000)

The motherboards from QDI and MSI both have a deep greep PCB. MSI’s Solano 2 board comes with four DIMM sockets, which you usually cannot make full use of. As I already mentioned above, Solano only supports four memory rows. That restricts the memory setup to max. two double sided DIMMs or one double and two single sided. You can only equip all four sockets if you use single sided DIMMs only.

6 PCI slots, one CNR and two UltraATA/100 channels should be enough for most users. Three fan headers are provided in order to keep your system cool. The sound system is compatible to the AC97 standard and uses a Sigmatel codec chip. Three inputs are available to attach CD-ROM, video card, TV card or other multimedia hardware.

This motherboard is also available with 5 PCI and 1 ISA slot and/or with a PCI sound chip. Two additional USB ports are available with this motherboard; but you will have to purchase the adapter cable yourself. There is not much to complain about the design, just the lower DIMM locks interfere with the AGP card – most competitors have the same weakness.

Most MSI motherboards come with a debug feature called D-LED. Four LEDs on the motherboard are showing you the system state during start up. If the system doesn’t want to start, you can find out the reason with the help of D-LED. A little speaker on the motherboard replaces the case speaker.

MSI 815E Pro / MS-6337 Pro, Continued

The package includes a manual (I only got a preliminary, yet it’s complete and easy to understand) and a driver CD. Several different sound drivers are on this disc; MSI probably uses different codec and PCI chips. I suppose that beginners could easily be puzzled when trying to chose the right one. There’s bad news from the SDRAM test: The board failed with almost 50% of the tested memory. The DIMMs from Viking and Kingston both did not work; most likely due to their 128 Mbit single sided design. The memory from PCI and my HSDRAM module didn’t want to run either. Just the RAM from Corsair, Crucial, Memory Solution (Germany), Mushkin and Wichmann Workx (Germany) worked properly.

MSI included an option to change the processor core voltage and chose the FSB speed freely in 1 MHz increments, making this board an excellent overclocking platform. I tried the system at 166 MHz and had two crashes, most likely because the GMCH chip became too hot. A little heat sink could fix this.

If you use conventional but high-end memory (128 MB double sided, 64×8 chips), the only problem you could face is that the lock of some CPU coolers could interfere with the DIMM in slot #1:

Luckily I don’t have more to criticize, so let’s get back to the benefits: High performance, Solano-like excellent stability, overclocking features and lots of hardware resources. If you have an old ISA card you may also go for the version with one ISA slot.

Procomp BIS2M

Board Revision: ?
BIOS Version: ?

The Procomp motherboard is the second one that was already DOA, so that I can only give you some feature information. It comes with 3 PCI and 3 DIMM sockets, AC97 sound with 3 line-ins, UltraATA/100 controller, 4 USB ports and Intel 10/100 Mbit LAN. Only two USB ports can be used immediately. To use the others you will have to buy an adapter cable. A serial cable to use the COM2 port is included.

Both Wake on Ring and on LAN are supported, a little piezo speaker is present to replace the PC speaker in your case. Even a chassis intrusion detector can be found. Due to the capacitor between DIMM sockets and the Socket 370 I could only use one out of my three CPU coolers. Basically it’s great to see that a little MircoATX board comes with so many features. I hope I can give you the benchmark results at the first Solano update in a few weeks.

QDI SynactiX 2E

Board Revision: 1.0
BIOS Version: 1.2 (July 20, 2000)

You can identify the QDI board (Quantum Designs Inc.) by the green PCB color and a little brand sticker on the ICH chip. It is the ICH2 chip that was used for this motherboard. Thanks to that, it supports UltraATA/100 and comes with 2 more USB ports. Unfortunately you will have to purchase an adapter cable for the second two USB-ports by yourself, as it is not included in the package. There are no special add-ons in the box besides the manual, floppy and 80-pin IDE cable. As with most other boards, the COM2 port has been removed from the back panel. QDI placed the connector for the 2nd COM port on the right side, just in front of the PCI slots. The required adapter cable is also part of the motherboard package.

QDI supports Front Side Bus speeds of up to 166 MHz, giving you basic overclocking features. The speed range has to be chosen via two jumpers, determining whether you want the system to auto-detect the system speed or to chose between 66/100/133 MHz. QDI is very proud of their soft setup called ‘CPU SpeedEasy’, which is as old as Abit’s ‘SoftMenu’. The patent was even printed into the manual. In it you can find one of the most detailed hardware features and setup descriptions as well as explanations for most BIOS settings. It also introduces QDI’s RecoveryEasy system to you. Basically, it is an enhanced partitioning sofware. It allows making copies of your system partition (and others, of course) for backup purposes. Due to the fact that this program has been placed into the 4 MBit Flash ROM, you can start it during the system initialization procedure. Hence you can also change the active partition in order to boot different operating systems.

Also the basic hardware features are top notch: 6 PCI slots, CNR, AGP 4x with a mechanical card lock, AC97 sound system with two line-ins, three DIMM sockets and optional LAN. Although I don’t believe that end users will ever equip their AMR or CNR slot, the placement of the CNR at the bottom of the board is well chosen. You may attach up to three additional fans to the on-board fan headers. QDI placed a little piezo speaker on this board, making the system speaker obsolete.

I had no stability issues and performance was good as well. The SynactiX 2E is compatible with almost all kinds of memory: All types of SDRAM except the HSDRAM worked properly. There was also no reason to complain after a deep look at the design. The DIMM sockets can be equipped without its locks interfering with the AGP, all add-on cards can be full-size and all three CPU coolers I had could be installed. There is some space between the floppy and the IDE connectors which make it a bit easier to plug in a flat cable inside the cable-crowded system. Last but not least, this board has a chassis intrusion detection connector as well.

Shuttle ME21

Board Revision: 1.7
BIOS Version: 1.03 (July 4, 2000)

The little Shuttle board is a MicroATX one. Thus it comes with only three PCI slots and two DIMM sockets.

It was good to see that Shuttle decided to use the ICH2 chip, giving you an UltraATA/100 controller and two more USB ports. You will only have to purchase a USB adapter cable by yourself, as it is not inside the package. Shuttle included a serial cable in order to use the second COM port however.

Shuttle is the only company in this round-up that uses an AMI BIOS. This motherboard is not an overclocking model at all, as you cannot chose neither CPU core voltage nor other system speeds than the three defaults (133/100/66 MHz).

The on-board AC97 sound system uses a codec chip from Sigmatel and has three line-ins. As with most other boards, the opened DIMM locks will be directly in front of the AGP card. Be sure you close them before installing a graphics card.

All connectors on this board are well labeled so that you should not need the manual for assembly. On more than 80 pages you will find both necessary and interesting information about the ME21. A CD containing drivers and utilities is also provided.

Siemens 1184

Board Reivision: A11
BIOS Version: 1.01

We already took a look at this Siemens motherboard in our first Solano review. It will probably not be available in many other retail markets than the German, so most of you might never get to see it. But that shouldn’t be a reason to worry about, as they are primarily meant for OEM use. Most individual users might prefer other motherboards, since the Siemens board is very conservative. There aren’t any overclocking options at all. On the other hand, Siemens boards are a far cry away from their competition, as the German company makes some of the highest quality motherboards available.

The S-1184 is the only board in this test with a complete thermal management. I used a Pentium III 933, which usually gets quite hot. On the Siemens motherboard, the CPU fan did still deliberately stop every once a while. Of course you can force the fans to run continuously, but the ‘auto’ or ‘low noise’ setting did not affect the excellent stability. Thermal mamagent would also be very interesting for overclocking, because the GMCH chip was not even warm during the tests, which is as rare as it is excellent.

There is no option to alter the boot sequence, but the BIOS automatically searches for bootable media. If there is no bootable floppy or CD-ROM available, the system will automatically boot from hard disk. This board is the only one in the test that uses a Phoenix BIOS. As expected, it doesn’t offer a whole lot of options.

Our memory test was not very successful with the Siemens board, as it failed with the Kingston and PQI memory as well as the HSDRAM from Mushkin. I was quite disappointed to see that the board did not want to run with the Crucial memory either. So far, the Crucial SDRAM has been our reference memory due to high performance and excellent compatibility.

The D-1184 offers both on-board 100 MBit LAN and an AC97 sound system. The cable connectors have no description at all, while the IDE connector 1 has been labeled as secondary and vice versa.

This motherboard “Made in Germany” leaves a mixed impression. The board is able to show the competition what’s high-end quality, as the layout lives with less electronic components than all others. In addition, its performance is good and stability exceptionary. Unfortunately the German origin couldn’t guarantee better memory compatibility, as it failed the test with 4 of 9 types of memory.

Tekram S3815-ANE

Board Revision: 1.01
BIOS Version: 1.0 (July 14, 2000)

The Tekram motherbord is equipped with 6 PCI slots, three DIMM sockets, UltraATA/100, CNR slot and AC97 sound system. Unfortunately, you will only get one single line-in. Three DIMM sockets are. As with many other boards, the lower DIMM locks will block the AGP card space if they are open. The practical tests were quite successful, as all memory except the HSDRAM worked fine. I could use each of my three CPU coolers, even though it was a bit difficult to attach the biggest of them.

A COM2 connector is available as well as two more USB ports. To make use of both, you will need two adapter cables that were not included.

The FSB speed range has to be chosen via two jumpers. As with several other boards, you can chose freely between 66/100/133 MHz or auto-detect. Afterwards, you may set faster speeds within the BIOS. The S3815-ANE could easily have become an overclocking board, but Tekram did not implement an option to raise the core voltage.

This board comes with on-board 10/100 Mbit LAN, making a network card obsolete. I just could not find any way to disable it. There are several jumpers on the motherboard, but no one would allow you to switch the network functions off. Also the BIOS does not include any item to do so.

Tekram ships the board with a CD, including anti-virus software and all required drivers. The manual gives you all important informations, including system setup and BIOS item descriptions. Tekram, also known as specialist for SCSI controllers, added a SYMBIOS SCSI BIOS to this motherboard as well.

Last but not least, the board performed as good as the competitors and ran stable as well.

Transcend TS-ASL3

Board Revision: 1
BIOS Version: 1

The memory and motherboard specialist Transcend sent us their new Solano motherboard, which gave quite a good impression on the first look already. Six PCI slots, three DIMMs, AC97 sound with three internal line-ins, UltraATA/100 controller are quite a solid base. However, the board’s design has some little weaknesses. For example the IDE connectors are placed right in front of the PCI slots. That won’t be a real problem, since at least the lower two PCI slots can be used without conflicting with the IDE cables. The DIMM sockets are the second little design flaw, as the locks have to be closed in order to insert an AGP card.

Transcend uses an Award BIOS which does not differ much from the competition. It was good to see that the system speed can be adjusted in single MHz increments. The according BIOS page offers an input field which lets you select FSB speeds between 66 and 100, 100 and 133 or 133 to 166 MHz, depending on the speed grade you have set at JP4 (66/100/133/Auto). Transcend also included the option to increase the core voltage by 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 or 0.4 V, which should be enough for successful overclocking.

The package includes a cable to make use of the second COM port, which had to be removed from the back panel in order to place the VGA connector there. I’m sorry to say that the adapter for the USB ports 3 and 4 is not included. I only found a quick installation guide inside the box, a full manual was missing as well. The quick guide lists the features and described all components and connectors. A BIOS description and installation instructions are only available in the digital manual that is on the drivers CD-ROM. That may be useful in case you want to check something, but won’t help if you have questions while assembling the computer.

Both stability and performance were excellent. The ASL3 worked with all SDRAM DIMMs except the HSDRAM module. Even though there are many capacitors in the vicinity of the CPU socket, it was no problem to install each of the three CPU coolers properly. Three headers are available for additional fans. Luckily, the CNR slot is placed at the bottom of the board and is shared with the sixth PCI slot. This way Transcend did not sacrify a PCI slot just to have the CNR slot present.

In summary you will get a reliable and superbly featured Pentium III platform. Transcend decided to concentrate on good expandability and compatibility instead of adding special features, which is definitely worth more than an overkill motherboard with lots of bugs.

Test Setup

SYSmark 2000 – Windows 98 SE

The Asus CUSL2 motherboard is taking the lead once again – but only because Excel sorted it that way! Chaintech, Epox, DFI, Gigabyte, Jetway and ABit get the same high results. Also the rest of the test bed is all but far away.

SPECviewperf 6.1.2 – Advanced Visualizer

I used the SPECviewperf benchmark primarily to test the system stability. All boards score pretty much the same in Advanced Visualizer. A sad exception is the shuttle board, which is a good bit slower.

SPECviewperf 6.1.2 – Design Review

There is clearly a difference between the boards – but only around 5%. The Gigabyte board is able to pull ahead a little bit.

SPECviewperf 6.1.2 – Data Explorer

Again, the Shuttle board is not able to keep up with the competition. Asus and Gigabyte score are scoring the same result.

SPECviewperf 6.1.2 – Lightscape

There is approximately 10% performance difference between the fastest and the slowest board. Asus and Gigabyte are clearly in front again.

SPECviewperf 6.1.2 – MedMCAD

The ME21 from Shuttle is able to win the first place in the MedMCAD part of SPEC’s viewperf benchmark. Also the Siemens board can be found at the top this time.

SPECviewperf 6.1.2 – ProCDRS

Here it’s Azza who can be found at the last place. Asus and Gigabyte are on the first two positions once more.

Direct 3D Benchmark: Expendable Timedemo

The chart contains two graphs each: The yellow is the standard benchmark result as we always get it, the green is the result with on-board sound enabled. As you can see, a PCI sound chip is absolutely no help in terms of performance. E.g. the Gigabyte board comes with a Creative chip, but the game performance is not clearly better than with the AC97 solutions of most competitors. The Asus board does not have a sound system, that’s why the blue graph is missing.

Even though the Shuttle is slowest and the Asus the fastest; the differences are far too small to even talk about.

OpenGL Gaming Benchmark: Quake III Arena

Again we find very small performance differences. The difference between the fastest and the slowest board is approximately 3 fps. That changes as soon as you enable the sound system. Here, the difference is up to 8 fps.

Overclocking

Most candidates offer alternative system speeds. 150 MHz were tolerated by each motherboard in this review. Some even offer 166 MHz or more (AOpen, Asus, DFI, IWill, Jetway, MSI, QDI). Only ABit, AOpen, Asus, MSI and Epox include the option to raise the CPU voltage. According to our experience it’s often necessary to increase the processor voltage in order to get a stable system. For example if you run a Pentium III 733 at 160 MHz system speed, the CPU will have to cope with 880 MHz. Most of today’s Pentium III CPUs will likely fail at the default voltage of 1.65 V, but will work stable as soon as they get 1.7 or 1.75 V.

Asus has far the best overclocking motherboard right now, as I could get the board running even at 185 MHz FSB! Please note that the memory will only run at 3/4 of the system speed if you exceed 166 MHz. The BIOS setup menu makes it very easy to select system and memory speed as well as the core voltage.

ABit offers similar features, but the clock generator seems to be limited to 153 MHz. I’ve no other obvious explanation for this.

Conclusion

Compared to the VIA motherboard reviews I’ve done some months ago, this one was almost a pleasure. It took me far more time than I expected, but all motherboards within the test bed ran absolutely stable.

The biggest source for problems seems to be the main memory. Most PC133 memory modules are only specified for CAS Latency 3, reducing the overall performance by approx. 3%. CAS 2 memory is more expensive and more difficult to obtain. Running CAS 3 memory at CAS 2 does sometimes work, but usually you will only experience hang-ups or crashes. One common symptom we see is a SYSmark run that stops.

All candidates left quite a good impression. Two years ago, I did a comprehensive BX motherboard review. I underlined the fact that the performance differences between the motherboards are too little to base a buying decision on them. The same is valid now as well. Most motherboards perform pretty even. Check out the features you really want. Solano boards belong to the most expensive types available right now. I would only spend the higher price for an Asus or Gigabyte motherboard if there is a feature that I really want.

Recommendations

The best overall motherboards are the AOpen AX3S Pro, Transcend TS-ASL3, QDI SynactiX 2E and Tekram S3815-ANE. AOpen comes with excellent features and makes the best impression: Excellent package, great manual and a USB cable to use the ports 3 and 4.

Transcend also has a solid motherboard with good memory compatibility and nice features. QDI and Tekram left the best impression to me for users who are not sure what they really need. The Tekram motherboard also comes with integrated LAN.

Recommendations: Overclocking

Two boards are suited just perfect: ABit, AOpen and Asus. All three allow the user to set all CPU parameters in the BIOS and leave a lot of margin to play around.

ABit stops at 153 MHz, AOpen at 166 and Asus can be operated even at >180 MHz.

The CUSL2 definitely has the best recovery system, as it enters the BIOS automatically if the system is not working. Just restart pushing the reset button. AOpen is the only one of those three which comes with two BIOSes.

Feature Comparison

Feature Comparison, Continued

Feature Comparison, Continued