21 Mobo Salute: Pentium III i815 mobos – THG.RU

Update: Five New 815 Motherboards

Intel’s planning to let the Pentium III make its exit soon, giving the Pentium 4 a clear run at the market. This tactic may lead you to believe in the imminent demise of Socket 370. However, you might be overlooking a few important facts. Firstl, a massive amount of Socket 370 systems are already installed in existing systems. Second, this number is even greater if you take the Slot-1 motherboards into account – they can be upgraded to take many Socket 370 processors, simply by using a Slot-to-Socket adapter board. And finally, there are still plenty of Pentium III processors available.

In terms of performance, modern Pentium III systems are not far behind Pentium 4 machines. Also, putting the emphasis on 3D graphics performance, a fast graphics card is going to be just as good an upgrade choice as a fast CPU so, you could say, a PIII system with a fast 3D accelerator can be equally good as any Pentium 4 or Athlon computer, whether it’s for gaming or general purpose use. Another important issue is multi-processor support – while dual processor systems are supported by PIIIs, there is currently no chipset available that would allow dual P4 machines, even if the P4 itself might actually support it.

As you can see, Socket 370 is far from being dead. No doubt, that’s why we keep getting new mobos for this architecture from several manufacturers. This time, we are taking a look at five boards from AOpen, FIC, Lucky Star and Soltek. This brings our total for comparative testing to 21. Read on to find out how our new batch compared in our giant round-up.

Once Again: The 815 Chipset In Detail

We have already provided several articles discussing basic technical features of Intel’s 815 chipset. If you want a refresh, or are new to these reviews, then definitely click on the following links to read related articles published within the last few months:

• General information about the 815 chipset
• Differences within the 815 Chipset Family
• Review of Final i815/Solano Chipset
• Five Boards with 815/Solano Chipset
• Leading by Speeding: Solano at 166 MHz
• The 150 MHz Project, Part 3
• Turbo Drive: Two Dual Boards with 2000 MHz
• Crиme De La Crиme: Special Edition 815 Boards and Useful Add-Ons

Motherboards In Previous Reviews

Some of you might also want to re-read the evaluations of boards that we tested half a year ago to get up to speed on everything we have on offer in this round-up:

• ABit SE6
• AOpen AX3S Pro
• Asus CUSL2
• Azza 815TX
• Chaintech CT-6OJV
• DFI CS35-EC
• Elitegroup P6ISM
• Epox EP-3S1A
• Gigabyte GA-6OXM7E
• IWill WO2-R
• Jetway 616AF
• MSI 815E Pro / MS-6337 Pro
• Procomp BIS2M
• QDI SynactiX 2E
• Shuttle ME21
• Siemens 1184
• Tekram S3815-ANE
• Transcend TS-ASL3
• Asus CUSL2-C Black Pearl plus iPanel
• Azza 815EXP plus Azza-Up Panel

The Boards

AOpen AX3SP – 1394

Board Revision: N/A

BIOS Version: 1.00 (March 28, 2001)

The first AOpen motherboard (AX3SP-1394) comes with an integrated FireWire controller (TI TSB43AA22), just like the Socket A motherboard AK73-1394. Two ports are provided. Unlike other companies, AOpen includes all required adapter cables you might require. There is also one cable for the COM2 port and a third one for the USB ports 3 and 4. The box also includes an easy installation manual, a user’s guide, Norton Anti Virus 2000, a set of IDE cables and AOpen’s Bonus Pack CD featuring drivers and utilities.

This motherboard has four DIMM sockets. Though that will give you the largest flexibility in terms of memory installation, it does not change the fact that the Solano chipset only supports 512 MB SDRAM. An AC97 sound system is also present.

AOpen equipped this board with their Die Hard BIOS. This feature equals dual BIOS solutions from other companies: There are two flash chips on the motherboard. If the main BIOS should fail, you can set a jumper to activate the secondary one.

The BIOS software is very extensive and provides lots of tuning and overclocking features. AOpen allows yoz to freely choose CPU voltage in 0.1 V increments, FSB speed up to 166 MHz, and the multiplier. This last feature will be idle, however, since most Intel CPUs are multiplier-locked.

The AGP 4x connector comes with a card lock system which prevents the graphics card from sliding out of the slot. Other than that, there is not much more to say about this board, except that AOpen seems to be introducing increasingly more black PCB versions, which makes this board look good. Fortunately, the board really does perform as well as it looks, which you can see from our benchmarks.

Homepage: http://www.aopen.com

AOpen AX3S Plus

Board Revision: N/A

BIOS Version: N/A

As opposed to AOpen’s AX3S Pro motherboard, which we reviewed back in September 2000, the AX3S Plus is a completely new development, since it is a total redesign. In addition to the black PCB and the aluminum heat sink, it has other important advantages, namely the Promise PDC20265R IDE RAID controller and a sixth PCI slot. A fourth DIMM socket is also available. Again, since the 815 chipset only supports 512 MB SDRAM, two 256 MB DIMMs are enough to reach this limit.

Thanks to the Promise chip, you can attach four additional IDE devices, while hard drives can be used in RAID 1 or RAID 0 configuration. The on-board IDE controller is part of Intel’s 82801BA and supports four ATA/100 devices.

Though the Plus board does not come in a fancy box with a window (as does the ASXP-1394), it is equally well equipped with hardware: Die Hard BIOS, 4 DIMM sockets, 6 PCI, CNR, AGP 4x, UltraATA/100, AC97 sound, Dr. LED and Dr. Voice (additional hardware required, see Crиme De La Crиme: Special Edition 815 Boards and Useful Add-Ons for more information), on-board piezo speaker and an excellent BIOS.

In terms of performance, the differences with the AX3S Pro are negligible.

Homepage: http://www.aopen.com

FIC FS35

Board Revision: 1.0

BIOS Version: IDB42 (December 8, 2000)

FIC sent us a MicroATX motherboard called FS35. It is equipped with the 815E chipset, featuring the Intel graphics controller, AGP 4x, two DIMM sockets, three PCI slots, CNR, UltraATA/100 controller, AC97 sound system, on-board PC speaker and 4 USB ports (only 2 are usable).

Judging from the benchmarks, this board is unable to keep pace with the other four newcomers. Still, the FIC board provides good performance and is on par with the rest of the 815 boards, which perform similarly.

Unfortunately, the box did not include the final manual, so I cannot tell you anything about its quality. Instead, I found the add-on disc, which contains Norton Ghost (Ghost is able to clone or to backup partitions or whole hard drives), AntiVirus 2000 and Virtual Drive, as well as a set of flat cables and the driver disc.

The FIC FS35 was absolutely reliable and easy to handle. The BIOS also provides you with some overclocking features.

Homepage: http://www.fica.com

Lucky Star 6A815E

Board Revision: N/A

BIOS Version: N/A

We got the 6A815E from Lucky Star. As the name suggests, this board also uses the 815E chipset. Conveniently, Lucky Star provides a connector cable which makes it possible to use the two additional USB ports (2+2 ports available). Inside the retail box there is also a set of flat cables, a manual and a driver disc.

The board has three DIMM sockets, five PCI, one CNR, AGP 4x, UltraATA/100, an AC97 sound system and some basic overclocking features. Two jumpers let you select from FSB speeds of 66, 100 or 133 MHz, and there is a second 133 MHz setting supporting 100 MHz SDRAM.

Also this board did not cause me any problems. It runs fast and reliable. Unlike its competitors, Lucky Star did not include additional software, but this just helps to make the motherboard cheaper.

Homepage: http://www.lucky-star.com.tw

Soltek SL-65ME

Board Revision: A5

BIOS Version: T2 (March 15, 2001)

Soltek’s 815 motherboard takes a moderate route when it comes to achieving a balance between features and costs. There are no RAID or FireWire controllers here – instead, you get the basic hardware: five PCI slots, AGP Pro, three DIMM sockets, CNR, two UltraATA/100 channels, an AC97 sound system and an excellent overall design.

Soltek uses the 815E chipset, so the integrated graphics controller is an option. Of course, you can use any other graphics card you want, too. While this motherboard has a total of four USB ports, you can only use two of them by default. In order to use the other pair, you have to get a connector cable separately.

In addition to the CD containing drivers and utilities, Soltek includes a comprehensive manual, a set of IDE cables and a CD including additional Symantec software like WinFax, Ghost and Anti Virus 2000 – a useful mix. .

In terms of performance, Soltek’s board is able to position itself among the top models from better-known companies with long-standing reputations. Thanks to the excellent system stability of its products, along with good performance and a good scope of delivery, Soltek is well on its way to establishing a name for itself.

Homepage: http://www.soltek.com.tw

Test Setup

Benchmarks – SYSmark 2000: Windows 98 SE

As you can see, all five boards perform pretty much like all other Solano boards. For these kinds of applications (office productivity, DTP and database programs), the differences between those 815 motherboards are negligible.

Quake III Arena

The two new AOpen motherboards and Soltek’s SL-65ME attain results that are very close to the three fastest models (ASUS CUSL2, DFI CS35-E and EPoX EP3S1A). If you take a look at the actual numbers, even the FIC board performs quite well, even though it only places 18th. Here the performance does not provide a particularly strong argument for the 815 boards tested.

Expendable

For this 3D action game, the results are about the same as in Quake III. This time, the Soltek board is at the very top, followed by the two new AOpen boards.

SPECviewperf 6.1.2: Advanced Visualizer

I decided to publish only the results of the Advanced Visualizer an ProCDRS-03, as the other four runs do not present a substantially different picture. Here we have a bit of a surprise, with Soltek’s board proving to be the fastest! Even though the results are quite similar, Soltek should be pleased nevertheless.

SPECviewperf 6.1.2: ProCDRS-03

In ProCDRS, the picture basically remains unchanged, although this time, Soltek is unable reach the top. However, the differences are once again quite small.

Conclusion

It has never been so difficult to award a winner, since the results reveal very little difference in performance among the boards. Fortunately, stability and reliability are not at issue, a point which I still accredit to Intel – despite some of its other erroneous decisions, Intel is still capable of producing superb chipsets. Personally, I prefer a flawless, functioning chipset to a faster and maybe less reliable one that supports the latest technology.

With the AX3S Pro (a standard 815 motherboard), the AX3S Plus (with IDE RAID controller) and the AX3SP-1394 (with FireWire controller), AOpen displays an impressive range of products. In combination with handy overclocking features, good performance and useful add-ons, these boards should meet everybody’s requirements. Let’s hope that they haven’t been affected too much by the fire that recently raged at their Taipei office.

Indisputably, Asus dominates the motherboard scene, not only due to superior product performance and prices, but also because of excellent consistency. There was not one Asus product in past years that has disappointed us.

In a motherboard market that is currently quite glutted, Soltek is obviously working hard to achieve success and recognition. Such brave efforts are beginning to show some positive results – their SL-65ME is fast and reliable, equipped with features appropriate for the latest demands of the market. This combination of solid products together with attractive prices gives Soltek the chance to become a big player.

I could go on forever, describing the advantages of motherboards from all other companies as well. Mercifully, I won’t. However, the most important conclusion from the last Solano reviews that bears mentioning is that none of the motherboards revealed any major weaknesses. Ultimately, your purchase should be based on price, features and add-ons. Motherboards from Azza, Luck Star and Jetway might not be very popular, but they work just as well as boards from the major brands, with the clear advantage of costing less.