DFI CS65 SC i815 Motherboard
Review
The Intel i815 chipset
can be considered as the true successor of the renowned Intel 440BX chipset.
Starting from the 810, Intel has shifted its position from the standard
north/south bridge design in favour of what they like to call Accelerated Hub
Architecture, or AHA for short. Under this particular design, there are 3
individual hubs: the Graphics and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH), the I/O
Controller Hub (ICH) and the Firmware Hub (FWH). The GMCH and the ICH are
connected through an internal bus, which offers a bandwidth of 266MB/sec (twice
as fast as the PCI).
This improvement over the
traditional PCI bus is incorporated in all modern chipsets. This general
description of the AHA applies in almost every way to the i815. The i815
compared to the i810E, uses a different Graphics & Memory Controller Hub
(GMCH) (82815 vs. 82810), but it still uses the same ICH and FWH as the i810E
and 820E. The i815E is exactly the same as the i815 but it has a new enhanced
ICH2 chip instead of the older ICH.
The GMCH (FW82815) of the i815
supports AGP 4x and integrates the i752 Graphics accelerator (borrowed from the
i810). The GMCH supports 66MHz, 100MHz and 133MHz CPU bus speeds, but the memory
is always clocked at either 100MHz or 133MHz (asynchronous memory bus). The GMCH
of the i815 supports 6 rows of PC100 SDRAM (3 banks) or 4 rows of SDRAM (2
banks) of PC133 SDRAM.
Therefore we can only use 2 double sided 133MHz DIMMs or 3 double sided
100MHz DIMMs. Of course by using single sided DIMMs this limitation changes
accordingly.
The integrated graphics
accelerator found on the GMCH is equipped with no
on board cache and graphics data storage is entirely on the system main memory (shared memory architecture or
"Direct AGP graphics" as Intel likes to call it).
There is an (optional) Graphics Performance
Accelerator (GPA) board with 4MB display cache, which can be inserted into the
AGP slot of any 815 board for increased 3D performance.
The i815 is equipped with the same ICH (i82801AA)
as the i810. The 82801AA basically offers the same functions as the South Bridge
of a chipset: 6 PCI slots, supports ISA through an optional PCI to ISA bridge, 2
IDE channels (4 devices) supporting Ultra ATA 66, 2 USB ports, Super I/O
(keyboard, mouse, FDD, serial parallel ports etc) and an AMR port.
AMR, which stands for Audio Modem Riser, allows us to use the chipset's
integrated audio/telephony CODEC's through a cheap expansion card. It basically
replaces a cheap WinModem/AC97 CODEC. The AMR appeals only to OEMs and is
generally shunned by power users AMR cards are heavily CPU dependant, have poor
driver support and comparatively fewer capabilities.
On the other hand,
the ICH2 found on the i815E offers the following: 4 USB ports, 2 IDE channels
with Ultra ATA 100 support and an integrated 82559 network core. This last
feature offers 10/100 Ethernet or HomePNA support at a low cost, and Intel's
Communication and Network Riser slot (CNR). CNR is basically an alternative to
AMR and both solutions are pin incompatible. The FWH chip found on the
i815/i815E is a 4Mbit EEPROM for storing/retrieving system settings and also
features Intel's own Random Number Generator. The same FWH is found on the rest
i8xx chipsets.
In this review we
will be looking at one such i815 based board from DFI, the CS65 SC. Read on to
see what sets it apart from similar products out there on the market.
Features
& Specifications
Socket 370 ATX
Motherboard, supports all available Intel PPGA, FCPGA & VIA Cyrix III
processors
Based on the Intel 815 chipset
Integrated 3D graphics based
on i752
Four 168 pin SDRAM DIMM sockets support up to 512MB, support for
PC 100/PC 133 SDRAM, supports ECC (Error Checking Correction)
1 AGP (up to
4X mode), 5 full sized PCI slots (all V2.2 compliant), 1 AMR slot, No ISA
slots
AC97 audio CODEC based on Analog Devices 1881A
External ports:
1 Serial, 1 Parallel, 2 USB, PS/2 keyboard, PS/2 mouse, 3 external audio jacks,
game port, VGA output
Internal ports: 1 x external serial (COM 2) , 1x
IrDA, 2 x IDE (ATA 66), 1 x floppy, 1 x ATX power, 3 x fan, 1 x WOL,1 x WOR, 1 x
opened chassis alarm, 3 x internal audio
Award 6.00 PCI BIOS with green,
ACPI, APM, PnP, DMI, functions and Year 2000 compliant, Suspend to RAM, Power
failure resume
Built in chipset hardware monitoring functions (based on
Winbond W83627HF AW), on board voltage monitors for CPU Vcore, 3.3V,5V, 12V,
CPU/Chasis/AGP fan speed monitor, CPU/System temperature monitoring &
alarm
Suspend to RAM
The DFI CS65 SC package contained an ATA 66 cable, FDD cable
& internal serial cable, and some drivers/manuals. The first thing I noticed
was the absence of a manual and the lack of a chipset heatsink as this
particular unit is an engineering sample. The final product will have a manual
and a chipset heatsink. Even without the heatsink, our board worked fine without
any chipset overheating problems at all. There were 22 x 1000µF & 3 x 470µF
capacitors present on the motherboard.
The
layout of the board is excellent. Just about everything is placed where it
should be with one of the only weak points being that the CPU FSB jumpers are
located above the IDE ports, which makes it a bit hard to reach. DFI has done a
good job designing this board. The FDD and the IDE ports are placed next to the
DIMM sockets and memory can be installed or uninstalled without having to remove
the AGP video card. It is possible to install full sized cards on all of the PCI
slots without any interference. All DIMM sockets can be used even in medium
sized ATX cases. There is a DIMM LED and a PCI standby LED to warn the user
about the power mode of the board. The board is even equipped with 3 fan
connectors for better cooling.
Retail versions of this board will ship
with PC cillin 2000 antivirus software. PC Cillin 2000 offers antivirus
protection by utilizing users internet access (supports sending suspicious
files to Trend Micro for analysis thru Virus Hospital, supports Macro File Auto
Analysis, Email Auto responder, Breaking Virus News, online link to Trend
Micro's Frequently Asked Questions database, Virus Encyclopedia & Virus
Calendar).
RSS Newsletter
