865PE/875P Motherboard Roundup June 2003 - Part 1: 20-way Shootout
by Evan Lieb on June 12, 2003 10:57 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Soyo P4I875P DRAGON 2
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Motherboard Specifications |
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CPU
Interface
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Socket-478
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Chipset
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Intel
82875P MCH (North Bridge)
Intel 82801ER ICH5R (South Bridge) |
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Bus
Speeds
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up
to 503MHz (in 1MHz increments)
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Core
Voltages Supported
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up
to 1.600V (in 0.0250V increments)
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I/O
Voltages Supported
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N/A
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DRAM
Voltages Supported
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up
to 2.90V (in 0.1V increments)
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Memory Slots
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4 184-pin
DDR DIMM Slots
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Expansion Slots
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1 AGP
8X Slot
5 PCI Slots |
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Onboard IDE RAID
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HighPoint
HPT372 controller (RAID 0, 1, 0 + 1)
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Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394
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Eight
USB 2.0 ports supported through South Bridge
VIA VT6306 IEEE-1394 FireWire controller (up to 3 ports available) |
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Onboard LAN
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Intel
PRO/1000CT Gigabit LAN (CSA bus)
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Onboard Audio
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C-Media
CMI8738
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Onboard Serial ATA
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Two
SATA connectors via ICH5R (RAID 0 & RAID 1 only)
Two SATA connectors via SI3112A controller (RAID 0, 1, & 0 + 1) |
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BIOS
Revision
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6/03/2003
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Soyo's P4I875P motherboard just oozes with an intriguing assortment of features. Let's take a look at them…
The HighPoint HPT372 controller is a nice touch to the P4I875P's Serial ATA support. The HPT372 is capable of supporting four disk drives total, so no ATAPI capability for those expecting such a feature. A nice perk is hot swap capability, meaning you do not have to power down your system to install or uninstall hard drives from the HPT372 connectors. As always we see that the ICH5R South Bridge controls two SATA connectors, but in the P4I875P's case there are an additional two SATA connectors powered by the Silicon Image SI3112A controller. Including the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors the P4I875P is capable of supporting as many as twelve different SATA/IDE drives. This might seem excessive to some but you would be surprised how many enthusiasts would be able to take full advantage of these types of features, especially if they're avid RAID users.
The addition of IEEE 1394 FireWire is always something noteworthy. A two-port FireWire bracket comes with the P4I875P's bundle of accessories, and allows you to connect to two red onboard FireWire headers. The addition of a two-port bracket is a big plus because users won't have to spend time and money going out to purchase one of these brackets. A nice touch is the addition of a rear IEEE 1394 FireWire port as well as the four rear USB 2.0 ports. This type of I/O configuration is definitely an excellent combination of serial technologies.
Soyo brings some good BIOS features to the table with their P4I875P. Among these features include a VDIMM adjustable up to 2.9V, VAGP up to 1.8V, and a FSB up to 503MHz. All in all a very good feature set and almost one of the most overclocker-friendly BIOS setups we've reviewed here today if it hadn't been for the low 1.60V Vcore ceiling.
Some of the negatives aspects of this motherboard include its messy BIOS layout. Memory timing options that are almost always found in the Advanced Chipset Features section are located in a not-so ordinary place. Enabling or disabling onboard components usually occurs within the Integrated Features section, but in the P4I875P's case most of the onboard components are located in the Soyo Combo section. This wouldn't be bad at all if Soyo simply omitted the Integrated Features section altogether, but they decided not to for some odd reason. In terms of layout the P4I875P's positioning of the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors is awkward because it is located below the midsection of the PCB, where it'll take very long IDE cables to reach the highest bays of a full-sized ATX case. Mid tower cases won't have this problem however.
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18 Comments
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Zak - Sunday, January 18, 2004 - link
I bought IS7 after reading this article and I've been having problems. Random resets, then BSOD after changing XP recovery settings. Over the past few months it worsened. In the begining it like once a week maybe. I wasn't concerned, bad driver I thought. Now it won't run more than an hour without BSOD. I have Corsair XMS DDR400 in it. I've played with memory settings for weeks, timings and voltages as well, reinstalled XPPro several times, updated BIOS, got all newest drivers and run out of ideas... I've put a stick of DDR333 because that's all have to test and I still get the same random BSOD, even durnig XP installation. I have no PCI cards in this box. Mushkin calls this board problematic and attributes the memory problems to forced implementation of PAT that is not normally present in 865. I may try getting it replaced by NewEgg but I don't suppose it'll help. I'm thinking about getting a 875 board instead. Zak.Anonymous User - Friday, October 24, 2003 - link
I would like to see part II of the roundup of the 865 chipset. I wonder what is the delay?Anonymous User - Monday, October 13, 2003 - link
I thought Part 2 would be out by now at least... There are good new boards out there I'd like to see... Shuttle AB60R (cheap and full featured) and Abit IC7-MAX3 (OTES for mobo power area). I am still looking forward to seeing this, eventually, right guys?Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
Any comments on newer motherboards? Why hasn't supermicro been tested since 2000?Looking to compare supermicro
Intel s875wp1-e and Super P4SCE (SuperServer 5013C-I (SYS-5013-CI)) for a $50k cluster
Thanks
syzygyus@yahoo.com
Anonymous User - Friday, August 29, 2003 - link
Evan, how in the world is #4 going to research your statement when the articles/review comments forum gets purged/is gone now ?Anonymous User - Saturday, August 23, 2003 - link
Any word on Revision 2 of the Gigabyte 8knxp ultra board yet?Anonymous User - Sunday, August 10, 2003 - link
I bought the is7 after I read this article. It had many problems. I ended up having to ram this board twice. If you read the abit forum boards you will see alot of problems I am fairly surprised after all the tests this board was put through nothing ever went wrong. I will not buy another abit product period. I will stick to gigabye i've built 6 systems with Gigabyte and yet to have any problems with them. Save for the chipset fans having a low life.Anonymous User - Friday, August 8, 2003 - link
I bought the Abit IS7 and am completely pleased. One note is that many of the IS7's appear to be getting shipped with the gigabit lan as opposed to the sales brochure stated 10/100. (mine has the gigabit)Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 5, 2003 - link
How could it be that the Asus p4c 800 de luxe is more expensive then the asus p4p deluxe but in the testresults it is slower?I would think i am misinformed by the computershop?
And the p4c deluxe got a gigabit lan on board, despite mentioning in the summary of this Mb it has not.
PixelDoc - Sunday, July 27, 2003 - link
Error Re: Gigabyte GA-8KNXP MoBoThis MoBo has 4, not 2 SATA connectors, 2 controlled by ICH5R and 2 more contolled by the SIL3112 chip.