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Intel have played it pretty much by JEDEC DDR qualification so far. A few months ago they launched their revised DDR chipset, i845E, to offer support for their 533FSB processors and provide inherent USB2.0 support. What was missing, however, was official support for DDR333 memory. Today's motherboard, the ABIT I845PE IT7-MAX2 v2.0, is based on the newest Intel DDR chipset with direct support for both DDR333 memory and, perhaps more importantly, HyperThreading technology. Speaking of HyperThreading, a modern processor only ever executes one application at one time irrespective of what you think it's doing. It never multitasks in the strictest sense of the word, as each application is given a predefined length of CPU time. So you may think you're running, for example, SETI and Winamp together, but each is being run in isolation with a slice of CPU time. HT technology fools the software into thinking that there are 2 CPUs on one die, such that multithreaded applications can be truly run simultaneously. We're yet to see the first HT-enabled P4, but that shouldn't be long now as the 3.06GHz P4 is right around the corner. The MAX series of motherboards have impressed all with their marriage of features, speed, and stability. This particular model adds the two hardware features noted above into an already excellent package. Let's see just how it performs. Specifications
| Processors - Supports all Socket 478 CPUs (400FSB & 533FSB)
Chipset - North bridge: Intel I845PE MCH
- South bridge: Intel ICH4
System Memory - 3 x 184-pin DDR SDRAM
- DDR200 / DDR266 / DDR333 support @ 2.5v
- 2GB maximum system RAM
Slots - AGP slot, 4x AGP compliant (1.5v support only)
- 4 x 32-bit PCI 33MHz slots
On-board peripherals - I/O - 1 floppy port supports 2 FDD
- 3 Audio Jacks for Realtek ALC650 sound chipset
- RJ-45 LAN Port (Realtek 8100BL)
- 6 USB2.0 connectors
- 2 IEEE 1394a Firewire ports
- S/PIDF-OutA
- Headers for another 4 USB2.0 ports as well as a 3rd Firewire portdio
- PS/2 ports
On-board IDE - An IDE controller on the ICH4 chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA/100/66/ operation modes
- Highpoint HPT374 - 2 independent channel RAID controller
- Ultra DMA/ATA133, 100, 66, 33 operation modes
- RAID 0, 1, 0+1 support
- Can connect up to 4 IDE devices
- Hot swap capability
- Marvell Serial ATA 2-channel interface capable of 1.5Gbps
Integrated Components - Realtek RTL8100BL 10/100 Base-T Fast Ethernet Controller
- Realtek ALC650 6-channel sound
- Texas Instruments Firewire chip.
BIOS & Voltages - ABIT Softmenu III
- FSB speeds of 100Mhz - 250Mhz (quad-pumped)
- 1.1v - 1.70v Vcore adjustable in 0.025v increments (1.725v for C1 CPUs)
- 2.5v - 2.8v Vmem adjustable in 0.1v increments
- 3/1, 4/1 FSB:PCI dividers. Fix PCI options at 33MHz, 37MHz and 44MHz
Other features - Custom backplane
- 2 digit debug LCD
- On / off power buttons on motherboard
- 5 fan headers
- Serial ATA to ATA converter, dubbed Serillel.
Form Factor Although not visible from any specifications, we're guessing that ABIT have done a little tinkering with the power circuitry to ensure operation on the upcoming 3.06GHz P4 and future power-hungry processors. ABIT's included Serillel adapter is an amalgamation of two hard drive technologies. The MAX2 v2 sports 4-channel IDE RAID courtesy of 2 standard IDE ports and 2 S-ATA (serial ATA) ports. The latter use a thinner cable connection that isn't compatible with IDE in the traditional sense. ABIT bundled adapter allows you to use IDE drives with the S-ATA ports via the method depicted above. It all works rather elegantly. The grey S-ATA cable plugs into one of the two S-ATA ports and functions just like a standard ATA133 cable. There's no real difference in performance when using either a standard IDE cable or the S-ATA connection via the adapter. It would have been nice to have 2 of these adapters because unlike IDE cables, you cannot attach two drives on one cable. |
Category: Computer Hardware, Software and Peripherals
Type: Glossaries and Dictionaries
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