"Whitney" Motherboards: A look at Motherboards based on Intel's new 810 chipset

The next generation of motherboards is upon us and, as usual, it’s the manufacturers, dealers and the early adopters who will be forced to uncover some of the glitches inevitably encountered when one is first on the block.

A good place to start is with mention of the reported incompatibility between the Pentium III and the Intel 810 chipset. As it turns out, a glitch in the Pentium III can hang the 810, making the two products, according to Intel, fundamentally incompatible (as DFI has learned after it rushed out the "Pentium Celeron/PII/PIII compatible" PW65-D in Slot 1 format).

This, however, shouldn’t dampen the dealers’ enthusiasm for the latest generation of low-cost 810-based motherboards designed for the Celeron market, such as Asus’ C$250 (street) MEW, that offers up to six PCI slots (!!) and color-coded I/O ports on the back, as per the PC’99 spec. It provides software selection of CPU speed and, taking a page from Abit, Vcore voltage control as well. This should make the Socket 370-based MEW a popular choice for upgraders looking to overclock their systems, and, with various models providing ISA slots as an option, plus built-in support for UDMA/66, 10/100 base T networking, sound and graphics, it’s a good general-purpose low-end framework for value-oriented resellers to build upon, too.

In fact, the MEW is a good example of some of the features we think many of the coming generation of motherboards will have, and that customers will respond favorably to:

• BIOS control of frequency and voltage, plus automatic detection of correct processor speed, eliminating customer concerns over remarking.
• Uses the system speaker for all system audio (great for business desktops).
• Smarter ACPI provides power savings and suspends to RAM providing “Instant On.”
• The ability to disable the ISA bridge for greater performance.
• Thermal controlled fans provide more cooling when needed. (Of course, Macs had this 10 years ago…). There’s also a “Fan Delay” option that keeps the fan running for a selectable length of time after the system shuts down, to protect the processor. Similarly, BIOS throttling protects the CPU in case of fan failure.
• The MEW’s chassis intrusion circuitry functions even if external power is removed.
• Fast Ethernet, with remote diagnostic network management facilities.

The MEW also provides several features (some of which are optional) that, while not essential to many people, are likely to grow in popularity in the months ahead: Digital Flat Panel Display support, Fast IR and PC’99 PCI 2.2 compliancy.

As with all products, not everything’s golden with the MEW. Some users will not want the built-in Intel graphics board (based on the i752 chipset, and which cannot be disabled, by the way) or the onboard sound, which, when used with an AMR (Audio Modem Riser) slot modem, provides Mwave style  -- shudder! -- software audio and modem services. The MEW supports Yamaha’s XG MIDI extensions through an included S-YXG50 software synth.

Here are some benchmarks*, comparing the i752 graphics chip onboard the MEW with an Abit BX6 system with a TNT2 card.

Asus MEW: 2803
Abit/TNT2: 3703

• 3DMark 99 MAX, 800x600, 16bit mode. Celeron @ 450.

The MEW, like a growing number of other motherboards from Abit and other providers, also offers the tantalizing possibility of easily selecting from multiple operating systems by installing one IDE hard drive and one SCSI drive and then selecting the appropriate device from the BIOS’ boot sequence options. Such capabilities could strike a chord with Linux fans or those planning on moving up to Windows 2000 or other alternatives to the mainstream in the months ahead.

Here are a few tips regarding UDMA/66 drives.

1. Despite what you might have read at storagereview.com or other sources, UDMA/66 drives do not require a special utility to work on today's BX-based motherboards. The drive functions exactly like a UDMA/33 drive when connected to a standard motherboard based on an Intel BX chipset.
2. The special 80-pin cabled supplied with the Asus MEW and other UDMA/66 enabled motherbaords allows the drive to be configured automatically, via the use of the "Cable Select" option. Just set this option with the appropriate jumper  on the back of the drive.

See our review of the 13.3 GB Quantum CR drive for more information on how to install, partition and format a UDMA/66 drive. 

In Taipei, Computex '99, the third-largest computer tradeshow in the world, was recently the source of a number of announcements from hardware manufacturers that will be of interest to PC builders targeting the performance market. 3dfx, maker of the Voodoo family of graphics accelerators, announced that a number of motherboard manufacturers, including ASUSTeK, A-Trend, Gigabyte and MSI, will be building its Voodoo3 2000 into their products. As we noted in the June 1999 issue of CCW, the Voodoo 3 benchmarks well and a growing number of third parties are now providing utilities that enhance its appeal even further. www.voodooextreme.com has details.

Dual CPUs on the Cheap

There, Motherboard manufacturer Abit pushed the envelope (again!) by demonstrating the world's first production-level dual Socket 370 motherboard, the BP6. This board contains on-board circuitry to bypass the limitations Intel built into Celerons that make them normally impossible to configure in a dual-CPU configuration (at least without resorting to drilling holes and/or soldering wires onto Socket 370-to-Slot One converter cards!). Thus, budget-minded power user wannabees wanting to run Windows NT, Windows 2000, BeOS, Linux or other multiprocessor-capable operating systems (i.e., not Windows 95 or Windows 98!) are now able to do it on the cheap. Of course, Abit's usual overclocking-friendly features are present, too. At Computex, Abit touted its built-in support for the brand-new UDMA/66 drive standard, that supports the fastest ever IDE transfer rates.

Check out www.abit.com.tw/english/press/1999/epress35.htm for more information.

For more motherboard reviews, see:

TCP's Motherboard and CPU section: www.tcp.ca/gsb/reviews/motherboards

Disclaimer: overclocking may reduce the longevity of your processor, will void your warranty and may reduce system reliability.