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Soyo P4I i845PE


Date
: 03/11/03 – 11:06:31 PM

Author
:

Category
: Motherboard

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Soyo
Price: $100

Introduction

Soyo has been climbing the ladder in the hardware scene and has become a well-known manufacturer in the community. One of the main reasons of Soyo's popularity increase, is their "Dragon" line of motherboards. These boards are packed with features like FireWire, USB2.0, extra add-on's, nice onboard gear like RAID and 5.1 sound and even flashy motherboard colors (just think of those kickass black & white PE Dragon boards). With Soyo releasing all those Dragon boards, I was a bit amazed when the P4I 845PE arrived in the O² lab. This was not a Dragon board … Would that result in worse performance? Of course not! Although the P4I is not as fully featured as its Dragon brothers, it does have a nice list of gimmicks and manages to keep up with the competition out there! Let's find out how the Soyo P4I 845PE performs and what is has to offer …

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

Processor

- Up to 3.06GHz Pentium4 / Up to 2.0GHz Celeron

Chipset Type

- Intel i845PE

Chipset Description

- Intel i845PE chipset
- Supports 533/400 MHz FSB

Form Factor

- ATX

Memory Type

- DDR 333/266

Memory Description

- Three DDR 333/266 2.5V DIMM sockets support up to 2 GB
- 184-pin PC2700/PC2100 non-ECC, unbuffered DDR SDRAM memory

Expansion Slots

- Six 32-bit Bus Mastering PCI slots (V2.2 compliant)
- One AGP slot (supports 2x/4x mode with 1.5v)

IDE Type

- UDMA 66/100/133

IDE Description

- Three independent channels for SIX IDE devices(one for IDE-RAID)
- Supports up to PIO Mode 5 and UDMA 66/100/133 (UDMA 133 on RAID channel only)
- Two PCI bus mastering ATA E-IDE ports

Audio Description

- On board 4 channels AC97 Codec audio solution

IO Port Description

- Two RS-232 serial ports (16550 UART compatible)
- One parallel printer port (SPP/EPP/ECP mode)
- One FDD port (Supports 3 modes, 1.2/1.44/2.88 MB FDD
- Provides IrDA/FIR ports with optional cable for transceiver
- Provides 6 USB 2.0 ports (2*rear, 4*pin header)

IO Connection Description

- PS/2 Mini-DIN mouse & keyboard ports
- One RJ45 connector
- Two USB ports
- Two D-Sub 9-pin male serial ports
- One D-Sub 25-pin female printer port Audio I/O: LINE-Outx1 , LINE-Inx1, MIC JACK x1
- One game port

BIOS Description

- Award PCI BIOS with ACPI function
- Supports multiple-boot from E-IDE/SCSI/CD-ROM/FDD LS120/ZIP
- 2 Mb Flash ROM

Health Monitoring Description

- On-board voltage monitors for +3.3V, +5V, +12V, VCORE
- CPU fan speed monitor
- CPU temperature monitoring through flexible thermal sensor

Dimension Description

- Four layers, 30.5 cm x 24.5 cm (12 x 9.68)
- ATX form factor

Certification

- FCC Class B and CE EMI Regulation Compliant

Compatibilities

- WinXP / Win2000 / WinNT / WinME / Win98SE / Linux / FreeBSD

Warranty

- All SOYO products are designed to offer stability and flexibility, and are tested to ensure highest reliability. We offer a 1 year limited warranty on this SOYO product.

Before we fire of the spec-talk, let's have a quick look at what you get:

- The Soyo P4I 845PE Motherboard
- Two UDMA100 IDE Cables
- One floppy cable
- A custom back panel
- Thermal paste
- One SerialATA cable
- A quick start guide (no thick manual)
- Driver CD
- Utilities CD (Norton stuff)

The heart of the Soyo P4I 845PE, is like the name implies, the Intel 845PE chipset. With the 845PE, Intel released the final "845" based chipset which has proven to be quite successful. The 845 first saw the light when Intel needed an alternative for the 850 chipset which required RDRAM. At that moment the 845 brought PC133 SDRAM support to the Pentium4. Although PC133 was not the ideal partner of the P4, Intel had no other choice since it could not support DDR memory until the RAMBUS deal was over … Afterwards, the 845D was released, finally supporting DDR memory. Later on, the 845E was launched, which added support for a 533MHz front side bus needed to power the P4-B CPU's. And now, there's the 845PE, which adds Hyperthreading to the list of supported features as well as DDR333 support.

The board uses a pretty standard 1/6/0 layout, meaning it has one AGP slot (no AGP Pro since that's one of the Dragon features) and 6 PCI slots. Add a total of 3 memory slots supporting up to 2GB DDR RAM and you got yourself one expandable motherboard. The board has two onboard IDE channels supporting UDMA133 and one floppy channel (anyone actually uses these besides to flash a BIOS?) making it a pretty standard configuration.

Although the P4I 845PE is not a Dragon series board, it does come with onboard sound. Soyo implemented the AC'97 soundchip offering a valuable 4 channel sound solution, which is adequate for the occasional gamer and music lover. Besides the onboard soundchip, Soyo also fitted the board with the High Point HPT371 RAID controller. This low budget RAID controller powers one IDE channel support either RAID0 or RAID1 but not both at the same time. Thanks to this controller, the P4I has a total of three IDE channels, supporting up to 6 IDE devices. Pretty uncommon huh? Above the RAID channel, you can also see one serial ATA connector which is powered by a Marvell 88i8030 bridge, preparing the board for future hard drives.

Out of the box the P4I is equipped with two USB2.0 ports in the back, but you can add two additional brackets for a total of 6 USB2.0 ports thanks to the onboard USB2.0 connectors. Unfortunately, Soyo did not include these brackets (again, this is where a Dragon model comes into play) but for a price tag as low as this one, you can't complain! Right above the two USB2.0 ports, you'll find a network connector. The board comes with an onboard 10/100mbit chip powered by Davicom, saving you a PCI slot.

Page 3 : Layout

Layout

Soyo did a pretty good job when designing this motherboard. First of all, I like the fact that you can actually install and remove extra memory without having to pull the video card out. Too many boards lack this feature and require you to unscrew the video card, take it out, install memory, reinstall the video card and screw it back in place. Needless to say I prefer to add memory without rebuilding half my rig ;).

The next big thing on my list is the power connectors placement. Soyo did a fair job although I am not 100% satisfied. The ATX connector is sitting on the right side, placed vertically in the middle of the board. Things could be worse, but they could also be better. For example, if the connector would be at the top of the board. Still, it's better like this compared to other boards who have that connector underneath the CPU or worse …
The ATX-12V plug was installed right next to the parallel port, which is a pretty good spot and could only be improved by installing it to the top right corner … In the end, Soyo passes the "powerconnector-placement" exam, but not with flying colors.

The CPU socket is also an important part of our layout talk. It is important to have some free space around the socket in order to install more extreme cooling products without risking to kill your board. Too bad Soyo has placed a bunch of silver colored condensators next to the socket, making it a tad hard to install cooling equipement. Bummer …

All the other connectors are in the correct spot, meaning they do not interfere with slots, sockets, jumpers, … whatever that could bug you when installing stuff. Something that demands to be mentioned are the colors of the board. The PCB is black whereas the PCI slots and memory slots are purple, the RAID connector is yellow and the USB connectors are flashy green! Definitely a good thing compared those "boring" brown PCB's with white add-on's.

Note that the P4I 845PE comes with a total of three fan headers (one at the bottom and one on each side of the CPU socket) and a silver colored passive heatsink on the northbridge. One would think that a passive heatsink won't do the job, but in fact it doesn't get hot! Why? Because it is cooled by the airflow that comes of the CPU heatsink. One fan less = less noise, which is always good in my books.

Page 4 : BIOS & Overclocking

BIOS & Overclocking

Just like the previous Soyo board that were tortured in the O² bunker, the P4I 845PE comes with a solid BIOS that offers the end-user several tweaks, settings and goodies to get the most out of his setup.

The most interesting section of the BIOS, is the "SOYO Combo Feature" which houses all CPU related settings and tweaks (read: here you'll find all the overclocking tools). The first settings allows you to change the "System Performance" of the board. One can choose between "Normal", "Fast" and "Turbo", which are in fact pre-defined memory timings. If you feel up to it, you can also change the timings manually by selecting "Manual" from the list.

Next, you can alter the front side bus all the way up to 255MHz, in 1MHz increments. A welcome feature that goes with it, is the "AGP/PCI Clock Setting" that allows you to alter the AGP and PCI clockspeed. I tend to use the "lock" setting, which locks the AGP bus at 66MHz and the PCI bus at 33MHz. Running these busses above specs (especially the PCI bus) can be hazardous to your rig, meaning a PCI bus running too high can result in add-on cards failing to work or even data-corruption on the hard drives.

Overclockers out there know that tweaking the voltage options is an essential part of getting your system stable, therefore a good overclockers board needs to be able to alter these things. Soyo incorporates these features and allows us to alter the CPU core voltage from 1.1V all the way up to 1.85V in 0.025V increments, the AGP voltage from 1.5 to 1.8V in 0.1V increments and last but not least, the DDR voltage from 2.5 to 2.8V also in 0.1V increments. I want to point out that the CPU core voltage is by default a tad on the low side, as our P4 runs at 1.46V instead of 1.5V, something to take into account when overclocking.

After spending some hours trying to get the most out of it, I managed to clock my P4 1.6A to a FSB of 171MHz, resulting in a top speed of 2736MHz. Not bad for a 1.6GHz processor huh? I tend to believe that I was being limited by the CPU and not the motherboard, so there should be some room left, since the specs support up to 166MHz out of the box. All in all, the Soyo P4I 845PE performed very good and supplies you with all the tweaks you can ask for.

Page 5 : Benchmarking

Benchmarking

It's time to put the money where the mouth is! Let's take a look at the test setup before we fire away with the benchmarks …

- Soyo P4I 845PE Motherboard
- Intel Pentium4 1.6A CPU
- TwinMOS 256MB PC3200 DDR Memory
- AOpen GeForce4 4200Ti Video Card
- Windows XP Pro + SP1 + Latest Drivers

MadOnion's 3D Mark 2001SE

16-BIT

32-BIT

Quake 3: Arena

Demo 001

Torture Demo

Sisoft Sandra 2003 Memory Benchmark

Page 6 : Conclusion

Conclusion

Soyo did a very nice job with the P4I 845PE, which is very interesting considering the very low pricetag! Although it is not a "Dragon" board, meaning it doesn't have the full-feature RAID controller, lacks 6-channel sound, a "real" manual and some other goodies, the board does have all the "necessary" features and comes with a "light" version RAID controller, SerialATA, USB2.0 and several overclocking tweaks! The board remained rock stable during all the tests and performed the way I expected it to! Besides the few negative points on the layout, there isn't much negative I can say about this board. If you are in the market for a cheap all-round motherboard with excellent stability, the needed features and some sweet overclockers potential, this is the board you want …

Good

- Stable
- Overclocking potential
- USB2.0, SerialATA, "Light" RAID

Bad

- Layout remarks
- No "real" manual