Crиme De La Crиme: Special Edition 815 Boards and Useful Add-Ons — THG.RU

Edition-Mania: AOpen, Asus and Azza With Interesting Add-Ons

The air is getting thinner and thinner in the motherboard market. High competition causes decreasing margins and forces the motherboard companies to expand their business to other sectors. All big motherboard makers have already established divisions for CD/DVD drives, multimedia products, cases or network products long ago. However, the production of motherboards still remains the core business and no company wants to lose market share.

The most difficult work is to introduce a brand. As soon as that is done, you have to concentrate on providing products that are reliable, fast and affordable. If you succeeded with that, the next step is making your products more attractive. One approach is to include extraordinary hardware features like a SCSI, RAID or FireWire controller. The problem is that those components will automatically increase the price of the motherboard, making it less attractive to many users.

The second way is to find the ideal hardware equipment in order to provide a reliable and fast product that is still affordable for the majority. In addition, the manufacturer develops useful add-ons. This article concentrates on special hardware that has to be installed into a 5.25″ drive bay. Azza uses such a module to make USB and audio jacks available at the front of your computer case. AOpen took a CD box and added LEDs which will inform you about several types of system failure and Asus seems to have the most clever solution before the actual review starts: The Asus iPanel merges connectors and monitoring features.

The 815 Chipset

The so-called ‘Solano’ chipset is a constant today, even though it wasn’t Intel’s initial intention to ship it in large quantities. For general information about the 815 chipset, please read one of the following articles:

• Review of Final i815/Solano Chipset
• Heir To The BX: 18 Pentium III Motherboards Using The 815 Chipset
• Beefed Up BX? — Five Boards with 815/Solano Chipset
• SOLANO Preview — Once Intel Makes Sense …
• Leading by Speeding: Solano at 166 MHz

Two chips make up the 815 chipset: The MCH or GMCH (Graphics and Memory Controller Hub) — which is equal to the term ‘north bridge’ — and the ICH (I/O Controller Hub) — or ‘south bridge’. Intel favors the hub descriptions and thus the terms MCH and ICH, since those two chips are not linked via the PCI bus, but through a proprietary interface that is able to perform twice as well (266 MB/s maximum).

While the MCH comes with the CPU and memory interface, the GMCH also features a graphics controller. The ICH1 (82801AA) has an UltraATA/66 interface and an USB controller. There is also a bigger brother, the 82801BA, which supports UltraATA/100, comes with two USB controllers and a LAN controller. Depending on how you combine those chips, the chipset has slightly different names:

The ‘p’ type chipsets came to the market later; probably due to complaints of customers that did not want to pay for the graphics engine their computers where unwilling to use.

Compared to the good old warhorse 440BX, the 815 chipset is technically more advanced, but unable to surpass BX’s excellent performance. A 440BX system overclocked to 133 MHz FSB is slightly faster, as lots of readers keep reminding me. However, overclocking a BX-motherboard is a touchy affair and will not turn back time: The 440BX is simply somewhat out of date.

I recommend the following articles to overclockers:

• Leading by Speeding: Solano at 166 MHz
• The 150 MHz Project, Part 3

Gimmicks and Special Editions

AOpen was the first manufacturer that introduced a special PCB color. One year ago, it released the AX6BC Pro II Millennium Edition, which was colored black. The latest idea is a board that is pink:

In Europe or the United States people aren’t exactly awfully keen on pink motherboards, with the possible exception of Brighton/UK or San Francisco. I took this photo at CeBIT2001 a few weeks ago at the AOpen booth. The Japanese are obviously crazy for extraordinary hardware, as it is the only market where AOpen is selling those boards. Maybe we are going to see more colors?

Asus and Azza realized the problem that interfaces such as the USB-connector are usually only visible at the rear of your PC. They designed boxes to make connectors available at the front by installing them into a 5.25″ drive bay.

AOpen’s ‘Dr. LED’ feature keeps you informed about the system status with several LEDs. Those LEDs are integrated into a case that can be installed into any 5.25″ drive bay. AOpen decided to integrate a little CD box into it, thus the drive bay is not entirely used for the LEDs.

Azza»s ‘Azza-Up’ is a simple front panel which gives you two USB ports and audio jacks. To save space you can install a hard drive into the bay used by the Azza-Up, as it comes with a 3.5″ frame for drive installation.

The Asus iPanel is available as a basic and a deluxe edition and seems to be the perfect fusion of the Azza and AOpen core features. The basic type features two USB ports, a few buttons and status LEDs as well as a four-digit display that is meant to report possible error codes. An IrDA module is optional to expand connectivity with IR devices (e.g. mobile phones or notebooks). The deluxe edition comes with a serial port and audio jacks as well. I will go into detail later.

The main reasons for inventing such kind of hardware is of course the high level of competition in the motherboard market. The performance of motherboards using the same type chipset usually does not vary too much. In terms of features, there also is not much space for variation. Special features like those panels seem to be the only way for motherboard makers to differ from their competitors.

Reference

Asus CUSL2(-LS)

Board Type: Asus CUSL2-LS

Board Revision: 1.02

BIOS Version: 1006

In our first 815 motherboard review, Asus’ CUSL2 introduced itself with respectable features and both good performance and stability. Several months later the portfolio was expanded: The CUSL2-C uses the 815EP chipset, which does not include the graphics controller anymore. The CUSL2-M is a MicroATX motherboard with 815E chipset and last but not least there is the CUSL2-LS, which comes with an Adaptec 7899 dual channel U160-SCSI controller.

Except for the CUSL2-M, all CUSL series boards are based on the same hardware and similar BIOS versions. That applies in particular to the CUSL2-LS, as the layout was not changed. In order to add LAN & SCSI features, Asus removed one PCI slot in favor of a proprietary interface. This slot is the host of an add-on card that carries the LAN and SCSI hardware:

I included the CUSL2 to see how the special edition boards perform compared to a common product.

Asus CUSL2-C Black Pearl plus iPanel

Board Revision: 1.04

BIOS Version: 1006A (February 27, 2001)

Thanks to the black color, the motherboard looks pretty cool. It comes with a total of six PCI slots, four USB ports, three DIMM sockets and AGP 4x.

Most of you already know the Asus soft setup, which allows setting FSB speeds between 66 and 166 MHz, several Vcore settings between 1.3 and 2.0 V and also the multiplier — even though most Intel CPUs come with a fixed multiplier and can only be overclocked by altering the FSB speed.

In terms of stability and performance, Asus is at the very top for many years now. The CUSL2-C Black Pearl fits perfectly into this image, as it is not only a technical delicacy, but even kinda appealing to the eye.

The Black Pearl Edition comes in a special black box. Inside it, we found a set of screwdrivers, a driver disc, several flat cables, a USB port connector for the USB ports 3 and 4 and two manuals. One quick setup guide in five languages, which is by far the best installation guide I’ve ever seen, and additionally the common Asus manual — this one is also as good as ever.

Asus iPanel

The iPanel is a piece of hardware which is not bundled with any motherboard but has to be obtained separately. You can see the iPanel module (designed to be installed into a free 5.25″ drive bay), a little manual and a disk with the Asus software (Asus Hotkey).

As I already mentioned, there are two versions available: The basic version that we got for review as well as a deluxe edition. The deluxe edition has everything the basic version has plus audio jacks and a serial port. Both types are optional available with an IR port as well.

The four-digit display keeps you up to date about the current system status and can report error codes. That makes it much easier to determine the reason for system failure. There are several keys right below this display: www, email, key 1, key 2 and mode. ‘Mode’ is of course a function key that will show you technical data like system frequency or fan rotation speed. ‘www’ and ’email’ will automatically launch your default browser respectively default email client. The keys 1 and 2 can be assigned to any desired function. For that purpose you have to use the Asus Hotkey software.

I guess there is not much to explain about the LEDs. Those labeled 1-3 can be freely assigned, while all others are clearly described.

The two USB ports make the USB adapter panel obsolete, which is included with most Asus motherboards. Usually you will need it for the USB ports 3 and 4.

AOpen Dr. LED

That’s what AOpen’s LED product looks like. Dr. LED has no connectivity features like the products from Asus and Azza. It is an instrument for system monitoring. As you can see in the picture, there are LEDs for CPU, memory, AGP, PCI, floppy, the HDD, keyboard and a boot status LED.

Such a big case just for some LEDs would have been waste of space. AOpen included a CD box for 10 discs into the Dr. LED module (see photo). Just pull out the drawer to access the CD case.

Azza 815EXP plus Azza-Up Panel

Board Revision: 1.0

BIOS Version: January 20, 2001

Azza’s 815EXP uses the 815EP chipset without integrated graphics. It features five PCI slots, three DIMM sockets, an AGP 4x slot, UltraATA/100 controller, four USB ports and an AC97 sound system. I was surprised to see two CNR slots on this board. Particularly because most users don’t even equip one of them!

This board runs fast and reliable. Though the BIOS isn’t as detailed as the Asus or AOpen ones, you will get all important switches to configure the hardware according to your needs.

The panel called ‘Azza-Up’ is included with this motherboard as well as Star Office 5.2, Linux Mandrake, a disk including the Azza-Up monitor software, Virtual Drive, a driver CD, two flat cables and a manual. The whole stuff is called Jumbo Pack.

AOpen’s Dr. LED can be called monitoring hardware, while this panel is a hardware extension, making the audio jacks and two USB ports available at the front of your computer.

Test Setup

Benchmarks

SYSmark 2000

I decided to run the SYSmark under Windows 2000. If you still remember the benchmark results from the last Solano motherboard review back in September, you may notice that the results are pretty much the same. That’s an interesting coincidence, since I used a Pentium III 866 instead of the 933 MHz model. Conclusion: If you want business software to run under Windows 98 as fast as under Windows 2000, you have to use the next faster processor model.

This benchmark does not reveal much difference between the candidates.

Quake III Arena

Quake III Arena is still a rather handy software thanks to the fact that the benchmark option (timedemo) hands out sensitive results which allow to draw conclusions regarding performance without having run any other benchmark.

The Asus boards is performing very well.

Mercedes Benz Truck Racing

Mercedes Benz Truck Racing is very popular for its physics; the lovely graphics are almost a byproduct. Again, Asus CUSL2 and also the Black Pearl board are slightly faster than the competition from AOpen.

SPECviewperf 6.1.2: Advanced Visualizer

This time, I did not include all parts of the SPECviewperf benchmark. As you can see, the Asus boards are the fastest. Azza’s motherboard is some percent behind, but still in range.

Conclusion

The 815 chipset is available for nearly one year now, that’s why I would not forgive any problems with system stability. Fortunately, both the Azza 815EXP and the Asus CUSL2-C Black Pearl ran perfectly stable as well as fast. There is still some room for improvement with the Azza board, as it is a bit behind the competitor from Asus. Both motherboards are equipped with standard hardware. Azza features a sound system, which is not available on the Asus board. Asus, in contrast, has a sixth PCI slot that can of course be used for a sound card.

The drive bay modules left a mixed impression. AOpen’s Dr. LED is basically a good idea, but I doubt that I would abandon a drive bay in order to have those LEDs and a special storage space for 10 CDs. In times of hot CPUs, graphics cards and hard drives I prefer to keep my system as empty as possible, since every component will heat up and contribute to high system temperatures.

Azza reduced their Azza-Up only to functions that are really important. In my opinion that means a line in and line out plus one or two USB ports and maybe an IR port. The Azza-Up brings all three audio jacks and two USB ports to the front of the PC, which could e.g. be used for a digital camera.

The most sensible as well as practical solution comes from Asus. The iPanel provides all kind of interfaces — depending on the version you buy (basic or deluxe). There are also versions with IR port available. Though the iPanel is the most expansive add-on, it is by far the most valuable.