Dual Channel DDR and AGP8X - Beautiful!
Dual Channel DDR is now one of the topic buzzwords on everyone's mind. Although
we've already published reviews of Nvidia's Nforce 2 boards like FIC's AU11
with Dual Channel support, it was actually Intel that first introduced us to
DualChannel memory with their E7205 "Granite Bay" chipset.
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It's no secret why Dual Channel memory is so desirable. Initially Intel put
all their support behind the RAMBUS DRAM architecture, but high prices, slow
adoption, and the controversy surrounding RAMBUS itself, have made RDRAM a minor
player in the consumer market. And yet it's nigh impossible to ignore the fact
that PC1066 RAMBUS memory has an impossibly huge 4.2GB/s bandwidth compared
to the 3.2Gb/s rated bandwidth of PC3200 DDR memory. But now Dual Channel seems
to offer an enticingly cheap alternative to the more expensive RDRAM platform
by providing 4.3Gb/s of bandwidth using PC2100 memory. DDR266 is now viewed
upon by most hardcore enthusiasts as already obsolete - its ubiquity means it
barely stirs any excitement at all in performance circles. This is all about
to change as DDR266 Dual Channel will allow even those with "mundane"
PC2100 DDR memory to achieve higher than ever performance levels.
Aside from Dual Channel memory, the Granite Bay chipset is appealing due to
its overall performance: most people will find VERY close performance between
an E7205 Granite Bay board running dual channel memory and an Intel 850 based
board with PC1066 RIMMs. Add to that its USB 2.0 support, capacity of up to
4GB of RAM, and AGP8X , and you can quickly see how Intel is stealing back some
of the thunder that SiS has been stealing.
MSI is one of the first companies that managed to send out their most recent
Granite Bay based GNB-Max to reviewers, and it's been sitting in our labs for
a while now as we tested it.
Specs and Features
The actual board we're reviewing is the GNB Max-FISR, which includes integrated
10/100 LAN, Gigabit LAN support, IEEE 1394, and Serial ATA RAID.
Specs:
Intel® E7205 Chipset
- Support single processor up to 533MHz
- Support 144bit wide DDR 2100 memory interface, with the
memory bandwidth of 4.27GB/s or 3.2 GB/s
- Support AGP 8x or 4x at 0.8V (AGP 3.0) or 4x at 1.5V
(not support 3.3V)
Intel® ICH4 Chipset
- AC'97 Controller Integrated
- 2 full IDE channels, up to ATA100
- Low pin count interface for SIO
- Integrated USB 2.0 controller
FSB
Support 100/133MHz FSB
Support 400/533MHz Intel NetBurst micro-architecture bus.
Main Memory
Support Dual channel (144-bit wide) DDR 266 memory
interface. Each channel supports 2 DIMM Sockets.
Support four 184-pin DDR DIMM sockets up to 4GB.
Support non-ECC(x64) or ECC(x72) DIMMs DDR PC2001
DIMM using 128Mb, 256Mb, 512Mb and 1GB SDRAM.
On-Board Expansion Slots, IDE & Serial ATA
One AGP/AGP Pro 50 Watts slot supports 8x/4x at 0.8V (AGP 3.0)
or 4x at 1.5V (does not support 3.3V)
Five PCI 2.2 32-bit Master PCI Bus slots.
An IDE controller on the ICH4 chipset provides IDE HDD/
CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA66/100 operation
modes.
Can connect up to four IDE devices.
Promise 20376 controllers 2 Serial ATA ports in 150 MB/s
operation mode and 1 Ultra DMA port.
Audio & LAN:
C-Media 8738MX supports 2/4/6 channel speaker + SPDIF out
Intel® 82540EM
- Integrated Fast Ethernet MAC and PHY in one chip.
- Supports 10Mb/s, 100Mb/s and 1000Mb/s.
- Compliance with PCI 2.2.
- Supports ACPI Power Management.
On-Board Peripherals
- 1 floppy port supports 2 FDDs with 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M
and 2.88Mbytes
- 2 serial ports (COM A + COM B)
- 1 parallel port supports SPP/EPP/ECP mode
- 6 USB2.0 ports (Rear x 4 / Front x 2)
- 1 Line-In/Line-Out/Mic-In port
- 2 PS/2 connectors
- 1 LAN RJ45 connector (Optional)
- 1394 port controlled by VT6306, with up to 400Mbps transfer
rate. (Optional)
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Our bundle came with all the optional accessories, which include the diagnostic
D-bracket, IEEE1394 and S-bracket. The S-bracket audio expansion which adds
center/subwoofer and rear left/right outputs as well as coax and SPDIF digital
inputs. All the boards should come standard with 2 Serial ATA cables.
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