|
Index: Introduction Albatron PX485PE pro II DFI NB78-HL Epox EP-4PEA+ Gigabyte GA-8PE667 Ultra Soyo SY-P4X400 Benchmarks Conclusions |
|
Gigabyte GA-8PE667 Ultra |
Specifications
| Processor | - Socket 478 for Intel® Pentium® 4 with HT Technology |
| FSB | - 533/400 MHz |
| Chipset | - IntelR 82845PE MCH - IntelR 82801DB ICH4 - IntelR PRO/100 VE LAN chip - Realtek ALC650E Audio AC'97 CODEC - Super I/O: ITE I/O IT8712F chip - Smart I/O: Winbond 83L518D chip - NEC D720100A USB 2.0 controller chip |
| Memory | - Type: DDR200/266/333 ( PC1600/2100/2700) 184 pin (2.5v) - 3 x DIMM - Max capacity: Up to 2 GB |
| IDE Ports | - 2 channels, up to 4 ATA 133 IDE devices - 2 ATA133 RAID (0, 1) Channels, up to 4 ATA 133 IDE Hard Drives and other ATAPI devices |
| Onboard I/O Connectors | - 1 x FDD - 2 x ATA 133/100/66 Bus Master IDE - 2 x UDMA ATA 100/66 Bus Master IDE - 4 x USB 2.0 (8 ports by cable with rear USB bracket) - Memory Stick / Security Digital (MMC) / Smart Card Reader connectors - S/P DIF output (with rear bracket) - 3 x cooling fan pin headers - CD/AUX in |
| I/O via Back Panel | - 2 x USB 2.0 ports - 1 x RJ45 LAN port - 1 x LPT - 2 x COM ports - Audio (1 x Line-in / 1 x Line-out / 1 x MIC) connector - PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse connector - 1 x Game/Midi port |
| Expansion Slots | - 1 x AGP 4x, supports 1.5v display card only. - 6 x PCI (PCI 2.2 compliant) - 1 x CNR |
| Form Factor | - ATX 30.5cm x 24.4cm |
| BIOS | - 2 x 4M bit flash ROM - CPU FSB / Multiplier / Vcore Voltage - AGP Voltage / Clock - DIMM Voltage / Clock - System health status auto-detect - Suspend to RAM (STR) - Supports USB KB / MS wake up from S3 |
| Other Features | - GIGABYTE patented DualBIOS - IDE #1-#4, SCSI, LS120, ZIP, CD-ROM and USB bootable |
Package
Not the largest bundle that I've seen but certainly not the least either. Three IDE cables and one floppy cable. Rear brackets for four USB2.0 ports and audio. Two manuals, quick installation quide and a driver CD. Also included is a new I/O-panel because the connectors on the back are rearranged. As a bonus there are also couple of Gigabyte stickers that you can place in your case front bezel. This way your friends know what kind of a hardware you have inside your computer. A nice touch in my mind.
Connectors
Two PS/2 connectors for the mouse and keyboard, printer port and two serial ports, game port and three AC'97 audio ports and finally RJ45 for the network and two USB2.0 connectors. A pretty standard lineup I would say but what is the harm in that? :)
Audio
This rear bracket offers SPDIF output optically and with RCA. For surround experience there are subwoofer and rear speaker outputs. Great addon for users interested of getting best audio from their games and videos.
Chips
ITE8712F-A is handling the I/O with Promise's PDC20276 dealing with the IDE-raid. You remember that Albatron's board used PDC20376? Like I said, this is basically the same chip but only for IDE and not Serial ATA. Additional USB2.0 ports are provided by NEC's D720100AS1 controller chip. ALC650 will offer the audio experience even though many people don't value the audio quality produced by this chip very high.
DualBIOS
Gigabyte uses their patented DualBIOS technique also in this board. This is the great way to protect the board from busted BIOS flashes or harmfull settings that users might enter. Both chips are soldered to the motherboard and this brings the manufacturing costs down and because there shouldn't be a scenario where you would need to replace either of the chips this move is understandable.
Motherboard connectors
Coded with yellow color are the USB2.0 headers. IDE-raid connectors are marked with green color. IDE-raid in this board also accepts ATAPI-devices so you can connect for example a dvd-drives to them bringing total count of IDE devices with this board to eight.
It is nice that manufacturers are starting to use more and more colors on their motherboards so it is easier for us users to find all the components with a single glimpse. Gigabyte has taken this coding a bit further, see the next image.
Color coded headers
Now this is something that will make your life a lot easier. By color coding the pins it is easier to find the correct pins and with that marked X on the certain pins tells you that this is the positive pins. Important with all those indicator leds that you have on front of your case. Also notice the rounded edge of the motherboard, another trademark feature of Gigabyte. No more bleading hands while installing. ;)
Active cooling
Gigabyte has decided to use active cooling on the North Bridge. This small fan will add some more noise to your system but if you can live with that, it isn't a major issue. Again visible is that ATX12V power connector on top part of the image.
IDE + floppy + memory slots + power connector
Nothing really special here. Three memory slots that can support maximum of 2 gigabytes pc2700 memory. Floppy connector is situated quite close to the 20-pin ATX connector but that shouldn't be a problem because neither one will be handled that often.
Too close or not?
Again we see this little design flaw that will make handling of the memory slots a bit harder. Hopefully manufacturers find a way to overcome this issue on their future boards.
BIOS
In this board the options inside the BIOS screen might look few but that is because Gigabyte has hidden those more advanced settings. You have to press CTRL+F1 while inside the BIOS to get the rest of the options. Here is a list of what you can find:
CPU volts: Norm, 1.525 - 1.725 (0.025 steps)
AGP volts: Norm, +0.1 and +0,2
DDR volts: Norm, +0.1 and +0.2
FSB: 100 - 355
PCI/AGP fixed frequency: Disabled, 33/66 up to a 50/100
Host/Dram clock ratio: 2.0, 2.5 or auto
| << Epox EP-4PEA+ | Soyo SY-P4X400 >> |
 | Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |  |
Content in english!
Sisältö suomeksi!
