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Chipsets. Chipsets that support the Intel Xeon processor Estimated retail price, USD

The diversity of the Intel chipset portfolio is difficult to understand, as some features overlap from model to model. Choosing a higher model number will not necessarily give you a more advanced chipset. So, for example, the G35 provides more advanced graphics, but does not support DDR3 memory and does not work with the newer ICH9 southbridge as the G33 does. However, the Intel G31 chipset is actually an entry-level chipset and consumes minimal power.

The G31 falls under the category of mainstream desktop chipsets for "mainstream computing". This means that this chipset is completely unsuitable for high-end systems and does not support any advanced features. The G31 chipset was designed as a cost-effective option for ordinary user. Therefore, it is aimed at processors such as Core 2, Pentium Dual Core or similar Celerons based on the Core 2 microarchitecture.

The G31 chipset is limited to 4GB of memory, while the G33 and G35 support up to 8GB. The low-end chipset only supports dual-channel DDR2-800 memory (although this is not a downside compared to DDR3) and works with an ICH7 southbridge instead of an ICH8, ICH9, or ICH10. As a result, the G31 only supports four SATA/300 ports, but provides two more UltraATA/100 channels, while newer chipsets support either one legacy ATA channel or none at all. The G31 with the ICH7 Southbridge provides eight USB 2.0 ports, HD audio, traditional PCI slots, and as little as a 100Mbps network controller. If you need a faster Ethernet connection, then look for a motherboard that comes with a PCIe network controller to provide gigabit Ethernet. Both motherboards presented in our review are just that. And finally, although the G31 chipset has one x16 PCI Express upgrade slot, it is not compatible with PCI Express 2.0.

Although FSB1066 was originally listed, all of the current G31 motherboards we reviewed also support FSB1333 processors. Both of our motherboards support all Core 2 processors, including Core 2 Quad processors. Incredibly, even the three-phase voltage regulator on the Foxconn G31 motherboard is enough to run the Core 2 Quad Q9550, in case you decide to abandon the dual-core processor in favor of a quad-core one.

Graphics core GMA3100

Integrated graphics solutions won't give you the performance and features that decent 3D graphics cards like Radeon HD4850/4870 and Nvidia GeForce 260/280. Even "mass" video cards on GPUs GeForce 9600GT far outperform integrated solutions. However, we decided to stick with integrated graphics to keep power consumption as low as possible.

The G31 chipset contains the Intel GMA3100 integrated graphics core based on the GMA3000 core. This is the same graphics core that Intel first used in the 965 chipset line (under the name GMA X3000), and although the G965 supports pixel shaders 3.0, the G31, G33, Q35 chipsets are limited to the SM 2.0 model, which means support for DirectX 9.0c. However, this is sufficient for all the functions of the Aero interface in the operating system. Windows Vista. Motherboards with the G31 chipset usually have one analog D-SUB15 display output, and sometimes a DVI digital output. Since the GMA3100 is not suitable for HTPC (Home Theater), motherboards do not have HDMI outputs; you should also not expect two digital outputs from such boards.

CPU Intel Core 2 Duo was released in late summer 2006 and made a splash. Suddenly AMD processors The Athlon 64 X2 bypassed a product that provided better performance while consuming less power. Released at 2.66 GHz (2.93 GHz for the expensive Extreme version), the Core 2 Duo maintained its superior status for more than two years.

The first update was to increase the processor bus frequency from FSB1066 to FSB1333 in the summer of 2007 with the release of the P35 platform and slightly modified processors. The second modification is the frequency of the FSB1600 in high-end models and the change in the manufacturing process from 65 nm to 45 nm. All Core 2 Duo E7000, E8000, and Core 2 Quad Q8000 and Q9000 processors are based on 45nm Wolfdale cores. Quad-core Yorkfield processors use two Wolfdale dies.

Over time, Wolfdale processors have improved; the most recent modification was the introduction of the M0 stepping, which reduced the idle power consumption of the processor compared to the L steppings. We were looking for a suitable processor that would use the latest spacing, and found a Core 2 Duo E7200 with only 3 MB L2 cache instead of 6 MB . Of course, the reduced capacity of the L2 cache is another opportunity to reduce power consumption, which we did not fail to take advantage of.

At the moment, the E7000 line consists of only two models: the E7300 with a clock speed of 2.66 GHz and the E7200 with a frequency of 2.53 GHz. Both models are based on the Wolfdale core, but have only 3 MB L2 cache and a reduced FSB1066 system bus frequency (for comparison: all Core 2 Duo E8000 processors have FSB1333 and 6 MB L2 cache). The E7000 line does not support either Virtualization Technology (VT) or Trusted Execution Technology (TXT); for our purposes, this is not a problem, since both technologies are irrelevant for "mass" desktop users. Reduced L2 cache capacity combined with reduced clock frequencies makes this processor an excellent choice for a highly energy efficient computer, as you can see from our testing. Despite the claimed TDP of 65W, the Core 2 Duo E7200 consumes far less than this ceiling.

CONTENT

This review is a kind of continuation of last year's article “Choosing a chipset for Core 2 Duo. The era before Intel 3 Series "and one of the last parts of the material dedicated to chipsets for Intel platforms LGA775. This time we will consider sets of system logic of the Intel 3 Series family, products on which, although not in large numbers, are still on the market.

The company launched the Intel 3 Series chipset line in 2007 to support the expected 45nm Penryn processors with a 1333MHz bus, which could not function on the then popular motherboards based on the Intel x965 and 945x chipsets. In total, there were eight models in the line: the mass entry-level P31, P35 for mid-level systems, integrated G31, G33 and G35, the flagship X38, and solutions for the corporate market - Q35 and Q33. Of course, the novelties were not limited to supporting future processors - with their appearance, the era of DDR3 memory and the PCI Express 2.0 bus began (the latter is true only for the high-level X38 chipset). In addition, the southbridge has been updated, which became known as ICH9: the number of USB 2.0 ports has increased to twelve, and support for Intel Turbo Memory technology has appeared, which is based on the installation of an additional module with flash memory on the board, which allows you to speed up the loading of applications in the operating room. Windows Vista system.

Intel P31/G31 Express

The P31 and G31 chipsets have replaced the Intel 945x/946x series with the only difference being FSB support up to 1333 MHz and DDR2-800 memory with a maximum of 4 GB. The integrated solution has received an updated GMA 3100 graphics core instead of the previously used GMA 950. The rest of the functionality was limited to ICH7 or ICH7R southbridges, which support only eight USB 2.0 ports, four PCI-E 1.1 lanes (six for ICH7R), four SATA II channels (the ability to organize RAID arrays of levels 0, 1, 5 and 10 for ICH7R) and Fast Ethernet.

In addition, entry-level system logic sets were limited in their ability to operate at high FSB frequencies, i.e. overclocking of motherboards based on P31 and G31 left much to be desired and was at the level of 430-450 MHz.

Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G

The Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G board, which is now one of the most available solutions for processors of the Penryn family.

The motherboard comes in a green and black box that lists the board's features, including Easy Energy Saver technology.

The scope of delivery is standard for products intended for the mass market:

instructions for installing AMD / Intel processors;
disk with drivers and software;
two SATA cables;
one IDE cable;
one FDD cable;
rear I/O bar;
sticker on the system unit.

The board is made in the ATX form factor, is very compact, but despite this, there is a lot of empty space on it - in this way it even somewhat resembles some Intel solutions. Model GA-P31-ES3G supports all modern processors, including even Pentium 4 and Pentium D, with a system bus frequency from 800 to 1333 MHz. The board has only two DIMM slots, and the maximum amount of DDR2-1066/800/667 memory can reach 4 GB, which is quite enough for an entry-level system.

The design of the GA-P31-ES3G has certain flaws: the IDE connector is located between the DIMM slot and the power connector of the board, as well as the FDD connector installed parallel to the bottom edge of the board - but given that there are practically no drives with an IDE interface on sale, and a floppy drive has outlived itself, then these disadvantages can not be counted.

The processor power subsystem is built according to a 3-phase scheme using solid capacitors and chokes in armored cores. In the rest of the circuits, conventional capacitances and simpler chokes are installed. Connector for additional power supply of the ATX12V processor.

Chipset microcircuits are cooled by small aluminum heatsinks - some boards based on Intel P965 Express from the same manufacturer were equipped with a similar cooling system. Four connectors are provided for connecting fans, one of which, a four-pin connector, is designed for a fan from a processor cooler.

The functionality of the GA-P31-ES3G is minimal, due to the limited capabilities of the ICH7 south bridge. The board has four SATA II channels, eight USB 2.0 ports, four of which are routed to back panel, one IDE channel, three PCI-E x1 slots, and three regular PCI slots. There is also a COM and LPT port.

The sound subsystem is implemented using the old familiar Realtek ALC888 HDA codec, network gigabit ethernet based on Realtek 8111C chip.

The rear panel has two PS / 2 connectors, coaxial S / PDIF, four USB port, network connector, COM- and LPT-port, three audio connectors. In fact, a standard set that products from the time of the Intel 945P chipset could boast of.

Clear CMOS pins are placed closer to the edge of the board, unlike their favorite place near the PCI-E x1 slots, which eliminates the constant dismantling of a video card with a dual-slot cooler when resetting BIOS settings.

And, of course, the GA-P31-ES3G is equipped with two BIOS chips, which will allow you to restore the system if the microcode in one of them is damaged. It is gratifying that such a feature can be found on an inexpensive motherboard, while two BIOS chips from competitors can be found on products of a higher class.

BIOS

Board BIOS Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G is based on the Award Software microcode and is somewhat inferior to modern solutions in terms of its capabilities. The available settings for overclocking are concentrated in the MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.) menu, but before going there, you must press the “Ctrl + F1” combination, otherwise the items for setting memory delays will not be available.

In the M.I.T. you can control the processor multiplier (both integer and fractional), change the frequency of the system bus, PCI-E interface, adjust the memory mode and various voltages.

The FSB bus frequency varies within 100-700 MHz, the PCI-E bus - from 90 to 150 MHz. Rough control of the Performance Level is available in the Performance Enhance item, where you can choose from Standard, Turbo or Extreme modes. To fine-tune the PL, there is a Static tRead Value item among the memory timings, which already allows you to select more familiar digital values. To select the operating mode (i.e. frequency) of the memory, there is a small list of multipliers.

The ability to change the voltage is present for the processor (up to 1.6 V), FSB bus (up to +0.3 V from nominal), memory (up to +0.7 V), PCI-E bus (up to +0.3 V), north bridge (up to +0.3 V) and GTL logic. It is also possible to reduce the FSB voltage to -0.15 V.

Parameter	Range of changes
DDR2 OverVoltage Control	+ 0.1-0.7 V, in 0.1 V steps
PCI-E OverVoltage Control	+ 0.1-0.3V, in 0.1V steps
FSB OverVoltage Control	+ 0.1-0.3V, in 0.1V steps
FSB DeOverVoltage Control	- 0.05-0.15 V, in 0.05 V steps
(G)MCH OverVoltage Control	+ 0.1-0.3V, in 0.1V steps
CPU GTLREF Voltage Ratio	0.54/0.566/0.603/0.636
CPU Voltage Control	0.5-1.6V, 0.00625V steps

Poor monitoring allows you to track only the voltages on the processor, memory, +3.3 and +12 V lines, as well as the speed of four fans. It is possible to configure an alarm when a certain processor temperature is reached or when each of the four fans stops.

To update the BIOS, you can use the built-in Q-Flash utility- just connect a "flash drive" with a saved version of the microcode.

Additional software

The Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G motherboard allows you to install the Easy Energy Saver utility, which has common features with Dynamic Energy Saver Advanced, but unlike the latter, it does not control the dynamic shutdown of the processor power phases when the system is idle, but simply calculates the saved electricity when the voltage drops power supply and activation of C1E and EIST technologies for processors of the Core 2 family.

As a result, the practical application of this utility is not so much.

Overclocking

To find out the overclocking potential of the board, the following configuration was assembled:

Video card: ASUS EN8800GS TOP 384M;
Power supply: Silver Power SP-S850 (850 W).

Testing was carried out in Windows environment Vista Ultimate x86 SP1, using OCCT 3.01 with an hour run and large matrix as a stress test. The memory multiplier was set to the minimum possible, the timings looked like 5-5-5-15. The BIOS version of the board was F6.

As a rule, during overclocking, the PCI Express bus frequency should be blocked at the level of 100-110 MHz, but with such settings, the system could only boot at the FSB frequency of 350 MHz. If PCI-E is left in Auto mode, then the ceiling is practically limited by the capabilities of the chipset itself.

In our case, it was 455 MHz with raising the voltage on the chipset and FSB by +0.1 V and 465 MHz by raising these voltages by another +0.1 V.

Further increase in voltages and changing the memory timings did not affect the potential of the board, although there is information on the Web about the maximum overclocking to the FSB level of 500 MHz and higher. Intel P35/G35/G33 Express

The Intel P35/G33 Express chipsets, which replaced the Intel P965/G965, were the first chipsets introduced by Intel during the announcement of a new line of chipsets at Computex 2007. The rest had the status of a “paper” announcement and appeared a little later. New products for the first time supported DDR3-1066/800 memory with a maximum capacity of 8 GB, in addition to DDR2-800/667, and motherboard manufacturers could release products designed for any of these types, or even combined solutions. The ICH9 southbridge expanded the functionality of the system with twelve USB 2.0 ports, its ICH9R and ICH9DO modifications supported six SATA II channels with the ability to organize RAID arrays of levels 0, 1, 5 and 10. turn off unused speed channels serial interface. The integrated graphics core of the G33 is similar to that of the G31, but with one difference, which is the support for Clear Video video enhancement technology. The P35's CrossFire mode was advertised as "x16 + x4", which, like the P965, hindered tandem performance. Intel Turbo Memory technology was never widely adopted, although there were high hopes for it.

The integrated Intel G35 Express chipset acquired a more advanced core - GMA X3500, but only supported DDR2 memory up to 800 MHz and was equipped with the ICH8 south bridge (ICH8R, ICH8DH), known from the P965 / G965 system logic sets.

Intel Q35/Q33 Express

For the corporate market, the Q35 and Q33 chipsets were released, which contained the GMA 3100 video core, supported DDR2-800/667 memory and were equipped with ICH9, ICH9R and ICH9DO southbridges with the ability to implement Intel Turbo Memory (only Q35). These solutions differed in support Intel technologies Trusted Execution and Intel Virtualization for Directed I/O (Q35).

ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP

Representatives of the business segment did not come to us for testing, so let's consider a product based on the Intel P35 Express mid-range chipset that was mass-produced at the time. The ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP Motherboard is packaged in a black box with a handle and a hinged lid that lists all product features and supported technologies.

Contents of delivery:

instructions for the motherboard;
instructions for WiFi access point;
disk with drivers and software;
four SATA cables;
one IDE cable;
one FDD cable;
rear I/O bar;
WiFi antenna;
a set of branded Q-Connector pads.

The board, made on black textolite, is designed for Intel processors with FSB 800-1333 MHz and supports DDR2 memory with a frequency of up to 1066 MHz and a total capacity of 8 GB. The PCB design has some flaws, in particular, the DIMM slots are located close to the graphics connector, six SATA connectors are installed perpendicular to the board, four of which can be blocked by a large card with a two-slot cooling system. Also, the IDE connector is located at the bottom of the board, due to which the cable length may not be enough to connect the drive in Full Tower cases, but, given the general transition to the SATA interface, this is no longer so critical.

Some of the power transistors were moved to the reverse side of the board, which made it possible to evenly distribute the thermal load on the VRM module.

The processor power subsystem is built according to an 8-phase scheme using solid-state capacitors and chokes in armored cores. Similar components are used in other power circuits of the board. An eight-pin EPS12V is used as an auxiliary power connector for the processor.

Chipset microcircuits and part of power transistors are cooled by aluminum heatsinks connected to each other by means of heat pipes. For the remaining elements of the four phases, a separate aluminum radiator is installed.

Six connectors are provided for connecting fans, one of which is four-pin - this is more than enough for organizing active cooling inside the case.

The functionality of the board is good even by modern standards: three PCI slots, two PCI-E x1, one PCI-E x4 (PCI-E x16 slot) and one PCI-E x16, as well as ten USB 2.0 ports, six of which are routed to the rear panel, and six SATA II channels with the ability to organize RAID arrays 0, 1, 5 and 10 due to the south bridge ICH9R.

Additional controllers on the board include JMicron JMB363, which supports one IDE channel and two eSATA, and Agere FW3227, which is responsible for two IEEE 1394 ports.

Two gigabit controllers, Realtek RTL8110SC and Marvell 88E8056, are responsible for the network on the board, and the first of them is located on the PCI bus, and the second on the PCI-E bus.

As you have already noticed, two USB ports are not available to the user - they are used by the WiFi module near the back of the board.

The AW-GA800BT module from AzureWave is based on the Realtek RTL8187L chip and supports the IEEE 802.11b/g standard.

In addition to the connector for connecting a WiFi antenna on the rear panel, there are six USB ports, two eSATA, one FireWire, optical and coaxial S / PDIF, six audio connectors and only one PS / 2 for the keyboard.

At first, boards with one PS / 2 port, or even without it at all, aroused indignation among users, they even accused the chipmaker of the inexpediency of excluding the "mouse" interface. But Intel has nothing to do with this, since the PS / 2 ports are implemented in the Super I / O chip, which motherboard manufacturers put on their products. With the abandonment of the archaic interface, some problems appeared with the compatibility of new motherboards with USB mice from second-tier manufacturers. For example, the tested ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP refused to work with the A4-Tech SWOP-558 manipulator. Perhaps these are features of the exclusively considered solution.

BIOS

The board's BIOS, based on AMI microcode, allows users to fine-tune the system and is less overloaded with various parameters compared to modern ASUS boards.

The main settings are concentrated in the Advanced menu, where you can change the frequency of the FSB bus (from 200 to 800 MHz), PCI-E (from 100 to 150 MHz), the processor multiplier and the memory mode. It is possible to control the Performance Level parameter, however, somewhat in a non-standard form: you need to combine enabling or disabling the Transaction Booster parameter and the Relax Level level. By default, this board has a PL of 10, while even Intel's P43 Express-based solution has a default of 7, which immediately puts the ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP at a disadvantage when comparing products from different manufacturers.

The number of dividers in the memory is enough to set 835, 887 or even 1111 and 1332 MHz at FSB 333 MHz.

The voltage on the processor can be changed within 1.1-1.7 V, memory - from 1.8 to 2.55 V, although the description contains data from a board that supports DDR3.

On the north bridge, the voltage varies within 1.25-1.7 V, it is also possible to change the voltage of the CPU PLL, which is important for overclocking quad-core processors, on the FSB, south bridge and GTL logic. The available Load-Line Calibration parameter will allow you to avoid a drop in the supply voltage of an overclocked processor under load.

All variable voltages are listed in the table:

Parameter	Range of changes
CPU Voltage	1.1-1.7V, 0.0125V steps
CPU PLL Voltage	1.5-1.8V, 0.1V steps
FSB Termination Voltage	1.1-1.4V, 0.1V steps
DRAM Voltage	1.8-2.55V, 0.05V steps
NB Voltage	1.25/1.4/1.55/1.7V
S.B. Voltage	1.05/1.2V
Clock Over-Charging Voltage	0.7-1.0V, 0.1V steps
CPU GTL Voltage Reference	0.63x/0.61x/0.59x/0.57x
NB GTL Voltage Reference	0.67x/0.61x

Monitoring is notable for its quite minimalism - there is only the temperature of the processor, motherboard, main voltages, including the processor voltage, and tracking the rotational speed of four fans, as well as controlling the Q-Fan technology.

Those who often use various system settings will find it useful to be able to save two profiles, which, after updating the BIOS, will still have to be rewritten again, otherwise the system is unstable.

To update the BIOS, there is a built-in ASUS EZ Flash 2 utility - just connect the flash drive and select the directory with the saved version of the microcode.

Additional software

The board comes with ASUS AI Suite software, which is responsible for monitoring, system overclocking, fan control and power saving functions.

Also on the bundled disk you can find a simpler PC Probe II utility responsible for system monitoring.

Overclocking

The board was overclocked with the same configuration as with the Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G. The BIOS version was 0902, dated June 19, 2008 - more recent firmware is in beta status, so it has not been used. With a voltage of 1.4 V on the north bridge and 1.4 V FSB, the maximum stable frequency was 550 MHz, and with an increase in NB Voltage to 1.55 V, the system was able to pass the stress test at a frequency of 566 MHz. For greater stability, the board was blown by a 120mm fan.

Changing other parameters did not affect the potential of ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP.

Intel X38/X48 Express

After the announcement of a new line of chipsets, the "old man" i975X temporarily handed over the baton of the company's flagship to the Intel P35 Express chipset, despite the limitations in the construction of CrossFire systems. Some manufacturers even produced P35-based boards with PCI Express bus switch chips, which allowed video cards to “talk” between themselves and the motherboard via eight PCI-E 1.1 lanes on each side. Of course, this affected the final cost of the finished solution, but high-level products have never been distinguished by a democratic price.

In the fall of 2007, the high-end Intel X38 Express chipset was already introduced, which differed from the P35 by supporting 32 PCI Express 2.0 lanes, which had twice the bandwidth of PCI-E 1.1, and allowed two video cards to work in “x16 + x16” mode . In addition, it became possible to work with DDR3-1333 memory, and support for XMP technologies(eXtreme Memory Profiles), which is similar to EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles) from NVIDIA, but for DDR3 modules. Another interesting feature of the chipset was the presence of a heat-distributing cover on the north bridge, which made it possible to evenly remove heat and avoid chipping the chip chip.

Six months later, the Intel X48 Express chipset was introduced, which is nothing more than an X38 with bug fixes and official support for the FSB 1600 MHz bus and DDR3-1600 memory, and the chipset cannot work with DDR2 memory. In any case, this is what Intel said, which was soon refuted by motherboard manufacturers by releasing appropriate products that work with the old type of memory.

That's just, despite the fact that this chipset belongs to the fourth series, the south bridge remains the same - ICH9 (R / DH), while the new series is equipped with a microcircuit already at number 10.

Since products based on the Intel X38 Express on this moment already a certain rarity, the ASUS Rampage Formula board was chosen as a representative of solutions based on the top X48 chipset. Over the year, the cost of high-end boards has dropped by half and now you can buy a good product for 150-200 dollars, but considering the forthcoming release of the P55 chipset and processors for Socket LGA1156, the expediency of such a purchase is doubtful. Although it is not known how much they will be valued latest boards(they don’t promise much) and it’s not a fact that it will be possible to immediately switch to the next platform. So if there is a quad-core processor, but there is no desire to change it, and motherboards based on Intel P45 are not satisfied for one reason or another, then a solution based on X48 will be the only candidate for purchase.

The board in question belongs to the Republic of Gamers series and comes in a branded box with a flip-top lid and carrying handle.

On the cover, all the technologies supported by the product are painted, and the presence of the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R .: Shadow of Chernobyl is also indicated in the package. There are cutouts on the box through which you can see the cooling system and the back panel of the board, as well as an external sound card - i.e. one of the most interesting features of the ASUS Rampage Formula.

The board and the delivery set are packed in different boxes - accessories in a cardboard box, and the “motherboard” in a plastic one. The presence of plastic packaging was often found in decisions made in 2000-2001. costing about $100-120, but later they abandoned it, and now, as we see, they have returned to this idea again, but already as an attribute of top products.

Contents of delivery:

instructions for the motherboard;
disk with drivers and software
disc with the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl;
six SATA cables;
external sound card SupremeFX II;
power adapter for SATA devices;
one IDE cable;
one FDD cable;
briquette with two USB connectors and one mini-FireWire;
rear I/O bar;
turbine for a radiator on power elements;
a set of branded Q-Connector sockets
set of ties;
remote LCD indicator LCD-Poster;
sticker on the system unit with the logo.

Among the accessories for the board, you can find a remote LCD-Poster indicator, familiar to us from Rampage II Extreme, and a turbine for installation on one of the power transistor heatsinks when a passive cooling system or CBO is used. There is also a SupremeFX II discrete sound card, which is a regular audio codec on a separate board.

The full-format ATX-board is made on a black textolite, as, indeed, all expensive solutions from ASUS. The layout of the elements is more or less thought out, there is practically nothing to complain about: two PCI-E x16 slots are spaced far enough apart, memory can be replaced without dismantling the video card, the SATA and IDE connectors are rotated 90°, and after installing the accelerators, each channel will be available for connection drives. As for the memory - as noted above, the X48 chipset can work with the DDR2 standard without any problems, and the Rampage Formula is no exception - the board supports modules with a frequency of over 1200 MHz, but finding such modules is now problematic. The maximum amount of memory can reach 8 GB and in this regard there are no differences from solutions based on X38. But for new products from this fourth series, the bar has already moved up to 16 gigabytes, although eight are now rarely used. Of the processors, you can install all modern models with a bus frequency from 800 to 1600 MHz.

A complex design of various radiators and heat pipes is responsible for cooling the 8-channel power subsystem of the processor and chipset microcircuits. On the north bridge there is a large radiator with wavy fins, which, according to the manufacturer, should have a better effect on cooling, connected by a heat pipe to smaller radiators on power elements. To stiffen the system, a reinforcing plate is installed on the reverse side of the board, just at the location of the north bridge. In addition, heat is transferred to another radiator, recruited from thin aluminum plates, rear end which protrude slightly beyond the I / O bar - this is somewhat reminiscent of the Silent Pipe cooling system on Gigabyte video cards.

The ICH9R southbridge is content with a heatsink connected to the rest of the structure via a heat pipe. There are eight connectors on the board for connecting fans, one of them is a four-pin, naturally designed for a processor cooler.

Like the new models, Rampage Formula is equipped with a new CPU power controller - EPU, capable of turning off unused processor power phases during system idle, thereby somehow allowing to save power. For a single board, the savings are not significant, but for a fleet of cars or even on a global scale, the numbers will be much larger.

The functionality of the product is at a high level, and the user can install two PCI expansion cards, two PCI-E x1, one more slot (black) is reserved for a SupremeFX II sound card, two graphics cards with PCI Express 2.0 interface, combining them in CrossFire mode.

The board has six SATA connectors, one IDE implemented using the JMicron JMB363 chip, six USB 2.0 ports (six more on the rear panel), and one IEEE 1394 port (VIA VT6308P). Two Marvell 88E8056 controllers are responsible for the network.

The SupremeFX II module is equipped with a shield cover and a full bar, and appearance resembles a shortened sound card with a PCI-E x1 interface.

But under the cover is a regular ADI AD1988B HDA codec, several filtering capacitors, power wiring and connectors for connecting an HD audio panel and CD.

On the rear panel there are six USB, one PS / 2 port, one FireWire, optical and coaxial S / PDIF, two network connectors and a Clear CMOS button.

In addition, the board has power buttons and Reset, as well as a mini-switch that can be used to disable BIOS reset on the rear panel.

The buttons are convenient to use on an open stand or with one video card in the case, but Clear CMOS may not even be needed, because during the entire testing period it was not necessary to press it, except for checking the function itself. The board is also equipped with three connectors for connecting external thermal sensors and a number of LEDs near the processor, memory, north and south bridges, which are responsible for the level of voltage supplied to the listed components.

BIOS

BIOS ASUS boards Rampage Formula is based on American Megatrends, Inc. microcode, which is to be expected. Its possibilities for fine tuning the systems are quite wide, probably, only boards already on Intel X58 Express look better in this regard. All points of interest for overclocking are concentrated in the Extreme Tweaker section.

Here you can choose auto overclocking, carry out an “upgrade” of the processor to the next model. For example, our Core 2 Duo E8500 could operate in the E8600 mode, when its frequency is raised to the required level by overclocking the FSB bus, or in the Crazy mode, which will be discussed below. The system bus frequency can vary within 200-800 MHz, PCI-E - 100-180 MHz.

The number of memory dividers is similar to the ASUS P5K Deluxe WiFi-AP board, but unlike the latter, it has become easier to manage the Performance Level by directly entering the required numerical value. It is also possible to set a time delay between the memory and northbridge clocks. In addition, another item responsible for system performance - Ai Twister, which appeared on boards with X38, found its place here as well.

The maximum voltage on the processor can reach 2.4 V (1.1 V minimum), CPU PLL - 3 V, the voltage of the north bridge varies between 1.25-1.85 V, which will be enough to overclock Core 2 Quad processors.

The memory voltage can be changed from 1.8 to 3.4 V, although for modern memory already 2.3 V is the limit that not every module can withstand.

The defined voltage limit is marked with a color code. For example, green voltages are safer, yellow ones are already less recommended, red ones - well, we think their essence is clear anyway. Although, the upper values of the green limit can easily burn a member of the Penryn family or an average memory, so you need to be extremely careful when choosing a voltage for a particular system component.

For convenience, all variable voltages are listed in the table:

Parameter	Range of changes
CPU Voltage	1.1-1.9V, 0.00625V steps and 1.9-2.4V, 0.025V steps
CPU PLL Voltage	1.5-3.0V, 0.02V steps
North Bridge Voltage	1.25-1.85V, 0.02V steps
DRAM Voltage	1.8-3.4V, 0.02V steps
FSB Termination Voltage	1.2-2.0V, 0.02V steps
South Bridge Voltage	1.05-1.225V, 0.025V steps
SB 1.5V Voltage	1.5-2.05V, 0.05V steps
CPU GTL Voltage Reference	0.67x/0.65x/0.63x/0.62x
NB GTL Voltage Reference	0.67x/0.63x/0.60x/0.57x/0.56x/0.53x/0.51x/0.49x
DRAM Controller Voltage REF
DRAM Cohannel A Voltage REF	-30 mV to +30 mV, in 10 mV steps
DRAM Cohannel B Voltage REF	-30 mV to +30 mV, in 10 mV steps

Monitoring, unlike more affordable ASUS products, allows you to monitor the temperature of the north and south bridges and three external thermal sensors in addition to the processor and motherboard. The entire list of variable voltages is also present in this section, which allows you to compare the set with the "real". There are also control points for fans and protection against overheating of system components.

Like all ASUS solutions with good overclocking capabilities, the board supports saving two profiles, which will help with frequent changes in system settings.

Additional software

From the software, the board comes with a standard set of utilities: for flashing the BIOS and changing the splash screen at system startup, the PC Probe II monitoring program, and a more advanced Ai Suite configuration tool, which we partially reviewed above. This program allows you to adjust the FSB frequency, processor multiplier, memory operation mode and its supply voltage, PCI-E frequency. It is also possible to adjust the fan operation mode.

In the Ai Gear3+ section, you can control the power-saving features and even slightly overclock the system.

For example, when choosing the mode Turbo frequency FSB rises to 350 MHz:

Turbo

Or you can even choose the Crazy mode in CPU Level Up and the bus frequency will increase to 368 MHz, which gave a final 3495 MHz for the test processor. Why not overclock?

Crazy

Overclocking

Well, now the real acceleration. The configuration is the same without any changes. The board was additionally blown by a 120 mm fan. The BIOS version is 0902.

The maximum frequency at a voltage of 1.45 V on the chipset and 1.4 V FSB turned out to be 562 MHz, and the test in OCCT generated an error if this threshold was exceeded.

Neither increasing the other voltages, nor weakening the timings gave a positive result.
Chipset Specifications

	Intel P31 Express	Intel G31 Express	Intel P35 Express	Intel G35 Express	Intel G33 Express	Intel Q35 Express	Intel Q33 Express	Intel X38 Express
Positioning	Mainstream PC	Mainstream PC		Performance PC	Performance PC, Mainstream PC	Corporate Stable-Pro	Corporate Stable-Pro	Performance PC
north bridge	82P31 MCH	82G31GMCH	82P35 MCH	82G35GMCH	82G33GMCH	82Q35GMCH	82Q33GMCH	82X38 MCH
Official CPU support		Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo
connector type	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775
FSB frequency, MHz	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800
Maximum memory, GB	4	4	8	8	8	8	8	8
Number of memory slots	2	2	4	4	4	4	4	4
Supported memory	DDR2-800 DDR2-667	DDR2-800 DDR2-667	DDR2-800 DDR2-667 DDR3-1066 DDR3-800	DDR2-800 DDR2-667	DDR2-800 DDR2-667 DDR3-1066 DDR3-800	DDR2-800 DDR2-667	DDR2-800 DDR2-667	DDR2-800 DDR2-667 DDR3-1333 DRR3-1066 DDR3-800
Integrated graphics core	N/A	GMA 3100	N/A	GMA X3500	GMA 3100	GMA 3100	GMA 3100	N/A
GUI	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E 2.0 x16+x16
south bridge	ICH7, ICH7R	ICH7, ICH7R	ICH9, ICH9R, ICH9DH	ICH8, ICH8R, ICH8DH	ICH9, ICH9R, ICH9DH	ICH9, ICH9R, ICH9DO	ICH9, ICH9R	ICH9, ICH9R, ICH9DH
Number of PCI-E lanes	4 or 6 (ICH7R)	4 or 6 (ICH7R)	4 or 6 (ICH9R, ICH9DH)	4 or 6 (ICH8R, ICH8DH)	4 or 6 (ICH9R, ICH9DH)	4 or 6 (ICH9R, ICH9DO)	4 or 6 (ICH9R)	4 or 6 (ICH9R, ICH9DH)
Disk subsystem	4x SATA II, 1x PATA	4x SATA II, 1x PATA		4x SATA II or 6x SATA II (ICH8R, ICH8DH)	4x SATA II or 6x SATA II (ICH9R, ICH9DH)	4x SATA II or 6x SATA II (ICH9R, ICH9DO)	4x SATA II or 6x SATA II (ICH9R)	4x SATA II or 6x SATA II (ICH9R, ICH9DH)
eSATA support	-	-	+	-	+	+	+	+
Supported Technologies for the Disk Subsystem		Intel Matrix Storage Technology (ICH7R)		Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH8R, ICH8DH)	Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH9R, ICH9DH), Intel Rapid Recover Technology, Intel Turbo Memory	Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH9R, ICH9DO), Intel Rapid Recover Technology	Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH9R), Intel Rapid Recover Technology	Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH9R, ICH9DH), Intel Rapid Recover Technology, Intel Turbo Memory
Number of supported PCI slots	6	6	4	4	4	4	4	4
Number of USB 2.0 ports	8	8	12	10	12	12	12	12
Sound subsystem	HDA, AC'97	HDA, AC'97	HDA	HDA	HDA	HDA	HDA	HDA

Specifications of boards

Model	Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G	ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP
Chipset	Intel P31+ICH7	Intel P35+ICH9R	Intel X48+ICH9R
Socket	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775
Supported processors		Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Pentium Extreme, Pentium D, Pentium 4, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Pentium D, Pentium 4
FSB, MHz	1333/1066/800	1333/1066/800	1600/1333/1066/800
Supported memory	2 DIMM DDRII SDRAM 1066/800/667 (4GB max)	4 DIMM DDRII SDRAM 1066/800/667 (8GB max)	4 DIMM DDRII SDRAM 1200*/1066/800/667 (8GB max)
PCI slots	1 PCI Express x16 3 PCI Express x1	1 PCI Express x16 1 PCI Express x16 (x4) 2 PCI Express x1	2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 3 PCI Express x1 (one reserved for SupremeFX II sound card)
PCI slots	3	3	2
Number of connected fans	4 (1x 4-pin, 3x 3-pin)	6 (1x 4-pin, 5x 3-pin)	8 (1x 4-pin, 7x 3-pin)
USB 2.0 ports	8 (4 connectors on the rear panel)	10 (6 connectors on the rear panel)	12 (6 connectors on the rear panel)
PS/2 ports	2	1	1
LPT port	+	-	-
COM Port	1	1 (on board)	1 (on board)
FireWire ports	-	2 (1 on board, Agere FW3227)	2 (1 on board, VIA VT6308P)
ATA-133	1 channel (two devices, ICH7)		1 channel (two devices, Micron JMB363)
Serial ATA	4 channels SATA II	6 SATA II channels (ICH9R) + 2 eSATA channels (Micron JMB363)	6 channels SATA II (ICH9R)
RAID	-	0, 1, 5, 10	0, 1, 5, 10
Sound subsystem	Realtek ALC888 (5.1, HDA)	ADI AD1988B (7.1, HDA)	SupremeFX II external sound card based on ADI AD1988B (7.1, HDA)
S/PDIF	Coaxial	Coaxial + Optical	Coaxial + Optical
Networking	Realtek 8111C (Gigabit Ethernet)	Marvell 88E8056 (Gigabit Ethernet, PCI-E) and Realtek RTL8110SC (Gigabit Ethernet, PCI)	2x Marvell 88E8056 (Gigabit Ethernet)
BIOS	AWARD BIOS	AMI BIOS	AMI BIOS
Form Factor	ATX	ATX	ATX
Dimensions, mm	305x194	305x245	305x245
Additionally	-	WiFi module based on Realtek RTL8187L, uses two USB 2.0 ports	Power, Reset, Clear CMOS buttons, remote LCD display LCD-Poster

Test configuration

Testing was carried out on the following configuration:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16 GHz);
RAM: G.Skill F2-8800CL5D-4GBPI (2x2048 MB, DDR2-1100, 5-5-5-15-2T, dual channel);
Video card: XFX GF GTX295 576M 1792MB DDR3;
Hard disk: Samsung HD252HJ (250 GB, SATA2);
Power supply: Seasonic SS-600HM (600 W);

Operating system: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x86 SP1;
Motherboard driver: Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility 9.0.0.1008
Video card driver: NVIDIA GeForce 182.50

The firewall, Windows Defender and UAC were disabled, the swap file was set to 4096 MB. Video driver settings were not changed, GPU PhysX acceleration was disabled. All board settings were set in automatic mode, while the memory operated at a frequency of 800 MHz with timings of 5-5-5-15. Performance Level was 7.

Test results

Memory Subsystem

The performance of the memory subsystem in the Lavalys Everest test of boards based on Intel X48 Express is slightly higher than in the rest of the participants, especially in the copy subtest, where it reaches a 20% difference. A similar result, about 6100 MB / s, was demonstrated in recent tests by boards based on the P43 chipset. Apparently, the fourth series of Intel system logic sets has a slightly updated memory controller, which, in the process of copying, works a little faster than the previous generation solutions.

The GA-P31-ES3G board, which is based on the P31 Express chipset, showed a slightly higher result in the rendering subtest using multiple cores, and in the OpenGL test it turned out to be the most productive in general. ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP lagged behind by 5%, in contrast to which, in turn, the more expensive product showed a 3% worse result.

In gaming applications, the product based on Intel P35 Express turned out to be the most productive board. Naturally, when using higher-quality graphics, the difference between different solutions is leveled, unless, of course, a higher bandwidth of the PCI Express bus is required, which is possessed by representatives of the fourth-series chipsets from the processor giant.

conclusions

The first thing I would like to say to users who have motherboards based on Intel 3 Series chipsets is that if there are no special reasons for switching to new products, then you can wait with the upgrade. All that you lose on old solutions is about 5% in modern games when using the highest quality picture, a Radeon HD 4890 level card and more than 4 GHz Core 2 Duo, as you can see in one of our upcoming materials. But when building a system from scratch or when moving from a platform of venerable age, of course, there is no point in buying motherboards based on already outdated chipsets, and in this case it is better to immediately turn your attention to newer solutions. Or even wait a bit and immediately switch to the LGA1156 platform, since the prices for finished products are not expected to be so high, in contrast to the beginning of expansion into the Nehalem microarchitecture market.

As for the reviewed products, the GA-P31-ES3G board based on the Intel P31 Express entry-level chipset demonstrated good performance with fewer settings, in some tests it even showed better results than more expensive solutions. The delivery set is minimal, but you can hardly expect anything more from a board for less than $ 60 - this is an ordinary workhorse that is installed in the system and often forgotten about what it is.

ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP is equipped to the eyeballs and is one of the best representatives of motherboard models based on the P35 chipset. Two network cards, WiFi-module, excellent overclocking potential - perhaps the owners of these boards should look at the replacement only when switching to another platform.

Former flagship intel set X48 system logic, also known as X38 without support for the 1600 MHz FSB bus and DDR3-1600 memory, will for a long time be the basis of motherboards for productive systems based on quad-core processors and a bundle of a pair of video cards from the Radeon HD family. The reviewed ASUS Rampage Formula is an example of what an overclocking product should be. Maximum overclocking settings concentrated in one section, thoughtful design and cooling system, additional functionality in the form of power and system reset buttons, as well as resetting BIOS Setup and external LCD-Postera - take it and overclock. The ratio of this motherboard to gaming series it’s a little unclear - the players don’t need all this. But for overclockers just right, if, of course, the price suits. But top products are only going up in price these days...

We thank the following companies for providing test equipment:

1-Incom for G.Skill F2-8800CL5D-4GBPI memory kit;
Quasar Micro for Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G motherboard;
Master Group for ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP and ASUS Rampage Formula motherboards, as well as for ASUS EN8800GS TOP 384MB video card;
Max Point for the Silver Power SP-S850 PSU;
Noctua for the Noctua NH-U12P cooler and Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste;
Syntex for Seasonic SS-600HM power supply;
XFX for the XFX GF GTX295 576M 1792MB DDR3 graphics card.

Socket 775 is far from new. Over the entire period of its existence, a huge number of motherboards have been released, it is simply impossible to list all of them,. It will probably be much easier to specify which motherboard chipsets support Intel Xeon server processors. talking in plain language, you should find out which chipset is installed on your motherboard in order to understand whether Intel Xeon wants to work on it or not.

Purchase

All the necessary hardware was purchased from our "narrow-eyed friends" on the Internet site. https://www.aliexpress.com at "ridiculous" prices (). Also, used THIS CASHBACK SERVICE , which further saves up to 15%.

If you plan to buy in domestic stores, then pay attention to CASHBACK SERVICE LETISHOPS . It is not so profitable for Aliexpress, but there are many stores there, it returns from 1 to 30% with every purchase.

Compatibility table

Below is a small but rather capacious table on the compatibility of chipsets and Xeon LGA771 processors.

Intel Xeon which is compatible with the chipset
motherboard chipset	Xeon 5xxx	Xeon 3xxx	Intel 45nm	Intel 65nm
P45, P43, P35, P31, P965 G45, G43, G41, G35, G33, G31 nForce 790i, 780i, 740i, 630i GeForce 9400, 9300	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Q45, Q43, Q35, Q33 X48, X38	Not	Yes	Yes	Yes
nForce 680i and 650i	Yes	Yes	Possibly (need to be checked)	Yes

Vidia 680i
nVidia 650i	Compatible with all 771 Xeon's
nVidia 780i	Compatible with all 771 Xeon's
nVidia 790i	Compatible with all 771 Xeon's
P35	Compatible with all 771 Xeon's
P45	Compatible with all 771 Xeon's
G31	Compatible with all 771 Xeon's
G41	Compatible with all 771 Xeon's
X38
X48	Compatible with X33 series Xeons only

Well, one more table. If you are sure that the motherboard is fully compatible with the chipsets listed on the left side of the table, you can safely select the processors listed on the right side.

During the installation process, you need to pay attention to the fact that in the vast majority of cases you have to update the BIOS, flash it, taking into account the following:

the 5xxx series are all Intel Xeons whose model numbers end in 5xxx. They can be combined with motherboards that support one or two physical central chips.

Problems can arise with Intel motherboards. Very rarely there are troubles with motherboards from MSI, Gigabyte, ASUS. This may be due to the fact that Intel motherboards have their own BIOS, which is practically not amenable to manual flashing.

Nforce 680i and 650i chipsets from Nvidia, according to the official version, do not work with 45nm process processors. It all depends on luck. Some motherboards with these chipsets were compatible and functioned normally with 45nm Xeon for 4 cores, and some did not. To find out how it will be for you, see the list of boards that have successfully passed the test.

Zeon's power and system bus frequency must be supported by your computer's motherboard.

In recent years, the motherboard market has seen a steady upward trend in the popularity of solutions with an integrated graphics core. This circumstance is quite understandable. Personal Computer gradually moves from the category of luxury items to the category of such ordinary, but practically vital items in the household, such as, for example, a TV. If ten years ago, buying a PC in connection with entering the university was considered just crazy happiness, today the practice of acquiring a "digital friend" for a student primary school almost the norm. And not for fun, but because it is necessary. Naturally, not every parent / grandparent can buy the most powerful car for their child, and not everyone needs it. For study, mastering the basics of programming, music, films, simple toys and getting to know the world digital technologies in general, the performance of the integrated graphics core of modern chipsets is quite sufficient. At the same time, the absence of the need to purchase a discrete video card reduces the cost of the system unit by at least 70 or even $ 100, that is, by about 25-30%. According to the demand, the supply also grows. If earlier motherboards based on a chipset with an integrated graphics core were rare, today in some stores they account for up to half of the entire range. However, this circumstance is also due to global trends. As soon as the hype about the purchase of ATI by the second largest processor manufacturer, AMD, had subsided, it was presented with its own chipset, and only in the version with integrated video. The world's first processor giant Intel was not long in coming, presenting a solution with an integrated Intel GMA 3100 graphics core - Intel G31 Express along with a new line of chipsets for Core 2 Duo processors with a 1333 MHz bus. We already considered the features of this chipset when getting acquainted with the line as a whole, and today we have the opportunity to get acquainted with the first motherboard based on it. Meet FOXCONN G31MX-K.

FOXCONNG31 MX- K

The key feature of the board, in addition to the increased performance of the graphics core, is compatibility with the new Core 2 Duo processors based on the Penryn core with a system bus frequency of 1333 MHz. Despite the fact that the official set of frequencies supported by the Intel G31 Express chipset ends at 1066 MHz, the G31MX-K specification also contains a value of 1333 MHz. Otherwise, the characteristics of the FOXCONN G31MX-K look quite standard. Network capabilities are due to the use of the Realtek RTL8111 gigabit controller, which directly interacts with the chipset via the PCI Express bus. The sound is based on the Realtek ALC662 six-channel codec, a simplified modification of the popular Realtek ALC888 eight-channel chip.

pay	FOXCONN G31MX-K
Supported processors	Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Intel Core 2 Extreme, Pentium 4, Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, Pentium D, Celeron D
QPB frequencies	1333/1066/800MHz
Chipset	Intel G31+ICH7
Memory slots	2 DIMM slots (two channels) for unbuffered non-ECC DDR2-800/667 MHz modules. Maximum total volume - 4 GB
Expansion slots	1 x PCI Express x16, 1 x PCI Express x1, 2 x PCI 2.3
Parallel ATA	1 channel UltraDMA 133, implemented on the controller integrated into the chipset
Serial ATA	4 ports implemented on a 3 Gb/s controller integrated into the chipset
	RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5, JBOD
ethernet	Realtek RTL8111 Gigabit LAN Controller
Integrated audio	Six-channel (5.1) HDA codec Realtek ALC662
	8 ports (4 routed to I/O panel)
IEEE 1394
System monitoring	Tracking voltages on components, fan speeds, processor temperatures (by built-in thermal sensor)
Overclocking options	Increasing the frequency of the system bus, processor, random access memory(synchronously with FSB), voltage values on components
	AWARD BIOS v6.00PG on 8 Mb chip
Form factor	MicroATX, 244x208mm
Estimated retail price, USD

Since the Intel G31 Express chipset uses the old ICH7 southbridge, the maximum DDR2 memory frequency supported by the board is officially limited to 800 MHz. However, there is nothing wrong here. To date, 1 GB DDR2-800 modules are the most profitable acquisition in terms of price/performance ratio, but the cost of a GB DDR2-1066 module may exceed the cost of the board itself. One of the positive aspects of the ICH7 chip is the presence of a built-in single-channel IDE device controller, which eliminates the need for the manufacturer to use additional microcircuits. In conditions of a severely limited budget, this significantly affects the cost.

Packaging and equipment

The packaging of the FOXCONN G31MX-K motherboard is a box corresponding to its size, the design of which is dominated by dark colors.

The package is standard. There is everything you need to build a basic level system, and nothing more. Specifically, in the box with FOXCONN G31MX-K were the following accessories:

80-wire IDE cable;

loop for FDD;

Serial ATA cable;

an adapter from a Molex power plug to two SATA;

plug for the I/O panel on the rear wall of the case;

CD with drivers and software for Windows XP and Vista;

manual;

quick assembly guide poster.

As you can see, there are no excesses.

Design and layout

The FOXCONN G31MX-K motherboard is very tiny. Made in the Micro ATX form factor, the width of the board falls short of the maximum size defined by the standard as much as 36 mm. However, the layout of the elements was practically not affected by this.

One could complain about the block for the floppy drive that "slid" into the central part of the lower edge of the textolite, but we have already talked about its practical uselessness in our time more than once.

The latches of DIMM slots will certainly be blocked even by the shortest video card, but it is quite possible that the board will never "see" this device. So this circumstance should not be considered a disadvantage. But as for the number of DIMM slots for DDR2 RAM, I would like to see four of them instead of two, since having bought two 1 GB modules today, expand the memory to 2 GB by buying two more "bars" tomorrow, alas, will not work. We'll have to get rid of the old ones and buy new, more capacious modules.

The set of slots for additional devices looks quite logical. In addition to the PCI Express x16 connector for an external video card, the PCB has one PCI Express x1 and two PCI slots.

The layout of the rest of the elements is well thought out, and assembly problems are not expected. Everything is quite convenient and compact.

The switching power converter of the processor is made according to the standard three-phase scheme. As practice shows, with high-quality implementation, this is more than enough to ensure stable nutrition. modern processors both in normal modes and with moderate overclocking, even if we are talking about a quad-core Core 2 Quad. Under normal conditions, the MOSFET power transistors, which perform the main work of voltage conversion, do not heat up by more than 44 "C. During overclocking, their temperature sometimes reached 50" C. Because for of this type elements, the maximum allowable operating temperature is 105 "C, we can say that the MOSFETs of the board in question have a double margin.

We see that when creating the G31MX-K, FOXCONN engineers completely abandoned the use of newfangled capacitive elements based on solid polymer. However, the electrolytic capacitors soldered on the board are produced only by trusted manufacturers, so there is no doubt about their quality. Practice shows that if you take care of the ventilation of the system unit, high-quality electrolytes can serve until the very moment the PC is sent to the scrap as obsolete.

The chipset cooling system is completely passive. The northbridge is cooled by a large aluminum heatsink.

What is installed on the south is more like a heat sink, but as shown by a series of measurements using a MASTECH MS650 digital thermometer, this is more than enough.

The temperature of the south bridge radiator (at room temperature 26 "C) did not exceed 36" C, and that of the north bridge - 39 "C. So, the main sources of air heating of the PC system unit built on the basis of FOXCONN G31MX-K will most likely be the processor and hard drive The board itself does not require any additional cooling or blowing.

The rear panel of the FOXCONN G31MX-K looks quite traditional. Here you can find the following ports and connectors:

two PS / 2 for connecting a mouse and keyboard;

four USB 2.0;

one D-SUB (VGA);

one network RJ-45;

three three-pin inputs/outputs of the sound card (mini Jack).

Perhaps, it would not hurt to add a digital output to a DVI standard monitor to this set, since today this connector has begun to appear even on budget models of LCD monitors. But due to its absence, claims should be made not to the board manufacturer, but to the chipmaker, since this interface is not supported by the Intel G31 Express chipset.

Having finished studying the elements and their layout on the board, we assemble a test stand and proceed to study the BIOS.

test stand configuration,BIOSand overclocking

To immediately clarify the issue of the equipment used, let's take a look at the configuration of the test bench:

processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400, 2133 GHz (8x266), 2 MB L2;

cooler: Scythe Ninja Plus with 120 mm fan at 1500 rpm;

RAM: 2 modules of 1024 MB, Apacer DDR2-800, 4-4-4-15 400 MHz;

hard drive: Seagate ST3160811AS, 160 GB, 3 Gb/s SATA, 8 MB Cache, 7200 rpm;

power supply: FLOSTON 560 W (LXPW560W).

The look and structure of the utility for configuring the FOXCONN G31MX-K basic I/O system based on the AWARD Phoenix BIOS 6.00PG microcode are quite standard.

All settings required to configure the system are presented in full. Among a number of submenus with familiar names, one stands out, called the Fox Central Control Unit. We've already seen this submenu on a number of mid-range FOXCONN motherboards, but it's the first time we've seen it on a budget board based on a chipset with integrated graphics. Here, the BIOS developers have collected a number of settings used to overclock the system. For novice overclockers, there are three system acceleration modes: Step 1, 2 and 3, where all overclocking parameters are predefined by the developers. In particular, in the Step 3 mode, the FSB frequency increases to 287 MHz, the voltage on the processor - by 0.1500 V, on the memory modules - by 0.3 V.

At the same time, the bench model Core 2 Duo E6400 will be overclocked to 2300 MHz, and the RAM to 860 MHz. Considering the overclocking potential of the E6400, let's face it: the acceleration is minimal. In addition, with such a weak overclocking, it is completely pointless to increase the processor supply voltage by 0.15 V. In any case, in manual mode, the results can be much more impressive. Luckily, there is such a possibility.

By switching to manual mode, the FSB frequency can be changed in the range from 266 to 600 MHz in 1 MHz steps.

The processor supply voltage can be both lowered and increased in the range from -0.0500 to + 0.2500 V in 0.0125 V increments.

The voltage on DIMM slots can be increased by 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 V.

The user also has access to settings for addressing delays in RAM and its frequency. The four main timings can be changed either all together or individually, entrusting the selection of the rest to the system algorithm. This feature can be useful for beginner overclockers.

There are only two coefficients used to calculate the frequency of RAM. With standard FSB 1066 MHz clocking, they will comply with DDR2-667 and DDR2-800 standards.

The practical test of the board's overclocking capabilities started at 333 MHz, which in terms of the Quad Pumped Bus format is 1333 MHz, that is, it corresponds to the bus frequency of the new Core 2 Duo processors based on the Penryn core. FOXCONN G31MX-K coped with this task easily.

However, further testing ended rather quickly - at around 340 MHz. When this limit was exceeded, the system, although it did not freeze, "refused" to work at the set frequency, and did it in a rather peculiar way: the board simply reset the FSB clock to the nominal 266 MHz. Therefore, the conclusions on the overclocking capabilities of the G31MX-K are not entirely unambiguous. On the one hand, the overclocking potential of the board is not high and is not suitable for serious overclocking. On the other hand, FOXCONN G31MX-K is a product designed for inexpensive home and office systems, and a real opportunity to get the older E6700 from one of the most affordable Core 2 Duo models, and even running at the bus frequency of the newly minted Penryn, looks extremely tempting. So, in the overall standings, taking into account the price and the specifics of the product, the overclocking capabilities of the board look quite worthy.

At the end of our acquaintance with the BIOS Setup features of the FOXCONN G31MX-K, let's take a look at the PC Health Status submenu.

Here we see rather rich system monitoring capabilities that allow you to control the voltage values of key power circuits, processor temperature, air temperature in system unit and fan speed. In addition, the user can control the Smart Fan technology, the task of which is to automatically adjust the rotation speed of the processor fan impeller depending on the temperature values received from the sensors built into the CPU cores.

Having got acquainted with the main features and capabilities of the board in question, let's move on to the test part.

Testing

In this case, the main task of the testing is to find out how the performance of the new Intel G31 Express chipset, and especially its GMA 3100 graphics core, differs from the previous Intel G965 Express with the GMA 3000 accelerator. The G965 chipset is represented by the ASUS P5G-V motherboard.

Memory Subsystem

Obviously, the memory controller of the Intel G31 Express chipset is better optimized. As a result, the FOXCONN G31MX-K board immediately takes the lead.

Complex tests

The most serious and "advanced" package for complex system testing today is the updated SYSMark 2007 package from BAPCO. The main feature of SYSMark 2007 is the fact that it uses only real-life and widespread applications to test the system. Those that run on their PCs every day and are used by millions of people around the world to work. The package consists of four scenarios, each of which includes a number of operations performed by a specific set of applications specific to a specific area of PC use.

In the overall standings, when tested with the SYSMark 2007 package, the FOXCONN G31MX-K motherboard is noticeably faster.

The advance in speed is also stably observed in a detailed examination of each scenario separately.

This is followed by the popular PCMark 2005 test suite. Unlike SYSMark, it only simulates the work of real applications, but, nevertheless, at the moment it is able to give a quite adequate and comprehensive assessment of system performance.

Here, the differences between the performance of the tested boards are more noticeable. The memory controller, graphics and disk subsystems work faster. The result is a confident victory for the Intel G31 Express.

In the following CINEBENCH 9.5 test suite, based on the professional software to create 3D scenes - CINEMA 4D, the built-in graphics core GMA 3100 outperforms the previous one at times.

Mathematical and scientific calculations

The ScienceMark 2.0 program emulates computer-based scientific calculations such as determining the kinetic and potential energy of metal crystal lattice molecules at different temperatures, calculating nuclear and electron charges, and other complex mathematical calculations.

This test does not see any difference between the boards (chipsets). Only when calculating the potential energy of a silver molecule, ASUS P5G-V loses one second to its rival.

The only task performed by the Super Pi program is to determine the value of Pi (3.14) with high accuracy. That is, it is a mathematical problem in its purest form. In our case, the calculation was performed with an accuracy of 1 and 8 million decimal places.

The number Pi with an accuracy of 1 million decimal places is considered equally fast by the system, but the G31 coped with eight million decimal places two seconds faster.

Video, audio data encoding

The next set of applications, which includes the tasks of encoding DVD video with the most popular codecs - DivX and XviD, as well as its conversion to the 3gp format understandable by the vast majority of mobile phones, loads the processor and memory subsystem, so here, thanks to a better optimized controller, FOXCONN G31MX- K works consistently faster.

The same applies to the task of compressing the audio stream with the Lame 3.97 codec into the popular MP3 format.

Image processing

Adobe Photoshop is the most popular and functional raster editor. To measure the performance of systems in this task, using the script, we processed five-megapixel photos in uncompressed TIF format (about 15 MB each) with more than 30 filters.

The Panorama Factory program is designed for stitching panoramic images from separately taken frames. The application is distinguished by a very high accuracy of stitching, but, as a result, a high resource intensity. Eight five-megapixel photos were processed.

With raster graphics G31 in the face of FOXCONN G31MX-K copes noticeably faster.

Data archiving

WinRAR archiver is one of the most popular and effective data compression software.

Here, the unconditional advantage is again on the side of the G31.

Semi-synthetic gaming benchmarks

In semi-synthetic gaming tests, the GMA 3100's integrated video is definitely faster, but the advantage is marginal. Perhaps here more attention should be paid to the advantage in overall performance.

In games, the situation looks a little better, but we still can't seriously say that the GMA 3100 is suitable for games 2-3 years ago.

Interface Bandwidth and Power Consumption

The speed characteristics of USB and SATA controllers are almost identical.

The power consumption of systems was measured using the FLOSTON LXPW560W power supply power indicator.

In terms of power saving, the G31 is definitely better. The amount of energy consumed by FOXCONN G31MX-K is noticeably lower.

Audio path quality

Testing of the audio path based on the HDA codec Realtek ALC662 was carried out by the RightMark Audio Analyzer 5.5 program in 16-bit, 44 kHz mode using an audio creative cards sound blaster Audigy 4SE.

The final rating of "very good" allows us to say that the audio codec ALC662 installed on the board loses to the popular ALC888 only in the number of channels, but certainly not in sound quality.

conclusions

As testing has shown, there is definitely progress as a result of updating the Intel GMA 3000 graphics core to version 3100. However, in quantitative terms, it is too small to justify the need for a new chipset on the market. The situation could be corrected by adding new functionality, but the Intel G31 Express cannot boast of this either. The chipset uses the old ICH7 south bridge, the north officially does not support the 1333 MHz bus frequency, and hence the new Core 2 Duo processors based on the Penryn core. Naturally, DDR3 support is also out of the question here. On the other hand, G31 is still suitable for the role of a more productive replacement for the Intel G960 Express chipset, because the price tag for Penryn and DDR3 memory modules are far from the budget. Moreover, the advantage of the G31 over its predecessor lies not so much in the graphics subsystem, but in subtle optimizations of the memory controller and various buses, which significantly increased the performance of the chipset in all applications. For them, Intel has prepared two more products with integrated video - G33 and G35.

In turn, the FOXCONN G31MX-K motherboard is a good, solid implementation of the Intel G31 chipset. Having qualitatively realized all the capabilities of the chipset, the developers went further by adding the possibility of increasing the system bus frequency up to 1333 MHz. Of course, it still makes no sense to buy a Penryn and put it on a motherboard because it is too expensive for it, but the G31MX-K definitely has room for overclocking regular Core 2 Duo. FOXCONN G31MX-K has a number of other advantages listed above. Of these, first of all, I would like to highlight the low level of heat release. The board is really "cold", so it is well suited for miniature, read cramped, cases. This also contributes to a well-thought-out design.

Photos taken in TECHLABS studio, photographer Dmitry Filatov

Thank you companyFOXCONN for the fee provided for testing.

After the release of new processors of the Intel Core 2 family, confusion began on the market for budget motherboards oriented to work with these processors. The fact is that the release of new chipsets designed to build low-cost computer systems based on the presented processors is scheduled for a much later date, and motherboard manufacturers tried to fill the gap with solutions based on Intel 945 Express family chipsets. As a result, a number of inexpensive motherboards with support for Intel Core 2 Duo processors appeared on the market, but ... only budget models of these processors operating at an FSB frequency of 800 MHz (in this case, chipsets from the Intel 945 Express family are often used, which do not support the system bus with frequency 1066 MHz). Such motherboards also have one more drawback: since these solutions are focused on building low-cost PCs, most of them are based on chipsets with integrated graphics (Intel 945G Express, Intel 945GC Express, Intel 945GZ Express), but their graphics core Intel Graphics The Media Accelerator 950 (Intel GMA950) does not meet the requirements for working with the Windows Vista Aero interface (recently this criterion has become one of the main criteria for assessing the performance of integrated graphics solutions). But now, with the release of the new Intel P31/G31 Express family of chipsets, which replaced the Intel 945 Express chipsets, everything is falling into place. GIGABYTE UNITED has expanded its line of budget motherboards with new solutions based on the Intel P31/G31 Express family of chipsets. In this article, we will talk about the capabilities of two of them - Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2 and Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L motherboards.

The Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2 and Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L motherboards, which have expanded the range of GIGABYTE UNITED S-series solutions, are designed to work with the entire range of Intel processors made in the LGA775 form factor and operating at a system bus frequency of 800, 1066 or 1333 MHz, including the new quad-core Intel Core 2 Quad and Intel Core 2 Extreme processors, as well as the upcoming Penryn processors, which will be released using a 45-nanometer process technology.

The Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2 motherboard is made in the microATX form factor (dimensions - 24.4x21.5 cm) on a dark blue textolite, traditional for GIGABYTE UNITED products. It was based on the Intel G31 Express chipset (Intel G31 Express + ICH7), the capabilities of which are complemented by the ITE IT8718F I/O controller.

To install system memory modules (it is assumed that unbuffered memory modules of the DDR2 SDRAM 533/667 or 800 standard will be used), the board provides two DIMM slots. The memory subsystem can operate in both single- and dual-channel modes. The maximum amount of system memory supported by the board is 2 GB.

The Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2 motherboard has an integrated graphics core Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 (Intel GMA 3100), which fully supports API DirectX 9c and OpenGL 1.4 and meets all the requirements of the new operating system Windows Vista to work with the Aero interface. If the possibilities of this integrated graphic solution If the user finds it not enough, then at his service is a PCI Express x16 slot, where you can always install a discrete graphics card that meets his needs. By the way, in addition to this slot for installing additional cards that expand the capabilities of the motherboard, there are two more PCI slots and one PCI Express x4 slot.

For organization network connection Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2 provides the user with a Realtek RTL8110SC gigabit Ethernet controller. The “sound” here is implemented by a combination of the HDA (High Definition Audio) controller integrated into the ICH7 and the Realtek ALC888 audio codec, which provides the ability to play 7.1 sound. There are six audio connectors on the motherboard output panel for connecting external audio devices.

In addition to the mentioned audio connectors, the output panel of the board has two PS / 2 connectors (for connecting a mouse and keyboard), parallel (LPT) and serial (COM) ports, a D-Sub video connector, an RJ-45 connector and four USB 2.0 ports.

In total, the Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2 supports eight USB ports: four more, in addition to the four available on the output panel, can be implemented using additional expansion brackets, for which the board has two connectors (two ports per connector).

To build a disk subsystem, the board has four SATA II ports, one PATA connector that supports connecting up to two devices with an ATA 100 or ATAPI interface, and an FDD connector.

The system components are powered by a three-channel VRM unit.

To cool the microcircuits of the north and south bridges, plate light-alloy radiators are used. Note also that this motherboard has two four-pin connectors for connecting the processor (CPU FAN) and system (SYS FAN) fans. These fans are speed controlled using Gigabyte's Smart Fan technology, which is part of the Smart feature set. By the way, it is worth talking about the set of functions implemented in this motherboard separately. Like all GIGABYTE UNITED S-series motherboards, the Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2 motherboard has a set of proprietary innovations - a set of S-functions. In this case, this kit includes a set of Smart and Safe functions (which is what the S2 combination in the model name means). The Smart feature set includes a number of smart utilities that make it easier to use the system and automate certain actions. Among them:

Download Center - an intelligent utility that allows you to find and download the necessary drivers and utilities from the official GIGABYTE UNITED website;
@BIOS - a utility that allows you to automatically find and download BIOS firmware from the official GIGABYTE UNITED website and update the BIOS code in a Windows environment;
Q-Flash - a low-level utility (accessible from the CMOS Setup Utility menu) that allows you to flash the BIOS without loading any OC;
Xpress Install - a utility that provides automatic installation of drivers and utilities necessary for the operation of the motherboard;
Boot Menu - allows you to select the device from which the boot will be performed without changing the settings in the CMOS Setup Utility;
Smart Fan - technology for intelligent control of the speed of rotation of cooling fans.

The Safe feature set includes a number of utilities that increase the reliability of your computer system. Among them:

Virtual DualBIOS - utility Reserve copy BIOS (The BIOS code is backed up in a private partition of the disk with the ability to automatic recovery in the event of a BIOS crash);
BIOS Setting Recovery - a utility that allows you to restore custom CMOS Setup settings;
C.O.M. (Corporate Online Manager) - a utility that allows the system administrator to remotely receive comprehensive information (versions of installed drivers and software of the client machine) about the configuration of user PCs on which the client part of the software is installed, as well as to monitor a number of subsystems of these computers in real time (temperatures processor, fan speed, power supply voltage);
Xpress Recovery2 - a utility (loaded before loading the OC and does not depend on it), which allows you to create a backup copy of the system with the possibility of its subsequent restoration from the created image;
PC Health Monitor - provides monitoring of the main operating parameters of the computer system through the CMOS Setup utility or EasyTune.

If the Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2 is an excellent option for building compact computer systems with an integrated graphics core, for example, HTPC (Home Theater PC) class systems or office PCs, then the second of the considered motherboards - Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L - is already a solution that is more focused on creating productive home systems, in particular PCs for computer gamers, although this may seem strange if we are talking about a budget-level motherboard. Unlike the first model, the Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L motherboard is made in the ATX form factor (dimensions - 32.4x21.5 cm). It was based on the Intel P31 Express chipset (Intel P31 Express + ICH7), the capabilities of which are complemented by the ITE IT8718F I/O controller.

In this case, four DIMM slots are equipped to install system memory modules (it is assumed that unbuffered memory modules of the DDR2 SDRAM 667 or 800 standard will be used), so the maximum amount of system memory supported by the board is 4 GB.

Motherboard output board
Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L

Since this model does not have an integrated graphics core, there is only one way to build a video subsystem - using a discrete graphics card, for installing which the Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L has a PCI Express x16 slot. In addition to this interface, there are three more PCI slots and three PCI Express x1 slots to accommodate additional expansion cards.

Just like the Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2, the Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L motherboard has a Realtek RTL8110SC gigabit Ethernet controller and an audio controller, which is implemented by a combination of the HDA (High Definition Audio) controller integrated in ICH7 and the Realtek ALC888 audio codec.

The possibilities of building a disk subsystem of this motherboard are similar to those described for the Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2 model.

The output panel of the Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L motherboard contains two PS / 2 connectors (for connecting a mouse and keyboard), parallel (LPT) and serial (COM) ports, a D-Sub video connector, an RJ-45 connector and four USB ports 2.0, a set of six audio connectors, as well as optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs.

The system components are powered by a four-channel VRM unit. By the way, when creating the Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L motherboard, the manufacturer used a proprietary Ultra technology Durable, within which electrical circuits of this solution, only high-quality solid capacitors are used, which have best performance and a much longer period of operation than electrolytic ones.

To cool the microcircuits of the north and south bridges, plate light-alloy radiators are used. To connect the cooling system fans, the motherboard has three connectors: two four-pin connectors for the processor (CPU FAN) and system fan SYS FAN2 and one three-pin connector for the system fan SYS FAN1.

Like the motherboard described above, the Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L has a set of proprietary S-functions, but this time, in addition to the Smart and Safe sets, it also includes the Speed set, which includes utilities familiar to fans of GIGABYTE UNITED products overclockers like EasyTune and M.I.T. (Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker).

Summarizing the above, we note that although the motherboards Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2 and Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L are built on related chipsets, they are oriented towards different categories of users. At the same time, both of these models are undoubtedly united by the fact that they combine the promising solutions based on chipsets of the new Intel 3x Express family and the availability of motherboards based on Intel chipset 945 Express (the price of these motherboards, according to price.ru, is about $100) and can be an excellent solution for building low-cost computer systems with an eye to the future.

17.05.2021

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