Features
Onboard Peripherals
Frankly, the onboard sound is *very* good. Not only would I consider it good for an integrated
sound solution, IMHO, it's better than many PCI based solutions. Running 3dMark03 showed that not
only did the soundcard use less CPU cycles than the Creative SBLive!5.1 that it replaced, but it's
also capable of running *more* simultaneous DirectX sound streams. Very good sound quality to
boot.
The integrated network was more of the same; even less CPU usage than the IntelProShare that it
replaced - and I considered the ProShare to be a very good NIC in it's own right.
USB didn't seem good or bad, but the sheer number of additional ports was very welcome. I'm sure
getting rid of the external unpowered hubs helped out a bit, if for nothing else than the eased power
loading. CPU usage was again, very low.
I did not get a chance to test either the integrated IEEE firewire, nor do I have any plans to. I didn't
test the integrated GF4MX either, as this would more than likely be a large step backwards from the
Radeon9500Pro that's installed. The onboard vid also uses a shared area of system ram for use as
vid ram as well, likely slowing the video performance even more than an AGP version of an MX440
would. Still, it *does* include both composite and SVideo out and coupled with the 9500Pro the
system can now drive 2 TV's and 3 monitors if I choose (and had the displays to hook to it!), without
much effort. A very nice and welcome benefit. All told, I don't think the integrated graphics would
be that bad of a performer for most people, really. The chipset as reviewed elsewhere does provide
acceptable game performance for all but the core gaming market and IMHO is a very valuable and
cost effective inclusion. From another perspective, to buy a video card of the same performance as a
standalone item would most likely cost you around $50 representing exactly half of the total cost of
this motherboard. See my point?
SATA and IDE
Surprising that this board will do *both* ATA133 and SATA150 RAID0, I'm not sure of the exact
combinations, nor whether you can span/stripe an ATA133 and SATA, drive, but it's interesting
nonetheless. Included on the mobo are *3* ATA133 headers meaning you could drive a 4 drive
UDMA133 array and still have your DVDRom and CDR burner. There are also 2 SATA headers,
but I understand the controller is limited to a single drive per channel. Since I have yet to actually
buy any SATA drives, this isn't much of a concern--and since most SATA drives are over 100GB
and I haven't filled up the 80GB i've got, I'm even less concerned. Still, it's a welcome addition, and
nice to have the option.
Software Bundle
The box came with 2 CD's - one with drivers and one with the 6channel version of PowerDVD (one
of the best software DVD players). The drivers installed cleanly without a fuss, and included
several utilities included a LiveUpdate type of app that updates everything from the BIOS to the
drivers to the utilities themselves, and is a WELCOME addition. Being somewhat "old school", I'm
fairly wary of BIOS flashes in general. Even more wary of "live" bios flashing within Windows -
double that under a non-DOS version of Windows! The BIOS flashing program couldn't be easier
or work better thankfully, having found it's own update and flashing itself within windows with very
good (and reassuring) status messages while in progress. The BIOS flash also informed me that the
temp reporting was also bad - making me feel even better about the heatsink.
There were several other utilities included including a WMI browser, Windows Process browser,
hardware monitor along with the usual ADOBE and other goodies. All in all, pretty useful to both
the novice and veteran enthusiast and certainly a more robust pack-in than I expected.
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