Why buy this motherboard?
Written: Jul 29 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good stability
Cons: Not very future proof. Poor overclocking support. Not many modern features like ATA-66 interfaces.
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| stevelarrison's Full Review: Tyan S1857 Trinity 371 |
Face it, when you look at the market segment that Tyan excells in, and compare it to the market segment they are aiming this motherboard at, I really see no reason for this product to exist.
That's a pretty harsh assessment. Can you back it up?
Of course. To understand why I question the design of this product, you need to start with taking a look at the basic spec.
First and foremost, this motherboard is based around the i440BX chipset. This chipset was introduced in April 1998, and was the first Intel supported 100MHz Front Side Bus motherboard chipset. While the BX chipset only officially supports 100MHz Front Side Bus speeds, several comapnies have pushed the technology, and offer support for higher bus speeds. ( It should be noted that this motherboard supports 66/75/83/100/103/112/133 bus speeds. ) In addition to having a total of 8 selectable bus speeds instead of the officially supported 2 (66 or 100) bus speeds for a BX board, this board also has interesting processor interfaces. It includes both a Slot 1 interface, and a socket 370 interface. (Although there are 2 processor interfaces, this is NOT a dual processor motherboard. You can use only one processor at a time ) This motherboard also supports 6 PCI slots, 1 AGP slot, 1 ISA slot, and 3 DIMMs slots.
From a precursory glance, the uneducated consumer may think that this is a decent motherboard that offers some level of future proofing. I mean, it supports both Slot 1 and Socket 370 processors. Since Intel is moving away from Slot 1 to Socket 370, this offers some level of future proofing, doesn't it? To be perfectly honest, NO. In addition to stopping production of Slot 1 processors soon, Intel will be moving to bus speeds far faster than the current 133MHz max. Since this is a BX chipset motherboard, it doesn't support 1/2 AGP multipliers. This means that running processors faster than the official 100MHz FSB overclocks the AGP card. While overclockers do have success running BX boards at 133MHz+ FSB's, this is through knowledge of component selection, and cooling techniques. It is not for the average person. Therefore, you need to look at this as simply supporting 100MHz FSB Processors. Since that is the case, inclusion of support for two processor formats is simply marketing hype.
As far as overclocking is concerned, Tyan has never been a strong contender. While it is shocking that they now offer 8 bus speeds ( for Tyan this is a major technilogical advance ) manufacturers like ABIT support well over 100 Front Side Bus speeds in their product offerings. In addition to lack of bus speeds, the jump from 112MHz to 133 is kind of disturbing. I am writing this review on a Pentium III 750 that is currently running at 975MHz ( 130MHz FSB ) I haven't gotten it stable at 133MHz FSB yet. Therefore, a board that is billed as being "future proof" can actually prevent you from getting the most out of your system.
So basically, even though Tyan always produces quality products, this is a product without an adequate niche. Oveclockers won't like it because they can't maximize use of their machines. All types of users will miss more modern features like ATA-66 support. If you are buying this with an eye to the future, reconsider your plans. The Pentium IV's coming out in the fall will radically change all archetecture standards. Your machine will become obsolete just as quick and you are paying extra money for a processor slot that doesn't do you any good.
Recommended:
No
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stevelarrison
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Member: Steve Larrison
Location: Scottsdale, Az. USA
Reviews written: 171
Trusted by: 198 members
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Beer, the answer to, and the cause of all life's problems.
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