Not as good as I hoped!
Written: Mar 18 '02 (Updated Mar 18 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: AGP 4X, Slot 1 and Socket 370 connectors (but see Cons)
Cons: Slow performance, can't use both Slot 1 and Socket 370 processors simultaneously
The Bottom Line: The Tyan Trinity 400, though slower than older motherboards, is adequate for older Pentium III processors and today's applications - but is quickly becoming outdated.
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| LetItRut's Full Review: Tyan S1854 Trinity 400 |
I had been running a 700MHz Slot 1 Pentium III processor on my Asus P3B-F motherboard for nearly a year, until I decided to upgrade my video card (from a GeForce 256 DDR card to a Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO card) that requires AGP 2.0 support; the BX chipset only supports AGP 1.0, which supplies too high a voltage to newer AGP cards. So I went out and bought this Tyan Trinity 400 motherboard, thinking it would solve my problems. Unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. Here's why:
My configuration was:
Tyan S1854 Trinity 400 motherboard, BIOS Revision 1.07
700MHz Slot 1 Pentium III
256MB Crucial PC133 CL2 SDRAM
ATI Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO (original version)
40GB Maxtor 7200rpm D740X hard drive, model 6L040J2
Windows Me
I set the memory timings to maximum settings, and the memory speed to 133MHz (HstCLK+PCI). I had no problems installing or setting up the Tyan motherboard, and I had no problems whatsoever installing Windows Me on my system running on this motherboard. I then installed the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers (version 4.37, at the time I purchased this motherboard), then my Radeon's drivers and DirectX 8.1, and installed and ran some of my benchmark tests. Here is my findings:
Even with the memory timings maxed out, the system with the Tyan motherboard performed slower in most tests than my old Asus BX-chipset-based motherboard. For example, on Ziff-Davis Media's eTestingLabs Content Creation Winstone 2001, the Tyan board scored only 31.9, versus 32.8 on my old Asus motherboard. And on that same company's 3D WinBench 2000, at 800x600 resolution with 16-bit color, 3D WinMark 2000 returned a score of only 135, versus 138 with my old Asus motherboard. That's a particularly craptacular showing, given its supposed AGP 4X support. And running Sandra 2000's memory tests reveals the ugly truth about the VIA 133A chipset: Even with the memory timings maxed out, the Tyan board still scored significantly lower than my old Asus motherboard.
As for support for the newest Socket 370 processors, forget about this Tyan motherboard; it doesn't support the newest 0.13-micron Pentium III processors (code-named "Tutalin"), the 1.0A GHz or the 1.1A GHz Celerons or any Celeron faster than 1.1GHz. And I bought this motherboard at the worst possible moment: Intel has been discontinuing the Coppermine (0.18-micron) Pentium III processors, leaving me with only certain Celeron processors for me to upgrade to (and those 100MHz FSB Celerons barely outperform my old 700MHz Pentium III processor).
There are two bright spots about the Tyan motherboard: It is very stable (it doesn't lock up or crash under the operating systems I had used this motherboard with), and it doesn't supply an overly high voltage to the components that I had used with the motherboard (Asus always supplies a significantly higher voltage to its components than standard, increasing stability but at the same time potentially causing a shortening of the useful life of the components that are connected to the motherboard).
At this point, I gave up on the Tyan Trinity 400 motherboard; I was unable to find any Socket-370 Pentium III processors with a 133MHz FSB that's compatible with this motherboard (unless I buy a used, tired processor) - only the lower-end Celerons with a 100MHz FSB. Thus, I decided to upgrade to an AMD Athlon XP 1600+ processor, an ECS K7S5A motherboard (with an SiS 735 chipset), and 256MB of DDR266 DDR memory - all for under $330. And if I decided to upgrade to a newer Celeron (and still use this Tyan motherboard), I would have to upgrade my motherboard again.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 105
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Epinions.com ID:
LetItRut
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 - Top 1000 |
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Location: Melrose Park, IL, USA
Reviews written: 53
Trusted by: 27 members
About Me:
An audio enthusiast and a computer geek who loves bike riding.
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