DFI's CS60EC i815EP Motherboard


DFI's CS60EC i815EP Motherboard - Page 1

DFI's CS60-EC i815EP Motherboard
A little less is more...

By Jeff Bouton
March 22, 2001

With the technology markets taking a beating in recent months, it will become more evident who the major players are in the technology world and who isn?t.  Competition will become as fierce as ever, pushing companies to increase quality and reliability, while reducing costs.  One of the companies that is doing just that is Taiwan based DFI.  When thinking of leading manufacturers of quality motherboards incorporating chipsets from Intel, AMD and Via, usually names like Asus and Abit come to mind.  However, DFI has been producing quality computer components for over 18 years and have won numerous awards for their products around the world.  Creating quality motherboards with reliability and expandability in mind has solidified DFI?s position as one of the top ten motherboard manufacturers in the world according to Computer Resellers News (CRN).  Tonight we are going to take a look at one of their latest releases and see if it maintains the standards that DFI is known for, the CS60-EC i815EP Motherboard.

 

With the lack of acceptance of Intel?s i820 chipset and strong competition from VIA with the Apollo Pro 133A chipset, Intel released the i815E.  Based on the i820 core, the i815E incorporated on-board video as well as adding native support for SDRAM.  The evolution of the i820 to i815E provided better compatibility and excellent performance while reducing the overall costs to the consumer.  Now DFI has created a new motherboard based on the i815EP chipset.  The only major difference between the i815E & i815EP chipsets is the removal of the i752 graphics function in the i815EP, which results in the further reduction in costs for the consumer.

Let?s take a peak and see what this board has to offer?   

Specifications / Features of the DFI CS60-EC
Intel Inside
Chipset 
Intel i815EP

CPU Socket
Socket 370 ,
CPU Supported Intel Pentium® III FCPGA 533EB-1GHz/133MHz,
Intel Pentium® III FCPGA 500E-850E/100MHz, 
Celeron FCPGA 566-700MHz/66MHz,
Celeron PPGA 300A-533MHz/66MHz 

Memory
3 x DIMM sockets max. 512MB (unbuffered)
Supports PC100/ PC133 SDRAM 

PCI IDE
Dual PIO mode 4 
EIDE channels up to 4 IDE devices
UltraDMA/100 transfer rate up to 100MB/sec 

Super I/O
2 x NS16C550A compatible UARTs
1 x SPP/ECP/EPP parallel port 

Power Management 
ACPI and OS direct power management
Wake-on event: RTC/USB Keyboard/Modem/LAN/Keyboard/Mouse 


External Connectors
 2 x USB
2 x DB-9
1 x DB-25
1 x PS/2 keyboard
1 x PS/2 mouse
1 x game/MIDI
3 x Audio jacks 
 
Internal Connectors
2 x external USB
1x IrDA
2 x IDE
1x Floppy
1 x ATX power
3 x fan
1 x WOL
1 x WOR
1 x opened chassis alarm
3 x internal audio 

Hardware Monitor
System/Processor temperature
Voltage
Fan speed 

Expansion Slots
1 AGP slot (Supports 4x/2x AGP)
5 PCI slots
1 CNR slot 
Audio On Board 

AC`97 Audio codec 

Other
features Ice-Qube cooling system supports
Suspend to RAM 

BIOS
Award / 4Mbit 

Form Factors
ATX, 4 layers
30.5cm x 22cm
12.05 inch. x 8.66 inch. 

Included with the CS60-EC i815EP Motherboard is one 80-Pin IDE cable, one floppy cable and one CD with all of the necessary drivers needed to successfully install the board.  Also included on the CD is a comprehensive manual that covers all aspects of the board in detail.  Several programs are included that are very useful including PC-Cillin 2000, Hardware Doctor, and Over-clock Cruise.
 

Layout, Quality, and Installation

 

Tags:  Motherboard, S60, board, AR

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