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We've come to know Intel as a conservative company,
generally unwilling to take precarious risks on unproven
technology. Yet, just last month, Intel unveiled its
first true flagship platform since the i850E, complete
with an 800MHz front side bus and two channels of 64-bit
DDR400 memory. We certainly can understand the
importance of an 800MHz front side bus. Not only
does the faster bus establish a performance advantage over
AMD's best effort (which incidentally also recently saw an
increase in front side bus speed), but it also lays the
foundation for the upcoming 'Prescott' core that will also
launch on an 800MHz bus. Similarly, the rationale
behind DDR400 is also clear. In order to avoid
incurring the performance penalty associated with clock
synchronization, Intel needed the memory bus to run at a
derivative of the system bus. NVIDIA encountered the
same issue with its nForce2 platform, which is why we saw
Athlon XP processors running faster with synchronous
memory, even though NVIDIA boasted DDR400 capabilities.
As Intel's luck would have it, DDR400 memory is more
available now than when nForce2 launched. But why does
DDR400 still sound so risqué? Well, we haven't found
memory modules from any two manufacturers that behave in
exactly the same way. Although we'd expect the
D865GBF to run properly with aggressively tuned memory
settings, the board has to be manually de-tuned a bit to
operate properly. Even still, Intel looks to have
built a platform worthy of succeeding the RDRAM-equipped
i850E.
Keep in mind
that the 865G board on the bench today represents one
chipset from a family of three other "mainstream"
platforms. The "G" denotes that the silicon includes
an integrated graphics controller. Its brother, 865P, is
the entry-level solution with 400/533MHz front side bus
support and DDR266/333 memory support. Finally, the
865PE features a 533/800MHz FSB and the same dual-channel
DDR400 memory bus as the 865G we're looking at today.
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Specifications and Features of Intel's D865GBF |
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Dual Channel DDR400
Goes Mainstream |
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CPU:
Chipset:
Memory:
Serial
ATA:
Audio:
USB
2.0:
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8 USB
2.0 ports
LAN:
Internal I/O Connectors:
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1 AGP 8X
slot, 6 PCI slots
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Floppy
Port supports up to 2.88MB
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2 x
Ultra DMA 33/66/100 Connectors
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2 x
Serial ATA 1.5G bps Connectors
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CD/AUX/Modem audio input
Back
Panel I/O:
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1 x PS/2
Keyboard, 1 x PS/2 mouse
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4 x USB
connectors
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1 x
15-pin VGA connector
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Audio
I/O
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1 x
RJ-45 LAN Connector
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1 x
parallel port, 1 x serial port
Miscellaneous:
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ATX form
factor (12" x 8.5")
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Hardware
monitoring - Including Fan speeds, Voltages, CPU and
System environment temperature
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Three
fan headers
By
integrating Serial ATA and an extra USB 2.0
controller, Intel has given the 865G chipset enhanced
functionality that results in space savings on the
board itself and increased connectivity. Intel
gives third-party manufacturers the option to connect
a 10/100Mbps PHY to the chipset's ICH5, but the
D865GBF instead features a Gigabit Ethernet controller
that stems from the MCH with its own dedicated link.
Intel has
championed the use of USB, so it is no surprise that
USB 2.0 support is included in the ICH5. Four
ports are offered on the board's back panel and an
additional four are available through headers.
Because the D865GBF is a more mainstream product, the
board doesn't sport Firewire capabilities.
However, Intel's "enthusiast" 865PE board, the
D865PERL, does offer Firewire connectivity. The
D865PERL also sports the ICH5-R controller, a feature
that Intel lists as option for the 865G product
family.
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| | The
BIOS, Layout and Intel Extreme Graphics
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