In early 2002
Silicon
Integrated Systems Corp. (SiS) released their 645
chipset. Initially, many analysts were skeptical
that SiS could deliver a high-performing DDR chipset for
the Pentium 4. They were all quickly proven wrong
though, as time and again the SiS645 performed at, or
near, the top of the pack in review after review.
Looking to build upon the relative success of the 645, SiS
took the wraps off of their latest chipset for the Pentium
4, the 648. With the new 648 Northbridge, SiS is
also releasing their new 963 Southbridge which
incorporates a host of options that make it one of the
most feature-rich products available to date.
Shuttle Computer Group was the first manufacturer to
supply us with a pre-production motherboard based on the
SiS648 for testing. Today we'll be taking a look at
Shuttle's AS45GT/R, and comparing it's performance against
an i850E based motherboard from Asus,
the P4T533. First we'll cover some of the new
features incorporated into the 648, and then we'll
explorer the AS45GT/R's features and performance...
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Specifications / Features of
the Shuttle AS45GT/R (SiS 648) |
Lots of Goodies... |
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CLICK ANY IMAGE FOR AN
ENLARGED VIEW
SHUTTLE
AS45GT/R (648)
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CPU:
Chipset:
-
(North)
SiS 648
-
Supports Intel R Pentium R
4 processor system bus at 100/133 MHz
-
(400/533 MHz Data Bus)
-
3 Un-buffered DIMM of 2.5
volt DDR200/266/333 compliant SDRAM up to 3 GB memory
capacity
-
AGP interface to support
external AGP2.0 / 3.0 compliant device
-
High Throughput SiS MuTIOL
connect to SiS963 MuTIOL Media I/O to perform 1GB/s
bandwidth
-
(South)
SiS963
-
Support UDMA 33/66/100/133
IDE interface
-
Integrated 2 USB 1.1/2.0
compliant host controller to support up to 6
-
USB ports
-
Built in Integrated LAN
MAC
-
Built in 1394 controller
-
Support ACPI 1.0b
compliant power management
-
Built in RTC (Real Time
Clock)
-
PCI interface supports PCI
2.2 compliant device
-
Front Side Bus -
400/533MHz
Expansion Slot:
-
1 x AGP 2.0 / 3.0
compliant slot
-
Support external AGP V2.0
/ 3.0 compliant VGA device
-
Support 2X, 4X, 8X AGP
data transfer
-
Support external 1.5V AGP
electrical device
-
Integrated AGP-proof
circuit to prevent the electrical damage by 3.3V AGP
card
-
5 x PCI slots
-
PCI 2.2 compliant, 32-bit
BUS Master Slots
-
133 Mbyte / sec maximum
throughput
Memory:
H/W
Audio:
-
6 channel audio
-
Realtek ALC650 on board
-
18-bit ADC and DAC
resolution
-
Compliant with AC?97 2.2
specifications
-
6 channel slot selectable
DAC output for multi-channel applications
-
3D Stereo enhancement
-
Digital S/PDIF output.
-
Digital S/PDIF input.
IDE
interface:
-
On board High Point 372
(AS45GTR only)
-
2 x UltraDMA100 / 133 Bus
Master IDE from SiS963
-
2 x UltraDMA100 / 133 Bus
Master IDE from High Point 372 to support RAID 0,
RAID1, RAID0+1 function
-
80-pin Cable Backward
Compatible Legacy ATAPI Devices
-
ATAPI IDE CD-ROM, CD-R,
CD-RW, and LS-120 Supports
Serial
ATA interface:
-
On board Marvell 88i8030
(AS45GTR only)
-
Support serial ATA
interface of 1.5Gb/s bandwidth
-
2 x Serial ATA connectors
from Marvell 88i8030 to support RAID 0, RAID1 function
1394
interface:
-
Built in SiS 963
-
Compliant with IEEE
1394-1995 and 1394a-2000
-
Provide Bus Master
function Interface (OHCI) Specification1.1.
-
Supports the Plug-and-Play
(PNP) Specification.
-
Compliant to Latest PCI
Specification, PCI 2.2.
-
Supports Serial Bus Data
Rates of 100, 200,and 400 Mbits/s.
LPC
I/O:
-
ITE 8705F
-
Comply with Intel Low Pin
Count Interface Specification Rev. 1.0
-
ACPI V. 1.0 compliant
-
Built in H/W monitor
feature
-
Two 16C550 UARTs
-
Supports two standard
Serial Ports
-
Supports IrDA 1.0/ASKIR
protocols
-
Supports Smart Card Reader
protocols
-
Built in Smart Card Reader
-
IEEE 1284 Parallel Port
-
Standard mode --
Bi-directional SPP compliant
-
Enhanced mode -- EPP V.
1.7 and V. 1.9 compliant
-
High speed mode -- ECP,
IEEE 1284 compliant
-
Floppy Disk Controller -
Supports two 360K/ 720K/ 1.2M/ 1.44M/ 2.88M floppy
disk drives
-
Enhanced digital data
separator
-
3-Mode drives supported
-
Support power-failure
resume and power button de-bounce
USB 2.0
interface:
-
Built in SiS 963
-
Complies with Universal
Serial Bus Specification Rev. 2.0
-
Complies with Enhanced
Host Controller Interface Specification for USB
-
High performance USB 2.0
host with integrated USB 2.0 transceiver, which
supports high-speed, full-speed and low-speed
signaling
H/W
Monitoring:
-
Built in ITE 8705F
-
2 thermal inputs from remote
thermal resistor to monitor system temperature
-
1 thermal inputs from thermal
diode to monitor CPU temperature
-
8 voltage monitor inputs
-
1 chassis intrusion input
-
Monitors 3 fan tachometer
inputs
-
Smart Guardian Controller to
provide programmable fan speed automatic control
Power
Management:
Bios:
-
Award PnP BIOS
-
Stored in 2 Mb flash memory
-
DMI 2.3
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CPU 100 / 133MHz FSB setting
-
BIOS FSB step-less setting
from 100MHz to 200MHz with 1 MHz increment
-
CPU core voltage setting from
+0.025V ~ +0.20V
-
AGP (Vddq) voltage setting
from +0.05V ~ +0.20V
-
I/O voltage setting from +0.1V
~0.2V
-
Support IRQ manual assign
table
-
Bootable from Floppy, ATAPI
device, USB device, SCSI device
On Board Ports
/ Connectors / Jumpers / Headers (front/back panel):
Connectors:
-
1 x ATX power connector
-
1 x 4 pin 12V ATX power
connector
-
4 x Fan Power connectors
-
2 x UltraDMA/133 Bus Master
IDE (4 IDE AS45GTR optional)
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2 x Serial ATA (AS45GTR only)
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1 x Floppy
Jumpers:
Headers:
Accessory:
-
CD-ROM Disk
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SIS IDE Driver
-
SIS AGP driver
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Realtek Audio driver
-
ITE Smart Guardian Utility
-
High Point IDE driver (AS45GTR
only)
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User manuals in PDF format
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1 x audio cable for center /
Bass output
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1 x USB cable with bracket
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1 x ATA 133/100/66 cable
-
1 x ATA 133/100/66 cable
(AS45GTR only)
-
1 x Floppy cable
-
1 printed user manual
-
Chipset heat sink with fan,
CPU RM, AGP RM
Form
Factor:
-
ATX
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE
ENTIRE SIS648 / 963 SPEC. SHEET
With the 648, SiS has
taken all of the features found in the 645 chipset,
and added quite a few more, making the 648 the most
feature-rich chipset currently available. The
main enhancements over the 645 include:
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AGP8X (3.0)
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Official Pentium 4B 533MHz
FSB support
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Official DDR333 Support
(unofficial DDR400 support)
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USB 2.0
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IEEE-1394
-
MuTIOL 1G (I/O
Interconnect)
-
10/100 LAN
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6-Channel AC'97 Audio
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ATA/133 EIDE Interface
While the addition of USB
2.0, 10/100 LAN and ATA/133 should be expected in any
"new" chipset, some of other items are worth talking
about. AGP8X effectively doubles available
bandwidth to the AGP bus, bringing the total up to
2.1GBs per second. This doesn't mean much, if
anything today, but when with high-end video cards
like ATi's Radeon 9700 and NVIDIA's NV30 begin
shipping, and newer games start making use of more
polys and larger textures, having the extra bandwidth
available should have a measurable affect of
performance.
DDR333 (166MHz) and DDR400
(200MHz) memory speeds increase available memory
bandwidth to 2.7GBs/Sec and 3.2GBs/Sec respectively,
which brings the P4 with DDR incrementally closer to
the performance levels of an RDRAM based system.
As you'll see in our benchmarks a little later, the
SiS648 turned out to be an excellent performer.
The MuTIOL 1G connection
between the North and South bridges is another
bandwidth increasing feature. SiS' latest
version of their proprietary MuTIOL interconnect
offers a maximum of 1GB per second of bandwidth
between the SiS648 Northbridge and SiS963 Southbridge.
THE BUNDLE:
Included in the Shuttle
AS45GT/R's box we found a user's manual, and a manual
for the on-board High-Point HPT372 RAID controller.
There were two 80-Wire UDMA/133 cables, a floppy cable
and another you may not have seen before, a Serial ATA
cable. There was also a CD containing all of the
necessary drivers for the board, and two brackets for
external connectors, one with two USB ports and the
other with two IEEE-1394 ports.
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Installation
and Setup |
Good supporting hardware is
essential |
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Quality
RAM Makes A Difference - We recommend Corsair
We did not have do
anything out of the ordinary to get the SiS648 based
Shuttle AS45GT/R installed into our test machine,
other than installing the SiS AGP and IDE drivers once
Windows was up and running. There is something
that you have to keep in mind though. Reliably
running a system at high FSB or Memory speeds requires
the use of quality RAM. When we initially began
testing the Shuttle AS45GT/R, our test system
repeatedly locked-up, or re-booted for no apparent
reason. We suspected the RAM we were using was
not stable at 200MHz, so we contacted
Corsair Micro and got our hands on a quality,
512MB stick of PC3200 DDR RAM. (Product
specs can be found here) If you're familiar
with Corsair, you know their memory is held in high
regard. Should you be in the market for
some new memory, you owe it to yourself to check their
product out.
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| | The
BIOS, Layout and Quality
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