Intel Core Duo: AOpen i975Xa-YDG to the Rescue
by Gary Key on May 4, 2006 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Basic Features
This board is designed around Intel's flagship i975X chipset with one purpose in mind, the ability to let your Core Duo or Solo processor reach its maximum potential while still maintaining the low noise and power consumption benefits of this impressive processor series. It is the only true ATX size board on the market at this time featuring a non-mobile chipset for the Intel Core Duo/Solo series processors.If our test results are a true indication of the performance potential of the upcoming Conroe and Merom processors, then we foresee a sizable interest within the AMD community for taking another look at Intel based products in the near future. The Conroe/Merom processors should realize a performance improvement of around 15% above the current AMD lineup. An excellent overview of the Core architecture and comparison to the current AMD offerings is located here - Intel Core versus AMD K8 by Johan De Gelas.
If nothing else, the overall platform performance of the Intel Core Duo and AOpen i975Xa-YDG should convince anyone seriously considering building an ultra quiet performance oriented game or HTPC system to think at length about purchasing this combination.
| AOpen i975Xa-YDG | |
| Component | Description |
| CPU Interface | Socket 479 - Intel Core Duo or Core Solo |
| Chipset | Intel 975X - Northbridge Intel ICH7 - Southbridge |
| Front Side Bus | 667 / 533 MHz |
| CPU Clock | 166MHz ~ 199MHz in 1MHz increments Jumper change allows 200MHz ~ 320MHz in 1MHz increments |
| Memory Speeds | Auto, 533MHz, 667MHz, standard multipliers apply to overclocks |
| PCI Bus Speeds | Locked |
| PCI Express Bus Speeds | Auto, 100MHz ~ 160MHz in 1Mhz increments |
| Set Processor Multiplier | Locked to CPU |
| Core Voltage | Auto, .7375V to 1.5000V in 0.0125V increments |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, 1.80V to 2.15V in .05V increments |
| Northbridge Voltage | Auto, 1.525V, 1.575V, 1.625V, 1.675V |
| PCI-E Voltage | Auto, 1.500V ~ 1.700V in various increments |
| Memory Slots | (4) x DIMM, max. 4GB, DDR2 667/533, non-ECC or ECC support |
| Expansion Slots | (2) x PCI-E x16 (operates in 2x8 mode in dual graphics or CrossFire mode) (2) x PCI-E x1 (2) x PCI 2.3 |
| Onboard SATA | Intel ICH7 - Southbridge (4) x SATA 3Gb/s JMicron- JMB360 (1) x External SATA 3Gb/s |
| Onboard IDE | Intel ICH7 - Southbridge (1) x 100/66/33 ITE IT8212 IDE (1) x 133/100/66/33 |
| IDE RAID | ITE IT8212 IDE (2) x 133/100/66/33 RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 |
| Onboard USB2.0 | (8) USB2.0 ports |
| Onboard IEEE-1394 | Agere 1394A - FW3226-100 |
| Onboard LAN | Marvell 88E8053 PCI-Express x1 |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC-880, 8-channel capable High Definition Audio |
| Power Connectors | 24-pin ATX 4-pin 12V 4-pin ATX 12V |
| Back Panel I/O Ports | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x IEEE-1394 1 x External SATA 3Gb/s 1 x Optical S/PDIF - In 1 x Optical S/PDIF -Out 1 x Audio I/O Panel 1 x RJ45 4 x USB |
| Other Features | (C.O.O.) - Code of Overclocking System AOConfig - Windows based System Information Utility EZ Skin - Windows based Jukebox Player C.O.O. Paradise Utility - Windows based utility for Remote Control, real time information Remote Control - I.R. based remoter control unit for basic media player, on/off, and FSB overclocking control EZWin Flash - Windows Based Bios Update Program |
| BIOS | 1.03b |
The AOpen i975Xa-YDG is a member of AOpen's Mobile on Desktop Technology Series product family and as such is a board targeted towards both the HTPC and enthusiast user. The board ships with an accessory package that includes the standard assortment of IDE/SATA cables, power connectors, CPU heatsink/fan, and a unique Remote Control unit. AOpen also includes a driver CD along with several desktop utilities for Windows based monitoring and tuning of your system.
AOpen ships the motherboard and related components in an eye catching box that certainly plays on the Star Wars theme. We will find out shortly if this board is truly worthy of Darth Maul status or if we have another Jar Jar Binks wannabe in the labs.
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Viditor - Thursday, May 4, 2006 - link
Premiere Pro 2.0 has a 64 bit version that works very well. It has not yet been "optimized" for 64 bit (meaning that basic functions won't run much faster), but you have access to 4 GB+ of memory (which can be a HUGE help when dealing with very large movie and audio files).http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/pdfs/premie...">Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 pdf
Griswold - Thursday, May 4, 2006 - link
This was obviously a test of a mobile CPU on a desktop platform, so his point is valid. And what does SFF have to do with it?Calin - Thursday, May 4, 2006 - link
That more than 50% overclock is mind boggling - I hope this will bode well for the soon-to-be released Intel processors. Performance as good as or better than Opteron 175? Looks like Intel already have this side of the market covered.xsilver - Thursday, May 4, 2006 - link
have intel chipset limitations been discussed on the upcoming conroe?wont all conroes be runnning 1066fsb already? meaning there is little headroom left for fsb overclocking unless some serious progress is made on the new chipsets?
(300ish fsb is the current general limit for intel chipsets right?)
Gary Key - Thursday, May 4, 2006 - link
We felt guilty when raising the voltage up to 1.3875 as temps increased from 25c to 31c, makes you wonder what a really good heatsink/fan will on this board. :) Anyway, I think we reached the limit of our board around 267fsb in further testing with a water cooling unit. I am sure the CPU had more in it as temps were around 26c at load, or maybe not. We spoke with AOpen and it appears the boards will top out around 275FSB at this time, we had an early board and based upon some user experiences the retail boards are doing around 275 at this time. We have a retail board on the way for our HTPC article.
Griswold - Thursday, May 4, 2006 - link
What was the ambient (room) temperature?Gary Key - Thursday, May 4, 2006 - link
It varies during the day, variation is 20c~22c. There is a new program out that will measure the Yonah core temperature through the on-chip diode instead of the AOpen thermal sensor. I withheld our temperature and power consumption numbers until we decide which temperature reading to report as another utility in XP gives a slightly different reading also. Power consumption is excellent.
Our test system (11x255, ~2.8GHz)-
X1900XT
idle - 114w
load - 232w
X1900 CrossFire (P4 of video cards)
idle - 139w
load - 357w
redbone75 - Thursday, May 4, 2006 - link
That price is a bit daunting for a mobo. This is where if you absolutely have to build a PC right now I would go with an AMD system b/c you still get stellar performance at a lower price point. The A8R32-MVP is a little under $200, and the Opty 165 still costs less than the Core Duo T2400. So, although this is a great effort from Aopen, I personally would build the AMD system or just wait for Conroe/Merom to launch. Boy, but does this make your mouth water if you choose the latter, doesn't it?dexvx - Sunday, May 7, 2006 - link
Lol, what happened to the fanboi arguement of saving power for the long term (if you visit the AT forms, its frequently used arguement for not buying a cheap Pentium-D system)? Based on the powerdraw tests from Tech-report.com, you save more power going from a X2 to Yonah than from Pentium-D to X2.That Aside, this Aopen board *is* Meron compatible with a bios update. The folks over at xtremesystems.org has confirmed it.
Schmeh - Thursday, May 4, 2006 - link
I absolutely agree. I have been putting of upgrading my system for almost a year and I am glad that I did. I can't wait to see what Conroe and Merom have to offer. My only fear is that Intel will overprice them at launch.