Intel's Core Duo meets the desktop

Written by Tim Smalley

May 19, 2006 | 16:12

Tags: #benchmark #cache #conroe #core #core-duo #duo #fx-60 #hardware #i975x #overclock #performance #review #smart #yonah

Companies: #amd #aopen #intel

The expansion slots on the AOpen i975Xa-YDG are arranged well, because - even if dual-slot video cards are used in both PCI-Express x16 slots - there is room for both an add-in sound card and an AGEIA PhysX physics card if the latter becomes a must-have component.

The Realtek ALC880 high definition audio codec is located next to the PCI slots along the top edge of the motherboard.


The BIOS chip is next to the secondary PCI-Express x16 slot - it is a non-removable chip, so there is no chance to hot flash the BIOS if it becomes corrupt. The CMOS reset jumper is quite a way from the BIOS chip - it is right next to the secondary PCI-Express x16 slot and ICH7 south bridge.

This isn't an optimal position because, in order to reset the CMOS, it's likely that you will have to remove the secondary video card if there is one installed. Finally, the Marvell PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller is near to the primary PCI-Express x16 slot along the top edge of the motherboard.

The rear I/O panel is legacy free, with the exception of the two PS/2 ports. There is an external SATA connector controlled by a JMicron SATA 300MB/s controller - this is capable of using hot-plug technology along with all other SATA II technologies. There are four USB 2.0 ports and another four available via pin headers on the PCB. Above the USB 2.0 ports, there is a single IEEE 1394 port and a Gigabit Ethernet socket. The remaining connectors are for the onboard audio codec – these include optical S/PDIF In & Out and six audio jacks.

Intel's Core Duo meets the desktop AOpen i975Xa-YDG (contd) Intel's Core Duo meets the desktop AOpen i975Xa-YDG (contd)

BIOS & Overclocking:

AOpen uses a custom version of the Phoenix AwardBIOS on the i975Xa-YDG motherboard. The BIOS is relatively light, but has a reasonable selection of tweak options. Most of these can be found under the Frequency/Voltage Control menu option, but memory timings are controlled under the Advanced Chipset Features menu.

Under the Frequency/Voltage Control menu, there are voltage adjustments for CPU core, DRAM, the north bridge and the PCI-Express bus. The CPU core can be adjusted from 0.7375V all the way up to 1.5000V in 0.0125V increments. DRAM voltage can be adjusted from 1.8V to 2.15V in 0.05V increments, while the north bridge voltage can be adjusted from 1.525V to 1.675V in 0.05V increments. The PCI-Express voltage was adjustable through the same values.

There is also the option to adjust both the front side bus speed and the PCI-Express frequency. With the board set up in its default configuration, the maximum front side bus achievable in the BIOS is 199MHz, with the minimum being 166MHz. In order to unlock the higher front side bus speeds that this motherboard is capable of, you need to remove a pair of jumpers in between the CPU socket and the 4-pin molex connector by the back I/O panel. We cannot guarantee that all CPUs will run at 200MHz with the default 1.2500V core voltage, so it is worth checking whether the CPU is capable of reaching 199MHz front side bus without a voltage increase.

Our Core Duo T2600 chip managed to overclock to a 200MHz front side bus with the default core voltage, but we increased it to 1.2625V in order to get the system working with 100% stability. We were pretty impressed with this overclock, but we didn’t stop there. We managed to get the system running Prime95 stable at 2950MHz with a front side bus of 227MHz. In order to attain this, we had to increase the core voltage to 1.4500V. We carried on overclocking to see how high we could get the CPU. Note that the multiplier is locked, so we were unable to change the multiplier, because the Core Duo chips all have a locked multiplier.

Intel's Core Duo meets the desktop AOpen i975Xa-YDG (contd)
With a core voltage of 1.5000V, we were able to get the CPU stable enough to run Super PI 1M at 239MHz FSB, equating to a CPU speed of just under 3110MHz. We achieved all of this with the tiny cooler provided in the box by AOpen. Our CPU had either run out of front side bus headroom, or we had run out of voltage, because the aluminium heatsink was still cold to the touch. We remounted the heatsink to check whether the contact between heatsink and silicon was not optimal, but we didn’t manage to overclock the system any further.
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