Motherboards with chipset G31. Chipsets. Approximate retail price, USD

Used from old versions, which allows you to resolve the conflict relative to PATA support.

Specifications

The system bus of the G31 chipset called QPB 800 operates at a frequency of 1066 megahertz. This device is capable of maintaining a two-channel data stream mode operational with a frequency up to 800 megaggers. The maximum amount of RAM is four gigabytes. The type of the G31 chipset is not designed to work with servers, so it is called pseudo-axchronous.

As for the integrated graphics adapter, the GMA 3100 provides good quality Images and supports the DirectX ninth version.

The transfer rate between bridges is two gigabytes per second, that is, one gigabyte per second is in one direction.

The chipset is able to maintain the operation of the four channels of Serialata, which, according to the characteristics of the G31 chipset, means the possibility of connecting four hard drives that will operate in SATA 300 mode. The last designation demonstrates the data rate inside the system, that is, the maximum speed will reach 300 megabytes per second.

As for energy consumption, there is nothing to worry about what motherboards based on the G31 chipset are budget and do not have advanced features.

Supported processors

Motherboards with chipset G31 support for processors created on the Core 2 Duo microarchitecture with a processor tire frequency of no more than 1066 megaggers. Working with this chipset is about 50 watts. Also, the chipset works with Pentium and Celeron processors, but only with the support of the socket 775.

Acid potential

For an example of overclocking the G31 chipset, it was necessary to use the board memory settings, you need to go to the overclocking section called Fox Central Control Unit. After that, you need to choose the optimal frequency, that is, the highest. The higher the frequency of work, the higher the performance. Selecting the highest value, you need to look at the system monitoring section. There will be displayed temperature of the current state of the entire system.

Now you can go directly to overclocking, and for this you need to proceed to the Fox Central Control Unit section. When choosing the maximum value, you can look at the performance gain. The G31 chipset is able to overclock the processor from 333 to a stable 600 megaggers.

An example of motherboard with this chipset

As an example of a motherboard, a model of Microatx format from ASUS is presented. This device is capable of working with both dual-core processors and quad-core representatives of the Intel Core 2 and Quad Core series. The socket at the P5KPL-AM 775 motherboard, which means only 45 nanometer will suit the processors.

Universal system tire operating at frequencies 800, 1066, 1333 and 1600 megahertz, can support rAM DDR2, reaching 1066 megahertz in operation.

To disclose the entire potential of processors running on this motherboard, you can dispersed the system bus to 1600 megagoz.

As you know, work with applications using three-dimensional graphics was more productive, two slots for RAM are located on the motherboard. The motherboard can maintain a two-channel data stream mode with a frequency of up to 1066 megahertz, which will increase the speed of demanding applications.

To implement and reproduce modern at that time computer games The PCI architecture was improved. Now this tire is called PCI Express. Increased by four times the bandwidth allows you to enjoy every second in three-dimensional games.

Also in the motherboard running on the G31 chipset, there is a support for high quality sound, additional settings For BIOS from the manufacturer, the controller for system cooling, which optimizes its operation.

Conclusion

From the choice of motherboard running on a specific chipset, the choice and all other equipment depends. Thanks to the chipset, the possibilities of the entire system are changed: the number of supported processors, frequencies of components, the parameters of the integrated graphics processor, power consumption and much more.

Depending on the chipset, it can be assumed how powerful the system will be, what will be its overclocking potential. Choose to you.

Motherboards based on the G31 chipset are budget and are not designed for server manipulations and other advanced features. This version of the motherboard is ideal for the user of the middle hand, that is, to work with simple applications, surfing sites and starting not too demanding games.

Different manufacturers add many additional features to their motherboards, such as controlling power consumption or restoring the BIOS program settings.

This review is a kind of continuation of the article released last year. "Choose a chipset for Core 2 Duo. Epoch to Intel 3 Series »and one of the last parts of the material dedicated to the chipset for the Intel LGA775 platform. This time, the sets of system logic of the Intel 3 Series family, products on which, though not in large quantities, are still present on the market.

Intel 3 Series chipset ruler has released in 2007 to support the expected 45-nm processors of the Penryn family of C 1333-megahertz-tire, which would not be able to function at the most popular motherboards on the basis of the Intel X965 and 945X system logic sets. In total, there were eight models in the ruler: the high-level mass P31, P35 for medium-level systems, integrated G31, G33 and G35, X38 flagship, and solutions for the corporate market - Q35 and Q33. Of course, the support of future new processors did not limit themselves - with their appearance, the ERA of the DDR3 memory and tires PCI Express 2.0 (the latter is just for high-level chipset x38). In addition, the southern bridge was updated, which was referred to as ICH9: the number of USB 2.0 ports increased to twelve, and also appeared support for Intel Turbo Memory technology, which is based on the installation of an additional module with flash memory, which allows you to speed up applications in operating system Windows Vista.

Intel P31 / G31 Express

The P31 and G31 chipsets came to a change of the Intel 945x / 946x series with the only difference in supporting the FSB bus with a frequency of up to 1333 MHz and the DDR2-800 memory with a maximum volume of 4 GB. The integrated solution has acquired an updated GMA 3100 graphics core instead of GMA 950 used earlier. The rest of the functionality was limited to the southern ICH7 or ICH7R bridges, which support only eight USB 2.0 ports, four lines PCI-E 1.1 (six for ICH7R), four SATA II channels (the ability to organize RAID arrays 0, 1, 5 and 10 for ICH7R) and Fast Ethernet.

In addition, the entry-level system logic sets obtained a limit in the possibility of working at high frequencies of the FSB bus, i.e. The acceleration of boards on the basis of P31 and G31 left much to be desired and was at 430-450 MHz.

Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G

As a representative of the product on the basis of the Intel P31 Express chipset, the Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G board was used, which is now one of the most affordable solutions for the Penryn family processors.

The motherboard comes in a box with green-black design, which shows the features of the board, including Easy Energy Saver technology.

Supply set standard for products designed for the mass market:

• installation instructions AMD / Intel;
• drive with drivers and software;
• two SATA cables;
• one IDE cable;
• one fdd cable;
• rear Plank I / O;
• sticker on the system unit.

The board is made in the ATX form factor, is quite compact, but despite this, there is a lot of empty space on it - it even reminds some of the Intel solutions. The GA-P31-ES3G model supports all modern processors, including even Pentium 4 and Pentium D, with a frequency system Tire from 800 to 1333 MHz. On the board, only two DIMM slots are installed, and the maximum amount of DDR2-1066 / 800/667 memory can reach 4 GB, which is quite enough for the entry-level system.

The GA-P31-ES3G design has certain flaws: the IDE connector is located between the DIMM slot and the power supply connector, as well as the FDD connector parallel to the bottom edge - but, given that the drives with the IDE interface are practically no on sale, and the floppy disk drive Healing itself, then these minuses can be not counted.

The processor nutrition of the processor is built on a 3-phase pattern using solid-state capacitors and chokes in armor cores. In the remaining chains there are ordinary capacities and simpler chokes. ATX12V Standard Additional Power Connector.

Chipset chip cooling is carried out at the expense of small aluminum radiators - similar to the case, some boards based on Intel P965 Express of the same manufacturer. To connect the fans, four connectors are provided, one of which is four-contact, designed for a fan from the processor cooler.

The functionality of the GA-P31-ES3G is minimal, due to the limited features of the southern bridge ICH7. The board implements four SATA II channels, eight USB 2.0 ports, four of which are derived on rear panel, One IDE channel, three PCI-E X1 connections and three conventional PCIs. There are also COM and LPT port.

The sound subsystem is implemented at the expense of the old familiar HDA codec Realtek ALC888, the Gigabit Ethernet network is based on the Realtek 8111c chip.

The rear panel contains two PS / 2 connector, coaxial S / PDIF, four USB ports, a network connector, a com- and LPT port, three audio connections. In fact, the standard set, which could boast the products of the Intel 945P chipset.

Contact Clear CMOS Company Engineers placed closer to the edge of the board, unlike their beloved space near the PCI-E X1 slots, which will save from the constant dismantling of the video card with a two-sheet cooler when resetting the BIOS settings.

Well, of course, the GA-P31-ES3G is equipped with two BIOS chips, which will allow you to restore the system's performance when the microcode is damaged in one of them. It is gratifying that such a function is found on an inexpensive board, while competitors have two BIOS chips can be found on the products class above.

Bios.

GIGABYTE GA-P31-ES3G BIOS boards is based on the Award Software microcode and in its capabilities is somewhat inferior to modern solutions. The existing settings for acceleration are concentrated in the MB Intelligent Tweaker menu, but before you go there, press the combination "Ctrl + F1", otherwise the items to configure the memory delays will be unavailable.

In section M.i.t. You can control the processor multiplication ratio (both integer and fractional), change the frequency of the system bus, the PCI-E interface, configure the mode of memory and different voltages.

The FSB bus frequency varies in the range of 100-700 MHz, the PCI-E bus is from 90 to 150 MHz. Rough control of Performance Level is available in Performance Enhance, where you can select one of the Standard, Turbo or Extreme modes. For a more accurate setting PL among memory timings, there is a Static Tread Value item, which already allows you to choose more familiar digital values. To select the mode of operation (i.e., the frequency) of memory is a small list of multipliers.

The ability to change the voltage is present for the processor (up to 1.6 V), FSB bus (up to +0.3 V from the nominal), memory (up to +0.7 V), PCI-E tires (up to +0.3 V), Northern Bridge (up to +0.3 V) and GTL logic. It is possible to also reduce the voltage on the FSB bus to -0.15 V.

Parameter	Range of change
DDR2 Overvoltage Control	+ 0.1-0.7 V, with a step of 0.1 V
PCI-E OverVOLTAGE CONTROL	+ 0.1-0.3 V, with a step of 0.1 V
FSB Overvoltage Control	+ 0.1-0.3 V, with a step of 0.1 V
FSB DeoverVoltage Control	- 0.05-0.15 V, with increments of 0.05 V
(G) MCH OverVOLTAGE CONTROL	+ 0.1-0.3 V, with a step of 0.1 V
CPU GTLREF Voltage Ratio	0.54/0.566/0.603/0.636
CPU VOLTAGE CONTROL	0.5-1.6 V, in increments of 0.00625 in

Scale monitoring allows you to track only the voltages on the processor, memory, on the lines of +3.3 and +12 V, as well as the turnover of four fans. It is possible to adjust the alarm when a certain processor temperature is reached or stopping each of the four fans.

For bIOS updates You can use the built-in Q-Flash utility - it is enough to connect the "flash drive" with the saved microcode version.

Additional by

The Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G motherboard allows you to install the Easy Energy Saver utility, which has common features from Dynamic Energy Saver Advanced, but unlike the latter it does not control the dynamic switching of the processor power phases with a simple system, and simply considers savated electricity when the voltage decreases Nutrition and activation of C1E and EIST technology CORE 2 processors.

As a result, the practical application of this utility is not so much.

Acceleration

To clarify the acceleration potential of the board, the following configuration was collected:

• Video card: ASUS EN8800GS TOP 384M;
• Power supply: SILVER POWER SP-S850 (850 W).

Testing was conducted by B. windows Environment Vista Ultimate X86 SP1, an OCCT 3.01 utility with an hour run and a large matrix was used as a stress test. The multiplier for memory was exposed to the minimum possible, the timings had a form 5-5-5-15. The BIOS version of the board was F6.

As a rule, when overclocked, the PCI Express bus frequency must be blocked at 100-110 MHz, but with such settings the system was able to boot only at the FSB frequency of 350 MHz. If PCI-E is left in AUTO mode, the ceiling is almost limited to the capabilities of the chipset itself.

In our case, it was 455 MHz with a voltage lifting on the chipset and FSB by +0.1 V and 465 MHz by raising these stresses by another +0.1 V.

Further lifting of stresses and changing the memory time on the potential fee did not affect the network, although the network has information on the maximum acceleration to the FSB 500 MHz tire level and higher. Intel P35 / G35 / G33 Express

Intel P35 / G33 Express system logic sets that have replaced Intel P965 / G965 were the first to be the first to Intel with the announcement of the new line of chipsets at the Computex 2007 exhibition. The rest had the status of a "paper" announcement and appeared a little later. Novelty for the first time supported the memory of the DDR3-1066 / 800 standard with a maximum amount of 8 GB, in addition to DDR2-800 / 667, and system boards manufacturers could produce products designed for any of these types, or even combined solutions. The South Bridge of ICH9 has expanded the functionality of the system due to the twelve ports of USB 2.0, its modifications ICH9R and ICH9DO supported six SATA channels with the possibility of organizing RAID array levels 0, 1, 5 and 10. In addition, ESATA support appeared in the new southern bridges Disconnect the not used channels of the speed serial interface. The built-in graphics core G33 is similar to that in G31, but with one difference alone, which is to support the technology of improving video image Clear Video. The CROSSFIRE mode for P35 was declared according to the formula "x16 + x4", which, as in the case of P965, was constrained by the tandem performance. Intel Turbo Memory technology has not received widespread, although it has high hopes.

Intel G35 Express Integrated Chipset has acquired a more advanced kernel - GMA X3500, but only the DDR2 memory with a frequency of up to 800 MHz and was equipped with the ICH8 South Bridge (ICH8R, ICH8DH), known by sets of system logic P965 / G965.

Intel Q35 / Q33 Express

For the corporate market, Q35 and Q33 chipsets were released, which contained the GMA 3100 video card, supported the memory DDR2-800 / 667 and equipped with southern ICH9, ICH9R and ICH9DO bridges with the possibility of implementing Intel Turbo Memory (Q35 only). Intel TRUSTED EXECTION and Intel Virtualization For DirectED i / O (Q35) were distinguished.

ASUS P5K DELUXE / WIFI-AP

Representatives of the business segment for Testing did not hit us, so we consider the product on the basis of mass-based medium-level chipset Intel P35 Express. The Asus P5K Deluxe / WiFi-AP motherboard is packed in a black box with a handle and a folding lid, on which all the features of the product and supported technologies are indicated.

Contents of delivery:

• instructions for the motherboard;
• instructions for WiFi access point;
• drive with drivers and software;
• four SATA cables;
• one IDE cable;
• one fdd cable;
• rear Plank I / O;
• WiFi antenna;
• set of branded K-Connector pads.

The board, made on the textolite of black color, is designed for Intel processors with FSB 800-1333 MHz and supports the memory of the DDR2 standard with a frequency to 1066 MHz and a total 8 GB. The PCB design has some flaws, in particular DIMM slots are located close to the graphical connector, six SATA connectors are set perpendicular to the board, four of which can be blocked by a dimensional card with a two-block cooling system. Also, the IDE connector is placed at the bottom of the board, because of which the cable lengths may not be enough to connect the drive in the Full Tower enclosures, but, given the cooking to the SATA interface, it is not so critical.

On the opposite direction of the board, part of the power transistors was transferred, which allowed to evenly distribute the heat load on the VRM module.

The processor nutrition of the processor is built according to an 8-phase pattern using solid-state capacitors and chokes in armor cores. Similar components are used in other power circuits. Emi-in-contact EPS12V is used as an additional power supply connector of the processor.

Cooling chipset chip and part of power transistors are carried out at the expense of aluminum thermal radiators, combined with heat pipes. For the remaining elements of four phases, a separate aluminum radiator is installed.

For connecting the fans, six connectors are provided, one of which is four-contact - this is more than enough to organize active cooling inside the case.

The functionality of the board is good even by modern standards: three PCI slots, two PCI-E X1, one PCI-E x4 (PCI-E X16 connector) and one PCI-E x16, as well as ten USB ports 2.0, six of which are bred on the back Panel, and six SATA II channels with the possibility of organizing RAID arrays 0, 1, 5 and 10 due to the southern ICH9R bridge.

From the additional controllers on the JMicron JMB363, supporting one IDE channel and two ESATA, as well as AGERE FW3227, which is responsible for two IEEE 1394 ports. The audio subsystem is implemented due to the 8-channel ADI ADI AD1988B codec used by ASUS often.

The network on the board corresponds two gigabit controller, Realtek RTL8110SC and Marvell 88E8056, and the first one is located on the PCI bus, and the second on the PCI-E tire.

As you have already noticed, the user is not available two USB ports - they are used by a wifi module near the back of the board.

AW-GA800BT Module from Azurewave is based on the Realtek RTL8187L chip and supports the IEEE 802.11b / g standard.

In addition to the connector for connecting a WiFi antenna on the rear panel there are six USB ports, two ESATA, one FireWire, optical and coaxial S / PDIF, six audio connections and only one PS / 2 for the keyboard.

At first, cards with one PS / 2 port, and even without it there were indignation of users, even accused chipmeter in the inexpediency of excluding the "mouse" interface. But Intel directly does not have a direct relationship to this, since PS / 2 ports are implemented in the Super I / O chip, which makes manufacturers of motherboards on their products. With the refusal of the archaic interface, some problems with the compatibility of new motherboards with "Yusb-mouse" of the manufacturers of the second echelon appeared. For example, the ASUS P5K Deluxe / WiFi-AP test refused to work with the A4-TECH SWOP-558 manipulator. Perhaps this features exceptionally considered the solution.

Bios.

BIOS boards based on AMI microcode allows users to make a thin system setting and compared to modern fees ASUS is less overloaded by various parameters.

The main settings are focused on the Advanced menu, in which you can change the FSB bus frequency (from 200 to 800 MHz), PCI-E (from 100 to 150 MHz), the processor multiplication factor and memory mode. It is possible to manage the Performance Level parameter, however, several in non-standard form: it is necessary to combine the transaction booster on or disconnecting or disconnecting the RELAX LEVEL level. When default installations, the PL level of this board is 10, whereas even a solution from Intel based on P43 EXPRESS by default 7, which immediately puts ASUS P5K Deluxe / WiFi-AP to a less favorable position when comparing products from various manufacturers.

The number of divisors in memory is enough to expose 835, 887 or even 1111 and 1332 MHz with FSB 333 MHz.

The voltage on the processor can be changed within 1.1-1.7 V, memory - from 1.8 to 2.55 V, although the description shows the data from the board supporting DDR3.

On the North Bridge, the voltage varies within 1.25-1.7 V, there is also the ability to change the voltage CPU PLL, which is relevant to overclock the quad-core processors, on the FSB bus, south bridge and GTL logic. The available Load-Line Calibration parameter will avoid the discharge of the power supply voltage of the overclocked processor during the load.

All modified voltages are listed in the table:

Parameter	Range of change
CPU Voltage.	1.1-1.7 V, in increments of 0.0125 in
CPU Pll Voltage.	1.5-1.8 V, with a pitch of 0.1 V
FSB Termination Voltage.	1.1-1.4 V, in increments of 0.1 V
Dram Voltage.	1.8-2.55 V, in increments of 0.05 V
NB Voltage.	1.25/17 in 1.55 / 1.7 V
SB Voltage.	1.05 / 1.2 V
Clock Over-Charging Voltage	0.7-1.0 V, with increments of 0.1 V
CPU GTL Voltage Reference	0.63x / 0.61x / 0.59x / 0.57x
NB GTL Voltage Reference	0.67x / 0.61x

Monitoring is quite good minimalism - there are only the temperature of the processor, motherboard, main voltages, including processor, and tracking the speed of the four fan, as well as the control of Q-FAN technology.

Those who often use different system settings, it is useful to save two profiles that after updating BIOS still have to rewrite again, otherwise the system is unstable.

To update BIOS there is a built-in utility ASUS. EZ Flash 2 - Just connect the flash drive and select a directory with a saved microcode version.

Additional by

The ASUS AI Suite program is supplied with the board, which is responsible for monitoring, overclocking the system, fan control and energy saving functions.

Also on the complete disk you can find a simpler utility PC PROBE II, which is responsible for monitoring the system.

Acceleration

The acceleration of the board was carried out with the same configuration as with Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G. BIOS version was 0902, dated June 19, 2008 - more recent firmware carry beta status, so not used. At a voltage on the northern bridge of 1.4 V and FSB 1.4 bus in the maximum stable frequency of steel 550 MHz, and with an increase in NB Voltage to 1.55, the system was able to undergo a stress test at a frequency of 566 MHz. For greater stability, the fee was blown in a 120 mm fan.

Changing the remaining parameters for the potential of ASUS P5K Deluxe / WiFi-AP did not affect.

Intel X38 / X48 Express

After the announcement of the new line of chipsets, the old man I975x passed on the time of the flagship of the flagship of the company's system logic to the system logic of Intel P35 Express, despite the restrictions in the construction of Crossfire systems. Some manufacturers even produced P35 database cards with switches for PCI Express tires, which allowed to communicate with each other and the motherboard on eight PCI-E 1.1 lines on each side. Of course, it affected the final value of the finished decision, but high-level products were never distinguished by a democratic price.

In the fall of 2007, the Intel X38 Express high-end chipset was already presented, which was different from P35 support 32 PCI Express 2.0 lines, which are twice as much bandwidth than PCI-E 1.1, and allowed two video cards to operate in "x16 + x16" mode . In addition, it was possible to work with the memory DDR3-1333, and supported XMP technology (Extreme Memory Profiles), which is an analogue of the EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles) from NVIDIA, but for DDR3 modules. Another interesting feature of the chipset was the presence of a heat dissipation cover on the northern bridge, which allowed evenly to allocate heat and avoid chip chip chip.

After half a year, the Intel X48 Express system logic was presented, which is nothing more than X38 with corrected errors and official support for the FSB 1600 MHz and the DDR3-1600 memory, and with the DDR2 memory, the chipset cannot work. In any case, Intel stated this, which soon refuted the manufacturers of motherboards, releasing the appropriate products working with the old type of memory.

That's just, despite the affiliation of this set of system logic to the fourth series, the south bridge remained the same - ICH9 (R / DH), while the new series is equipped with a microcircuit at number 10.

Since the Products based on Intel X38 Express at the moment already defined rarity, then as a representative of the decisions on the Top Chipset X48, the ASUS Rampage Formula fee was selected. During the year, the cost of high-level boards decreased by one and a half times and now you can buy a good product of dollars for 150-200, but considering the speed output of the P55 chipset and processors under Socket LGA1156, the expediency of such a purchase is questionable. Although, it is not known how much the newest fees will be assessed (they are not very much evaluated) and it is not a fact that it will be possible to immediately go to the next platform. So if there is a quad-core processor, but there is no desire to change it, and the Intel P45 base fees are not suitable for any reason, then the decision on the basis of X48 will be the only purchase candidate.

The fee under consideration refers to the republic of Gamers series and comes in a corporate design box with a folding lid and carrying handle.

All technology supported by the product is also described on the lid, the availability of the delivery of S.L.L.K.K.E.R game is also indicated: Shadow of Chernobyl. On the box there are cutouts through which you can see the cooling system and the rear board panel, as well as the outer sound card - i.e. Some of the most interesting features of ASUS Rampage Formula.

The fee and package package is packaged in different boxes - accessories in cardboard, and "motherboard" in plastic. The presence of plastic packaging was often met in solutions 2000-2001. worth about $ 100-120, but later they refused it, and now, as we see, they returned to this idea again, but as an attribute of top products.

Contents of delivery:

• instructions for the motherboard;
• drive with drivers and by
• disk with a game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl;
• six SATA cables;
• external sound card SUPREMEFX II;
• power adapter for SATA devices;
• one IDE cable;
• one fdd cable;
• briquette with two USB connectors and one mini-firewire;
• rear Plank I / O;
• turbine for radiator on power elements;
• k-Connector branded branded pads
• set of screeds;
• remote LCD indicator LCD-POSTER;
• sticker on the system unit with a logo.

Among the accessories to the board, you can find the LCD-Poster's remote indicator, familiar to us by Rampage II Extreme, and a turbine for installation on one of the radiators of power transistors when used passive system cooling or its. There is also a discrete sound card SUPREMEFX II, which is the usual audio codec on a separate board.

The full-format ATX board is made on the textolite of black, as, however, and all expensive solutions from ASUS. The location of the elements is more or less thought out, it is practically no need for: two PCI-E X16 slots are separated by a sufficient distance, the memory replacement can be carried out without dismantling the video card, SATA connectors and IDE are deployed 90 ° and after installing accelerators each channel for connecting will be available. drives. Regarding the memory - as already noted above, the X48 chipset without problems can work with the DDR2 standard, and Rampage Formula is no exception - the board supports modules with a frequency of more than 1200 MHz, but it is now problematic. The maximum amount of memory can reach 8 GB and in this regard also have no differences from the decisions based on X38. But for new items from the real fourth series, the plank was already moved to 16 gigabytes, although eight rarely now who uses. From processors, you can install all modern models with a tire frequency from 800 to 1600 MHz.

For cooling of the 8-channel Power Supply of the CPU and chipset chips, a complex design of various radiators and thermal tubes is responsible. On the North Bridge there is a major radiator with the ribs of a wavy form that according to the manufacturer's approval should be the best way to affect the cooling, connected by a heat pipe with smaller radiators on the power elements. To give stiffness to the system on the reverse side of the board, an amplifying plate is installed, just at the location of the northern bridge. In addition, the heat is transferred to another radiator scored from thin aluminum plates, the rear part of which slightly protrudes beyond the I / O plank - this is something like the Silent Pipe cooling system on Gigabyte video cards.

The southern bridge ICH9R is content with the heat removal radiator connected to the rest of the design by means of a heat tube. To connect fans, eight connectors are installed on the board, one of them is four-contact, naturally intended for the processor cooler.

Like the new Rampage Formula models, equipped with a new CPU - EPU power controller, capable of disconnecting unused processor phases during system downtime, thereby even somehow saving electricity. For one board, the savings are not significant, but for the park of cars or even on a global scale, the numbers will be much more.

Product functionality is on high level, and the user can set two cards expansion PCI, Two PCI-E X1, another slot (black) is reserved under the SUPREMEFX II audio card, two video cards with the PCI Express 2.0 interface, combining them in CrossFire mode.

On the board there are six SATA connectors, one IDE, implemented at the expense of the JMICRON JMB363 chip, six USB 2.0 ports (six more on the back panel) and one IEEE 1394 port (VIA VT6308P). Two Marvell 88E8056 controller respond to the network.

The SUPREMEFX II module is equipped with a shielding lid and a full-fledged bar, and appearance Reminds a shortened audio card with the PCI-E X1 interface.

But under the cover there is a regular HDA-codec ADI AD1988B, several filtering capacitors, power blocking and connectors for connecting HD-audio jacks and CDs.

On the back panel there are six USB, one PS / 2 port, one Firewire, optical and coaxial S / PDIF, two network connector and Clear CMOS button.

In addition, there are Power and Reset buttons on the board, as well as a mini drive that you can disable the reset of the BIOS settings on the rear panel.

Buttons are conveniently used on an open bench or with one video card in the case, but the Clear CMOS may not even need, because for all the time testing, press it, except for checking the function itself, did not have to. The board is also equipped with three connectors for connecting external thermo sensors and a number of LEDs near the processor, memory, northern and southern bridges that are responsible for the level of the supplied voltage to the listed components.

Bios.

BIOS Asus Rampage Formula Boards is based on Microcode American Megatrends, Inc., which should be expected. Its possibilities for fine-tuning system is quite wide, probably, only fees are better looking at the Intel X58 Express. All iteble points for overclocking are focused in the Extreme Tweaker section.

Here you can choose the authorum, to conduct an "upgrade" processor to the next model. For example, our Core 2 Duo E8500 could work in E8600 mode when its frequency by overclocking the FSB bus rises to the necessary or in Crazy mode, which will be discussed slightly below. The frequency of the system tire may vary within the limits of 200-800 MHz, PCI-E - 100-180 MHz.

The number of dividers for memory is similar to the ASUS P5K Deluxe WiFi-AP board, but unlike the latter, Performance Level has become easier due to the direct input of the required numeric value. There is also the ability to set the time delay between the clock signals of memory and the northern bridge. In addition, another item responsible for the performance of the system is Ai Twister, which appeared on the boards from the X38, found a place here.

The maximum voltage value on the processor can reach 2.4 V (1.1 per minimum), CPU PLL - 3 V, the voltage of the northern bridge is valid in the range of 1.25-1.85 B, which will be enough for overclocking core processors 2 quad.

Memory voltage can be changed from 1.8 to 3.4 V, although for modern memory Already 2.3 V is a limit that not every module can withstand.

A certain limit of voltage values \u200b\u200bis marked with color encoding. For example, green safer voltages, yellow - less recommended, red - well, the essence of them, we think, is understandable and so. Although, the top values \u200b\u200bof the green limit can easily burn the representative of the Penryn family or the average memory, therefore it is necessary to be extremely neat when choosing a voltage for one or another system component.

For convenience, all changeable voltages are listed in the table:

Parameter	Range of change
CPU Voltage.	1.1-1.9 V, with increments of 0.00625 V and 1.9-2.4 V, in increments of 0.025 V
CPU Pll Voltage.	1.5-3.0 V, in increments of 0.02 V
North Bridge Voltage.	1.25-1.85 V, in increments of 0.02 V
Dram Voltage.	1.8-3.4 V, in increments of 0.02 V
FSB Termination Voltage.	1.2-2.0 V, with increments of 0.02 V
South Bridge Voltage.	1.05-1.225 V, with a step of 0.025 in
SB 1.5V Voltage.	1.5-2.05 V, with a pitch of 0.05 V
CPU GTL Voltage Reference	0.67x / 0.65x / 0.63x / 0.62x
NB GTL Voltage Reference	0.67x / 0.63x / 0.60x / 0.57x / 0.56x / 0.53x / 0.51x / 0.49x
DRAM CONTROLLER VOLTAGE REF
DRAM COHANNEL A VOLTAGE REF	From -30 mV to +30 mV, in 10 mV increments
DRAM COHANNEL B Voltage Ref	From -30 mV to +30 mV, in 10 mV increments

Monitoring, unlike more affordable ASUS products, allows you to track the temperature of the northern and southern bridges and three external thermal sensors in addition to the processor and motherboard. The entire list of modified voltages is also present in this section, which allows you to compare the exhibited with the "real". Immediately there are control points for fans and protection against overheating system components.

Like all ASUS solutions with good acceleration capabilities, the board supports the saving of two profiles that will help with a frequent change of system settings.

Additional by

Software Board Completed standard set Utilities: For the BIOS firmware and the screen saver, when starting the system, the PC Probe II monitoring program and a more advanced tool for configuring the AI \u200b\u200bSuite, which we partly reviewed above. This program Allows you to adjust the FSB frequency, processor multiplication factor, memory mode and its supply voltage, PCI-E frequency. It is also possible to configure the mode of operation of the fans.

In the AI \u200b\u200bGear3 + section, you can control the functions of energy saving and even slightly accelerate the system.

For example, when choosing tURBO mode FSB frequency rises to 350 MHz:

Turbo.

And you can also select Crazy mode in CPU LEVEL UP and the bus frequency will rise to 368 MHz, which gave the total 3495 MHz for test processor. What is not overclocking?

Crazy

Acceleration

Well, now real overclocking. The configuration is the same, without any changes. The fee was additionally blown up with a 120 mm fan. BIOS version - 0902.

The maximum frequency at a voltage on the 1.45 V chipset and the FSB 1.4 V bus was 562 MHz and with any exceeding this threshold, the OCCT test issued an error.

Neither the increase in the remaining stresses nor the weakening of the timings of the positive result gave.
Technical characteristics of chipsetov

	Intel P31 Express	Intel G31 Express	Intel P35 Express	Intel G35 Express.	Intel G33 Express.	Intel Q35 Express	Intel Q33 Express	Intel X38 Express
Positioning	Mainstream PC.	Mainstream PC.		PERFORMANCE PC.	PERFORMANCE PC, MAINSTREAM PC	Corporate Stable - Pro	Corporate Stable - Pro	PERFORMANCE PC.
North Most	82p31 MCH	82G31 GMCH	82p35 MCH	82G35 GMCH	82G33 GMCH	82Q35 GMCH	82Q33 GMCH	82x38 MCH
Official support for CPU.		CORE 2 QUAD, CORE 2 DUO, PENTIUM DUAL CORE, CELERON DUAL CORE, CELERON	Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	CORE 2 QUAD, CORE 2 DUO, PENTIUM DUAL CORE, CELERON DUAL CORE, CELERON	CORE 2 QUAD, CORE 2 DUO, PENTIUM DUAL CORE, CELERON DUAL CORE, CELERON	CORE 2 QUAD, CORE 2 DUO, PENTIUM DUAL CORE, CELERON DUAL CORE, CELERON	CORE 2 QUAD, CORE 2 DUO, PENTIUM DUAL CORE, CELERON DUAL CORE, CELERON	Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo
Type Connector	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775
FSB frequency, MHz	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800
Maximum memory, GB	4	4	8	8	8	8	8	8
Number of memory slots	2	2	4	4	4	4	4	4
Supported memory	DDR2-800. DDR2-667	DDR2-800. DDR2-667	DDR2-800. DDR2-667 DDR3-1066. DDR3-800.	DDR2-800. DDR2-667	DDR2-800. DDR2-667 DDR3-1066. DDR3-800.	DDR2-800. DDR2-667	DDR2-800. DDR2-667	DDR2-800. DDR2-667 DDR3-1333 DRR3-1066. DDR3-800.
Integrated graphic kernel	N / A.	GMA 3100.	N / A.	GMA X3500.	GMA 3100.	GMA 3100.	GMA 3100.	N / A.
Graphic interface	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E 2.0 x16 + x16
South Most	Ich7, Ich7r.	Ich7, Ich7r.	Ich9, Ich9R, ICH9DH	Ich8, Ich8R, ICH8DH	Ich9, Ich9R, ICH9DH	ICH9, ICH9R, ICH9DO	Ich9, Ich9r.	Ich9, Ich9R, ICH9DH
Number of PCI-E lines	4 or 6 (Ich7R)	4 or 6 (Ich7R)	4 or 6 (Ich9R, ICH9DH)	4 or 6 (ICH8R, ICH8DH)	4 or 6 (Ich9R, ICH9DH)	4 or 6 (Ich9R, ICH9DO)	4 or 6 (Ich9R)	4 or 6 (Ich9R, ICH9DH)
Disk subsystem	4x SATA II, 1x PATA	4x SATA II, 1x PATA		4x SATA II or 6X SATA II (ICH8R, ICH8DH)	4x SATA II or 6X SATA II (ICH9R, ICH9DH)	4x SATA II or 6X SATA II (ICH9R, ICH9DO)	4x SATA II or 6X SATA II (ICH9R)	4x SATA II or 6X SATA II (ICH9R, ICH9DH)
ESATA support	-	-	+	-	+	+	+	+
Supported technology for disk subsystem		Intel Matrix Storage Technology (ICH7R)		Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH8R, ICH8DH)	Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH9R, ICH9DH), Intel Rapid Recover Technology, Intel Turbo Memory	Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH9R, ICH9DO), Intel Rapid Recover TECHNOLOGY	Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH9R), Intel Rapid Recover Technology	Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH9R, ICH9DH), Intel Rapid Recover Technology, Intel Turbo Memory
Number of supported PCI slots	6	6	4	4	4	4	4	4
Number of USB 2.0 ports	8	8	12	10	12	12	12	12
Sound subsystem	HDA, AC'97	HDA, AC'97	HDA	HDA	HDA	HDA	HDA	HDA

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS OF BACK

Model	Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G	ASUS P5K DELUXE / WIFI-AP
Chipset	Intel P31 + Ich7	Intel P35 + ICH9R	Intel X48 + Ich9R
Socket.	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775
Supported processors		Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Pentium Extreme, Pentium D, Pentium 4, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Pentium D, Pentium 4
FSB, MHC	1333/1066/800	1333/1066/800	1600/1333/1066/800
Supported memory	2 Dimm DDRII SDRAM 1066/800/667 (4GB MAX)	4 Dimm DDRII SDRAM 1066/800/667 (8GB MAX)	4 DIMM DDRII SDRAM 1200 * / 1066/800 / 667 (8GB MAX)
Slots PCI-E	1 PCI Express X16 3 PCI Express X1	1 PCI Express X16 1 PCI Express X16 (x4) 2 PCI Express X1	2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 3 PCI Express X1 (one reserved for SUPREMEFX II Sound Map)
Slots PCI	3	3	2
Number of plug-in fans	4 (1X 4-PIN, 3X 3-PIN)	6 (1x 4-PIN, 5X 3-PIN)	8 (1X 4-PIN, 7X 3-PIN)
USB 2.0 ports	8 (4 connector on the back panel)	10 (6 connectors on the rear panel)	12 (6 rear panel connector)
PS / 2 ports	2	1	1
Port LPT.	+	-	-
COM port	1	1 (on the board)	1 (on the board)
Ports Firewire.	-	2 (1 on the board, AGERE FW3227)	2 (1 on the board, VIA VT6308P)
ATA-133.	1 channel (two devices, ICH7)		1 channel (two devices, MICRON JMB363)
Serial ATA	4 channel SATA II	6 channels SATA II (ICH9R) + 2 ESATA channel (MICRON JMB363)	6 channels SATA II (ICH9R)
RAID	-	0, 1, 5, 10	0, 1, 5, 10
Sound subsystem	REALTEK ALC888 (5.1, HDA)	ADI AD1988B (7.1, HDA)	External SUPREMEFX II Soundboard based on ADI AD1988B (7.1, HDA)
S / PDIF.	Coaxial	Coaxial + optical	Coaxial + optical
Network features	REALTEK 8111C (Gigabit Ethernet)	Marvell 88E8056 (Gigabit Ethernet, PCI-E) and Realtek RTL8110SC (Gigabit Ethernet, PCI)	2x Marvell 88E8056 (Gigabit Ethernet)
Bios.	Award Bios.	Ami Bios.	Ami Bios.
Form factor	ATX	ATX	ATX
Dimensions, mm.	305x194.	305x245.	305x245.
Additionally	-	WiFi-module based on Realtek RTL8187L, uses two USB 2.0 ports	Power, Reset, Clear CMOS buttons, LCD-POSTER remote LCD

Test configuration

Testing was conducted on the following configuration:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16 GHz);
• RAM: G.SKILL F2-8800CL5D-4GBPI (2x2048 MB, DDR2-1100, 5-5-5-15-2T, Dual Channel);
• Video card: XFX GF GTX295 576M 1792MB DDR3;
• Hard disk: samsung HD252hj (250 GB, SATA2);
• Power supply: Seasonic SS-600HM (600 W);

• Operating system: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate X86 SP1;
• Driver for motherboards: Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility 9.0.0.1008
• Driver for video card: NVIDIA GeForce. 182.50

Firewall, Windows Defender and UAC turned off, the paging file was installed in the amount of 4096 MB. The video driver settings have not changed, the acceleration of the PHYSX graphics processor was disconnected. All boards settings were installed in automatic mode, the memory was functioning at the frequency of 800 MHz with timings 5-5-5-15. Performance Level was equal to 7.

Test results

Memory subsystem

The performance of the memory subsystem in the Lavalys Everest test board on the Intel X48 Express database is slightly higher than that of other participants, especially in a copy of the copy, which reaches a 20% difference. A similar result, about 6100 MB / s, in recent testing was shown on the P43 chipset. Apparently, the fourth series of Intel system logic sets has a slightly updated memory controller, which in the copying process works a little faster than solving the previous generation.

The GA-P31-ES3G card, which is based on the P31 Express system logic set, in the rendering subtest using multiple cores showed a little more result, and in the OpenGL test in general turned out to be the most productive. From it behind the ASUS P5K Deluxe / WiFi-AP by 5%, in contrast to which, in turn, a more expensive product showed a 3% worst result.

In gaming applications, the productive board itself was the product based on Intel P35 Express. Naturally, when using better graphics, the difference between various solutions is leveled if, of course, a higher bandwidth of the PCI Express bus, which is possessed by representatives of the fourth series chipsets from the processor giant.

conclusions

The first thing I would like to say to users possessing motherboard On the basis of the system logic sets of Intel 3 Series - if there are no special reasons for the transition to new products, then you can wait with the upgrade. Everything that will lose on old solutions is about 5% in modern games when using the highest quality image, Radeon HD 4890 level cards and more than 4-gigahertovoy Core 2 Duo, in which you can make sure one of our nearest materials. But when building a system from scratch or when moving from a platform of a reference age, naturally, there is no point in buying motherboards on already obsolete chipsets, and in this case it is better to immediately pay attention to newer solutions. Or even wait a little and immediately go to the LGA1156 platform, the benefit of the finished products promise not such already and large, unlike the beginning of the expansion on the Nehalem microarchitecture market.

As for the products considered, the GA-P31-ES3G board on the database of the Intel Intel P31 Express system logic database with a smaller number of settings has demonstrated a good performance, in some tests it was even able to show the best result than more expensive solutions. The package is minimal, but from the board for less than $ 60 to expect something more hardly worth it is the usual work "horse", which is installed in the system and often forget that it represents.

ASUS P5K Deluxe / WiFi-AP is equipped with a string and is one of the best representatives of motherboards models on the P35 chipset. Two network cards, WiFi-module, excellent overclocking potential - perhaps the owners of these boards are worth it to replace only when moving to another platform.

Former flagship Intel Set of system logic x48, it is x38 without support for FSB 1600 MHz and DDR3-1600 memory, for a long time There will be the basis of motherboards of productive systems based on quad-core processors and bundles from a pair of video cards of the Radeon HD family. The considered Asus Rampage Formula is an example of how an overclocking product should be. Maximum settings for overclocking concentrated in one section, thoughtful design and cooling system, additional functionality in the form of buttons for turning on and rebooting the system, as well as to reset the BIOS Setup settings and external LCD-POSTERA - Take and overclocking. The ratio of this motherboard to the game series is not clear - the players are all for nothing. But overclockers just right if, of course, it will suit the price. But the top products now in price only grow ...

Thank the following companies for the provided test equipment:

• 1-Incom for a G.Skill F2-8800CL5D-4GBPI memory kit;
• Quasar micro for maternal gigabyte fee GA-P31-ES3G;
• Master of the P5K Deluxe / WiFi-AP and Asus Rampage Formula Mother Panels and ASUS Rampage Formula, as well as for aSUS video card EN8800GS TOP 384MB;
• Max Point for the Silver Power SP-S850 power supply;
  
• Noctua for Cooler Noctua NH-U12P and Noctua NT-H1 thermal
• SINTEX for the SEASONIC SS-600HM power supply;
• XFX for XFX GF GTX295 576M 1792MB DDR3 video card.

Intel G31 chipset is designed to create inexpensive office computers. Motherboards built on its database have, as a rule, MICROATX form factor and the basic extension capabilities. The built-in Graphic core Intel GMA 3100 is intended solely to work with office applications, as well as with simple three-dimensional programs. We also note that budget fees do not have acceleration functions, and few exceptions from this rule are not successful in computer enthusiasts.

In our current review we will get to know two boards on the Intel G31 chipset. One of them is made by Foxconn, which has quite strong positions in the budget sector. The second board was developed by ABIT, the products of which have almost completely disappeared from the store shelves. And, if neither sad, but most likely, ABIT I-G31 is the last fee of the once famous company.

Specifications

- One port for FDD, ports for PS / 2 mouse and keyboard
- STR (Suspend to Ram)
- SPDIF Out. - one port for FDD, one serial port, one parallel port, ports for PS / 2 mouse and keyboard
- STR (Suspend to Ram)
- SPDIF Out.- Monitoring the temperature of the processor, system, PWM, stress monitoring, rotation speed of three fans
- Faneq technology - Tracking the temperature of the processor, system, voltages, speed of rotation of two fans
- Smart Fan technology

	aBIT i-G31	Foxconn G31MG-S
CPU	- Intel Pentium 4 (Prescott (2M) / Gallatin / Cedarmill) with a tire frequency of 1066/800 MHz - Dual-core Intel Pentium D / EE (Smithfield / PreSler) with a tire frequency of 1066/800 MHz - Intel Celeron-D (CONROE-L / PRESCOTT) with a tire frequency of 800 MHz - Support for Intel Core 2 Duo (Kentsfield (4 kernels), CONROE / ALLENDALE (2 kernels)) with a tire frequency 1066/800 MHz - Support Intel Yorkfield, Wolfdale with a tire frequency 1333/1066/800 MHz - Socket LGA775 connector - Support processors with Hyperthreading technology
Chipset	- North Bridge Intel G31 (GMCH) - South Bridge Intel Ich7 - Communication between bridges: DMI
System Memory	- Two 240-pin slots for DDR2 SDRAM DIMM - Maximum memory 4 GB - MEMORY MEMORY TYPE DDR2 667/800 - Possible two-channel access to memory
Graphics	- One PCI Express X16 slot - Built-in graphics core Intel GMA 3100
Expansion opportunities	- Two 32-bit PCI BUS Master slot - One PCI Express X1 slot - Built-in sound HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO 5.1	- Two 32-bit PCI Bus Master-slot - One PCI Express X1 slot - eight USB 2.0 ports (4 built-in + 4 additional) - Built-in sound High Definition Audio 7.1 - Gigabit Ethernet network controller
Opportunities for overclocking	-	- Changing FSB frequency from (200) 333 to 600 MHz in 1 MHz increments - Change voltage on the processor, memory
Disk subsystem	- 1 channel UltRADMA133 / 100 / 66/33 BUS MASTER IDE (ICH7; with support for up to 2 ATAPI devices) - Support for Serialata II Protocol (4 channels - ICH7) - Support LS-120 / ZIP / ATAPI CD-ROM
Bios.	- 4 Mbps Flash Rom - Award Bios Phoenix with support for Enhanced ACPI, DMI, Green, PNP Features and Trend Chip Away Virus
miscellanea
Power management	- Awakening from the modem, mouse, keyboard, network, timer and usb - Main 24-pin ATX Power Connector - Additional 4-pin power connector
Monitoring
The size	- ATX form factor, 244x210 mm (9.62 "x 8.27")	- ATX form factor, 240x208 mm (9.6 "x 8.2")

Boxes

Foxconn Packaging Design:

The Foxconn product we received in a fully mass execution, but the ABIT fee fell into our laboratory in the test version - only the board itself in the package, accordingly, we will not be able to estimate it.

Complete set Foxconn G31MG-S

The FoxConn G31MG-S fee package cannot be called rich, but for the product worth $ 45 it includes all the necessary components.

Fees

The development of a budget product limits the engineers with a rather rigid framework, so the system boards of this type have exactly the same characteristics as in competing products. This is perfectly visible on tested motherboards: both developers teams were issued a task "Create a fee on the G31 chipset cost below $ 50". The result is practically identical fees:

For cooling "Northern Bridge" on the boards installed massive radiators:

They are needed, including because the GMA 3100 graphic core is built into the "Northern Bridge", which increases the overall level of heat generation. It should be noted that the Foxconn model is installed on the South Bridge, and in ABIT saved on this part.

The boards have two 240-pin DIMM sockets for DDR2 memory modules, and the maximum amount of memory supported is 4 GB.

On each of the boards is installed by one PCI Express X16 slot, one PCI Express X1 and PCI pair.

Now let's talk about expansion opportunities. Both fees have four channels Serialata II, but the possibility of creating RAID arrays is not provided. The fact is that the boards use one of the cheapest versions of the southern ICH7 bridge.

Here we note that the "South Bridge" provides the work of one Parallelata channel. Next - both fees have eight USB 2.0 ports. The configuration of ports is the same for both boards: four ports on the rear panel and four additional. Now - a couple of words about the sound subsystem High Definition Audio. The ABIT board is set to Realtek Alc662 (5.1) codec, on Foxconn - Codec Alc888 (7.1). Both boards have high-speed network interfaces - the RealTek RTL8111C controller is installed on the ABIT board, and the FoxConn is the RTL8111B controller.

The FoxConn G31MG-S system board is equipped with one COM and one LPT port, and the ABIT I-G31 board does not support these interfaces.

Bios.

BIOS boards are based on the Award Bios Phoenix version.

The basic memory settings of the Foxconn board are in the overclocking section ("Fox Central Control Unit"), and ABIT memory settings are in the "Advanced Chipset Features" section:

An important parameter that affects performance is to set the memory frequency.

Now let's look at the System Monitoring sections.

Both boards displays the current values \u200b\u200bof the processor and system temperature (ABIT determines the PWM temperature), as well as operating voltages. The boards define the speed of rotation of the fans (ABIT - three, Foxconn - two) and have the function of adjusting the speed of rotation of the processor fan depending on the temperature of the CPU. On the Foxconn board, this technology is traditionally called Smart Fan, and on ABIT - FANEQ:

Boards provide the user with access to all new technologies Intel.

And on the FoxConn board, the power saving settings are put in a separate section ("Green System Mode")

Also boards allow you to adjust the amount of memory allocated to the needs of the built-in graphics core.

Overclocking and stability

Before switching to acceleration, consider power converters. The PWM board ABIT I-G31 has a three-phase diagram in which two capacitors of 820 μF capacitance are installed, four-capacity 680 Igf and four more - 1000 microf. The Foxconn Board Power Module also has a three-phase diagram in which six capacitors of 820 Igf capacitance are installed and three-capacity 330 μF.

On the Foxconn board, all overclocking functions are concentrated in the "Fox Central Control Unit" section:

Moreover, the functions are relatively few, and they are crushed on numerous subsections.

As for the ABIT fee, then there are no overclocking functions in its BIOS.

However, the possibility of overclocking the Foxconn fee has a weak practical effect. In particular, the maximum stable frequency FSB is equal to 350 MHz.

The chipset is an important component of the computer, since it contains all important interfaces and largely defines a set of system functions.

For example, all modern chipsets contain multiple interfaces for expansion cards (PCI Express or PCI), a two-channel memory controller (on the Intel platform), several USB 2.0 controllers (two ports on the controller), HD Audio controller, gigabit network controllers and modern drive controllers Serial ATA with four-six ports. Some chipsets contain and remote controllers.

Intel G31 Express chipset

Intel G31 chipset is an entry-level chipset and consumes minimum energy. G31 refers to the category of desktop chipsets for the mass market intended for "basic calculations". This means that this set of system logic is completely not suitable for high-end systems and does not support any advanced features. The G31 chipset was designed as a profitable option for a regular user. Therefore, it is focused on processors such as Core 2, Pentium Dual Core or similar Celeron based on Core 2 microarchitecture.

The G31 chipset is limited to 4 GB of memory, while G33 and G35 support up to 8 GB. Low-end chipset supports only DDR2-800 dual-channel memory (although compared to DDR3 is not a disadvantage) and works with the southern ICH7 bridge instead of ICH8, ICH9 or ICH10. As a result, the G31 supports only four SATA / 300 ports, but there are two more channels UltraAta / 100, while newer chipsets are supported by either one hereditary ATA channel or any one. G31 with the South Bridge ICH7 provide eight USB 2.0 ports, HD audio ports, traditional PCI slots and only a 100 megabit network controller. If you need a more high-speed Ethernet connection, then look for a motherboard that comes with a PCIE network controller to provide a gigabit Ethernet. And finally, at least the chipset G31 and has one X16 PCI Express slot for the upgrade, it is not compatible with PCI Express 2.0.

Motherboards with G31 chipset, as a rule, have one analog output to the D-sub15 display, and sometimes digital output DVI. Since the GMA3100 is not suitable for HTPC (home theater), motherboards are not equipped with HDMI outputs; You should not wait for two digital outputs from such cards.

The G31 chipset does not have a single function that would make it special. It does not support DirectX 10, does not provide 3D performance, which would not be superfluous for games, and 4 GB of memory is limited. However, all these limitations are not so critical for the base PC for everyday work. The G31 chipset is cheap, supports all CORE 2 processors, including four-core models, and allows you to use any high-end video cards, so it is almost as suitable for gamers, like a high-end chipset. It is the manufacturers of motherboards turned G31 from the "loser" for the mass market in the chipset for efficient platforms.

What is the difference between the northern and southern bridges for Intel and AMD

In the case of Intel, the chipset is represented by the Northern Bridge, which is located next to the processor and "replies" for all high-speed devices (processor, video card, RAM), and a southern bridge, which coordinates the work and connects low-speed interfaces (Winchester, Audio, PCI Slots, USB, etc.). Bridges are also connected to each other using various versions of the tire, for example, VIA VIA.

IN aMD platform There is only one chipset, since the memory controller is embedded in the processor itself, and the connection of the peripheral devices is assigned to the PCI-E analogue - the Hyper Transport branded tire.

The history of Intel chipsets

In recent years, a lot of Intel chipsets came out. We decided to reduce the data in a table, reflecting the most important stages of the development of chipsets with separate graphics, starting from the first SDRAM chipsets for Pentium 4 (2001).

Chipset	Intel 845.	Intel 865/875	Intel 915/925	Intel 945/955/975	Intel 965.
release date	2001	2003	2004	2005	2006
Code name	Brookdale	Springdale / Canterwood.	GRANTSDALE / ADERWOOD.	LAKEPORT / GLENWOOD.	Broadwater.
Socket.	478	478	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775
Processor support support	Pentium 4, Celeron	Pentium 4, Celeron	Pentium 4, Celeron	Pentium 4, Pentium D, Celeron D	CORE 2, PENTIUM 4, PENTIUM D, CELERON D
Generation processors	130-nm northwood	130-nm Northwood, 90-nm Prescott	90-nM PRESCOTT	90-NM PRESCOTT, SMITHFIELD	90-NM PRESCOTT, SMITHFIELD, 65-NM CONROE
Frequency FSB.	FSB400, FSB533	FSB533, FSB800.	FSB533, FSB800.	FSB533, FSB800, FSB1066	FSB533, FSB800, FSB1066
Memory controller	PC133 SDRAM, DDR266	DUAL DDR333, DDR400	Dual DDR400, DDR2-533	Dual DDR2-667	Dual DDR2-800.
Graphic interface	AGP 4X.	AGP 8X.	PCI Express X16	PCI Express X16	PCI Express X16
Max. memory size	2 GB	4 GB	4 GB	8 GB	8 GB
South Most	ICP (82801BA), ICP (82801DB) - 421 Contact	ICP (82801EB) - 460 contacts	Ich6 (82801FB) - 652 contacts	Ich7 (82801GB) - 652 contacts	ICH8 (82801HB) - 652 contacts
Number of USB ports	4X USB / 6X USB 2.0	8X USB 2.0	8X USB 2.0	8X USB 2.0	8X USB 2.0
Ultraata / 100.	2 channels	2 channels	2 channels	1 channel
RAID support	Not	RAID 0.	RAID 0, 1 (ICH6-R)	RAID 0, 1.5 (ICH6-7)	RAID 0, 1.5 (ICH8-R)
Serial ATA	Not	2x Serial ATA / 150	4x Serial ATA / 150	4x Serial ATA / 300	6x Serial ATA / 300
Sound	AC97 2.1.	AC97 2.3.	HD Audio.	HD Audio.	HD Audio.
Net	Through PCI	Via CSA or PCI interface	Through PCI Express.	Through PCI Express.	Built-in 1 Gbit / s
Variants of models	845D (DDR memory), 845G / GL (with graphics), 845G, GE, PE, GV (DDR333)	865G (with graphics), 865PE (FSB800), 848P (one memory channel), 865gV (only with graphics)	915G (with graphics), 915PL (max. 2 GB DDR400), 915GL (Max. DDR400 with graphics), 915GV (only with graphics), 910GL (FSB533 and only with graphics), 925xe (FSB1066)	945G (with Harfish), 945PL (max. FSB800), 945GL (Max. FSB800 with graphics), 945GZ (max. FSB800 and only with graphics)	G965 (with graphics), Q965 (with graphics, control)

The chipsets that came out after 915 and 925 were not distinguished by some revolutionary functions, but they were still better than previously preceding models. 925xe became the first chipset that supported the FSB1066 tire (266 MHz physical frequency), which was required for the first pentium processors 4 Extreme Edition. 945 and 955 (LAKEPORT and GLENWOOD) increased the DDR2 memory frequency to 333 MHz (DDR2-667), and ICH7 added two more PCI Express lines (six instead of four), and the SATA controller was updated to Serial ATA / 300. RAID support now included an RAID 5 array, but Intel abandoned two hereditary UltraAta / 100 interfaces. Pentium D duid processors required 945 or 955 chipset.

Ich8 became the current southern bridge for the 965 chipset line (Broadwater), which, together with 975x, has become a foundation for promoting Intel Core processors 2. The chipset 965 lost the Ultraata controller, and the AC97 interface was removed in favor of HD Audio solutions (which today can be called standard ). ICH8 supports SATA 2.5, including external SATA ports (ESATA), and contains a gigabit Ethernet controller. The basic model ICH8 supports the four SATA ports, but the RAID ICH8-R version has already supported six.

Each generation of chipsets has a number of models using a built-in graphic core, using part of RAM for personnel buffer. The 915G and 910G chipsets use the GMA900 graphics core with four pixel conveyors operating at a frequency of 300 MHz, supported by MPEG2 and DirectX 9 hardware decoding. The 945G chipset is updated, the GMA950 frequency increased to 400 MHz, but it never received full Shader support. Model 3 (DirectX 9.0c). But GMA950, at least, supports HD video. Finally, the GMA3000 graphics core appeared at the 965 lineup, with eight programmable conveyors, which operates at a frequency of 667 MHz when you start video or graphic calculations.

Intel P45 chipsets

The P45 line came to replace the P45 lineup (Bear Lake). Eaglelake codenamed. The new line of chipsets consists of four different models (Two of them with integrated graphics) and displays the PCI Express 2.0 standard to the mass market.

New P45 chipset functions: Supports PCI Express 2.0 graphics, efficiently double the bandwidth of each PCI Express Channel with 250 MB / s to 500 MB / s per line (in one direction). However, to win from higher bandwidth, the PCI EXPRESS 2.0 interface requires a PCIE 2.0-compatible extension card (for example, a video card).

The PCI Express 2.0 bus requires more energy, so the P45 chipset is less effective from the point of view of energy consumption than its predecessor, despite the fact that P45 is manufactured in 65-nm intel process.

P45 is the first Intel mass chipset that supports 16 GB of memory, while P35 is limited to 8 GB.

Intel P45 Express Chipset Scheme

All motherboards on the P45 chipset have the following functions.

• Supports the entire family of CORE 2 processors, including Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme in 45-nm and 65-nm technical process, Pentium Dual Core and, as a rule, Celeron.
• ATI CROSSFIREX ATI configuration support with multiple video cards.
• PCI Express 2.0, up to two slots, physically able to support X16 cards, but on eight lines each.
• Additional PCI Express 1.0 slots.
• Six SERIAL ATA ports 3 Gb / s.
• Gigabit Ethernet with different phy chips.
• RAID 0 and 1 (for support RAID 5, Ich10R south bridge is needed).
• AHCI SATA 3 Gb / s with "native" command queue (support for SATA optical drives and hot replacement).
• ESATA interface (if available): All SATA connectors can be displayed on the backbone of the motherboard and use as ESATA.
• High Cute Sound (HD Audio): From the motherboard on the P45 chipset, you can expect at least a simple audio codec, which will perform all sound processing using a central processor.
• Boards do not support Windows 98 and Windows ME

3x line chipsets (Bearlake)

The 3x line chipsets (Bearlake) consist of four options: G33, G35, P35 and X38. All chipsets are still used intel Socket Land Grid Array with 775 contacts (LGA775).

Pay attention to the new south bridge ICH9. If the South Bridges ICH6, ICH7 and ICH8 were packaged into the BGA housing with 652 contacts, then ICH9 is packaged in the 676-pin Ball Grid Array case, and the south bridge contains 4.6 million transistors and produced in 130-nm technical process. Although transistors turned out more than in ICH8, the thermal package is still 4 W. Ich9 provides six full-featured Serial ATA / 300 ports with NCQ (Native Command Queuing), and also supports ESATA and port multipliers that allow you to connect to one SATA port to four SATA devices. As we found, the performance of USB 2.0 and RAID South Bridge ICH9 exceeds ICH8 and ICH7.

Thus, if the motherboard on the chipset 965 supports VRM 11, it technically can be installed 45-nm processors. VRM 11 programms power lines using 8-bit voltage IDs (VID), which gives a change step 0.00625. The minimum operating voltage is no longer 0.8375 V (as in VRM 10 specification), it decreased to 0.5 V . VRM 11 also allows the load at a larger number of phases, and the line supports the so-called modulation of increasing and decay (Dual Edge modulation), which allows stabilizers to supply multiple pulses to transistors using a smaller capacitance capacitors. The goal is not only in reducing the steps to change the voltage and in reducing the operating voltage for 45-nm processors, but also in ensuring sufficient power at different voltage levels that can often change. All this is done together with a strictest specification of the level of voltage increases.

The 775th socket is not new. For all his existence, a huge set of motherboards was released, all of them are simply impossible to list them ,. Probably, it will be much easier to specify which motherboard chipsets have support server processors Intel Xeon. In an affordable language, you should find out which chipset is installed on your motherboard to understand, wants to work on it Intel Xeon or not.

Purchase

All the necessary iron was purchased from our "narrow-minded friends" on the Internet platform https://ru.aliexpress.com. On "funny" prices (). Also, used This cachek service which allowed to save additionally to 15%.

If you plan to buy in domestic stores, pay attention to Cashback Service Letishops. . He is not as profitable for Aliexpress, but there are many shops, returns from 1 to 30% With each purchase.

Compatibility table

Below is a small, but rather capacious table on compatibility of chipset and Xeon LGA771 processors.

Intel Xeon, which is compatible with a set of microcircuits
Chipset Mat. payments	Xeon 5xxx.	Xeon 3XXX.	Intel 45nm.	Intel 65nm.
P45, P43, P35, P31, P965 G45, G43, G41, G35, G33, G31 Nforce 790i, 780i, 740i, 630i GeForce 9400, 9300	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Q45, Q43, Q35, Q33 X48, x38.	Not	Yes	Yes	Yes
nforce 680i and 650i	Yes	Yes	Perhaps (must be checked)	Yes

Vidia 680i.
nVIDIA 650I.	Compatible with all 771 Xeon's
nVIDIA 780i.	Compatible with all 771 Xeon's
nVIDIA 790i	Compatible with all 771 Xeon's
P35	Compatible with all 771 Xeon's
P45	Compatible with all 771 Xeon's
G31.	Compatible with all 771 Xeon's
G41.	Compatible with all 771 Xeon's
X38.
X48.	Compatibility only with X33 Series Xeons

Well, another table. In confidence that the motherboard is fully compatible with the chipsets specified in the left half of the table, you can safely pick up the processors shown in the right-hand side.

During the installation, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that in the overwhelming majority of cases you have to update the BIOS, perform flashing, given the following:

5xxx series is all Intel Xeon, whose models numbers end at 5xxx. They can be combined with motherboards supporting one or two physical central chips.

Problems may arise with Intel motherboards. Very rarely there are troubles with MSI, Gigabyte, ASUS. This may be caused by the presence of the intel's motherboard of its own BIOS, which is practically no manual flashing.

NForce 680i and 650i NVIDIA chipsets for the official version do not work with processors of the processors of the processors of 45nm. It all depends on the luck. Some motherboards with these chipsets were combined and functioned normally with 45 nm xeon on 4 cores, and some are not. To find out how you will have, see the list of boards, successfully tested.

The zeon power and the system tire frequency must be supported by your computer's motherboard.