Intel ich7 south bridge. Intel ICH9 South Bridges

While the most ardent computer enthusiasts ran to the store for the newest, cutting-edge chipset from Intel i955X, calmer and more rational users were waiting for the appearance of the younger series of chipsets - i945 Express, developed under the code name Lakeport. The calculation is simple - get most of the functionality of the i955X at a lower price. And then it happened - by the beginning of summer the series was released. The release of the i945 Express was timed to coincide with the release of dual-core Pentium D processors. Moreover, with the release of the i945 Express series, the last hopes that the new processors would be supported by old motherboards disappeared. According to rumors, dual-core processors are actually compatible with the i925/915 Express, but not all samples run reliably on these chipsets. Naturally, Intel, which makes every effort to strengthen the reputation of its products as the most reliable and stable, could not allow the release of partially compatible products. Therefore, the corporation has finally and irrevocably announced its refusal to try to teach the Pentium D to work with the i925/915 Express.

Intel 945PExpress

But let's see what gives us new set chips in addition to the mentioned support for dual-core processors compared to their predecessors.

The second significant innovation is compatibility with DDR2 667 memory. Looking ahead, let's say that Asus decided to go further and endowed the motherboard in question with the ability to work with DDR2 800.

The South Bridge has also undergone changes and received a new encoding - ICH7/ICH7R. The new bridge provides support for four SerialATA II channels with a throughput of up to 3 Gbit/s (ICH6/ICH6R provided only 1.5 Gbit/s). In addition to the increased bandwidth interface, we also get NCQ technology, which should also increase the performance of the disk subsystem. RAID 10 (0+1) and RAID 5 have been added to the ability to create RAID arrays of levels 0 and 1.

The number of PCI Express x1 lanes has increased from four to six, four of which can be combined into a PCI Express x4 bus. Thus, it became possible to combine 2 video cards. This is what many manufacturers took advantage of, providing motherboards the new chipset has an additional slot for video cards, and marketers hastened to call this slot the second PCI Express x16. The fact that the video card slot with PCI interface Express x16 actually communicates with the southbridge via the PCI Express x4 bus, which did not stop them from writing support for 2 PCI Express x16 in the board specifications.

That, by and large, is all the changes. How useful will they be? additional features South Bridge, time will tell. Dual-core processors have already appeared on sale, but are not yet available to most users. In the meantime, we are all interested in the question of how different the new i945 Express chipset is in terms of performance from the recent leader i925 Express. Today we will try to find out, but first things first.

ASUS P5LD2 DeluxeWiFi-TV Edition

The leading participant in the announcement of the new product was ASUS company. Even before the official release of the new chipset, the company has already presented a sample of the i945P board - ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe.

The board's rich capabilities are partially realized through the capabilities of the new chipset, and partially through the installation of additional controllers and devices.

As we have already said, not all of the board's capabilities are due to the i945P hardware, but more on that below. ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe belongs to the new series of ASUS motherboards produced under the motto AI Life. The ASUS idea is being promoted in tandem with the Intel Digital Home concept and is designed to make the computer a “smart, reliable and humane” center of the digital home. A number of proprietary functions and technologies are designed to help your computer become just that, including:

• AI Quiet– lowering the frequency and voltage of the processor during idle time and low load and, as a consequence, temperature, which makes it possible to reduce fan speeds down to a complete stop. The result is reduced power consumption and noise of the system as a whole;
• Stack Cool 2– board design without active cooling of components;
• Multi-language BIOS - the name speaks for itself, but since there is no Russian among the available languages, it is useless for us. We can only hope that Russian will appear in future versions of the Multi-language BIOS;
• AI NOS(Non-delay Overclocking System) – dynamic overclocking system, depending on the processor load;
• MyLogo2– the ability to record your own picture, which will be displayed on the screen as you pass computer POST and preparation for loading operating system.

And also functions with self-explanatory names: CrashFree BIOS 2, CPU Lock Free.

The board specification looks quite impressive.

As they say, no comments. The board's capabilities will satisfy the needs of even the most demanding user.

Packaging and equipment

The board comes in a nice box of quite impressive size with a carrying handle. The solid weight of the box only spurs interest in its contents.

But, despite your readiness to see something unusual inside, when you open the package, you are still surprised. When you take everything out of the box, you can no longer understand how it all got there. And indeed, to put everything back, you will have to work hard. The following components were inside:

• maternal ASUS board P5LD2 Deluxe;
• 2 IDE cables 133/100/66 (80-pin) with them 3 jumpers for setting hard drives in Master and Slave modes;
• IDE cable (40-pin) for connecting optical drives;
• FDD cable;
• 5 SATA cables;
• 2 power adapters from Molex to two SATA and 1 power adapter from Molex to one SATA;
• plug for the rear wall of the case;
• plug on back panel cases with FireWire connector;
• plug for the rear wall of the case with two USB ports and one GAME port;
• plug for the rear wall of the case with a COM port;
• GT bridge – connector for combining two NVIDIA video cards in SLI;
• TV tuner adapter board wireless network;
• antenna for wireless network;
• FM antenna;
• adapter for TV cable;
• cable with two RGB TV outputs, an RGB TV input and an S-Video connector;
• USB IR receiver;
• control panel with batteries;
• manuals for setting up and operating the motherboard and TV tuner - wireless network adapter, a sticker indicating the connectors on the board;
• 2 disks with software and drivers;
• WinDVD Suite CD book.

As you can see, all, or almost all, needs of even a demanding user are taken into account. It is unlikely that you will have to run to the store for some additional cord or connector, not only during assembly, but also during subsequent connection additional devices. Honestly, given that the platform is designed to connect to the most modern power supplies with an EATX 12V connector, the manufacturer could not have equipped the product with Molex to SATA adapters at all, or at least not as many of them. I don’t think there are units with the mentioned power connector, but without the required number of connectors for SATA drives. But still, the manufacturer conscientiously included adapters for all five drives in the kit. But they still forgot to put the screws and threaded pins for fastening the board in the case. Although, if you think about it, no one will install a product of this class in the cheapest Chinese case, and more or less decent cases are equipped with everything necessary for installing components. So the lack of screws in the kit is more likely not a drawback, but a simple calculation. But the IDE cables included in the kit personally made a double impression on me. On the one hand, they attract with their stylish combination of black insulation of conductors, blue connectors and white ASUS inscriptions, on the other hand, these are the most ordinary, wide IDE cables, which significantly complicate ventilation in the case. And no matter how stylishly such trains are colored, in the assembled competition they still look extremely unaesthetic. I just don’t understand the reason why manufacturers don’t want to switch to equipping their products with modern round cables, which look much more attractive both from the standpoint of aesthetics and good ventilation. And this is against the backdrop of the Stack Cool2 technology of silent and high-quality cooling of board components, for the implementation of which, according to ASUS, the PSB design is very carefully thought out. And then all this is isolated from environment a pile of cables J. The only reassurance is that IDE does not have long to live, and the cables that replaced SATA are initially devoid of these disadvantages. However, given that round cables included in the kit are still a rarity, the supply of cables instead of them cannot be considered a disadvantage either.

Design and Layout

The layout of the motherboard elements cannot be called mediocre at all. This is largely due to the large number of additional controllers. The abundance of different connectors and the bright colors in which they are painted are pleasing to the eye.

After a quick inspection of the design, the eye is certainly attracted by two PCI-E x16 slots, which makes it possible to use two video cards at once. As we already said when analyzing the capabilities of the chipset, and now, having studied the BIOS and wiring, we can say that the second (black) slot is still not a full-fledged PCI-E x16. In fact, this is a PCI Express slot that can operate in x2 or x4 modes, with the latter mode disabling the PCI Express x1 slot. 4x bandwidth should be enough not to cause delays in the operation of modern video cards. Thus, you can organize a system with four monitors. And the GT bridge included in the kit allows you to organize video combining in SLI mode. In general, the ability to work with two cards in conjunction for ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe is not documented. Therefore, the question of what the same SLI will look like on this board in terms of performance remains open. In the future, we will definitely test ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe and some other i945P motherboards to see if they support this position.

To connect additional cards expansion there are 3 PCI slots and one PCI-E x1.

The northbridge of the chipset is cooled by an impressively sized passive aluminum heatsink located near the main PCI-E x16 slot. There is a sufficient distance between the slot and the radiator so that the latter does not interfere with the installation of video cards with efficient cooling systems.

The South Bridge is also cooled by a passive radiator, but smaller in size. Another aluminum radiator is installed on MOSFETs, which has a positive effect on the power quality. Moreover, when installing a water cooling system, due to the lack of airflow to the MOSFETs by the processor cooler fan, such a radiator is simply necessary.

The space around the processor socket is free of protruding parts that can become an obstacle to the installation of bulky cooling systems. The test cooler became easy and without problems.

The system is powered via a 24-pin connector. Next to it is an additional EZ Plug connector for Molex connection.

Near the processor socket we see an 8-pin EATX 12V connector. Its presence is necessary to support the power-hungry Pentium XE processors and is a strict power supply requirement for the use of these processors. It should be noted that the first serial boards that went on sale were equipped with a simple 4-pin ATX 12V connector, which caused a stir, since this fact indirectly indicated that this board would not support Pentium XE. Later it turned out that a 24-pin ATX power connector and a 4-pin Molex should be enough to “feed” the Pentium XE, but ASUS nevertheless decided to equip the boards with an 8-pin EATX 12V.

One single UltraDMA slot, supported by the Intel ICH7R southbridge, is located in a rather convenient location. Located at the very edge of the board, it is rotated 90° relative to the usual location of such connectors and is clearly intended for connecting optical drives to it. But ASUS thought that this would not be enough and equipped the board with an additional ITE 8211F controller, thus implementing support for two more UltraDMA 100/66/33 channels.

In order to emphasize the support of channels by various controllers, ASUS chose blue for the connector controlled by the ICH7R, and bright and eye-catching red for those controlled by the ITE 8211F chip.

The manufacturer also thought that four SATA connectors located next to the blue IDE were not enough, so an additional Silicon Image 3132 controller was installed on the board, providing support for a fifth internal SATA connector and one external one located on the rear panel.

In general, the fifth internal connector was simply added to the load. In fact, the controller was installed just for the slot on the rear panel for connecting external hard drives. In addition to it, the following ports are located on the rear panel: parallel, 2 PS/2 for connecting a mouse and keyboard, 4 USB, IEEE1394, S/PDIF output (coaxial + optical), network RJ45, input-output panel sound card. As you can see, the serial COM port has disappeared from the rear panel altogether, but you can connect it by installing the plug included in the kit. In the same way you can get a GAME port, 2 additional USBs and one IEEE1394.

The network capabilities of the board are provided by a Marvell 88E8053 gigabit controller operating on the PCI-E bus.

The sound is implemented on the 8-channel Realtek ALC882M codec, which complies with the High-Definition Audio standard.

The Winbond W83647HF controller monitors voltages, controls rotation speed, and controls fans.

Support for two IEEE 1394a ports is provided by the Texas Instruments TSB43AB22 controller.

All connectors for connecting ports located on the plugs are grouped in the lower right corner of the board, which will allow you to route wires from them without compromising ventilation. In general, the layout of the board is well thought out. All elements are in place. No problems during assembly and further connection/disconnection various devices did not arise.

WiFi- TVEdition

As already mentioned, since we are looking at the ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe motherboard in the WiFi-TV Edition package, we get an additional expansion card. It supports a wireless network of 802.11a/b/g standards, a TV and FM tuner.

We also get a fairly functional remote control.

It should be noted: despite the fact that these devices are nothing outstanding and can be purchased separately, they greatly help the board integrate into the idea of ​​Intel’s digital home. Using the remote control, you can, without leaving the couch, turn on the computer, call up the stylish and convenient shell of the PowerCinema bundled program and watch TV shows, listen to the radio, launch a video and any programs, players, turn on music, look at photos, etc. In addition, you can record TV programs on a hard drive or DVD-RW using a timer (capabilities of the most expensive and sophisticated DVD players). You can also digitize an analog video signal from external sources. Wireless network support makes it easy to connect home computers without unnecessary wires. I think that some of these features will be useful to anyone.

PossibilitiesBIOS

The motherboard uses the traditional ASUS BIOS developed by American Megatrends Inc. As you understand, a description of all BIOS items is beyond the scope of the article, and in our case it is pointless. Therefore, we will focus only on the most interesting and important points, concentrated in the Advanced Menu, which directly affect overclocking. In the "JumperFree Configuration" section we can choose to boot from standard settings system (Auto) or use the following overclocking methods:

• AI NOS - we repeat, dynamic overclocking technology, depending on the processor load, the maximum permissible overclocking value is indicated in the range from 3 to 10%.
• Overclock Profile – the overclocking value is set rigidly in the range from 5 to 30(!)%, or select one of the overclocking profiles:
• FSB888/DDR2 667;
• FSB960/DDR2 800;
• FSB1200/DDR2 800;
• FSB1280/DDR2 800;
• FSB1333/DDR2 667;
• FSB1333/DDR2 834.
• Manual is an option for those who know a lot about overclocking and understand that the best results can be achieved only by checking and manually setting each setting item. The following parameters can be changed:
• processor bus frequency ranging from 100 to 400 MHz, while the user can manually select memory frequency dividers from a very decent number of available ones;
• the Performance Mode parameter can be set to Auto, Standard and Turbo;
• PCI Express bus frequency can be changed in the range from 90 to 150 MHz;

• PCI bus frequency can be set depending on the processor frequency or fixed at 33.3 MHz;
• the voltage on memory modules can be changed from standard 1.8 V to 2.3 V;

• the voltage on the CPU varies in the range from 1.2875 V to 1.7 V in increments of 0.0125 V;

• FSB Termination Voltage value varies from 1.2 to 1.5 V in steps of 0.1 V;

• using the MCH Chipset Voltage item, you can change the voltage on the north bridge of the chipset 1.5 to 1.65 V in steps of 0.05 V;

• The ICH Chipset Voltage parameter changes the voltage of the south bridge; in addition to Auto, only two values ​​are available: 1.05 and 1.2 V.

There are tips for novice overclockers: low and normal voltage values ​​are highlighted in blue, slightly too high voltages are highlighted in yellow, and seriously high voltage values ​​are highlighted in red.

In the Chipset section we have access to memory timing settings in a very wide range:

• DRAM CAS Latency – 3-6;
• DRAM RAS Precharge – 2-6;
• DRAM RAS to CAS Delay – 2-6;
• DRAM RAS Activate to Precharge – 4-18;
• DRAM Write Recovery Time – 2-6.

You can also specify whether Hyper Path 3 memory acceleration technology will be used.

Overclocking and testing

Overclocking and testing were carried out on a bench with the following configuration:

• motherboard: ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe;
• processor: Intel Pentium 4 540J, 3.2 GHz (16 x 200);
• RAM: 512 MB DDR2-533 DDR2 SDRAM (4.0-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz);
• video card: nVIDIA GeForce 6600 PCI-E (GPU 300 Mhz, Memory 700 Mhz);
• HDD: Seagate ST3120827AS 120GB SATA 7200rpm;
• case: IN WIN S523 with Powerman 300W power supply;
• cooler Spire SP507B7-U, 2500 rpm;
• case ventilation: 80 mm fan 800 rpm. for injection, 80 mm fan 800 rpm. for suction, 120 mm fan with adjustable rotation speed in the power supply.

Since the ability of the memory modules to operate in abnormal modes was unknown to us, they were the first to be overclocked. We found the following information in the SPD.

As you can see, at a nominal frequency of 266 MHz, the timings are 4.0-4-4-12. But the modules were able to start without problems with delays of 3.0-3-3-8 at the same frequency of 266 (533) MHz. Lower timings were achieved only by reducing the frequency to 200 MHz, which is not at all suitable for us. Therefore, testing in nominal mode was carried out precisely in the 266 MHz 3.0-3-3-8 configuration. The processor also ran in nominal mode at 3.2 GHz (16 x 200 MHz).

But we, of course, are interested in the maximum operating frequencies of the processor and memory. Gradually increasing the delay values ​​and raising the module supply voltage to 2.0 V, it was possible to achieve a memory operating frequency of 331 (662) MHz with timings of 5.0-5-5-15, while the processor frequency was 3980 MHz (16 x 249 MHz).

The attentive reader will notice a small phenomenon. At the standard value of the processor frequency, the cpu-z utility shows a frightening voltage on the processor of 2.816 V, but when overclocked, everything falls into place, and we see a plausible 1.39 V. The essence of this phenomenon lies beyond our understanding. If the voltage were not monitored correctly during overclocking, everything could be attributed to problems with abnormal operation, but this is not the other way around. No matter how we tweaked the voltage values ​​and other settings, everything remained the same, especially since other monitoring utilities showed everything correctly in both cases.

Not wanting to stop at the achieved frequency, we lowered the memory frequency, but the processor could not operate stably at a frequency exceeding 4000 MHz without raising the voltage. After raising the voltage to 1.4125 V, our sample easily surpassed the 4.0 GHz bar, but on the path to further overclocking, the eternal enemy of any overclocker - overheating - became an obstacle. When the temperature reached 62°C (in S&M load), the built-in thermal protection of the processor was triggered, after which it began to skip cycles, reducing the resulting frequency. Discussion of this problem on the network is rapidly developing, and so far the result is the same - air cooling systems capable of keeping the temperature of the Intel Pentium 4 5xx at frequencies above 4.0 GHz (and even with increased voltage) below the mentioned temperature have not yet been found. Therefore, it was decided to conduct overclocking testing at a frequency of 3980 MHz.

The DFI 925X-T2 motherboard on the i925X chipset was chosen as an opponent, specially tested with the same set of components and with similar settings. Testing was carried out under the operating room Windows system XP Professional SP1. After replacing the motherboard, the system was reinstalled.

conclusions

As you can see, the i945P, presented by ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe, is confidently in the lead, leaving no position for the i925X to gain revenge. The difference in performance when replacing only the motherboard is visible to the naked eye. The board is perfect for overclocking, having all the necessary settings and capabilities for this. The rich set of components, coupled with an equally rich set of additional controllers, sharply distinguishes the board from its competitors, making you forget about its belonging to a specific platform and look at the computer in a slightly different way. More recently, to get a computer with similar functionality, the case would have to be filled to capacity with expansion cards. Of course, you can write down the high cost as a disadvantage without thinking, but that’s without thinking. And after thinking about it, you understand that there is something to pay for.

ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe WiFi-TV Edition motherboard was provided for testing by the Russian representative office of ASUS

The new Southbridge, which replaces the ICH8, is a truly new generation with impressive performance and impressive capabilities.

Let's look at its properties:

Up to 6 PCIEx1 ports;
up to 4 PCI slots;
4/6 (4 for ICH9, 6 for ICH9R) SATA II 3.0 Gb/s ports with support AHCI mode and NCQ function * ;
the ability to organize a RAID array (only for ICH9R) levels 0, 1, 0+1 (10) and 5 with the Matrix RAID function;
12 USB 2.0 devices (on two EHCI host controllers) with the ability to individually disable;
MAC controller Gigabit Ethernet and a special interface (LCI/GLCI) for connecting a PHY controller (i82566 for implementing Gigabit Ethernet, i82562 for implementing Fast Ethernet);
support Intel Turbo Memory;
High Definition Audio (7.1);
harness for low-speed and outdated peripherals, etc.

The letter R at the end of the abbreviation means support for Raid, and not just a simple one, but 5 with the Matrix RAID function, which means that one set of disks can be used in several RAID modes at once - for example, on two disks you can organize RAID 0 and RAID 1, and for each the array will be allocated its own part of the disk.

Many will find it useful new feature Intel Rapid Recover Technology, which allows you to quickly resume system operation in the event of a failure hard drive or data corruption. And taking into account the above, ICH9R will allow you to simultaneously install, for example, Raid 5 as the main one and in addition to it (on the same disks!) a Raid 1 DSLR for separate support for the safety of the operating system.

Also now the southbridge supports eSATA and selective disabling of SATA ports, up to 12 USB 2.0 ports and Intel technology Turbo Memory, which is worth special mention.

Intel Turbo Memory allows you to install a 512 MB or 1 GB NAND flash memory module into one of the PCI-E slots to use it as a cache for the operating system, which can significantly reduce the number of accesses to hard drive, thereby significantly speeding up loading applications and opening files.

Thanks to such an impressive collection of advantages, they have gained well-deserved popularity as a platform for low-cost server solutions such as VPN servers, WEB servers and file servers small organizations.

*Wikipedia says - NCQ (English Native Command Queuing - hardware command queuing) is a technology used in SATA devices starting from SATA/300 to improve performance. Supported devices NCQ are able to accept several requests simultaneously and reorganize the order of their execution to achieve maximum efficiency (performance) taking into account the internal architecture of the device (minimizing the number of head movements and waiting for the desired sector on the track). NCQ increases the performance of tasks related to random reading, processing data from two or more sources, and simultaneous operation of several programs.

All three chipsets provide a comparable feature set, and you won't notice much of a difference in performance unless you do some in-depth benchmarking. RAID support for the three chipsets is the same; each of them issues a visual alert if one of them hard drives will fail. All three chipsets lack professional features such as alarm notification. e-mail, since this requires a local installation of the mail server.

nVidia nForce 6 is without a doubt the most attractive chipset for Intel-based computers in terms of functionality. It provides a rich set of features including six SATA ports, 10 USB 2.0 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports with many tasty features. And all this with a very user-friendly interface. But this does not mean that nForce 6 is best choice for each.

Although the Intel ICH7-R southbridge has been on the market for more than a year and a half, it provides very decent performance. It is inferior to the newer ICH8 and nForce 6 MCP in terms of I/O performance, but this is still not a reason to change the system to ICH7. Intel chipsets with ICH7 and ICH8 support Matrix Storage technology, which allows you to install multiple RAID arrays on one set of hard drives.

ICH8 was a real surprise, although technical specifications it's not very different from the ICH7: there are 10 USB 2.0 ports instead of eight, and six Serial ATA ports instead of four. But the performance of this southbridge has increased. Transfer performance slightly exceeds the ICH7 in almost all tests, with the Southbridge winning most I/O tests and our USB 2.0 throughput test. The ICH8 is the only bridge in our testing that provides superior transfer speeds, even when connected to two high-speed devices simultaneously. USB devices 2.0. And taking into account the fact that motherboards based on P965 and ICH8 are cheaper than products based on nForce 680i SLI, choosing one or another chipset becomes more difficult.