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Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/515
DFI has been a player in the motherboard market for a long time; they have made boards since 1981. According to their web page, they manufacture 200,000 motherboards each month. The newest DFI board to reach us here at AnandTech is the PW65-E -- one of five i810E boards that DFI manufactures. Although past DFI motherboards have not been particularly impressive, read on to see how the PW65-E competes in the saturated i810E market.
CPU Interface |
Slot-1
|
Chipset |
Intel
810E
|
On-Board Video |
82810E
GMCH
|
I/O Controller |
82801
ICH
|
L2 Cache |
N/A (on-chip)
|
Form Factor |
ATX
|
Bus Speeds |
66
/ 66.8 / 72 / 75 / 83.3 / 89.1 |
Clock Multipliers |
3.0x - 8.0x
|
Voltages Supported |
Auto Detect
|
Memory Slots |
2 168pin DIMM Slots
|
Expansion Slots |
1 AMR Slots
0 AGP Slot 5 PCI Slots (5 full length) 0 ISA Slots |
AC'97 |
AD1881
|
BIOS |
Award 6.00 PG
|
The Good
The PW65-E's layout is not incredibly striking except for the shortened depth; barely longer than an ISA slot at 6.69". DFI included a 5/0/0/1 (PCI/ISA/AGP/AMR) slot configuration. Thanks to the modified front panel connectors, all of the PCI slots can support full length cards. Following the trend of cost-cutting for the i810E chipset, DFI provided the maximum allowed of 2 DIMM slots, limiting the RAM to 512MB, which should be plenty for most users. DFI did a fine job of being conscientious to the plights of a motherboard installer. The ATX spec is followed closely and almost every cable is placed in order to minimize clutter. The floppy drive and the HDD connectors are located where they should be, right at the front of the board. The power connector is placed to the right of the memory and chip, another step towards creating a well built system.
There are twelve 1000uF capacitors located immediately around the CPU slot and multiple other capacitors scattered about the board. There is no heatsink upon the i810E GMCH, an exclusion opted for by many i810E manufacturers. The CPU retention mechanism was preinstalled on the board and will accept any slot-1 Celeron, Pentium II, or Pentium III CPU.
DFI's i810E includes the standard Intel 82801E GMCH as well as the 82801 ICH. The i810E chipset mimics the older i810 chipset sincethe 82801 ICH allows full Ultra DMA/66 support. However, the 82810E GMCH provides an added advantage over i810 boards by running the display cache at 133MHz instead of 100MHz. The DFI has two 2MB EtronTech SDRAM chips that are rated at 7ns, or 143MHz. This is plenty for the 133MHz i810E and gives the user a little flexibility when overclocking. The advantage of the i810E is the on-board video and sound. However, this can be a double edged sword -- the chipset is not ideal for any user that desires peak graphical performance or maximum CPU power. The included Audio Devices 1881 AC97 CODEC is sufficient for basic audio but it utilizes the CPU for processing power. As mentioned before, the AC97 CODEC is far from ideal for any audiophile. If higher quality sound is needed, the CODEC can be disabled by jumper 7, allowing the addition of a PCI soundcard and preserving CPU power. A PCI video card can be substituted for the integrated video as well.
DFI's PW65-E includes Award's new 6.00 PG BIOS, which is very easy to use and has a panel on the right offering explanations of the various settings. DFI made no drastic changes in its solution which results in a very manageable BIOS with most options easily found. The board can be considered "jumperless" since it can be configured in the BIOS independent of jumper settings. DFI was more than generous with included FSB settings of 66 / 66.8 / 72 / 75 / 83.3 / 89.1 / 100 / 100.2 / 100.9 / 105 / 107 / 110 / 114 / 117 / 119 / 121 / 124 / 127 / 130 / 133 / 133.6 / 135 / 137 / 140 / 145 / 150 / 153 / 157 / 159 / 162 MHz -- all available in the BIOS. If voltage tweaking was enabled in the BIOS, this board could be considered one of the best i810E overclocking motherboards.
After running our arsenal of tests, the DFI was solid in non-overclocked and overclocked situations. The performance of the PW65-E was about average, scoring similarly in Sysmark and Winstone against the rest of the i810E competition.
For hardware monitoring, the board sports the Winbond W83627HF chip, which provides more than adequate hardware monitoring. In fact, the PW65-E monitors 7 voltages, 3 fan speeds, and CPU temperature. Also, the CPU temperature is read from the on die thermal diode instead of being reported via thermistor. By including three fan connectors, there should be plenty of cooling options. One is placed next to the CPU slot, one below the PCI slots, and one below the floppy connector.
DFI has placed two compact LEDs on the board -- the DIMM standby power LED which is illuminated when the system is running or when suspended and the PCI standby power LED, which is lit when running, soft-off, and in suspend mode. The DIMM standby power LED is especially useful given the Suspend to RAM (STR) options prevent a user from changing the system while it is powered. On the flip side, other than the two lights, the power management options are the same as most other boards these days. For the users who wish the computer to turn on in the presence of network activity or an incoming call, both wake on LAN and wake on modem ring headers are available. Also, the BIOS can be set to turn on the system at a specific time so the computer can wake up before you. The CPU fan can be shut off when the system suspends in order to quiet things down a bit. ACPI support is built into the BIOS for added power management under an ACPI compliant OS like Windows 98 or Windows 2000. The system can be configured to power on via hot key or mouse click. Another nice feature that is often disregarded is the added ability to choose what power state to return to after a power outage (or when using a surge protector). If 24/7 system operation is mandatory, this feature is perfect.
The DFI manual is in four languages, which is great for international business but can be somewhat confusing as well. There is a plentitude of information within the manual on the jumper settings, BIOS setup and the included software. The driver CD that DFI included has all chipset and driver updates making it simple to get the system up and running. Along with the INF update for the i810E chipset and the video and sound drivers, a hardware doctor utility is included to monitor the included functions. Also, a very descriptive quick-start guide allows board installation without cracking open the manual. The box also includes a case-mountable second serial port; this is necessary for all i810E boards considering the on-board video card supplants the second serial port on the ATX I/O panel.
The Bad
The fact that the PW65-E did not allow manual voltage adjustment held it back from being one of the best overclocking i810E boards. However, DFI's i810E solution was well constructed and performed solidly, so we had no other complaints
USB Compatibility
-
Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0
-
Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2
-
USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes
-
USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes
Recommended SDRAM
Recommended SDRAM: 1 x 128MB Corsair PC133 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Mushkin PC133
SDRAM SDRAM Tested: 1 x 128MB Corsair PC133 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Mushkin PC133 SDRAM
Manufacturer:
Corsair
Purchase Website: http://www.corsairmicro.com
Manufacturer:
Mushkin
Purchase Website: http://www.mushkin.com
The Test
In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.
Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology.
Test Configuration |
|
Processor(s): |
Intel Pentium III 733EB OEM
Provided by Memman |
RAM: | |
Hard Drive(s): |
Western Digital Expert 418000
- UltraATA/66
|
Bus Master Drivers: |
Microsoft
Win98 DMA Drivers
|
Video Card(s): |
82810E
w/ 4MB DC
|
Video Drivers: |
Intel 810 Chipset Graphics Driver
PV3.0
|
Operation System(s): |
Windows
98 SE
|
Motherboard Revision: |
DFI
PW65-E revision B3
|
Windows 98 Performance |
||||
|
Sysmark 2000
|
Content Creation
Winstone 2000 |
||
DFI
PW65-E - PIII 733MHz
|
141
|
25.2
|
||
Supermicro
PIIISED - PIII 733MHz
|
136
|
24.7
|
||
FIC
KW15 - PIII 733MHz
|
137
|
25.1
|
||
IWill
WS 133-N - PIII 733MHz
|
138
|
25.3
|
For an i810E board, DFI has designed a well-stocked competitor. There are an exceptional number of FSB speeds but by not allowing voltage core adjustment, this board is not ideal for an overclocker. All in all, the overclock options are excellent, but most overclockers simply are not going to want an i810E. The stability of the board was well-above average, which means for most users this board will run smooth enough. The PW65-E is an excellent, low priced example of an i810E board.
AnandTech Motherboard Rating |
|
Rating
(x/10)
|
|
Performance
|
5.5
|
Price
|
6.0
|
Stability
|
8.0
|
Quality
|
5.5
|
Features
|
5.5
|
Layout
|
6.5
|
Availability
|
6.5
|
Documentation & Software Bundle
|
6.0
|
Overall Rating |
7.0
|
Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology.