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Although 64-bit computing has not yet taken a
strong hold of the enthusiast market, many are still excited about its
potential. AMD has made 64-bit computing affordable thanks to the
release of the Athlon 64 processors. Motherboard manufacturers, like
Soyo, have also been releasing affordable 64-bit motherboards to support these
new processors. Today we will be looking at Soyo's latest motherboard
based on the nForce 3 150 chipset, the Soyo CK8 Dragon Plus.
Unfortunately, there aren't many 64-bit
applications or a Windows 64-bit OS readily available yet to accurately
determine its potential and answer one very important question...Are there any
advantages or significant performance gains in a 64-bit environment?
Well, ExtremeMHz went through some extreme measures to find out. We will be
testing Soyo's new 64-bit motherboard on a Windows 64-bit AMD64 Operating System
(beta release) and provide you with benchmark results in both 32-bit and
64-bit environments.
Packaging & Bundle
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
Unlike our recently reviewed
Soyo Dragon 2 Platinum, the
Dragon Plus comes in a rather small box that includes one hard drive ribbon
cable, one floppy cable, one serial ATA cable, driver CD, 8-in-1 bonus CD,
manual, I/O plate and a nice dragon case badge.
Specifications
Processor
Click here for maximum CPU support
Click here for maximum Front Side Bus (FSB) support
Chipset Description
nVidia nForce 3 150 chipset
Supports 400/800 MHz FSB
Graphics Info
AGP slot supporting up to 8X AGP
Form Factor
ATX
Memory Type
DDR400/333/266
Memory Description
Three 184-pin DDR 2.5V DIMM sockets support up to 2GB (DDR 266/333/400)
PC3200/PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 non-ECC, unbuffered DDR SDRAM memory
Click here for memory speed/CPU FSB compatibility information
Expansion Slots
Six 32-bit Bus Mastering PCI slots (V2.2 compliant)
One Universal 8X AGP slot (supports 8x/4x modes)
IDE Type
UDMA 66/100/133
IDE Description
3 independent channels for six IDE devices
2 channels Serial ATA IDE ports with RAID capability
Supports RAID 0, 1
Supports up to PIO mode 5 & Ultra DMA 100/133
Three PCI bus mastering ATA E-IDE ports
Audio Description
On board CMI 9739 AC97 Codec provides 6 channels audio solution
IO Port Description
PS/2 Mini-DIN mouse & keyboard ports
Two RS-232 serial ports (16550 UART compatible)
One parallel printer port (SPP/EPP/ECP mode)
Audio I/O: LINE-OUT (1), LINE-IN (1), MIC JACK (1)
One FDD port (supports 3 modes, 1.2/1.44/2.88MB FDD)
Provides FIR with optional cable for transceiver
Provides 6 USB 2.0 ports (4* rear, 2 pin headers)
One embedded RJ45 LAN connector (10/100)
IO Connection Description
PS/2 Mini-DIN mouse & keyboard ports
Two USB 2.0 ports
One embedded RJ45 LAN connector (10/100)
Two D-Sub 9-pin male serial ports
One D-Sub 25-pin female printer port
Audio I/O: LINE-OUT x 1, LINE-IN x 1, MIC JACK x 1
BIOS Description
Award PCI BIOS with ACPI function
Supports multiple-boot from E-IDE / SCSI / CD-ROM / FDD / LS120 / ZIP
2 Mbyte Flash ROM
Health Monitoring Description
On board voltage monitors
CPU fan speed monitor
CPU temperature monitoring through thermal sensor
CPU temperature overheating protection
Dimension Description
Four layers, 30.5 cm x 24.5 cm (12" x 9.6")
ATX form factor
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