Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/357



As a high end server/workstation motherboard manufacturer, we've seen Supermicro's expertise spill over into the low end market with the Socket-370 i440BX Supermicro 370SBA. Now presented with the i810, Supermicro faces an even greater challenger with an even greater focus on cost reduction The Supermicro 370SWD is the result and follows in typical Supermicro fashion.


New Anand Tech Report Card Rating
87/B

Motherboard Specifications

CPU Interface Socket-370
Chipset Intel i810
L2 Cache N/A (on-chip)
Form Factor microATX
Bus Speeds 66 / 72 / 100 / 107
112 / 117 / 125 / 133
Clock Multipliers 2.0x - 8.0x
Voltages Supported Auto Detect
Memory Slots 2 168pin DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots

1 AMR Slot
0 AGP Slots
3 PCI Slots (3 Full Length)
0 ISA Slots

BIOS AMI BIOS HiFlex 1.18

The Good


Click to enlarge

At first glance, it appears that he Supermicro 370SWD is pretty much a standard i810 board with a Socket-370 CPU interface. The 3/1/0/0 (PCI/AMR/ISA/AGP) slot configuration is typical for a microATX i810 board. All slots can handle a full length board if necessary thanks to the placement of the front panel headers out of the way of the expansion slots. Two DIMM slots, the maximum for an i810 board, round out the expansion options.

Handling I/O duties for the 370SWD is Intel's 801AA I/O Controller Hub (ICH), the "high end" ICH for the i810, and provides full Ultra DMA/66 support. Supermicro also selected the "high end" 810-DC100 Graphics and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) with 4MB 100MHz display cache on the board itself. Two 2MB 7ns SDRAM chips from Hyundai provide the display cache that handles z-buffering for the integrated i752 found on the i810. Interestingly, the GMCH is not topped by a heatsink at all as we've come to expect of i440BX northbridge chips. Fortunately, it did not get hot in AnandTech's testing and we fully expect this trend to continue with most i810 boards. Sound is provided by the Analog Devices AD1881 chip that functions as an AC97 CODEC for host based audio. This will get you by for basic Windows audio, but since it requires the CPU to power it, will slow you down in any audio and CPU intensive tasks - such as gaming.

The microATX specification is closely followed with all major components strategically placed to minimize cable clutter and provide the most room to work around the board. All HDD/FDD connectors are located where they should be, right at the front of the board, so that no cables are forced to run over the CPU and/or memory. The ATX power connector is unfortunately located at the back of the board, next to the CPU socket. That means that the power cable will have to run over the CPU and memory, reducing airflow to the CPU and cluttering up the inside of the system. Of course, the backpanel features the rainbow of colors required for PC99 compliance. The board is an average sized microATX and should fit fine in any microATX or ATX case.

Despite just four 1000uF capacitors surrounding the CPU socket, stability was excellent in non-overclocked situations as we've come to expect from Supermicro. It's nice to see a company up hold their standards of quality in the face of such a cost conscious market that the i810 lives in. Performance was typical for an i810 motherboard - just like the i440BX motherboards out there, all i810 solutions seem to perform within a few percentage points of each other.



AMI BIOS is still featured on the 370SWD as it is on other Supermicro boards, but this time it's not AMI WinBIOS that Award BIOS users have come to hate. Instead, it's AMI's HiFlex Setup Utility that looks very similar to Award's 6.00PG used on most i810 boards. HiFlex retains the huge number of options that have always been available in the AMI BIOS, but they're still somewhat cryptically labeled, although not as poorly as in the past. Fortunately, this time the right half of the screen gives a brief description of each setting and the options available. The explanations are typical of what is found in motherboard manuals, which is to say they could be a lot better, but it's definitely better than nothing.

One of those settings that was incredibly cryptic on previous Supermicro boards that we've test is the method of adjusting the FSB of the motherboard. This time, it's fairly clearly labeled as "CPU Clock Frequency" and is available under Advanced Chipset Setup. Options include Auto / 66 / 72 / 100 / 107 / 112 / 117 / 125 / 133. FSB speeds above 100 MHz are available only if a 100 MHz FSB CPU is used or if an onboard jumper forces 100 MHz operation. A jumper on the board allows overriding the state of BSEL (commonly known as B21 on Slot-1 CPU's) to force either 66 or 100 MHz operation. AnandTech's testbed Celeron 366 which normally overclocks just fine to 83 x 5.5 = 458 required CAS 2 memory to even POST at this speed on the 370SWD and could not boot into Windows.

Hardware monitoring is integrated on the motherboard and can monitor 3 fan speeds, 7 voltages, and the CPU temperature. An thermally controlled fan header is included that remains off until a predefined temperature threshold is reached. Two standard 3-pin fan headers are also included and all are located near the CPU. CPU temperature is read from the on-die thermal diode.

When AnandTech looked at the i440BX based Supermicro 370SBA, we found that we could not enable ACPI support in Windows 98 no matter what we tried despite the claimed support from Supermicro. At first the same thing happened on the 370SWD and again we decided to take a look at the manual. Unlike last time, the information we needed was there. The trick is to disable advanced power management (APM) support in the BIOS. Not exactly the most intuitive option, but blame AMI, not Supermicro for this little bit of confusion.

Power management consists of pretty much the standard stuff these days. Wake on LAN and wake on modem ring headers are available to allow the system to power on in the presence of network activity or incoming call. The BIOS can be set to turn on the system at a specific time. The CPU fan can be shut off when the system suspends 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 as well, but what's interesting here is the option for USB keyboard power-on - a first for this reviewer.

As many other i810 boards are starting to do, Supermicro has also included Suspend to RAM (STR) as another power management feature. STR uses the +5VSB power from your ATX power supply to continue to power the system RAM while everything else is powered down (even the power supply) so that the system appears completely off. When the power switch is hit again, the system is up and running in just seconds. You'll need an ACPI compliant OS that is properly configured to take advantage of this feature. Fortunately, the manual covers the upgrade in Windows 98, the only publicly available OS currently to support ACPI. An onboard LED is always lit whenever the system is powered on or in suspend to RAM mode so that you remember that power is still being applied to the motherboard.

A nice touch is the ability to configure what the system will do when AC power is restored after a power outage - either remain off, turn on, or resume last power state. This is a feature often overlooked since ATX and soft power became available, but is critical for anyone using their system where it must be on 24/7 or as close as possible. It also allows for users to shut the system on and off from a surge protector.

Although lacking details on installing a motherboard, the manual is otherwise pretty good for the experienced user and includes detailed information on all connector pin outs as well as the various BIOS settings. The included driver CD is excellent and includes all the drivers and chipset patches you may need to get the system up and running. The CD autoruns and you simply click on each driver one by one in the order they are on screen and your system will be completely setup when you're done. Supermicro's own Super Doctor hardware monitoring utility is included as well for hardware monitoring support.



The Bad

Although we're finally seeing it from the likes of AOpen, Soyo, IWill, and Asus, there's still no sign of voltage tweaking options from Supermicro. The lack of a stable 83MHz FSB is also another bummer for anyone interested in overclocking. The number of FSB options are also a little behind the times for hardcore overclockers.

As mentioned earlier, the manual is a bit weak in the installation section. Anyone that has never installed a motherboard before will not feel comfortable with the complete lack of information given in the Supermicro manual on this topic.


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 64MB Mushkin SEC Original PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man SEC Original PC100 SDRAM

SDRAM Tested: 1 x 128MB Mushkin SEC Original PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Memory-Man SEC Original PC100 SDRAM

Manufacturer: The Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site:
http://www.memory-man.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 PPGA Celeron 366 OEM
RAM: 1 x 64MB Mushkin PC100 SDRAM
1 x 64MB Memory-Man PC100 SDRAM
Hard Drive(s): Western Digital Caviar AC28400 - UltraATA/33
Bus Master Drivers: Microsoft Win98 DMA Drivers
Video Card(s): Integrated Intel i752 in i810
Operation System(s): Windows 98 SE
Motherboard Revision: Supermicro 370SWD Revision 2.0

 

Windows 98 Performance

Business
Winstone 99
Intel Celeron 366 (66MHz x 5.5) 18.4
Intel Celeron 412 (75MHz x 5.5) 19.3

The Final Decision

Supermicro's 370SWD is a complete i810 solution with rock solid stability from a name that many have come to trust. For the hardcore tweaker, the 370SWD or any other i810 board is probably not the right choice.


How it Rates

AnandTech Motherboard Rating

  Business
Performance 85%
Price 85%
Ease of Use 85%
Overclocked Stability 82%
General Stability 92%
Quality 88%
Documentation 88%
Reliability 88%
Overall Rating 87%

Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now