Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D

Written by Stephen Friday, 04 September 2009 11:44

.:: Introduction ::.

Gigabyte Technology, a name we have come to respect over the past few years for providing user friendly, stable, and bang for your buck motherboard products. Weve seen many products come off the lines from Gigabyte which provide performance ranging from average for some of the mid-range boards, to best of the bunch for some of their high-end products. Today, well be taking a look at our first Gigabyte board based off of their latest 8 Sigma Series, which if you couldnt guess, features 8 of their top motherboard technologies mixed into one. The GA-8ANXP-D features a hell of a product package, as we are used to from Gigabyte, including the latest incarnation of DPS, and a Wireless LAN card. We havent been able to work with many Gigabyte boards over the last few months, so lets see if anything has changed. Has overclocking improved? How about performance? Read on to find out!
.:: Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D Specifications ::.

Processor

- Designed for Intel 90nm Prescott LGA775 Processors w800MHz FSB - Supports Intel Hyper-Threading Technology

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Chipset
North Bridge : Intel i925X South Bridge : Intel ICH6-R T.I. IEEE1394b Controller Silicon Image Sil3114 Controller Marvell 8100 Gigabit Ethernet Controller Realtek ALC880 HD Audio CODEC Cypress USB Hub Controller

Memory

- 6 DDR-II DIMM 240-Pin Slots - DDR-II 533/400MHz RAM - Max: 4GB

Expansion Slots

1 x PCI-Express xx PCI-Express xx PCI 1 x U-Plus DPS 1 x UDMA/133/100/x FDD 8 x SATA 2 x IEEEx USB 2.0 (Total)

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Back Panel I/O Ports
1 x Parallel, 1 x Serial 1 x PS/2 Keyboard, 1 x PS/2 Mouse 6 x Audio I/O 2 x S/PDIF Ports 4 x USB 2.0, 2 x RJ-45 Port
.:: GA-8ANXP-D Packaging ::.
It is well known to frequent MBR readers that Gigabyte has always, in my opinion, put out some of the best, and in many cases the best packages for the retail market. The GA-8ANXP-D does not fail to live up to the hype of providing a solid product package, much as we expected. Gigabyte, like ASUS, has begun to throw in a wireless card for their high-end motherboards, and they have done so with the GA-8ANXP-D. Right now, products with these cards are limited, but as time progresses I think well see more manufacturers begin to throw in Wi-Fi support, especially with the Wi-Fi enabled ICH6-W chips start to roll off the production lines. Gigabyte has also thrown in the latest incarnation of their DPS unit, the U-Plus DPS. This unit provides for an additional four phases for the core voltage power supply, and unlike older models comes outfitted with a heatpipe cooling solution. Additional phases for the VCore allow for a smoother

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power delivery, and the load can be better distributed.
As far as the included cabling options go, Gigabyte has included several items that should allow for seamless integration. Gigabyte includes four, red Serial ATA cables for use with either the native ICH6 supported connections, or those provided by the additional Silicon Image SATA RAID controller. Gigabyte has also chosen to include two Molex power cables that can support two Serial ATA drives a piece. As the new ATX v2.0 power supplies begin to hit the market, well see less of these power adapters included in motherboard packages, but for now the bulk of users are still operating on the older PSUs which require such adapters. Lastly, Gigabyte includes a single floppy cable, and a single IDE cable, both of which come colored in a dark shade of blue.
On the expansion bracket end, we find that Gigabyte has added in two options, both of which provide support for additional USB 2.0 ports. The first bracket features three USB 2.0 capable ports, which brings the current USB 2.0 total to seven ports. The second of these brackets allows for support of IEE1394 devices, as well as providing an additional two USB 2.0 ports, brining total USB support to a grand total of nine ports. Needless to say, whether you choose to use the USB only, or USB / IEEE1394 bracket, you wont ever fall short on ports for your USB supported devices, thats for sure.
The remainder of the GA-8ANXP-Ds package includes items such as the various manuals, the Silicon Image Sil3114 Serial ATA RAID Controller as an example. Gigabyte also includes a large, fold-out style installation guide that will help first time and novice users properly install all of the required components of their system so that it gets up and running right out of the box. They have also paid special attention to the installation of the LGA processors, a point that weve seen noted constantly in manufacturers install guides due to the frailty of the pins within the socket. The manual for the GA-8ANXP-D was what we had expected. It covers all of the various onboard headers, gives excellent illustrations, does a nice job covering BIOS options, and also has some guides for software installation. I was expecting to find one of the case stickers that we have seen used by Gigabyte with the GA-8ANXP-D, but Gigabyte has chosen not to include one with this product. This is one of the more useful documentation features, but so long as you dont lose your manual, it isnt a must have.

The Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D packs in a solid selection of cables, expansion brackets, and other components that really give the end user a bang for their buck. Gigabyte has always been on the top of my recommendation list for users looking to get the most for their money, and from the looks of things this trend will continue with the latest line of motherboards. The GA-8ANXP-D comes with all of the required items, along with providing some additional

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components such as the IEEE1394 and USB 2.0 brackets that other manufacturers might leave out. Gigabyte provides a solid product manual, and documentation that will make a novice builders life a little easier as well. As of yet, this is the best retail package weve seen from an i915P or i925X motherboard. Only time will tell if we see a product come along that can de-throne the GA-8ANXP-D.
.:: GA-8ANXP-D Layout: Socket Area ::.
Now that weve had a chance to examine the product package, its time we took a good look at the board design and layout scheme. Just to re-cap our new stance on design, heres a copy of our previous statementWith these new chipsets from Intel, I have noticed that the motherboard surface itself has become far more cluttered, mainly due to voltage generation devices necessary for the DDR-II modules and PCI-Express. As we progress around this motherboard, as well as many in the future, we will undoubtedly see the days of extremely clean and clear PCB surfaces head the way of the dodo. Because of this, weve developed a new modus operandi when evaluating the layout of the motherboard. Instead of going merely for cleanliness, well be putting more of an impact on components locations and orientations for the end user. Clean PCBs are nice, but locations and ease of access are going to be far more important with these motherboards.
The Socket T is oriented lengthwise from East to West across the motherboard. Due to the much improved mounting mechanics for the new LGA 775 processors, Intel has done away with the large retention bracket that was needed on the older Socket 478 implementations. The new mounting method simply requires pushing some pins through the four mounting holes, and youre done. Around the Socket T, we find that Gigabyte has put to use the low profile component zones for the core voltage power supply. Gigabyte has implemented a four-phase design for the GA-8ANXP-D, as can be seen with the four side-mounted inductors. With the power draw that is needed to keep these processors running full bore, motherboard manufacturers have developed four phase power delivery solutions to provide smooth, adequate power to the processor no matter the load condition. The main control chips are

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manufactured by Intersil, along with the MOSFET drivers.
The bulk of the components and items that make up the processor portion of the GA-8ANXP-D deal with the core voltage supply, as was just mentioned. Unlike the other LGA 775 motherboard weve dealt with over the past month or so, Gigabyte has not positioned the four-pin 12V core voltage supply connector in the upper left corner of the board. Instead, Gigabyte has shifted the core components over to allow for their U-Plus DPS connector. For those that are familiar with the older DPS implementations, nothing has changed as far as usage or mounting goes. Simply insert the U-Plus DPS card, and lock it in with the included aluminum bracket. Gigabyte typically uses brightly colored connectors for critical devices, hence the bright orange connector for the U-Plus DPS.
Other than these few items, the processor portion of the GA-8ANXP-D is incredibly clean. Gigabyte has been able to implement the U-Plus DPS system into the GA-8ANXP-D flawlessly, even when it required a little ingenuity into how to implement the regular core voltage power supply components, which usually require a sizeable portion of real estate. By mounting the inductors in the manner that was done, it allowed for components to be mounted within the low profile zone, thereby allowing Gigabyte to implement the U-Plus DPS connection with no problems, all while still leaving the system with a solid stock core voltage supply.
.:: GA-8ANXP-D Layout: Northbridge Area ::.
The GA-8ANXP-D follows in line with previous Gigabyte Northbridge coolers, but it comes with one unique feature that I havent seen before. Looking at the heatsink in the image above, it appears to be your normal, every day anodized heatsink, and it is. The unique aspect deals with how it cools the Northbridge. Out of the box, this heatsink is passively cooled, which in many overclocking situations given that the voltages will be raised and FSB sped up, it is far from what should be used. Well, if youre going to be using the board for overclocking, Gigabyte has included a clip on fan that comes with the two-pin power connection, and also glows with blue

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LEDs as do many of their 3D Cooler CPU heatsinks. The fan simply is pressed down and holds on by two small ridges on teach side of the heatsink. We found that with the added fan, the Northbridge heatsink was kept quite a bit cooler, especially when put in use with a Prescott core Pentium 4.
The area to the left of the i925X Northbridge chip is quite clean featuring three fan power headers, as well as the GA-8ANXP-Ds LAN Controller chip. Starting from the top, we find the four-pin 12V core voltage supply connection. I prefer to see this located farther up the PCB for airflow purposes, though with the slim size of the cable this implementation works nicely as well. Due to the U-Plus DPS connector, Gigabyte really had no choice but to put this connector here. Below, we find the four-pin and two-pin CPU and Northbridge fan headers, as well as the Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet Controller chip. As we noted with the AA8-DuraMAX and AG8, the GA-8ANXP-D also only utilizes a 32-bit PCI interface connection for this Gigabit implementation. We also have another implementation to discuss, however.
.:: GA-8ANXP-D Layout: Expansion Area ::.
The expansion slot portion of the GA-8ANXP-D features a single x16 PCI-Express slot, along with three our x1 PCI-Express slots. At the bottom of the board, we also find two regular PCI slots. This is going to be the typical setup found on most of these i925X and i915P motherboards for some time to come. As there are no real PCI-Express products out there at this time that use the x1 connection, or any other besides x16, well see mostly x1 and x16 connections for some time. This was the same setup that we found on the Intel i925X and i915P motherboards, as well as the ABIT AA8-DuraMAX and AG8 previously reviewed.
The majority of the core components for this portion of the board are, as always, located along

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the rear edge of the PCB. At the top of this section, right under the rear I/O panel we find the front panel audio header. I still say this header would be located further down on the PCB, though with some 3.5 plate connections, 5.25 plate connections, and connections built into the chassis, its hard to get this header to be in an ideal location. It is located above the PCI-Express x16 connector, so cable routing shouldnt be too bad unless you need to route the cable to the lower front portion of the case. This could pose some problems as the cable would need to route between the rear of the PCI-E graphics adapter and motherboard, or simply go up and around over it, neither or which are fashionable nor fun installations.

Next up, we find another unique feature that Gigabyte has thrown onto the GA-8ANXP-D, a second Gigabit Ethernet Controlled. Given that the Marvell chip only supports Gigabit Ethernet on the PCI bus, Gigabyte chose to utilize both chips which means two, independent Gigabit connections, and the option for an improved connection due to the PCi-Express bus support. This second controller chip is the Broadcom BCM5751 NetXtreme which utilizes the PCI-Express interface and not the sluggish PCI interface as does the Marvell controller. The best, and most obvious, choice would be to utilize the Broadcom chip as the primary LAN connection.
Below, we find the High Definition Audio CODEC that Gigabyte has chosen to power the GA-8ANXP-D, the Realtek ALC880. The ALC880 offers full 7.1 channel audio support, features two 24-bit DACs and three 20-bit stereo ADCs for high quality, high resolution audio, and also features 32-bit, 96kHz support for both input and output S/PDIF connections. Along the right hand side of the ALC880 CODEC, we find the other typical audio-related header, the black CD audio header. This portion of the board also houses the ITE Super I/O controller. In case youre unfamiliar with the responsibilities of the ITE chip, it is responsible for providing support of legacy connections, such as your Serial or Parallel ports. These chips can also be configured to act as a monitor to system critical readings, such as fan speeds and voltages.
Lastly, since the Southbridge portion of the GA-8ANXP-D contains a plethora of items, were going to cover a few of the components that remain within the expansion slot area. Along the side of the three x1 PCI-Express connectors we find the system BIOS chips, along with the Texas Instruments IEEE1394b chip. This TI chip is responsible for controlling the IEEE1394b header that is found underneath the last PCI slot along the bottom edge of the motherboard. The second TI IEEE1394a controller is located along the side of PCI slot one, and has control over the remaining IEEE1394a header.

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.:: GA-8ANXP-D Layout: Southbridge & Memory Area ::.
The Southbridge portion of the motherboard is quite cluttered with both core electrical items, and component controller chips. Even though this area has scattered capacitors, inductors, and countless other items throughout, Gigabyte has still managed to provide a nice layout of the most important bits and pieces that youll be utilizing most often. First off, we have all three of the yellow USB 2.0 headers running along the bottom edge of the PCB. This is excellent placement of the headers, and will allow for easy access and cable routing. To the right of these headers, we find all four of the bright read Serial ATA connectors. These connectors are controlled by the adjacent Silicon Image chip. The GA-8ANXP-D is the first i925X board weve dealt with to implement two Serial ATA controllers bringing Serial ATA support to eight devices. Along the right hand edge of the board near the Silicon Image chip, we also find the color coded front panel header.

As we progress further up the PCB, the next components that well come across are all controlled via the ICH6R Southbridge. The ICH6R Southbridge chip is covered by a gold anodized, passive heatsink solution. Gigabyte has chosen to use a thermal pad as the interface between the heatsink and ICH6R surface for the GA-8ANXP-D. To the right of the ICH6R, we find all four of the Serial ATA connectors that are controlled by it, as well as the system battery, and jumperless Clear CMOS header. Previously, Gigabyte has not implemented and actual jumper block into many of their board for clearing the CMOS, but the GA-8ANXP-D does indeed feature a jumper block. This area also houses a three-pin fan connection for a front intake fan.
The final two items that are located within the vicinity of the ICH6R Southbridge are the IDE and floppy connections. Each of these connections are oriented lengthwise from left to right, and could cause some installation headaches. If youll be using a longer PCI-Express graphics card, be sure to install the IDE and floppy cables first! Otherwise, due to the overlapping graphics card, you wont be able to install, or remove for that matter, anything. This is the biggest annoyance dealing with the GA-8ANXP-Ds design.

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Finally, we come across the DIMM portion of the motherboard and find yet another unique feature that Gigabyte has been known to implement into their motherboards in the past, six DIMM slots instead of the usual two. This allows for a double sided setup in the first two DIMMs, and a single sided setup for both remaining pairs of DIMM slots. This feature was implemented into their high-end i875P motherboards, and theyve done it once again with the GA-8ANXP-D. To the right of the DIMM slots, we find the 24-pin ATX power connector where Gigabyte has wisely placed a sticker over the bottom four pins to avoid any confusion as to what pins to plug in the older 20-pin PSU units to. We also find an additional three-pin power connection for a power supply fan, or perhaps and additional front intake.
Much like what we are used to with Gigabyte, theyve managed to shove a huge amount of added features into the GA-8ANXP-D and still supply a well managed layout. Gigabyte has consistently provided their users with solid designs, despite the amount of features that can be implemented into them, especially the high-end products. The GA-8ANXP-D is no slouch when it comes to cleanliness, but it does have one annoying problem. Those with a larger PCI-Express graphics card will find they need to install any IDE and floppy devices prior to installing the card, as it will end up overlapping both of these connectors. I know it did give me some grief initially when I was setting up the system, but my problems have been your benefit. The GA-8ANXP-D brings a solid design, but beware this annoying problem.

.:: GA-8ANXP-D System BIOS ::.
For the GA-8ANXP-Ds BIOS, Gigabyte has opted to go with the usual streamlined layout that we have seen in previous BIOS. When you enter the BIOS, youll come across all of those usual options such as Standard CMOS Features, Advanced BIOS Features, Advanced Chipset Features, Integrated Peripherals, Power Management Setup, PnP/PCI Configurations, PC Health Status, M.I.T., and all of the Default Settings, etc. Take care to also notice the Top Performance option in the BIOS. We decided to test this option out and we did see a small gain in performance with this option enabled. In order to access this option, as well as several of the more enthusiast based tweaks well be discussing, the user must press Ctrl + F1 within the main BIOS screen to activate the additional settings. Well be primarily interested today in the Advanced Chipset Features, Integrated Peripherals, PC Health Status, and of course the M.I.T.

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menus.
Well start things off today with the Integrated Peripherals window. This menu should, as always, be self explanatory for what it is responsible for. Within this window, the user can configure the IRQ & I/O Address settings of the integrated peripherals, along with enabling or disabling the ones that they wish to use or not to use for that matter. Within this submenu, we can enable or disable several items such as the USB 2.0 / 1.1, IEEE1394 Support, SATA RAID Controller, IDE Mode, Onboard Sound, LAN Controller/s, Serial Ports, Parallel Port, and more. Needless to say, if you want to enable or disable any feature of the GA-8ANXP-D, this is the place to do it.
The PC Health Status submenu should be another easily understood one. Here we have the ability to check the system temperatures, RPM readings, and voltage readings. We can also select from several options. Those include whether or not to enable the alert when the CPU reaches a certain temperature, or when any of the various fans fail. There is also an option to enable or disable the fan control for the CPU fan, and this can also be set for a three-pin or four-pin fan. Each of these settings should be enabled in our opinion as the more critical settings can save your system, and the others can keep things running as quiet as possible.
The most useful, and like most utilized menu within the GA-8ANXP-Ds BIOS for tweakers, overclockers, and performance enthusiasts is that of the MB Intelligent Tweaker, or M.I.T. menu. This menu houses all of the various voltage, timing, and speed controls for the processor, FSB, and RAM. Starting off from the top, we see the first setting of importance is C.I.A.2. C.I.A, Gigabytes intelligent overclocking software will adjust the processor frequency on

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the fly depending on the system load. There are five different settings, each of which will more aggressively overclock your processor and system bus as system utilization rises and falls. The highest overclock provided by the "Full Thrust option ranges from 15% to 19%. The best overclocking levels weve seen on these boards so far is about 25%, so its nice to see Gigabyte allowing near, or full speed overclocking capabilities.
The next three selections deal with setting the frequency for both the RAM and FSB. Gigabyte allows for a FSB adjustment up to the typical 355MHz, a speed that no one will ever be able to achieve, so needless to say theyve left more than enough headroom for overclocking the GA-8ANXP-Ds FSB. RAM wise, we only see options of 2.00 and 2.66 for DDR-II 400 and DDR-II 533 support. Right now, there really isnt much more you could ask for as far as RAM speeds go, though as more DDR-II 667MHz RAM hits the market, some of these boards will likely have a BIOS upgrade to add a new multiplier to the mix.
Voltage wise, we see that Gigabyte allows for adjustment of the CPU, DRAM, and PCI-E voltages. One missing aspect is that of an adjustment for the Northbridge voltage. Since many manufacturers are claiming that raising the Northbridge voltage will help overclocking past the current barriers, its surprising to see Gigabyte leave out such an option. Hopefully this will be added on in future BIOS releases. The DIMM voltage can be raised to a maximum of +0.3V, as with the PCI-E voltage which can also be raised the same amount. The CPU voltage can be set from a range of 0.8375V all the way to 1.6000V. Many of the boards weve dealt with so far have not allowed undervolting, a simple task that can help lower system and CPU temperatures, but still not adversely affect overall stability so long as you remain within specifications for the processor.
Finally, we have all of the various memory timing adjustments that are allowed by the GA-8ANXP-Ds BIOS. In order to access these options, youll need to do the Ctrl + F1 spiel in the main BIOS menu. We can see that Gigabyte allows for adjustment of quite a few of memory timings, such as the CAS Latency, Write Recovery Time, and more. The timings shown in the above image are the maximum allowable settings for each of the various items. These settings are not documented within the user manual, so youre on your own should you want to adjust any of the timings for your rig.
The BIOS that Gigabyte offers up with the GA-8ANXP-D is quite good, and was what I was expecting. This BIOS is not as good as that of either ABIT board we tested, as both of those boards feature ABITs uGuru technology. The user also does not have total access to tweaking options when they initially enter the BIOS. Should they be a novice user to Gigabyte boards, they may not know of the Ctrl + F1 trick, and find the BIOS lacking when it comes to some

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memory adjustments. Once these settings have been enabled, the GA-8ANXP-D becomes a far better option for tweakers and performance enthusiasts. The overclocking options were solid, though the lack of a Northbridge voltage adjustment option may cause users to shy away from the GA-8ANXP-D as it has been related to overclocking capabilities on these new i915P/i925X motherboards. Overall, Gigabyte offers a solid BIOS that will please most beginners and enthusiasts.
.:: GA-8ANXP-D Overclocking ::.
Our overclocking experiences with the GA-8ANXP-D were quite similar to those results we obtained with the ABIT AG8. The GA-8ANXP-D didnt fare quite as well though. When we werent utilizing the U-Plus DPS system, we obtained a maximum stable overclock of roughly 242MHz FSB, which is decent but weve hit some higher marks with other boards. When we put the U-Plus DPS to use, we were able to head upwards slightly to 245Mhz with total stability, but beyond that we found all of the typical overclocking problems popping up on these i925X and i915P motherboards. Although the GA-8ANXP-D offers voltage adjustments for PCI-E, DRAM, and VCore, I think that an option to raise the Northbridge voltage wouldve helped the GA-8ANXP-Ds chances against the ABIT boards which did feature this setting. I was hoping for a little better overclocking out of the GA-8ANXP-D, but in the past weve seen sporadic results with Gigabyte boards in this area. Sometimes we see top of the line overclocks, and other yield more mid-range capabilities.

.:: SiSoft SANDRA ::.

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To start off todays performance testing results, were going to cover SiSoftwares SANDRA benchmarking suite. The first benchmark that we ran was to determine Arithmetic performance of the GA-8ANXP-D in comparison to Intels D925XCV and ABITs AA8-DuraMAX / AG8. For our Arithmetic results, we see that as far as ALU results go, the GA-8ANXP-D falls slightly behind the AA8-DuraMAX, but still manages a solid score surpassing the D925XCV. On the FPU end, the GA-8ANXP-D is able to overtake all of the competing boards, though it only manages to do so by a small margin as would be expected. The next benchmark that we chose to run with was the Multimedia test. For our Multimedia results, we found the GA-8ANXP-D besting all of the competing boards for both ALU and FPU performance. Finally, we have the Memory benchmark which will give us a look at the system bandwidth offered by both motherboards. In this benchmark, the D925XCV has a pretty solid lead over the GA-8ANXP-D and AA8-DuraMAX, and a stronger lead over the DDR-I powered AG8.

.:: MBReview PriBench ::.
Using our very own in-house benchmark, MBReview PriBench uses a computationally intensive algorithm to compute several hundred millions of prime integers. Unlike other synthetic benchmarks which rely on additional components within a computer system like the hard drive, PriBench does not rely on any of these exterior devices for the tests. PriBench is a system level benchmark, solely utilizing the performance of the processor and memory subsystem. It also focuses on comparing processor architectures and technologies and then seeing how much a core clock and/or FSB speed increase can be beneficial to the system. Our program is extremely accurate as we have witnessed time fluctuations of approximately.05 -.10 seconds.
On the PriBench front, we can see that the Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D is able to surpass both ABIT boards as well as Intels D925XCV for computational power. In the grand scheme of things as far as PriBench is concerned, the lead were seeing pulled off by the GA-8ANXP-D is quite large. Normally, we see fluctuations of roughly one second, though the GA-8ANXP-D manages to surpass Intels D925XCV by four seconds in test one, and two seconds in test two. The GA-8ANXP-D holds a slightly smaller lead over ABITs AA8-DuraMAX.

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.:: ScienceMark 2.0 ::.
Next in line for our benchmarking results, we find ScienceMark 2.0. For this benchmarking suite, we decided to take a look at the performance results achieved with MemBench to analyze latency times as well as bandwidth. As we saw with the SANDRA results a little earlier, the Intel D925XCV is able to put up a better bandwidth score than each of the competing motherboards, with Gigabytes GA-8ANXP-D coming in second followed closely by ABITs AA8-DuraMAX. As far as the results we obtained for cycle and latency times, we found that the GA-8ANXP-D posted the best latency timing weve seen so far, though it still requires roughly the same amount of clock cycles as did the AA8-DuraMAX, leaving the D925XCV with the lead.
.:: FutureMark 3DMark2003 ::.
The next benchmark that well be covering from a gaming aspect is that of FutureMarks 3DMark 2003. Much as I expected heading into this benchmark, we find the Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D taking over the performance lead from Intels D925XCV which has held it up to this point. The performance gap between these two boards is minimal, but the GA-8ANXP-D does come out with a slight advantage. Given the bandwidth and computational results weve seen so far, it looks as though the GA-8ANXP-D will likely become the fastest i925X board tested to date, though it will still run right in line with the D925XCV and AA8-DuraMAX. Before we jump to any conclusions, lets examine some other gaming results to see what we can find out.

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.:: AquaMark 3.0 ::.
To start off the gaming related synthetic benchmarks, were going to cover results that we attained from AquaMark 3.0. This is a gorgeous benchmark and can place some serious strain on any system. For our benchmarking purposes, we ran the default test at 1024 x 768 x 32 with no anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering enabled. As far as these results go, much as we expected, we see the Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D edging slightly ahead of Intels D925XCV, and gaining a larger performance gap over ABITs i925X and i915P motherboards. As expected, the gap between the Gigabyte and Intel boards is small, in the area of 1/3 a frame per second, but thats pretty decent for AquaMark.

.:: Quake III Arena ::.

The next of our gaming oriented benchmarks is the famed Quake III Arena. In order to remove any sort of graphics bottleneck from our results, we chose to go with the standard 640 x 480 resolution for our tests. As far as QIIIA performance goes, the GA-8ANXP-D is able to once again jump ahead of the D925XCV. Were seeing a performance jump of a little less than 1% over the D925XCV, and ever so slightly more over the AA8-DuraMAX given that it and the D925XCV run Q3A with near identical precision. I was hoping to see the GA-8ANXP-D put up slightly better numbers than we were able to achieve here, so lets see what UT2003 tells us.
.:: Unreal Tournament 2003 ::.

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SATA Solid State Disk
Turbo 2.5" SATA Solid State Disk DK86R Series

Rev. A.0

June 2007
Table of Contents 1. Product Description. 1

1.1 Product Overview

1.2 Product Features. 1.3 System Requirement.

2. Specification. 2

2.1 Physical Specification
2.2 Electronic Specification. 2.3 Performance Specification. 2.4 Environmental Specification 2.5 Reliability Specification. 2.6 Compliance Specifications.

3. Function. 7

3.1 Pin Signal Assignment.

4. Installation.. 8

4.1 Installation 4.2 Partition

. 8 . 9

4.3 Format
5. Ordering Information. 11

List of Figures

Figure 1: 2.5 SATA SSD Overlook Diagram (Type1).

. 2. 3

Figure 2: 2.5 SATA SSD Dimensions (Type1). Figure 3: 2.5 SATA SSD Block Diagram Figure : SATA Connector Pin Assignment.

List of Tables

Table 1: 2.5 SATA SSD Physical Dimension. 3 Table 2: Serial ATA connector pin definitions.. 7 Table : Turbo 2.5 SATA SSD Ordering Information

1. Product Description

1.1 Product Overview PQIs SATA Solid State Disk (SSD) is the storage device based on NAND flash memory technology. This product complies Serial ATA standard interface and is suitable for data storage media and code storage device for embedded system and boot disk. By using 2.5 SATA SSD, it is possible to operate good performance for the systems, which have SATA interface. With small form factor, the applicable appliance can add or install SATA storage device on its Mother Board or Complete set. Application Fields; Industrial PC and Thin Client Game and Telecommunication Machine Ticketing, Examining, testing machine Army, Health and Production Equipment and Machine Other machines and Equipments with Serial ATA Interface Standard 1.0 1.2 Product Features Small form factor with Serial ATA Standard Interface connector Memory Capacities: 64MB ~ 16GB High performance and reliability Noiseless and stable installation to system Operating voltage 3.3V or 5.0V operation Standard Serial ATA Interface Operating as Boot Disk Data Storage Device to 16GB Code Storage Device for Embeded Operating System 1.3 System Requirement - The Host system which is connected to 2.5 SATA SSD should meet system requirements at minimum; 1.3.1 Power Requirement Voltage: DC +3.3V 5% or DC +5.0V 10% 1.3.2 Operating System Windows 2000/XP Linux DOS WinXP Embedded WinCE 1.3.3 Interface Standard Serial ATA 1.0 Interface

2. Specification

2.1 Physical Specifications 2.1.1 Overlook The overlook views of 2.5 SATA SSD are illustrated in Figure 1.

<Front View>

<Rear View>
Figure 1: 2.5 SATA SSD Overlook Diagram
2.1.2 Dimension The Dimensions of 2.5 SATA SSD are illustrated in Figure 2 and described in Table 1.
Figure 2: Type I 2.5 SATA SSD Dimensions Table 1: 2.5 SATA SSD Physical Dimension Length Width Thickness 100 0.15 mm 69.9 0.15 mm 8.5 0.15mm
2.1.3 Weight Weight: 124.5g 2.2 Electronic Specifications 2.2.1 Product Definition 2.5 SATA SSD is designed to operate and work as Data or Code Storage device by NAND Flash Memory and its Controller through Serial ATA Standard 1.0 Interface to Host Systems.

Regulator Hvcc

FL A SH Controller DA T A Flash memory bus

SATA Interface

BUFFER A+ AX`tal B+ B-
DATA FLASH ARRAY Control signal
Figure 3: 2.5 SATA SSD Block Diagram 2.2.2 Operating Voltage Voltage DC +3.3V 5% or DC +5.0V 10% 2.2.3 Capacity and Block Size information Capacity: 64MB ~ 16GB Sector Size: 512B 2.2.4 Power Consumption DC Information Voltage

Testing Item

Maximize/Peak Current Normal Current Watts

Read Sector Current

160mA 158mA 790mW 148mA 147mA 485.1mW

Write Sector Current

165mA 163mA 815mW 150mA 147.5mA 486.75mW

Stand-By Current

134mA 134mA 670mW 132mA 132mA 435.6mW
Testing Platform; - Mother-Board: ABIT-AA8, CPU: Intel 3.0G, System Memory: DDR2 1GB, Operating System: DOS 6.22, Test Program: RWALL10 & DOMSV31
2.3 Performance Specifications 2.3.1 Modes SATA 1.0 2.3.2 Access Time 2.5 SATA SSDs maximum access time is about 0.25msec. Testing Platform Testing S/W: QBench, Testing OS: DOS, Data: 1sector (512Bytes) Testing base: Time required Between Host to Device 2.3.3 Seek Time 2.5 SATA SSD has no seek time by being based on Flash Memory technology. 2.3.4 Mount Time The Mount Time for initializing and mounting 2.5 SATA SSD is different by depending on Operating System and testing Platform. 2.3.5 Data Transfer Time Sequential Read: up to15 MB/sec Sequential Write: up to 12 MB/sec Test Platform: Average Value based on Serial ATA 1.0 Mode MB 1: DFI CF4/Chipset: nForce SLI-DR/CPU: AMD 146 2.0GHz DDR: 400 MB 2: GIGA 8I945GME Intel:945+ICH7 3.0GHz DDR:400 Testing Software: HD Bench 3.4 Testing OS: Windows XP The value is various bases on the testing platform. 2.3.6 Data Retention 10years without requiring power support The Value of Data Retention is various bases on the type and manufacturer of Flash Memory 2.3.7 Wear-leveling Dynamic Wear-Leveling for same level of Write/Erase Cycle 2.3.8 Bad Block Management The Bad Blocks of Flash Memory will be replaced into new ones by controller. 2.3.9 Read/Write Cycle Read/ Write: 5,000,000 times

(Estimated on reference to Doc No.SM070001)
2.4 Environmental Specifications 2.4.1 Temperature Industrial Type: 0 to +70 (Operating Temperature), -40 to +85 (Non Operating Temperature)
2.4.2 Humidity Operating Humidity (30 Max. Wet Bulb Temp): 8% to 95% Non-Operating Humidity (30 Max. Wet Bulb Temp): 8% to 95% (with no condensation relative humidity) 2.4.3 Bare Drop Testing Testing Conditions: 75cm height Testing Orientation: (Free fell) Front/Rear/Right/Left/Top/Bottom side Testing Result: Pass
2.4.4 Vibration Random Vibration (Operation) : Testing Specification Frequency (Hz) 500 PSD (G2/Hz) 0.01 0.08 0.08 Acceleration (Grms) 6Grms Dwell Time (Min) 30min per axis (X Y Z)
Random Vibration (Non-Operating): Testing Specification Frequency (Hz) PSD (G2/Hz) 0.1 0.04 0.04 0.004 Acceleration (Grms) 6Grms Dwell Time (Min) 30min per axis (X Y Z)
Frequency Range: 3 ~ 2000Hz Testing Result: Pass 2.4.5 Shock and Altitude T. B. D. 2.5 Reliability Specifications 2.5.1 ECC/EDC (Error Correction Code/Error Detection Code) 1bytes data by 128bytes will be corrected. 2.5.2 Read and Write/Erase Cycle Read: No Limitation Write/Erase: 5,000,000 times
2.5.3 MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) 2,000,000 hours
(Estimated on reference to Doc No.SM070002)
2.5.4 Power Cycle TBD 2.6 Compliance Specifications CE FCC
Note: Please contact your closest PQIs office for other certificate information.

3. Function

3.1 Pin Signal Assignment The signals assigned for Serial ATA applications are described in Table 2 Table 2 : Serial ATA connector pin definitions Segment Pin No Function
S1 S2 S3 Signal S4 S5 S6 S7 Gnd A+ AGnd BB+ Gnd Differential signal pair B from Phy Differential signal pair A from Phy

Definition

Key and spacing separate signal and power segments
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P11 P12 P13 P14 P15 V33 V33 V33 Gnd Gnd Gnd V5 V5 V5 Gnd Reserved Gnd V12 V12 V12 NC NC NC

Ground Ground Ground

5V power 5V power 5V power

Ground

NC NC NC
Figure 4: SATA Connector Pin Assignment
Notes: 1. All pins are in a single row, with a 1.27 mm (0.050) pitch. 2. The comments on the mating sequence apply to the case of backplane blind mate connector only. In this case, the mating sequences are: - the pre-charge power pints and the other ground pins. - the signal pins and the rest of the power pins.

4. Installation

4.1 Installation For Installation of 2.5 SATA SSD to your system, please follow up below steps; 1. Make sure your computer is turned off before you open the case. 2. Plug the 2.5 SATA SSD carefully into the Serial ATA slot on your computer or host adapter. 3. Connect the power cable of the 2.5 SATA SSD. 4. Check cable connections and 2.5 SATA SSD is firm enough. 4.2 Partition For DOS Operating System - To partition your new 2.5 SATA SSD for example use Microsoft DOS program: 1. Insert a bootable DOS diskette into your diskette drive and restart your computer. 2. Insert a DOS program diskette that contains the FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.COM programs into your diskette drive. Use the same DOS version that is on your bootable diskette. At the A: prompt, type FDISK and press ENTER. 3. Select "Create DOS partition or logical DOS drive" by pressing 1. Then press ENTER. 4. Select "Create primary DOS partition" by pressing 1 again. Then press ENTER. Create your first drive partition. If you are creating a partition that will be used to boot your computer (drive C), make sure that the partition is marked active. 5. Create an extended partition and additional logical drives as necessary, until all the space on your new hard drive has been partitioned. 6. When the partitioning is complete, FDISK reboots your computer.

Note: Make sure to use the correct drive letters so that you do not format a drive that already contains data.
8. At the A: prompt, type format c:/s, where c is the letter of your first new partition, Repeat the format process for all the new partitions you have created. 9. After you format your SATA DiskOnModle, it is ready to use. For Windows Operating System - To partition your new 2.5 SATA SSD, for example use Microsoft WindowsXP and WindowsXP embedded system
1. Into your windows system. You can Click the Start Computer Management then select Storage Control Panel Disk Manager Administrative Tools to setup the partition.

4.3 Format

For DOS Operating System - Before you format or partition your new 2.5 SATA SSD, you must configure your computer' BIOS so s that the computer can recognize your new 2.5 SATA SSD. 1. Turn your computer on. As your computer start up, watch the screen for a message describing how to run the system setup program (sometimes called BIOS or CMOS setup). This is usually done by pressing a special key, such as DELETE, ESC, or F1, during startup. See your computer manual for details. Press the appropriate key to run the system setup program. 2. If your BIOS provides automatic drive detection (an "AUTO" drive type), select this option. (If you use Normal/CHS mode to partition your DOM, you can get the maximum formatted capacity.) This allows your computer to configure itself automatically for your new 2.5 SATA SSD. If your BIOS does not provide automatic drive detection, select "User-defined" drive setting and enter the CHS values from the table. BIOS Settings (see specification) Capacity Cylinders Heads Sectors (unformatted)
3. Save the settings and exit the System Setup program. (Your computer will be automatically rebooted.) For Windows Operating System - To partition your new DOM, for example use Microsoft WindowsXP and WindowsXP
embedded system 1. Click the then select Start Storage Control Panel Disk Manager Administrative Tools to setup the file format. Computer Management
2. Select FAT or NTFS format for user.

5. Ordering Information

Table : Turbo 2.5 SATA SSD Ordering Information P/N Capacity (Max)

DK0064M*186RE*20

064M:64MB, 128M:128MB, 256M:256MB, 512M:512MB, 010G:1GB, 020G:2GB, 040G:4GB, 080G:8GB, 160G:16GB Flash Density E:64MB, F:128MB, I:256MB, L:512MB, N:1GB, P:2GB