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LOSTCIRCUITS		SHORTCUTS: 6.4 GB and Now What? Separating the DMAs Solving Speed Issues Performance Acceleration Technology A few new Silicons Bonanza Test Setup Memory Performance RAID performance I RAID performance II Winstones 3D Gaming OpenGL / CAD Conclusion Your comments? Intel Mainboards Online
Intel i875 - Canterwood    SATA and GbE for PAT
(Review by MS, April 14, 2003)

Where there is a new Intel chipset, there has to be a new Intel mainboard as well. The latest addition to Intel's repertoire listens to the name "Bonanza", which is something even Duffy Duck could pronounce but trust me, I wouldn't want to hear him say D875PBZ. The Bonanza features four DIMM slots for two x 2 channels as well as the RAID version of the ICH5, another novelty to see RAID integrated directly into an ICH. Gigabit support is self-understood.

Intel D875PBZ "Bonanza" desktop mainboard (photo courtesy of Intel). Note that the DIMM slot population scheme is different from most Granite Bay boards in that slot1 and 3 or 2 and 4 need to be populated simultaneously in order run in dual channel mode.

Six USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit port, one Serial plus one parallel port and last not least the legacy PS/2 connectors for keyboard / mouse. Interestingly, the audio was missing from the test sample, neither the AC'97 nor the audio ports were present.

With the Bonanza board, Intel has finally turned its back on the old routine that BIOS settings would not be accessible to the general end user. With previous boards, the BIOS could be accessed after moving the "Config" jumper to close pins 2-3. The same thing is still possible with the Bonanza board, and at the same time, this jumper overrides any BIOS settings and allows booting into configuration mode.

With the new generation of board, Intel has finally also added the feature of pressing Del to enter the CMOS setup. The setup offers a ton of BIOS settings with the traditional grey and blue Phoenix interface, most importantly memory frequency and latency settings are fully accessible as long as user-defined mode is selected. The only thing still not supported is permanent changing of the external processor bus as in overclocking, however, there is the "Burn-in" option in the Advanced menu that allows to increase the Host-I/O bus frequency by up to 4 %, meaning a system bus of 208 MHz. Otherwise, it is not your father's Intel...

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