Supermicro PIIISED ATX Slot-1 i810E

One more important note about the i810E chipset is that it runs the SDRAM at only 100MHz. Because Intel is trying to push RAMBUS in i820 boards, leaving out 133MHz speeds in the i810E makes RAMBUS that much more attractive. If running SDRAM at 133MHz is a high priority, the VIA Apollo Pro 133(A) chipset is currently the best solution rather than the i810E.

With six 1000uF capacitors and one 1500uF capacitor surrounding the CPU slot, Supermicro obtained the usual high stability in our tests. While some motherboard manufacturers do not focus on designing an optimal layout, Supermicro has noticed the importance that cost-cutting should not affect stability. There were few crashes in the test period, both at 733MHz and when overclocked to 770MHz.

Overclocking options are more numerous than on most Supermicro boards. There are 15 different FSB speeds to select from: 66 / 72 / 75 / 83 / 100 / 107 / 112 / 117 / 125 / 133 / 137 / 140 / 146 / 150 / 153. The board is practically jumperless, with a set of jumpers to set 66/100/133 MHz or auto. The clock multiplier can be set in the BIOS from 2.5x - 6.0x; however, with all Intel CPUs multiplier locked, clock multiplier flexibility is no longer a big issue.

The PIIISED follows Supermicro precedent by implementing the somewhat disliked AMI BIOS, but HiFlex version 1.18 looks more similar to the updated revision 6.00PG of Award's popular BIOS. With the jumperless setup, the AMI BIOS that is part of the board's i802AB FWH (Firmware Hub) allows changing hardware settings. As with Award's 6.00PG, the HiFlex provides descriptions of the settings in the right panel of the screen along with providing many more system settings, allowing optimization under extreme overclocking situations - definitely a plus for hardcore hardware enthusiasts. However, AMI BIOS is not quite as neatly organized with some options being more hidden than the Award counterpart.

One more contention with the AMI BIOS is the difficulty in enabling ACPI support in Windows 98. Since there is no option for enabling ACPI, the trick instead is to disable APM (advanced power management) support in the BIOS.

For hardware monitoring, the board sports the Winbond 83627 HF-AW chip -- which provides adequate hardware monitoring. In fact, the PIIISED monitors 7 voltages, 3 fan speeds and CPU temperature. Also, the temperature is read from the CPU's on die thermal diode instead of being reported via thermistor. By including three fan connectors, there should be plenty of cooling options. However, with all three placed near the Slot-1 connector, it might be difficult to mount a fan in the lower half of a mid-tower case.

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 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 which 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.

A recently added feature to i810 and i810E boards is the Suspend to RAM (STR) option, using minimal power and is much quicker than suspending to the hard drive. After suspending, the ATX power supply continues supplying power to the RAM while powering everything else down (even the power supply). By pressing the power switch again the system returns from dormancy virtually instantly. There is adequate information on implementing this feature and upgrading Windows 98 for ACPI compliance in the manual.

Even though the manual lacks specifics on installing a motherboard, it is much better than most motherboard companies include. For an experienced user, this manual is more than sufficient. The driver CD that Supermicro included has all chipset and driver updates to get the system running. It autoruns and it is simple to choose the drivers needed by simply clicking on them one by one and your system will be set up when finished. Supermicro's own Super Doctor hardware monitoring utility is sufficient for hardware monitoring support.