Wednesday, September 18, 2002

Introduction

As is their habit, Soyo has retaken our center stage today with the release of a brand new motherboard.

Ever since the introduction of the "Dragon" series of mobos, Soyo has been taken with the idea of producing boards with a wide variety of features and functionality.

The new Platinum Edition P4X400 -- for its part -- comes in a silver finish, and can boast of support for DDR400 memory, ATA133 drivers, a RAID 0+1 controller, a six-channel C-Media 8738 sound-card, and integrated SPDIF connectors.

The fun doesn't end there though, because the new P4X400 Dragon Ultra also comes with the full range of Overclocking functions that we've come to expect from the "Dragon" family, as well as USB 2.0 ports, an AGP Pro slot that supports AGP 8X, an excellent software pack, and the "Ebox" -- which allows users to add four USB ports to their system.

In short, the Soyo P4X400 is equipped to satisfy just about any need.

Let's take a look, shall we?

The Soyo P4X400 Dragon Ultra's sound capabilities are provided by an integrated C-Media CMI8738 audio-chip.

The CMI8738 supports 5.1 speaker-configurations, with six lines-out, including a central base-line.

As part of its standard equipment, the Soyo P4X400 Dragon Ultra also includes the ability to treat incoming and outgoing digital singlas via SPDIF optical connectors or gold plated RCA jacks.

From a sound standpoint, the C-Media¨ CMI8738 has very little to envy of other audio-chips. It supports up to 32 polyphonic voices, EAX effects, and supports both Microsoft DirectSound 3D, and Aureal A3D.

As we've mentioned before, the CMI8738 is head and shoulders above the audio circuitry that is typically included as part of most VIA chipsets, and its sound reproduction is simply excellent. Whether you're playing MP3s, CDs, or 3D games, the CMI8738's sound quality will often surprise you with its fidelity.

Configuration

As is the case with most of Soyo's "Dragon" family, the P4X400's design is a purely jumperless affair. As a result, users are not required to set jumpers or switches in order to get their CPU up and running. The only two jumpers present, in fact, are used to reset the BIOS and the RAID controller.

Configuration of the CPU, and most related services is accomplished through the BIOS, and more specifically, the "Soyo Combo Setup" menu.

Once there, users are able to set the FSB frequency to between 100Mhz and 165Mhz in 1Mhz increments.

The Vcore, AGP, and DDR voltages can also be set to any of the values indicated by the table above.

The clock multiplier setting can also be set manually, though doing so will be of little use unless you happen to be using a Pentium 4 without a multiplier lock.

And, as expected, a number of memory timing settings can also be altered from within the "Advanced Chipset Features" menu. This includes the option to set the memory bus frequency to 133MHz, 166MHz, 200MHz, or "SPD" ("Serial Presence Detect" -- which allows the system to determine a proper frequency automatically.

Next: Technical details.

Soyo P4X400