Friday, November 17, 2000

Introduction

The Soyo SY-7VCA is the latest of ATX-style motherboard from Soyo, and the latest to feature their "Soyo Combo Feature" function within its BIOS. As a result, the SY-7VCA has quite a package of features packed into a single menu, including the ability to adjust the CPU latency - a feature that has, until now, been common only to Abit boards. Still, the proof is in pudding as they say, so now seems as good a time to break with the introduction, head on into the analysis, and see what the SY-7VCA really has to offer.

The features

The SY-7VCA motherboard is expandable via 5 PCI slots, 1 ISA slot, an AGP port, and an AMR slot. Three 168-pin DIMM slots have also been supplied, which can hold upto 1.5GB of PC100, or PC133 memory. Obviously, owners of legacy ISA cards were taken into account when designing this board...

As with most recent Soyo offerings, the SY-7VCA is of a totally jumperless design. Thus, configuration of the Soyo SY-7VCA is accomplished totally from within the BIOS. Adjustment of the CPU frequency in particular, can be accomplished from the "Soyo Combo Feature" menu. From there, it is possible to set FSB to any of a range of frequencies from 66MHz to 166MHz, including: 66Mhz, 68Mhz, 75Mhz, 80Mhz, 83Mhz, 85Mhz, 90Mhz, 95Mhz, 100Mhz, 103Mhz, 105Mhz, 109Mhz, 112Mhz, 114Mhz, 115Mhz, 118Mhz, 120Mhz, 124Mhz, 126Mhz, 129Mhz, 133Mhz, 135Mhz, 138Mhz, 140Mhz, 141Mhz, 143Mhz, 145Mhz, 147Mhz, 150Mhz, 154Mhz, 160Mhz, and 166Mhz. Under the same menu, it is also possible to alter the CPU's Vcore voltage by +1.5%, +3%, +4.5%, +6%, +7.5%, +9%, or +10%. From the "CPU L2 Latency Control" menu mentioned in the intro, users have the option of tinkering with CPU's L2 latency, which can be set to a value ranging from 1 to 15. Finally, an option within the "Chipset Features Setup" menu allows the memory bus to be set to an operating frequency equal to, or 33MHz higher than the FSB.

Technical details

A limited amount of space has been provided around the CPU socket, which prevents the installation of a large heatsink.

The first memory slot is situated too close to the AGP port. This poses the risk of the memory retention bar coming into contact with the graphics card should memory be installed.

Eight 1500mfd capacitors have been placed around the CPU socket.

The CPU retention bar is made of metal, but is shaped in such a way that it interferes with the installation of heatsinks.

Only 2 fan connectors are available - too little in our opinion.

Hardware monitoring is controlled by the internal circuitry of the chipset.

It is possible to manually assign IRQs with this board.

It is possible to revert back to the last valid BIOS settings by hitting the "Insert" key at start-up.

Finally, this board features the "Debug LED" system, which provides information related to any problems associated with a false start.

Next: Additional features.