Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/360
Tyan S2054 Tomcat i810 microATX
by Mike Andrawes on August 17, 1999 11:27 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Those of you into multiprocessor systems "way back" in the Pentium days may remember the i430HX was the primary Pentium chipset from Intel to support SMP. At the time, the i430HX was the latest and greatest from Intel - the clear performance leader over the i430VX.
The Tomcat II board from Tyan was one of the most popular boards to feature the i430HX chipset in an SMP configuration. However, the first versions of the board were plagued with silly problems from erratic CPU speeds to unstable operation and quickly earned Tyan a bad name. But those who got a hold of a late revision of the board knew that Tyan went back to the drawing board with the goal of regaining their reputation and produced a solid revision to the board. But those bitten by the original Tomcat II didn't forget and the Tomcat's bad name lived on.
Fast forward to mid 1999. The latest chipset on the block from Intel is the i810. This time, it's definitely not the clear performance leader with it's integrated i752 graphics. But it is a step forward thanks to Intel's Accelerated Hub Architecture (AHA). When Tyan decided to make an i810 board they finally brought back the infamous "Tomcat" name. While the original Tomcat was one of the most powerful, most expandable, and physically largest boards out there, the Tomcat i810 is quite different.
New Anand Tech Report Card Rating 88/B
CPU Interface | Socket-370 |
Chipset | Intel i810 |
L2 Cache | N/A (on-chip) |
Form Factor | microATX |
Bus Speeds | 66 / 100 |
Clock Multipliers | 2.0x - 8.0x |
Voltages Supported | Auto Detect |
Memory Slots | 2 168pin DIMM Slots |
Expansion Slots |
1 AMR Slot (Shared) |
BIOS | AMI BIOS Easy Setup Utility 1.16 |
The Good
Whether it's 6 PCI slots on the Thunder 100 and Thunderbolt, the maximum 8 slots on the Tsunami AT i440BX, or the 8 SIMM slots on the original Tomcat II, Tyan has always been known for taking the expansion capabilities of a motherboard to the maximum. With the Tomcat i810, this philosophy has been maintained despite the low cost, minimal expansion nature of the i810 chipset. With an AMR slot a virtual requirement for an i810 board and microATX only featuring four total expansion slots, most microATX i810 boards are coming with 3 PCI slots, 1 AMR and occasionally a shared ISA slot. Tyan decided to go ahead and share the AMR slot (that currently isn't all that useful) with a PCI slot to allow a 4/0/1/0 (PCI/ISA/AMR/AGP) expansion slot configuration - the most possible on a microATX board.
The Tomcat i810 features all the "high end" chips in the i810 family, including Intel's i801AA I/O Controller Hub (ICH) with full Ultra ATA/66 support and the i810-DC100 Graphics and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) with 4MB 100MHz display cache on the board itself. Two 8ns Samsung 2MB SDRAM chips provide the display cache that handles z-buffering for the integrated i752 found on the i810. Although AnandTech has not encountered any heat issues with the i810 GMCH, Tyan has decided to go ahead and top the chipset with a low profile black heatsink.
Sound is provided by the Analog Devices AD1881 chip that seemingly everyone is using as an AC97 CODEC for host based audio. This will get you by for basic Windows audio, but since it requires the CPU to power it, will slow you down in any audio and CPU intensive tasks - such as gaming. LCD monitor output comes in the form of a small cable that runs from the motherboard to any expansion slot backplate. The interface is DFP and is powered by an onboard Silicon Image SiI154CT64 controller.
Two DIMM slots, the maximum for the i810 chipset, have memory expansion capabilities covered. The layout is clean as we've come to expect from Tyan. All HDD/FDD connectors are located where they should be, right at the front of the board, so that no cables are forced to run over the CPU and/or memory. The ATX power connector is on the edge of the board, right behind the memory slots, which helps to keep the cable clutter down. Backpanel connectors are all color coded for PC99 compliance, while the secondary IDE port can be quickly differentiated by it's white color. No expansion slots are blocked by front panel IO connectors or any other odd obstructions. Although unlikely to be taken advantage of on an i810 board, there is a SCSI LED input set of pins at the front of the board that will allow a single HD activity light to function, regardless of the device in action.
Ten 1000uF capacitors surrounding the CPU socket provide excellent stability - classic Tyan here again. Performance was typical for an i810 motherboard - just like the i440BX motherboards out there, all i810 solutions seem to perform within a few percentage points of each other.
As in just about every recent Tyan board, AMI BIOS is at the heart of the Tomcat i810's setup, but this time it's not AMI WinBIOS that Award BIOS users have come to hate. Instead, it's AMI's text-based Easy Setup Utility that looks similar to the Phoenix BIOS's found in many off the shelf systems. It retains the huge number of options that have always been available in the AMI BIOS and they're still somewhat cryptically labeled for the most part. Fortunately, this time the right half of the screen gives a brief description of some setting and the options available. The explanations are typical of what is found in motherboard manuals, which is to say they leave a lot to be desired, but it's definitely better than nothing.
Hardware monitoring is integrated on the motherboard and can monitor 2 fan speeds, 7 voltages, and the CPU temperature. One fan header is near the CPU and the other is at the front corner of the board. CPU temperature is read from the on-die thermal diode.
As with other boards based on the AMI BIOS, it is necessary to disable Advanced Power Management in order to enable ACPI - it's an either/or situation, unlike with Award BIOS's. Fortunately, on the Tomcat i810, Tyan has made the issue a lot less confusing by providing a clear choice between APM, ACPI, and disabled. When ACPI is disabled, all BIOS power management settings are disabled.
Power management consists of pretty much the standard stuff these days. Wake on LAN and wake on modem ring headers are available to allow the system to power on in the presence of network activity or incoming call. The BIOS can be set to turn on the system at a specific time. 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 as well, even from USB devices.
As many other i810 boards are starting to do, Tyan has also included Suspend to RAM (STR) as another power management feature. STR uses the +5VSB power from your ATX power supply to continue to power the system RAM while everything else is powered down (even the power supply) so that the system appears completely off. When the power switch is hit again, the system is up and running in just seconds. You'll need an ACPI compliant OS that is properly configured to take advantage of this feature. An onboard LED is always lit whenever the system is powered on or in suspend to RAM mode so that you remember that power is still being applied to the motherboard. The front panel LED connector supports dual colored LED's that can provide more information on the exact power state of the system.
A nice touch is the ability to configure what the system will do when AC power is restored after a power outage - either remain off, turn on, or resume last power state. This is a feature often overlooked since ATX and soft power became available, but is critical for anyone using their system where it must be on 24/7 or as close as possible. It also allows for users to shut the system on and off from a surge protector.
As always, Tyan's manual is excellent and provides useful information on all aspects of setting up the board. For the novice installer, the best part may be the actual photographs that help guide you through the installation. The CD is straight forward and contains separate directories for Windows 9x, NT4 and 2000. Under Win9x, you get chipset patches, bus master drivers, sound drivers, and video drivers. NT4 only has sound and video drivers, while 2000 only has video drivers. The full manual can also be found on the CD in PDF format.
The Bad
Overclocking is nonexistent on the Tomcat i810. Then again, the i810 is not quite the ideal arena for the overclocking tweaker anyway. The CD lacks any software beyond the bare minimum driver support that is included. Voltage tweaks are still out, but that only makes sense with the lack of overclocked bus speeds. Otherwise, a very respectable i810 board.
USB Compatibility
-
Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0
Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2
USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes
USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes
Recommended SDRAM
Recommended SDRAM: 1 x 64MB Mushkin SEC Original PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man SEC Original PC100 SDRAM
SDRAM Tested: 1 x 128MB Mushkin SEC Original PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 128MB Memory-Man SEC Original PC100 SDRAM
Manufacturer: The
Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.memory-man.com
Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Website: http://www.mushkin.com
The Test
In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.
Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology.
Test Configuration |
|
Processor(s): | Intel PPGA Celeron 366 OEM |
RAM: | 1
x 64MB Mushkin PC100 SDRAM 1 x 64MB Memory-Man PC100 SDRAM |
Hard Drive(s): | Western Digital Caviar AC28400 - UltraATA/33 |
Bus Master Drivers: | Microsoft Win98 DMA Drivers |
Video Card(s): | Integrated Intel i752 in i810 |
Operation System(s): | Windows 98 SE |
Motherboard Revision: | Tyan S2054 Tomcat i810 Revision 1.0 |
Windows 98 Performance |
|
Business
Winstone 99 |
|
Intel Celeron 366 (66MHz x 5.5) | 18.4 |
For the maximum possible expansion in a microATX i810 board, the Tomcat i810 is definitely the top choice right now thanks to the standard Tyan stability, quality, and reliability.
AnandTech Motherboard Rating |
|
Business | |
Performance | 85% |
Price | 85% |
Ease of Use | 85% |
Overclocked Stability | N/A |
General Stability | 90% |
Quality | 89% |
Documentation | 93% |
Reliability | 89% |
Overall Rating | 88% |
Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology.