-- Singapore Hardware Zone -- Reviews -- Motherboards -- Transcend TS-AWE1

Introduction

Integration has been the buzz around the computer industry lately. Intel added new multimedia extensions to their Pentium range of processors, and so did AMD, with their own set of 3D Now! instructions. Some months back, Intel integrated their i740 display engine into their i810 chipset to integrate video into the motherboard chipset. VIA did the same with their Socket 7 chipset, integrating the Trident chipset into their MVP4. But why all these integration? I know most of you are disappointed with all these integration since it restricts customisation, and thus, using your favourite graphics card is definitely a no-no.

One thing for sure, these integration helps a lot of PC manufacturers cut cost, especially when it comes to business PCs that hardly need expensive hardwares to operate them. Let's face the fact here, do you need a GeForce to type a letter or a document in Word Perfect? The kind of performance you gain can never justify the level of cost involved. This is the reason for the birth of the Intel 810 chipset. Seriously, a large percentage of computer users don't use their PCs to play 3D games like most of us that visit Hardware Zone.

Anyway, this new board from Transcend incorporates the newer i810E chipset that supports 133MHz FSB. It is simply made for the newer Coppermine CPUs. Of course, if you want to run your older Slot-1 Intel CPUs, it is still possible.

The package comes packed with quite a lot of stuff that will help get you started. It includes the manual, CD-ROM with drivers, FDD cable, HDD cable, UDMA/66 cable and a COM port cable. Since one of the original COM port location is occupied with the VGA port, the COM port adapter is provided so that you can attach it to the boad, and screw the COM port plate in the casing slot area. This reminds me of the older AT motherboards where all the ports need to be physically connected to the casing.

The Good

Installation was very simple, and I must say that it has got to be one of the simplest around. Although this is not directly due to Transcend's design, but rather due to the highly integrated chipsets. All you have to do is just insert the SDRAM, plug in your IDE/FDD ports, plug in the power supply, put your CPU into the slot and boot up! You need not have any graphics or audio cards since it is already built on board. However, I still have to give credit to Transcend for making installation problem free.

The built-in sound uses the Sigmatel audio codec. At first, I was rather sceptical about its quality. But after running Quake 3 and blasting it in my FPS 2000, I was pretty impressed. It is pretty good considering that it isn't really a full fledge hardware audio device. Anyway, I am using a pretty fast CPU (450MHz) to test it out, so there wasn't really much of a performance hit. Do remember that you use raw CPU power to churn out the audio. Anyway, for a business PC setup, it really doesn't matter. However, if it really bothers you that much, the BIOS do allow you to disable it.

Besides that, the board also provides you a decent range of FSBs for you to do some light overclocking. In addition, it is designed for 133MHz CPUs and comes with support for UDMA/66 IDE devices. Like the Apollo Pro 133 boards, it also has the option for you to set the speed of your RAM. In other words, you can use your older PC-100 SDRAM for 133MHz CPUs.

Oh yes, one more small item that caught my attention. I have to commend Transcend for providing one of the most flexible Slot Retention mechanism around. Most motherboards come with an "impossible to disassemble" CPU slot retention mechanism. However, the one provided with this motherboard has a lock and unlock mechanism which makes the removal of your Slot-1 CPU perspiration-less.

In the tests, I benchmarked the TS-AWE1 with my Pentium !!!-450 which can be overclocked to 600MHz using 133MHz FSB. The results were compared to Elitegroup's P6BAT-A+ which uses the VIA Apollo 133 chipset. I thought I might as well compare these two chipsets since it will be of great interest to most of you to know the performance of these two low cost chipsets. In addition, I've also compared the results with the AOpen AX6BC Pro at 133MHz FSB.

Benchmark	TS-AWE1 PIII-450	P6BAT-A+ PIII-450	TS-AWE1 PIII-600B	P6BAT-A+ PIII-600B	AX6BC-Pro PIII-600B
CPU mark 99	34.1	33.4	44.5	44.4	46.2
FPU Winmark	2300	2300	3070	3060	3070
Business Winstone 99	22.3	22.3	25.1	25.9	27.2

Generally, the TS-AWE1 is a little faster than the P6BAT-A+. At 133MHz FSB, the P6BAT-A+ performance caught up with the i810e board. However, if you look at the Winstone results for TS-AWE1 and P6BAT-A+, the TS-AWE1 is a bit slower. This is probably due to better graphics support used in the ECS board. The built-in graphics for the i810e is nothing compared to the speedy Voodoo3 2000 used in the other boards. On the other hand, if you compare the performance of the BX chipset (i.e. AX6BC Pro), both i810e and VIA Apollo Pro 133 loses out in comparison. The 440BX is still the clear winner in performance. Anyway, I know some of you will say that it is unfair to compare the BX chipset with the i810e and VIA Apollo Pro 133, but I thought I might as well give some of you a better idea of how these various chipsets fair in terms of performance.

Wintune 98 1.0.40 Benchmarks (Windows 98)

Benchmark	TS-AWE1 PIII-450	P6BAT-A+ PIII-450	TS-AWE1 PIII-600B	P6BAT-A+ PIII-600B	AX6BC-Pro PIII-600B
CPU Integer	1319.1	1318.2	1759.6	1754.2	1759.7
CPU Floating Point	516	517.2	690	685.4	690.6
Video 2D	52.1	75.3	70	85.3	150.7
Direct 3D	47.5	166.8	51.8	168.8	168.9
Open GL	37.2	72.9	41.7	79.7	81.7
Memory	754.8	745	992.7	992.7	1015.9

In the Wintune tests, the TS-AWE1 is a little better in the CPU and memory benchmarks at 450MHz. The video performance fails in comparison with the Voodoo3. However, if you compare it with other low cost graphics adapters, it is pretty good for a start. At 133MHz FSB, the AX6BCPro is clearly the better choice. However, if running your system out of spec isn't your cup of tea, you should consider either the TS-AWE1 or P6BAT-A+. The only drawback for the Transcend board is the performance of the built-in graphics. It would have been perfect if the i810e chipset allows the use of an AGP card.

3D Mark 99 Max @ 800x600 (Pentium III 450MHz)

Benchmark	TS-AWE1 (on-board video)	P6BAT-A+ (V3 2000)
3D Mark Results	3108	3247
Synthetic CPU 3D	6821	6606
Rasterizer Score	875	1972
Fill Rate	73.9	130.6
Fill Rate w/ Multi-Texturing	98.5	247.7

Yep, you guessed it right, the graphics performance is really poor on this board. However, it is still pretty good for a low cost solution. If you're going to pay for an S3 Virge or an ATI Rage IIc, I suggest going for the i810e for the price, value and performance.

Motherboard Specifications
Processor	Intel Celeron^®Processor 266MHz-500MHz (66MHz). Intel Pentium^®II Processor 233MHz-333MHz (66MHz). Intel Pentium^®II Processor 350MHz-450MHz (100MHz). Intel Pentium^®III Processor 450MHz-700MHz (100MHz). Intel Pentium^®III Processor 533MHz-733MHz (133MHz). Supports 66/68/75/100/103/124/133/140/150 MHz System Clock Speed Setting Supports 3.0-8.0 Multiplier Setting
Chipset	Intel 810E Chipset (GMCH, EICH)
Cache memory	CPU Built-in 128KB/256KB/512KB L2 cache for Celeron/Pentium II/III Processor
System Memory	3 x 168-pin 3.3v PC100 SDRAM DIMM support Supports Synchronous DRAM Supports 8/16/32/64/128/256 MB DIMM Module 64 data bits structure only Supports up to 512MB of memory size 4MB Display Cache using 133MHz SDRAM
PCI IDE	2 X PCI Bus Master UDMA/66 IDE ports (up to 4 ATAPI Devices) Support for PIO Mode 0-4, UDMA/33/66 IDE & ATAPI devices
I/O Interface	Built-in VGA port 1x floppy port (360KB-2.88MB) 2x serial ports (High Speed UART 16550 Compatible) 1x parallel port (SPP/EPP/ECP) PS/2 Keyboard PS/2 Mouse 2x Standard USB connectors 1 IrDA header Audio/game ports (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in, CD-in and Game port)
Expansion slot	5 x PCI 32-bit slots, PCI 2.2 compliant 1 x AMR (Audio/MODOM riser) slot
Power Management	Power On by LAN, Modem, RTC, Keyboard & Soft-Power Switch Power Off by Windows^®95/98 Shut down & Soft-Power Switch ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) feature Suspend To RAM (STR) feature
Form Factor	ATX Form Factor : 30.5cm(L) x 20.4cm(W), 4 layer
BIOS	4 Mbits FWH FLASH memory Award PCI BIOS with Green, PnP, ACPI, APM and DMI support ZIP, ATAPI CD-ROM, IDE #1, #2, #3, #4 bootable

Test Configuration
Motherboard(s):	Transcend TS-AWE1 (i810e) ECS P6BAT-A+ v2.0 (VIA Apollo Pro 133) AOpen AX6BC Pro (440BX)
Processor(s):	Intel Pentium III 450 (SL37C)
RAM:	1 x 128MB Mitsubishi PC100 SDRAM DIMM
Hard Drive(s):	IBM Deskstar 22GXP 9.1GB
Video Card(s):	i810e built-in graphics adapter 3dfx Voodoo3 2000 16MB
Bus Master Drivers:	Intel 810 Ultra ATA Storage Driver (TS-AWE1) Windows Generic Bus Master Drivers (AX6BC Pro) VIA IDE Driver 2.1.43 (P6BAT-A+)
Video Drivers:	Intel 810 Graphics Driver 3dfx Voodoo3 drivers 1.02.13
DirectX version:	v.6.1a (Win98)
Operating System(s):	Windows 98 Second Edition (build 4.10.2222A) Windows NT 4.0 Workstation (SP 6)

Overall Rating (Out of a maximum of 5 Star)
Installation	*****
Performance	***½
Price	********
Overclockability	***½
Material Quality	*****
Stability	****½
Overall Rating	********

Introduction

The Good

The Test

Conclusion