Freetech P7-F200A Slot-A ATX Motherboard
Reviewed by CPU-ZILLA  (24 Nov 99)

Motherboard Specifications
Processor	AMD K7 Athlon Processors (500Mhz - 700MHz or higher)
Chipset	AMD-751 Irongate Chipset (Northbridge) 200MHz EV6 System Interface speed 100MHz SDRAM 1x/2x AGP AMD-756 Viper Chipset (Southbridge) Supports FSB settings of 100/133 MHz
Cache memory	CPU Built-in 128KB L1 & 512KB L2 cache
System Memory	3 x 168-pin 3.3v PC100 SDRAM DIMM support  Supports 8/16/32/64/128/256 MB DIMM Module  Supports 168-pin unbuffered PC100/PC133 SDRAM (Supports ECC, 1-bit Error Code Correct function)  Supports up to 768MB of memory size
PCI IDE	2 X PCI Bus Master UDMA/66 IDE ports (up to 4 ATAPI Devices) Support for PIO Mode 0-4, UDMA/33, UDMA/66 IDE & ATAPI CD-ROM
I/O Interface	1x floppy port (360KB-2.88MB)  2x serial ports (16C550 Fast UART Compatible) 1x parallel port (SPP/EPP/ECP)  PS/2 Keyboard  PS/2 Mouse  2x Standard USB 1 IrDA connector for SIR
Expansion slot	4 x PCI 32-bit slots, PCI 2.2 compliant (one PCI/ISA shared) Supports 3.3V/5V PCI bus interface  3 x ISA 16-bit slots  1x AGP (1x & 2x Mode, 66/133MHz) slot (3.3v device support)
Power Management	Power On by Soft-Power Switch  Power Off by Windows® 95/98 Shut down & Soft-Power Switch ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) feature
Form Factor	ATX Form Factor : 30.5cm(L) x 21cm(W) Fits into regular ATX Case (9 mounting holes) ATX Connector on Board
BIOS	2 Mbit (256KB) FLASH memory Award PCI BIOS with Green, PnP, , ACPI, APM and DMI support  LS120, ZIP, ATAPI CD-ROM, LAN, IDE #1, #2, #3, #4 bootable

<Introduction><The Good><The Test> <The Bad><Conclusion><Rating>

Back to top

---

Introduction

Freetech is actually the brand name of products manufactured by Flexus Computer Technology Inc. This company was founded in 1990 with the goal to pursue perfection in the products they design and manufacture. The company is based in the U.S. with the manufacturing and marketing operating in Taiwan. This explains why the motherboard was designed in the United States.

As with the previous motherboard we reviewed based on the Slot-A architecture, the Freetech is also based on AMD's Athlon chipsets, AMD 751 (Irongate) as the northbridge and AMD 756 (Viper) as the Southbridge. The design of the motherboard is closely similar to what I've seen on Microstar's MS-6167, with the exception of the on-board thermal sensors. The manual has also included a list of recommended power supplies to ensure stable operation of the system. It is quite surprising to find the exact list of recommended power supplies as in the MS-6167. I guess since they are based on AMD's reference design, they should also need the same power requirements. Anyway, here's the complete list of power supplies (again).

Turbo-Cool 300ATX American Media CWT-300ATX Emacs AP2-5300F-RV2 Astec SA302-3515-980 Enlight HPC-250G2, A0-01

Sparkle FSP250-61GN Enhance ATX-1125B FSF Group Inc FSP 250-61GN DELTA ELECT INC 200PB-103A POWERMAN FSP300-60GT

I didn't have any of the power supplies listed above, and yet I was able to run the system out of the box. I think you should not worry too much about having the right power supply, as long as you have a unit that could stably supply up to 250W. A 235W power supply may still do the trick, but you may just be pushing your luck a little far. Anyway, I'd certainly like to know what other power suppliers the rest of you are using. Do feedback to me in the Reviews Lab forum, ok?

The board comes packed in a simple looking box with 1 piece of UDMA/66 cable and a Floppy drive cable. Instead of the usual CD-ROM, two diskettes containing the AGP miniport driver and the AMD bus master drivers were included. A rather detailed motherboard user's manual can also be found in the package.

Back to top

---

The Good

The board is pretty simple in design and setting up the board is really no hassle. There are no jumpers to fiddle, so it is quite difficult to screw up. Since the voltage selection and multiplier is built into the CPU itself, there's absolutely nothing to set. All you need to do is plug in the Athlon, a graphic card, a piece of SDRAM and plug in all the connectors (e.g. HD, Floppy and ATX) and you're on your way to installing Windows. It is really that simple. This makes it very easy for beginners, I suppose.

Support for UDMA/66 is also built-in. There's been a lot of talk about this new interface standard lately, and there's really no point in buying a new motherboard that doesn't support this transfer speed. Since it is already built on-board, there's no need to spend a fortune on IDE controller cards that support UDMA/66 transfers.

Overclockers will be delighted to see the option to switch your FSB from 100MHz to 133MHz in the BIOS. However, this is the only setting that's available. Unless your CPU is a great overclocker, I don't suppose you'll need to use this feature.

The board also comes with three thermal sensors ready built on-board. You can find two small blue thermal sensors, one behind the CPU beside the array of power transistors, and the other near the floppy connector. The main thermal sensor is a piece of long flat probe below the CPU heatsink. It looks just like the MS-6163/MS-6163 Pro, except that it is a lot longer than usual. On-board hardware monitoring is a good feature and almost required as the Athlon CPU can get pretty hot, especially in tropical countries, where room temperatures can be as hot as 30°C. This can add to the overall temperature inside the casing, which can rise up to 40-50°C. Thus, it is important to know your temperature before running the system for long hours. It's a definite must when you're setting up your system for the first time.

     Left : Probe near the Slot-A, Center : Probe behind the Slot-A, Right : Probe near the Floppy connector
(click on the pictures for a larger view)

Back to top

---

The Test

I was given a K7-700 for benchmarking the motherboard this time round. It was a pleasant experience running at such high speeds, although I must say that I'm beginning to feel that my PII-450 is lacking in speed. Anyway, I compared the benchmarks from the Freetech motherboard with Microstar's MS-6167 running on the K7-700. I also managed to run some AGP benchmarks using my friend's ATI Rage 128 card.

Test Configuration
Processor(s):	AMD K7-700
RAM:	1 x 128MB Mitsubishi PC100 SDRAM DIMM
Hard Drive(s):	IBM Deskstar 22GXP DJNA-370910
Video Card(s):	3dfx Voodoo3 2000 16MB ATI Rage 128 32MB
Bus Master Drivers:	AMD Bus Master Drivers 1.22
Video Drivers:	3dfx Voodoo3 drivers 1.02.13 ATI Rage 128 drivers (4.11.4116)
DirectX version:	v.6.1a Win98
Operating System(s):	Windows 98 Second Edition (build 4.10.2222A)

Ziff-Davis Winbench 99 and Winstone 99 v1.1 Results (Windows 98)

Benchmark	P7-F200A	MS-6167
CPU mark 99	63.1	62.3
FPU Winmark	3810	3800
Business Winstone 99	28.2	28.2

The Freetech's performance in the CPUmark 99 and FPU Winmark benchmarks were slightly better than Microstar's MS-6167. Although the CPU performance looked promising, the Winstone results were similar.

Wintune 98 1.0.40 Benchmarks (Windows 98)

Benchmark	P7-F200A	MS-6167
CPU Integer	2121.9	2121.6
CPU Floating Point	865.6	865.0
Video 2D	171.0	172.3
Direct 3D	168.8	168.5
Open GL	84.9	85.1
Memory	1687.3	1694.4

The Wintune 98 benchmark indicates that there's very little difference between the two motherboards. This isn't any surprising since both boards were made according to AMD's reference design. Moreover, it uses the same Southbridge, unlike the Asus K7M. We shall see how much more difference the Asus K7M will make in my next review, so do stay tuned.

3D Mark 99 Max @ 800x600
(benchmarked with an ATI Rage 128)

Benchmark	P7-F200A	MS-6167
3D Mark Results	3830	3790
Synthetic CPU 3D	11003	11127
Rasterizer Score	993	995
Fill Rate	79.2	79.4
Fill Rate w/ Multi-Texturing	103.9	104.1

Once again, there's little difference in the graphics performance. The difference between the two motherboards are just probably fluctuations. One thing that you should note, the AGP performance is just exactly like what I've seen in the MS-6167. Whether you have a very powerful 3D card at work or not, you will still encounter occasional jerk in the graphics ahnd they don't appear to run smootly. This is very evident in the Game 2 - First Person benchmark. This is something that I've never encountered on Intel's 440BX chipset.

Back to top

The Bad

Since Freetech adopted AMD's reference design, you can expect the same layout of most components, and this includes the large capacitor and ATX power connector right in front of the CPU. This was also found on the MS-6167 motherboard. However, the capacitor is pretty huge and shaving the fan would certainly not help either. Fortunately, I could bend the capacitor to accomodate the CPU (with the large heatsink and fan). For those who intend to use large Global Win and Alpha heatsinks, do take note of this.

One of the gripes I had with the board was the lack of fan connectors. There's only one fan connector near the CPU, and the other casing fan connector is located far off in the other corner. Unless your fan cable is long enough, you won't be able to reach the other connector, and you will need to power up your fans by other means.

Another disappointment is the non-existent software for the on-board hardware monitoring. Most motherboards would have shipped with their own hardware monitoring softwares, but not with the Freetech P7F200A. The only place you can check the system temperature is in the good old BIOS. This doesn't seem right, and is really disappointing. I had to download Motherboard Monitor 4.12 to make some temperature readings. Fortunately, the board uses the generic Winbond W83782D chip for hardware monitoring, and this can be monitored by most softwares. Below is a screenshot of Motherboard Monitor 4.12 at work. Though it could read the temperatures, one of the sensor reading doesn't seem quite accurate.

Sensor 1 and 2 gives pretty meaningful numbers, but not Sensor 3.

Probably one of the biggest letdown is the 4/3 PCI/ISA configuration. We are supposed to be moving towards PC99 specifications and it is strange to see a motherboard with 3 ISA slots. In time to come, ISA cards will become rare, and this will certainly make the expandability of this board inferior to the rest.

The connector for the PC speakers was unconventional and normal speaker connectors will not work at all. This is due to the different pin layout adopted by Freetech. Fortunately, they had a speaker built on board. Anyway, users who prefer to have louder beeps will certainly need some form of modifications on their current speaker connector.

Back to top

Conclusion

All in all, the Freetech Slot-A motherboard performs on par with the MS-6167, with some extra features not found in the MS-6167. This includes a 133MHz FSB setting for overclockers (probably future support of other Athlon processors) and 3 thermal probes built on-board for temperature monitoring. The lack of PCI slots, on-board fan connectors and softwares will definitely make you think twice. However, if PCI slots are of no concern, and with the fan connectors and motherboard monitoring software taken care by other means, there is no reason why you should not consider this board.

Back to top

MOTHERBOARD RATING

Any comments/remarks/questions? Click picture below.

Back to top

This Product is provided courtesy of

Copyright © 1999 by Singapore Hardware Zone. All rights reserved.

None of the above shall be reproduced, copied and/or
modified without the permission of the WebMaster.