In Part 1 of this series, we took a look at the current status of the Slot-A Athlon motherboard market and concluded with the unfortunate realization that for AMD's Athlon, a worthy motherboard companion has yet to enter the market. So what about Intel's latest entry into the motherboard market, the i820 chipset?

As of now there isn't a set release date for the i820 because of unfortunate delays related to their implementation of RDRAM on i820 boards. While this means that you won't be able to buy i820 boards right away, it does mean that you'll have a little more knowledge about what to expect and what not to fall for when the onslaught of i820 based boards do hit the market.

All three of the boards that we will be taking a closer look at in this article will be available for sale upon the release of the i820 chipset. Following in the footsteps of Part 1 of this series, the first motherboard is directly from the manufacturer of the chipset, the Intel Vancouver 820 - VC820. The other two boards are the AOpen AX6C and the Gigabyte GA-6CX. All three of these boards are pre-production samples, but some are more "pre-production" than the others. The VC820 is probably the nearest to completion, followed by the GA-6CX, and, finally, the AOpen AX6C. For this reason none of the boards were really evaluated based on stability. Rather they were used to point out expectations for the future of i820 based motherboards.

The one thing we've been preaching over and over again since we first learned about the upcoming release of the i820 chipset is to wait on motherboard purchases until after the new chipset hit the streets, simply because the i820 was supposed to be the "next" BX chipset and there would be no reason that we would not want to upgrade to it. Unfortunately that's not how things turned out. The initial performance benchmark results show that the i820 platform offers negligible performance improvements over the BX platform and there are issues right now involving RDRAM. Currently, a move towards i820, if it were possible, wouldn't be a recommended one.

But wait, there's hope. The delay of the i820 chipset conveniently coincides with the fact that Intel's Coppermine CPU won't be released until later this month. So while the Pentium III B + i820 combo wouldn't be a formidable opponent if it were available today, the Coppermine + i820 may pack a little more punch than we're expecting. If the Coppermine does succeed and there is a demand for a platform to run it on, what will make the perfect i820 motherboard?

Unlike the Slot-A platform, Slot-1 has been around for quite some time and most of the kinks have already been worked out with the platform. The quality and performance of the BX platform has long since reached the point where the average BX board will perform and run the same as just about any other BX board on the market. There are exceptions on both ends of the spectrum (i.e. extremely stable and extremely flaky motherboards) but overall most BX boards operate within a few percent of one another. We can expect the same scenario with the i820 boards, so, in the end, the buying decision will come down to what added features does one board offer over another.

Once again we'll start out with descriptions of the three boards themselves and will then move into a section on things to demand and things to simply look for when you're making that i820 motherboard purchase.

Intel is the largest motherboard manufacturer in the world. Their boards make their way into some of the biggest OEMs and are used on a daily basis by people that don't have the slightest clue what a motherboard is. They are used by corporations, families, teenagers and adults, and the one thing they can do they do very well. What is that one thing? Run reliably.

You will never see an Intel board that is full of performance tweaking features, nor will you ever see an Intel board that values expansion over everything else. Instead, the primary concern Intel has when designing and producing a motherboard is whether or not it operates reliably and they've consistently made quality their top concern.

The VC820 is no different from their usual approach to manufacturing motherboards. The board makes use of only a handful of capacitors but they get the job done. The four capacitors located behind the SC242 (Slot-1) connector are manufactured by nichicon and they feature a 3300uF rating. For reference purposes, these capacitors normally feature a 1000uF or 1500uF capacitance rating; only the AOpen AX6BC Pro Gold featured a set of 2200uF caps.

The board itself implements a number of features that we will definitely want to see in future motherboards. The steps Intel is taking with the VC820 are in the right direction and are mostly for the greater good of the industry. First, let's talk expansion…

The VC820 features five PCI slots, and not a single ISA slot. A year ago a move like this would have been considered drastic, but now, it is appreciated. Not including any ISA slots removes the cost of an ISA bridge from the cost of ownership but it also forces the industry to kill a standard that has been strung along for entirely too long. The PCI bus is the interface of today, and prolonging the death of the ISA bus will only mean having to provide for the standard in future motherboard designs. The ISA-less motherboard design will be one that will dominate the i820 realm.

The three RIMM slots on the VC820 is a tricky situation. It is highly likely that Intel won't stray from the 3 RIMM setup although that is the root of their current problems with RDRAM. The experience with the BX chipset is that most people do not need four memory expansion slots, and with DRAM being offered in higher density chips it seems like the most cost effective solution for Intel or any motherboard manufacturer producing a single processor motherboard is to invest in 3 RIMM slots.

For quite some time we've always wondered why no motherboard manufacturer made a standard front panel connector for their motherboard and pushed case manufacturers to support it. A design like this would be a relatively cheap feature to implement (just adhere to a standard instead of randomly placing your front panel connector pins) and it would definitely be a push in the positive direction for the consumer. It seems like our wishes have come true as the VC820 is among the first boards to feature this standard front panel connector (see right) that looks very much like the old serial port connectors of the pre-ATX days. We have yet to see a case that features a single standard connector that would take advantage of this, but it is only a matter of time before this trend catches on and we have a little feature to look forward to.

The presence of the AMR (Audio/Modem Riser) slot on the VC820 is expected, especially since Intel has been pushing for the use of AMR heavily since the release of the i810 chipset. Our major problem with the implementation of AMR on the VC820 is that it occupies a slot position on the back of your case, one of 7 on a standard ATX case. What we would have liked to have seen is the AMR slot shared with a PCI slot, much like the last ISA slot was shared with the first PCI slot on older motherboards. This would give users the opportunity of either using a PCI modem/audio device or taking advantage of the on-board audio/telephony codecs with the AMR slot. The Tyan S2054 (i810) was the first board we'd seen that took advantage of this shared AMR slot idea, and we expect it to become a more popular way of implementing AMR without giving up the possibility of having a total of 6 PCI slots. Too bad Intel didn't go this route with the VC820.

In spite of the support for a software audio codec, the VC820 features a hardware PCI sound controller. The Crystal CS4614-CM drives the on-board audio of the VC820 which is very unusual for a motherboard that uses a chipset designed with AMR support in mind. Maybe Intel is realizing that software audio isn't the best thing in the world? While our review sample featured the Crystal chip, the final shipping version will differ in that it features the Creative Labs ES1373 hardware solution instead. The on-board telephony codec is manufactured by Motorola.

Speaking of integration, the VC820 features an on-board 10/100 ethernet adapter which is a very welcome and long overdue addition to the integrated motherboard scene. The 10/100 port is placed directly above the two USB ports and an ATX I/O shield is provided with the appropriate cutouts to support the placement of the connector.

The ethernet port is completely hardware driven so there are no worries about CPU utilization during network traffic and, considering the growing number of users with access to high speed internet connections or LANs, this feature is definitely worth it. Once reserved for the more expensive server motherboards, it is refreshing to see ethernet ports brought down to the desktop level with the VC820. From the point of view of the user that does not need on-board ethernet this is just an added cost, which is why this feature will not be one that catches on quickly.

There are a few design improvements the VC820 offers over what we're used to from the BX boards we've come to know and love for the past year and a half. The distance between the left levers of the RIMM slots and the AGP slot has been increased. While this is attributed to the fact that the space is occupied by the AMR slot, it does prevent the levers from interfering with the installation of any AGP cards.

The design also implements support for the AGP retention mechanism (right). This is a new feature you'll begin noticing on i820 motherboards. The AGP retention mechanism is basically a plastic retention kit that fits around your AGP slot and snaps into the last latch of your AGP card. This prevents the card from moving ever so slightly side to side during normal operation, or because you accidentally pulled on your VGA cable. This doesn't replace the screw that secures your AGP card in place, it just helps keep the card from moving. As heatsinks and fans get larger and larger, the need for the AGP retention mechanism will increase, and it's something that you'll start to see on more i820 motherboards. While our review sample did not feature an installed AGP retention mechanism, the positioning for one was silk screened onto the motherboard and the shipping product will probably feature one.

As with all Intel boards, the VC820 is fully jumperless and requires the modification of a single jumper to enable or disable access to the configuration utility in the BIOS. Features like a jumperless setup, on-board PC speaker, and USB front panel connectors are just a handful of the options that the upcoming generations of i820 boards will have to offer. Luckily we also happen to have previews of what two of those forthcoming i820 boards have in store for us, so let's get to it.

Regular AnandTech readers will know that our pick for best overall Slot-1 BX motherboard went to AOpen for their AX6BC Pro Gold. AOpen has consistently manufactured stable products and they have never failed to deliver strong performance and features. Their quality is top notch and as a manufacturer they are among the top 5%. It isn't a surprise that they are second only to Intel as the largest motherboard manufacturer in the world in terms of yearly sales. Now just because a company sells a lot doesn't mean that they are producing quality goods, but in this case, they most definitely are.

The AOpen AX6C arrived in our labs around the same time as the VC820 and it provided us with a very good comparison of what to expect from the first generation of i820 motherboards and what to expect from the future of i820 boards. The AX6C is little more than AOpen's BX design adopted to the i820 chipset, which is quite unfortunate since, as we've seen with the VC820, there is quite a bit of room for improvement. So we'll make it very clear right now that it wouldn't be a stretch to say that the AX6C isn't the only i820 based board that we'll see from AOpen; it may be the first, but it won't be the last.

The board features the same expansion slot configuration as the VC820, except this time the AGP slot is placed closest to the CPU slot and the AMR slot is placed in between the AGP and PCI slots. There are a number of issues that you can discuss with this configuration, the first being heat. In most cases your CPU is the primary source of heat in your case, and placing an extremely hot graphics adapter next to it isn't beneficial to either component. Intel's solution was to separate the two by an AMR slot, which is a perfectly reasonable decision, but in the AX6C, this is not taken into account and the placement of the slots isn't as wise of a decision as it could have been. If AOpen wanted to stick to this design it would have been a preferred option to use the idea of a shared AMR slot. Live and learn.

AOpen finally realized that the positioning of their floppy drive connector was a problem that needed attention and they moved it to the lower end of the motherboard. However, in doing that, they kept the ATX power supply connector up top behind the Slot-1 connector. The ideal position for the power supply connector would have been in the lower right hand corner of the motherboard or on the opposite side of the Slot-1 connector but, pushed to the right edge of the motherboard. There’s no doubt that the layout of the AX6C could have definitely been improved.

Other than those complaints, the board resembles your standard BX board, with the exception that its an i820 based board. Keep in mind that the AX6C is still a pre-production sample; it doesn't even include the silk screen for the AGP retention mechanism. Also remember that we're using it as an indicator of where improvements can be made on future i820 boards and not as a sample to evaluate.

With the current state of the chipset it is surprising that any motherboard manufacturers are taking the platform as seriously as they are.

The 6CX is much further along the way, in terms of a motherboard that's ready for production, than the AX6C. The IDE connectors have already been color coded and the manual is on its production run as well.

The first thing you'll notice about the 6CX is that it does feature the "forbidden" ISA slot adjacent to the last PCI slot. The sole ISA slot is shared, meaning that either the ISA slot or the 5^th PCI slot can be occupied at one time, but not both. This allows the 6CX to offer the same 5 PCI slots, 1 AGP and 1 AMR slot as the other two boards we've looked at but, it also adds the option of using that single ISA slot, should the need arise.

The downside to the ISA slot is that it adds some cost to the production of the motherboard because a separate PCI-to-ISA bridge must be accounted for. While the addition of this does not raise the price of the motherboard to an extremely great degree, for those users that aren't ever going to use that ISA slot, it is more of a pointless investment on Gigabyte's part. This is of course debatable depending on the type of user you are, but it is a feature that you'll eventually see phased out.

The board is much more heavily populated with capacitors than both of the other boards we took a look at but if you recall from above, the Intel VC820 focuses entirely on stability and features less than a 1/3 of the capacitor count on the 6CX. It's quality, not quantity that counts here.

The three RIMM slots are standard on the 6CX, as they are on the previous two boards. It seems as if the 3 RIMM slot configuration will be the trend with i820 boards as it was with the BX boards towards the end of the chipset's reign as Intel's flagship desktop solution.

The AGP slot features an installed retention mechanism, which was the first implementation we have seen of the AGP retention mechanism thus far. You can expect this retention mechanism to become as standard as the Slot-1 CPU retention mechanism has become over the past two years. The AGP slot is separated from the CPU by the AMR slot which is an improvement for both cooling and for DIMM installation, as discussed above with the AOpen AX6C.

The 6CX is driven primarily by jumpers/dip switches (above right). The single set of four dip switches is the smallest dip switch block we've ever seen. You'll need a pin or something with a very tiny point to adjust those settings. Luckily the default setting is the 100/133MHz auto-detect, which should lessen the effects of such a poorly designed switch.

The 6CX features an on-board Aureal Vortex audio controller, which is also a hardware based controller. However, the truly interesting feature of the 6CX is the Dual BIOS that Gigabyte first introduced with the BX2000 board a few months ago. The Dual BIOS setup is basically what the name implies, there are two physical BIOS chips on-board the 6CX, should one fail, the other will take over. This is especially useful if you accidentally perform an incorrect flash on your BIOS and can't restore the original. While most users won't use this feature on a day to day basis (at least we hope not) for the few percent that do end up needing it, it is definitely worth the trouble.

In order to conserve space, the on-board battery was mounted vertically which allows for very easy installation/removal while not allowing the battery to slide out.

There is a provision for the front panel USB connector, but the front panel LED connector we saw on the VC820 isn't present on the 6CX just like it wasn't present on AOpen's board.

i820 Motherboards: What to Expect

You would think that it would be very easy to predict the future of the i820 based motherboard market. It should theoretically follow in the footsteps of the BX platform. But then again, when the BX chipset was released, there wasn't a true competitor to the chipset around. The i820 is a step in a different direction, the RDRAM platform has yet to be embraced by the industry and unfortunately for Intel, there are viable alternatives.

Micron has already launched a "we told you so" campaign praising their decision to pursue VIA's i820 alternative, the quietly released Apollo Pro 133A, over Intel's delayed i820. If we also take into account the fact that the i810 chipset was a huge disappointment in the minds of many motherboard manufacturers (it did begin to catch on after awhile but it was a very slow start), the future of the i820 chipset is a bit sketchy.

With no native PC133 support without the addition of a Memory Translator Hub (MTH) that will most likely not come without a performance penalty, the RDRAM prerequisite of the i820 platform will keep it out of the hands of many. At the same time, Intel has already made it clear that the upcoming Pentium III E (Coppermine) will be available in a Slot-1/100MHz FSB version which further extends the life of the BX chipset. It is unlikely that motherboard manufacturers will completely ignore the i820 chipset and continue to produce newer BX boards, but don't be surprised to see your favorite BX boards stick around for a little while longer while i820 becomes established.

Once the motherboard manufacturers, most of which are still recovering from the horrible earthquakes in Taiwan, do jump on the i820 bandwagon, you can expect quite a fewinnovations brought to motherboards based on this chipset.

The ISA-less motherboard, as we discussed before, will become a reality very soon. The ISA platform is dying and with audio and modem codecs already provided for on-board, supporting older ISA devices, in most cases, isn't the best idea for a motherboard manufacturer looking to do their part in pushing the industry forward.

Hopefully, the idea of the shared AMR slot will catch on because, it makes much more sense than including an AMR slot as an independent slot that, even if unused, will occupy a slot position which could be better used for another PCI slot. Once again, Tyan has already traveled down this road with the S2054 and with any luck, they won't be the last to walk down that path.

The AGP retention mechanism will shortly become standard on all AGP 4X compliant motherboards, including our beloved i820 boards. The idea of an AGP retention mechanism isn't a revolutionary one but it does help resolve an issue that was bound to come up. It's better now than never.

A standardizing of the front panel LED/switch connector seems to be slowly creeping upon us. The first evidence we saw of a standardized connector was on the VC820, but since then we've seen connectors present on an upcoming Tyan motherboard as well. While it's not a revolutionary change, it is definitely a welcome one; any change that makes our complex lives simpler is a very welcome one.

While we'd love to see integrated ethernet make its way from the dream world to a reality, the fact of the matter is that the demand isn't great enough to see this change come about. We will hopefully begin to see more motherboards ship with integrated ethernet as an option, but the day when it is a standard feature is nowhere near upon us.

A trend we noticed with BX motherboards as the chipset aged was the trend towards jumperless setups controlled primarily or entirely within the BIOS setup. While there will still be the exceptions, we expect this trend to continue into the upcoming i820 motherboards. The trend is towards making the motherboard a less intimidating and more elegant device and while the basic function will not change, the market does dictate how it evolves and the tweaker/enthusiast market has definitely dictated a need for a jumperless setup. This unfortunately contributes to the death of one of our favorite motherboard manufacturers, ABIT. For years ABIT has relied on their patented SoftMenu technology to sell motherboards. But when other manufacturers started offering similar jumperless CPU setups, ABIT began to lose some of their attractive nature. In the end, unless ABIT explores the unexplored (a truly overclockable Athlon motherboard could be the key…) they're going to end up among the ranks of the rest of the motherboard manufacturers and they will fade away and step out of the lime light that they've become accustomed to.

Overclocking on i820 boards won't be much different from their BX counterparts with the major differences being the FSB speeds offered as options. With the 133MHz FSB frequency as the standard, the first logical move would be towards that magical 150MHz setting. At 150MHz the AGP frequency is still within reasonable limits at 75MHz and the stress put on the RDRAM can be reduced to nothing as the RDRAM frequency multiplier can be adjusted (2.0x - 4.0x). The true test will end up being how well the 160MHz FSB frequency is implemented as an overclocker's option. At 150MHz we're already pushing the limits of the GTL+ bus, which was originally only designed for 66/100MHz operation. Now at 133MHz, how far can it be pushed before the true limits are seen?

Pushing the RDRAM frequency is another issue to look for in upcoming i820 motherboards. Motherboards should allow for the manual setting of the RDRAM frequency multiplier. Of the three boards we took a look at, only the Intel board would not allow for this manipulation to be performed manually (which is expected, they don't really endorse overclocking or tweaking of any sort). Expect this trend to continue as boards begin flowing from, among others, ASUS and ABIT in the near future.

The real question here may not be what should I look for in an i820 board, but should I be looking at in an i820 board? The answer is a bit blurry right now. If you ask Micron, they'll tell you that the Apollo Pro 133A from VIA is a much better solution. If you ask Dell or Gateway, they'll tell you the opposite. Where do we stand? Give us a week, and you'll find out ;)