AM2 Motherboards-Part 4: ATI Crossfire Xpress 3200
by Wesley Fink on August 21, 2006 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
SB600 and the Transitional SB460
The new ATI South Bridge SB600 was completely discussed and tested in the launch reviews for RD580 and the AMD Reference Board review. However, it is such an important part of making the ATI CrossFire 3200 competitive that it is worth detailing the SB600 features:
CPU Interface
SB460
You may also find lower cost boards based on the ATI chipsets that use SB460. SB460 is pin-compatible with SB600, meaning either chip can be used in the same design. This is an important consideration for manufacturers that will offer several motherboards based on the ATI chipsets.
SB460 is a low-power die-shrink of SB450. That means it only supports SATA1 hard drives and it still has the same issues with USB 2.0 performance that we have found in past SB450 reviews. The good news is manufacturers now have a lower cost (and lower performance) South Bridge to use with current ATI North Bridges - both CrossFire Xpress 3200 (RD580) and CrossFire Xpress 1600 (RD480).
CPU Interface
The new ATI South Bridge SB600 was completely discussed and tested in the launch reviews for RD580 and the AMD Reference Board review. However, it is such an important part of making the ATI CrossFire 3200 competitive that it is worth detailing the SB600 features:
CPU Interface
- Supports the following Intel processors:
- Desktop: Pentium 4, Pentium D, Pentium Extreme Edition, Prescott, Celeron, Celeron D, Cedar Mill, Presler, Conroe, Allendale
- Mobile: Mobile Pentium 4, Pentium M, Mobile Prescott, Celeron M, Yonah, Yonah Celeron, Merom
- Supports the following AMD processors:
- Desktop: Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX, Sempron, Opteron, dual-core Opteron
- Mobile: Athlon XP-M, Mobile Athlon 64, Turion 64, Mobile Sempron
- 1/2/4-lane A-Link Xpress II interface
- Dynamic detection of lane configuration
- High data transfer bandwidth
- Supports PCI rev. 2.3 specifications
- Supports PCI bus at 33 MHz
- Supports up to 6 master devices
- Supports 40-bit addressing
- Supports interrupt steering for Plug-n-Play devices
- Supports concurrent PCI operations
- Supports hiding of PCI devices by BIOS/hardware
- Supports spread spectrum
- 5 OHCI and 1 EHCI Host controllers to support 10 USB ports
- All 10 ports are USB 1.1 ("Low Speed", "Full Speed") and 2.0 ("High Speed") compatible
- Supports ACPI S1~S5
- Supports legacy keyboard/mouse
- Supports USB debug port
- Supports port disable with individual control
- SMBus Rev. 2.0 compliant
- Supports SMBALERT # signal / GPIO
- Supports IOAPIC/X-IO APIC mode for 24 channels of interrupts
- Supports 8259 legacy mode for 15 interrupts
- Supports programmable level/edge triggering on each channel
- Supports serial interrupt on quiet and continuous modes
- Two cascaded 8237 DMA controllers
- Supports PC/PCI/DMA
- Supports LPC DMA
- Supports type F DMA
- Supports LPC based super I/O and flash devices
- Supports two master/DMA devices
- Supports TPM version 1.1/1.2 devices for enhanced security
- Supports SPI devices
- Supports four SATA ports, complying with SATA 2.0 specifications
- Supports SATA II 3.0GHz PHY, with backward compatibility with 1.5GHz
- Supports RAID striping (RAID 0) across all 4 ports
- Supports RAID mirroring (RAID 1) across all 4 ports
- Supports RAID 10 (striping plus mirroring; 4 ports needed)
- Supports both AHCI mode and IDE mode
- Supports advanced power management with AHCI mode
- Single PATA channel support
- Supports PIO, multi-word DMA, and Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 modes
- 32x32 byte buffers on each channel for buffering
- Swap bay support by tri-state IDE signals
- Supports Messages Signaled Interrupt (MSI)
- Integrated IDE series resistors
- Support for both audio and modem Codecs
- Compliant with AC'97 codec Rev. 2.3
- 6/8 channel support on audio codec
- Multiple functions for audio and modem Codec operations
- Bus master logic
- Supports up to 3 codecs simultaneously
- Supports S/PDIF output
- Separate bus from the HD audio
- 4 independent output streams (DMA)
- 4 independent input streams (DMA)
- Up to 16 channels of audio output per stream
- Supports up to 4 codecs
- Up to 192kHz sample rate
- Up to 32-bits per sample
- Message Signaled Interrupt (MSI) capability
- 64-bit addressing capability for MSI
- 64-bit addressing capability for DMA bus master
- Unified Audio Architecture (UAA) compatible
- HD Audio registers can be located anywhere in the 64-bit address space
- 8254-compatible timer
- Microsoft High Precision Event Timer (HPET)
- ACPI power management timer
- 256-byte battery backed CMOS RAM
- Hardware supported century rollover
- RTC battery monitoring feature
- ACPI specification 3.0 compliant power management schemes
- Supports C2, C3, C4
- Supports C1e and C3 pop-up (AMD platform only)
- Supports S0, S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5
- Supports SpeedStepTM (Intel platform only)
- Full support for On-NowTM
- Supports CPU SMM, generating SMI# signal upon power management events
- GPIO supports on external wake up events
- Supports CLKRUN# on PCI power management
- Provides clock generator and CPU STPCLK# control
- Hardware monitoring support
- Support for ASF
- Supports 3 Independent Fan Control outputs
- Supports 4 thermal diode temperature sensing functions
- Supports 1 AMDSI function
SB460
You may also find lower cost boards based on the ATI chipsets that use SB460. SB460 is pin-compatible with SB600, meaning either chip can be used in the same design. This is an important consideration for manufacturers that will offer several motherboards based on the ATI chipsets.
SB460 is a low-power die-shrink of SB450. That means it only supports SATA1 hard drives and it still has the same issues with USB 2.0 performance that we have found in past SB450 reviews. The good news is manufacturers now have a lower cost (and lower performance) South Bridge to use with current ATI North Bridges - both CrossFire Xpress 3200 (RD580) and CrossFire Xpress 1600 (RD480).
CPU Interface
- Supports the Intel Pentium 4, Prescott, Mobile Pentium 4, Mobile Prescott, Banias, and Dothan processors
- Supports the AMD Sempron 64, Athlon 64, and Athlon 64 FX processors
- 2 / 4-lane A-Link Express interface to RADEON IGPs
- High data transfer bandwidth
- Supports PCI bus at 33MHz
- PCI Rev. 2.3 specification support
- Supports up to 6 bus master devices
- Supports 40-bit addressing
- Interrupt steering supported for Plug-n-Play devices
- Concurrent PCI operation support
- 2 OHCI and 1 EHCI Host controllers to support 8 USB 1.1/2.0 devices
- All 8 ports are USB 1.1 ("Low Speed", "Full Speed") and 2.0 ("High Speed") compatible
- ACPI S1 ~ S5 supported
- Legacy Keyboard/Mouse support
- SMBus Rev. 2.0 compliant
- Support SMBALERT # signal / GPIO
- Supports IOAPIC/X-IO APIC mode for 24 channels of interrupts
- Supports 8259 legacy mode for 14 interrupts
- Supports programmable level/edge triggering on each channels
- Supports serial interrupt on quiet and continuous modes
- Two cascaded 8237 DMA controllers
- Supports PC/PCI DMA
- Supports LPC DMA
- Supports type F DMA
- Supports LPC based super I/O and flash devices
- Two Master/DMA devices supported
- Support for TPM version 1.2 devices for enhanced security
- Supports four SATA ports, complying with the SATA 1.0 specification
- Speeds up to 1.5 GHz (150MB/s data throughput)
- Integrated Silicon ImageTM controller and PHY interface
- RAID Striping (RAID 0) support
- RAID Mirroring (RAID 1) support
- Supports 1 (One) IDE controller (Primary Channel)
- Supports PIO, Multi-word DMA, and Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 modes.
- 32x32 byte buffers on each channel for buffering
- Swap bay support by tri-state IDE signals
- Supports Message Signaled Interrupt (MSI)
- Integrated IDE series resistor
- Support for both audio and modem codecs
- Compliant with AC'97 codec Rev. 2.3
- 6 / 8 channel support on audio codec
- Multiple functions for audio and modem codec operation
- Bus master logic
- Up to 3 codecs are supported simultaneously
- Support S/PDIF output
- 4 Independent output streams (DMA)
- 4 Independent input streams (DMA)
- Up to 16 channels of audio output
- Up to 16 channels of audio input
- Support up to 4 codecs
- Up to 192kHz Sample Rate and 32-Bit Audio
- Message Signaled Interrupt (MSI) capability
- 64-bit addressing capability for DMA Bus Master
- 64-bit addressing capability for MSI
- HD registers can be located anywhere in the 64-bit address space
- 8254 compatible timer
- Microsoft High Precision Event Timer (HPET)
- ACPI power management timer
- 256-byte battery-backed CMOS RAM
- Hardware supported century rollover
- RTC battery monitoring feature
- ACPI specification 2.0 compliant power management schemes
- Supports C2, C3, C4
- Supports S0, S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5
- Wakeup events for S1, S3, S4/S5 generated by:
- Any GEVENT pin
- Any GPM pin
- USB
- Power Button
- Internal RTC wakeup
- SMI# event
- Support for SpeedStepTM
- Full support for On-Now
- CPU SMM support, generating SMI# signal upon power management events
- GPIO supports on external wake up events
- CLKRUN# supported on PCI power management
- Provides clock generator and CPU STPCLK# control
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
28 Comments
View All Comments
Wesley Fink - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
We plan to test the Abit, but we have not yet received the board.yyrkoon - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
Good to hear :)mendocinosummit - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
Sweet. I was hoping that was the case.Wesley Fink - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
It's not the end of the AM2 board testing. We fully expect great RD580 boards from DFI and Asus. However, after testing 9 AM2 boards in-depth it was time to assess where we were.goinginstyle - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
Finally a review that does not have Conroe plastered all over it. I have the ECS RD480 board based upon an earlier review of it here. The board has performed well and is stable as a rock. Do you think you maybe have a bad board or is it really as bad as it was described? I was looking forward to going to AM2 with a cheap X3800x2 but did not want a nvidia solution since I already have crossfire. Will there be other RD580 boards from Asus or DFI or maybe someone like Abit?I was excited about this board after reading the review at HardOcp where it received an editors award. Your comment "we have to wonder how ECS could manage to produce such a mediocre motherboard." is completely opposite of the other review. But after reading both reviews again I noticed your test results were very consistent when compared to the other boards that were not reviewed in that article. Looking at the results I have to wonder what board they tested.
Just a few questions if you have time. What would cause the cold boot issue? Does the board have the SB600 or SB460 as listed in the chart. How is the performance of the jmicron chipset? I can not find any test results with it and it seems like everyone is using it now. Thanks for providing some very useful AMD information as they still exist even after Conroe.
Wesley Fink - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
The ECS has the SB600. ECS included literature that stated the soutn bridge was SB460, but we took off the heatsink and looked. It is definitely an SB600. We will change the ECS spec chart.The cold boot issues can be poor power regulation, the board's boot sequence, or even just a poor BIOS. It IS possible it might be corrected in the furure with a BIOS update, but there are plenty of other AM2 boards that work well today and cost about the same or less.
We noticed in the other website review you reference that they made a passing mention of the missing CAS adjustment, but they still gave it an Editors choice. They also noted the very poor overclocking, but still gave the ECS an Editors Choice. I'm sorry, but we don't give Editors Choice awards to the worse overclocker of 9 competing AM2 boards that does not even offer CAS adjustments.
allnighter - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
...work comp, win2k+explorerPatrese - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
Great review, I only missed Oblivion results. I'd like to see more Anantech reviews about motherboards directed to other audiences, like HTPCs, for instance. There are a lot of motherboards directed to that segment, like the Asus M2NPV-VM, and I think it would be great to see a review as detailed as you generally do for the entusiast boards. A MicroATX roundup would be perfect... :)Wesley Fink - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
A few HTPC motherboard reviews are already in process. You will be seeing these from Gary Key in the near future.jackylman - Monday, August 21, 2006 - link
I'd really love to see some hardcore Sempron undervolting on those reviews. (hint,hint)