Soyo Dragon2 Motherboard Review

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.soyo (More info?)

With almost a half dozen different Dragon2 motherboards currently being
sold by Soyo it might help people if you told them which one your using.
There are Dragon2's for both Intel and AMD cpu's.

"Frank Howell" <fphowell@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:5gbMc.95706$tv7.67815@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com...
> I have had the Soyo Dragon2 motherboard now for 3 weeks and it has
performed
> great.
>
> Now for those of you who are overclockers, I can't give out any
overclocker
> reviews, as I don't overclock. Also I can't give out any info on how it
> performs with games, as the only games I have are what comes with Win98SE.
>
> I'm running it with "Optimal settings" chosen in the Bios.
> I chose this board as I needed a MB with 4 IDE ports, as I use mobile
racks
> for ease of Ghosting and this way I can run all my ide and atapi drives as
> masters.
>
> I took me awhile to figure out how to use IDE 3&4 without a Raid setup. I
> was also concerned on how it would coexist with my Adaptec 29160N that I
use
> for my 36G Fujitsu drive and Toshiba 12X CD-ROM along with a Epson
scanner.
>
> For those of you who don't know how to use IDE 3&4 as non-Raid Pata drives
I
> include the following info.
>
> You must set up you Os on IDE 1 or 2. After you have you basics installed,
> you must install the Via Serial drivers, Ali IDE3/4 driver and then
> Shutdown.
> After Shutting down, you then connect your Pata drives to IDE 3 and/or 4.
> Then boot up and get into Main Bios and enable Sata/Pata 3,4. After using
> ESC to exit and reboot you must use CNTRL A to get into the Pata Raid
setup.
> Even if not using Raid you must select the Boot drive in this setting.
After
> using ESC to exit and reboot, you must use the DEL key to get back into
the
> main Bios and select Boot Configuration Setup. You then must select Hard
> Drives and select SCSI as your 1st drive. Then exit and select Boot Device
> Priority and make certain that SCSI is either the first or second device
(My
> first is floppy). Now you can exit and it should boot off your IDE 3/4
> drive. If you are using Sata drives I would expect the same steps would be
> required except that Sata 1&2 are the ports that can be used as a
> Raid/nonraid Sata drives.
>
> This board allows for up to 12 drives which should be enough for most
people
> and if not install a SCSI controller and add 15 more!
>
> I used the onboard sound and it was good(8 channels, with optical in/out,
> but I only have 2 speakers), but I did note some differences when using it
> with Ulead Video Studio, my video editing software. The sound levels were
> different and since I had a SoundBlaster live I installed it instead. I
also
> purchased the Soyo AVI Plus bay, so I could have front USB and Firewire
> ports. As I have a Sony camera with it's memory stick and just purchased a
> Olympus C-5060WZ that uses a CF flash memory, I now have 6 memory readers
in
> the front. The Firewire installation is not easy. The examples in the
manual
> are for other boards that are different then the Dragon2. The other
problem
> is that instead on one solid plug that is keyed like the USB cables, the
> Firewire cables have 9 each seperate plugs that are color coded. Now that
is
> a real problem as 2 of them are white and 2 of them are black, but they
> should be interchangable as they supply + and - power to the ports. Since
I
> don't overclock I did not install the CMOS reset cable, which is accessed
> from the front panel using a paper clip thru the pin hole provided. To use
> this bay you must have enabled the correct USB storage settings in the
main
> bios.
>
> Now again this setup is with Win98Se. I am using a Barton 3200 with 2
sticks
> of Crucial pc3200. I would recommend this board highly with stock
settings.
> For those who overclock, now that maybe another story.
>
> Frank Howell
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.soyo (More info?)

That's the Soyo KT-880 Dragon2

Sorry about that.

Frank Howell
"Knuckles" <jburghdoff@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uybMc.41210$eH1.19494079@newssvr28.news.prodigy.com...
> With almost a half dozen different Dragon2 motherboards currently being
> sold by Soyo it might help people if you told them which one your using.
> There are Dragon2's for both Intel and AMD cpu's.
>
> "Frank Howell" <fphowell@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
> news:5gbMc.95706$tv7.67815@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com...
> > I have had the Soyo Dragon2 motherboard now for 3 weeks and it has
> performed
> > great.
> >
> > Now for those of you who are overclockers, I can't give out any
> overclocker
> > reviews, as I don't overclock. Also I can't give out any info on how it
> > performs with games, as the only games I have are what comes with
Win98SE.
> >
> > I'm running it with "Optimal settings" chosen in the Bios.
> > I chose this board as I needed a MB with 4 IDE ports, as I use mobile
> racks
> > for ease of Ghosting and this way I can run all my ide and atapi drives
as
> > masters.
> >
> > I took me awhile to figure out how to use IDE 3&4 without a Raid setup.
I
> > was also concerned on how it would coexist with my Adaptec 29160N that I
> use
> > for my 36G Fujitsu drive and Toshiba 12X CD-ROM along with a Epson
> scanner.
> >
> > For those of you who don't know how to use IDE 3&4 as non-Raid Pata
drives
> I
> > include the following info.
> >
> > You must set up you Os on IDE 1 or 2. After you have you basics
installed,
> > you must install the Via Serial drivers, Ali IDE3/4 driver and then
> > Shutdown.
> > After Shutting down, you then connect your Pata drives to IDE 3 and/or
4.
> > Then boot up and get into Main Bios and enable Sata/Pata 3,4. After
using
> > ESC to exit and reboot you must use CNTRL A to get into the Pata Raid
> setup.
> > Even if not using Raid you must select the Boot drive in this setting.
> After
> > using ESC to exit and reboot, you must use the DEL key to get back into
> the
> > main Bios and select Boot Configuration Setup. You then must select Hard
> > Drives and select SCSI as your 1st drive. Then exit and select Boot
Device
> > Priority and make certain that SCSI is either the first or second device
> (My
> > first is floppy). Now you can exit and it should boot off your IDE 3/4
> > drive. If you are using Sata drives I would expect the same steps would
be
> > required except that Sata 1&2 are the ports that can be used as a
> > Raid/nonraid Sata drives.
> >
> > This board allows for up to 12 drives which should be enough for most
> people
> > and if not install a SCSI controller and add 15 more!
> >
> > I used the onboard sound and it was good(8 channels, with optical
in/out,
> > but I only have 2 speakers), but I did note some differences when using
it
> > with Ulead Video Studio, my video editing software. The sound levels
were
> > different and since I had a SoundBlaster live I installed it instead. I
> also
> > purchased the Soyo AVI Plus bay, so I could have front USB and Firewire
> > ports. As I have a Sony camera with it's memory stick and just purchased
a
> > Olympus C-5060WZ that uses a CF flash memory, I now have 6 memory
readers
> in
> > the front. The Firewire installation is not easy. The examples in the
> manual
> > are for other boards that are different then the Dragon2. The other
> problem
> > is that instead on one solid plug that is keyed like the USB cables, the
> > Firewire cables have 9 each seperate plugs that are color coded. Now
that
> is
> > a real problem as 2 of them are white and 2 of them are black, but they
> > should be interchangable as they supply + and - power to the ports.
Since
> I
> > don't overclock I did not install the CMOS reset cable, which is
accessed
> > from the front panel using a paper clip thru the pin hole provided. To
use
> > this bay you must have enabled the correct USB storage settings in the
> main
> > bios.
> >
> > Now again this setup is with Win98Se. I am using a Barton 3200 with 2
> sticks
> > of Crucial pc3200. I would recommend this board highly with stock
> settings.
> > For those who overclock, now that maybe another story.
> >
> > Frank Howell
> >
> >
>
>