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Jetway BI-600

X58 On A Budget: Seven Sub-$200 Core i7 Boards
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Listed at big-seller Newegg as the JBI-600-LF, Jetway’s BI-600 hasn’t gotten much attention on the U.S. market. Perhaps today’s comparison will help.

The least expensive motherboard of today’s comparison to offer dual gigabit networking, Jetway’s BI-600 is the only one of these three to retain a sub-$200 price in spite of recent increases. Another unexpected feature is its dual—rather than single—eSATA ports, though the company did eliminate FireWire to keep costs down.

Most surprising is the BI-600’s support for up to five graphics cards, with automatic switching from 2 x x16 (red slots) to 4 x x8 (red+black slots) to share or unshared PCI Express lanes. Support for a fifth graphics card comes by way of an open-ended x4 slot, which still has enough bandwidth for just about everything except high-detail 3D games.

And so the user gets lots of graphics options, from a full 16 PCIe 2.0 lanes to one or two cards (including CrossFire and SLI modes), to x8 pathways in 2.0 mode on four cards (including Quad SLI and CrossFireX modes), to the ultimate multi-monitor support with five cards. Anyone who would like to mix and match is also welcome to do so, since this high-bandwidth technology also applies to high-end RAID controllers and other expansion cards. Builders need only keep in mind that each black x16-length slot shares bandwidth with the red slot above it, so that not using a black slot allows all sixteen lanes to be directed to the corresponding red slot.

We’re not certain how Jetway can afford to include all those PCIe lane switches without raising the BI-600’s price, since none of its competitors have done so. It’s not like they scaled back in other areas, since the six-phase voltage regulator, six memory slots, Port 80 diagnostics display, and onboard power/reset/CRL_CMOS switches so prized by its competitors are still found on this more feature-laden product.

One layout curiosity is the greater distance between the CPU socket and X58 Express northbridge, which appears to have been designed to make additional room for the motherboard’s loop-shaped heat-pipe cooler. The socket has been moved closer to the motherboard’s upper edge, but the DIMM slots have not, raising some concerns about the motherboard’s capability to support high-speed memory above Intel’s specified DDR3-1333 maximum. Overclocking is a big part of today’s comparison, with DDR3-1866 support a minimum requirement to reach the same benchmark performance as previously-tested X58 motherboards.

All of our layout complaints focus on the motherboard’s bottom edge. Starting from the bottom-rear corner, the front-panel audio connector presents a cable installation challenge for cases that have top-panel jacks. Next, the floppy connector is so far away from the typical location of 3.5” external bays that many cables won’t reach. Finally, the Ultra ATA connector is located under the bottom x16-length slot, where its cable will need to reach around any graphics card that could be placed into that slot. The Ultra ATA connector is least likely of these to be used in a new system build, since Windows XP is still loaded on some machines using RAID drivers on floppy diskettes.

BIOS

BIOS clock, timing, and voltage ranges can be found on Page 17’s overclocking comparison.

The BI-600's BIOS is the most restrictive in today’s comparison, lacking even so much as a CPU Uncore voltage control. Lacking any dynamic adjustment under its “auto” setting, “Uncore Frequency” must be manually set to twice the “Memory Frequency” setting in order for any changes in DRAM data rate to be effective.

The lack of any Uncore voltage adjustment makes going beyond DDR3-1600 impossible, or nearly impossible, on the BI-600. What’s more shocking is that CPU voltage settings above 1.275 V appeared to overload the motherboard’s voltage regulator, resetting the system at full CPU load. But getting even so much as 1.275 volts to the CPU core was impossible, as the actual voltage was 0.20 volts below set voltage.

Memory timing adjustment is all-or-nothing with Jetway, its BI-600 lacking any “automatic” setting for individual timings. Anyone afraid to adjust such items as tRRD and tRFC must configure the entire menu to “automatic” mode.

Accessories

Jetway’s cable kit is typical of reduced-price motherboards, but at least the company includes a floppy cable for those unfortunately Windows XP users who still use a floppy to load RAID drivers.

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  • 0 Hide
    midnightgun , July 29, 2009 7:00 AM
    If I am not mistaken, the reason the Asus P6T SE is so cheap is because it does not support SLI, only supports Crossfire. Is that not correct?
  • 0 Hide
    Crashman , July 29, 2009 7:24 AM
    Quote:
    If I am not mistaken, the reason the Asus P6T SE is so cheap is because it does not support SLI, only supports Crossfire. Is that not correct?


    At the time the review was written, the P6T SE web page read that it supported SLI. Perhaps Asus changed the web page following a complaint?

    The big difference between the P6T SE and the P6T is the missing Jmicron SATA multiplier. By removing it, Asus killed the pathway that went to it, leaving the JMB363 controller with a "dead port".
  • 0 Hide
    midnightgun , July 29, 2009 7:51 AM
    Perhaps. I have had my eye on this board since I started planning my eventual upgrade to i7/i5 architecture (MSI and Gigabyte as well). I know on ncix's forums (canada's equivalent to newegg in the states) the P6T SE had been listed as only crossfire since at least mid May.
  • 2 Hide
    midnightgun , July 29, 2009 7:52 AM
    Anywho, thanks for the review. Interesting read.
  • 0 Hide
    Crashman , July 29, 2009 8:25 AM
    midnightgunPerhaps. I have had my eye on this board since I started planning my eventual upgrade to i7/i5 architecture (MSI and Gigabyte as well). I know on ncix's forums (canada's equivalent to newegg in the states) the P6T SE had been listed as only crossfire since at least mid May.


    I never trust a seller as a source: Asus listed the P6T SE as having SLI support as little as four weeks ago, and now has a completely different page for it. They weren't the only company that advertised SLI capability and leave out the bridge, but it now appears the former P6T SE web page must have been an error, probably from the company copying its P6T page and editing it for the P6T SE, but missing one detail.
  • 0 Hide
    anamaniac , July 29, 2009 9:16 AM
    Personally I will (atleast attempting to now) head straight for the Foxconn Bloodrage with a i7 920 and 3 ddr3 1333 sticks (and give them good timings, ignoring bandwidth and attempting a lower voltage) and a 4870 1gb (due to them being quite cheap now). =D
    Though first on my priority list is a better monitor (and rent).

    Neat article regardless.
  • 2 Hide
    ceteras , July 29, 2009 10:03 AM
    What an inspiring name for the Foxconn mainboard... looks like it's a corporate culture thing.

    I've skipped the Foxconn page, wouldn't buy from them anyway.
  • 2 Hide
    Onus , July 29, 2009 1:10 PM
    Interesting read. If I were going to build an i7 rig for myself, that ASRock would probably be my choice. I'm not thrilled about the VRM heating up so much, but I only do low-moderate overclocks so it ought to be ok. The feature set of that board looks suitable.
  • 2 Hide
    gxpbecker , July 29, 2009 1:46 PM
    I am kinda surprised that the ECS board held its own against these "sronger" boards. From my past experieces ECS has been the walmart brand of mobos. :) 
  • 0 Hide
    Ryun , July 29, 2009 2:02 PM
    Question: Is the Asrock board able to go into S3 state/Standby mode? The one board I got from Asrock would not and after emailing their tech support they responded by saying that their boards do not support S3 state.
  • 1 Hide
    Aerobernardo , July 29, 2009 2:10 PM
    This is just the perferct article for me. And the timing couldn't be any bette with i5 just sround the corner. As soon as it's reviews comes out, we will now be able to compare performance and price of i5's and i7's rigs.

    Thank you Tom's. Reminds me why this is my home page since 2001.
  • 0 Hide
    Proximon , July 29, 2009 2:28 PM
    That's a whole lot of work. I agree the ASRock is maybe too hot to be my first choice, but I can't quibble on the award. Good work.
  • 0 Hide
    dman3k , July 29, 2009 2:34 PM
    Tom's should take a stand and don't even feature any Foxconn products in any reviews.
  • 1 Hide
    Anonymous , July 29, 2009 2:40 PM
    I would like to disagree with all this talk about useless IDE connectors, I still use it for optical drives as it is still fast enough. Most systems only come with 6-8 SATA ports, why would i waste one on a crappy optical drive when i need them for faster HDDs.
    Give parallel ATA a break! it still has a valuable place on the mb!
  • 1 Hide
    randomizer , July 29, 2009 3:21 PM
    scott314159Give parallel ATA a break! it still has a valuable place on the mb!

    A very large valuable space mind you. Not to mention the air space ;) 

    The X58 Pro-E doesn't seem to like S3 sleep. The power and HDD LEDs turn off but the fans are still going and I think the HDDs might be as well. I've made it turn off completely once, but then USB didn't work right once it woke, so I had to restart anyway.
  • 0 Hide
    Kill@dor , July 29, 2009 3:46 PM
    AerobernardoThis is just the perferct article for me. And the timing couldn't be any bette with i5 just sround the corner. As soon as it's reviews comes out, we will now be able to compare performance and price of i5's and i7's rigs.Thank you Tom's. Reminds me why this is my home page since 2001.


    I don't think there will be too much difference between the 2.
  • 0 Hide
    Shadow703793 , July 29, 2009 3:49 PM
    ceterasWhat an inspiring name for the Foxconn mainboard... looks like it's a corporate culture thing.I've skipped the Foxconn page, wouldn't buy from them anyway.

    Agreed, the Foxconn boards are fine (actually quite good) for one time things on LN2 etc, but reliability for 24/7 is lacking.
  • 0 Hide
    Shadow703793 , July 29, 2009 3:52 PM
    scott314159I would like to disagree with all this talk about useless IDE connectors, I still use it for optical drives as it is still fast enough. Most systems only come with 6-8 SATA ports, why would i waste one on a crappy optical drive when i need them for faster HDDs.Give parallel ATA a break! it still has a valuable place on the mb!

    Agreed. However, they should eliminate floppy, Parallel,MIDI/GAME ports.
  • -2 Hide
    freak77power , July 29, 2009 4:17 PM
    Better purchase then board with LGA1156 socket.
  • 0 Hide
    kaydee , July 29, 2009 4:27 PM
    I've been using the MSI pro-e sli since the initial launch of this mobo. Anyhow, I've used both of the x58 pro and pro sli, and the northbridge temnperature IS a problem for both of the boards. When the PC full loaded (tried using prime, everast stability test) the NB temperature rises up to 114 degrees C. With a thermal paste and a small fan work, the temperature is lowered to 70 dC. at max, but still, it really concerns me. OC ability is at top notch. With air cooling, it is OCed at 3.2Ghz. (150Mhz) no problem what so ever. With the 3R system's prima boss 2 heatsink and enermax 120mm fan, the temperature is at 30 dC. under normal load, and 35 at max load.
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