Feature Set
Intel made an unusual design choice on its D201GLY2 motherboard by using a chipset manufactured by SiS. It consists of the SiS662 northbridge paired with the SiS964 southbridge. Intel makes two versions of the board: one with active cooling (D201GLY2A) and one without fans (D201GLY2). The board we’re testing here is the latter.
Video | 1x VGA |
SATA | 2x SATA-150 |
IDE | 1x ATA-100 |
USB | 2x USB 2.0 (I/O-Shield) 4x USB 2.0 (Onboard) |
Serial | 1x COM |
Parallel | 1x LPT |
PS2 | Mouse/Keyboard |
PCI | 1x PCI 33 |
Network | 1x 100 Mbit Broadcom AC131 |
Audio | ADI AD1888 2 Channel |
Fan Headers | 2x 3-Pin |
Dimensions | 7.9” x 6.7” (20 cm x 17 cm) |
ATX Power | 20-Pin ATX (24-Pin will work as well) |
While the feature set looks like it can compete with some of the desktop boards out there, Intel did have to cut some corners as a result of the platform’s dimensions (7.9” x 6.7” [20 x 17 cm]) and the pressure to keep the price as low as possible. A good example of this is that the board only comes with a 100 Mb network interface, enabled through a Broadcom AC131 controller.
Also, the board’s layout leaves only enough space for a single DDR2 memory slot. On the plus side, it supports a DIMM size of up to 2GB. However, the maximum memory speed is DDR2-533. You can use faster modules of course, but they won’t run at full speed.
The board features just a pair of SATA connectors, with an IDE connector letting you add another two drives. A floppy connector is missing altogether, though the BIOS does support USB Floppy drives.