Six Dual Xeon Motherboards on the Cheap

Tyan Tiger I7505 (S2668AN): Small But Select

Tyan sent us two boards at once for this comparison test: the Tiger i7505 S2668AN in ATX and the Thunder i7505 (S2665UANF) in WTX format.

Tyan also differentiates its models by a suffix in the product name. All boards in the E7505 family are labeled with the letters "A" for audio and "N" for network. The boards in the large WTX format have a FireWire (1394) chip and so their names are preceded by the letter "F." In the same vein, there's an SCSI controller with the suffix "U" and an IDE/SATA RAID with an "R." Tyan, like MSI, thus offers four variations of the E7505 mobo. We'll take a look at the smaller representative of its E7505 boards, the Tiger i7505 S2668ANR, first.

A small ATX board awash with components

Revision: unknown
BIOS Version: 1.03 (12/10/03)

The Tiger i7505 (S2668ANR) from Tyan leaves a grandiose impression. The two CPU sockets on this model take up less space than on the comparable MSI board, resulting in a gain of 3/8" on the left side. This is put to good use in the form a fifth PCI slot.

24-pin WTX power plug

8-pin plug to power the CPU and additional AUX PWR plug

With its three power connections, the Tiger i7505 gets its juice from both the 24- and 8-pin plugs and an additional 4-pin AUX PWR plug.

The large heat sink on the voltage regulators

The voltage regulator in detail