Intel's 865/875 Superior Performance Song Remains the Same

Supermicro 4SCT+II

This motherboard is fitted with PCI-X slots, two Gigabit network ports, integrated graphics - all the hallmarks of a server board, in fact. The P4SCT+II is not a server board, of course, since an AGP Pro slot and two standard PCI slots are present, plus a total of six SATA ports, two of which are provided by the 6300ESB, which also supports the three PCI-X slots. The other four are provided by the Marvell 88SX5040, which - believe it or not - supports Command Queuing (up to 32 commands).

The built-in graphics consist of a venerable ATI RageXL chip with 8 MB SDRAM, which is still regarded as a standard component in the world of servers. Supermicro has not cut corners on network connectivity and has fitted two Intel chips: a 82547GI for CSA and the 82541GI for PCI.

In addition, high quality, four-phase voltage regulators are fitted, and a total of five fan headers provide ample cooling options. The lack of USB ports is disappointing, however, with only two USB 2.0 ports present. A further two may be enabled but, in contrast to its generosity in other areas, Supermicro does not supply the necessary adapter.

The BIOS is supplied as a self-extracting, self-installing program. You simply copy a floppy disk containing FreeDOS, and the update is carried out automatically.

There is another feature well worth mentioning - the Supermicro supports overclocking. You can change the multiplier (even though such CPUs are rare) and clock the FSB up to 233 MHz.

The box is rather slim - a bit like a pizza box.

Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.