Soyo P4I875 Dragon 2: Mega Features With Weaknesses
Intel 875P Chipset
Board Revision k.A.
BIOS P4ICWB-4AA1 (05/02/2003)
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Soyo sent us an 875P board to test, although the manufacturer also has the 865Pe chipset (SY-O41865PE Dragon 2) in its range. The layout of the packaging leaves something to be desired, yet all of the components are stored in a practical box.
Compared to the rest of the test participants, the board equipment is very lavish, ranging from the CSA Gigabit LAN, six-channel PCI sound and FireWire (VIA VT6306) to the RAID controller in the Highpoint HPT372 version for four Ultra DMA/133 interfaces.
Soyo dispenses with the RAID function of the ICH5 Southbridge and relies on the controller from Silicon Image Sil3112A instead. A total of four Serial-ATA connections are therefore available.
The broad range of features is complemented by a sound panel with inputs and (optical) outputs for digital audio and 5.1 sound for analog box systems. The product also comes with a card reader in a 3.5" form factor, which processes Compact Flash, SD, Smart Media and Micro Drive formats. On top of this, there are sockets for USB 2.0 and FireWire.
Audio connections.
Card reader from Soyo.
