Gigabyte 8S655FX Ultra (SiS 655FX): Price/Performance Reaches a New Level

Gigabyte 8S655FX Ultra Rev. 1.0: Basic Features

Motherboard Specifications
CPU Interface	Socket-478
Chipset	SiS 655FX North Bridge SiS 964 South Bridge
Bus Speeds	up to 355MHz (in 1MHz increments)
Core Voltage	up to 1.600V (in 0.0125V increments)
DRAM Voltage	up to 2.60V (in 0.1V increments)
Chipset Voltage	N/A
AGP Voltage	up to 1.80V (in 0.1V increments)
Memory Slots	4 X 184-pin DDR DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots	1 X AGP 8X Slot 5 X PCI Slots
Onboard IDE RAID	ITE GigaRAID IT8212F controller
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394	Eight USB 2.0 ports supported by SiS 964 South Bridge TI TSB43AB23 IEEE 1394 FireWire (up to 3 ports)
Onboard LAN	Realtek RTL8169 10/100/1000 Gigabit adapter
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC658 AC’97 codec
Onboard Serial ATA	Two SATA connectors via SiS 964 (RAID 0 & RAID 1)
BIOS Revision	F1 (August 18th, 2003)

Gigabyte uses a Realtek ALC658 AC’97 Codec for sound processing onboard the 8S655FX Ultra. This is the first motherboard that we’ve seen with this brand new Realtek Codec, but this isn’t at all surprising considering Gigabyte was the first to ship a desktop motherboard with the Realtek ALC655 AC’97 Codec. Anyway, the ALC658 AC’97 Codec is actually a Professional-level Codec and not a mainstream-level Codec like the ALC655. The primary difference between these two Codecs is that the ALC658 has six 20-bit DAC channels, whereas the ALC655 contains just one 16-bit DAC channel. Basically, the ALC658 will output higher quality sound than a similarly equipped ALC655-based motherboard.

The 8S655FX Ultra utilizes Realtek’s latest Gigabit controller, dubbed the RTL8169. This IC, like any other Gigabit device, is capable of supporting 10/100/1000 transfer rates. There’s nothing especially unique about this Gigabit controller, though we’re certainly happy that Gigabyte decided to add on a Gigabit controller to their 8S655FX Ultra, as this standard needs to be pushed aggressively for full support to come as soon as possible to take full advantage of it. Unfortunately, SiS did not develop its own proprietary GbE (Gigabit Ethernet) bus separate from the PCI bus. Intel was able to do this with their CSA (Communications and Streaming Architecture) GbE technology (we proved this back in April), which is much more effective than transferring data via the 133 MB/s constrained PCI bus.

Common among Gigabyte’s high-end motherboards, the 8S655FX Ultra includes dual BIOS technology. Having a backup BIOS is beneficial when you accidentally corrupt your first BIOS chip (i.e. you lose power to your system as you're updating your primary BIOS). Simply switch over to the second BIOS chip, and your machine becomes operational once again, and your original BIOS settings originating from the first chip are even mirrored to the second chip. This feature gets rid of all the frustration and inconvenience of correcting the problem through other, time-consuming methods, such as a full board RMA or the swap-trick.

Gigabyte includes a nice array of I/O ports onboard the 8S655FX Ultra. These I/O ports include two PS/2 ports, one parallel port, two serial ports, four USB 2.0 ports, one GbE 10/100/1000 port, and Mic in, Line in, and Line out, which drives the onboard sound. We’re pleased to see more than just two rear USB 2.0 ports, especially since there are many more convenient reasons to use USB devices today with the advent of such innovative technologies as USB memory keys. Thankfully, there are two onboard USB 2.0 headers if you feel the need to expand beyond four USB 2.0 ports. Unfortunately, you’ll have to use up two PCI slots, but this may likely not be an issue considering the sheer amount of onboard components the 8S655FX Ultra carries. Still, if you feel the need to add on something like a modem, a better RAID controller, or any other such PCI devices, you’ll have three PCI slots available with the other two PCI slots occupied by two 2-port USB 2.0 headers.

Texas Instruments has been doing quite well with their IEEE 1394 FireWire controllers, and the 8S655FX Ultra is no exception. The onboard FireWire controller is powered by the TI TSB43AB23, which supports a total of three FireWire ports. We’re disappointed that Gigabyte didn’t throw in at least one rear FireWire port. After all, it does take extra time out of the day to install that FireWire bracket. Still, FireWire is FireWire, and it’s always good to see an alternative to USB, especially if you’re a heavy DV camera user. Hopefully, we’ll see a future SiS South Bridge with native support for IEEE 1394 FireWire 400 so that DV camera users can take advantage of that 1GB/s I/O link.

One of the most notable features the 8S655FX Ultra carries is onboard IDE RAID from ITE, named the GigaRAID IT8212F controller. There are two onboard IDE connectors that are powered by the GigaRAID IT8212F controller, which is capable of RAID 0 (striping), RAID 1 (mirroring) and RAID 0 + 1 RAID arrays. Not only can this controller support a total of four HDDs (hard disk drives), but four ATAPI (optical) drives as well. This is a considerable advantage over other motherboards with Promise or Silicon Image controllers that are only capable of supporting HDDs.

The final significant onboard feature that the 8S655FX Ultra carries is native SATA support courtesy of the SiS 964 South Bridge. The two SiS 964-controlled SATA connectors use the 1GB/s MuTIOL I/O link for data transfer, so you aren’t bound to the 133MB/s PCI bus. This will free up your PCI bus and improve your SATA slightly (though the difference is minuscule knowing that most apps can hardly use all that bandwidth). Both these SATA connectors are SATA150 compatible. Skip back to the “First Look at SiS 655FX Chipset” for more details about this feature.