Round Up - Integrated 3D Graphics Motherboard Shootout
Review by Edward Chang, call sign: Big_E
September 22, 2002
Shuttle MV42N P4M266
The Board:
Shuttle MV42N based on VIA's P4M266 (Click image to view larger picture)
This is a Pentium 4 motherboard that supports Intel's latest 478-pin processors. It incorporates a S3 Savage4 video that is integrated in a Pentium 4 optimized variant of VIA's KT266 chipset for the AMD processors. The MV42N is one of the few VIA-powered motherboards to support either SDRAM or DDR RAM (both cannot be used simultaneously). The long row of jumpers running parallel to the last SDRAM slot is poorly implemented because it requires the user to switch that back and forth to configure the motherboard for supporting a particular memory type. The floppy drive connector is also placed irregularly.
Shuttle MV42N Features:
VIA P4M266 Block Diagram
Form Factor:
Micro-ATX
CPU Support:
Socket 478
Intel Pentium 4 in the 478 pin package
Chipsets:
(North)VIA P4M266 (VT8751)
(South) VIA VT8233
Front Side Bus:
400MHz System Bus
Memory:
2 x 184 pin DDR SDRAM Socket
2 x 168 pin SDRAM Socket
Crucial
Mushkin
OCZ
Corsair
Geil
Onboard graphic:
S3 Graphics Savage4
Memory share up to 32MB
Audio:
AC97 audio
AC ’97 2.1 compliant CODEC on board
Expansion Slot:
1 x AGP 2.0 compliant slot
Support external AGP V2.0 compliant VGA device
Support both 1.5V / 3.3V AGP electrical device
Support 2X, 4X AGP data transfer
2 x PCI slots
PCI 2.2 compliant, 32-bit BUS Master Slots
133 Mbyte / sec maximum throughput
1 x CNR slot
Support CNR riser card for Modem function
Ethernet (MV42N MOdel Only)
On board VIA VT6103 (Fast Ethernet PHY/Transceiver) (MV42N only)
IEEE 802.3u 100Base-T specifications compliant
10 Mb/s and 100 Mb/s operation
Supports Wake-On-LAN function
IDE interface:
Built in VT8233
2 x UltraDMA/100 Bus Master IDE Channel from VT8233
ATAPI IDE CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, and LS-120 Supports
H/W Monitoring:
Built in ITE 8705F
3 thermal inputs from remote thermal resistor to monitor CPU, power, and system temperature
8 voltage monitor inputs
Monitors 2 fan tachometer inputs
Power Management:
APM 1.2 compliant
ACPI 1.0 compliant
Support multiple system suspend types-
suspend to DRAM, suspend to disk,
and all with hardware automatic wake-up
Bios:
AMI PnP BIOS
Stored in 2 Mb flash memory
DMI 2.3
Support IRQ manual assign table
Bootable from Floppy, ATAPI device, USB device, SCSI device
Back Panel:
1 VGA Port
1 RJ45 Lan Port and 2 USB Ports
1 Serial Port
1 Parallel Port (SPP, EPP, ECP)
1 PS/2 Keyboard Port
1 PS/2 Mouse Port
1x Game / MIDI Port
1x Line in, 1x Line out, 1x Mic in
Connectors:
1 x ATX power connector
2 x Fan Power connectors (one for system chipset fan)
2 x Ultra DMA/100 Bus Master IDE
1 x Floppy
Accessory:
CD-ROM Disk
VIA 4 in 1 Driver
VIA Audio driver
User manuals in PDF format
IDE Cable
1 x ATA 100/66 cable
1 x Floppy cable
USB cable
1 x dual port USB cable (Optional)
1 printed user manual
1 I/O Shielding Panel
Overclocking:
Not worth mentioning.