Introduction

I would like to thank ECS for supplying the tested motherboard.

Intel's i945 and i955 chipsets are the first to support dual core Pentium D CPUs. The i955 is the "Performance" part, while it's i945 counterpart is geared more toward value. Although the price difference between the two is quite big, the technical differences are rather small. I955 has support for up to 8 GB of ECC memory, while i945 can "only" support 4 GB of non-ECC memory, not really important for you, as long as you don't plan on running a high-performance server. The other difference is that the i955 features Intel's proprietary "Memory Pipeline Technology". According to the Intel Website it "enables a higher utilization of each memory channel, accelerating data transfers between the processor and system memory and resulting in higher system performance".

Features

Specifications from ECS

CPU

• LGA775 socket for Intel Pentium 4 / Pentium D processor
• FSB 1066/800/533 MHz
• Support Hyper-Threading Technology

CHIPSET

• Intel® 945P & ICH7R
• North Bridge: Intel® 945P
• South Bridge: Intel®ICH7R

MEMORY

• Dual-channel DDR2 memory architecture
• 4 x 240-pin DDR2 DIMM socket support up to 4 GB
• Support DDR2 667/533/400 DDR2 SDRAM

EXPANSION

• 2 x PCI Express x16 slots
• 1 x PCI Express x1 slot *
• 3 x PCI slots
• *when use two PCI Express VGA card, this slot is disable

STORAGE

• Supported by Intel®ICH7R
• -- 2 x Ultra DMA100/66 devices
• -- 4 x Serial ATA2 devices
• RAID0, RAID1, RAID0+1, RAID5 configuration
• Supported by SiI3132
• -- 2 x Serial ATA2 devices
• RAID0, RAID1& e-SATA configuration

AUDIO

• Realtek ALC880 8-channel audio CODEC

IEEE 1394a

• VIA® VT6307, support 2x IEEE1394a ports

DUAL LAN

• Marvell 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit LAN controller
• Realtek 8100C 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet controller

REAR PANEL I/O

• 1 x PS/2 keyboard & PS/2 mouse connectors
• 4 x USB ports
• 2 x RJ45 LAN connectors
• 1 x 1394a connector (4-pin)
• 1 x SPDIF in connector
• 1 x Serial port (COM1)
• 1 x FAN Duct
• 1 x Audio port (Line-in,4x Line-out, SPDIF out)

INTERNAL I/O CONNECTORS & HEADERS

• 1 x 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector
• 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V connector
• 1 x FDD connector supports two 360K~2.88MB FDDs
• 1 x IrDA for SIR header
• 1 x Speaker header
• 1 x 1394a header
• 2 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 4 USB Ports
• 6 x Serial ATA connectors
• 1 x Front panel switch/LED header
• 1 x Front panel audio header
• CD in header
• CPUFAN/NB_FAN/3x SYSFAN connectors

SYSTEM BIOS

• AMI BIOS with 4Mb Flash ROM
• Supports Plug and Play 1.0A, APM 1.2, Multi Boot, DMI
• Supports ACPI revision 1.0 specification

FORM FACTOR

• ATX Size 305mm*244mm