Iwill DP400
September 15, 2002

For the longest time here at 2CPU.com, we didn't have a pair of Xeons to test with so the boards just didn't show up. What's the use of having a board with no CPU's to put in it? Recently I was provided a pair of 2.4ghz "Prestonia" Xeons to use for testing and the motherboard floodgates have been opened! It was a long time coming, but I finally have had the chance to look at my first i860 based motherboard, Iwill's DP400.

I must confess, I have had the DP400 on my test bench for quite some time now. Being my first i860 board for review, I had grand aspirations about some new tests that I wanted to run. You see, the i860 chipset is an interesting animal, and the boards based on it cover a very broad range. You can get as silly as you want to with options and added features on i860 boards, so it seems fitting that we look at the DP400 first.

In the world of dual Xeon i860 based motherboards, the DP400 is not the flashiest, nor the most feature rich. What it is is a solid, basic motherboard and at a current street price of $425 USD, it is the least expensive i860 board out there. You don't get SCSI and you don't get a MEC (Memory Expansion Card) but you do get integrated LAN, integrated audio and AGP Pro.

Package and Features

I'm not normally one who gets too excited about motherboard packaging. Woo? It's a cardboard box that usually gets tossed in the closet once the system is built, never to be seen again. That being said, Iwill's packaging is, well, it's very nice.

Instead of the usual cardboard divider in the box to keep the cables/manuals/driver disks seperate from the motherboard itself, Iwill has what can only be called boxes within boxes. Not only are the additional included items seperate from the motherboard, they are in their own little compartments. It makes for some very secure shipping too, as this box is -loaded- with stuff.

What exactly do you get in the box? Well, there is an IO shield, a pair of CRIMMs, a floppy cable, an IDE cable, a driver CD, a quick installation guide, a manual, two sets of heatsink retention clips and two motherboard support plates (for heatsink mounting). Oh. Yeah. You get the motherboard too.

As I mentioned before, the DP400 is about as "barebones" as i860 boards get. This is not really a bad thing, as not everyone wants to pay a premium for onboard SCSI, and not everyone needs a MEC (if you do, Iwill's DX400-SN has your back). I've mentioned "MEC' a few times now, and I should probably take a minute to explain what that actually is so that you know what exactly the DP400 is "missing".

The i860 chipset natively supports 2gb of memory in four RIMMs, all in a dual-channel configuration via an "MCH" (Memory Controller Hub). Since it is dual-channel, you are required to install your memory in pairs and if you don't use all available slots a pair of CRIMMs (Continuity Rambus Inline Memory Module) must be used to "terminate" the memory channels.

For larger memory support, Intel came up with the idea for a MEC. The MEC adds support for up to 4gb of system memory in eight RIMM slots by adding a second MCH into the mix. A MEC is basically a memory "riser" card like we used to see in the high-end PPro and Xeon systems, which frees-up valuable PCB realestate for other things.

It remains to be seen as to what effect the extra MCH has on memory throughput and latency (stay tuned for my next i860 board review!), but suffice it to say that if you don't need more than 2gb of main memory, the DP400 has you covered.

As for additional features, the DP400 has Intel AC'97 audio integrated as well as an Intel 10/100 NIC. AGP Pro is a must in a high-end workstation and you can be sure it's present and accounted for on the DP400 (Supports AGP PRO (1.5V only) and 4X modes). For assorted other goodies, the three 32bit 33mhz PCI slots and the two 64bit 66mhz PCI slots should have your add-in card needs taken care of. Other than that, it's standard fare for this board with ATA100/66/33, floppy, etc, etc.

It should also be noted that earlier revisions of the DP400 actually had a jumper for FSB settings. Up to now, all Xeons have been 400mhz FSB (quad-pumped 100mhz), but the DP400 had a provision for 533mhz FSB as well (133mhz quad-pumped). There was some speculation as to how well this would work though as the DP400 only has memory settings for PC600 and PC800 RDRAM and the 533mhz parts would require PC1066 memory (at least that's what we thought). So, to avoid hassles, Iwill permanently soldered the jumper to the 100mhz position. It remains unknown as to the DP400's ability to run future 533mhz parts.

BIOS and Layout >>