Tyan Thunder i860
Published on 2002-09-23 00:03:52 By: Jim_

While the name RAMBUS has left a bad taste in the mouth of every geek from here to Silicon Valley in the last couple of years, it's still true that RDRAM is an excellent performer in conjunction with Intel's bandwidth friendly Pentium IV and Xeon. In certain situations, the high bandwidth RDRAM solutions outperform its DDR counterpart, the E7500 chipset. Whether or not the playing field will become level as we see further DDR/Xeon chipsets (Placer, maybe?), only time will tell.

Now it's my turn to play. After struggling for what seemed like an eternity to get my hands on a pair of Prestonia-based Xeons, I can finally help Hooz out with the endless stream of Xeon boards we'll be reviewing here at 2CPU.com.

Today, the platform is Intel's i860 chipset and RDRAM. The motherboard is Tyan's Thunder i860. Let's see how it runs...

Specifications

  • Supports up to two Intel Xeon processors running on a front-side bus of 400MHz
  • Intel i860 chipset (82860 North Bridge, 82801BA I/O Controller Hub, 82802AB Firmware Hub and 82806AA PCI 64 Hub)
  • Supports up to 4GB of PC800 RDRAM via an 8 RIMM Memory Expansion Card
  • Requires WTX power supply (24pin and 8pin connection) - Not to be confused with EPS12V
  • Onboard dual-channel U160 SCSI (LSI SYM53C1010R)
  • AGP Pro slot, 2x 64bit/66MHz, 3x 32bit/33MHz PCI slots
  • Integrated 10/100 LAN (Intel 82550)
  • Integrated Audio (AC'97 Codec)
  • Extended ATX Format (13" x 12)

General Thoughts

Tyan never ceases to amaze me with their Thunder-line of motherboards. Talk about a great feature set (and quite a divergence from the board we saw last week, the Iwill DP400). The Thunder i860 is obviously aimed at the high-end workstation market and with 64bit/66MHz PCI slots, AGP Pro, onboard SCSI, LAN and audio it certainly doesn't disappoint. The inclusion of the AGP Pro slot will be attractive to the professional-level video card users of the world and toss in the memory expansion card (MEC) capable of handling 4GB of PC800 RDRAM and you have yourself one helluva render workstation.

Thinking Inside of the Box...

Reviewing hardware isn't as glamorous as a lot of geeks probably think it is, but I will admit to experiencing some genuine excitement when a board of this calibre falls into my evil clutches lap. The familiar yellow and blue box is always a joy to crack open. Tyan supplies the following with their Thunder i860:
  • Thunder i860
  • Memory Expansion Card
  • 1x ATA100 IDE cable
  • 1x 3.5" floppy cable
  • 1x 3 device 68-pin LVD SCSI cable w/ active terminator
  • 2x CRIMMS (Continuity Rambus Inline Memory Module)
  • Custom ATX Backplate
  • 1x 3.5" floppy disk containing LSI SCSI controller drivers

Tyan puts together a decent package for us. The SCSI cable provided is of decent quality and isn't overly stiff and difficult to route through your case.

While I generally don't spend a lot of time in the manual, I will admit to perusing the Thunder i860 manual one afternoon and it's well-written and concepts are clearly explained (they go through countless memory configurations that one could use with the MEC and how to properly terminate each channel, for example).

I should note that I was slightly disappointed with the ATX backplate that Tyan supplied with the Thunder i860. It's very cheaply-made and I cut my finger rather well on one of the barbs. Considering the expense involved in acquiring one of these boards, you'd think the costs of a slightly higher-quality backplate would have been minimal at best and certainly justifiable.

 
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