Review of the DFI CB61 mainboard

Friday, February 18, 2000

The features (continued)

Additional features of the DFI CB61, include: Wake on LAN, Wake on Modem Ring, PS/2 connectors, USB connectors, RX/TX connectors for infrared, Power Faliure Recovery, start-up from the mouse/keyboard/or at a pre-set time, as well as hardware monitoring of fan speed, and CPU temperatures and voltages. All told, this board meets every requirment of the PC99 standard.

Below, a photo of the CB61 provides us with a fine view of the board, and its components.


Note: Click here for detailed specifications on this motherboard.


Installation

Installation of the DFI CA61 is relatively simple, and nearly identical to installing the CA61. If you're using a FC-PGA processor, then it isn't necessary to set the clock multiplier - as that bit of information is ignored by the processor anyhow. Thus, there remains only to select a bus frequency through jumpers JP2/JP4, and select between Cyrix, or Intel-type processors via jumper JP7. Then, once the system is up and running, we have the opportunity to push the system a little by Overclocking it, once all the mudane affairs are out of the way.



The software bundle

DFI has never been particularly generous with its software bundles, and the CB61 doesn't seem to be making an exception to the rule. The software bundle, thus, consists of: the Hardware Doctor for monitoring the hardware, and a PDF version of the user's manual.

Next: The test results.


CB61
Chipset
Intel 440BX
CPU Socket
Socket 370
CPU Supported
Pentium ® III FCPGA 100MHz FSB processor
Celeron PPGA (300A-533MHz) processor
Memory
3 x DIMM sockets
max. 384MB (unbuffered)
max. 768MB (registered)
Supports PC 100 and ECC
PCI IDE

Dual PIO mode 3/4 EIDE channels up to 4 IDE devices
UltraDMA/33 transfer rate up to 33MB/sec

Super I/O
2 x NS16C550A compatible UARTs
1 x SPP/ECP/EPP parallel port
External Connectors
2 x USB, 2 x DB-9, 1 x DB-25, 1 x PS/2 keyboard, 1 x PS/2 mouse
Internal Connectors
1 x IrDA, 2 x IDE, 1 x Floppy, 1 x ATX power, 1 x WOL, 1 x SB-LINK, 2 x Fan
Power Management
ACPI and OS direct Power Management
Wake-on events: RTC/Modem/LAN/KB/Mouse
Hardware Monitor
System, Processor Temperature, Voltage and Fan speed
Expansion Slots
1 AGP slot
3  PCI slots
2 ISA slots
1 PCI/ISA slot
BIOS
Award/ 2Mbit
Form Factors
ATX, 4 layers
30.48cm x 17.2 cm
12.0 inch. x 6.67 inch.

All specifications above are subject to change without prior notice