The DFI PA61
VIA Apollo Pro133 mainboard
Wednesday, December 15, 1999
The performance tests results
All tests were all performed under Windows98.
The system setup was as following:
Motherboard: DFI PA61
CPU: Intel Pentium II 350mhz
Memory: 64mb of Mushkin PC133 SDram
IDE first channel Primary port: Quantum Fireball KA 9.1gig UDMA66
IDE second channel Primary port: Kenwood 48X True X
AGP slot: ATI Rage Fury 128GL
OS: Win98 4.10
DirectX 6.1
Note: all test were performed with the Turbo mode (105Mhz) enabled.
Winbench 99 CPUmark
For its first try, the DFI PA61 motherboard does quite well in
obtaining a score that positions it towards the middle of the pack.
Winstone 99
Here again, the FDI PA61 scores well. In this test, the PA61 was analyzed in normal operational mode (top results), and Overclocked to 434Mhz (results at the bottom). In both cases, you can see that the DFI PA61 maintains a position a little below the middle of the group.
Video Sub-System Tests
Again, the PA61 obtains results that correspond
with the previous results.
Thanks to the PC133 memory supplied by Mushkin, we were able to tweak our PII-350Mhz to 434Mhz for this test. We can see immediately, that the DFI PA61 takes advantage of the situation, and sails up to the upper echelons of the pack.
Disk Sub-System Tests
Overall Quality Evaluation
The evaluation table below shows both the strong and weak points of the tested motherboard. No need to remind you that performance is not the sole purchasing criteria in a motherboard. Most of today's motherboards exhibit performance very close to each other, so we need additional information in order to help us distinguish the real advantages of a motherboard compared to its competitors. This is exactly where this evaluation table comes in handy.
|
DFI PA61 VIA Apollo Pro133 mainboard
|
|
|
Feature
|
Evaluation
|
|
Design Originality
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
4
|
|
Circuit Board Quality
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
5
|
Component Layout
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
5
|
Capacitiors
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
5
|
|
CPU Retention Mechanism
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
5
|
|
Amounts of Expansion Slots
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
2
|
|
Amount of Memory sockets
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
4
|
|
Ease of installation
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
5
|
|
BIOS Setup Design
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
4
|
|
Performance
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
4
|
|
Overclockability
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
4
|
|
Stability
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
5
|
|
Bundled Software
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
3
|
|
Bundled Hardware
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
3
|
|
Users Manual Quality
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
3
|
|
Packing Quality
|
Poor
|
Good
|
Average
|
Excellent
|
Top Grade
|
4
|
|
Features supported
|
ATA66
|
PC133
|
Wake On LAN
|
Modem ring
|
Pwr Fail Res
|
5
|
|
Features supported (suite)
|
SB-Link
|
AMR
|
Mouse Pwr On
|
Susp. to RAM
|
Susp. to Disk
|
2
|
|
Features supported (suite)
|
IRDA
|
SCSI
|
Keyb. Pwr On
|
Hardw. mon.
|
Vcore adj.
|
3
|
|
Features supported (suite)
|
RAID
|
Alarm
|
Soft Menu
|
L2 latency adj.
|
IRQ assign.
|
3
|
|
Total Score obtainned for this motherboard
|
78 point out of 100
|
|
Features color codes: Blue = supported, Red = optional, Black = not supported
|
The DFI PA61 scored 78, out of a possible 100 points. See below for details.
The Weak Points
The PA61's weak points are these: a PCI to ISA ratio of 4/3 unoptimised that would have been better at 5/2 or 6/1, the presence of only 3 DIMM sockets, and a user's manual that contains only brief installation instructions. The absense of several interesting functions, such as processor voltage adjustment, multiple Suspend modes, and the ability to adjust the frequency of the memory bus, would all have benefited this board. Finally, both in the printed, and CD versions of the user's manual, many information about the meaning of several memory settings in the BIOS are missing; almost as if to change these settings were being discouraged...
The Strong Points
The PA61's strong points are these: Nice performance, excellent stability, and the inclusion of hardware monitoring as a standard feature.
Conclusions
The DFI PA61 motherboard has few features to speak of. In effect, seeing as how it is not gifted with any features to distinguish it, it remains a fairly conservative board. Its nice performance, and excellent stability are certainly elements that are looked for, and the market is so replete with competitors, that people are often drawn towards products with a little something more. It's funny, but I sometimes get the impression that certain manufacturers don't really want to sell there particular line of wares, and prove it by selling a plain product packed in an box with nothing more. The DFI PA61 is certainly a good board, but a few extra features, a software bundle a bit more generous, a few extras in the hardware bundle, and it could have been a much more appealing board. In short, it's not from a technical standpoint that we reproach the PA61, but it neither stands as a device that filled us with any particular excitement.
For additional information, visit DFI.
