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Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/302
Pine Technology ZA3 i440ZX Socket-370
by Mike Andrawes on May 27, 1999 12:49 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Founded in 1991, Pine Technology has actually been around almost as long as some of the big boys like Tyan, Asus, and Abit. So why have most people heard of Tyan and Abit, but not Pine? Well, there are two reasons. Of course, Tyan, Asus, and Abit have just grown to be much bigger. But just as important, Pine has really focused on the OEM market almost exclusively. After all, this is where the majority of sales are made for any company. But now they've decided to try to break into the do-it-yourself market much more extensively. Today, AnandTech takes a look at one of their first entries aimed at this market - the Intel i440ZX based ZA3.
New Anand Tech Report Card Rating 77/C-
Do not compare newer ratings to older ones, the newer ratings are much more aggressive
CPU Interface | Socket-370 |
Chipset | Intel i440ZX |
L2 Cache | N/A (on-chip) |
Form Factor | ATX |
Bus Speeds |
66 / 75 / 83 / 100 |
Clock Multipliers | 3x - 8x |
Voltages Supported | Auto Detect |
Memory Slots | 2 168pin DIMM Slots |
Expansion Slots | 1
AGP Slot 4 PCI Slots (4 Full Length) 3 ISA Slot (1 Shared / 3 Full Length) |
BIOS | Award 4.51PG |
The Good
Originally named the TL-IZX3-13, we wondered "what kind of name is that?" Looking at other Pine motherboard model numbers, it becomes possible to decipher the code. All models begin with a "TL", possibly standing for Time and Technology Lab, the division of the Pine Technology Group that handles motherboards. ZX is of course the chipset used. The first "3" is apparently the form factor, ATX in this case. Either the "I" and the "13" seem to indicate a Socket-370 CPU interface. That's a lot to remember, but fortunately even Pine refers to the board as the ZA3 on their website. Fortunately, Pine decided that the ZA3 was a better name and has officially changed it.
Ok, enough about the name - what we really want to know is this board any good. The configuration is the conservative 4/3/1 (PCI/ISA/AGP) form factor that is becoming increasingly outdated - the latest i810 boards have no ISA slots at all. As with most i440ZX boards, this one features 2 DIMM slots. Currently, only the ABIT ZM6 has 3 and they sort of cheat to do it and could cause some confusion. Check out that review for all the details on how they pulled it off.
The ATX specification is followed fairly closely on the ZA3, providing for a pretty good layout. All HDD/FDD connectors are located where they should be, right at the front of the board, so that no cables are forced to run over the CPU and/or memory. The ATX power connector is in a less optimal location - next to the CPU socket on the right edge of the board, which can prevent airflow to or from the CPU. The board is a standard ATX format, but is extremely short - just about an inch longer than an ISA slot - and should fit just fine in any ATX case.
Seven 1000uF capacitors are located between the ATX power connector and the CPU socket with a five more around the DIMM slots. The i443ZX chip is covered with an interesting heatsink that is about 50% larger than most heatsinks in width. Interestingly enough, that heatsink is actually attached via two screws from the bottom of the board. Two fan connectors are included on the board - one next to the CPU socket, and one in front of the DIMM slots. An LED in the lower left corner indicates power. The front panel connectors are spaced out at the front of the board such that the power button and hard drive LED connectors are all alone and easy to get to. Keylock, speaker, and reset are a little tougher to get to - similar to most boards out there.
Everyone seems to be jumping on the jumperless bandwagon these days and Pine is no exception. The ZA3 is not completely jumperless, but is pretty close with just a single jumper for toggling the state of B21. Bus speeds and multipliers can be selected in the BIOS under "CPU Speed Settings" but only 66, 75, and 83 are available for users of 66MHz CPU's. If the onboard jumper that forces 100MHz operation is used, 100MHz and above settings become available. AnandTech's test CPU, and Intel Celeron 366, would not boot at 5.5x100MHz=550MHz and thus 100MHz and above operation could not be verified.
The BIOS also suggests some minimal performance enhancing settings such as a recommendation to select CAS 2 upon boot. Otherwise, the BIOS is pretty much the generic Award setup with few added or special features.
Performance was average, not a surprise these days where most motherboards perform within a few percentage points of each other. Non-overclocked stability, on the other hand, was slightly below average, while overclocking fared even worse.
A CD is included with drivers for everything Pine makes, but nothing more - no manuals or useful utilities on there. The manual is also fairly weak and generic - it includes information on eight different Pine motherboards. While they are largely similar, it would be nice to have more detail on each board - not to mention the fact that there were a number of errors in the manual, including which jumper controlled the state of B21.
The Bad
Thanks to limitations of the ZX chipset, only 2 DIMM slots are available and memory expansion could become an issue. Make sure you buy as much RAM as you can the first time - you'll only have one shot to upgrade without throwing away some old RAM.
The board came set with the 100MHz FSB setting forced, so that AnandTech's test bed Celeron 366 would not even boot. Further, the jumper is incorrectly labeled in the manual so trial and error was required to get a 66MHz FSB speed. Speaking of FSB speeds, the "jumperless setup" is not completely jumperless, at least not for overclockers thanks to that B21 jumper. No speeds above 83MHz are available without forcing 100MHz via the incorrectly labeled jumper.
The BIOS offers no provision for manually assigning an IRQ to a particular PCI slot. The option to disable the USB IRQ is also missing. No hardware monitoring support at all. ATX power connector blocks air flow to CPU. General stability is a bit below average and overclocked stability was even worse, especially the 83MHz setting.
Power management support is also lacking. ACPI is not supported, which is already quite useful under Windows 98 and will become even more important under Windows 2000. Wake-on-LAN is supported in the BIOS but the header is not available.
The manual is virtually useless with little information for the first time system builder or the advanced user. It is a generic manual that covers eight different boards in little detail. No information on how to install a motherboard is included and only a brief explanations of BIOS settings.
USB Compatibility
-
Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0
-
Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2
-
USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS.: No
-
USB Keyboard Support in BIOS.: Yes
Recommended SDRAM
Recommended SDRAM: Mushkin SEC -GH
PC100 SDRAM; Memory Man SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM
SDRAM Tested: 1 x 64MB PC100 SDRAM
Manufacturer: The Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.memory-man.com
Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Website: http://www.mushkin.com
The Test
In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.
AnandTech Motherboard Testing Methodology
Test Configuration |
|
Processor(s): | Intel Celeron 366 OEM |
RAM: | 1 - 64MB Memory Man SEC PC100 SDRAM DIMM |
Hard Drive(s): | Western Digital Caviar AC28400 - UltraATA |
Video Card(s): | Matrox Millennium G200 (8MB SGRAM - AGP) |
Bus Master Drivers: | Microsoft Win98 DMA Drivers |
Video Drivers: | Matrox Millennium G200 Release 1677-411 |
Operation System(s): | Windows 98 |
Motherboard Revision: | Pine Technology ZA3 Revision 1.0 |
Windows 98 Performance |
||||
Winstone | Quake 2 | |||
Business 99 | Quake 2 demo1.dm2 | |||
Intel Celeron 366 (5.5 x 66MHz) | 17.9 | 15.4 | ||
Intel Celeron 458 (5.5 x 83MHz) | 20.5 | 19.4 |
The Final Decision
With Pine Technology being a relatively unknown manufacturer, the question of reliability and future support is up in the air. As for support, Pine's technical support site was not functional during testing of this board. That three year exchange warranty should hopefully alleviate some of those concerns, especially with the fact that many other manufacturers do not even offer direct warranty support.
Overall, this is pretty much just an average board with an average price - only $75 on the street. However, coming from a smaller company, it may be a little harder to find Pine boards. Only time will tell what kind of reputation Pine will earn in the extremely competitive motherboard market. With more established companies offering more complete solutions for just a slight increase in price, it's hard to recommend the Pine ZA3.
AnandTech Motherboard Rating |
|
Business | |
Performance | 82% |
Price | 80% |
Ease of Use | 85% |
Overclocked Stability | 72% |
General Stability | 77% |
Quality | 70% |
Documentation | 75% |
Reliability | 75% |
Overall Rating | 77% |
Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology