Review: ECS RS482-M Radeon Xpress 200 motherboard

by Steve Kerrison on 2 August 2006, 19:30

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qageh

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Specification

Specifications

We're no strangers to Xpress 200 here at HEXUS, so let's see what ECS have put together around it.

CPU Socket 939 for AMD Athlon 64 processor up to FX-60.
High-performance Hyper Transport CPU interface.
Support transfer rate of 2000/1600/1200/800/400 mega-transfers per second.
Chipset ATI® RS482 & SB400
North Bridge: ATI® RS482
South Bridge: ATI® SB 400
Memory Dual-channel DDR memory architecture
2 x 184-pin DDR DIMM socket support up to 2 GB
Support DDR400/333/266 2.5V DDR SDRAM
Expansion slots 1 x PCI Express x16 slot
3 x PCI slots
Graphics On Chip (Radeon X300-based. 2D/3D graphic engine)
IEEE 1394 (optional) TI TSB43AB22A support 2 x IEEE1394a ports
Audio Realtek ALC655 6-Channel audio CODEC
Compliant with AC'97 2.3 specification
LAN Realtek RTL8100C 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet Controller
Rear panel I/O 1 x PS/2 keyboard & PS/2 mouse connectors
4 x USB ports
1 x VGA port
1 x RJ45 LAN connector
1 x 1394a port(optional)
1 x Parallel port (LPT1)
1 x Serial port (COM1)
1 x Audio port (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in)
Internal I/O connectors & headers 1 x 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector
1 x 4-pin ATX 12V connector
1 x FDD connector supports two 360K~2.88MB FDDs
2 x IDE connectors
4 x Serial ATA connectors
1 x IrDA for SIR header
1 x COM2 header (optional)
1 x 1394a header(optional)
2 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 4 USB Ports
1 x TV out header
1 x SPDIF out header
1 x Front panel switch/LED header
1 x Front panel audio header
CD in/ AUX in headers
CPUFAN/PWRFAN/SYSFAN connectors
Storage Supported by SB 400
-- 4 x Ultra DMA133/100/66 devices
-- 4 x Serial ATA devices
RAID0 & RAID1 configuration
System BIOS Award BIOS with 4Mb Flash ROM
Supports Plug and Play 1.0A, APM 1.2, Multi Boot, DMI
Supports ACPI revision 1.0 specification
Form factor Micro-ATX Size, 244mm*244mm

On paper, then, it looks like ECS has crammed plenty of useful things onto the board. Nothing jumps up as extraordinary, although that's not really to be expected if you're looking for a budget board. It's nice to see FireWire available as an option and it was present on the board we tested. It's also good to see the board will even handle AMD's top Socket 939 CPU, the FX-60, though we can't imagine many will find their way into the socket of this board.