P2L97 motherboard: ASUS P2L97 LX Pentium II Board

IndexThe Test

ASUS was one of the first
motherboard manufacturers to release a Slot-1 Natoma (440FX) Based motherboard back in
May, the KN97-X. Over 5 months and two chipsets later, ASUS is back and this time they are
boasting a LX based mammoth with full support for the 75 and 83.3MHz bus speeds, a huge
jump from the horrible support for only the 60 and 66MHz bus speeds found in the KN97-X.

Motherboard
Specifications

Socket Style:	Slot-1
Chipset:	i82440LX
Cache:	N/A (On Chip)
Form Factor:	ATX
BUS Speeds:	66 / 68 / 75 / 83 MHz
Clock Multipliers:	1. 5x — 4.5x
Voltages Supported:	1.5v — 3.5v (Auto Detect)
RAM Slots:	3 168pin DIMM Slots (EDO/ECC/SDRAM)
AGP/PCI/ISA Slots:	1 AGP Slot 5 PCI Slots 2 ISA Slots (1 Shared / 2 Full Length)
BIOS:	AWARD PnP BIOS w/ Jumperless CPU Setup
PCI EIDE Controller:	Super I/O 2 EIDE Channels 1 FDD Channel 2 Serial /1 EPP

The Good

ASUS has always been an excellent motherboard
manufacturer, they were among the pioneers of the 83MHz bus speed back in the days of the
T2P4, and they quickly jumped on the Socket-8 bandwagon with the release of Intel’s
Pentium Pro. Now, years since ASUS first proved to the world that they are not a
dilettante newcomer to the market, they are back again, this time packing a much larger
punch than before equipped with the raw power of Intel’s LX chipset.

The layout of the P2L97 hasn’t changed much
since the KN97-X, however the number and location of the expansion slots has changed. The
Slot-1 is now located directly in the path of the P/S Fan as the ATX Specification States,
and the DIMM slots have been moved to the edge of the motherboard closest to the expansion
bays. The footprint of the P2L97 is pretty much standard for an ATX Pentium II board, and
unlike models from AOpen and Megatrends, the P2L97 leaves much «breathing room»
when installed in a Mid-Tower Enlight 7230 case.

Like most other LX motherboards, the P2L97
features a completely jumperless CPU setup included with the excellent AWARD PnP BIOS
configuration utility. Along with the basic setup options the P2L97 also boasts a wide
variety of «intelligent mainboard» features now commonly found in most high
quality motherboards. Among these features are the standard APM options as well as a few
unique additions ASUS decided to include such as an Automatic Power Up Setting that allows
the user to set a certain time or date on which the system will power up automatically. A
useful feature if you always power up your system at the same time each day (i.e. if you
always turn your system on at 6AM to prepare for an update to a certain hardware testing
page =) ) or if you just want to scare the cat who likes sleeping on your computer desk.
Either way, ASUS paid quite a bit of attention to the little details that please us all.
And what ASUS motherboard would be complete without a few hardware monitoring features?
With the P2L97’s built in Fan, Thermal, and Voltage Monitors as well as its support for
ECC SDRAM it quickly becomes a viable option for do or die server situations. If you want
a motherboard that is stable and isn’t prone to crash, even when overclocking, then I
suggest you look at the P2L97.

Another classic mark of an ASUS motherboard is
the extremely detailed and thorough user’s manual. Although it doesn’t provide some
critical information about the Chipset Features Setup of the BIOS (like most other
motherboard manuals) its detailed pictures and diagrams make the overall experience with
the product a positive one. ASUS has also bundled a support CDROM with the P2L97 which
contains the Intel LanDesk Client Manager as well as a Demonstration MPEG Video in
addition to some other useful utilities.

At all clock speeds tested the P2L97 proved to
be an excellent performer, from the 233MHz setting to the blazing fast 375MHz daemon
setting the P2L97 was on par with the competition while holding its ground pretty well. As
mentioned before, the P2L97 isn’t prone to crash which is mainly a result of its 18 mid
size capacitors at work.

This Just In: I did manage to get the ATI 3D
Rage Pro (AGP) card to work with the P2L97, it wasn’t working as a cause of an error on my
part. The performance with the 3D Rage Pro is not bad at all, which makes this board an
even better value.

The Bad

Expansion on the P2L97 isn’t encouraged,
although it features an abundant 5 PCI slots, the 2 ISA slots and 3 DIMM slots limit your
expansion considerably. The 3 DIMM slots limit your memory expansion to a maximum of 384MB
of RAM (like the KN97-X) however that is when you are using 128MB SDRAM DIMMs which most
people don’t have laying around. So in reality (for most people that is) the physical
memory capacity of the P2L97 is 3 — 64MB SDRAM DIMMs, or 192MB of RAM, which simply isn’t
taking advantage of the Pentium II’s 512MB Cacheable memory area…although 192MB is more
than enough for most users. It is all dependent on the user’s needs.

Recommended
SDRAM

This little addition to my review layout was put in here just so you all can have an idea
of what brand of SDRAM I recommend and have tested

with the board, just to avoid problems in the future if you decide to purchase the board.

Recommended SDRAM: Advanced Megatrends SDRAM; Corsair SDRAM; SmarTech SDRAM

SDRAM Tested: 2 x 32MB Advanced Megatrends SDRAM DIMMs; 2 x 32MB SmarTech SDRAM DIMMs; 2 x
32MB Corsair SDRAM DIMMs

Manufacturer: Corsair Microsystems

Purchase Web-Site: http://www.nf-ny.com

IRQ Usage

• Allows user to individually set IRQs for
  each Legacy ISA card

• Allows user to enable the use of an IRQ for
  PS/2 mouse

• Allows user to reserve IRQ/DMA Channels if
  necessary

• Auto-detects PnP Cards after HDD Detection

The Test
IndexThe Test

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  Also See for Asus P2L97

Asus P2L97 User Manual
56 pages

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  Summary of Contents for Asus P2L97

Motherboard ASUS P2L97

Motherboard ASUS P2L97

Thinking about the motherboard is useful not only for those who intend to assemble a computer on their own, but also for those who buy a ready-made system. There are many reasons for this.

Some computers work quickly and reliably, while others tend to freeze all the time, and they don’t shine with agility. Usually the reason for this difference in behavior lies in the poor compatibility of the machine components. For example, the electrical parameters of the graphic card and system memory do not match, the sound card is not very suitable for them, etc. As a result, the system is unstable at very high operating frequencies of buses and processors, which we are dealing with today. Moreover, even specialists, often nodding at the unfortunate video adapter, do not remember that the motherboard serves as an intermediary between it and other devices.

So maybe the reliability and speed of the system and are determined mainly by its parameters and quality? Exactly. Then there is no need to explain why her choice is important for the amateur collector. And, ask, where does the buyer of the finished computer? Tell me, will he have to do some modernization after some time? This is where the shortcomings of the motherboard, disguised by the assembler — the seller of the computer, may surface.

Products of the Taiwanese company ASUSTek are widely distributed in our market and have a good rating. To create systems based on Pentium II processors, which Intel is betting on in the near future, the P2L9 motherboard is intended7. It is built on the Intel 440LX chipset, supports almost all its functions and is, perhaps, one of the most productive. In terms of price, features and speed, it can be recommended for powerful personal computers, workstations and even entry-level servers.

ASUSTek P2L97 is designed for the installation of Pentium II processors with frequencies up to 333 MHz. The bus frequency and multiplier for the processor are set using jumpers on the board. The PCI bus is available at 60, 66, 75 and 83 MHz. The 440LX chipset guarantees stable operation at 66 MHz, but those who want to «overclock» the processor can be calm — P2L97 works fine at 83 MHz. Naturally, in this case, you need to take care of sufficient cooling of the processor and chipset microcircuit. The maximum multiplier is 5.0, so you can try to overclock a 333 MHz Pentium II to 415 MHz. My tests showed that the 266 MHz processor ran smoothly on the P2L97 at 333 MHz for a long time without overheating or crashing.

The P2L97 provides medium options for scaling up your computer. It has four PCI slots, two 16-bit ISA slots, and an AGP slot for a graphics card. One PCI slot is shared with ISA. System memory is only available with 168-pin DIMMs using three slots. The maximum amount of memory in this case is 384 megabytes, if you use 128-megabyte DIMMs. This is not enough except for a mighty server.

Standard I/O port set. It includes two IDE channels with support for Ultra ATA hard drives, a port for floppy drives, including the LS-120. The BIOS system provides for the ability to boot not only from floppy disks or a hard drive, but also from an ATAPI CD-ROM or from a SCSI device. For external devices, there are two USB ports, two serial and parallel ports, ports for the keyboard and mouse (PS / 2). An IrDA infrared port is available as an option.

The P2L97 board is not bad from an «intellectual» point of view. In addition to the standard Plug & Play, it supports CPU fan and temperature monitoring (with alarm), voltage monitoring and alarm, resource monitoring and virus protection. The LM78 chip installed in the lower left corner (above the upper ISA slot) is responsible for this. Of course, software is also required — Intel LANDesk Client Manager.

The performance of the P2L97 is among the best. In testing, it climbed to 58.8 on Business Winstone 97 for a 266 MHz processor, 63.7 for 300 MHz, and 65.5 for 333 MHz (1,024 x 768 x 16-bit video). The High-End Winstone 97 scores were 29.9, 31.4 and 34.0 for the corresponding processor frequencies. These numbers are slightly lower than for the Chaintech 6LTM motherboard, but overall they are more than good. Especially considering the high reliability and quality of ASUSTek P2L97.

The P2L97 uses high quality components such as memory and expansion slots, capacitors, etc. Some inconvenience associated with the need to fiddle around with jumpers to change the bus and processor frequency is compensated by the ease of installing the processor. Unlike many other boards in this price range, the P2L97 is equipped with a reliable and convenient fastening. The guide for the Pentium II is firmly fixed on the motherboard with screws. The fan mounts, which often have to be fought with, in this case snap into place without the slightest problem on the bracket installed at the factory.

In general, like other ATX motherboards, in my opinion, ASUSTek P2L97 is easier to assemble than Baby AT motherboards. The cables to the IDE and floppy ports are not confused, the connectors for them are equipped with a guide cutout that ensures the correct connection. Keyboard and mouse connectors, serial, parallel and USB ports are located directly on the board, which reduces the number of cables inside the system unit. However, there are also complaints. For some unknown reason, the power connector, to which a thick, inflexible wire harness goes, is located behind the processor. It is rather inconvenient to connect it, and unnecessary confusion with wires arises because of this.

Roman Sobolenko
[email protected]

The fee was provided by Pirit,
tel. (017) 268-41-18 — front page

Computer newspaper. The article was published in issue 15, 1998 under the rubric hard :: mb

Drivers for Asus P2L97-S | flydrivers.ru0/7896 device driver

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Computers, the Internet, mobile communications — these concepts have firmly entered our daily life and now it is impossible to imagine how we managed without them before.

04/18/2009

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Author: Stanislav Vasiliev

ASUSTeK manufactures boards for Pentium II not only based on the system logic from Intel. Its product line also includes two boards on chips from VIA. What are they? The first board — P2V is based on the VIA Apollo Pro-Plus core, made in ATX factor, supports Pentium2, Celeron PPGA / Slot-1, Pentium 3. In addition, the board is equipped with a PC Health Monitoring system that allows you to reduce performance in critical cases to increase stability systems.

The second board is marked as P2V-B and is made in AT form factor, supports dual AT/ATX power supply, has fewer PCI slots, new placement of IDE connectors.

Both boards do not comply with the PC99 specification, as they have ISA slots, are not tinted in the appropriate color, and do not support some other, less important features of this specification. Both have 3 banks for installing 3.3V DIMMs, while P2V-B is more limited in terms of further installation of expansion cards, as it has fewer slots for both PCI and ISA. However, P2V-B is designed to modify old Pentium AT form factor systems, and the design is fully consistent. Thanks to its small dimensions (23x22cm), the board fits easily into both the old MiniTower AT case and any modern ATX case. When installing in ATX, it is required to have an additional cover for the rear wall, which will close the holes in which connectors are output from ATX boards. P2V like any standard ATX board has 2 USB, 2 Serial (9pin), 1 Parallel, 2 PS/2 ports. P2V-B is equipped with the usual «pigtail» for 1 Parallel, 2 Serial (25 pin + 9 pin). Both boards support DIMM modules with a total capacity of up to 768MB, which is quite enough for domestic needs. Here is a comparative description of these boards and the recently reviewed ASUSTeK P2B-F. The appearance of all three boards in an enlarged form can be viewed by clicking on the pictures.

Parameter	P2V	P2V-B	P2B-F
Logic	VIA Apollo Pro-Plus VT82C693 AGP Set with Southbridge VT82C596	VIA Apollo Pro-Plus VT82C693 AGP Set with Southbridge VT82C596A	Intel® 100MHz 440BX AGP Set with PIIX4E Southbridge
Number of DIMMs	3 banks 3.3V PC100 up to 768MB	3 banks 3.3V PC100 up to 768MB	4 banks 3.3V ECC PC100 up to 1Gb
Supported CPUs	Pentium 233-450 Pentium 3 450+ Celeron 266 Slot1/PPGA	Pentium 2 233-450 Pentium 3 450+ Celeron266 Slot1/PPGA	Pentium 2 233-450 Pentium 3 450+ Celeron266 Slot1/PPGA
ISA/PCI/AGP slots	3 ISA/ 4 PCI / 1 AGP	2 ISA/ 3 PCI / 1 AGP	2 ISA/ 5 PCI / 1 AGP
AGP mode	1x/2x	1x/2x	1x/2x
I/O	ATX: 2 Serial 9 + 9 pin 1 Parallel 25 pin ECC/EPP PS/2 mouse PS/2 keyboard 2 USB 1 Floppy	Pigtail: 2 Serial 25pin, 9pin 1 Parallel 25 pin ECC/EPP AT keyboard 1 USB/M IR 1 Floppy	ATX: 2 Serial 9 + 9 pin 1 Parallel 25 pin ECC/EPP PS/2 mouse PS/2 keyboard 2 USB 1 Floppy
Int. IDE	2xUDMA33 with ZIP/LS/CD support	2xUDMA33 with ZIP/LS/CD support	2xUDMA33 with ZIP/LS/CD support
Power supply	ATX 20 pin 3V/5V/12V	Dual AT/ATX	ATX 20 pin 3V/5V/12V
BIOS Firmware: Download AwFlash	2M-bit Flash EEPROM, Award. Download from August 31	2M-bit Flash EEPROM, Award. Download June 29	2M-bit Flash EEPROM, Award Download June 20
Accessibility	Auto downshift, configurable suspend recycling, USB hot support	Adjustable processor voltage, adjustable processor utilization, temperature monitoring	SB link, Keyboard Power On support, tamper proof, WOL Header
Wakes up from	Modem, LAN, Keyboard, PS/2 mice, timer	Modem, LAN, Keyboard, PS/2 mice, timer	Modem, Lan, Keyboard, PS/2, timer
Board size	ATX 19. 2 cm x 30.5 cm	Baby AT 22.8 cm x 22 cm	ATX 19.2 cm x 30.4 cm
Reduced appearance

The number of slots, you can see in the pictures, it’s not difficult to figure them out. If you want to get a slightly enlarged version — click on the photo. All three boards are quite old and do not support particularly fashionable bells and whistles. If quality is critical for you, we would advise you to choose motherboards based on Intel chips, as there are always problems with motherboards based on other chips. Let’s not dwell on Windows problems, let’s just say that with chips from VIA there are always more problems in terms of working with accelerators than with chips from Intel. If we compare P2V and P2V-B with P2B-F, it is easy to see that the latter surpasses them in almost all respects.

And what’s the point of buying boards that are identical in terms of characteristics, and in some ways lose to a product based on the already well-known core from Intel? It seems to be nothing, if you do not first look at the price list. And here lies the main point. Yes, although P2V has fewer memory and PCI slots, its price ranges from $70. The same can be said about P2V-B. After market researching stores, it’s possible to find these boards for $55, but it will take some effort. Well, how do you get a board with 150Mhz FSB support for a ridiculous $55. No, of course they are funny only if you remember that the board was made by ASUS. Whether you run something on these 150Mhz FSB or not, this is a separate conversation. At the same time, P2V supports the following frequencies:

FSB frequency (Mhz)			PCI frequency (Mhz)	Dividers
P2V	P2V-B	P2B-F
66. 8	+	+	33.4	1/2
75	+	+	37.5	1/2
83.3	+	+	41.65	1/2
100	+	+	33.4	1/3
103	+	+	34.3	1/3
105	+	—	35	1/3
110	+	—	36.67	1/3
112	+	+	37. 33	1/3
115	+	—	38.33	1/3
120	+	—	40	1/3
124	+	+	31	1/4
133	—	+	33	1/4
133	—	—	44.33	1/3
140	—	—	35	1/4
150	—	—	37	1/4

And here it is already interesting. Frequencies that are very interesting for overclockers are highlighted in bold. Why exactly these? The fact is that the board supports a 1 to 4 divider, which means that at a frequency of 133Mhz FSB, PCI will have only 33Mhz, that is, the standard frequency. This means that all PCI devices at this frequency will work quite normally. By setting
high-quality memory and a processor with a margin purely theoretically, with good cooling, for example, a 300Mhz Pentium 2 or Celeron is quite realistic to overclock to:

Numbers after 600, most likely, are unattainable at home, without special cooling and perversions this will be impossible to achieve. In any case, VIA-based boards, unlike P2B-F, make it easy to adjust the voltage, and judging by the frequencies, they are intended primarily for racers. By the way, when calculating the approximate frequency, it was meant that
the multiplication factor will be fixed. If you are a happy owner of an unlocked processor, then you have even more prospects in front of you. The only downside is
At least P2V-B is documented to support fewer frequencies. You can see the crosses with unsupported frequencies in the table, but the most interesting thing is that the overly expensive P2B-F does not support even more frequencies than P2V-B, plus problems with setting the voltage. In general, the board is even less valuable for an overclocker.

Now regarding the location of the elements on the board. It looks like ASUS’ trademark problem in all P2B and P2V motherboards is DIMM latches, which are very difficult to operate with a video card installed in the AGP slot.

P2V

The ATX power connector is too close to the CPU, and is located among the barrels, because of which it is sometimes scary to get it out. They suddenly break away. The battery is located in front of the PCI slots, but there is no particular need for it to stand there, some non-standard boards can hook it (however, such boards are very, very rare), connectors for connectors are located on the very edge, which can also lead to problems in some cases. IDE and Floppy connectors are installed so close to the lower right edge that they fall under the drives — it’s terribly inconvenient to get memory and insert cables. At least this problem constantly arises on our Desktop ATX case.

P2V-B

Pretty standard AT format. DIMM modules are unfortunately close to the AGP slot, and when installing modern very hot 3D accelerators (God forbid Voodoo3 2000 at 183Mhz), the memory will heat up thoroughly, and the heat will be on the reverse side, where fans are usually not installed. Again, even if they are installed, then structurally DIMM modules interfere with the installation of the fan. Sincere advice — to increase the stability of work, do not be too lazy to carefully blow the memory modules. And one more unsuccessful design idea — the Floppy connector is moved to the connectors of the port pigtails, this not only clutters up the space inside the case with wires, but also once again makes it inconvenient to connect / disconnect the pigtail. The ATX power connector is placed directly behind the Slot-1 connector, which does not improve its accessibility, the AT is moved further away, but on some power supplies there may be problems with inserting wires, since the connector is very close to the AT connector of the keyboard. The system logic is not equipped with a heatsink, which also does not affect the overall stability of the operation very well, some jumpers are installed too close to large modules of the structure, which makes it difficult to access them without a special tool.

Conclusions

The boards are well made, although there are some shortcomings and lack of thought. P2V may seem interesting for overclockers, P2V-B is ideal for upgrading an old Pentium in case there is a chronic lack of money for ASUS with Intel-based logic. In any case, ASUS makes stable boards, but also takes money for it. Therefore, you should not compare Noname BX with ASUS VIA. P2V is promising with support for a 1/4 divider, which will allow it to work with the next generation of 133Mhz FSB Pentium 3 and Celeron processors, unless revolutionary elements are introduced into their design. The P2V-B board does not support a 1/4 divider but is intended for upgrading older systems. If the buyer has enough money for a 733Mhz Pentium III, then even more so for a more decent motherboard. As for performance measurements, it was noticed that the maximum spread is 2-3%, and in games there is no difference at all. Therefore, we did not consider it necessary to clutter up the text with tables.

Links

P2V	P2V-B
Documentation rev 1.01 PDF	Documentation 1.