Can’t make up your mind as to whether you want an AMD CPU or an Intel CPU in your new PC?  Why not have the ability to have both!  This is exactly what you can do with the ECS PF88 Extreme hybrid motherboard.  OK, this board is not for everyone and those at a beginner/intermediate level but if you want a system that gives you choice it’s a board to consider!

The PF88 starts as a Pentium 4 motherboard powered by the SiS chipset that is a combination of 656 Northbridge and 965 Southbridge. Compatibility with other CPUs comes from the additional SIMA cards that ECS sell.  These cards fit into the "Elite System BUS" on the motherboard (the big orange slot that you can see in the picture).

(A9S SIMA card converts the PF88 motherboard to support the K8 AMD platform)

When this SIMA card is installed the top half of the motherboard is cut off and the SIMA card cakes over completely - the only board components used are the ATX power connector, the IDE ports and the rear panel outputs.

ECS PF88 Spec

CPU

• LGA775 socket for latest Intel Pentium 4 / Celeron processor
• FSB 1066/800/533 MHz
• Support Hyper-Threading Technology  

Chipset

• SiS® 656 & 965
• North Bridge: SiS® 656
• South Bridge: SiS® 965

Memory

• Dual-channel DDR2 memory architecture
• 4 x 240-pin DDR2 DIMM socket support up to 4 GB 
• Support DDR2 667/533/400 DDR2 SDRAM

Expansion Slots

• 2 x PCI Express x16 slots
• 1 x PCI Express x1 slot
• 1 Elite Bus slot
• 3 x PCI slots

Storage

• Supported by SiS 965

• -- 2 x Ultra DMA133/100/66 devices
• -- 4 x Serial ATA devices

RAID0, RAID1& RAID 0+1 configuration

Supported by SiI3132

• -- 2 x Serial ATAII devices

RAID0, RAID1& e-SATA configuration
 
Audio

Realtek ALC850 8-channel audio CODEC

Compliant with AC'97 2.3 specification

IEEE 1394a (Firewire)

• VIA® VT6307, support 2x IEEE1394a ports

LAN

• VIA® VT6307, support 2x IEEE1394a ports

Rear Panel I/O

• 1 x PS/2 keyboard & PS/2 mouse connectors
• 4 x USB ports
• 1 x RJ45 LAN connector
• 1 x 1394a connector
• 2 x Serial ports (COM1 & COM2)
• 1 x Parallel port (LPT1)
• 1 x Audio port (Line-in,4x Line-out, Mic_in)

Internal I/O Connectors and 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
• 1 x IrDA for SIR header
• 1 x Speaker header
• 1 x 1394a header
• 2 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 4 USB Ports
• 6 x Serial ATA connectors
• 1 x Front panel switch/LED header
• 1 x Front panel audio header
• 1 x CD in header
• CPUFAN/NB_FAN/SYSFAN/PWR_FAN connectors

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

• ATX Size, 305mm x 244mm

A9S SIMA Card Spec

CPU

• Socket 939 for AMD Athlon™ 64/ Athlon™ 64 FX processor.
• High-performance Hyper Transport CPU interface.
• Support transfer rate of 2000/1600/1200/800/400 mega-transfers per second.

Chipset

• SiS® 756

Memory

• Dual-channel DDR memory architecture
• 2 x 184-pin DDR DIMM socket support up to 2 GB
• Support DDR400 DDR SDRAM

Technorati Tags: AMD, CPU, Intel, ECS PF88, PF88, Pentium 4, motherboard, SiS, chipset

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 16th, 2005 at 11:04 and is filed under Kit!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.