I. Introduction

Update 09/16/2006: Overclocking this board is added already. Click Here >>

This is another value motherboard from Intel® that is quite interesting, and targetting a very specific segment of the market. The Intel® Desktop Board D865GSA is a board targetted for the value segment and aptly grouped in the "Essential" series of motherboard. It is along the same segment as the Intel® Desktop Board D101GGC and Intel® Desktop Board D102GGC2.

This motherboard is an interesting product, since Intel® went back to their older chipset, based on Intel® 865G Express Chipset with Intel® Extreme Graphics 2 on-board graphics. This chipset is fairly old, about five(5) generations behind starting from i875, i915, i925, i945, i955, and i975 series of express Chipsets. What's even more, this motherboard has AGP and DDR1 tandem, truly, a legacy provision in motion.

However weird it may seem, it just goes to show that Intel listens and hears what users are saying. Those who would want to upgrade their old system which, for example, still use Northwood processor (or earlier) and invested heavily on their AGP video card, and have quite a big memory based on DDR will be happy with this product. Imagine, a dual core with virtualization, and support for EM64T! Users can just worry about the CPU and motherboard upgrade and leave everything intact.

But will this new Intel® board made for newer CPU be able to live up with Intel®'s renowned capability to make great products? Will this be plagued with issues and incompatibilities when using newer processors? My torture chamber eagerly awaits...

II. Specification

While this board is within the "Value" segment, Chipzilla still went ahead and made this board full featured, with support for newer 3xx, 5xx and 6xx series of processors, and not to mention the newer Dual Core solution in 8xx and 9xx series of CPU.

As mentioned earlier, this motherboard uses i865G chipset with integrated graphics.

CPU
• Support for an Intel® Pentium® D Processor in an LGA775 socket with an 800 MHz system bus
• Support for an Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor in an LGA775 socket with an 800 or 533 MHz system bus
• Support for an Intel® Celeron® D Processor in an LGA775 socket with a 533 MHz system bus

Chipset
• Intel® 865G Express Chipset
• Intel® 865G Northbridge with Integrated Intel® Extreme Graphics 2
• Intel® ICH5
Front Side Bus
• 800MHz / 533MHz

Memory
• Dual Channel Support
• 2 x 184-pin DIMM sockets support max. 2GB DDR 400/333 non-ECC memory

Expansion Slots
• 1x AGP 8x
• 3x PCI

Storage
• 2x ATA-133 (four IDE devices)
• 2x Serial ATA
• One diskette drive interface

LAN
• RealTek* 8101L 10/100 Ethernet LAN controller

Audio
• Intel® AC97 Audio RealTek* AL861 Codec
• 2x5 onboard header for front panel audio
• Flexible 6-channel audio

USB
• 4x on the back panel
• 4x on the front panel via 2 internal headers
• Backward compatible with USB 1.1

BIOS
• AwardBIOS* for Intel resident in the 4 Mbit FWH

Back Panel I/O Ports
• 1x VGA port
• 1x parallel port
• 1x serial port
• PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports
• 4x USB ports
• 1x RJ-45 Ethernet connector

Internal I/O Headers
• 2x USB headers for 4x USB devices
• 2x5 onboard header for front panel audio
• CPU / Chassis / Power FAN connectors
• Chassis Intrusion

Power Connectors
• 24-pin ATX Power connector
• 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector

Support CD
• 1x Intel® Express Installer CD (Drivers and Software)

Accessories
• 1x Quick Reference Poster
• 2 x Serial ATA cable
• ATA 100/66 cable
• Configuration Label/li>
• Backplate I/O shield

Form Factor
• Micro-ATX (9.6 x 8.6 inches)

Overclocking Features
• None

Other Features
• Hardware management/monitor
• Three fan sensing inputs used to monitor fan activity
• Voltage monitor
• Processor Temperature monitor
• Power Management
• Support for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)
• Suspend to RAM (STR)
• Wake on USB and PS/2
• PME# wakeup support
Warranty
• 3-year limited warranty

Time to give it a closer look...