Video Creation The AMD Way

Author : Wayne Date : 23rd December 2002

 

The PC :

Evesham Movie Edition DV

There's no mention in the specifications of the Panasonic DVD-RAM/R drive that our test unit came equipped with, I'm assuming this to be a mistake as it's shown on their system configure page for this system.

As I mentioned earlier the PC was an off-the-peg model supplied by Evesham. This impressive machine which Evesham have christened the "Movie Edition DV" , while clearly not created for the gamers amongst us, offered a solid specification with everything you're likely to need to dive straight in to some serious, even professional level image or video editing. Details and prices can be found HERE. Here's a rundown of the components used in this particular system :

Case Features and Build :

I must admit that one of the things that most impressed me about this PC was the case. It does have some weaknesses and isn't quite as enthusiast friendly as some of the aftermarket cases you can buy but for an off-the-shelf PC is has a lot going for it.

With the swing out front door closed things look fairly uninspiring. The only visible features as such are the ample vent slats to the bottom and the clear rectangular window that allows you to monitor the power and HDD activity LED.

The door itself features a double hinge which is a terrific idea as it lets it sit flat along the side of the case. If, like me, you've ever broken a door by accidentally catching it and straining it backwards on its hinge you'll understand why I rate this so highly.

Expansion is adequate with three external 5 1/4" external bays and two 3.5" bays.

 

 

The rear of the case is a real surprise. The single 120mm fan sits behind a well designed grill with a very open "chip basket" design that allows for maximum throughput of air. It's not the quietist fan you'll ever hear but I've heard worse and it does a first class job of shifting air through the case interior. Lower down (bottom right) is a rectangular vent behind which sits a bracket of some kind. This appears to have been designed to accommodate some sort of snap in card cooler but it wasn't included which is a shame. Even the expansion slot blanks are drilled for ventilation!

Other than this monstrous vent things are fairly standard. The case

From the rear you can see a single thumb screw (arrowed) and this is all that needs removing to access the innards. Unscrewing this thumbscrew allows the top panel to be slid off revealing two lift handles. There was also a single screw at the top of each side panel but these can be safely removed and left out as they're probably more a shipping precaution than a necessity.

 

With the screw out, removing the side panel is as easy as lifting the handle. The handle features a cam arrangement that lifts the side panel a fraction and dislocates it from the bottom locking tabs. It can then be lifted clear using the same handle.

I don't know who manufactures this case but it's certainly an interesting design and feels very solidly built. Replacing the side panels is a bit more of a struggle than removing them as the locking tabs on the bottom are pretty tight but no doubt this would improve over time. All in all a very impressive case and one I hope they use consistently, I say that because the product shot on their site features an entirely different case design.

Internally :

Switching to the internals things remain equally refined with only the lack of internal drive expansion space being a concern. There's room for an additional two 3.5" drives internally but room for only a single additional 5.25" unit. Ample for most people but a touch restricting for anyone with exotic expansion plans. The case features a very open design with no restrictive bracing to cut down on airflow and it has to be said that this is one of the best cases I've used to date so far as overall ventilation is concerned.

 

To balance the 120mm exhaust fan on the rear this case also features a 120mm intake fan at the front. You can just about make it out behind that vented enclosure at the bottom right (below) onto which the card steady is fixed. A set of quick release drive rails and bays would make this a near perfect home for your new PC but considering the other pluses it would be a bit unfair to grumble.

The cabling was neatly dealt with (you can swop them for rounded cables later) and the build quality was otherwise very impressive. If you decide to upgrade the CPU heat sinks allow yourself plenty of time. I've taken off some tricky HSFs in my time but these are a real biatch!

The Motherboard :

Dual Processor Support

The A7M266-D leverages the technology of the AMD 760MPX™ chipset to take advantage of the enhanced performance of dual Athlon™ MP processors. The A7M266-D supports up to two Athlon™ MP processors, or one Athlon™ MP / Athlon™ XP / Athlon™ / Duron™ socket A processor.

Flexible DDR Memory Support

The A7M266-D supports up to 3.5GB (4 DIMMs) of registered DDR SDRAM or 2GB (2 DIMMs) of un-buffered DDR SDRAM. Registered DDR SDRAM provides increased data integrity and reliability necessary for server applications, while un-buffered DDR SDRAM delivers cost-effective performance adequate for most regular system applications. The A7M266-D's flexible DDR memory support enables versatile functionality across a range of systems from high-performance desktops, workstations, and entry-level servers.

PCI 64-bit 66-MHz PCI Slots

Two PCI 64-bit 66-MHz slots deliver up to four times more bandwidth than conventional 32-bit PCI slots, and are optimized for server or workstation functions. 64-bit PCI slots are backwards compatible and also support 32-bit PCI cards or peripherals.

CPU Thermal Protection

The A7M266-D incorporates special features to protect the condition of your valuable CPU. A CPU throttling feature is enabled in the BIOS, which automatically lowers the CPU frequency to a safe speed if excessive temperatures are detected during operation. Additionally, ASUS COP (CPU Overheating Protection) is a hardware protection circuit that automatically shuts down the system power before temperatures go high enough to permanently damage your CPU.

Support ASUS iPanel

Support the ASUS iPanel to provide easy connectivity and one-touch management of various peripherals and system status.

ATX Form-factor and Minimum 400W ATX 2.03 Power Supply

The minimum requirement for full-power loading is a 400 Watt ATX 12V power supply; minimum requirement for +5V/3.3V is 180 Watts; +12 Volts requires 15 Amps; 5VSB requires 1 Amp. Also Ensure that the ATX power supply can put out at least 10mA on the +5 Volt standby lead (+5vsb). You may experience difficuly powering ON the system if the power supply cannot support the load. For Wake-On-LAN support, your ATX power supply must supply at least 720mA for +5VSB.

6-Channel Audio

The A7M266-D uses an onboard C-Media 8738 audio controller that lets you enjoy high-quality 6-channel audio without having to buy advanced sound cards.

ASUS Reliability

All ASUS motherboards are designed and tested to meet the highest quality standards. Responsive customer support and frequent BIOS and driver updates ensure the fastest, most reliable performance. All ASUS motherboards are backed by a 3-year limited warranty (warranty period may vary by region).

Comprehensive Software Bundle

All ASUS motherboards include a valuable software bundle of popular third party programs that will enable you to enjoy the full capabilities of your ASUS product:

Trend Micro™ PC-cillin 2002 Retail anti-virus program
ASUS PC Probe™ system health monitoring software
Cyberlink® PowerPlayer SE™, Video Live Mail™ Retail

Spec Summary

The A7M266-D is a terrific motherboard that not only offers incredibly stable operation but also notches up some performance figures beyond the norm. As with other dual processor boards the overclocking options are reasonably limited with no multiplier adjustment available but FSB tweaking is available up to 180MHz and there are certain voltage tweaks available via jumpers. Ultimately though this review isn't about the overclocking of individual components, it's about their ability to gel.....to work together as a unit in order to increase your enjoyment, your productivity, your data integrity or what ever reason you had for wanting such a platform to begin with.

All wasn't perfect though and this Evesham system shipped with one major flaw....it was only using one of the two CPUs! Because I was working on other projects at the same time I had the Evesham working it's way though some benchmarks while I noted down the results in automaton mode. It was only later in the day when I examined the results I'd been so lovingly jotting down that I realised they seemed unusually low. I fired up the Windows Task Manager and hit the performance tab and sure enough, there was only one "CPU Usage" graph displayed.

At this point I'd more or less decided I had a bad CPU but took a poke around in the BIOS just to save any red faces when I phoned tech support and they asked "did you enable MP support in the BIOS?" or something equally obvious that I'd missed. As it happened no such setting existed but there was a "MP Function Test" option that was set to "Auto". Assuming this to be the culprit I changed the setting from "Auto" to "Enabled" and rebooted. This time I actually got an error message that read "CPU0 is MP Capable WARNING - CPU1 is MP Incapable........BIOS will now disable AP" and asked my to hit F1 to continue. As it happens this message was also appearing the with MP test option set to "Auto" it was just that it wasn't asking for a user input before disabling CPU1 and therefor I hadn't noticed it. I was now more convinced than ever that one of the CPUs was bad and asked AMD to ship out another to replace it.

In the meantime I decided in desperation to set the MP test option in the BIOS to "Disabled" just to see what happened, although I didn't expect anything would happen apart from the error message not appearing on the POST screen. I was wrong! I now had both CPUs visible from within Windows and working precisely as they should.

So what was the problem? According to ASUS the problem lay with the BIOS. This machine had a BIOS v1006 installed and although I had already looked for, and failed to find, anything later than this on their website AMD somehow managed to get me v1009 which hadn't found its way to the site despite being dated 05/08/02!

Impressed? You bet I'm not, not only had ASUS shipped a board designed primarily for use with dual processors that disabled one of them by default so defeating the sole reason for its creation, Evesham were also packing them up and shipping them out in this condition! Surely somebody should have been checking them somewhere along the line! These systems are comparatively and rightfully expensive, particularly when God know how many poor souls are now sat at home having shelled out some serious cash for one of them only to be unwittingly working away at well below full steam.

This aside though I have to go and spoil my whinge by saying how impressive the motherboard is when it's working how it should be and despite them needing a good kick in the pants for this silly problem I'd probably also be patting them on the back for an otherwise excellent piece of kit.

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