Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.soyo (More info?)
I have had the Soyo Dragon2 motherboard now for 3 weeks and it has performed
great.
Now for those of you who are overclockers, I can't give out any overclocker
reviews, as I don't overclock. Also I can't give out any info on how it
performs with games, as the only games I have are what comes with Win98SE.
I'm running it with "Optimal settings" chosen in the Bios.
I chose this board as I needed a MB with 4 IDE ports, as I use mobile racks
for ease of Ghosting and this way I can run all my ide and atapi drives as
masters.
I took me awhile to figure out how to use IDE 3&4 without a Raid setup. I
was also concerned on how it would coexist with my Adaptec 29160N that I use
for my 36G Fujitsu drive and Toshiba 12X CD-ROM along with a Epson scanner.
For those of you who don't know how to use IDE 3&4 as non-Raid Pata drives I
include the following info.
You must set up you Os on IDE 1 or 2. After you have you basics installed,
you must install the Via Serial drivers, Ali IDE3/4 driver and then
Shutdown.
After Shutting down, you then connect your Pata drives to IDE 3 and/or 4.
Then boot up and get into Main Bios and enable Sata/Pata 3,4. After using
ESC to exit and reboot you must use CNTRL A to get into the Pata Raid setup.
Even if not using Raid you must select the Boot drive in this setting. After
using ESC to exit and reboot, you must use the DEL key to get back into the
main Bios and select Boot Configuration Setup. You then must select Hard
Drives and select SCSI as your 1st drive. Then exit and select Boot Device
Priority and make certain that SCSI is either the first or second device (My
first is floppy). Now you can exit and it should boot off your IDE 3/4
drive. If you are using Sata drives I would expect the same steps would be
required except that Sata 1&2 are the ports that can be used as a
Raid/nonraid Sata drives.
This board allows for up to 12 drives which should be enough for most people
and if not install a SCSI controller and add 15 more!
I used the onboard sound and it was good(8 channels, with optical in/out,
but I only have 2 speakers), but I did note some differences when using it
with Ulead Video Studio, my video editing software. The sound levels were
different and since I had a SoundBlaster live I installed it instead. I also
purchased the Soyo AVI Plus bay, so I could have front USB and Firewire
ports. As I have a Sony camera with it's memory stick and just purchased a
Olympus C-5060WZ that uses a CF flash memory, I now have 6 memory readers in
the front. The Firewire installation is not easy. The examples in the manual
are for other boards that are different then the Dragon2. The other problem
is that instead on one solid plug that is keyed like the USB cables, the
Firewire cables have 9 each seperate plugs that are color coded. Now that is
a real problem as 2 of them are white and 2 of them are black, but they
should be interchangable as they supply + and - power to the ports. Since I
don't overclock I did not install the CMOS reset cable, which is accessed
from the front panel using a paper clip thru the pin hole provided. To use
this bay you must have enabled the correct USB storage settings in the main
bios.
Now again this setup is with Win98Se. I am using a Barton 3200 with 2 sticks
of Crucial pc3200. I would recommend this board highly with stock settings.
For those who overclock, now that maybe another story.
Frank Howell
I have had the Soyo Dragon2 motherboard now for 3 weeks and it has performed
great.
Now for those of you who are overclockers, I can't give out any overclocker
reviews, as I don't overclock. Also I can't give out any info on how it
performs with games, as the only games I have are what comes with Win98SE.
I'm running it with "Optimal settings" chosen in the Bios.
I chose this board as I needed a MB with 4 IDE ports, as I use mobile racks
for ease of Ghosting and this way I can run all my ide and atapi drives as
masters.
I took me awhile to figure out how to use IDE 3&4 without a Raid setup. I
was also concerned on how it would coexist with my Adaptec 29160N that I use
for my 36G Fujitsu drive and Toshiba 12X CD-ROM along with a Epson scanner.
For those of you who don't know how to use IDE 3&4 as non-Raid Pata drives I
include the following info.
You must set up you Os on IDE 1 or 2. After you have you basics installed,
you must install the Via Serial drivers, Ali IDE3/4 driver and then
Shutdown.
After Shutting down, you then connect your Pata drives to IDE 3 and/or 4.
Then boot up and get into Main Bios and enable Sata/Pata 3,4. After using
ESC to exit and reboot you must use CNTRL A to get into the Pata Raid setup.
Even if not using Raid you must select the Boot drive in this setting. After
using ESC to exit and reboot, you must use the DEL key to get back into the
main Bios and select Boot Configuration Setup. You then must select Hard
Drives and select SCSI as your 1st drive. Then exit and select Boot Device
Priority and make certain that SCSI is either the first or second device (My
first is floppy). Now you can exit and it should boot off your IDE 3/4
drive. If you are using Sata drives I would expect the same steps would be
required except that Sata 1&2 are the ports that can be used as a
Raid/nonraid Sata drives.
This board allows for up to 12 drives which should be enough for most people
and if not install a SCSI controller and add 15 more!
I used the onboard sound and it was good(8 channels, with optical in/out,
but I only have 2 speakers), but I did note some differences when using it
with Ulead Video Studio, my video editing software. The sound levels were
different and since I had a SoundBlaster live I installed it instead. I also
purchased the Soyo AVI Plus bay, so I could have front USB and Firewire
ports. As I have a Sony camera with it's memory stick and just purchased a
Olympus C-5060WZ that uses a CF flash memory, I now have 6 memory readers in
the front. The Firewire installation is not easy. The examples in the manual
are for other boards that are different then the Dragon2. The other problem
is that instead on one solid plug that is keyed like the USB cables, the
Firewire cables have 9 each seperate plugs that are color coded. Now that is
a real problem as 2 of them are white and 2 of them are black, but they
should be interchangable as they supply + and - power to the ports. Since I
don't overclock I did not install the CMOS reset cable, which is accessed
from the front panel using a paper clip thru the pin hole provided. To use
this bay you must have enabled the correct USB storage settings in the main
bios.
Now again this setup is with Win98Se. I am using a Barton 3200 with 2 sticks
of Crucial pc3200. I would recommend this board highly with stock settings.
For those who overclock, now that maybe another story.
Frank Howell
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