The Soyo SY-P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2 makes use of the i865PE chipset and is more a value entrant into the Pentium 4 motherboard market. Although there are lots of onboard amenities, the true high-end features and options are not present. The board includes standard 10/100 LAN, 6-channel audio, 8 x USB 2.0, and Serial ATA (ICH5), but leaves off more robust features like Firewire and RAID. There are also only 3 DIMM sockets, and although dual-channel DDR is supported, only two sticks of memory can be used. For this particular model, Soyo has also adjusted their R in DRAGON to mean Serial ATA rather than RAID. Soyo has tried to create a more value-priced performance motherboard, while still offering the standard features, and has succeeded for the most part.
The Soyo SY-P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2 retail box features all the standard equipment, and in addition to the motherboard itself, you'll find one Floppy cable, one ATA-66/100/133 cable, one SATA cable, an I/O Shield, a driver CD, a Soyo 8-in-1 CD (Symantec Bundle - Ghost, Firewall, Anti-Virus, etc.), and a hardcopy user manual. Soyo has also joined the upscale crowd by including a very attractive black case sticker, which features the Dragon name and emblem.
The layout of the Soyo SY-P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2 is quite average compared to some of the other boards in our roundup, and there are many pros and cons. On the positive side, the CPU and DDR sockets are well positioned, as are the floppy, Parallel ATA and Serial ATA connectors. In fact, the basic layout for peripherals is quite good, and it's not until we started installation that some of the issues started to creep in.
Basically, the design flaws start and finish with the ATX power design. The main power connector is well below the CPU socket, and is actually adjacent to the AGP slot. This means snaking a power cord into the middle of the Soyo motherboard, and being careful not to rest it on the AGP card. The second power connector is not as bad, but with it located next to the ATX backplate, that's still a long way to go, and both of these may be an issue in larger full tower cases.
The Soyo SY-P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2 installed like a dream, right up until we had to attach the ATX power cords. At that point, it was like a game of Twister, and we recommend working out the logistics well before you start adding components. Once the physical install was complete, the Soyo board fired up without issue and we progressed through the Windows XP Pro and driver installs without a problem.
The overclocking options of the Soyo SY-P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2 may not be robust, but they are exceptional for a board at this price range. Full core, AGP and DDR voltages are available, and 1 MHz FSB overclocking is present, all the way up to a whopping 511 MHz. There is even an AGP/PCI divider lock and overclock selection, along with a 532 MHz maximum (1.3X) for DDR overclocking. It's really amazing what sort of overclock features Soyo has stuffed into a sub-$100 i865PE motherboard, and this is definitely a product designed for the overclocker on a budget.
The SY-P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2 is a definite challenger at the value end, and Soyo has put together one very impressive motherboard for the price. If the layout was better and there were a few more onboard features, this would be a de facto choice for lower-cost performance and overclocking, and even so, this is a board that delivers a lot of bang for the pure gaming buck.
