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The ECS P6IWT-Me/i810E is an integrated motherboard complete with on-board video, sound, modem and network capabilities. The main component is the Intel 810E (i810E) chipset, which takes care of the 2D/3D video, memory and I/O duties. The i810E (E for enhanced) improves upon the original Intel 810 (i810) in several ways. In addition to the i810's standard 66/100MHz bus setting, the i810E adds a true 133MHz front-side bus speed, letting you run any currently available Intel CPU. The graphics performance of the original i810 did not meet expectations, so Intel added a dedicated 4MB display cache to the i810E. Both the i810 and i810E rely on system memory for video tasks, but the added 4MB cache of the i810E does ensure faster system memory transfers. I'd compare these two chipsets to the first Celeron and the subsequent CeleronA CPUs, where adding an L2 cache resulted in noticeable performance gains over the older, cache-less design.
While it's not a high-end video solution, Intel gets top marks for the i810E's 2D and 3D-feature set. You might expect an Intel 3D graphics solution to be pretty sparse, but the 82810E DC-133 Graphics and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) supports AGP 2X, has an integrated 24-bit, 230MHz RAMDAC, and even ships with DirectX support and a full OpenGL ICD. To add the cherry to the top, the i810E also supports multi-texturing with OpenGL or through DirectX 6.0 or greater. If these features sound great, hold on, because there are some definite caveats to the design. Resolution and color depth are the two main issues, with 2D resolutions limited to 1280x1024 at 24-bit color or 1600x1200 at 8-bit color and 3D having a cap of 1024x768 at 16-bit color. The highest available color depths are 24-bit for 2D and 16-bit for 3D.
Form Factor
Processor
- Intel® Pentium® III processor FC-PGA, SECC2, Intel® Pentium® II processor, Intel® Celeron™ processor PPGA, SECC
Chipset
- The Intel® 810E chipset consisting of:
- Intel® 82810E DC-133 Graphics and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH)
- Intel® 82801AA I/O Controller Hub (ICH) and Firmware Hub (FWH)
Memory
- Two 168-pin dual inline memory module (DIMM) sockets
- Support for up to 512MB of 100MHz non-ECC, unbuffered synchronous DRAM (SDRAM)
- 32MB to 256MB using 16MB/64 Mbit technology
- 512MB maximum using 128 Mbit technology
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