Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/149



California Graphics held the spotlight for quite some time with the announced release of their highly acclaimed Photon 100 HC Motherboard, unfortunately the lack of a steady supply of the greatly demanded Super7 motherboard caused many users to shy away from making that purchase.  In the meantime, FIC, already getting the benefits of the incredible sales of their VA-503+ motherboard, decided to make the jump to the ATX market as well with their counterpart to the VA-503+. 

Following in the tradition of the PA-2011, and the PA-2012, it is time for the latest ATX Socket-7 motherboard from FIC to make its debut in today's critical Super7 market, it is time to welcome the FIC PA-2013.  This raises one question, will the release of the PA-2013 be a warm welcome or a heart felt goodbye for FIC?

Motherboard Specifications

CPU Interface Super Socket-7
Chipset VIA MVP3
L2 Cache 512/1024KB
Form Factor ATX
Bus Speeds 60 / 66 / 68 / 75 / 83 / 95
100 / 112 / 124
Clock Multipliers 1.5x - 5.5x
Voltages Supported 1.8v - 3.5v (0.1v increments)
Memory Slots 3 168pin DIMM Slots (EDO/SDRAM)
Expansion Slots 1 AGP Slot
4 PCI Slots (4 Full Length)
2 ISA Slots (1 Shared / 2 Full Length)
BIOS Award BIOS

The Good

Very much like most older Pentium II LX boards and some of the newer BX boards, the FIC PA-2013 brings the best of both Socket and Slot worlds into one desirable package with the well designed ATX layout of the board.  Featuring a 4/2/1 expansion slot configuration (PCI/ISA/AGP), the PA-2013 can accept full length cards in all of its 6 useable expansion slots.  Positioned at the top of the board are the three DIMM slots you can make use of to attempt to reach the 256MB cacheable memory area of the PA-2013.  This cacheable area is made possible by the optional 1MB of L2 cache on-board in conjunction with the VIA MVP3 (Revision CE) chipset FIC used on the sample AnandTech received.  FIC PA-2013

Positioned directly south of the DIMM slots are the 4 - L2 cache chips and to the left of them is the CPU Socket-7 designed to make the most of whatever processor you choose to install in the board.  A few mid to large Sanyo tantalum and electrolytic capacitors are present around the expansion slots, CPU interface and memory banks to improve stability.  The ATX power connector is placed flush against the first DIMM slot to make space for the HDD/FDD connectors found at the bottom of the board. 

FIC is up to their usual standards with the motherboard manual bundled with the PA-2013.  The written documentation includes the settings for all officially supported bus speeds as well as the overclocked 75/83/112/124MHz settings for pushing your luck.  Clock multipliers ranging from 1.5x to 5.5x are also documented, not to mention the excellent support for core voltage settings ranging from 1.8v to 3.5v in 0.1v increments.  FIC also includes a fairly complete table of CPU settings for the most popular chips in the manual which is a handy tool for first time builders, or even those who are just looking to get a kick out of reading up on older CPU settings ;)

Stability and the FIC name seem to walk hand in hand, which is what the PA-2013 has made clear to us all once again.  Even when using the 112MHz FSB, the 2013 never flinched during the Winstone tests and provided the test system with a healthy boost in performance over the 100MHz setting.  If you've got the memory to handle it, the 112MHz FSB setting is worth your while, even if your memory won't work at 112MHz you can simply set the jumpers to allow your memory clock to operate at your AGP bus frequency and voila.  The jumper setting on the PA-2013 isn't too bad, luckily FIC managed to leave out all misprinted manuals in this package, so it won't be so confusing for those with less experience in the initial setup process. 

Bringing some characteristics of some Pentium II BX boards over to the Super7 level, FIC included the Trend ChipAway Boot Sector Virus detection option in the firmware of the PA-2013.  The ChipAway Virus Detection feature allows for boot sector viruses to be bypassed and eliminated even before the initialization of your Operating System Software, a very useful feature if your computer will be used for downloads from the internet especially.

The performance of the PA-2013 could be improved just a little, however when overclocked it comes to within a few percent of matching up with its AT brother, the VA-503+.  Not a bad board at all, and it will definitely give the California Graphics Photon 100 HC a run for its money because of its availability, but it does have its draw backs.

The Bad

Five PCI slots would've made this board the dream of many users, unfortunately, in order to conserve space, the PA-2013 was only outfitted with 4.  The positioning of the Socket-7 CPU interface isn't ideal for cooling as the path of airflow from your ATX power supply will pass directly over your memory banks, leaving your CPU fan to take care of all of the cooling duties for your CPU.  

In the tests AnandTech conducted, the Matrox G200 would not function properly without disabling its Bus Mastering features, while this problem has been reported with previous combinations of MVP3 boards and the G200 chipset, AnandTech had yet to experience a problem until the PA-2013.  Although there is a fairly simple workaround, be prepared to disable the Bus Mastering (via the Matrox Display Properties Control Panel, under the Advanced Settings) if you experience any problems with your new system and the G200 chipset.  Matrox is working on a driver fix for this problem, unfortunately no release date has been made at the time of this publication.

While it is wonderful that FIC included an optional 124MHz FSB setting, the setting isn't nearly reliable enough to be considered a viable option for overclockers.  It would've made a nice addition to the board's feature set, but you can't 'em all, especially not with computer hardware.



USB Compatibility

  • Number of Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

  • USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

  • USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes


BIOS Settings

FIC PA-2013 Chipset Features Setup

Item Settings
  FPM EDO/SDRAM 60/66MHz Bus EDO/SDRAM 75/83/100/112MHz Bus Safe
Video BIOS Cacheable: Enabled Enabled Enabled Disabled
System BIOS Cacheable: Enabled Enabled Enabled Disabled
Memory Hole At 15Mb Addr.: Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
DRAM Page-Mode: Enabled Enabled Enabled Disabled
Sustained 3T Write: Enabled Enabled Enabled Disabled
Cache Pipeline: Enabled Enabled Enabled Enabled
DRAM Read Pipeline: Enabled Enabled Enabled Disabled
Read Around Write: Enabled Enabled Enabled Disabled
Memory ECC Check: Disabled Disabled Disabled Disabled
Bank 0/1 DRAM Timing: 60 ns Turbo Turbo Normal
Bank 2/3 DRAM Timing: 60 ns Turbo Turbo Normal
Bank 4/5 DRAM Timing: 60 ns Turbo Turbo Normal
SDRAM Cycle Length: 3 2 2 3
SDRAM Bank Interleave: Disabled 4 Bank 4 Bank Disabled
SDRAM MD-to-HD Pop + 1T: Enabled Disabled Enabled Disabled
Aperture Size: 64M 64M 64M 8M
AGP-2X Mode: Enable Enable Enable Disable
Spread Spectrum: Enabled Enabled Enabled Disabled

Recommended SDRAM

Recommended SDRAM: Memory Man PC100 SDRAM
SDRAM Tested: 1 x 64MB Mushkin CAS-2 PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man PC100 SDRAM

Manufacturer: The Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.memory-man.com



The Test

In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.

How I Tested

  • Each benchmark was run a minimum of 2 times and a maximum of 5 times, if the motherboard failed to complete a single test within the 5 allocated test runs the OS/Software was re-installed on a freshly formatted Hard Drive and the BIOS settings were adjusted to prevent the test from failing again.  All such encounters were noted at the exact time of their occurrence.

  • Business Winstone 98 & 3D Winbench 98 was run at each individually tested clock speed, if reliable scores were achieved with the first two test runs of the suite an average of the two was taken and recorded as the final score at that clock speed.  If the test system displayed erratic behavior while the tests were running or the results were incredibly low/high the tests were re-run up to 5 times and an average of all the test runs was taken and recorded at the final score at that clock speed

  • All video tests were conducted using an AGP video accelerator

  • No foreign drivers were present in the test system other than those required for the system to function to the best of its ability

  • All foreign installation files were moved to a separate partition during the test as to prevent them from effecting the test results

  • All tests were conducted at 1024 x 768 x 16-bit color

  • 3D Winbench 98 tests were double buffered and conducted at 800 x 600 x 16-bit color

Test Configuration

Processor(s): AMD K6-2 350 AFR
Intel Pentium MMX 233
Cyrix M-II 300
RAM: 1 - 64MB Memory Man PC100 SDRAM DIMM
Hard Drive(s): Western Digital Caviar AC35100 - UltraATA
Video Card(s): Matrox Millennium G200 (8MB SGRAM - AGP)
Bus Master Drivers: Microsoft Win98 DMA Drivers
Video Drivers: MGA Millennium G200 Release 1677-411
Operation System(s): Windows 98
Motherboard Revision: FIC PA-2013 Revision 2.0

 

Ziff Davis Winstone 98 - Windows 95 Performance

  Business
AMD K6-2 300 - 100MHz x 3.0 23.6
AMD K6-2 333 - 95MHz x 3.5 21.0
AMD K6-2 300 - 66MHz x 4.5 23.1
Intel Pentium MMX 200 - 100MHz x 2.0 18.2
Intel Pentium MMX 233 - 66MHz x 3.5 17.9
Cyrix M-II 300 66MHz x 3.5 22.3

The Final Decision

Provided you can't get your hands on a California Graphics Photon 100HC, or if you feel more comfortable knowing that the 112MHz FSB setting is reliable and at your fingertips, then the FIC PA-2013 makes for an outstanding ATX Super7 motherboard.  If you're willing to make the jump to the Aladdin V chipset however, there is a better alternative...we'll soon see the return of one of FIC's most fearsome competitors to the lime light...we all remember the good old T2P4 motherboard now don't we?

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