Are all H'ware reviewers bloody idiots? - the simple reason why many VIA boards have only one serial connector built in.

[DABANSHEE]

Of late I've been reading reveiws on the web by such 'esteemed' hardware reveiwers as Anand, Kyle Bennet (@ HardOCP), Sharky, etc, etc, etc.

& they all make the same bloody error when reveiwing (mainly Athlon) VIA boards. They complain about how many of them (mainly Aopen & Gigabyte designs) have only one backplane Serial connector soldered on the motherboards, leaving blank space where the 2nd one would be, meaning that if one wants to utilise the 2nd serial connector one has to connect a ribbin cable to a set of pin headers.

Well there's a bloody reason for this. The new VIA KM northbridge ('M' for 'multimedia', it has a S3 Savage video chipset built in) is designed to be pin compatible to the old VIA KT133 northbridge, if KT133 boards are designed from the beginning to be updated with the KM133 chipset.

Consequently many of those (mainly OEM) VIA KT133 boards put out by Asus, Aopen & Gagabyte, etc that have a missing serial connector on the backplaned are designed so those board designs can be updated on the production-line (when the KM133 chipset is avaliable), just by simply the soldering of the multimedia savy KM133 northbridge in the place of the KT133 & buy the soldering of a VGA connector in that blank space, where normally the 2nd serial connector resides on most ATX boards.

Yes, that's right, that blank space underneath the parrallel port is for a VGA connector not a serial connector. Hence if any of those reveiwers had bothered to study the PCB, where that missing serial port is s'pose to be they'd notice that 15 solder spots/holes, not 9 as it would be if a serial connector was spose to be soldered there.

Now why would all these big Taiwanese OEMs design some of their KT133 boards that way? It's simple really 'economies of scale', they can use the same board design & production line for both the KT133 & KM133 versions.

Even a couple of KA133 boards like the Aopen AK72 was designed like that (a mate of mine has one, where the 2nd serial connector is missing from the backplane & there are 25 solder points on the PCB in its place, although aparently early revisions of the KA72 had both serial connectors soldered on).

As the KM northbridge will cost not much more than the KT northbridge I'd assume that virtually all will eventually have the KM northbridge & it will be up to the owner whether to utilise the onboard video (or sound), as the boards will still have AGP slots. It will simply be a case of switching the on-board video (or sound), on or off, via dip switches, jumpers or the BIOS.

 

[Cosmic_Horror]

umm hardware reviewers are people too


you should take everything you read online with a pinch of salt... you should know that!

 

[TheCorm]

I didn't realise that many of them came without a serial port 2.

My TMC TIrVG+ (VIA MVP3) has two as does my new Abit KT7 (VIA KT133)

 

[WoundedWallet]

Aha!! You mispelled switching...

DABANSHEE, you made a very good point and explained in a way that even I could understand.

But there is no reason to be insulting people for overlooking something. After all it's not like they make mistakes all the time, and it's not like anybody is perfect.

So instead of coming out as someone with a very good eye, you came out as someone very angry.

So if you care...

 

[hans007]

its because most hardware reviewers aren't that smart. Almost anyone can review a motherboard. Its a simple formula really.

1. if it has less than 6 pci slots, gripe about it
2. if it has an amr , gripe about that it could have had an isa/more pci
3. if the power connector isn't on the right of front edge, gripe about cooling issues
4. if it doesnt overclock well, say it isn't stable
5. if it doesnt have overclocking options, say its got limited features
6. if it is microatx , automatically say it sucks since it doesnt have enough slots, considering it doesnt work with #1 since its microatx, hell why make microatx boards right?
7. if its made by abit or asus , praise its outstanding quality and stability
8. if it has onboard raid say it is a good value since it has more features, even though it costs more than boards without raid. Also most people dont use raid anyways.
9. if it has onboard ac97 or pci sound, gripe about that making the board cost more, though it costs like 3 cents more in the case of ac97 and is much better than not having that option at all.
10. if the dimm connectors cant be opened all the way with an agp card plugged in gripe about it.
11. if it has jumpers or dips gripe about it, even though the reason it has these is most of these boards are used in complete systems, where users shouldn't be changing stuff so easily
12. if the pcb is big , but on a big brand from a company that has been kissing your ass, ala abit, say that its a spacious board that is easy to work with. If its a smaller company bash it for wasting money on more pcb space, and for making traces longer and lowering "stability"
13. if it has lots of capacitors automatically say that that means its more "stable" even though they could just be there, to make up for electrical noise on a poorly designed bored, and besides this kinda contradicts the money wasting-ness issu in #12
14. if it has things like memory buffers (i.e.for 4 dimms), or (3 instead of 2 stage power) praise it for having what possibly could be another kludge fix to an inherent design problem

also on another note, the reason a bunch of boards dont have the 2nd serial port, is so that they can have an extra connector for that 2nd port, to be used in a front mounted case port on OEM systems , i.e. compaq , HP has "digital camera port", etc.

 

[DABANSHEE]

I know I ranted on, maybe I've spent too long at 'OT'.

Anyway threads do seem to last a bit longer if one does jump onto the pederstal.

Of course most VIA boards (& particuly ones designed for the 'retail' market') do still have both serial connectors soldered on underneath the parrallel port. They mainly seem to be the latest boards of mainly the Micro-ATX form factor. Such as the Aopen MK33 & its big brother the Aopen AK33.

 

[PowerJoe]

All Intel ATX MBs with optional on-board video are like this too, even old ones (Tuscon, etc...)

However, when all is said and done, having an on-board serial board is better than not having it. Therefore, it can be considered a misfeature to gripe about. Whether it's done for cost reduction or for any other reason is besides the point - it's a missing feature.

Overall, I think individual MB reviews (like those common in Anandtech) are pointless. All MB's can be summed up in a feature comparison table and a stability test. Hence, a database of MBs with the same chipset would be much better than individual blurbs.

Oh, and same goes for CD burners.

-PJ

 

[Cosmic_Horror]

hans007

LOL.. you hit the nail on the head with that one...






<< if its made by abit.............., praise its outstanding quality and stability >>



shivers!

abit must have imporved things a lot since there BH6

 

[DaddyG]

Hans,

Couldn't have said it better, great post !!

 

[Jhhnn]

I kinda like your points of view, DABANSHEE and Hans 007.

Having ONE backplane serial connector is pretty much a necessity, and eliminating the other one for replacement by an onboard vid connector is a clever idea, allows for standard i/o shields.

Many of us have no use for one serial port, let alone two. Of course, premium automobiles came with two spare tires, back in the 20's. Maybe it was a good idea, roads&amp;tires being what they were. Maybe two serial ports was a good idea,too, ten years ago.

 

[Rigoletto]

No need for even 1 serial port?- where am I going to plug my external modem? Up my ass? Serial ports are better than PS2 for mice I reckon, because you can screw them down.

 

[Possum]

Those &quot;many of us&quot; that he was referring to, who don't even need 1 serial port, are probably those with broadband Internet access. I belong to this group, and haven't used my serial port since 1998 when I was in high school on a modem. Now I have an ethernet connection at school and a cable modem at home.

 

[Jhhnn]

Yeh, possum, or internal modems, or USB modems. The only time I have used any serial port device in the last five years was for a Microsoft EZ-ball mouse when my kids were just learning. I had it and the ps2 mouse hooked up at the same time so that I wouldn't have to shut down, switch cables and reboot just to right-click.

Ease up, Rigoletto, I offered that one serial port was pretty much a necessity, and never offered any place for your external modem. I'm sure that onboard serial port(s?) will be with us for a while longer and that converter cards will be available even after that.

Peace.

 

[hans007]

i haven't used my serial ports, and for that matter my ps/2 ports in nearly a year, got a msnatural pro with msexplorer plugged into it, in the usb. USB is the future so i've been buying all my new stuff in usb. I'd suggest everyone do that same, IE dont buy an mp3 player or digital camera (with no removable memory, otherwise you could just use a reader) with no usb.