Tyan Tomcat i7221A

When it comes to server motherboards, it is a fact that Tyan knows how to make motherboards right, and that they have been doing so for quite some time. Dr. T. Symon Chang who was a longtime Intel and IBM executive founded Tyan in 1989. The time and effort put forth by Tyan into each individual motherboard is quite impressive, as we've seen throughout testing a number of their motherboards. The Tyan server motherboard we're taking for a spin today is the recently released Tyan Tomcat i7221A (S5151). This motherboard is similar to the Tomcat i7221 (S5150) but is more thermally efficient and offers a fair amount of other improvements. Other features for this motherboard include three LAN controllers, two of which are Gigabit, and an Intel E7221 (Copper River) Chipset.

Features:

Processor
· Single Socket-T (LGA775 Socket)
· Supports Intel P4 processors with EM64T
· 800/533MHz FSB support

Chipset
· Intel E7221 MCH
· Intel ICH6R South Bridge
· Intel PXH-V I/O bridge
· SMSC DME1737 Super I/O

Memory
· Dual channel memory bus
· Supports up to four DDR-333/400 DIMM
· Up to 4GB of unbuffered, ECC/non-ECC memory

Expansion Slots
· One PCI-X 64-bit 133/100/66MHz bus supports w/ One PCI-X slot & One proprietary 200-pin SO-DIMM connector
· Two (x1) PCI-Express connectors
· One 32-bit 33MHz PCI 2.3 slot
· Total of five usable expansion slots

Integrated I/O
· One floppy connector
· Four USB 2.0 ports (via cable)
· One COM2 port (via cable)
· One LPT port (via cable)
· Power/IDE/SATA LED connectors
· Two 2+2-pin headers for front panel LAN LED
· Tyan 2 x 9 front-panel pin headers

Integrated PCI IDE
· Single channel master mode supports two IDE devices
· Support for ATA-100/66/33 IDE drives and ATAPI-compliant devices

Integrated Serial ATA
· Four Serial ATA Host controllers embedded
· Supports four Serial ports running at 1.5Gb/s
· RAID 0, 1 support

Integrated Video
· 8-bit VGA DAC embedded in the MCH to support an analog display

Integrated LAN Controllers
· One 10/100 Ethernet LAN controller
· Two GbE LAN controllers

System Management
· SMSC DME1737 with hardware monitoring
· One 3+1 pin CPU Fan header w/ tachometer
· Input and temperature-sensing auto fan control
· Five 3-pin system fan headers (3 w/ tachometer input, 4 w/ temperature-sensing, auto fan control)
· Temperature and voltage monitoring
· Watchdog timer; port 80 code display LED

BIOS
· Award BIOS 8Mbit flash ROM
· Supports APM 1.2 & ACPI 1.0
· PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0 Power Management

Form Factor
· ATX footprint (12" x 9.6", 304.8x243.8mm)
· Onboard 4-phase VRM
· Universal 24-pin + 8-pin power connectors
· 4-pin auxillary power connector

Contents:

Whenever examining a Tyan product we are always presented with a wealth of additional motherboard accessories. In the case of the Tomcat i7221A we found one USB2.0 expansion slot, four Serial ATA cables, two Serial ATA power cables, one I/O shield, one Intel 82801FR (ICH-6R) driver disk, one Adaptec driver disk, one TYAN driver CD, one quick reference guide, one user's manual, one Ultra-DMA 133/100/66/33 IDE cable, one FDD cable, and of course the actual Tomcat i7221A motherboard. As always, the contents came neatly packaged and there were no signs of apparent damage to any of the parts. Over time with the numerous Tyan motherboards we reviewed, we're always pleased by the quality of the content Tyan manages to pack into the user's manual and especially the quick reference guide. The quick reference guide is a one-sided sheet that tells the location of all major onboard components along with the location of the different jumpers. In addition, it tells the configuration for the front panel connectors.