Tyan Tiger i7520SD S5365 Preview

Unlike the Tyan Tempest that we looked at yesterday, the Tiger i7520SD manages to retain a standard ATX form factor. Even with only 12 x 9.6 inches to work with, on this motherboard are dual 479 sockets, 8 DDR2 slots, and 6 expansion slots -- among many other components. The mPGA479 sockets boast support for Intel Xeon processors -- specifically the dual-core Sossamam. The Xeon LV Sossaman parts have a maximum TDP of 31 Watts. Near the CPU sockets are 3-pin fan connectors.

Making this motherboard design possible is the Intel E7520 + 6300ESB Chipset. The E7520 Lindenhurst provides support for Xeon LV dual-core dual-processors, PCI Express, and DDR2-400 support. Meanwhile, the Intel 6300ESB ICH provides up to three PCI-X 66 slots, SATA 2.0, as well as the legacy I/O support. The E7520 MCH is concealed by a passive heatsink. The Tyan Tiger i7520SD boasts eight DDR2 slots. These slots are designed for DDR2-400 Registered ECC/non-ECC DIMMs. The maximum memory supported is 16GB in dual channel.

The expansion slots on the motherboard include two PCI Express x8, two PCI-X 66MHz, and two PCI slots. Providing the triple networking ports on the motherboard is the Intel 82551QM ASIC and Intel 82571EB, which is a dual Gigabit networking controller. The integrated graphics on the motherboard come from ATI with the ES1000 graphics controller. Hynix memory provides the 16MB video frame buffer.

While the i7520SD is not part of Tyan's new Tempest line-up, the Tiger i7520SD S5365 looks like it has the possibilities of being a competitive performer in the server and workstation arena with the E7520 + 6300ESB, and support for low-voltage Xeon Sossaman processors. Results, and the remainder of our thoughts and testing, will come soon.