Soyo's SY6ICA i820/RAMBUS Motherboard

The Soyo SY-6ICA Motherboard
Soyo's RAMBUS Driven i820 Offering

By Dave "Davo" Altavilla - 5/17/00

Hot Hardware's Test System The latest from the Big I

Overclocking The GA-6CXC Not too shabby at all

We didn't list the number of front side bus speed settings in the specs, so we'll list them here.  The following speeds are user selectable in the BIOS:  Default, 100, 105, 110, 115, 117, 120, 125, 127, 133, 137, 140, 145 and 150MHz.  There no settings below 100MHz. but there is good granularity between the settings from 100 on up.  Also, as we noted, this board has the ability to set the CPU core voltage from 2.5 - 7.5% over default with a jumper.  As a result, we were able to overclock our trusty P3-800E to a new high of 943MHz.  The board was also extremely stable at this speed.  The only suggestion we would make here is for the addition of bus speeds above 150MHz.  All in all, the SY-6ICA is a stable and competent overclocker.

WCPUID @ 943MHz.
click for full view

Benchmarks For The Soyo SY-6ICA Zippy indeed

Let's take a look at what that chick Sandra has to say...

SiSoft's Sandra 2000

All around excellent performance from the SY-6ICA.  The memory scores a great as you would expect from RAMBUS.  Intel really needs to get the situation straight here with respect to pricing.  Think how many users would flock to this kind of performance, if it was affordable.  The 943MHz. scores here are total sweetness.  

Ziff Davis Winbench 99

Great scores garnered by the SY-6ICA here at both 750 and 943MHz.  The disk utilization numbers are low and the overall drive performance with Intel's new integrated DMA66 EIDE controller, is excellent.  These scores should make any power user happy.

Ziff Davis Winstone 2000

A guy like me can create a lot of web content with this type of performance.  No complaints!

The SY-6ICA is another high quality board that Soyo is known for.  We have actually never received a board from Soyo here at HotHardware that wasn't totally stable and made of top notch components.  We have come to expect great products from Soyo and this board is no exception.  However, clearly the SY-6ICA would have scored a strong 9 if it had been laid out a little better and not kept us from using the type of CPU Coolers that the power user has become a custom to. 

That being said, the board held up well under heavy testing with a fully loaded system and showed rock stability when overclocked to an extreme level.  Now all that has to happen is for Intel to keep driving the price of RAMBUS down so the average user (without money to burn) can swing this new platform for performance.