Intel D865PERL (Springdale-PE)
Stephen Cooper, May 21st, 2003
..:: D865PERL “Rock Lake” Layout: Socket Area ::..
The design of the Intel D865PERL follows much in line with the design we saw for the D875PBZ and is indeed just as impressive. The D865PERL, as with all of the Intel performance motherboards, utilizes a stylish black PCB much like what we saw with both the PEBT2 and PBZ, certainly something a modding fan would take note of. The main item that jumped out at us in our look at the PBZ was the size of the heatsink covering the Northbridge. The PERL also features this large passive heatsink, and it does a nice job keeping the chip cool. In this case, however, the heatsink seemed to run markedly cooler than that of the PBZ in identical conditions. My personal favorite item dealing with the layout of the PERL would have to be the location of the main 12V ATX power connector. I certainly consider this to be in an ideal position for proper system airflow. That’s a quick overview of the more important aspects we’ll be discussing, now let’s get on with a more detailed look at the D865PERL.
The D865PERL comes along with the usual black heatsink retention system that is utilized for the Pentium 4 processors. The processor socket is oriented lengthwise from north to south and roughly reaches to the top edge of the PCB with only a few millimeters to spare. The area to the right of the processor socket is very clean and clear of any large devices. Here we also come across the location of the white, three-pin CPU fan connector. This connector is located in the open and should be easily accessible in all situations. There are two capacitors to the right of the power connector, although I do not believe that they will pose any problems for users even when in a mounted situation. If you take a look at the upper right hand corner of the retention mechanism, you’ll notice a small rectangular shaped chip. This chip is responsible for real time monitoring of system temperatures and will automatically adjust the system fan speeds by predetermined amounts to cut down on unneeded system noise.
Along the left hand side of the processor socket area, we come across the usual mass of electrical components and capacitors. The components are very neatly organized in a linear fashion. There are eight small MOSFET’s, along with two yellow/red inductors located in a slightly staggered array in this area. If we take a look in the center area of the MOSFET’s, we can see that the D865PERL utilizes a two-phase power solution not only by the dual inductors, but by the fact that here we find two Analog Devices ADP3148 MOSFET drivers, one for each phase. These MOSFET drivers are paired up with the Analog Devices ADP3168 Buck Controller which we’ll come across in a minute. This area also houses the secondary four-pin core voltage power connector. I don’t particularly care for it to be so low on the board, although given the layout of the power supply portion of the board, this location will work fine. If we take a look towards the top edge of the board, we’ll come across the second of white, three-pin power connectors. This connector can be used for the fan that should be placed in the rear of the chassis for airflow exhaust. Although this connector is placed high on the board, the relative cleanliness of the area should allow fairly easy access to it.
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