Instead of using this system, the Soyo motherboard uses a very convenient set of LEDs for diagnostics. When booting up, the LEDs indicate a code which can be matched back to a lookup table. What s also helpful is the onboard LED that confirms power from the power supply. Frequency, multiplier settings and voltage settings can all be accessed via the BIOS menu for any sort of tweaking, including overclocking. While for most users this is much more than sufficient, those doing high-end applications such as rendering and graphics editing may require more than this.
Cost is also a relatively large downside of the motherboard.
This is due to the fact that the chipset comes with so many features, including video and audio, both of which are adequate for users doing nothing more than surfing the web and word processing. However, any doing any game playing or high-end applications should steer clear of the integrated solution, in which case the extra money you are paying for the integrated components are wasted. So if you have an older 100 FSB based processor or a Celeron, you will not be able to reap the benefits of the faster system memory. When the original successor to the BX chipset, the Rambus based i820, appeared, it was controversial, since it was outperformed by the much older BX chipset. So when the new 815 chipset appeared, many feared that its performance would be lacking as well.