DDR333 for P4: 16 Boards with Intel 845G – Part II – THG.RU

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16 Boards with Intel 845G – Part II” –>

845G Boards – Plenty Of Variety

In part one of the test DDR333 for P4: 16 Boards with Intel 845G – Part I, we reviewed ten out of a total of 16 boards. Now, in the long-awaited second part, Abit, Albatron, Chaintech, Fujitsu-Siemens, Liteon and Soltek will take their place at the starting blocks.

In terms of market share, little has changed. Asus sold 7.73 million units in the first half of 2002 to lead worldwide sales of motherboards. But snapping at the heels of the market leader, OEM supplier and low-cost manufacturer ECS (PC chips) raised its share to 7.6 million for the same period. In third place was MSI (Microstar), with global sales of 5.5 million. Gigabyte could manage no more than 2.2 million. The Taiwanese firms manufactured a total 40.77 million boards in the first half-year, accounting for 56% of the market.

First, we’ll give you some background about the test entrants. One of our primary concerns was that the companies were preparing boards specifically to compete in the THG test. We received hundreds of e-mails asking about Gigabyte’s GA-81GXP, which performed well in Part I but was not available for purchase. We followed up with the manufacturer, who now intends to bring out a comparable version of the board. The MSI 845G Max appeared in the first part, but the manufacturer has now supplied a new BIOS, which improves performance by about 2%. We also received another package from DFI, which sent in a third board for testing. The new version ran without a hitch, and also scored better than its predecessors. The newly-founded manufacturer Albatron attracted a good deal of attention – according to insiders, the company was set up by former Gigabyte employees. Rival Liteon, better known for producing very affordable drives, has expanded its product range to include motherboards, and the NA121 duly comes under scrutiny here. The entry from Epox subsidiary Enmic arrived too late for the test deadline. Its 4GAX Pro is likewise equipped with Intel’s 845G chipset.

Comparison: Chipsets For P4

The table above lists all the chipsets currently available for the Intel Platform (Socket 478). Older chipsets with SDRAM support (e.g., the Intel 845) are not included here, because boards with these chips are either no longer produced, or haven’t been available on the market for a while.

The Boards

Abit BG7: A Shadow Of Its Old Self

Retail packaging for the Abit BG7.

The Abit BG7 offers precious few features for high-end overclocking.

The inflatable beach ball is part of the package. All that’s missing is the pump.

One-time champion overclocker Abit marked its return by entering the BG7 in our test. In contrast to other manufacturers, it is no easy task to get a hold of an Abit board for testing in Europe. The company apparently prefers to restrict distribution to small publishers who mostly run tests on just one product. A striking characteristic of the Abit BG7 was the small number of PCI slots – just five, compared to the six found on all the other boards in the test. The manufacturer also skimped on a Highpoint RAID controller, which is a common feature among its competitors. But we were impressed by the Soft Menu III, which ensures plenty of settings for overclocking.

What you get in the box from Abit BG7.

Bus speed can be adjusted in 1-MHz increments between 100 MHz and 250 MHz. However, when it comes to CPU core voltage, Abit goes for safety first, which might deter hardcore overclocking fans. Voltage can be set to one of three fixed values only – 1,500, 1,650 or 1,725 volts. For high-end overclocking, where water-cooling is used, for example, 1,750 volts is simply not enough. Nor can the AGP voltage be adjusted. On the upside, there are three DIMM slots and a slot bracket that accommodates ports for sound, USB 2.0, and optical in and out for digital audio (SP/DIF).

Variable PCI Bus clock.

Each clock can be adjusted independently.

Features worthy of mention include both the motherboard’s power and reset switches, which proved useful when we were experimenting. In the performance test, the Abit’s average scores placed it in mid-field. On the other hand, the BG7 costs only about $130 – a reasonable price for an 845G board. Overclocking enthusiasts, however, will likely look elsewhere.

Troublemaker for PCI cards – USB port on the Abit BG7.

Another view of the poorly positioned USB ports.

Reset and power switches are a great help.

Albatron PX845G Pro II: A Newcomer Shows Potential

The Albatron PX845G Pro II packaging.

A look at the Albatron PX845G Pro II.

The Albatron PX845G Pro II total package.

Albatron is new to the motherboard market, although reliable sources indicate that former Gigabyte employees founded the firm. The first Albatron board to go through the THG test lab was impressive and well worthy of the competition. Praise where praise is due – the test went very smoothly and the board performed well in all benchmark categories. The Albatron finished fourth overall – no small feat for a beginner! The board was helped by its Promise RAID controller for Ultra DMA/133, six PCI slots, three DIMM slots and the dual BIOS function; the latter is a feature usually associated with Gigabyte. Technically advanced features include the fixed voltage regulator. Card readers for Smartcards and Memorystick can be connected as an option.

Which firm does this remind you of? The Albatron PX845G Pro II’s two BIOS chips.

Positioning of the additional USB interfaces using the slot bracket left room for improvement. Mounting the pins between the AGP slot and the first PCI slot renders the PCI slot unusable. Installation and error correction was made easier by the port 80 function with a choice of languages: English, German, Chinese and Japanese. Overall, the Albatron PX845G Pro II deserves attention. In some aspects, it is clearly superior to its established rivals, although the price has yet to be revealed.

Poor positioning of the USB ports blocks the AGP graphics card…

… and even renders the first PCI slot unusable.

A view of the Albatron PX845G Pro II BIOS.

Chaintech CT-9BJF Drew A Blank

No expense spared on the Chaintech CT-9BJF packaging.

The Chaintech CT-9BJF.

Upon testing the CT-98JF, we found that the board was factory-overclocked. When we contacted the manufacturer, we were asked to withdraw the board altogether. No test results here.

Fujitsu-Siemens D1387: Far From Exemplary

The Fujitsu-Siemens D1387 retail packaging exudes functionality.

The Fujitsu-Siemens D1387 came up short in the tests.

The complete Fujitsu-Siemens package.

Motherboards made by German-based Fujitsu-Siemens have a very good reputation among German OEM manufacturers, thanks mainly to Siemens’ highly automated production techniques, which are unmatched by the competition in Asia. The work performed exclusively by machines in Augsburg, Germany, is entrusted to a human workface by smaller manufacturers in the Far East. So we were all the more surprised by the D1387 sent to us for testing. We had barely begun when the first error occurred: the latest Siemens BIOS identified the Pentium 4/2533 as a Celeron 2533. Then, the benchmark tests revealed that the manufacturer had developed the board for conservative consumers with little interest in high performance. We conducted testing in silent mode, but just before the CPU cooler started up automatically, the processor switched to throttling mode.

The D1387 disappointed in the tests, identifying the Pentium 4/2533 as a Celeron, despite the latest BIOS.

The ‘Enhanced Cooling’ option in the D1387 BIOS resulted in the Pentium 4 continuously switching to throttling mode when under a heavy workload.

This error message appeared just as we were about to install the enclosed ‘Systemguard’ tool.

To sum up: during performance tests, the silent mode has to be deactivated. We suggest adjusting the automatic CPU fan to cut in about 5 degrees earlier to prevent the loss of performance that occurs when the processor switches to throttling mode too soon. To overcome this problem, we turned to the enclosed ‘Systemguard’ tool. However, attempts to install the tool were cut short with the message, “No thermal control hardware available Systemguard not possible.” Although the Fujitsu-Siemens is equipped with the Intel 845G chipset and could therefore support DDR333 RAM, the manufacturer has chosen to stick to the letter of Intel’s validation guidelines. This limits the maximum memory clock to 133 MHz, for DDR266, with the predictable result that the D1387 came in a resounding last out of 16 in the benchmark tests. Since the board is strictly for sale to OEM clients only, there is no retail price. All in all, it was a less than glorious entry from one of Germany’s top manufacturers.

Assembly is nevertheless second to none – Fujitsu-Siemens’s Spartan board is perfectly put together.

Still a rarity – SMD transistors in the controller.

Liteon NA121: They Don’t Come Cheaper Than This

The Liteon NA121 packaging.

A view of the Liteon NA121.

It is just the bare essentials with the Liteon NA121 – no wonder, considering the rock-bottom price.

Taiwanese manufacturer Liteon, well known for competitively priced CD/RW burners and DVD drives, is entering unfamiliar territory by equipping its NA121 mainboard with the Intel 845G chipset. Worthy of mention are the six PCI slots, three DIMM slots and a Realtek network chip. In keeping with Intel’s guidelines, Liteon chooses to support DDR266 only, although the 845G chipset can support DDR333 memory.

Old hat: the Liteon NA121 BIOS.

Elsewhere, there is little that makes this board stand out from the crowd. The unstructured BIOS is rare among test candidates and gives the board a somewhat antiquated feel. The Liteon finished mid-field in the benchmark tests – a laudable achievement considering the board only supports DDR266. But when it comes to price, the NA121 is in a class of its own. At about $90, it is half the price of the Asus P4B533-V, which offers a similar range of features.

Soltek SL-85MR2-L: Second In The Speed Stakes

The familiar glossy Soltek packaging.

Another new color – Soltek’s board comes in beige. Colored PCI slots would be nice.

The Soltek SL-85MR2-L in its entirety.

With colorful PCBs as popular as ever, boards now come in red, black, blue and yellow, but Soltek’s beige offering is still a first. This makes the spectrum almost complete – each manufacturer has its own color. Soltek puts together very fast boards, and the SL-85MR2-L is no exception. It took second place overall in the benchmark tests and has market leader Asus firmly in its sights. Special features include six PCI slots and a network chip. A RAID controller is available as an optional extra, but can support only one additional IDE port due to the layout of the board. The tools included for displaying system parameters proved useful. To sum up, Soltek has produced a satisfactory mainboard offering few extra features, but high-end performance.

Shoring up the CPU socket: the plastic cross on the back of the Soltek SL-85MR2-L.

Driver installation with the Soltek SL-85MR2-L.

The Soltek comes with ‘Smartguardian,’ which displays the system’s vital statistics.

Test Setup and Details

Benchmarks Under Windows 2000

We wanted to avoid the automatic resource management feature integrated in Windows XP, so, as in the past, we opted to use Windows 2000 to test these motherboards. The only reason for choosing Windows 2000 over Windows XP is that the newer version of Windows optimizes how background applications run. This new feature would have prevented us from obtaining accurate benchmarking results.

We performed a total of 25 different benchmark tests in order to obtain the most complete, well-balanced view of how the Intel 845G chipset performs. Four different Quake 3 tests were used to determine OpenGL performance. The different MPEG-encoding benchmarks provide a comprehensive testing environment – mp3 Maker Platinum and Lame MP3 Encoder were used to encode a 178 MB WAV file into “MPEG-1 Layer 3 format.” Still a classic, our MPEG-4 test converts a file from a commercial DVD-ROM into MPEG-4 format using Xmpeg 4.5 and the DivX 5.01 codec. A regular in our list of benchmarks is determining rendering performance using Cinema 4D XL version 7.303. We also ran WinACE Packer 2.11 to test how well the CPU performs when archiving files, a common application in the computing world. PC Mark 2002 is used to analyze the performance of the CPU and memory. The new SPECviewperf version 7 offers an extensive suite of 3D benchmarks. The Sysmark 2002 benchmark was used to determine office performance. DirectX 8 gaming performance was tested using 3D Mark 2001 and Comanche 4. The synthetic benchmark SiSoft Sandra Pro 2002 was also used.

OpenGL-Performance: Quake 3 Arena

In the four Quake 3 Arena time demo runs, the Asus P4B533-V led Gigabyte’s GA-8IGXP by a nose.

DirectX 8 Games: 3D Mark 2001

3D Mark 2001 determines DirectX 8’s Direct3D performance under Windows 2000.

Aopen takes the honors, just ahead of Asus.

DirectX 8 Games: Comanche 4

The new gaming benchmark from Comanche 4 uses the DirectX 8 interface. Again, Asus leads the pack.

MP3-Audio-Encoding: Lame MP3

With the help of the Lame MP3 encoder, in Windows 2000 we converted a 178MB WAV sound file to the MPEG-1 Layer 3 format. As can be seen from the chart, the test boards all performed this task equally well.

MP3-Audio-Encoding: mp3 Maker Platinum

Here we converted the 178MB sound file from WAV to MPEG-1 Layer 3 using the mp3 Maker Platinum, likewise in Windows 2000. Aopen and Gigabyte led the field.

Video-Encoding MPEG-4: Xmpeg 4.5a und Divx 5.02

In this test, the Asus P4B533-V registered the best frame rate.

SiSoft Sandra 2002 Benchmarks: CPU und Multimedia

In the SiSoft Sandra Pro Benchmark 2002 test, all the boards equipped with both the Intel 845G chipset and DDR333 memory (CL2) perform a lot better than those relying on PC266 (CL2). However, these results are largely academic.

CPU- und Multimedia Performance: PC Mark 2002

The Aopen takes the CPU test, while the Jetway finishes at the top in the memory bench.

Archiving: WinACE 2.11

Archiving files is an everyday application. A 178MB WAV file was compressed against the clock in Windows 2000 using the new WinACE 2.11 Packers. The Asus P4B533-V again comes out on top, alongside the Aopen AX4G Pro.

3D-Rendering Performance: SPECviewperf 7.0

Clear-cut results in the SPECviewperf benchmark tests – Asus and Jetway are out in front.

3D-Rendering: Cinema 4D XL 7

The GA-8IGXP won the Cinema 4D Benchmark.

On-board Graphics Performance: Quake 3 and 3D Mark 2001

The three benchmarks show that, when it comes to graphics, the Intel 845G cannot live without the GeForce 2 MX200.

Conclusion:
We Recommend the Motherboards from Asus, Gigabyte and Soltek

The Gigabyte GA-8IGXP and Asus P4B533-V performed well in Part I of the test, and now, having compared all 16 boards over the two tests, we can add the Albatron and Soltek to those two. According to our engineers, the former overclocking champion Abit has slipped back slightly in terms of performance, and overclocking fanatics will miss the features required to raise this board above the norm. Albatron has made a promising debut with the PX845G Pro II, as witnessed by its solid benchmark results. Liteon shows that a board equipped with the Intel 845G can indeed come cheap. The NA121 costs exactly half as much as the Asus P4B533-V, and offers similar features. But Liteon will have to follow up with more products to convince more traditional customers to switch brands. Germany’s top manufacturer Fujitsu-Siemens could have done better with its D1387, as the detailed report shows. The Chaintech CT-9BJF also ran into problems, and failed to compete at all. We are pursuing the issue in close cooperation with the manufacturer.

In brief, the Gigabyte GA-81GXP combines good specifications and modern features with high performance and a remarkably low price. We hope the manufacturer has sorted out its distribution problems and that a comparable motherboard will be available to potential customers. The Asus P4B533-V remains a good choice, which, as usual, comes at a price. But the cost will not concern customers with purchasing power. Albatron and Soltek are the two rising stars of the test. Although they cannot quite match the specifications of rivals such as Gigabyte, in terms of overclocking and performance, both are on a par with the two front-runners.

There is a market ripe for exploitation by a board designed to cater to overclocking fiends. None of the 16 boards allow the user to exploit the full potential of the Pentium 4, for example, by cranking core voltage up to 2.05 volts – the BIOS could always give numerous warnings of warranty loss up front. That does not deter true overclocking fans. Particularly in tandem with water-cooling, the P4 needs high voltage to run safely on the limit.

Features Table

Features Table

Features Table