Tabula Rasa: Six Boards for the Pentium 4 — THG.RU

Pentium 4 Ready for the Mass Market?

For the last six months, the processor manufacturer Intel has given the impression that it has completely left the field in favor of its archrival AMD. Its fastest CPU, the Intel Pentium III, was only available up to 1000 MHz when AMD had had its 1200 MHz model on the market for quite some time already. Now AMD has some of its 1300-MHz and 1333-MHz Athlon models at CeBIT — and more versions up to 1533 MHz are set to appear soon.

Intel tries everything to push Pentium 4. If you take a glance at current price lists for OEMs — an Intel Pentium 4 1.3GHz bundled with 128 MB rambus memory and a CPU fan costs a mere $272 plus tax when ordered in bulk. Although this price won’t be passed on to retail vendors too soon, it might be worth thinking about this CPU again.

So, let’s take a first look at the boards:

Unlike the standard boards based on Socket 370 (Pentium III/Celeron) and Socket 462 (Athlon/Duron), every board using Socket 423 comes with an additional power connector.

View of a standard Pentium 4 board with a large cooler.

AMD’s Weaknesses — Cooperating with Software Producers

The buzzword is Rambus. The two upper modules are RDRAM modules, whereas the two lower ones act as continuous modules.

Unlike Intel, AMD doesn’t produce chipsets for high demand — AMD760 is not available in large quantities. Third-party vendors are expected to do the job of providing volume DDR-chipsets, but the currently available MaGiK1 chipset from ALi performs considerably worse than AMD760 and VIA’s upcoming Apollo KT266 is not expected to be a great performer as well. Ramping up its own chipset production would help AMD to improve its market position considerably and optimize processor capacity use. Competitor Intel stays in close contact with software producers in order to push its compiler technology and command structures in the market better.

The Intel 850 chipset consists of two chips — the MCH Intel KC82850, produced for the first time here using FC-PGA design methods, and the well-known «southbridge» Intel 82801BA.

Intel 850: First Chipset in a Micro PGA Housing

Unlike previous chipsets, the Intel 850 has a Northbridge component with a Micro PGA design. Essentially, the new chipset contains a dual rambus interface that theoretically provides 3.2 GB per second in bandwidth. However, every rambus channel has to be furnished with at least one memory bank and all empty slots must be fitted for termination with continuous modules (CRIMMs).

New CPU platform — The Socket 423, the Pentium 4 and the Intel 850 Chipset are celebrating their debut.

Test Subjects — Six Boards with Pentium 4/1300

If you take a look at all six boards, you can see that the manufacturers followed Intel’s reference design very closely. Small wonder, then, that the benchmark results are relatively even across the test field. The new board design is especially unusual — in comparison to Pentium III boards, these boards have been designed to have substantially more surface area. Special bus bars that require an adapter for the power supply are a new addition.

Asus P4T — The Fastest Board Tested

Of all six boards tested, the Asus P4T is the fastest. Its unusual design makes it a standout. Compared to the other motherboards, its CPU base has been placed closer to the middle of the board in order to allow shorter signal paths. However, a special base plate included with the board is necessary for its assembly. The CPU mounts supplied with a hinge for the cooler just ooze ergonomic design. A feather in Asus’s hat was the fact that only their board allows for setting all the clock rates using DIP switches in addition to setting them in BIOS. Memory clock and the multiplier can be adjusted to various settings.

Asus is not without weaknesses, though. Some capacitors have been placed too close to the CPU base, which makes mounting a CPU fan often a difficult affair. The BIOS setup also doesn’t show the CPU temperature anywhere near precisely enough. All in all, though, as a board for the Pentium 4, the Asus P4T is well done.

The CPU cooler and the condensers are spaced very close on the Asus P4T.

Of all the boards tested, only the Asus P4T has DIPswitches for setting the system clock rates and the multiplier.

DFI WT70-EC: No AGP Pro Slot

The DFI board isn’t particularly striking in terms of features. One noteworthy feature is the extremely clever solution of a CPU holder with a bracket. Almost all the other boards in this test are furnished with an AGP Pro slot, whereas the DFI board only has a Standard AGP slot.

Placing a CNR slot on this board also seems like a questionable practice. In our opinion, a CNR slot has no business on a Pentium 4 board. The board’s performance is rather mediocre.

Innovative: A hinged mounting for DFI’s CPU cooler.

Gigabyte GA-8TX — Too Many Jumpers

The 13 jumpers scattered over Gigabyte make it stand out particularly. Some of the adjustment features they hide, like «USB Wake-Up» or «Keyboard Power on,» are entirely useless and could be adjusted more easily and conveniently in BIOS. Another feature that makes it stand out is the blue-painted board, whereas the other boards in the test are painted green or yellow.

The dual BIOS function for beta testing BIOS versions looks interesting. The multiplier is adjustable in a range from 8.0 to 23.0, while the majority of Pentium 4 processors are locked. One plus that must be mentioned is the USB port with its socket. The placement of the CNR slot is, on the other hand, without purpose for every Pentium 4 user.

Special Gigabyte feature — dual BIOS function.

Gigabyte’s USB port is equipped with a jack.

Fujitsu-Siemens D1192-A11: Innovative Fan Control Unit

The Augsburg/Germany motherboard manufacturer presents an extraordinarily high quality Pentium 4 motherboard, produced using almost fully automated methods of production. The Fujitsu-Siemens developers continue to set global standards for precision in production. The D1192-A11 comes with the Intel 850 and a network chip from Intel (82550).

The manufacturer has omitted a second serial port that isn’t used much today anyway. The thermally managed fan control unit is one of a kind and keeps noise levels at a minimum when in use. If the BIOS has been installed incorrectly, it can be restored using a recover disk. Since the manufacturer continues to cater to its core business — the OEM market, where the largest share of its output ends up — Fujitsu-Siemens chose to not integrate overclocking functions into the board.

In the test, only the clock multiplier was adjustable although we were using an unlocked Pentium 4 processor. This board’s performance was somewhere in the middle. These facts are reflected in our benchmark results. One excellent feature was the inclusion in the package of a voltage adapter that makes it possible to use a conventional power supply.

Intel D850GB: No Overclocking

The basic layout of this board, also known as «Garibaldi,» is present in numerous PC systems. Among their main customers are OEMs like Dell and Gateway. There are conductor paths on the board for an Ultra-SCSI chip, a network chip and a sound chip, although the test board has none of these features.

The D850GB is the Intel reference board whose design and electrical layout are the guidelines for the majority of Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers. The problem of attaching the CPU cooler was solved somewhat awkwardly. Four screws hold the cooler to the board, which often means that the entire board has to be disassembled.

The Intel D850GB’s performance was rather average, although it did pass one OpenGL benchmark, «SPECviewperf, Pro CDRS,» with flying colors. Setting the CPU clock rates can get a little complicated. You have to insert a jumper, which will then have to be readjusted after the changes have been made. All in all, the Intel D850GB is a standard OEM board that emphasizes system stability and rules out experimentation with overclocking.

MSI MS-6339: Status LEDs

The MSI MS-6339 with its multicolored status LEDs makes for an unusual design. The mini-diodes have been placed next to the COM interfaces so that they can also be seen from behind. The board earns a few points with its well-placed special P4 bus bar. There won’t be any problems here with power cables that are too short for a spacious PC housing! On the other hand, there doesn’t seem to be any purpose in supplying the board with a CNR slot. It has no business being on an expensive Pentium 4 board. Why would anyone who uses or buys a Pentium 4 with 1300 or 1500 MHz ever stoop to using a low-cost solution like a CNR modem or a network card?

Our testers came up with inconsistent performance results when using the BIOS of two different vendors. After the results with AMI-BIOS had been so terrible, the manufacturer reacted promptly, supplying us with a BIOS version from Award. When using this BIOS, the board managed to catch up with its competitors. Despite the fact that the differences between the separate boards are minimal, MSI ranked very low, even with the new BIOS. Overclocking fans aren’t going to be all that excited about this MSI board — It lacks any possibility for overclocking.

Pentium 4 Overclocking — 1500 MHz with Asus P4T

It’s the worst of times for overclocking fans. As was the case with its predecessor, the Pentium III, the new Pentium 4 processor comes with a fixed multiplier. Increasing the CPU clock is only possible by raising the system bus clock. Of all the boards tested, the Asus P4T is the most suitable for overclocking. In the test, we used a Pentium 4 CPU with 1500 MHz which we managed to run stably at 15 x 115 = 1725 MHz.

Test Setup

Benchmark Discussion and Results

All boards were subjected to a total of 11 different benchmarks. There were no serious problems during the test, a very good result for such a new CPU platform. The boards have been thoroughly tested according to the following benchmarks.

Office Performance: BAPCo Sysmark 2000

In the category «Office Performance» the Asus P4T’s 96 points make it a clear winner for Sysmark 2000. Fujitsu-Siemens is a close second, while DFI trails with 190 points.

MPEG-4 Encoding: Flask MPEG

The MPEG 4 encoding test is a very good method for testing the memory performance of a motherboard. Our test sequence still averaged a coding of 21 frames per second. Any way you look at it, this is top-notch performance, particularly so if you consider the fact that an AMD Athlon 1200 reaches a mere 13 frames per second for the same discipline. The Asus P4T managed to get a nose ahead of the others.

Linux Kernel Compilation

Compiling a Linux kernel is always an interesting test. The frontrunner is the DFI, which manages to finish the kernel in less than 128 seconds. At almost 130 seconds, the other boards tested didn’t do too badly either.

3D Game Performance: Quake 3 Arena

The Quake 3 Arena benchmark is practically a classic by now. This category is a good indicator of memory performance in a board. Here Asus P4T is head and shoulders above the other boards tested.

Direct 3D Game Performance — Unreal Tournament

The Unreal Tournament benchmark looks different all of a sudden. DFI and Fujitsu-Siemens take the gold and the silver, while Asus P4T lags behind at No. 5.

OpenGL Performance — SPECviewperf 6.1.2

In the following benchmark results for SPECviewperf, the OpenGL boards were examined. Asus P4T leads almost without exception.

In Design Review, Asus P4T, normally very fast, is in last place!

OpenGL Performance — SPECviewperf 6.1.2, Continued

For the DX-06 category in SPECviewperf, Fujitsu-Siemens is in first place, followed by DFI and Asus P4T.

In the Lightscape benchmark, the Intel reference board has a slight lead. The MSI MS-6339 drops somewhat behind the rest of the boards tested.

OpenGL Performance — SPECviewperf 6.1.2, Continued

The results of the MedMCAD benchmark are so close that a tie could actually be called.

Intel’s reference board is clearly more than just a nose ahead in the ProCDRS benchmark. Our testers weren’t able to explain the difference. Still, there is a spread of almost 6 frames per second, even though the benchmark was repeated numerous times and produced the same results.

Features Table

Conclusion: Pentium 4 Platforms Are Mature but Expensive

This test has made one thing very clear. Pentium 4 boards with Intel 850 are very reliable and ready to hit the mass market — once prices become more attractive. Unlike early products with VIA chipsets, the young Intel 850 chipset is precocious.

Intel used its rather bad experience with the 820 Camino debacle to improve the newcomer. There isn’t much to prevent the Pentium 4 platform from being widely distributed by OEMs, particularly since Intel’s pricing strategy is helping it to conquer more and more of the market.

A word more about the Pentium 4 motherboards: Boards with an Intel 850 chipset are anything but cheap. On average, they cost about $220, making them slightly more expensive than boards with DDR-SDRAM support for Socket 462, which cost between $200 and $220. Amongst the Pentium 4 series, the best value right now is offered by a Pentium 4 1.3GHz «in a box» including RDRAM, heatsink and fan.

Overclocking a Pentium 4 processor from 1300 MHz to 1500 MHz provides the best value, but poses the problem of system instability due to memory and AGP/PCI bus overclocking. How does it work? The processors bus clock is increased from 100 MHz (100 MHz x 13 = 1300 MHz) to 115 MHz (115 x 13 = 1500 MHz). Please bear in mind that this also increases the memory, AGP and PCI clock (memory = 460 MHz, AGP = 83MHz, PCI = 41,7MHz) by 15%, which causes problems with several PCI-devices and increases the risk of system failures.