Quite a lot of time has passed since the official announcement of the LGA775 platform, but the new Intel 925/915 chipsets have not yet become widespread on the market. This is evidenced by the small number final products, and also not the highest percentage of ready-made systems already sold.

Intel Company implemented many innovations in its products, which could not but affect the popularity of the platform. The need to use video cards PCI Express x16, low prevalence, as well as the dampness of DDR2 SDRAM, undoubtedly played a cruel “joke” on the Intel 925/915. We are closely monitoring the development of LGA775. In October, we published the material "", where we analyzed the operation of the new LGA775 platform based on the i925X chipset. Recently, our test laboratory received the Intel D915PBL motherboard, built on the Intel 915P chipset. Naturally, we were interested in comparing the performance of the top-end i925X chipset and the cheaper version for the Intel LGA775 socket, the i915P chipset, so the board we received came at just the right time.

System logic setIntel 915 P

The i915P chipset, unlike the flagship i925X, Intel is positioning as a mass product aimed at the middle-end market.

Let's formulate the main technological innovations offered by the Intel 915P along with the i925X:

• support for the new DDR2 memory standard;
• support for new graphics PCI buses Express x16;
• PCI Express x1 peripheral bus support;
• multichannel integrated sound solution HD Audio (Azalia) new generation;
• new technology creation of SATA RAID arrays Intel Matrix Storage Technology;
• possibility of building wireless networks via 802.11b/g protocols ( Intel Wireless Connect Technology).

All these innovations are also present in the i925X. The main difference between the i915P and its older brother is the slower memory controller, which is due to the lack of a function called “Enhanced Memory Pipelining”. According to Intel, this feature should improve the "saturation" of each of the two memory channels of the i925X.

The introduction of special maintenance commands will allow more flexible memory management during data transfer. This means that faster performance is achieved thanks to the service programs. And improved memory pipelining enables more efficient use of each memory channel.

There was a similar story with i875P and i865PE. As you remember, the 865 does not have PAT technology, but manufacturers motherboards managed to increase the performance of i865PE to the level of i875P. But all good things tend to come to an end sooner or later. The advantage of the "Alderwood" memory subsystem is realized by means other than PAT in the i875P. Intel has taken a slightly different route this time: the i925X uses memory regrouping to optimize access times. In addition, memory maintenance (regeneration) commands are entered into the standard data stream. Intel claims that it is not possible to upgrade the i915P to the i925X.

In addition to "Enhanced Memory Pipelining", the i915P chipset does not support ECC error correction technology. The situation repeats itself again: ECC was implemented only in the i875P, bypassing the 865PE. It is worth noting that by depriving the 915 of this support, the latter did not lose so much. Firstly, memory error correction is the domain of workstations and servers, and secondly, ECC in the 925X is a mere formality, since the technology has not yet been achieved correctly.

Another feature worth noting is the controller Intel memory The 915P can operate with both DDR2 SDRAM memory and regular DDR. This is very useful, especially considering the current evolution of DDR2, its performance and price. Let us remind you that this memory does not differ significantly from DDR SDRAM. Thus, DDR2 is built from the same memory cells as regular DDR, but the former uses a multiplexing technique, due to which doubling the memory bandwidth is achieved. The multiplexing technique involves the following: data from memory cells arrives on a wide bus, and then leaves on a bus with normal bandwidth, but at a frequency twice the frequency of the DDR SDRAM bus. In fact, the chip core continues to operate at a frequency equal to the first DDR and PC133 SDRAM. However, at the frequencies of the cells the light did not converge like a wedge. There is also such an important parameter as memory latency, which, by the way, not only did not decrease, on the contrary, it became higher compared to conventional DDR. The latency of DDR2-533 SDRAM remained at the level of DDR266 and PC133 SDRAM, which is not good. Bandwidth CPU backbone - memory of 8.5 GB/s will simply be “strangled” by high latency. Thus, the i915P, having lost a certain percentage of performance to the i925X due to the lack of "Enhanced Memory Pipelining", will undoubtedly get some head start when using regular DDR.

Let's return to support for two types of memory. As we already said, the i915P supports both types of DDR. Of course, you shouldn't count on the fact that motherboards, which are based on the above-mentioned chipset, will be able to work with both types simultaneously. This is impossible, because the i915P chipset uses the same group of pins to connect DDR2 and DDR memory. This means that motherboards can work with either DDR2 or DDR, but not both. Intel does not recommend that motherboard manufacturers produce products equipped with two types of DIMM slots. According to the corporation, this could have a negative impact on stability. Therefore, it is recommended to make a clear choice in favor of one or another memory standard.

Recall that the memory controller Intel chipsets 925/915 is more flexible than that of i875/865. Its flexibility is manifested in the ability to take advantage of the dual-channel mode much more often than with i875/865 boards. This opportunity came about thanks to Flex technology Memory Technology. Remember the situation with dual-channel in i875/865. To activate the latter, it is mandatory to use the same number of memory modules with the same organization. As a result, the Intel 925/915 memory controller can operate in three different modes:

• dual-channel symmetrical mode - the memory controller operates in dual-channel 128-bit data access. To activate this mode it is enough to fill the memory slots in pairs with identical modules, that is, modules with the same size and latency (the latter is not necessary, but you need to remember that the timings are set according to the slow module);
• dual-channel asymmetric mode - the memory controller tries to operate in dual-channel mode, however, due to the use of modules of different sizes (as you might have guessed, this is the reason why this mode is enabled), the performance of such a memory subsystem approaches single-channel mode;
• single-channel mode - there is essentially nothing to say here - activation occurs when using one memory module, and the performance level is clearly less than in dual-channel mode.

This is where the differences between the Intel 915P and Intel 925X end. Finally, we note that two types of south bridges ICH6 or ICH6R can be supplied with the 915P.

The functionality of ICH6 is quite advanced high level, the south bridge provides one ATA-100 channel, and four Serial ATA 150 channels, 8 USB 2.0 ports, a gigabit network and excellent multi-channel Intel High Definition Audio. The following modifications can be added to the basic capabilities of ICH6:

• ICH6R adds support for Intel Matrix Storage Technology;
• ICH6W adds support for Intel Wireless Connect Technology (WiFi);
• ICH6RW adds support Intel Technologies Matrix Storage Technology and Intel Wireless Connect Technology (WiFi).

It is worth noting that the release of two latest versions new south bridge was suspended due to low demand for them, as well as the presence big decisions from third manufacturers.

We will not dwell in detail on the functionality of the various varieties of ICH6 due to the fact that all this was described in the material "

MotherboardIntelD915 PBL

Intel produces several motherboards based on the i915P chipset. We received the D915PBL model for testing.

It is a middle-end product and is intended for the mass consumer, as evidenced by the board's specifications.

The board comes in a box standard sizes, which, in addition to the Intel D915PBL itself, contained:

• a set of cables (four SATA, one ATA-133 and one FDD);
• panel for the rear wall of the case;
• plug for the rear panel of the case with SPDIF outputs (coaxial and optical);
• two USB 2.0 ports for output to the rear panel;
• CD with drivers and utilities;
• user manual for the system board;
• user manual creating a RAID arrays.

Special software was found on the driver disk, branded programs and utilities:

• Adobe Acrobat Reader;
• GameSpy GameTools;
• Intel Desktop Control Center;
• Intel Audio Studio;
• Intel Desktop Utilities;
• Intel Active Monitor<;
• InterVideo Home Theater Silver;
• InterVideo WinDVD Creator Silver;
• LANDesk System Manager;
• MusicMatch JukeBox;
• Norton Internet Security 2004;
• NTI CD Maker Standard 6;
• RestoreIt Lite;
• DirectX 9.0.

Possibilities

The motherboard supports the entire line of Intel processors for the LGA775 socket, ranging from budget Celerons to the incredibly expensive Pentium 4 Extreme Edition.

Intel D915PBL is designed to work with DDR2 533/400 memory. The total volume of which can be 4 GB. Intel has no complaints about working with memory: with an FSB of 800 MHz, the controller works with both DDR2-533 and DDR2-400.

Like any board based on the Intel 915P chipset, the D915PBL supports dual-channel memory mode. To activate it, just install memory modules in the appropriate slots on the motherboard. We have already talked about the three operating modes of the memory controller, so we will not repeat it. Here are just a few recommendations for getting maximum performance in dual-channel mode:

• Memory slots must be filled symmetrically;
• it is necessary that the capacity and number of banks in the installed memory modules match;
• It is desirable (although not necessary) to install identical memory modules, since only in this case can maximum performance be achieved (timings are set according to the slowest memory module).

Now a little about the additional controllers installed on the Intel D915PBL.

Intel used Realtek ALC880 as an HDA audio codec, which allows you to connect 7.1 class audio systems and has a connector for connecting front audio inputs/outputs. The quality of the codec can be described as very good. The evaluation was carried out in 16-bit, 44 kHz mode using the RightMark Audio Analyzer 5.1 test program and a Creative Audigy 2 ZX sound card.

The board has an Intel 82562EZ network controller with support for 10Base-T/100Base-TX

Intel chose the usual ICH6 as the south bridge for the D915PBL, the functionality of which is at a fairly high level. This southbridge supports one ATA-100 channel, and up to four Serial ATA-150 ports, 8 USB 2.0 ports, a gigabit network and excellent Intel High Definition Audio.

Design, layout and thoughtfulness of construction

The board is made on blue PCB. The number of slots on the board is as follows: 4x DDR2 DIMM, 1x PCI Express x16 (with latch), 2x PCI Express x1 and four PCI slots.

Intel's layout is generally successful, but there are some drawbacks.

The location of the power connectors is not satisfactory. Standard EPS12V (24 pins) is located at the bottom, so the bulky cable will not interfere with the cooling system. An additional 4-pin (for 12 V) is located on the other side of the “socket”, but with the right approach and a sufficient cable length it can be laid along the cooling system.

Two DIMM slots are located as standard. The PCI Express x16 port is very close to the memory slots, so installing a long graphics card can be difficult. Removing memory modules with a video card installed is impossible, although it is unlikely that an office machine will have such a video card. The location of the built-in audio connectors (Front audio, Aux-In, CD-In and S/PDIF) also cannot be called successful: they are located in front of the PCI slots.

The board uses a three-channel pulse power regulator. The power circuit uses a decent set of capacitors: 4 capacitors of 1200 μF and 8 of 560 μF.

A regular radiator is responsible for cooling the north bridge.

The port panel of the board contains PS/2 ports, 4 USB (4 additional connectors on the board), COM port, LPT port, two RJ-45, one IEEE1394, coaxial S/PDIF input and output, as well as six audio connectors of the type MiniJack: Mic-In, Line-In, Front, Center/Sub, Rear, Side.

Some connectors and ports are placed on separate plugs for the rear panel:

• plug for the rear panel of the case with SPDIF outputs: coaxial and optical;
• plug for the rear panel of the case with two USB 2.0 ports.

BIOSand board settings

There is only one jumper on the board, which is designed to clear CMOS.

The D915PBL uses a BIOS from AWARD.

In the Advanced Chipset Futures section, for the memory subsystem configuration settings, there is a special Dram Timing Settings section, which contains all the memory subsystem settings, the set of which is typical: CAS Latency, Active to Precharge Delay, Dram RAS# to CAS# Delay, Dram RAS# Precharge .

The Integrated Peripherals section contains settings for integrated controllers.

There are practically no overclocking options. You can change the FSB frequency within -2% - +4% of the nominal value, one step is 1 percent.

Memory frequency is selected from the set: DDR2-266, DDR2-333, DDR2-400, DDR2-533, DDR2-667.

The memory voltage varies in the range of 1.8-2.0V (step is 0.5V).

In the PC Health Status section, you can view the processor and system temperatures, voltage on the processor, memory and battery, as well as fan speeds. Such “advanced” monitoring is the merit of CoreCell technology, but more on that later.

Testing

The following components took part in testing:

motherboards :

• Gigabyte 8ANXP-D (Intel 925X);
• Intel D915PBL (Intel 915P);
• ABIT AG8 (Intel 915P);
• ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe (Intel 875P);
• ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe (Intel 875PE);
• ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe (NVIDIA nForce2 400 Ultra);
• Albatron K8X800 Pro (VIA K8T800).

Processors:

• Intel Pentium 4 LGA775 520;
• Intel Pentium 4 2800 MHz;
• AMD Athlon 64 2800+;
• AMD Athlon XP 2800+.

Memory:

• 2 x 256 MB PC3200 Hynix DDR SDRAM;
• 2 x DDRII-533 SDRAM KingMax 256 MB.

Harddisk:

• Seagate Barracuda 7200.7, 80 GB (Serial ATA).

Video cards:

• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5750;
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700.

The ABIT AG8 motherboard was not chosen by chance, because it is based on the Intel 915P chipset and is designed to work with regular DDR memory.

The Microsoft Windows XP operating system with Service Pack 1, as well as test programs and real gaming applications were installed on the test bench:

• driver for video card NVIDIA:Detonator 61.72;
• drivers for the motherboard on NVIDIA nForce2 400 Ultra: the latest version at the time of testing was taken from the NVIDIA website;
• drivers for motherboard on Intel 925X: the latest version at the time of testing was taken from the Intel website;
• drivers for motherboards based on Intel 915P: the latest version at the time of testing was taken from the Intel website;
• drivers for motherboard on Intel 875P: the latest version at the time of testing was taken from the Intel website;
• drivers for motherboard on Intel 865PE: the latest version at the time of testing was taken from the Intel website;
• drivers for motherboard on VIA K8T800: the latest version at the time of testing was taken from the VIA website;
• ZD Winstone 2004;
• BAPCo PCMark 2004;
• MadOnion 3DMark 2001 SE;
• FutureMark 3DMark 2003;
• WinRAR 3.30;
• VirtualDub 1.5.1 + DivX codec 5.05a Pro;
• RazorLame 1.1.5.1342 + Lame codec 3.93.1;
• Unreal Tournament 2004 (Direct3D application, Hardware T&L, Dot3, cube texturing);
• HALO: Combat Evolved 1.2 (Direct3D application);
• FarCry (Direct3D application, Vertex Shaders 2.0, Pixel Shaders 2.0, DirectX 9.0);
• Call of Duty (OpenGL application, multitexturing).

How the testing went

On ABIT AG8 (Intel 915P), ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe (NVIDIA nForce2 400 Ultra), ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe (Intel 875PE) and ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe (Intel 875P) boards, a dual-channel memory controller was activated by inserting two identical modules PC3200 Hynix DDR SDRAM memory in the corresponding slots, and on Gigabyte 8ANXP-D and Intel D915PBL - via DDRII-533 SDRAM KingMax. PC3200 Hynix DDR SDRAM memory timings were set as follows: 2.0/5/3/3.

The timings of the DDRII-533 SDRAM KingMax memory were set as follows: 4.0/5/3/3.

Semi-synthetic tests 3DMark 2001 SE and 3DMark 2003, as well as the gaming benchmark GunMetal BenchMark used maximum detail, 640x480 resolution and 16-bit color. The AquaMark gaming test was run by default.

When archiving data, we used the WinRAR 3.20 archiver and the data folder (PCMBENCH) from the Winstone 2004 test package. This folder was not chosen by chance: it is of a decent size and contains almost all types of files.

Video compression tests were carried out using the VirtualDub 1.5.1 program and the DivX codec 5.05a Pro codec. The compressed video file had a size of 74.5 MB.

Mp3 encoding tests were carried out using the RazorLame 1.1.5.1342 encoder and the Lame codec 3.93.1 codec. Files in the Wave format, namely the “looted” album “Master Of Puppets” by Metallica, were compressed into Mp3 files with a bitrate of 128 kbps and a sampling frequency of 41 kHz.

Real game applications used 32-bit color and 800x600 resolution. VSync was disabled. Texture compression was disabled directly in gaming applications. All gaming applications were configured for maximum detail.

With each new platform, the operating systems and all test applications were reinstalled.

Test results

Testing inPCMark04

The PCMark04 test package is designed for a comprehensive assessment of both the system as a whole and the central processor. The test is based on the use of real algorithms through which the following are performed: archiving/unzipping information (ZIP), spell checking (Link Grammar Parsing Library), loading web pages (Internet Explorer 6.0), encoding images into JPEG format, encoding mp3 files (Ogg Vorbis), video encoding (Windows Media encoder 9 and DivX 5.0.5), working with 2D graphics (Windows API), working in 3D (Microsoft DirectX 9 and Havok Physics engine 2.1), virus checking (F-Secure Anti- Virus), encryption/decryption of information (Blowfish Algorithm).

Tests of the memory subsystem show us a clear advantage of the Intel 865PE chipset. Moreover, the advantage is quite significant. However, we should not attribute the victory to DDR SDRAM alone. It is known to have lower latency than DDR2 SDRAM. Just look at the results of the Intel 915P coupled with regular DDR memory. The results are not reassuring: the low performance of the i915P controller is due not only to the high latencies of the DDR2 SDRAM memory modules.

Let's look at the processor test, which depends slightly on other system components, including the memory controller. Here the picture is completely different. The leaders are the new generation Intel 925/915 platforms.

Productivity in office and content creation applications

The test using ZD Winstone 2004 emulates the work of a hypothetical user with two application packages:

• officeapplications: Microsoft Access 2002 SP-2, Microsoft Excel 2002 SP-2, Microsoft FrontPage 2002 SP-2, Microsoft Outlook 2002 SP-2, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 SP-2, Microsoft Project 2002, Microsoft Word 2002 SP-2, WinZip 8.1 SR -1 and Norton AntiVirus Professional Edition 2003;
• applicationsForcreationcontent: Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1, Adobe Premiere 6.50, Macromedia Director MX 9.0, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 6.1, Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9 Version 9.00.00.2980, NewTek LightWave 3D 7.5b and Steinberg WaveLab 4.0f.

The result is based on the problem solving time required by the above software.

Performance in semi-synthetic and real-world gaming applications

In the "old man" 3DMark 2001 SE, in the first position we see chipsets of the previous generation that use regular DDR SDRAM. The i915P + DDR combination showed slightly better performance than the 915 + DDR2. However, the gap can hardly be called outstanding, which again suggests that the victory cannot be attributed to DDR SDRAM alone: ​​the low performance of the i915P memory controller is due not only to the high latencies of DDR2 modules.

We have repeatedly noted that data archiving is, first of all, critical to the memory subsystem. Therefore, platforms using “slow” DDR2 SDRAM simply have no chance. And this is clearly seen in the results of the Intel 915P system logic when using DDR2 and regular DDR.

MP3 encoding theoretically depends little on the speed of the memory subsystem, so the lag on LGA775 platforms is not that significant, but it is there.

Video encoding is also not very critical to the performance of the memory subsystem, so the Intel 925/915, coupled with DDR2-533, is slightly inferior to the i875/865.

conclusions

The findings are disappointing. Our testing once again proved that the new Intel 925/915 platforms at this stage of their evolution cannot compete on equal terms with the i875/865 chipsets. Innovations such as support for DDR2 SDRAM and PCI Express x16 graphics bus, aimed at increasing performance, remain in the future. As for the Intel 915P chipset, when using regular DDR memory we did not notice a huge difference in performance between the Intel 915P and the Intel 925X.

The overall impression of the performance of the new platform from Intel is not the best, however, if you look from the other side, not everything is so terrible. Intel 925/915 has its advantages, for example, good integrated Intel High Definition Audio, a powerful disk subsystem controller, and more.

As for the Intel D915PBL board itself, it is a typical representative of the corporate market: excellent manufacturing quality, standard capabilities. As they say, “set it and forget it.” This is almost an ideal option for system integrators.

We thank Intel for providing the D915PBL motherboard for testing.

We thank SV-Trading for providing the Intel Pentium 4 520 processor, NVIDIA GeForce PCX5750 video card and Kingmax DDR2-533 memory.

As a motherboard manufacturer, Foxconn is virtually unknown to the general public. Only with the release of the LGA775 platform did this name begin to be mentioned often: every processor socket was manufactured by this company. In addition to sockets, Foxconn produces a lot of different computer components. Moreover, experts know Foxconn as one of the largest OEM motherboard manufacturers.

And shortly before the Computex 2004 computer exhibition, it became known that this manufacturer would independently enter the market of retail products (i.e. boards intended for retail sale). Naturally, we visited the stand of this company, where all the products presented were intended for the Intel platform. And almost six months later, one of these boards ended up in our test lab. This is the Foxconn 915A01-P model based on the Intel 915P chipset with support for DDR-II memory.

Foxconn 915A01-P Specification

CPU	- Intel Pentium 4 / Celeron (Prescott) with bus frequency 800/533 MHz; - Socket LGA775 connector; - Support for processors with HyperThreading technology
Chipset	- Northbridge Intel® 915P Memory Controller Hub (MCH); - South Bridge Intel® Intel 82801FB Enhanced I/O Controller Hub (ICH6R); - Communication between bridges: DMI
System memory	- Four 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM DIMM slots - Maximum memory capacity 4GB - DDR2 400533 memory type supported - Dual channel memory access possible
Graphic arts	- PCI Express x16 slot;
Expansion options	- Three 32-bit PCI Bus Master slots; - Three PCI Express x1 slots; - Eight USB 2.0 ports (4 built-in + 4 additional); - Two IEEE1394 ports (Firewire; one built-in + 1 additional) - Built-in High Defenition Audio 7.1 sound; - Gigabit Ethernet network controller;
Overclocking options	- Changing the FSB frequency from 200(133) to 350 MHz in steps of 1 MHz; - Change the voltage on the processor, memory and chipset. - Foxconn SuperStep utility (SuperUtility)
Disk subsystem	- 1 channel UltraDMA100/66/33 Bus Master IDE (supporting up to 2 ATAPI devices) - SerialATA protocol support (4 channels - ICH6R, with RAID support) - Additional SerialATARAID controller (Sil3112R chip, 2 SerialATA channels, supporting RAID 0, 1, 0+1) - Optional - Support LS-120/ZIP/ATAPI CD-ROM
BIOS	- 4MBit Flash ROM - Award BIOS Phoenix with support for Enhanced ACPI, DMI, Green, PnP Features and Trend Chip Away Virus - SuperLogo utility
Miscellaneous	- One FDD port, one serial and one parallel port, PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports - STR (Suspend to RAM) - SPDIF Out
Power management	- Wake from modem, mouse, keyboard, network, timer and USB - Main 24-pin ATX power connector - Additional 4-pin power connector
Monitoring	- Monitoring processor and system temperatures, voltages, two fan speeds - Foxconn SuperUtility
Size	- ATX form factor, 245mm x 305mm (9.63" x 12")

Box

The board packaging has the following design:

Equipment

• Motherboard
• CD with software and drivers
• One ATA-100 cable, one FDD cable
• Two SerialATA cables + power adapter (two connectors)
• English User Manual + Quick Start Guide
• Guide to creating and configuring RAID arrays
• Bracket with SP-DIF output
• Bracket with 2 additional USB2.0 ports
• Plug for the rear panel of the case
• Floppy disk with drivers for SerialATARAID controller ICH6R.

The board's packaging is standard and fully corresponds to the low price of the board:

Separately, we note the excellent user manual, which describes in great detail all stages of assembling and configuring the system (BIOS settings, installing drivers and software). In addition, the kit includes a quick guide (like on Gigabyte boards) and a brochure on setting up RAID arrays.

Also in the box you can find a 3" floppy disk with drivers for the ICH6R RAID controller, as well as two brackets: with a pair of USB2.0 ports and an SP-DIF output.

The CD contains a complete set of drivers, as well as the proprietary Foxconn SuperUtility utility. And on the same disk there is additional software: Norton Internet Security 2004 7.00 (NIS) and Norton Personal Firewall 2004 7.00 (NPF).

As a result, we give the package a “5” rating.

EliteGroup 915P-A

And yet EliteGroup has always been and remains almost the only company that cares about users who love to upgrade. And the 915P-A motherboard is further confirmation that even today ECS has not departed from its traditions. This board is completely designed for users who already have a computer and who want to smoothly migrate to the LGA775 platform with minimal losses. The 915P-A motherboard will allow them to keep both DDR-I memory and a video card, which, by the way, can be very expensive.

This board also came to us for testing in an OEM package, so we can’t tell you anything about the contents of the box. But a lot of interesting things can be said about the main difference of the 915P-A - AGP Express technology, thanks to which the board has both AGP 8x and PCI Express 16x slots on board. And you can simultaneously install video cards in both of these ports. Moreover, since the north bridge of the i915P, on which the motherboard is built, does not support the AGP graphics bus, the company’s engineers had to look for ways to install an AGP 8x slot themselves. And these ways were found. If you look closely at the wiring of the motherboard, you can see that the wiring from the AGP port leads to the south bridge. But the southbridge never had an AGP controller - it has PCI Express 1x and PCI 2.3. This means that ECS used one of these tires. It was hardly PCI Express 1x, since it had a completely different bus architecture and would have required installing additional bridges, which were not seen on the board. It is much easier to install an AGP port on a PCI bus, especially since the architecture of AGP and PCI is almost the same. What does it mean? That the throughput of the AGP 8x port instead of 2.1 Gb/s will be limited to 133 Mb/s. But we’ll check this during testing, but for now let’s look at the board’s characteristics.

Characteristics of ECS 915P-A

Platform: LGA775

Processors: Intel Pentium 4 with Prescott core and Celeron with Socket 775

Support for processors with 800 MHz FSB

Chips

Northbridge Intel 915P

Southbridge ICH6

• Supports 4 Serial ATA-150 ports

  Single-channel ATA-100 controller supporting up to two devices

  8-channel Azalia sound core

Realtek RTL8110S Ethernet 10/100 Mbit/s network controller

8-channel audio codec C-Media CMI9880

Internal slotsextensions and ports

Two 240-pin DDR-II DIMM memory slots supporting up to 2GB DDR-II 400/533 memory

Two 184-pin DDR-I DIMM memory slots supporting up to 2GB DDR-I memory PC2700/PC3200

1 PCI Express 16x slot for video card

1 AGP 8x/4x slot supporting video cards with a supply voltage of 1.5V

2 PCI Express slots

2 PCI slots

1 ATA-100 port supporting up to two devices with Ultra DMA 100/66 interfaces

4 Serial ATA-150 ports

Riser for connecting audio jacks

Two risers for connecting USB 2.0 ports

One 4-pin Molex connector for connecting the CPU cooler fan

Three 3-pin Molex connectors for connecting system fans

Ports on the rear panel of the board

2 PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse

1 serial COM port

1 parallel LPT port

4 USB 2.0 ports

6 audio jacks 3.5 mm built-in Azalia sound card

1 RJ45 network port

As you can see, the design of the board is quite simple in design. There are no additional chips or ports on the board - no S/PDIF ports, no FireWire connectors. Even the network is normal - 100 megabit. Everything has been done to simplify the design of the board, otherwise what's the point of upgrading?

The board design looks much simpler compared to PF4. If you do not take into account the presence of AGP and PCI Express slots, as well as DDR and DDR-II, then everything else is at the level of ordinary inexpensive boards for assemblers.

EliteGroup did not even install an additional ATA-133 controller, leaving support for IDE drives at the level of the ICH6 south bridge, that is, a single-channel controller with support for two devices on one cable. This somehow does not fit with the idea of ​​​​a motherboard for an upgrade - most likely the hard drive will have to be changed if there is no desire or opportunity to install it on the same cable with an optical drive.

The north and south bridges have conventional passive cooling - simple aluminum radiators. Raisers for connecting sockets with USB 2.0 ports are located between the AGP and PCI Express slots, which is not very convenient. The additional four pins of the ATX connector are sealed with protective paper.

BIOS and overclocking

The motherboard has a regular Award BIOS with the ability to change the supply voltage of the processor, memory and northbridge, as well as increase the FSB bus frequency. The Fuzzy Overclocking utility is not supported by the board.

One of the distinctive features of the board is the ability to simultaneously use video cards in AGP and PCI Express slots. To verify this, we needed to install two video cards at once - ECS Radeon 9800XT AGP 8x and ECS RX300 PCI Express. As a result, it became possible to connect four monitors in Windows XP.

If only there was somewhere to put them...

The last motherboard in our review also has great ambitions - it is an Asustek product with very interesting features.

Last summer we tested motherboards based on the popular Intel 865PE chipset. Much has changed since then: Pentium 4 (Prescott) processors on the LGA775 socket have become an attractive purchase from both an economic and technical point of view. In particular, the latest kernel revisions provide unprecedented overclocking potential. Motherboards based on the Intel 915/925 family, thanks to a whole range of innovations from Intel, have raised equipment and functionality to a whole new level. And the release at the end of 2004 of PCI Express video cards ATI Radeon X700 and NVidia GeForce 6200/6600 suggests the advisability of switching to a new platform: for less money, these accelerators show higher performance than their predecessors for the AGP 8X bus. And only the new DDR2 RAM standard is having a hard time making its way to real user systems: the modules are still quite expensive and not so fast to speak of a noticeable advantage over conventional DDR400. Therefore, the formula for the optimal choice of Intel platform from our point of view looks like this: LGA775 + Intel 915P + DDR400. All that remains is to decide on a specific motherboard model, which is what we will do in this test.

ABIT AG8-3rd eye

Price – $155

Verdict

South Bridge ICH6R

IDE RAID No

PCI slots 2

DDR2 support No

FireWire Eat

LAN 10/100/1000 Mbps

Eat

The best overclocking board based on Intel 915P with a nice bonus

Great overclocking potential; chic BIOS Setup; POST indicator; unique external module

High price; only two PCI slots; no IDE RAID

The first product in our testing immediately demonstrates what level of quality the others should strive for. At the same time, we wouldn’t want the price of the ABIT AG8-3rd eye to become an example to follow, although a real overclocking board cannot be cheap.

Let's start with the most noticeable: the kit comes with a remote hardware monitoring unit called mGuru Clock. The gray arch with a monochrome LCD display really resembles a table clock, but in addition to time, it provides information on ten different indicators: frequency, voltage, temperature, etc.

In terms of equipment, ABIT AG8-3rd eye is not only not inferior to the others, but also includes components aimed at enthusiasts: mjuGuru monitoring and control chip, powerful cooling of chipset chips (with a fan on the north bridge), digital POST indicator, which helps when searching for the source of problems on an overclocked computer. There are no additional RAID controllers, although adding IDE channels would be nice, especially at this price.

The inventor of "overclocker BIOS" ABIT has been honing his skills over the years, and AG8-3rd eye can serve as a standard for thoughtful BIOS Setup. I was especially pleased with the choice of voltages: up to 1.75 V for the processor, up to 3.2 V for RAM and up to 2.05 V for the northbridge. It is not surprising that ABIT showed the best results in testing for overclocking on the FSB bus with a result of 270 MHz.

Albatron Mars PX915P Pro

Albatron Mars PX915P Pro

Price – $128

Verdict

South Bridge ICH6R

IDE RAID Eat

PCI slots 3

DDR2 support No

FireWire No

LAN 10/100/1000+10/100 Mbps

Active northbridge cooling No

Good board, but successful overclocking is not guaranteed

Three IDE channels; two network cards; good BIOS; radiator on the south bridge

Weak overclocking potential; modest delivery set

Albatron motherboards have been repeatedly noted by us as models with an excellent price/quality ratio, capable of competing with the most serious opponents on the market. The PX915P Pro board looks unusual for Albatron products: the traditional blue PCB is complemented by multi-colored parts and gold heatsinks on the north and south bridges. Owners of a large number of hard drives will appreciate the IDE RAID controller from ITE, which allows you to connect four additional devices. In addition to the standard Gigabit Ethernet adapter (Marvell chip), there is a second integrated 10/100 Mbps network card on the controller from VIA.

BIOS settings initially inspire overclocking enthusiasts to perform great feats: as always, Albatron provides the user with maximum control over various BIOS parameters. Timings, frequencies, multipliers - everything is in order, and voltages can vary within unexpectedly wide limits (for example, V core up to 1.9 V!). However, when it came to actually testing the board's overclocking capabilities, we were a little disappointed. For some unknown reason, the maximum overclocking potential of the Albatron PX915P Pro was only 215 MHz on the bus, which is significantly less than the best results in the test. If it weren't for the failure in the overclocking test, this motherboard would have been one of the winners, because both functionality and stock performance of the Albatron PX915P Pro are simply excellent.

AOpen i915Pa-E

AOpen i915Pa-E

Price –$120

Verdict

South Bridge ICH6R

IDE RAID No

PCI slots 3

DDR2 support No

FireWire No

LAN 10/100/1000 Mbps

Active northbridge cooling No

A good board for daily work without intensive overclocking

High quality; branded little things; pleasant overall impression of the product

Quite modest equipment; low acceleration

The products of this company are user-friendly. AOpen does not focus on maximum overclocking, instead offering the consumer high quality workmanship and small branded “tricks”. The AOpen i915Pa-E box has a special window through which the board itself can be seen. The entire set is sealed in plastic and looks very neat. The equipment is close to the minimum, but all accessories are of excellent quality, and the black IDE cables bear the AOpen logos.

The board is made on a black PCB, which has long been the hallmark of almost all boards of this company. Various plastic connectors have their own specific color, and it has not changed for a long time - AOpen presents this as a special “color coding” to simplify assembly. There are no unexpected components, functionality is within the traditional limits for motherboards based on Intel 915P. AOpen's four-phase processor power system is called V4 Power Engine and was previously a rare feature aimed at overclockers. Now this is a standard feature of almost all modern motherboards for the Intel platform.

The BIOS did not surprise us in any way, providing a standard set of overclocking functions typical for this chipset. Only the SilentTek fan and temperature control system and the aesthetic feature of the Vivid BIOS set the AOpen apart from most of its competitors.

ASUS P5GD1

ASUS P5GD1

Price – $125

Verdict

South Bridge ICH6R

IDE RAID Eat

PCI slots 3

DDR2 support No

FireWire No

LAN 10/100/1000 Mbps

Active northbridge cooling No

Good choice for maximum overclocking

Serious overclocking potential; extensive BIOS customization options; power system cooling

Modest functionality; passive cooling of the northbridge

As always, ASUS presents several products on one chipset, and this test includes the junior representative of the line of boards based on the Intel 915P. While ASUS uses black textolite for its top models, uses large double-layer packaging and introduces new solutions in the field of functionality and packaging, mid-range models remain typical workhorses without any decorations. Of the additional controllers, only IDE RAID on the ITE chip was noticed, and it is not at all superfluous. The main drawback of the standard board specifications on the Intel 915P is that it only has one IDE channel (no longer supports the ICH6/6R southbridge), so IDE RAID has become a popular addition to the typical component set. The power system elements on modern boards get very hot, and to solve the problem of cooling them, a powerful aluminum radiator has been added.

ASUS uses almost the same BIOS for the entire family of motherboards based on Intel 915/925 chipsets, and the set of settings is traditionally wide - the company is targeting enthusiasts who value maximum freedom in customizing their PC. In addition to the usual overclocker menu items like timings and voltages, there are two “turbo function” settings: Per-formance Mode and HyperPath 2, whose combined use provides a significant increase in performance. Excellent overclocking and the CPU Lock Free function allow us to recommend this board to enthusiasts.

ECS Elitegroup 915P-A

ECS Elitegroup 915P-A

Price –$88

Verdict

South Bridge ICH6

IDE RAID No

PCI slots 3+AGP Express

DDR2 support Eat

FireWire No

LAN 10/100/1000 Mbps

Active northbridge cooling No

An extremely successful board, and also inexpensive

High performance and overclocking potential; excellent expandability; low price

Minimum equipment; small selection of voltages in BIOSP

A pleasant discovery of this test was the product from ECS. The manufacturer, which has always been associated with the simplest and most inexpensive products, has radically revised its approach to the design and manufacture of motherboards. The older PF series is close in characteristics to the top boards of “expensive” brands (one of the models, ECS PF4 Extreme, already appeared on the pages of Home PC last December and received positive reviews), but mass-produced products deserve even more attention. Firstly, the ECS 915P-A surprises with its wide functionality: support for both types of memory (DDR and DDR2) and a special AGP Express slot for installing an existing video card will definitely please those who want to upgrade gradually. Secondly, the high quality of workmanship is even visually noticeable, which is not inferior to famous competitors.

The BIOS is unusually organized, but has (finally!) wide overclocking capabilities, including control of the main voltages. Moreover, the board turned out to be one of the most “overclockable” in the test: 255 MHz is a limitation of the BIOS, not the board itself, and using third-party software you can try to achieve even more. Let's add to the above good performance and the company's traditionally humane pricing policy - and we have the best purchase! ECS has made a truly excellent product, without any reservations.

EPoX EP-5EPA+

EPoX EP-5EPA+

Price – $135

Verdict

South Bridge ICH6R

IDE RAID Eat

PCI slots 4

DDR2 support No

FireWire Eat

LAN 10/100/1000

Active northbridge cooling No

A smartly equipped product, but not the best at overclocking

Great BIOS; the richest equipment; POST indicator

Low overclocking potential, despite all the efforts of the developers

We always expect pleasant surprises from EPoX motherboards: this manufacturer likes to pamper users with unusual solutions, and some functions are aimed at overclocking enthusiasts. Inspection of EPoX EP-5EPA+ should start with the delivery kit. In the box with the board there is a plastic bag with a promising inscription "Powerpack". Unique things are found inside: eight small aluminum radiators designed to cool high-heating elements of the power system; additional remote thermal sensor (connected to the motherboard, which is an extremely rare feature these days); a small neat set of screwdrivers (!), which will be useful not only when assembling the board. Also included are aerodynamic IDE cables. Additional functionality of the board is provided by the classic EPoX digital indicator of POST codes and IDE RAID on the ITE chip (two channels of two devices each). A very nice feature was as many as four PCI slots with two PCI Express x1 and one x16 - the correct balance of connectors.

The BIOS is great... Well, what else can you expect from EPoX, which is what has earned the love of overclockers? For example, a memory supply voltage of up to 3.3 V will satisfy even fans, and for beginners there is an auto-overclocking function. Therefore, we were very surprised and disappointed by the fact that the actual potential for increasing the FSB bus frequency on the board turned out to be small.

Fujitsu Siemens D1826-G

Fujitsu Siemens D1826-G

Price – $145

Verdict

South Bridge ICH6R

IDE RAID No

PCI slots 4

DDR2 support No

FireWire Eat

LAN 10/100/1000 Mbps

Active northbridge cooling No

A platform for supporters of the “set it, turn it on and forget it” approach

Highest quality workmanship; unique features; excellent instruction manual

Minimum settings in BIOS; lack of PS/2 and LPT; modest equipment

No other board can be confused with Fujitsu Siemens designs. The approach of the company's engineers is radically different from that usual for desktop models, more reminiscent of the design of serious professional products. Let's start with a visual inspection: the D1826-G is shocking in the absence of PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse, as well as LPT. It is probably assumed that consumers of Fujitsu Siemens equipment should not use outdated components. The quality of each component of the board and the product itself as a whole is perhaps the highest. The inscription in the corner of the RSV states that it was developed and assembled in Europe, which is very rare. There is a lot of free space on the blue PCB, since there are no additional controllers and the functionality is limited to the basic set.

The BIOS is borrowed from server motherboards and meets the ideology of “minimum settings – minimum problems.” There are not even memory timings, let alone overclocking functions: “Overclocking? What is that?” But there are several unique features, such as protecting the hard drive by setting a password, using a flash drive (Fujitsu Siemens MemoryBird only) as a hardware key to turn on the PC, and Silent Drive technology to reduce noise from hard drives. The board is suitable for those who treat a computer like a household appliance: “turn it on and forget it.” Enthusiasts are better off looking for other models.

Gigabyte GA-8GPNXP Duo

Gigabyte GA-8GPNXP Duo

Price – $220

Verdict

South Bridge ICH6R

IDE RAID Eat

PCI slots 3

DDR2 support Eat

FireWire Eat

LAN 10/100/1000+10/100/1000 Mbps

Active northbridge cooling Eat

The most sophisticated product

Ultimate functionality and configuration; good performance; eight-phase power supply; Wi-Fi adapter

Average overclocking potential; incompatibility of the D.P.S. module with large-sized coolers; very high price

The name Gigabyte is strongly associated with the most sophisticated motherboards that provide maximum functionality, but at the same time have average overclocking potential. The senior model in the Gigabyte product line based on the Intel 915P fully met our expectations.

One box couldn’t fit the powerful contents, so the GA-8GPNXP Duo uses double packaging. Belonging to the elite 8Sigma series obliges you to stand out from the crowd. Six memory slots (two DDR2 and four DDR), eight-phase (!) power supply for the U-Plus D.P.S. system, two integrated Gigabit Ethernet adapters, an additional cooler for the Cool-Plus north bridge, IDE RAID on the ITE controller and proprietary Dual BIOS - Gigabyte has succeeded hi-end product. The picture is completed by many accessories and a PCI Wi-Fi adapter included.

BIOS is “moderately overclocking”, without any unexpected findings. All timings, frequencies and multipliers are available for adjustment, and the voltage limits are as follows: for the processor - from 0.8375 V to 1.6 V, for RAM - from standard to +0.3 V, a similar maximum threshold for the rare PCI parameter -E Over-voltage Control. When you press Ctrl+F1 an additional item appears Top Performance, which slightly increases the speed of operation. The overclocking potential is average, but such boards, as a rule, are purchased to work with top processors, for which the 240 MHz bus frequency will already be higher than the capabilities of the core itself.

Gigabyte GA-8I915G-ZFD

Gigabyte GA-8I915G-ZFD

Price –$110

Verdict

South Bridge ICH6

IDE RAID No

PCI slots 1

DDR2 support Eat

FireWire Eat

LAN 10/100/1000

Active northbridge cooling No

The first sign of the BTXP standard

Progressivity of the new form factor

Incompatible with ATX cases

While preparing this material, our Test Laboratory received an unusual product - the Gigabyte GA-8I915G-ZFD motherboard of the PicoBTX standard. All the main characteristics meet our requirements for the participants in this test (however, the Intel 915G chipset is installed, which means the presence of a built-in GMA900 graphics core), so the acquaintance with the board takes place as part of general testing.

The PicoBTX form factor is the most compact of the new standards - the motherboard resembles those installed in barebone systems. The layout of the main components is completely different, as the BTX specifications suggest. Their placement creates an optimal path for air movement inside the case, and a minimum number of fans is used. Naturally, with this layout the board is not compatible with ATX cases. Today this is not a problem, since so far the product exists only in the form of pre-production samples.

With the exception of the new form factor, the GA-8I915G-ZFD is no different from its ATX counterparts, providing the same level of functionality and equipment.

Soltek SL-915P-G

Soltek SL-915P-G

Price – $115

Verdict

South Bridge ICH6

IDE RAID No

PCI slots 2

DDR2 support No

FireWire No

LAN 10/100/1000 Mbps

Active northbridge cooling No

Typical workhorse

Low price; good set of software included

Only a minimal set of functions; all indicators are at an average level

The Soltek company became famous several years ago with the excellent SL-75KAV board for the first Athlon for Socket A. A brand that was practically unknown until that time suddenly became popular among all - one legendary board provided it with a “margin of safety” for a long time. The company has been experimenting with design for a long time, using different color schemes for decoration, but from the point of view of an enthusiast, Soltek products are strong middling.

Actually, in almost all respects the Soltek SL-915P-G fits this definition. The design of the branded box has not changed for several years, the equipment is minimally necessary, without any frills, except that a good selection of software is included. A black PCB with purple plastic parts houses a gentleman's set of Intel 915P chipset: one IDE channel and four Serial ATA ports, many audio connectors on the rear panel (including SPDIF-In/Out) and a Gigabit Ethernet adapter. The BIOS is in complete harmony with the general specifics, offering completely typical overclocker functionality. True, the arrangement of menu items in BIOS Setup is somewhat unusual and in some ways not as convenient as the traditional one. The real overclocking potential is sufficient for most users, but enthusiasts will want more, so we classify the Soltek SL-915P-G as a workhorse.

How did we test?

The difference in the performance of motherboards on the same chipsets, with rare exceptions, is noticeable only in those applications for which the performance of the memory subsystem is critical. But in most cases their influence is minimal, which was confirmed in this testing: hardly anyone will be interested in knowing that all boards showed a result of 38 seconds in the SuperPi test. Therefore, to study the efficiency of the memory subsystem, we chose the appropriate tool - the Memory Benchmark test from the SiSoft Sandra package. For greater accuracy, it was carried out five times, and the result was averaged.

The overclocking potential was checked in this way: in 5 MHz steps, the maximum frequency was found at which the Lobby High Detail test from the 3DMark2001 SE package stably (ten times cycle) passed. In this case, the processor frequency multiplier was set to the minimum (14X), and to completely guarantee the absence of a “bottleneck” in the memory operating frequency, a reduction factor FSB: DDR was used (i.e. DDR333 with FSB800). A set of two G.SKILL DDR400 2-6-3-3 modules was used as RAM. The specified timings are stitched into the SPD of these modules, which made it possible to put the board from Fujitsu Siemens (without the ability to control timings) on an equal footing with other participants.

Getting to know BTX

BTX (Balanced Technology Extended) technology is a new specification of the PC form factor, which primarily affects components such as motherboards, cases, power supplies and cooling systems. The standard is designed to correct all the existing shortcomings of the usual ATX. Modern computing systems must not only integrate the latest high-performance technologies, but also meet increasingly stringent requirements for temperature, power consumption, durability, acoustic parameters and electromagnetic compatibility.

The ATX form factor was developed quite a long time ago, when the parameters listed above were far from modern standards. Thus, a number of problems have arisen specifically related to the design of PC components. The BTX specification provides new possibilities for planning desktop PCs - from small and compact systems to very large, expandable systems. In addition, BTX is optimized to support the latest desktop technologies, including PCI Express and Serial ATA specifications.

The BTX standard, which regulates desktop form factors, is the latest innovation in this area, designed to solve the various challenges that developers face, including those related to choosing the optimal combination of size, performance, features and price. This standard helps them expand the scope and increase the life cycle of various industrial solutions used to create a variety of products.

The BTX specification also allows for a large number of innovative technologies in desktop PCs. The key benefits of BTX are: support for low-profile designs that provide the necessary free space around the motherboard elements and more convenient installation of expansion components in systems with thin cases and compact form factors; optimization of the air flow path due to a more rational layout of the motherboard elements, which improves the cooling of the entire system (and the use of higher-quality fans by developers will allow them to get by with fewer of them, which will further improve the acoustic parameters and reduce the dimensions); varying the size of motherboards (flexible options for choosing motherboards allow developers to use the same components to create systems of various sizes and configurations - ultra-compact PCs can use smaller and more efficient power supplies; full-size cases use standard ATX 12 V power supplies ); optimized board mounting mechanism and improved mounting hole placement (the mechanical characteristics of motherboards of the new form factor provide sufficient strength to attach heavy elements, such as heat sinks, and thanks to a more robust design, such heavy elements do not deform the motherboard or damage its elements and contacts during transportation ).

Our regular readers already know that this month, deliveries of motherboards based on the i915PL and i915GL chipsets, which Intel released specifically for the budget market, will begin. The main difference between the chipsets and their predecessors is the lack of support for DDR2-533 memory. In addition, the new series of chipsets will have an attractive price, which will make it possible to create inexpensive motherboards for LGA 775 processors based on them.

Although customers may believe that the chipsets were released under pressure from motherboard manufacturers who did not consider the i915P and i915G attractive products or DDR-II memory in demand by the market, in reality Intel had other motives. With the help of these chipsets, she is going to promote the transition to the LGA 775 platform, because by the middle of this year, supplies of Socket 478 processors will begin to wind down, and the i865x series chipsets will be discontinued.

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However, end buyers are unlikely to refuse inexpensive boards that support LGA 775 processors and video cards with PCI Express x16 interface. Another thing is that the i915x series chipsets have mediocre adaptation to overclocking, but a competent motherboard manufacturer can eliminate this drawback, and a trained overclocker can “develop success.”

Today we would like to introduce you to a traditionally detailed review on the HKE PC website, dedicated to studying the properties of the i915PL and i915GL chipsets in general, and the motherboard ASRock P4Dual-915GL in particular. First of all, let's look at the characteristics of the new chipsets and their differences from their predecessors.