VIA P4PA-UL P4X266A Motherboard

Performance conclusion

We feel that the VIA P4X266A P4PA's performance certainly entitles it to be considered as a viable option when choosing a P4 motherboard. Its surprisingly adjustable BIOS allows one to get the most out of the chipset. The original VIA P4X266 was competitive in the performance stakes but times have moved on. The enhanced memory controller and deepened queues mean that its performance is at least on a par with that of the Intel I845D, often eclipsing it by the smallest of margins.

Understandably, the P4PA is not able to keep parity with either the SiS 645 and Intel's own I850 chipsets. This is to be expected as they natively run faster memory subsystems in PC2700 and RAMBUS respectively. The difference, however, is limited to 5% in the worst case scenario. We've always respected and admired VIA's KT266A chipset, the P4X266A follows in a similar vein, as it posted extremely solid benchmarks in our gamut of tests.

Conclusion

The VIA P4PA will undoubtedly please many people. It arrives chock-full of features. The only downside to the excellent VT6202 driven USB 2.0 is that limits the absolute number of USB ports on the P4PA. Still, having USB 2.0 is a definite plus in our eyes. We also see onboard ethernet and ATA133 IDE, again, welcome inclusions. These 3 features make the P4PA a motherboard you should seriously consider if you're interested in an all-encompassing motherboard.

The BIOS is extremely solid, giving up to an almost unprecedented 1.85v Vcore for Northwood processors (1.5v by default) without the need for any kind of modification. Our one concern is our test 'board's apparent inability to run at 133FSB irrespective of the settings we applied. The P4X266A chipset is reputed to support the new Northwood B processors, so it came as something of a disappointment that we were only able to run at a maximum FSB of 128MHz, perhaps a BIOS update will cure this, we wait and see.

Our main reservation in recommending the VIA P4PA lies with VIA themselves. As yet, VIA's position with respect to P4 motherboard manufacturing is at best unclear. To VIA's credit, they remain undeterred and fully behind their P4 motherboards. Our benchmarking has shown that the VIA P4PA is probably the best performing DDR266 equipped P4 motherboard available at the moment.

I personally like the P4PA. It has the additional features that I feel are slowly becoming the norm rather than the exception. Voltage manipulation is excellent, and performance at stock speeds is admirable. A worthwhile addition to the P4 motherboard ranks. We've no concrete word on price but expect it to retail at around £110. Final words ?, an extremely solid, feature rich and competitive motherboard from a reputed chipset maker.

Highs