BIOS, System Setup, notes, issues
The BIOS supplied on this motherboard is supplied by AMI, and isn’t the most tweakable bios I've ever used. the only performance tweak is the ability to adjust the memory timings and speed. For all of my tests the Memory is running DDR333 at the strictest timings, i.e. CAS 2 Ultra timings 1T. I was impressed with it's stability at such timings.
The system front-side-bus can be changed from 100FSB to 133FSB in the bios for "A" or "B" chips.
CPU voltage cannot be changed from default.
DDR voltage cannot be changed from default.
The usual hardware monitoring options are present.
Here's a quick rundown of the test systems should you wish to compare benchmark results with your own.
Intel Pentium 4 2533MHz S478 Northwood CPU
Intel DB845GEV2 i845GE run in DDR333 mode
Shuttle SS51G run in DDR333 mode.
Common components
Creative Labs GeForce4 Ti 4600 128MB at stock speeds (300/660)
512MB Samsung pc2700 C2.5 run at 2-5-2-2 at DDR333
80GB Seagate Barracuda ATA100 Hard Drive.
Pioneer 104 DVD-RW
Antec 400w PSU
19" Compaq MV920 monitor
Software
Windows XP Professional Build 2600.xpclient.010817-1148
Intel 4.00.109 chipset drivers
Detonator XP 40.72 drivers
Sisoft Sandra 2002 Professional SP1
Pifast v41
Lame v3.91 MP3 encoding with Razor-Lame 1.15 front-end
Virtual Dub 1.4.10 DVD encoding, Diva 4.12 CODEC
3DMark 2001SE
Comanche 4 benchmark
Serious Sam 2 Demo
Quake 3 v1.30
Code Creatures Benchmark
PCmark 2002
UT2003 Demo
Notes
I'm running the memory at DDR333 at strictest timings in both cases.
All benchmarks run with sound disabled, with onboard and GF4.
Stability
Neither system had any problems with stability.
Issues
I experienced nothing untoward with either system.
Overclocking
There are no overclocking options on the Intel board, so all benchmarks run stock speed on both CPU and Graphics.
