Conclusion
The VIA P4B Ultra appears to a capable motherboard in most respects. It's presented in an immaculate fashion - the first one I've personally seen ship with rounded cables as standard. Add to that the external card reader panel, 4-port USB 2.0 bracket, S/PDIF bracket, well-written manuals and decent software, and you quickly see that it's squarely aimed at the premium sector.
The layout is acceptable considering the number of ICs integrated, However, I would have personally liked to have seen Firewire support instead of the extra USB ports on offer. It all works well enough too. The BIOS is a little disappointing if you're an enthusiast. The limited Vcore on offer (+/- 0.1v) will not satiate the users that want to push their hardware to any degree. Considering the under-volting nature of P4-based motherboards we can only got a maximum of around 1.55v on our test 2.8GHz CPU. Memory adjustment is a little better - up to 2.8v. The motherboard seemed to work best when running system memory at DDR333 speeds.
Performance-wise, I have to criticise VIA's super-inflated FSB when we select the default 133FSB. We've seen other motherboards in the past try to steal a benchmarking march on each other by running the 2800MHz CPU a little faster than absolute stock. The worst case up until now had been 2812MHz. The P4B Ultra runs it at 2833MHz, thereby skewing benchmarks in its favour. The newest VIA Hyperion drivers bring overall gaming performances up to the level of the i845PE and SiS648 chipsets'. Even though our 3.06GHz P4 CPU review showed that the Hyper-threaded CPU only made tangible gains in certain conditions, the fact that this motherboard does not natively support it's HT feature must count against it from a future-proofing perspective.
The P4B Ultra is a feature-rich, stable motherboard. The troubling aspect is that many others from differing chipsets can offer the same number of features and stability with a greater deal of availability. A better BIOS from enthusiasts' point of view, Firewire support and widespread availability would have made this motherboard into an attractive proposition. As it is it's just above average.
Highs
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Superbly presented
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Stable through intensive testing
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Well featured with brackets that maximise its potential
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Performed well with the newest VIA drivers
Lows
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Doesn't stand out from the crowd - a lot of other decent boards out there
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I personally don't like the inflated FSB.
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BIOS voltage adjustment isn't great.
Overall rating - 8/10.
