System setup and notes
Here's a quick rundown of the test system should you wish to compare benchmark results with your own.
- Intel Pentium4 2800MHz S478 Northwood CPU
- VIA P4B ULTRA P4X400 MOTHERBOARD (IN DDR333 MODE)
- Gigabyte 8IHXP i850E (PC1066 16-bit RDRAM)
- MSI 648 MAX SiS648 motherboard run in DDR333 mode
- ABIT IT7MAX2 v2 i845PE motherboard run in DDR333 mode
- DFI NB80EA E7205 GRANITE BAY motherboard in dual-channel DDR266 mode
Common components
- ATi Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB (324/620)
- 256MB Corsair XMS3200 C2 run at strictest timings at DDR333 mode for tall DDR-based motherboards. (another 256MB for the DFI dual-channel motherboard)
- 256MB PC1066 (16-bit) RAMBUS for the i850E
- WD 120GB 120JB hard drive.
- Samsung 181T TFT
- Alpha 8942 with 80mm Delta fan @ 7v or Thermaltake cooler
Software
- Windows XP Professional Build 2600.xpclient.010817-1148
- Intel 4.00.109 chipset drivers
- Intel application accelerator drivers
- VIA 4.45 support pack
- Plutonium XP 8.1 Radeon Drivers (based on ATI CATALYST build 6166)
- Pifast v41
- Lame v3.91 MP3 encoding with Razor-Lame 1.15 front-end using U2's Pop album
- Virtual Dub 1.4.10 DVD encoding, DivX 4.12 CODEC
- SETI benchmark
- 3DMark 2001SE
- UT2003 Demo
- Comanche 4 benchmark
- Serious Sam 2 Demo
- Quake 3 v1.30
Notes
Like most single-channel DDR-based P4 motherboards, running system memory asynchronously at DDR400 with the CPU set to 133FSB resulted in performance below DDR333 levels. Although we have more theoretical bandwidth, we simply cannot achieve the same memory timings.
The P4X400 chipset boasts 8x AGP support. With a Radeon 9700 Pro recruited for graphics' duties, I was eager to find if it would work. With 8x AGP shown in BIOS, and decent performances in texture-heavy benchmarks, maybe there is a place for it in today's systems.
Stability was excellent throughout testing. Leaving it to DivX or run SETI for hours resulted in total stability. Not a single crash in 14 hours+, even with strict memory timings and differing brands of memory used.
What I don't like is how some manufacturers used an inflated clock generator to artificially boost benchmark speeds. VIA are extremely guilty on this count with the P4B Ultra. Setting it to 133FSB in BIOS we get a Windows' speed of 134.91FSB - giving us a running speed of 2833.08MHz on our test 2800MHz CPU. With respect to the other tested motherboards, here is how it stands on a pure MHz count.
2833MHz - P4B P4X400
2812MHz - DFI NB80EA
2812MHz - MSI SiS648
2806MHz - Gigabyte i850E
2803MHz - ABIT i845PE
Please, please bear these speeds in mind when you compare benchmarks.
Anyway, on to the benchmarks.
