Intel’s DDR-based Motherboard

This ATX motherboard is based on the D845GE chipset and supports DDR-333 memory, which gives slightly better performance than the older 266 MHz version. Audio is provided by an integrated SoundMax Cadenza AC97 codec. The chipset also has Intel’s new graphics core called Extreme Graphics, which can do some basic 3D. For better graphics performance, it has a 4x AGP slot to accommodate graphics

cards. Since Intel has moved onto 533 MHz FSB processors (like the P4 2.8 GHz), all new chipsets support this FSB setting in addition to the original 400 MHz. Other useful features include support for a maximum of 2 GB memory and USB 2.0. On the flip side, this board isn’t an overclocker’s delight, as the chipset does not support it, unlike other P4 motherboard like the Asus P4T-533C. The board can support up to six USB ports, has six PCI slots, and has onboard LAN.

We tested the motherboard with a P4 2.8 GHz, 256 MB DDR-333, Samsung SP4002H HDD and a GeForce2 GTS display card. The results are slightly mixed. In Content Creation Winstone 2001, while the motherboard performed better than the Asus P4T-533C tested earlier, it was a little slow compared to our SiS 648-based motherboard running on a similar configuration. 3D

performance was slightly lower compared to both hese boards, but quite good overall.

The bottom line: As always, while purchasing a motherboard the deciding factors are usually features and price, since the performance difference between motherboards of similar specs is not very wide. Overall, this is a good option for those who want to stay away from the more expensive P4 with RDRAM based

boards

Anuj Jain at PCQ Labs