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Intel
and VIA
are entangled in a nasty legal battle, and because of
this,
VIA's P4X266 Pentium 4 chipset
has been surrounded by much controversy. Intel is
trying to stop the distribution of the P4X266 because they
claim VIA is not licensed to use some of their technology,
while VIA alleges all of the licenses they need to
manufacture this chipset were obtained when they purchased
S3. All of the legal matters surrounding VIA's
chipset have prevented some manufacturers from embracing
the P4X266.
Dave took a look at a P4X266 board from Shuttle a few
weeks back, but other than the Shuttle AV40 we haven't
heard of too many other boards that were outfitted with
the P4X266.
Things are starting to change
now though. The legal matters are ongoing, but Tyan has
announced they will be releasing a P4X266 based board, VIA
themselves are selling motherboards and two more players
have already released P4X266 based motherboards,
ECS
and AZZA.
In this review we'll be comparing ECS's P4XVAD and Azza's
P4X2-AV. Both of these boards offer similar features
at a very low price. As of today the ECS board can
be found for around $75 US, while the Azza board hovers
around $90. Let's start the comparison and see what
we find out...
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| Specifications / Features of
the ECS P4VXAD and Azza P4X2-AV |
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Fully Loaded... |
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Click any Image for an
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ECS
Chipset:
-
(North)
VIA P4X266
-
Support
Pentium 4 System bus
-
Support
DDR 200 / 266 SDRAM
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(South)
VIA VT8233
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Built in
high bandwidth 266MB/S
Processor:
Expansion Slot:
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Support
external AGP V2.0 compliant VGA device
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Support
1X, 2X, 4X AGP data transfer
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5 x PCI
slots
Onboard Audio:
Memory:
On board IDE Controller:
Back Panel:
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2 Serial
Ports
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1 Parallel
Port (SPP, EPP, ECP)
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1 PS/2
Keyboard Port
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1 PS/2
Mouse Port
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2 USB
Ports
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1x Game /
MIDI Port
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1x Line
in, 1x Line out, 1x Mic
Connectors:
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1 x ATX
power connector
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2 X IDE
connectors
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1 x Floppy
BIOS:
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Stored in
2 Mb flash memory
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CPU 100 /
133MHz FSB setting
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BIOS FSB
step-less setting from 100MHz to 133MHz
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Bootable
from Floppy, ATAPI device, USB device, SCSI device
AZZA
Chipset:
- (North) VIA P4X266
- Support Pentium 4 System
bus
- Support DDR 200 / 266
SDRAM
- (South) VIA VT8233
- Built in high bandwidth
266MB/S
Processor:
- Intel Pentium 4 in the
478 pin package
Expansion Slot:
- Support external AGP
V2.0 compliant VGA device
- Support 1X, 2X, 4X AGP
data transfer
- 6 x PCI slots
Onboard Audio:
- VIA AC'97 2.1 compliant
CODEC
Memory:
On
board IDE Controller:
- 2 x UltraDMA/100 Bus
Master IDE
- 80-pin Cable Backward
Compatible Legacy ATAPI Devices
Back
Panel:
- 2 Serial Ports
- 1 Parallel Port (SPP,
EPP, ECP)
- 1 PS/2 Keyboard Port
- 1 PS/2 Mouse Port
- 2 USB Ports
- 1x Game / MIDI Port
- 1x Line in, 1x Line out,
1x Mic
Connectors:
- 1 x ATX power connector
- 1 x 4 pin 12V ATX power
connector
- 1 x 6 pin 5V / 3.3V ATX
power connector
- 2 X IDE connectors
- 1 x Floppy
BIOS:
- Stored in 2 Mb flash
memory
- CPU 100 / 133MHz FSB
setting
- BIOS FSB step-less
setting from 100MHz to 133MHz with 1 MHz increment
- Bootable from Floppy,
ATAPI device, USB device, SCSI device
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THE BUNDLES:
The ECS
P4VXAD came with what we consider a "standard" bundle.
Inside the box, we found an 80-Wire UDMA/100 IDE
cable, a standard Floppy cable and a CD containing all
of the necessary drivers to get the board up and running.
Our package did not have a complete user's manual (a
single page outlining the case header was provided),
but boards in the retail channel should have a full
manual.
Our findings when we
opened the Azza P4X2-AV's box were similar. The
same cables, and a similar driver CD were included,
but our Azza board did have a complete user's manual.
We would have liked to
have seen both ECS and Azza include the hardware
necessary to take advantage of the extra on-board USB
headers and perhaps another IDE cable. As it
stands now, both companies provided just enough to
get their products up and running.
INSTALLATIONS:
Installation of the ECS P4VXAD was very easy. We
did not experience any "issues" and were able to
connect our hardware and have the board up and running
within minutes. We did encounter a few problems
with the Azza P4X2 though...
Initially,
we could not get our P4X2 to post. We cleared
the CMOS, tried multiple brands of memory, different
video cards and power supplies, but nothing worked.
I then removed the board and took it over to Dave's
test bench and using his power supply with the same
hardware that initially wouldn't work, the board
posted. I then brought it back to my station,
and using one of the power supplies that didn't work
initially, everything still functioned properly.
We never did narrow down the exact cause of our
problem, it could have been an oversight on my part,
but nonetheless I felt the need to report our
experience.
Out
troubles didn't stop there with the Azza P4X2 though.
Before we installed Windows 2000, we adjusted the BIOS
so both boards were configured similarly. We
used some Crucial memory set to CAS 2, 1T with 4-Way
Interleaving, but Windows 2000 would not install
completely. We would get about half way through
the installation, and it would get stuck in a loop.
We lowered the memory timings, and Windows 2000 then
installed properly. We then set the memory back
to the more aggressive timings and Windows 2000
continued to run properly and the board remained
stable throughout testing...strange...only the
installation had a problem.
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| The
BIOSes, Layouts and Quality
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