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| The Asus P4B |
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A closer look |
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 There are a few interesting notables with
respect to the Asus P4B. This board also, like the MSI
845Pro2-R, has 6 PCI
slots for great expansion potential. What is
surprising and disappointing to us here at HotHardware, is
that we have yet to see even one i850 based board with 6 PCI
slots, with 5 being the default configuration. Yet,
both of the first two i845 boards we have seen have 6.
We hope this is a trend.
Asus also goes
the extra mile with pack-in features. This time, in
addition to the additional USB header, they have included an
SPDIF output connector and header for full digital output.
If you intend to have your computer sit next to your TV, not
only can you game on the big screen, with a Graphics card that
has TV-Out, but you can also have full Dolby Digital Sound
while playing DVDs and using the on board audio of the P4B.
As you can see,
both of these so called "value" oriented boards have a
wealth of expandability and features, the likes of which you
typically don't see in the low end price segment. Our
hats off to both Asus and MSI for including the tools
required to take full advantage of the i845 chipset's
capabilities.
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| The Setup and BIOS - The MSI
845Pro2-R and Asus P4B |
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Underneath the hoods |
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Both boards have
a fair amount of configurability in the BIOS and incorporate
a "software" CPU setup. Let's have a look at the MSI
845Pro2-R's setup.
MSI
845Pro2-R BIOS
From left to right: CPU Clocking, SDRAM Timing,
Voltage Adjust and Integrated Peripherals
Although bus
speed setting in 1MHz. increments are available, with the
845Pro2-R, things top out at 132MHz. This may or may
not prove limiting in the area of overclocking for some
folks. Let's face it, if you were to set a stock 1.5G
Pentium 4 up at 132MHz. FSB, that would be a total of
1980MHz., a speed that we have seen no 1.5G P4 ever hit in
the lab. So, in short, 132MHz. top end FSB settings
are most likely all you'll ever need. That is, unless
you have an unlocked engineering sample CPU that we
typically get here in the lab for testing.
Asus P4B
BIOS
From left to right:
CPU Clocking, Memory Ratio, SDRAM Timing, Voltage Adjust and
Integrated Peripherals
The P4B has a
little bit more room to play within its BIOS. It has
a top end FSB setting of 200MHz. and a Memory Ratio setting
that allows you to set the memory clock synchronously at a
1:1 ratio or asynchronously at 3:4. This will tone
down the memory settings quite a bit if you are running high
FSB speeds. But then again, are FSB speeds in the 150MHz.+
range, really useful for the P4? Most likely they're
not. Again, only if you have an unlocked CPU (which
doesn't exist in the retail or OEM channel), will you be
able to back down the multiplier, so that your overall CPU
speed isn't way over the top. We did manage to play
around with our engineering sample 2GHz. Socket 478 CPU with
both of these two board.
That brings us
to our next section.
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| Overclocking The Asus P4B and
MSI 845Pro2-R |
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It's in there |
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We won't spend
much time in this section, since frankly we didn't get a
chance to dig in too deeply with these boards with respect
to overclocking. However, we were able to take some
preliminary measurements in ability and stability, while
running these boards and the CPU that drives them, out of
spec.
Both boards
exhibited excellent stability while overclocking one of our
2GHz. processors in the lab. In fact, the peak
performance we achieved in our efforts, with either board
was 2.24GHz. This is really a function of the CPU more
than anything. At 240MHz. over stock speed, it is at its
outer limit. However, we would have to tip our hat to
the Asus P4B for its wider range of options in overclocking
with a higher FSB settings all the way up to a theoretical 200MHz.
and the ability to set the memory clock ratio and keep
memory timings within reasonable tolerances.
Let's stop tap
dancing around the subject... How do these two SDRAM
powered P4 boards really perform versus a RDRAM setup or an
Athlon with DDR? That's what you most likely came here
for and that's what we'll aim to deliver in the following
pages.
Testing and Head To Head Comparisons
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