P4SDX

[Feldenak]

Has anyone heard anything more about this board? I've seen a couple of reviews and it looks like an interesting board. None of the usual suspects (newegg, googlegear, etc..) have it in their inventory and I was wondering if anyone knew anything more about it.

 

[EndGame]

Last I heard it'll be late Feb./early march but who knows.

OTOH, NewEgg does have the Gigabyte 8sQ800 SiS 655 boards in stock for $112...............or at least they did a few hours ago!

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: EndGame
Last I heard it'll be late Feb./early march but who knows.

OTOH, NewEgg does have the Gigabyte 8sQ800 SiS 655 boards in stock for $112...............or at least they did a few hours ago!

Yeah, and I'm thinking hard about getting that board.

I was also thinking about the Ultra2 version of that board but I don't see anything on it to justify an additional $118

 

[Yozza]

The Asus seems mediocre. No AGP/PCI lock, FSB frequency adjustments only go upto 166MHz.

 

[ToBeMe]

Originally posted by: Yozza
The Asus seems mediocre. No AGP/PCI lock, FSB frequency adjustments only go upto 166MHz.

Well, not 100% positive if shipping produt will include both, but, it seems that those specs were taken from a board which was not the finished, shipping product.

Don't write off the Asus boards yet as several reviews have said it was one heck of a stable board compared to others and one review which claims to have a finished product working P4SDX claims the O/C'ing was great and well beyond 166.

 

[Yozza]

Indeed, early days yet, though Asus has never really made an overclocker-friendly SIS board with features like PCI/AGP lock.

Here's a relatively thorough review from AMD3D. They only achieved 160MHz FSB with stability, and report that

There have been some reports that SiS 655 boards aren't that great for overclocking ... with some sites only able to overclock to 158Mhz max. I was blessed with a review sample that could do 166Mhz. The only thing was it was unstable and most 3D benchmarks would not complete. I had to clock it down to 160FSB before it was stable enough. The funny thing is ... all tests using Sandra 2003 were ok at 166FSB.

It would also depend on whether one is running 1:1, 4:5, or 3:4 memory ratio, as indicated HERE by a guy with a new Gigabyte SINXP1394. (166MHz 1:1, 149MHz at 3:4, whereas same CPU got upto 195MHz on a P4G8X).

It'll be interesting to see how SiS655 boards do, given their very attractive prices; but I do not feel that they will be the best choice for overclocking consistenly beyond 165MHz, at least based on current information.

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: Yozza
The Asus seems mediocre. No AGP/PCI lock, FSB frequency adjustments only go upto 166MHz.

Circumstantial evidence suggests neither are true. There's a DIP block onboard that lists 200MHz fsb as an option. Asus website lists AGP/PCI lock as a feature if you care about such things.

 

[cmdrdredd]

if it can go to 155Mhz then I'm fine. My current limit with my CPU is 155Mhz for stability. My next CPU (2.8Ghz P4) will be running fine at 155Mhz methinks...anyone think 3.2Ghz is fast enough?

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Yozza
Indeed, early days yet, though Asus has never really made an overclocker-friendly SIS board with features like PCI/AGP lock.

Here's a relatively thorough review from AMD3D. They only achieved 160MHz FSB with stability, and report that

There have been some reports that SiS 655 boards aren't that great for overclocking ... with some sites only able to overclock to 158Mhz max. I was blessed with a review sample that could do 166Mhz. The only thing was it was unstable and most 3D benchmarks would not complete. I had to clock it down to 160FSB before it was stable enough. The funny thing is ... all tests using Sandra 2003 were ok at 166FSB.

It would also depend on whether one is running 1:1, 4:5, or 3:4 memory ratio, as indicated HERE by a guy with a new Gigabyte SINXP1394. (166MHz 1:1, 149MHz at 3:4, whereas same CPU got upto 195MHz on a P4G8X).

It'll be interesting to see how SiS655 boards do, given their very attractive prices; but I do not feel that they will be the best choice for overclocking consistenly beyond 165MHz, at least based on current information.

149Mhz FSB at 3:4 = DDR400 anyway right?

 

[cmdrdredd]

I personally like MSI's board better anyway, but I'm having a hard time waiting

 

[cmdrdredd]

hrm...if you go here No Memory Ratios

you will see that what that guy says about 3:4 ratio etc is a load a bull

Clearly the screenshots of the BIOS screen tell you that you can select DDR200/266/333/400/540 etc and there is no option for a ratio of 3:4 or 4:5 at any FSB.

SO that means your memory controller locks itself at your setting and the FSB is entirely CPU clocking.

 

[Yozza]

I think those are just the corresponding memory frequencyes for various ratios at the default FSB. If you compare the Gigabyte BIOS screen with MSI's, the ratios are the same, but Gigabyte's shows the effective memory frequency instead of the actual ratio.

The Gigabyte boards do look quite nice, and are available already

 

[cmdrdredd]

perhaps, and like I said why would 155Mhz FSB be slow for my 2.8? heck I'll take 150 at dual DDR400