Sis 648 vs. 845E/G---Which way to go?

[Doh!]

I'm shopping for a new MB. Recently, I saw some benchmarks on Sis 648 and was impressed by its performance. Is choosing Sis 648-based MB over 845E or 845G a better decision in terms of performance & features (also overclocking capability).

 

[Sunny129]

i would say that the feature set of the SiS 648 is more enticing than that of the 845E or 845G..of course it all depends on the 3rd party manufacturer as to which chip features will be implemented in their board. you'll find that, as rich as the SiS 648 feature set may be, ABit decided to only implement a handful of those features on their SR7-8X, leaving out the IEEE1394 firewire ports and serial ATA ports that the SiS 648 chipset natively supports. so this board doesn't exploit the SiS 648 chipset much at all, leaving out features that may be important to alot of end users. the ASUS P4S8X however, makes use of these two features, in addition to all the features implemented into the ABit SR7-8X. the only downside to the P4S8X is the existance of only one serial ATA connector on the board (from what i hear, most boards that are going to (or already do) implement a serial ATA controller have two connectors onboard). the P4S8X also lacks an AGP/PCI bus lock (the SR7-8X does include this in the BIOS). of course that's not a chipset issue, but rather a BIOS issue. either way, it is an important feature to just about any OCer, and i'm hoping for a BIOS revision that will include such a feature.

i can't tell you much about i845X chipsets b/c i have been keeping my eye mostly on the SiS 648. it is too soon to tell which is a better chipset when factoring in stability, reliability, OCability, performance, features, etc. b/c only 3 SiS 648 boards have been released thus far. there are several i845E's alone, and many 845G's are to come. it ultimately depends on what boardmaker implements what features.

i personally, am waiting for the release of a few more SiS 648 boards to see if feature and memory support improves as the chipset matures...

 

[IntelConvert]

Well put Sunny... SiS648 outperforms the i845E/G using PC2700, and as you mentioned, it's feature-set is much better! But be aware that the first review of the Asus P4S8X found that the board was unstable when using PC3200! For more on this, check out my post in this thread.

 

[VSEKH]

I agree with Sunny and IntelConvert. Look towards a mobo with the SIS648 chipset instead of the Intel 845E/G mobos for performance and feature. If you are looking to use PC3200 memory, wait for the SIS648DX chipset as this chipset will officially support DDR400 memory.

 

[Sevenhunt]

Try the 845g in the asus or epox, probably your best bet/

 

[Sunny129]

Originally posted by: Sevenhunt
Try the 845g in the asus or epox, probably your best bet/

i wish more people would back their opinions. and i'm not saying this b/c i don't think the 845E/G holds a candle to the SiS 648, rather b/c if no promising SiS 648 boards hit the shelves soon, then the 845E/G may be the road i take. i would like to know more about the chipset as far as how it compares to the SiS 648. i already know that the SiS 648 out-features the 845E/G, but what about performance bandwidth, OCability, and things like that?

 

[Sevenhunt]

i wish more people would back their opinions. and i'm not saying this b/c i don't think the 845E/G holds a candle to the SiS 648, rather b/c if no promising SiS 648 boards hit the shelves soon, then the 845E/G may be the road i take. i would like to know more about the chipset as far as how it compares to the SiS 648. i already know that the SiS 648 out-features the 845E/G, but what about performance bandwidth, OCability, and things like that?

Sorry you`re right.

A few words from several reviews:

the 845G has what it takes to become a star. With an improved memory interface compared to all its predecessors in the 845 series, our tests show that the top contenders just manage to outperform 850E boards with Rambus PC800. Using optimal configuration settings, the 845G chipset, in combination with DDR333 (CL2), positions itself between the Intel 850E with PC800 memory (RDRAM, 400 MHz) and PC1066 memory (RDRAM, 533 MHz)

In a few preliminary tests, we were able to determine that the Intel 845G chipset offered the best DDR performance for the P4. The reason for this is that the Intel 845G is equipped with the most powerful memory interface, which unofficially (or from our point of view, officially) enables support for DDR333 (CL2).

And I have better exp with it myself.
I`m not a wizz on the techspecs, but my experience is that @ exactly the same comps 1 with the EPOX 4G4A+ ( i845G) and 1 with sis 648, the first was faster, didn`t block at all vs 2 blocks in 1 week for the other and oclocking had no probs at all.

 

[Techxan]

Supern00b here,
I came across this pdf from Shuttle on their SiS648 mobo offering: Shuttle SiS648 Mobo

As a supern00b, I like the feature set of the shuttle board but I dont know if I am going to do any OC'ing at first but I have read on other boards that the Shuttle can be OC'd. Can anyone clarify if Shuttle is a good mobo or not?

I see that Asus and Abit are offering a SiS648 mobo but dont keep the features that the shuttle does : 2 Serial ATA connectors and Firewire ports as well as the 6 channel sound with SPIDF out (which I can use for my mini-disc).

Anyway I said, I am new to this and I am going to wait to see what shakes out in the next month or so before plonking down some cash for this mobo.

 

[IntelConvert]

I don't see any material difference in the feature-sets of Shuttle's AS45GTR and Asus' P4S8X. The Asus board is due to be shipped next week, but I don't think the Shuttle will be out until the end of the month (at the very earliest). IMHO Asus makes higher quality (therefore more expensive) boards!

 

[dbett]

Originally posted by: Sevenhunt

And I have better exp with it myself.
I`m not a wizz on the techspecs, but my experience is that @ exactly the same comps 1 with the EPOX 4G4A+ ( i845G) and 1 with sis 648, the first was faster, didn`t block at all vs 2 blocks in 1 week for the other and oclocking had no probs at all.

How did you get access to a 648 board (and which one)?

 

[Sunny129]

i was also looking at Shuttle's AS45GT/R, but decided against it. the board may OC, but not well. and i got this information from Anandtech's own mobo reviewer. it says this in a thread i posted a few weeks back. i would quote it, but i don't have time to find it right now...perhaps tonight when i get home...

as far quality and stability, ASUS for sure tops the market...and is therefore the most expensive in most cases...