The Official Granite Bay Review Thread

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TheCoz

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Oct 24, 2002
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Since there's going to be plenty of Granite Bay reviews published today I thought it best to have a single thread in which to post links and thoughts etc.

So far we only have two reviews...........

MSI GNB Max (Granite Bay) Motherboard Review @TBreak

Asus P4G8X Review @ OCWorkBench

Please everybody, add more links as they become available but post the previous links alongside the new ones so we don't have to search through the whole thread for links, mm-kay?

Thoughts so far? Well, as expected it's stock performance level is almost identical (but a little behind) to an i850E/PC1066 combo. If you don't plan on overclocking then go for a cheaper i845PE setup. But if you do plan on overclocking then GB is an overclockers dream. The MCH (Northbridge) looks like being capable of very high speeds.....

(overclocks so far)
Kyle 'Whoops there goes my forum' Bennett, Asus P4G8X - 188MHz FSB.
Abbas @ TBreak, Asus P4G8X - 190MHz FSB.
Abbas @ TBreak, MSI GNB Max - 182MHz FSB (limited by lack of AGP/PCI Fix).

I've excluded the OCWB overclock (145MHz FSB) because they only used stock vcore with their 2.4B P4 and obviously were hitting the CPU limit and not the GB MCH.

Add the superb MCH overclocking potential to the fact that your DDR isn't being pushed very hard (at 166MHz FSB your DDR is only running at DDR333 speed) and you will end up only really being limited by your CPU mostly. The packed feature set is also nice to have and being able to use your old DDR is a bonus too.

Easy (and very high FSB) overclocking with RDRAM 4x performance will make GB a very nice chipset to own. Start saving those pennies.:)



(for the eagle-eyed among you this may appear to be very similar to a thread started over at the overclockers.com forums but you'd be wrong - it's some other Coz involved in that one);)
 
T

TheCoz

Member
Oct 24, 2002
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Abbas at TBreak mentioned something about 2 weeks for the GA-8INXP. That's when we'll see reviews for it perhaps?

Still not sure when we'll see boards in stores though.:(
 
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dajo

Senior member
Nov 7, 2000
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OCWB didn't do the Asus board justice! It appears that they just ran the FSB at default without overclocking. If the MSI, with minimal oc capabilities, can do 182MHz and score 4453 on SoftSandra then I will definitely be getting one of these GB boards after the other contenders have been reviewed.

1600 over my current SS mem score is a huge leap.

It's hard to imagine how fast these rigs must be, but I aim to find out soon.

Oh, my poor credit card!!!

 
Ketchup

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
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They have an unlocked P4 over at t-break, for those who didn't know. They use it to find the limits of the motherboard, and not necessarily the CPU. While 190 and 182 are good numbers, they were able to take the Gigabyte 8PE677 to 190, Gigabyte's 8IGX to 210, the ASUS P4GE-V to 200, and the Abit IT7 MAX2 to 235 FSB!

I have rarely if ever seen an OCWB test include overclocking results, and t-break barely had a BIOS for their board, so I think we should wait and weigh in some more results. I see Anand just posted their first GB review. Must go check it out!
 
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Johnnychangs

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Jun 4, 2002
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The Gigabyte looks like the performer, but the Asus has better features. I want an Asus P4G8X now!
Any clue as to when they will hit the shelves in the US?

Oh, and great job with the review Evan. Lots of details and information that all motherboard reviews should have. Your hard work is greatly appreciated. Now sell me your P4G8X!! :)
 
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TheCoz

Member
Oct 24, 2002
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Originally posted by: Johnnychangs
I want an Asus P4G8X now!
Click to expand...
Asus boards have always been good to me so I think I'll go for the P4G8X as well. Up to 1.975v vcore selectable in the BIOS though?? Yikes!! I love my 2.26 too much to inflict anything above 1.75v on it.:)
Oh, and great job with the review Evan. Lots of details and information that all motherboard reviews should have. Your hard work is greatly appreciated. Now sell me your P4G8X!! :)
Click to expand...

Agreed. Good job Evan.

Evan - Could you give us more details on how you reached the 'limit' of your GB boards when overclocking? What is the maximum overclock of the P4 you used? What vcore did you use? I find it odd that both GB boards you overclocked had a limit that was within about 3 MHz of each other. It seemed more like you hit the limit of your CPU with the vcore you were using? Or were you just being conservative with your overclocking due to time limitations? Other GB boards (using ES chips) hit FSB limits in the 180-190MHz range so your limits seemed a little low. This is just a minor point though, I thought the review was very good.
 
cmdrdredd

cmdrdredd

Lifer
Dec 12, 2001
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I think he means he reached a point where the FSB increase didn't increase performance so much that it was worth it.
 
Ketchup

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,559
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I think Evan tries to overclock as much as possible without raising the vcore. This is just to keep everyone on a level playing field, since some boards allow more voltage adjustment than others. Lately, Gigabyte boards always seem to overclock a little better than their couterparts (at least their P4 boards anyway).

And as I said before, 180-190 was reached with an unlocked CPU. I am sure if Evan had an unlocked CPU, he could have reached the same speeds.

Good work Evan :)
 
cmdrdredd

cmdrdredd

Lifer
Dec 12, 2001
27,052
357
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unlocked P4? hrm...I'd love to have that! but I'm happy with my 2.68Ghz P4 at DDR421 so...
 
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