*UPDATE* 15-way 845PE Roundup

[First]

Originally posted by: Regalk
I recently read 2 pieces of info that could make the reivew die before it happens:
1. At Lostcircuits - The real P4chipset to be shooting for now is Springdale or desktop successor to GB
2. Source - (forgot) PE chipset from Intel is an interim stopgap (keeping the cash coffers filled) until GB and its successor
Add to this numerous cold boot problems of the PE chipset and poor overclockability.

1. And? Are you prepared to wait at least 3.5 months for just initial Springdale/Canterwood quantity to show up?

2. You mean the very much unconfirmed cold boot issues while overclocking. Hardly an a confirmed "issue" with overclockers, let alone the rest of the industry and AnandTech's readers, who don't overclock at all. Btw, what are you referring to when you say 845PE boards overclock "poorly"? Compared to what and according to who?

Btw Tenegg, I'm hoping to release the 845PE roundup between Christmas and the 1st.

 

[TenEgg]

damn, that's too long....I'm dying to see the review

 

[Ketchup]

Evan, the cold boot issue occurs when we overclock our 845G/PE/GE boards with the memory out of sync. With my setup, it occurs only when the CPU:RAM ratio is 3:4, with others it occurs with the 4:5 ratio, but it is a pretty much comfirmed issue. You didn't notice it probably because you didn't overclock your boards as far as some of us have. (some of us really like to pump up the voltage.) There are many people on this forum and other forums who have this problem if you care to do a little research.

This issue isn't really that annoying to me. The annoying issue is when I am running with the 3:4 ratio overclocked, I get freezes during 3D Applications, which seems to be related to the same thing. I can run memory benchmarks all day long with no problems, but I can get a crash after about a minute of gaming if it hasn't been broken in. The problem eventually goes away after you have been running at the same speed for a while.

These two problems seem to be somehow related, but I am not really blaming Intel. Their chipsets overclock better than any others and I am running a 3:4 ratio, which is not an official ratio above 100 FSB.

Evan, I don't believe this roundup is necessarily too late. Everyone has made it to the plate with thier PE board, so you should have a nice selection of stable boards with mature bioses and should have no problems finding a board that you really like. I look forward to reading it! The next enthusiast chipset won't be here until next spring, and there are plenty of people who haven't upgraded yet.

 

[THUGSROOK]

the cold boot problem is real.
thats why they dont overclock well

there are plenty of ppl that dont overclock and still have cold boot problems.
for me it started @ 155fsb ~ no matter what changes i made.

swapped my whole system over to a p4b533 and i can cold boot easily @ any speed ~ even completely unstable speeds!

 

[PhoenixOfWater]

Evan Lieb-
Would you also do some of you testing with a 100FSB (or 400FSB) CPU to see if there a diff in any of the option that you can pick from...
thanks

 

[MadAd]

the thing i miss when reading a big roundup is a feature chart of all the additional equipment - what o/b sound, which raid, how many ports and slots, serial yes/no - usually this information is avai;able nested in the reviews or manufacturers specs, but it would be better as a selection tool if it was all in one place together, in a nice glitzy chart so we can see what has f/w and 5 chan sound compared to usb1 and ac97, no matter what the chipset is.

When added to all the other 'charts' im seeing requested up there then u could combine it all into one huge excel spreadsheet too

 

[Zap]

Add to this numerous cold boot problems of the PE chipset and poor overclockability.

I thought that overclockability was good on these? Also, doesn't the cold boot problem affect most of the 845 chipset family? I can remember just months ago people with the Gigabyte GA-8IRXP grumbling about it. I've personally encountered this problem on a Gigabyte GA-8IRX and an Aopen MX4B, both using the 845D chipset.

Would you also do some of you testing with a 100FSB (or 400FSB) CPU to see if there a diff in any of the option that you can pick from...

I think that is a good idea. People in the "Missing mem ratio on Albatron PX845PEV Pro" thread are talking about different settings available depending on the detected FSB of the CPU. I've also seen a board (maybe a Soyo Dragon series or something, using the P4X400 chipset) do an auto-detect and allow 100-132 for a 400FSB CPU and 133-165 for a 533FSB CPU. I looked up reviews and NONE OF THEM mentioned this limitation. So happens that all three reviews I found were done with a native 533FSB CPU. Would have done my buddy a world of good to have known that before-hand.

 

[oldfart]

Also, doesn't the cold boot problem affect most of the 845 chipset family? I can remember just months ago people with the Gigabyte GA-8IRXP grumbling about it. I've personally encountered this problem on a Gigabyte GA-8IRX and an Aopen MX4B, both using the 845D chipset.

The Gigabyte and Abit 845D had the problem. Never heard much about Aopen. Epox and Asus 845D boards have no problem with this. Actually, Abit and Gigabyte seem to have had this issue on many of thier boards. I had a Gigabyte 815E board that had serious issues with it.

 

[Zap]

The AOpen MX4B is in my GF's system. It is an 845D chipset mATX motherboard with 1MHz FSB increments up to 200, but no vCore adjustments. Typical mATX fare. I did a wire voltage mod and bumped the FSB up to 133. It would work beautifully and stable... when it would POST. Funny thing was that if her USB mouse was plugged in, guaranteed to NOT POST when overclocked that high. Using a PS/2 mouse it would POST almost (but not always) all the time.

 

[VoodooU]

Not to complain, but is this review going to end up like the 845G review?

I really enjoy the reviews you put together, and can certianly appreciate the amount of work that goes into this 13-way round-up, I just hope this doesn't wind up like the 845G review and fall by the wayside due to so much time passing.

Should we still be expecting this by the 1st or is mid January a more reasonable date?

 

[gonzo2k]

I think palerider1 should buy EVERY motherboard the day it becomes available and email me personally with his review.
If it's not too much trouble.

What's up with the "GOLD" version of the P4PE? I'm not a big fan of Intervideo since they limited my activations a while back...but why is this not available?

Cold boots @ stock is not unusual BTW. Thugs is right!