865PE/875P Motherboard Roundup June 2003 - Part 1: 20-way Shootout
by Evan Lieb on June 12, 2003 10:57 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Another option we thought worth going into a little bit of detail on is Vcore support. Vcore is adjustable in the AX4C Max's BIOS up to 1.850V in 0.0250V increments. Even though 0.0250V increments aren't as fine as other adjustments in other motherboard's BIOSes, 1.850V is an excellent ceiling for AOpen to set. Overclockers will have all the room they need to ratchet up their FSB. On that note, we should mention that the AX4C Max undervolts quite a bit according to CPU-Z (version 1.18) and the BIOS PC Health section. We noticed an average undervolt of about 0.060V-0.065V. Therefore, you will want to set your Vcore to 1.60V in the BIOS if you want your 800MHz FSB CPU to run at its real default Vcore (1.525V) or 1.625V if you have a 3.0C processor (default Vcore for this CPU = 1.55V).
Despite all the positive things we have to say about the AX4C Max, we did run into some heat issues with this motherboard. The first and most significant of the heat issues with the AX4C Max was the active cooler used to cool the 875P North Bridge. This heatsink was still very warm to the touch compared to other North Bridge heatsinks. Secondly, despite the fact that we didn't have time to measure exactly how hot our 3.0C (HT enabled) was running, the CPU HSF was definitely much warmer to the touch installed in an AOpen AX4C Max motherboard than with any other P4 motherboard tested here today.
The third and final heat issue came from the massive passive heatsink used to cool one of the voltage regulators to the left of the North Bridge. This heatsink was not warm, it was burning hot, so hot that we could not touch this heatsink for more than 4 seconds without burning an index finger. AOpen needs to address the AX4C Max's layout, as it is simply not adequately dissipating heat.
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Zak - Sunday, January 18, 2004 - link
I bought IS7 after reading this article and I've been having problems. Random resets, then BSOD after changing XP recovery settings. Over the past few months it worsened. In the begining it like once a week maybe. I wasn't concerned, bad driver I thought. Now it won't run more than an hour without BSOD. I have Corsair XMS DDR400 in it. I've played with memory settings for weeks, timings and voltages as well, reinstalled XPPro several times, updated BIOS, got all newest drivers and run out of ideas... I've put a stick of DDR333 because that's all have to test and I still get the same random BSOD, even durnig XP installation. I have no PCI cards in this box. Mushkin calls this board problematic and attributes the memory problems to forced implementation of PAT that is not normally present in 865. I may try getting it replaced by NewEgg but I don't suppose it'll help. I'm thinking about getting a 875 board instead. Zak.Anonymous User - Friday, October 24, 2003 - link
I would like to see part II of the roundup of the 865 chipset. I wonder what is the delay?Anonymous User - Monday, October 13, 2003 - link
I thought Part 2 would be out by now at least... There are good new boards out there I'd like to see... Shuttle AB60R (cheap and full featured) and Abit IC7-MAX3 (OTES for mobo power area). I am still looking forward to seeing this, eventually, right guys?Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 - link
Any comments on newer motherboards? Why hasn't supermicro been tested since 2000?Looking to compare supermicro
Intel s875wp1-e and Super P4SCE (SuperServer 5013C-I (SYS-5013-CI)) for a $50k cluster
Thanks
syzygyus@yahoo.com
Anonymous User - Friday, August 29, 2003 - link
Evan, how in the world is #4 going to research your statement when the articles/review comments forum gets purged/is gone now ?Anonymous User - Saturday, August 23, 2003 - link
Any word on Revision 2 of the Gigabyte 8knxp ultra board yet?Anonymous User - Sunday, August 10, 2003 - link
I bought the is7 after I read this article. It had many problems. I ended up having to ram this board twice. If you read the abit forum boards you will see alot of problems I am fairly surprised after all the tests this board was put through nothing ever went wrong. I will not buy another abit product period. I will stick to gigabye i've built 6 systems with Gigabyte and yet to have any problems with them. Save for the chipset fans having a low life.Anonymous User - Friday, August 8, 2003 - link
I bought the Abit IS7 and am completely pleased. One note is that many of the IS7's appear to be getting shipped with the gigabit lan as opposed to the sales brochure stated 10/100. (mine has the gigabit)Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 5, 2003 - link
How could it be that the Asus p4c 800 de luxe is more expensive then the asus p4p deluxe but in the testresults it is slower?I would think i am misinformed by the computershop?
And the p4c deluxe got a gigabit lan on board, despite mentioning in the summary of this Mb it has not.
PixelDoc - Sunday, July 27, 2003 - link
Error Re: Gigabyte GA-8KNXP MoBoThis MoBo has 4, not 2 SATA connectors, 2 controlled by ICH5R and 2 more contolled by the SIL3112 chip.