>>> Asus P4G8X-D <<<

[Mikki]

The comparisons are fantastic Thugsrook, and I agree with oldfart, people want to know....like me....hehe

Silly q for ya...on my P4B533-E, I had to remove the video card to remove the memory, how close are the slots to the video card on the P4G8X?

 

[THUGSROOK]

miles away Mikki ~ plenty of room for even the biggest hands to remove all 4 mem sticks.
(the AGP slot is 1 slot lower then norm)

im using slots 3&4 which are farther away from the cpu.
slots 1&2 are so close to the cpu i dont feel comfortable placing them there. (heat)
i will eventually try slots 1&2 just to see if there is a performance difference (there shouldnt be on a board this balanced)

the layout of the board is perfect ~ sans IDE placement ~ i really liked how the p4b533 had the IDE ports "hanging" off the edge of the board like this
...its livable tho

 

[Mikki]

Thanks for the info bud, it's kinda silly, but stuff like that means a lot to us that are ripping our stuff apart all the time...not to mention trying to clean up the case...

Did you have to adjust your psu wiring for the board connectors? I know you customize your wiring, that's why I ask...

**edit: forget it, I just looked at the board, all the connectors look to be in the same places as the P4B533...

 

[THUGSROOK]

yea the install was a piece of cake ~ i didnt have to rewire anything.
connecting all the ide and power cables in that tiny area was frustrating to say the least tho.

the brain teaser was the fan header placements~
i had to plug in my case fan into the cpu header, the cpu fan into the PSU fan header, and my chipset fan into the case fan header (cause of wire length)

but i have no serious issues with this board ~ im liking it very much

 

[Mikki]

I'm liking it very much also....wanna sell it? :Q

 

[THUGSROOK]

um no ~ shes a keeper

my p4b533 is for sale ?

 

[THUGSROOK]

cas2225 benchmarks are posted for 2.55ghz 150fsb

 

[Aldaris2002]

Before I ask my question, I just want to apologize to anyone who gets incredibly annoyed by it because I know its probably been asked many many times before, but I just want to make sure before making a big purchase.

I'm buying an ASUS P4G8X and a P4 2.4B w/C1 as I hear its a good overclocker. Now, with RAM, because I live in Canada, I've found that getting Corsair memory is really expensive for me, but the regular old Samsung brand stuff is really cheap. Obviously, I'm buying this board and this specific processor because I want to overclock. Now I was just wondering, will using Generic brand DDR-RAM instead of Corsair memory limit my ability to overclock higher (to lets say 167Mhz FSB) or does it depend more on the board and processor itself and well, luck?

Thanks
Aldaris

 

[jhites]

Originally posted by: Aldaris2002
Before I ask my question, I just want to apologize to anyone who gets incredibly annoyed by it because I know its probably been asked many many times before, but I just want to make sure before making a big purchase.

I'm buying an ASUS P4G8X and a P4 2.4B w/C1 as I hear its a good overclocker. Now, with RAM, because I live in Canada, I've found that getting Corsair memory is really expensive for me, but the regular old Samsung brand stuff is really cheap. Obviously, I'm buying this board and this specific processor because I want to overclock. Now I was just wondering, will using Generic brand DDR-RAM instead of Corsair memory limit my ability to overclock higher (to lets say 167Mhz FSB) or does it depend more on the board and processor itself and well, luck?

Thanks
Aldaris

Samsung is not a Generic Brand. Just be sure that it is True Samsung memory and pcb PC2700.
2X256 sticks will work good for you up to 170fsb easy.

 

[Aldaris2002]

It should be genuine Samsung as its coming from NCIX.com, but I'll give you the link just to be sure...

http://www.ncix.com/canada/productdetail.php?sku=8023

 

[jhites]

Originally posted by: Aldaris2002
It should be genuine Samsung as its coming from NCIX.com, but I'll give you the link just to be sure...

http://www.ncix.com/canada/productdetail.php?sku=8023

I would call them to verify.
True Samsung PC2700 is on a Samsung PCB and would have one of the following
Model numbers:
M368L3223CTL-CB3
M368L3223DTL-CB3
M368L3313CTL-CB3
M368L3313DTL-CB3
M368L3223DTM-CB3

 

[jhites]

Thugs

Seems that the Auto setting for AGP/PCI gives me the best results.
Wierd ?? Did you find this to be true, also?

 

[THUGSROOK]

yep

earlier in this thread there are comparisons showing that auto seems to be best above 165fsb.
gotta figure out why...

 

[emjem]

You gain the ram/vga card room on this mobo by giving up a PCI slot. Almost $300 for a mobo and only 4 useable pci slots. I use 5 so this is a big deal for me.

Re ram. I was running a P4 2.4 at 150fsb and the ram at 3:4 = 400 - 2.5 3 3 7. I know that's not world record class but it is Samsung PC2100 (1 stick 512), and to that I tip my hat to Samsung. I didn't try 2.0 2 2 but now I wish that I would have just to see how good Samsung really is.

I couldn't get anymore than 150fsb out of this C1 cpu at any ram setting. But a friend of mine with a near identical system had his cranked to 158fsb. It's definetely luck of the draw.

I switch in a 2.53 (B0 stepping) and it is running solid at 158fsb (3.01gig) at 1.6volts, but I had to hold the PC2100 Samsung to 395 (158x2/4x5). PC2100 didn't like running at 3:4=421 but it didn't mind booting into Windows at that speed. Anyone think some spreaders would help?

This is all on a P4PE using a $12 (Newegg) Glacial Tech Diamond 4000 cooler with AS2. System temp is 26C and cpu under load 49-51C -- maybe a little high but I'm getting the low budget 3 gig I was aiming for.

Diamond 4000

 

[THUGSROOK]

Anyone think some spreaders would help?

1 or 2 fsb tops

 

[THUGSROOK]

 

[THUGSROOK]

> Bios Tweaking starts here <

 

[THUGSROOK]

> AGP / PCI Lock Tweaking @ 167fsb <


X-Isle Demo 1024x768x32

AGP / PCI

66/33 = 147.1
68/34 = 147.2
70/35 = 147.7
72/36 = 147.9
74/37 = 148.1
76/38 = 148.5
78/39 = 149.0
80/40 = 149.1 <<<----- dont go higher then 80/40
AUTO = 149.7 <<<----- Auto = only 1/4 PCI divider ? that would be 84/42 !!! lets test that.....
84/42 = 149.8 <<<----- yep

*** looks like AUTO does not use a 1/5 PCI divider ~ beware ***

(maybe someone with a PCI geiger counter could verify this?)

 

[Mikki]

Look at those scores!! The P4B533's taking a beating...
Wow

Hey Thugs, send me your board and I'll test it with my geiger...

 

[oldfart]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK

oldfart: How much faster is the GB compared to a well set up i845E when run @ the same FSB/CPU speed?

Mikki: I agree with oldfart, people want to know....

BENCHMARKS 1024x768x32
P4 2.26b

> P4B533 i845e @ 2822mhz 166fsb 443ddr 2.5-3-2-7 / 2.6v
> P4G8X e7205 @ 2822mhz 166fsb 332ddr 2.0-2-2-5 / Turbo / 2.7v


> 3DMark2001 <
P4B533 = 12975
P4G8XD = 13267
~ + 2%

> X-Isle Demo <
P4B533 = 138.5
P4G8XD = 149.3
~ + 7%


> Quake III Arena <
P4B533 = 250.1
P4G8XD = 263.0
~ + 5 %


> UT2003 Demo < Flyby --- Botmatch
P4B533 = 169.8 --- 72.7
P4G8XD = 171.0 --- 75.5
~ < + 1%


> Scisoft Sandra < memory unbuffered
P4B533 = 1726/1746
P4G8XD = 2286/2352

Thanks for all the hard work. I (we) really appreciate it. This is what I really wanted to see. I added ~ % of gain to your game scores. The results are good, but in reality, the improvemnet is very small. For me, I can't see going this route for a small improvement in performance.

I think it would show more of a gain in instances were you were unable to use mem ratios on the 845/x board because
a) board doesn't support it
b) ram quality wont cut it
c) FSB is too high even for good mem

Most people dont have ram that will do DDR443. It would be interesting to see
845/E/PE 1:1 DDR 333
845PE 4:5 DDR 415
scores added in as well. I know you dont have the boards any longer, but maybe you have the scores saved?

Thnx!

 

[Mikki]

I know what you're saying oldfart, but that's still a healthy jump considering the memory speed is a lot lower on the GB board...

 

[oldfart]

I guess I've been waiting for something that is a big leap from what I have now. I haven't seen anything that really improves much on the original 845D DDR chipset. The 845E is just a new southbridge with USB 2.0. 845PE has a 4:5 and will run with more than one stick of ram when overclocking, but seems to have cold boot issues and not much faster than 845D/E. GB is nice with the DC DDR, but a ~ 5% increase in performance is not enough (for me) to be interested. With all that extra mem BW, I would have expected more. 5% is noticeable in a benchmark, but not in actual use.

know what you're saying oldfart, but that's still a healthy jump considering the memory speed is a lot lower on the GB board...

I dont see it that way. On the 845E @ 166 FSB DDR443 there is ~ 3.5 GB/s of mem BW. The GB @ 166 FSB has ~ 5.3 GB/s of mem BW. Large increase in mem BW, small increase in performance.

I guess I'll be hanging around for awhile yet to see how Prescott/Canterwood shakes out. Maybe I'll pick up a 2.4B and see how it does in the interim.

 

[Mikki]

hehe...like I said, I know what you're saying...and I agree, it's probably not worth upgrading over the 845e or pe...I still want one tho.................bad....

do you think the small performance increase for large BW increase is a reflection of the benchmarks themselves?

 

[oldfart]

It would be nice to see some other (non game) benches. MPEG2 encoding is the thing that tasks my PC the most.

Another important point is the GB will scale higher in FSB than 845x. Thugs @ 166 FSB DDR 443 is at the limit (past it, but he is the King) of available DDR memory. Lets say you can go to 175 FSB. On an 845x, you will likely have to go to 1:1, which will hurt performance quite a bit. The GB will keep scaling upwards without a mem limitation.

 

[Mikki]

That's true....

I'm sure Thugs will be doing some encoding for stability purposes, maybe he can sorta "bench" some times while he's doing it....