SiS 655 *2-18-03 UPDATE* MSI, Gigabyte and ASUS Done

[mechBgon]

My guess is that Anand is planning to give us a rundown on AMD's Barton as soon as he's allowed to (presumably early Monday morning), then post the Gigabyte 655 review later in the week to keep things balanced.

 

[Wesley Fink]

Yes, but we are getting ready to revamp our whole web presence to make on-line ordering easier. Not ready yet, but will mention it privately as soon as things are organized. We already have an active on-line gaming and tech-support forum, but it's really not ethical to advertise that here.

 

[ArborBarber]

prometh....do you have an email address? I just want to buy the damn thing at this point..LOL!!! Well, I must admitt, it is getting easier to wait....anyhow maybe SiS will be a completely different story then Intels' problems/poor management.....

 

[Recnamorcen]

Incedentially, I've found the GIGA-BYTE GA-8SQ800 Ultra2 at resellers in Japan for between $137 and $180 USD. Obviously it would cost for shipping to the U.S. more and there would be a customs lead time on getting a board to the U.S. Not to mention dealing with a foreign reseller. But it may be something to try if you're desperate for a board.

Personally I'd like to wait for the B0 stepping chips to come out before sinking the dough into this puppy. Although it still seems to be in the air about the A0 supporting the hyper-threading through the BIOS update (giga-byte's). I'd like to see that tested for those of us who have bought boards already and have the A0 on it.

Evan, did you get to try HT on an A0 board? And thanks for your unbiased reviews, they have been helpful to me.

edit: put the wrong part number up top and added the price range.

 

[Recnamorcen]

One other thing I'd like to mention about this motherboard (Giga-byte):
Why is it that I have found vendors with this board in stock all over Europe (U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Israel, Sweden, Holland) and of course in many countries in the pacific rim yet no one in the U.S. or Canada actually has this board in stock here? Isn't the U.S a much larger market than the other countries? Could it be regulatory related? Are tricky marketing schemes in play?
Perhaps we'll never know, but I do find it very odd that when it comes to the newest stuff, the rest of the world gets it before us.

Ok, enough whining for tonight....

 

[liveevil]

happens alot to everyone ..
i know australia is sometimes like months behind the us with availablity of some tech.
for instance its impossible to buy a 9500 non pro board in australia

 

[poldi1]

I have been waiting since early december for the 8INXP and when word about the first 655 boards spread around, I said to myself, whats the point waiting for the 8INXP when the cheaper and at last as good SINXP will be around not much later. I guessed right that both boards wont be widely available soon and was very very tired of waiting so I bought an AsusP4PE and now I am happy with it!! It cost me half of the 8INXP price! And now I got all the time in the world to wait till the board is actually available! No more stupid preorders and waiting for me! Just a thought I wanted to tell you all.
And thanks Evan for the nice reviews, I really trust them !Keep up the good work!

 

[ArborBarber]

How can one insure getting the BO stepping chipset when buying the SINXP1394(wait till all the AO's are sold)? That would suck! Maybe Europe,Asia, and the other countries where it's being sold now will deplete the AO inventory!

SKU # 1034033 SINXP1394(GA-8SQ800 ULTRA II)- US PRICE $199
SKU # 1034032 GA-8SQ800 ULTRA- US PRICE $160
SKU # 1034031 GA-8 SQ800- US PRICE $119
WEBSITE FOR PRODUCT PRICES...
http://www.pcworld.co.il/shared/pricelist.asp

It may be harder to sell new products in the USA because of safety certifications needed as mandated by law. It may also be that the USA is a harder market to sell your goods in and most manufactures want to insure that the product is up to that standard(grasping straws on this last one...)

 

[corvette]

I am very curious to see the review of the gigabyte board.
Especially if the A0 stepping will run HT processors
It seems to be available here in Holland for about ?200,-

I'm going to decide on a new computer this month and now I'm down to a Pentium 4 2,5 or a Athlon 2600+[333Mhz]

I'm wondering what will be the best choice, an Athlon+nForce2 board or a Pentium4+SIS655?
I want to use it for video editing and games, does anyone have a tip for me?

thanx to anyone that can give me a tip

 

[ArborBarber]

Corvette...Here's a tip....Don't stand up in canoes! Only kidding...Your best bet is to read as many reviews
as you can on both mobos. Is the SiS 655 available in your country? If so, it's something to consider, both setups you mentioned will be fine for what you intend on doing with it. RAM might be a consideration...get as much as you can, at least 512Mb, if you can afford 1Gig by all means get it...video will tax system resources and take up alot of HD space. As far as the AO stepping issue goes I'm not sure...all I know is that I don't want the AO version. I read somewhere that there might be as much as a 5%-7% performance increase with the BO stepping version along with HT support...however you can't believe everything you read!

I've also heard that Intel will be slashing their CPU prices in the very near future...something you might also want to consider.

 

[Booter]

well if you are looking for HT powered rig then you have to get the 3.06 Gz (the only currently officially Ht enabled p4) the price is quite steep on that one. or wait for the new 2.4Gz p4 with Ht (dunno when it will be released).

 

[Wesley Fink]

Evan -

Since your completed Gigabyte SiS655 review has not been posted yet, can you at least share with us:

1) If 800FSB is supported on the board, or will likely be supported for the April release 800FSB P4's
2) If Hyper-Threading is fully supported. Latest word is ALL SINXP1394 are B0 revs of SiS655 with full HT support. Is this true?
3) Did the SINXP1394 reach high overclocks

This is probably the most anticipated motherboard review in quite a while, and it's a shame it's completed but not up yet.

Thank you

 

[corvette]

Well, the mainboards 8SQ800 Ultra and SINXP 1394 are available here and I also think the SINXP 1394 has the B0 chip.
This because on the Gigabyte site there is NO mention of a problem with HT reagrding a A0 chip on the SINXP 1394
For the 8SQ800 [ultra] there is a mention of an issue on the A0 chip regarding HT.
I asked my supplier to check this for me, so I hope I'll get confirmation on this.....

I was planning for a P4 2,5 Ghz and a 2 disk Raid 0 configuration.
Also a seperate drive for OS system, so in total 3 drives.
This is why I want the ultra or the SINXP.
The reason why I want HT support is, so I will be able to upgrade to a new HT Pentium chip in future.
I hope HT will have some extra's in future for video editing....
So I hope the 800Mhz FSB is a posibility also.

I like the gigabyte board because it has P-ATA raid and S-ATA.
Most of the others [nForce2 and SIS655] have S-ATA raid wich is still not available here, sometimes they support 1 P-ATA drive but that is not what I want...

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The sticky has failed for this thread....... so is that a hint for us to just let it go quietly into that long goodnight?

 

[ArborBarber]

DaPunisher...I hope not...I was wondering the same thing last night when I noticed it...I hope Evan isn't done with us!

 

[ArborBarber]

Evan...Are you still with us? I hope everything is ok? I hope we didn't piss you off...for what it's worth, thanks for your hard work on your reviews! Well, I(we) hope to hear from you...

 

[First]

Haha, never fear, I am here!

 

[GetInMyFatBelly]

I'm also in The Netherlands (Holland) and have not seen the Gigabyte SINXP1394 motherboard out here, doing a search, I only find one site listing it here for 208euros and it doesn't show if it's in stock or not. Do you have any links for sites that have it in stock?

If you've actually seen the item, do you know if it comes with the B0 stepping SIS 655 chipset???

I also have not been able to find it in any European country that lists it in stock.

On a side note, I don't understand why Anandtech would hold on to a article for a while (like the review of the Gigabyte SINXP1394 done by Evan) and not release it soon after it was written. I think that stinks. Why wouldn't you want to be one of the first to release the review of an item, long before the rest (except OCWorkbench, who have reviewed this item a couple weeks ago)?

 

[cgm3]

SINXP review today? *crosses fingers*

800fsb
HT
400 DDR RAM

This could be a great long-term board.

 

[corvette]

GetInMyFatBelly look on this site...
Challenge Computers
The SINXP is priced for ?199,50
The ultra for ?151,50
Delivery 2-5 days
I haven't seen it but asked the shop to inform at their supplier...no reply yet.
If the SINXP has B0 i'm going for that board.
If not, I'm not sure...maybe I'll go for the AThlon+nForce2.
I'd rather have a P4, but I'm not going to wait forever.....

 

[Ken830]

Hey guys.... I've been keeping up with this thread since the beginning... and have been just as anxious as all of you... Royal PC is selling the board for $210, but is sold out. I found this on pricewatch a few weeks ago.... Since then, links to this page have been completely removed for some reason. Enjoy.... I hope to get this board soon.. I'm in desperate need of a new system.... C&C Generals doesn't run well on an old Athlon 900Mhz system.

http://www.goroyalpc.com/product.asp?m_cat=Gigabyte&cat=&action=show&id=845Motherboard

 

[awgneo]

ASUS P4SDX REVIEW!!!!

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2003/asus/p4sdx/p4sdx-1.htm

 

[THUGSROOK]

very interesting ~ async memory (333 & 400ddr) is useless :Q

whoda thought

 

[Booter]

* We will update the review with overclocking results once we get a new BIOS that allows us to address the clkgen.

 

[ArborBarber]

Evan...You're a poet and didn't know it! LOL! Glad to see you're still kickin!