The Granite Bay Wars: Asus P4G8X v. Gigabyte GA-8INXP v. Tyan S2662 v. AOpen AX4R Plus v. MSI GNB Max-FISR (MS-6565)

[oldfart]

The MSI is not for an overclocker. Stock CPU speed only.

 

[Alphi]

AnandTech Forum Members,

As promised, an e-mail message was sent this morning to the marketing and technical departments of AsusTek, Gigabyte, Tyan and MSI (I could not find a direct address to AOpen's representatives, but I will keep trying). The content of this message was as follows:

"(Manufacturer) Representatives:

We have a very popular thread started at the AnandTech.com Forum that has been created with the intention of comparing and contrasting all motherboards based on the E7205 Intel chipset. This thread includes a poll, entitled: "The Granite Bay Wars...".

Most of the AnandTech members who have participated in this poll represent ?lead-users?, those who tend to influence the decisions of many other end-users, are better informed regarding the problems faced with technical issues and are most likely to contribute to a new product development project even during its early stages. Although motherboards utilizing the Granite Bay chipset have already entered the launch stage of the development process, I hope that you will find this source of customer feedback useful and invite you to join the discussion. We would appreciate your interest and input."

It is my hope that each of these companies will see this as an opportunity to discuss their products with our user group, take time to quickly review our questions, post responses and perhaps even become an active part of our discussions well into the future.

 

Originally posted by: oldfart
The MSI is not for an overclocker. Stock CPU speed only.

Any links to this?

 

[Alphi]

Originally posted by: Alphi...MSI GNB Max-FISR (MS-6565) ...

Edit: See above Phocas

 

[oldfart]

tbreak

There?s not much for the overclocker either- although MSI provides 1MHz FSB increments up till 200MHz, there is no voltage option for CPU, memory or AGP. We were only able to take our CPU as high as 182MHz FSB which is far below the 220+ MHz that we?ve reached with other boards. The restricting factor in our case was the lack of fixing AGP/PCI frequency as we had our DDR400 module set to the least aggressive timings and our CPU is capable of reaching higher speeds. We sincerely hope that MSI adds plenty more to the BIOS before the board hits retail. One good thing about this board is that it reports if you're utilizing single or dual channel during POST. UPDATE: We've recieved a new BIOS from MSI that introduces VCore settings that can be adjusted up till 1.75V, however there's still no option of adjust memory voltage. The new BIOS also fixes the AGP problem and now 8X AGP cards are properly detected at AGP 8X. That's the reason we've upped the score of the BIOS/Overclocking section by a bit.

Hexus

There are no voltage options whatsoever. You're only given the option of running a set number of pre-defined FSB speeds. The default selection gives you 133FSB on the 533FSB processors. Notice that the AGP and PCI speeds are pushed out of specification if you choose any option other than 100FSB (or 133FSB). There's no AGP / PCI divider present in this particular BIOS. That's why when using MSI's own Windows-based overclocking tool, the test Radeon 9700 Pro was the first limiting factor at 146FSB.

Looks like they are working on it. Without the now very common PCI/AGP lock...forget it.

 

Originally posted by: Alphi

Originally posted by: Alphi...MSI GNB Max-FISR (MS-6565) ...

Edit: See above Phocas

lol, i meant about the bad overclocking, i know what it looks like, ill have it soon .

 

[Alphi]

Doh! That's what happens when you leave a junior member in charge of a poll like this. lol

 

[Alphi]

I just found this on another thread. Intel E7205 Chipset - See Page 9 Errata How is this going to effect performance? I just bought a new All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro 8X video card, and it set me back quite a bit. Does this mean I am not going to get the full functionality out of the video card? Please help!

1. tVAL(min) Timing Is Not Meeting AGP 3.0 Specification
Problem: During simulation studies, it was determined that the AGP signals were not meeting the tVAL(min) of
1ns.
Implication: AGP interface is susceptible to latching invalid data.
Workaround: Minimum trace lengths for the AGP common clock and source synchronous signals have increased to
offset this timing violation. Refer to latest platform design guide.
Status: No fix planned for this erratum. Issue resolved by board workaround.
2. AGP Prefetch Cache Must Be Disabled
Problem: System hangs can occur during AGP transactions when the AGP Prefetcher is enabled.
Implication: System hang.
Workaround: Disable AGP Prefetch Cache by clearing bit 0 of AGP Miscellaneous Register (Device 1 Function 0
Offset A0-A3h).
Status: No fix planned for this erratum. System performance is not affected by this erratum.

 

[gmoss]

About a month ago I heard that ABIT was going to have a board also. But I have not heard anything about it of late. Anybody heard if ABIT was going to have a board?

Gary

 

[Kowan]

Alphi
Someone who had the Asus and now has the Gigabyte, said he just disabled Fastwrites and his 9700 Pro is working fine.
Granite Bay is HERE - AOpen AX4R+ Tests!!
The person with the AOpen, (PrometheusN) didn't state if he too was running with Fastwrites disabled though.

 

[Flakk]

sooooooooo.................... (bump)

oh yea, it seems that Gigabyte's will be available a few places as soon as the 31st of this month and soonest i've seen so far for the Asus one is January 8th or so.

Also, latest news in the motherboard news is a board by AOpen (cough) built on the SIS655 chipset.. yes, this means official dual ddr333 support for 5.4gb/sec max transfer rate instead of the 4.2gb/sec max transfer rate that Granite Bay offers on it's dual ddr266. Not that much faster, and I bet the wait will be a long time, considering A) it's the only company with a 655 chipset board, B) when you search on google for it you get about 5 results (unlike granite bay boards which come up with thousands of results-- i base their quickness to release on this jokingly ), C) we have seen how long it took the granite bay board to get out, it may be just another MORE few months for SIS655 chipset to actually hit shelves , and D) WE HAVE BEEN WAITING LONG ENOUGH. GIVE ME GRANITE BAY OR GIVE ME DEATH. thank you.

BTW.. If anyone has any early leads on where to get one of these Granite Bay boards for a reasonable price from a reasonable source, let us have em!

 

[poMONKey]

Asus P4G8X --- ETA - 1/05/03 ( last 2 boards at the bottom of page )

Not a "bad" price as $200+ mobos go :disgust:

cheaper than myinfinity or newegg >>> ** but whats the deal w/support from the distributor?? Is there any and should I pay more for that "perk"???? **

 

[Jgtdragon]

Spartan Technologies, Inc. appears to already have it in stock, but its very expensive.

linkage.

 

[Flakk]

You know... i am scared to say this.. but I think I am changing my choice. If you read through my posts on this forum, I was much in favor of Asus the whole way. But I think if I see a Gigabyte GA-8INXP for sale I will buy it! What I need.... is to know what ppl think. Do you think this is a wise move to go with Gigabyte's? Please, you Asus followers, offer me good points for why I should come back. I feel like I am betraying my religion here

All I can say is.. Gigabyte's has more IDE controllers and Promise RAID controller for IDE look so nice! Plus I'm going to be overclocking and I've heard good things about gigabyte in that respect. All that, in cominbination with Gigabyte being available almost a week before asus's.... I cant wait any longer! The only thing that might hold me back is all those nifty features the Asus board has for boot-up.. like images, sounds, etc...

someone help out a very confused lad.

 

[poMONKey]

One thing I have noticed on my half-@ssed journey through the forums here ( and other forums, including newegg's customer feedback ) is the number of posts about problems with asus boards.

... now, is this because more people have asus mobos than gigs???
... most seem to be trouble w/their rambus boards ( P4T533-C especially) and the A7N8X... ( thats only 2 or 3 mobos out of ?, not bad(?)... )
... do more people OC asus boards than gigabyte boards... therefore more problems??????
... OR is gigabyte a KILLER MOBO!!!!

I have been waffling around this for weeks now and tend to lean toward getting the asus board... but the wait is too much I fear and the fact that I have heard MUCH goodness about gigabyte mobos...


----- how many licks DOES it take to get to the center of a granite bay chipset???? ------

 

[emobobo]

I would like to have a P4G8X from asus. however i have seen lots of wierd reviews on different sites about it. On www.hardocp.com they say its not worth it and that the price/performance is not as good as something like an I845PE. on www.tomshardware.com, they say the same thing. On www.tbreak.com they say that the granite bay boards are great and the P4G8X is the best. I dont know who to believe and I dont know if anandtech has said anything about them yet. If they have then i'd like to know where, and if they havent then ill just wait until they say something i can rely on.

 

[poMONKey]

... I dont know if anandtech has said anything about them yet. If they have then i'd like to know where, and if they havent then ill just wait until they say something i can rely on.

Intel's E7205: Granite Bay Hits the Streets

this is a good article... puts both asus and gigabyte mobos ( plus others ) to the test

 

[FrozenFrog]

Originally posted by: gmoss
About a month ago I heard that ABIT was going to have a board also. But I have not heard anything about it of late. Anybody heard if ABIT was going to have a board?

Gary

Abit bailed out on the E7205 chipset according to what I saw at tbreak.com

 

[chainbolt]

Originally posted by: FrozenFrog

Originally posted by: gmoss
About a month ago I heard that ABIT was going to have a board also. But I have not heard anything about it of late. Anybody heard if ABIT was going to have a board?

Gary

Abit bailed out on the E7205 chipset according to what I saw at tbreak.com

Absolutely yes, ocworkbench had an interview with ABIT where they explained why: the much better Sprigdale chipset is around the corner and Intel has qulity/quantity problems with the E77205 chipset. The smaller makers like ABIT don't get enough chipsets to warrant a production, they said.

 

[pnk4jss]

I am not happy with the GA-8INXPs' lack of support for firewire(there are other consumers who use firewire, it is not just the Asian market that uses it!)

Does that mean that even if you buy a firewire card from the store that it won't work or only that it doesn't come with onboard firewire?

 

[Flakk]

it just doesnt come with it onboard. you can always buy a card to support it.. its not a big deal even tho everyone makes it seem like one. I'd rather have 10 IDE devices than firewire which ill probably never use

Plus I figure I will just get a sound blaster audigy which has a firewire port on it anyway. Problem solved.

 

[pnk4jss]

Would it be worth it to get DDR333 with one of these boards and then when one that supports dual DDR333 comes out to purchase that? Would the performance upgrade be enough to warrant the extra cost? Would running DDR333 on these boards (specifically Asus and Gigabyte) cause any problems or will they just run at DDR266 speed?

 

[Kowan]

pnk4jss
Buying faster ram in the hope of using it in a later board is a good idea.
Paying a little more now for DDR333 vs. 266 will be cheaper then if you had to buy replacement later.
If you run stock speeds, your DDR333 will run at DDR266 with no problems.
Overclocking with the faster rated memory will make sure your ram is not holding back the CPU from reaching its top speed.

 

[gmoss]

Thanks for the reply. Have always used Abit, like the more features of the highpoint Raid. GB users group always seemed to be less than Abit or Asus, but I like this GB board. I have built machines for my Mom and mother of late and I am using a old machine. Just can not wait for summer for prescott and support for it. Wish Intel would release slower (less cost) version of multi tread. I want to do some of the video and graphics at home and can not spring for a 2 processor board.

The comment someone made about Firewire, should be able to get a $30 TI chip board with several ports from NewEgg, at least I did a few months ago.

Gary

"Absolutely yes, ocworkbench had an interview with ABIT where they explained why: the much better Sprigdale chipset is around the corner and Intel has qulity/quantity problems with the E77205 chipset. The smaller makers like ABIT don't get enough chipsets to warrant a production, they said. "

 

[Flakk]

I'd just like to bring attention to a new thread I've started to help those looking for an Asus or Gigabyte granite bay board:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=942072

Help out if you can, or just make your presence known that you too are waiting, and hopefully it will come to be a useful thread. Thanks!