Which SIS 645 mobie to get?

[Xtasy]

Well I decided to get a sis 645 or future 645 dx mobie with a 1.6a northwood. I really don't need Raid or usb 2.0 or ne of those extras. i noticed that the msi 645 ultra is the best performance/price of these out there. Does anyone have feedback on that. I noticed that is well $30 cheaper than the asus p4s333 and well $80 cheaper than the soyo p4s dragon. How good are the oc options? What I really need to know are how good the dividers are, since i'm springing for high fsb/mem overclocking and my pci and gf3 cards will need to stay minimum. I noticed that Tomshardware recommends this mobie second under the p4s dragon. Or do you think i should stay waiting for the sis 645dx?

 

[THUGSROOK]

the Asus P4S333 is a great board - you might wanna wait for the Asus P4S533 tho.

 

[percboy]

Can you buy the P4S533 yet?

 

[Xtasy]

TomsHardWare sis 645 round up shows the performance of the msi 645 ultra is one of the best and points out it's great oc options for a cheap board too. I noticed that in the feature tables, the msi 645 has better oc options than the p4s333 (in the range of fsb overclocking), everything else however is the same. What I would like to know from a current msi 645 ultra user is if it has adequate pci and agp dividers.

 

[ahsia]

For SiS645, you have several choices. I would say the top 2 are Gigabyte 8SRX and ASUS P4S333. Here is a long thread talking about these two boards, along with people's overclocking experience. A lot of people found this thread very useful:

Gigabyte 8SRX vs. ASUS P4S333

My top 3 are as follows:

1. Gigabyte 8SRX
2. ASUS P4S333
3. Epox 4SDA+

Honorable mention goes to MSI 645 Ultra333. Cheapest SiS645 board with good performance. The SOYO is just too expensive, and the ABIT was a little disappointing. There are two SiS645 roundup reviews:

Digit-Life's SiS645 Roundup

and

Tom's Hardware SiS645 Roundup

Now, you have one more option, which is to wait for the motherboards based on the new SiS645DX chipsets. Only major difference is it will officially support 533 FSB (new P4s), but with overclocking options in the Gigabyte and ASUS, you can already run your CPU at 133 or higher, and memory bus speeds at DDR333, or 166 or higher.

Currently, my Gigabyte 8SRX w/ P4 1.6A is running at 2.22GHz. Memory is running DDR348.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

 

[ahsia]

<< TomsHardWare sis 645 round up shows the performance of the msi 645 ultra is one of the best and points out it's great oc options for a cheap board too. I noticed that in the feature tables, the msi 645 has better oc options than the p4s333 (in the range of fsb overclocking), everything else however is the same. What I would like to know from a current msi 645 ultra user is if it has adequate pci and agp dividers. >>



Not an MSI 645 Ultra owner, but once again, I have vouch for the Gigabyte 8SRX if you are looking for overclocking options. Simply the most options among the SiS645 boards currently available. Both CPU and memory voltage can be changed, you have several AGP and PCI dividing options, and memory timing options are also plentiful. Again, read the thread I posted, it has some great information on both the ASUS and Gigabyte board for overclocking options. Another plus for the Gigabyte is that it is less than $80 at mwave.com, which is close to the cost of the MSI board. I can say that the consensus is the Gigabyte board is the best SiS645 board, overclocked or not.

 

[Xtasy]

What also really puzzles me is what board has the a2 or a1 revision of the chipset? the a2 has better memory efficiency. I also noticed at www.ocworkbench.com preview of the sis645dx reference board that it has oc options to run async 100mhz fsb/ 400 mhz ddr mem or async 133 mhz fsb/400 mhz ddr mem, so that might entice me to get the 645dx unless the sis 645 can hit 400 mhz ddr mem already, depending on what ram u have.

 

[ahsia]

<< What also really puzzles me is what board has the a2 or a1 revision of the chipset? the a2 has better memory efficiency. I also noticed at www.ocworkbench.com preview of the sis645dx reference board that it has oc options to run async 100mhz fsb/ 400 mhz ddr mem or async 133 mhz fsb/400 mhz ddr mem, so that might entice me to get the 645dx unless the sis 645 can hit 400 mhz ddr mem already, depending on what ram u have. >>



Digit-Life's roundup has all the chipset information for the SiS645 boards they reviewed. The only boards that have the A2 revision is the Soltek and Gigabyte, others all have the A1 except for the ECS, which has the A0.

As for hitting 400MHz DDR mem, well, that really depends on memory. Now most people have been able to hit in the 180-190/360-380 when overclocking either Kingmax PC2700 or Samsung PC2700. Others have had luck with OCZs, but you know their reputation. When DDR400 or PC3200 is released, I think you will have a very good chance of hitting DDR400 on these SiS645 boards. But the problem is when DDR400 becomes mainstream, so will SiS645DX based boards. So I think if you are looking to hit that magical 200/400MHz DDR mem, you might have to wait until then. You will have a hard time reaching such frequencies with PC2700 or PC3000 with SiS645.

 

[Xtasy]

Well the gigabyte sounds great after i looked at the reviews, the tomshardware round up misinformed me about the features the gigabyte has. I geuss the chipset revision determines the performance of the mobie, as different versions have different chipsets, ie. the soltek and msi boards tomshardware ran had a2 revisions, while the gigabyte and asus ones in digit-life had a2 revisions. but overall, gigabyte has everything i need. do u know how well samsung ddr 2700 mem oc's on the sis 645 mobos. thanks.

 

[ahsia]

I have been able to OC Samsung PC2700 to upwards of 181 with CPU bus speed at 145 with system fairly stable with the exception of rounding errors in Prime95. Others have had even more success, as seen in the ASUSBoard thread I posted. I currently running it at 175 with complete stability. I think most people have more success with Kingmax PC2700, but it really depends on the the stick you get. Some OC really well, some OC not as well. Either way, you should be able to hit at least 170s, if not 180s. I think Googlegear has some great prices on Samsung PC2700.

 

[Xtasy]

I just noticed the p4s533 bios to p4s333 thread and am really amazed, could a bios convert the sis 645 to the sis 645 dx or something! Does it make the asus p4s333 better than the gigabyte 8srx or the gigabyte mobie still have better bios options.

 

[ahsia]

I read about that too. I wonder how well that is going to work. Although this gives the P4S333 BIOS options like the P4S533, I still think the Gigabyte has better OC options. I would ask the guy who actually was crazy enough to flash his BIOS with another mobo's BIOS and see what kind of OC options he has now.

 

[THUGSROOK]

hiya guys.

the P4S533/P4S333 bios conversion is a snap. no reported problems at all so far.
for overclocking options you get 2 new memory ratios. (4:6 and 1:2) which basicaly gives you DDR400 support. and yes if your memory is good enough, it will run fine that high.
but the best part is that the new bios "seems" to have much better timings. the 1st thing ppl say say is that it boots faster and that "Windows is much snappier". i agree.

-might give extended life to the P4S333 boards if the 533 boards turn out to only have minor changes and not worth getting new board for.

 

[Bingo13]

Gigabyte 8SRX

 

[Regalk]

I am with Thugsrook on the Asus P4S333 - once flashed to the P4S533 bios it really takes off. My Samsung PC2100 runs at Cas 2 at 175 (4:5) - 1.6A at 2.208. Asus has come thru with this board - kudos to them after their so so A7V series offerings.

 

[Xtasy]

I wonder how the hell the bios increases the performance that much, unless all sis645 are sis 645 dx ready to wake up. i noticed that gigabyte still retains better oc options, but that bios flash is sweet, but also risky. the gigabyte is well $25 to $30 cheaper than the asus board, but i had good luck with my first asus board, the cusl2 which has a p3 667 running at 196Mhz fsb (196x5=975mhz)!

 

[senior guy]

<< I am with Thugsrook on the Asus P4S333 - once flashed to the P4S533 bios it really takes off. My Samsung PC2100 runs at Cas 2 at 175 (4:5) - 1.6A at 2.208. Asus has come thru with this board - kudos to them after their so so A7V series offerings. >>

Regalk, what size and how many Samsung PC2100 sticks are you using? How far do you think I could go (completely stable) with 3 x 256MB PC2100?

 

[ahsia]

<< I wonder how the hell the bios increases the performance that much, unless all sis645 are sis 645 dx ready to wake up. i noticed that gigabyte still retains better oc options, but that bios flash is sweet, but also risky. the gigabyte is well $25 to $30 cheaper than the asus board, but i had good luck with my first asus board, the cusl2 which has a p3 667 running at 196Mhz fsb (196x5=975mhz)! >>



From what I've read, the Gigabyte is just more giving than the ASUS when it comes to overclocking, which means you can tweak more and try more things with the Gigabyte. It all comes down to preference though, if you have had luck with ASUS, then maybe just get ASUS. And like you said, Gigabyte is much cheaper than the ASUS, so it is really up to you.

 

[Joemonkey]

another vote for the Gigabyte 8SRX here. I love this board, rock solid, and extremely easy to overclock.

 

[anime]

i went ahead and get me Epox 4SDA+-hopefully it will work nicely.

 

[Xtasy]

Hey ahsia, the gigabyte 8srx is amazing with all those clock generators for each bus. But i noticed that the memory clock generator has about 10 mhz intervals or something in the thread you provided. Is this true, because then the memory can't be overclocked to s specific maximum.

 

[ahsia]

At 133 bus speed, here are what the follow options you have for:

Memory: 95, 100, 107, 111, 133, 166, 178, 201, 223, 268
AGP: 50, 57, 66, 80, 100, auto
PCI: 25, 28, 33, 40, auto

So as you increase the bus speed by increments of 1 MHz, the memory, AGP, and PCI will increase by 1 MHz as well.

 

[Regalk]

"Regalk, what size and how many Samsung PC2100 sticks are you using? How far do you think I could go (completely stable) with 3 x 256MB PC2100"
Using 2 sticks of PC2100. With 3 sticks I really do not know (never tried it).

"I would ask the guy who actually was crazy enough to flash his BIOS with another mobo's BIOS and see what kind of OC options he has now"
ahsia - why do you think he (or us) was crazy. C'mon I have seen you around with some smart comments. You can do better than this. If you don't have the balls then no one would really know for sure if the manufacturers aren't playing with us (remember VIA KT133, KT133A, KT266, KT266A etc etc).

 

[Xtasy]

So ahsia, if i run at 133 mhz fsb, i would still be able to set reasonable agp and pci bus speeds - around 66 mhz and 33 mhz? I kinda get it, but it's kinda confusing when u said that it increases 1 mhz when u increase the fsb 1 mhz, do u mean that every 1 mhz u increase in the cpu fsb, each setting for mem, agp, pci increase 1 mhz as well?

 

[ahsia]

<< do u mean that every 1 mhz u increase in the cpu fsb, each setting for mem, agp, pci increase 1 mhz as well? >>



That is exactly what I mean. So lets say you run your CPU FSB at 133, you get options for:

Memory at - 95, 100, 107, 111, 133, 166, 178, 201, 223, 268
AGP at - 50, 57, 66, 80, 100, auto
PCI - 25, 28, 33, 40, auto

Well, if you increase your CPU FSB to 150, just add 17 to each one of those numbers, and that is now the options you have. I hope I haven't made this too confusing....