Comparison: Gigabyte, Intel & MSI 800MHZ motherboards

Manufacturers are gearing themselves up to launch new motherboards based on Intel's latest chipsets, the 875 (Canterwood) and the 865 (Springdale).

The first boards we have seen using any of these chipsets are two 875P boards - a reference board from Intel, one from Gigabyte, plus an 865G board from MSI.

GIGABYTE GA-8KNXP Ultra
The first board we looked at was Gigabyte's GA-8KNXP Ultra, part of its Pentium 4 Titan series.

On opening the box it's amazing anyone managed to shut it in the first place - not only is the board packed with features, but the box is crammed with extras.

It's hard to find anywhere on the board that hasn't got a chip or capacitor built on it. In addition to the features supplied by the chipset - integrated Serial ATA, serial ATA Raid, USB2 and local area network - there is a separate two-channel ATA133/100 Raid which supports Raid 0, Raid 1 or Raid 0, plus Raid 1 and two SCSI Ultra 320 ports.

These support Raid 0 and Raid 1, controlled by an Adaptec AIC-7902W chip, so no matter how many drives you have, or what sort they are, the board has a port or two for them.

The board features Gigabyte's Dual Bios set-up and Dual Power System 2 (DPS2) daughter card which uses a six-phase power circuit design, offering support for the next generation of Intel processors.

To back up the processor, the GA-8KNXP Ultra has six Dimm slots that can accept a maximum of 4GB of either DDR400 or DDR333 memory.

Inside the box is everything you need to get you started. There's a full set of IDE cables, floppy cable, two serial ATA cables and an extraordinarily long rounded SCSI cable.

You also get three brackets, two with two USB2 ports each and an S/PDIF bracket, driver CD, Raid manual and a colour poster to help you set up the board.

The GA-8KNXP Ultra performs fantastically, but not as fast as the proceeding Intel board, getting 311 in Sysmark. It's very expensive, but then with two of the latest SCSI 320 ports on board it was never going to be cheap.

Fill it with memory, add a SCSI Raid set up and the GA-8KNXP Ultra forms the basis of a very powerful workstation.

Price: £310.20 (£264 ex VAT)

Contact: Gigabyte
www.gigabyte.com.tw

Specifications:

• Pentium 4 (800/533MHz FSB)
• Intel 875P chipset
• Six memory slots
• AGP 2x/4x/8x
• Six-channel audio
• 5 PCI slots
• 2 parallel ports
• 2 ATA133 parallel Raid slots
• 2 serial ATA slots
• 2 SCSI slots
• 8 USB2
• 2 PS/2 - 2 serial
• 1 parallel port

Excellent support of Raid in various configurations.
Cons:
Very expensive.
Overall:
Very pricey, but incredibly feature rich.

INTEL D875PBZ
The Intel D875PBZ reference board we received is almost exactly the same as the retail board. The only things that appeared to be missing were the audio ports, although the solder points were on the board, and one or two extra headers, including extra USB and front panel connectors.

Even with these missing items the board is well laid out, with plenty of space between all the components. Not having a CNR or AMR slot helps, as the AGP slot and the five PCI slots can be dropped down the board, so there is none of the usual obstruction of the memory slot latches by the graphics card.

All the IDE ports and the ATX power supply connector are neatly located on the right-hand edge, with the auxiliary 12v connector positioned just under the CPU heatsink cradle. Although there are no IDE Raid ports, the chipset has built-in serial ATA Raid support for the two serial connectors.

One thing that immediately stood out was the stacking of the USB2 ports. Two were stacked on top of the Lan port as normal, but the other four were stacked on top of each other. It remains to be seen if this configuration will make it to any retail boards.

The other thing that grabs the attention is the massive, passive heatsink that cools the 875P Northbridge.

The rest of the board is standard stuff, with five PCI slots, an 8x AGP slot and two serial ports. Its Sysmark result certainly stood out though, as the highest we've ever seen.

If you're after a no nonsense powerhouse of a board, this is the one to go for.Price: £135 (£114.89 ex VAT)

Contact: Intel
www.intel.com

Specifications:

• Pentium 4 (800/533MHz FSB) compatible
• Intel 875P chipset
• 4 memory slots
• AGP 2x/4x/8x
• six-channel audio
• 5 PCI slots
• 2 parallel slots
• 2 serial ATA slots
• 6 USB2
• 2 PS/2
• Serial and parallel port
• Integrated Ethernet

Layout.
Cons:
Quite expensive.
Overall:
Practically a retail board with just one or two omissions. Offers an idea of just how feature rich the basic 875 chipset can be.

MSI MS-6743
MSI's MS-6743 uses Intel's 865G chipset, the G is the version of the 865 (Springdale), with the latest version of Intel's Extreme graphics version 2, and is built on a well laid out micro ATX form factor PCB.

Performance is weaker than the two 875 boards, but still very high at 298. The graphics chip is pretty disappointing though, earning just 2671 in 3DMark 2001, and a dismal 60 in 3DMark 2003.

That said, it's still perfectly competent for playing a DVD, so this board could be suitable as a set top box PC.

As well as internal graphics, The 865G also supports all versions of the Pentium 4, from the earlier 400MHz and 533MHz FSB processors up to the latest 800MHz CPUs. The chipset's integrated features allow powerful motherboards to be built on small platforms.

Because of the chipset's features, this small motherboard packs a lot into a small space. There are four USB2 ports on board, integrated Lan, two serial ATA ports and four Dimm slots. You also get a Firewire port.

Unfortunately, the small form factor means space for expansion slots is rather limited, but MSI still manages to squeeze in three PCI slots and a single CNR slot. In addition to the integrated graphics, there is also a 8x AGP slot.

Even though the board is small it doesn't appear to be overly cluttered.

The only clash of components is the usual one - because of the closeness of the Dimm slots to the AGP slot, the memory latches are obscured, which means that the graphics card has to be taken out to change the memory.

This is hardly a chore, but it can be a pain never the less.

The board we looked at didn't come in a retail box, but if recent MSI boards are anything to go by, this one will have a lot bundled with it. As it is, our sample came with two serial ATA cables and a floppy and IDE cable.

Price: £97 (£82.55 ex VAT)

Contact: Systemax 0870 727 6000
www.systemax.co.uk

Specifications:

• Pentium 4 (800/533/400 MHz FSB)
• Intel 865G chipest-
• 4 memory slots
• AGP 2x/4x/8x
• Integrated IEG2 graphics
• Integrated six-channel audio
• 3 PCI slots
• 1 CNR slot
• 2 parallel slots
• 2 serial ATA slots
• 4 USB2
• 1 Firewire
• 2 PS/2
• 1 serial port
• 1 parallel port
• Ethernet

Good board for smaller cases.
Cons:
Limited expansion.
Overall:
If you are looking for a powerful, well-featured motherboard to fit in a small case, take a close look at this MSI board.