2.4B, Gigabyte 8SQ800 vs. Epox 4PEA+ Results

[deeznuts]

Well, I finally got the Gigabyte up and running. It's the 8SQ800 from newegg, non-ultra, without digital sound, raid, or SATA. The board itself looks nice, has a good layout, and has the usual gigabyte build quality. The northbridge is A0 stepping, not the newer B0, and revision is 1.0.

Issues I have had with the board:
This board, at least the one I have, is not too stable. It installs XP perfectly everytime, no problem. But once XP is installed, it is finnicky, and about 1 in every 6 reboots, refuses to load windows. Whenever it fails to load Windows, hitting the reset button will not work, as it hangs when detecting the IDE drives at post. A hard reboot (shutting down, then turning it back on) cures this, and it goes into windows.
Another issue, I don't know how major, is that when running Sandra tests, in the summary below the results, Sandra always says that the SMP test has run, and I'm only allowed to choose between SMP results. I think this is related to the Hyper THreading workaround that Gigabyte implemented into the A0 northbridge, which was not qualified to run Hyper Threading. I don't know if this is what's causing Windows to fail to load every once in a while, as the board is solid once it gets there.
Another issue is Vdimm, which only goes to 2.6. Because of this, I couldn't run 4:5 ratio when overclocking my 2.4B to 167 fsb. And even at DDR400, i had to back down the timings.
Another issue is for some reason, Windows takes forever to load, like it keeps hesitating when it should be flying through. the epox is much faster in this department.
The last major issue is resetting the CMOS. What a pain in the butt. There is no jumper, you must physically take out the battery for 30 seconds or so. I use a SCSI card, and must remove it just to get to the battery.

Test Setup (all tests done on SiS655 was dual channel)

Variables Common to Both Platforms - 2.4B C1 Pentium 4, Radeon 9700 (non-pro) at default speeds, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, 2 x 256MB Twinmos DDR400 with winbond 5ns chips, Adaptec 2930U2 SCSI controller, 18GB Atlas 10KIII, Seagate Cuda IV 80GB, Lite-On 52x, Antec PP412X. Clean install of Windows XP.

-4PEA+ Specifics - Newest Intel INF's, and Intel Application Accelerator
-8SQ800 Specifics - SiS AGP Driver

Different Configurations
1. i845Pe, 2.4, 4:5 ratio
SPeed - 2411.6
Mem Freq - 334.9
Mem Timings - 2-2-2-5

2. i845PE, 3.0, 4:5 ratio
FSB Bios - 167
FSB CPUZ - 167
Speed - 3006.8
Mem Freq - 417.6
Mem Timings - 2-2-2-5

3. SiS655, 2.4, 1:1 ratio
FSB Bios - 133
FSB CPUZ - 133.9
Speed - 2410.2
Mem Freq - 266 (dual channel)
Mem Timings - 2-2-2-5

4. SiS655, 2.4, 4:5 ratio
FSB Bios - 133
FSB CPUZ - 133.9
Speed - 2410.2
Mem Freq - 333
Mem Timings - 2-2-2-5

5. SiS655, 3.0, 1:1 ratio
FSB Bios - 167
FSB CPUZ - 167
Speed - 3006.8
Mem Freq - 417.6
Mem Timings - 2-2-2-5

6. SiS655, 3.0, DDR400 (couldn't quite reach 4:5 ratio)
FSB Bios - 167
FSB CPUZ - 167
Speed 3006
Mem Frequ - 400
Mem Timings 2.5-3-3-6

Tests Ran - Sandra 2003 Mem bandwidth, Arithmetic, and Multimedia. 3dmark2001 (build 330, everything default), and TMPGEnc encoding of 9000 frames (about 5 minutes) at 2500 bitrate.
Not an exhaustive suite of benchmarks, I know, but I really don't have access to any more. That's all I have! I tried to run 3dmark2003, but the damn thing takes to long, so in the interests of my time, I stopped testing it.

Sandra 2003 Mem Bandwidth
Int 3820, Float 3818 - SiS655, 3.0, DDR400
Int 3770, Float 3772 - SiS655, 3.0, 1:1 ratio
Int 3311, Float 3308 - SiS655, 2.4, 4:5 ratio
Int 3189, Float 3187 - i845PE, 3.0, 4:5 ratio
Int 3090, FLoat 3094 - SiS655, 2.4, 1:1 ratio
Int 2550, Float 2548 - i845PE, 2.4, 4:5 ratio

Sandra 2003 Arithmetic
Dhrystone 8245, Whetstone 1716/3925 - SiS655, 3.0, 1:1 ratio
Dhrystone 8217, Whetstone 1716/3923 - SiS655, 3.0, DDR400
Dhrystone 7690, Whetstone 1741/3958 - i845Pe, 3.0, 4:5 ratio
Dhrystone 6718, Whetstone 1393/3171 - i845PE, 2.4, 4:5 ratio
Dhrystone 6705, Whetstone 1377/3150 - SiS655, 2.4, 4:5 ratio
Dhrystone 6689, Whetstone 1374/3139 - SiS655, 2.4, 1:1 ratio

Sandra 2003 MultiMedia
Int 11943, Float 15212 - i845PE, 3.0, 4:5 ratio
Int 11843, Float 15097 - SiS655, 3.0, 1:1 ratio
Int 11842, Float 15091 - SiS655, 3.0, DDR400
Int 9570, Float 12197 - i845PE, 2.4, 4:5 ratio
Int 9500, Float 12120 - SiS655, 2.4, 4:5 ratio
Int 9500, Float 12115 - SiS655, 2.4, 1:1 ratio

3dMark2001 Build 330
14356 - SiS655, 3.0, DDR400
14319 - i845PE, 3.0, 4:5 ratio
14315 - SiS655, 3.0, 1:1 ratio
13413 - SiS655, 2.4, 4:5 ratio
13091 - i845PE, 2.4, 4:5 ratio
13084 - SiS655, 2.4, 1:1 ratio

TMPGEnc - 9000 frames, ~5min, 2500 bitrate
5:06 - i845PE, 3.0, 4:5 ratio
5:12 - Sis655, 3.0, DDR400
5:13 - SiS655, 3.0, 1:1 ratio
6:20 - SiS655, 2.4, 4:5 ratio
6:26 - SiS655, 2.4, 1:1 ratio
6:35 - i845PE, 2.4, 4:5 ratio

Again, this is not meant to be an exhaustive test, nor even a perfect one. Are my scores off? I don't know, I don't benchmark often, so I don't know tweaks, or quirks, etc. Most of the reviews on the net show the SiS performing well when using the memory dividers, and not a 1:1 ratio. I still don't know why the dividers help, when theoretically they shouldn't, but they do. That being said, the i845PE performed quite well when overclocked at 4:5 ratio was held. Of course, if I could get my ram to run 4:5 on the sis, when overclocked, and at good timings, it should have increased scores. But a 3:4 ratio on the i845PE might still be there with them.

Anyways, that's my little tiny review, don't take everything literal. And let me know if you see mistakes.

[marv]

Nice post. Thanks for taking the time to share your results. Your results look similar to what has been posted in other reviews, IIRC.

It does kind of strike my as funny that Gigabyte is the only MB maker (that I'm aware of) that had a BIOS fix for the A0 stepping to support HT. I thought SIS even said it was not supported on the A0. ASUS deceided to pass on the A0 and wait for the B0 before selling their SIS655 MB. I wonder if the A0 stepping is the cause of the stability problem.

Now you need to find a 655 MB with the B0 stepping and see what happens.

[TestPilot]

Hey thanks for posting all that info. That must've taken a while. How would you rate the Gigabyte board overall?

[speed freak]

Thanks a ton for the post.

You may want to try flashing your BIOS, that may help out with the finiky boot locks.

[deeznuts]

yes i just forgot to post about that. i flashed with F4 bios earlier today, and so far none of those finnicky reboots. so flashing with F4 bios is almost a must. i will test further, keep rebooting etc, and see what happens.

TestPilot, if reboot problems solved, than other than that it is a good solid board. the reset cmos is a pain in the azz though, having to pull out the battery and such. also the vdimm, i would love to run at 170 fsb at 4:5 ratio with agressive timings, but can't with only .1 vdimm adjustment. hopefully i can figure out a vdim modd. 2.8-3.0 would be ideal. if i can figure that out, maybe i will post more results.

[CrawlingEye]

Try this: http://www.asusboards.com/forums/sho...threadid=36740

It's a moddeded bios, which has been reported to work well for people. It adds more vdimm.

[deeznuts]

Originally posted by CrawlingEye
Try this: http://www.asusboards.com/forums/sho...threadid=36740

It's a moddeded bios, which has been reported to work well for people. It adds more vdimm.

boom! that's what i was looking for. i was going to try and look for vdimm mod, this makes it easier. thanks.

[deeznuts]

ok, now able to run at 4:5 ratio at 3.0Ghz, here are some new scores:

-SiS655 3.0 4:5 ratio
FSB Bios - 167
FSB CPUZ - 166.7
Speed - 3000.7
Mem Freq - 416
Mem Timings - 2-3-3-7
Sandra Mem Bandwidth
Int - 3895 mb/s
Float - 3895 mb/s
Sandra Arithmetic
Dhrystone - 8247
Whetstone - 1715/3925
Sandra Multimedia
Integer - 11845
Floating Point - 15100
3dmark2001
14460

can't do the TMPGEnc test cuz my trial ran out damn!

[CrawlingEye]

Originally posted by deeznuts


boom! that's what i was looking for. i was going to try and look for vdimm mod, this makes it easier. thanks.

Supposedly there's an option that allows agp/pci locks before window's start, too. So, all should be well with it. It just exploits hidden features.

Let me know how it works for you. I'd also love to see some OC results, if you get a chance.

I'm definitely considering either the AOpen 655 'board or the Giga standard/ultra.

Just debating between which of the 3 is the better.

[CrawlingEye]

Ah, you beat me to it. Very nice, deez.

Are you content with your purchase?
I know you were skeptical of SiS 'boards, initially.

[deeznuts]

Originally posted by CrawlingEye
Ah, you beat me to it. Very nice, deez.

Are you content with your purchase?
I know you were skeptical of SiS 'boards, initially.

hey, i never ever discriminate against a product, intel, amd, nvidia, ati, etc. i engage in healthy debate and speculation before products come out, but once they do, hey i wanna play.

given that, i can't recommend this board just yet. the weird reboot issue seems to have slowed down, but it's a bit laggy at times. it takes longer to boot into windows, and sometimes when i select a program or do anything, it hesitates for a bit. it should be snappier. i have that new bios, lets see how it does. the F4 from gigabyte helped a lot, i hope the guy that modded this based it on there, cuz in CPUZ it is listed as F3, even though the guy named it F4.

[CrawlingEye]

He made a couple bios posts in the thread. I can't vouche for him from personal experience, so try at your own risk but people have said that it has worked well.