915 Motherboard Roundup: Socket 775 for the Rest of Us
by Wesley Fink on December 7, 2004 12:25 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Epox 5epa+: Overclocking and Stress Testing
FSB Overclocking Results
| Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed | |
| Processor: | Pentium 4 Prescott LGA 775 560 ES (2.8GHz-3.6GHz) |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.425V (1.3875V default) |
| Cooling: | Thermaltake Jungle 502 |
| Power Supply: | OCZ Power Stream 520 |
| Maximum CPU OverClock: | 223x18 (4014MHz) +12% |
| Maximum FSB OC: | 254FSB x 14 (+27%) |
The 5epa+ is a better-than-average overclocker among 915 boards. It is not, however, the top level overclocker that we were hoping for. Above a 254 setting, SATA drives just disappeared, but the Epox continued to go through the pre-HD boot phase to 270 and even higher. This leads us to suspect that the Epox 5epa+ may actually reach even higher overclocks with IDE hard drives. At the stock 18x ratio, the Epox reached 4Ghz, but the CPU heatsink became quite hot in a very short time. For overclocks above around 3.9GHz, you really need better cooling with any of these 915 boards.
Manually selecting PCIe speeds had allowed us to reach higher overclocks on the MSI, so we tried the same technique on the Epox. We still couldn't break though 254 using SATA hard drives. It would be wrong to leave the impression that the highest FSB is a holy grail in our overclocking tests. To put the 254 FSB setting in perspective, this would represent DDR508 at a 1:1 memory ratio. This is an easily achieved overclock with fast memory timings and most current DDR400 memory based on Samsung TCCD chips. Some better TCCD memory on Brainpower DIMM PCBs can achieve DDR550 to DDR580 at reasonably fast timings. At 1:1 ratio, this would be a FSB setting of 275 to 290.
The question with overclocking is always where the trade off occurs. In this case, we have tested Crucial Ballistix DDR400 that does 2.5-2-2 at DDR500. So to run at DDR500 at the fastest speed that our CPU can achieve (about 4Ghz), we would need to run at 250 x16. We can actually run those settings with the unlocked ES 3.6GHz Prescott, but current Intel Socket T (775) processors can run at default ratio or 14X.
Memory Stress Test Results:
The Epox 5epa+ was designed to run DDR400 memory. The memory stress test measures the ability of the 5epa+ to operate at its officially supported memory frequency (DDR400), at the best performing memory timings that OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 will support. Memory stress testing was conducted by running DDR at 400MHz (stock 1:1 ratio) with 2 DIMM slots operating in Dual-Channel mode.| Stable DDR400 Timings - 2 DIMMs (2/4 DIMMs - 1 Dual-Channel Bank) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| Timing Mode: | 1:1 (200:200 - Default) |
| CAS Latency: | 2.0 |
| Bank Interleave: | Auto |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2 |
| RAS Precharge: | 2 |
| Cycle Time (tRAS): | 5 |
The Epox ran a single dual-channel (2 DIMMs) at the most aggressive 2-2-2-5 timings at default voltage. The 5epa+ was completely stable at these timings at the default 2.6V.
Filling all four available memory slots is more strenuous on the memory subsystem than testing 2 DDR modules on a motherboard.
| Stable DDR400 Timings - 4 DIMMs (4/4 DIMMs - 2 Dual-Channel Banks) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| Timing Mode: | 1:1 (200:200 - Default) |
| CAS Latency: | 2.0 |
| Bank Interleave: | Auto |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2 |
| RAS Precharge: | 2 |
| Cycle Time (tRAS): | 5 |
When all 4 DDR slots are filled, the Epox matched the performance of the top DDR boards in the roundup, running with stability at the same 2-2-5 timings that worked well with 2 DIMMs.
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krelian - Wednesday, December 8, 2004 - link
I been a Intel user since the first Pentium 3 came out now I have a Intel P4 3.0C I refused to spend more money on things I had already bought so I stayed with the 478 socket, seeing as Intel wants me to move to an expensive platform, I say I'll ditch Intel head with the AMD crowd, I'm sure I won't be the only one, maybe legions of intel campers will leave.ChineseDemocracyGNR - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
About the config I put together in the previous post; does anyone know if the overclock lock on the 915P chipsets apply to lower FSB's too? Could I overclock the 133MHz Celeron D to 200MHz on any 915P motherboard?ChineseDemocracyGNR - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
The 915P chipset provides good value for the money. For example:ECS 915P-A $79
Intel Celeron D 325J 2.53GHz $88
Albatron GeForce 6600 128MB $120.50
or
Albatron GeForce 6600GT 128MB $190.50
(newegg prices)
The processor can be overclocked to 3.6+GHz very easily, much like the Athlon Mobiles.
That makes a good budget gaming rig, better than anything you could put together with an AMD processor for the same money. So, at least in my opinion, AMD has a better mainstream/high-end processor, and Intel wins the value segment. Who would say?
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I have now read the entire article, and oh boy! Though I prefer to read about socket 754/939 motherboards, this has to be the best motherboard roundup I ever read. Ever. Well done.
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#22,
thank your fixing it. The typo I wrote about on page 10:
"The fact that Asus manages a higher OC than more recognized OC boards like DFI and Asus "
Don't you mean ABIT in the last word there?
ocyl - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
Wesley > Thank you for paying attention to the audio features/components of these motherboards, particularly Dolby Digital Live :)Wesley Fink - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
#21 - The Foxconn results have been corrected on p.20. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.ChineseDemocracyGNR - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
A few typos:"The fact that Asus manages a higher OC than more recognized OC boards like DFI and Asus "
page 10.
On page 20, the "Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed" table is probably wrong.
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Good article.
LeadFrog - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
Why does only the socket 915 get a 16mb cache Hard Drive?danidentity - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
Wes, I said thanks before but I'll say it again, great roundup. We appreciate your hard work, always.danidentity - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
Live -The P5GD2 is expensive compared to most boards, but it includes a ton of stuff, like 8 SATA ports, dual gigabit LAN, on-board 802.11g/b, and on-board hi-def audio with Dolby Digital Live (realtime encoding, like SoundStorm).
Most 915P boards aren't as close to as expensive as the Asus. The Abit AG8 is ~ $130, equal or cheaper in price than the K8N Neo2.
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
#16 - After I did the price analysis today I changed "outstanding value" to "good value". Thanks for the comment about the review being good reading. It is appreciated as a huge amount of work went into this roundup.