Intel 945P Motherboards: Going from Hopeless to Enthusiastic

Final Words

The Asus P5LD2 Deluxe deserves serious consideration if you are an Intel enthusiast looking to build a very solid and feature-rich solution. The performance is equal to the 955x based boards and is close to the nForce4 Intel Edition SLI solutions for less cost than either. The board ships with an extensive accessory package and has the optional WiFi TV package that allows the setup of an inexpensive Home Theater Personal Computer system.

The Foxconn 945P7AA-8EKRS2 offers solid performance with an attractive feature set for the cost. While the board produced average results, there is certainly promise in the design if Foxconn would expend the resources to improve their BIOS settings. This board cannot be labeled "Intense" and be taken seriously by a gamer or enthusiast. The board would be a very solid purchase if the BIOS lived up to the features on the board.

The Epox 5LDA-GLI is a very interesting board as it offers performance near the Asus P5LD2 Deluxe along with matching GLI support. However, unlike the other two boards, Epox did not offer additional features in the storage or network area, but rather added a 5-phase power switching design. The placement of the 24-pin ATX power connector was unusual for a board of this caliber. However, they listened to the power users and placed a CP80P post port debug LED, digital thermometer capability, and power on and reset buttons on the board. After the latest BIOS update, the board was a pleasure to use and if Epox brings it to market at a price near the Foxconn, they will have a winner on their hands in the Intel arena.

With that said, let's move on to our performance opinions regarding these boards.

In the video area, the inclusion of the Graphics Link Interface (GLI) setup on the Asus P5LD2 Deluxe and Epox 5LDA-GLI boards allow for quad display capabilities while ensuring that the performance of the first x16 PCI Express slot is not compromised. We will be doing additional graphics testing in the near future with this setup to see how well it performs against NVIDIA's x8SLI design.

In the on-board audio area, all three boards utilize the Realtek ALC88x family of High Definition Audio codecs. The audio output of these codecs in the music, video, and gaming areas is very good while performance in certain games is way below par. If you plan on playing on-line, we highly suggest a dedicated sound card at this time, but the onboard capabilities of these chipsets will satisfy the majority of users.

In the storage area, the Asus board offers the greatest amount of storage options with additional PATA and SATA ports while the Foxconn board supplements the meager PATA offerings from Intel with the ITE 8211F chipset. The Epox board, interestingly enough, only offers the standard Intel setup that we believe is a mistake in the mid-range market. Each of the boards fully support Intel's excellent Matrix RAID system and offer Hot Plug, NCQ, and 3Gb/s capability. Asus supplements the Intel SATA II capability with the Silicon Image 3132 chipset featuring support for Hot Plug, NCQ, 3Gb/s, Staggered Spin-up, and Port Multiplier devices. All three boards offer the standard eight Intel USB ports and two IEEE 1394a ports with Epox utilizing the better performing VIA VT6307 1394a chipset. However, we still believe that Firewire 800 should be a standard board feature at this time and certainly should have been offered on the Asus P5LD2 Deluxe board since it is their premium offering.

In the performance area, the Asus P5LD2 Deluxe stood out from the rest of the field by consistently offering the best overall performance of the Intel 945P boards and, at times, exceeding the Intel 955x, and closing in on the NVIDIA nForce4 Intel Edition offerings. Asus offers their HyperPath3 BIOS option that effectively reduces memory latencies and takes away the small performance improvement of the Intel 955x chipset. The Epox 5LDA-GLI redeemed itself with the revised BIOS and was a surprise performer in this group, offering performance near the Asus board. The Foxconn 945P7AA-8EKRS2 was a solid performer that was seriously hampered in our testing by the lack of BIOS options, especially in the voltage areas.

As stated earlier, I was not particularly excited about reviewing the Intel 945P chipset offered on these boards. Our opinion on the chipset has changed from boring to interesting as we realized just how good this chipset was performance-wise, but more importantly, how stable it was in three different board designs. In a market where the majority of buyers of this chipset are home or office users, the importance of having a system "just work" without issue is extremely important. Intel has done a masterful job in creating a chipset that harkens back to the 440BX era where you had a chipset that balanced all aspects of computer performance. In this regard, we have come to realize just how hampered Intel's current chipset offerings are with the Pentium 4 processor and how hopeless the situation seems at this time for an Intel enthusiast. However, I have to say that I am very enthusiastic about Conroe now, not because of the tremendous performance improvements that it should bring, but because it will end the Pentium 4 era.