Intel 945P Motherboards: Going from Hopeless to Enthusiastic
by Gary Key on November 15, 2005 12:02 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
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.
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.
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MadAd - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
Overall another good review Gary, thanks a lot, just one thingQuote:
"We will be reviewing additional sound card results in our next article."
Could you please include at least one external USB sound card/processor? They are getting more and more available and my thinking is based on the observation that more and more mobo designs are making it hard to plug in PCI cards when you have double width x16 cards.
SLId double width cards in the P5N32 (as well as the A8N32, not being tested here) would only leave one pci slot and since I have an ide raid array with at least a year or 2s life in it, that leaves me with no slot for a sound card therefore say, a USB Audigy NX would be useful. This would apply to other people with other cards such as mpeg, extra nics etc... two other boards in the review here (Asus + Epox) leave only 2 pci slots so its still a possibility to offload sound to the usb, provided the performance was not horrible.
Thanks a lot
Gary Key - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
I will see what I can do. The next article will have the X-FI, HDA Mystique 7.1, and a surprise audio solution. ;-)
I completely agree about losing the slots and did not like Asus's AMD layout with both PCI slots in the middle. Due to SLI and CrossFire the available real estate on the board is shrinking rapidly and at this time we know of no PCI-e audio solutions on the horizon. It will be PCI or on-board for a while so proper slot layout or better audio solutions are a must.
I have found through repeated testing (over 300 runs) of our BF2 benchmark that the largest impact to the sound results were with the aircraft. We would get frame stuttering with the ALC88x solutions when the aircraft came on screen during the benchmark. However, the sound quality was very good in all games and was quite a surprise after hearing the SB Z2S in comparison (not saying it is better but good enough for most people). I am continuing testing in this area along with headphones and 7.1 output now instead of 2,4, and 5.1 output.
Missing Ghost - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
That's sad. I want pcie sound cards.yacoub - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
See, sound enabled can make a HUGE difference. Thanks for testing that, Gary. The obnoxious few around here that actually DON'T want you to test that because they think they know everything and "oh it doesn't make that much difference and it's just making more work for the reviewer" can go eat their feet. Here's damning proof it can and does make a huge difference in the performance even on this system with an 820D and 7800GTX OC!Houdani - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
Dude, no one argues that sound has no influence on benchmarks. Particularly the case of integrated sound. It makes sense to test the affect of sound when you're testing a motherboard which has on-board sound to see it's impact.HOWEVER, when you're reviewing a graphics card or processor, the sound should be removed from the equation entirely so as to test the product with the fewest amount of outside variables possible. After all, in those reviews we want to see the performance of the individual component, NOT the performance of the system as a whole.
yacoub - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
You might, but that would be silly. Gamers care infinitely more how the new graphics card does in the real world - ie, playing games - and that would be with sound enabled considering most of us are not deaf. It's great that it's all uber and whatnot - cool, that's fine. Now also show us how it does in a real rig under real conditions. It's not asking much and it's a lot more useful for those of us trying to decide which GPU we should get.peldor - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
It's just not interesting to do so. Anyone serious enough about gaming to buy an expensive video card can spend <$50 for a sound card which puts the actual fps difference into the low single digits. In a video card review, all that's going to happen is that the scores drop by 2-4 fps across the board. That's not going to really change the relative performance.yacoub - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
Situation: You have to upgrade your GPU no matter what. You have a soundcard you are happy with. You want to know if CardA will provide enough performance gain for your system or if you should go with CardB instead. You cannot tell that with the current GPU tests done at Anandtech.Houdani - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
Well, see, that's where I go out and read sound card reviews -- to see how much system overhead they require. I pick and choose based on individual price/performance for all the components, which gives me an idea of how the completed system will perform.We clearly have different philosophies for how we select our components, and there's nothing wrong with that. I just happen to prefer the "filtered" performance benchmarks which isolate (as much as possible) the individual components because that provides me with the purest data for making my buying choices. It's then up to me to put all the pieces together in my head, knowing the individual contributions for each component based on reviews for each part.
Today I get to enjoy the goodness of putting together a Shuttle SFF, X2 4400+, 7800GT, 2GB RAM, et al. Reading a review of the 7800GT on a DFI motherboard with an X-Fi soundcard isn't nearly as useful to me as reading a review of the vid card in an isolated environment. Why? Because my system isn't the same as the reviewer's benchmarking system. Therefore, the isolated scores of the video card works best for me. The same can be said for the HDD, memory, processor, optical drive, ...
yacoub - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link
Funny, when I'm in the market for a new GPU, I don't go read soundcard reviews - I already have a soundcard! What I would want to know, though, is whether or not a -CardA- is going to give me enough performance boost over my current card or if I need to step up to a -CardB-. Your backwards approach is funny, and it supports the status quo, but it still isn't logical.