It didn't take a lot of time for mobo makers to develop and release mainboards on the i845D chipset. Why is this chipset so popular? There is nothing strange - although SiS has grown much stronger and VIA and Athlon chipsets are showing excellent performance Intel is still a leader. Remember the i845 which was throttled by SDR SDRAM? However, the companies developed their boards without a delay. Just before it they released boards on the terrible i850. It's obvious that the OEM market is not interested in a pure performance. There is something more important.

Fortunately, the i845D is different. Although it costs more, it has an excellent price/performance ratio.

Test setup

Testbed:

• Intel Pentium 4 2A GHz, Socket 478
• Mainboards
• AOpen AX4B Pro (BIOS 1.02)
• ASUS P4B266 (BIOS 1005)
• ASUS P4B266-E (BIOS 1001)
• ASUS P4B266-M (BIOS 1003)
• Chaintech 9BJD (BIOS of 17/12/2001)
• DFI NB70-SC (BIOS of 20/11/2001)
• EPoX 4BDA2+ (BIOS of 13/11/2001)
• Soltek 85DR-C (BIOS K1)
• ZIDA A845DD (BIOS 1.01)
• 256 MBytes PC2700 DDR SDRAM DIMM Samsung, CL 2
• ASUS 8200 T5 Deluxe GeForce3 Ti500
• IBM IC35L040AVER07-0, 7200 rpm, 40 GBytes
• CD-ROM ASUS 50x

Software:

• Windows 2000 Professional SP2
• DirectX 8.1
• Intel chipset software installation utility 3.20.1008
• Intel Ultra ATA Storage driver 6.20
• NVIDIA Detonator v22.50 (VSync=Off)
• RazorLame 1.1.4 + Lame codec 3.89
• WinZip 8.1
• VirtualDub 1.4.7 + DivX codec 4.12
• WinAce 2.11
• eTestingLabs Business Winstone 2001
• eTestingLabs Content Creation Winstone 2002
• BAPCo & MadOnion SYSmark 2001 Office Productivity
• BAPCo & MadOnion SYSmark 2001 Internet Content Creation
• 3DStudio MAX 4.2
• SPECviewperf 6.1.2
• MadOnion 3DMark 2001
• idSoftware Quake III Arena 1.30
• Expendable Demo
• DroneZmarK

Test results

All boards perform equally in MP3 encoding. In the WinZip the difference is just several seconds. The Chaintech is formally a leader and the ZIDA comes the last.

The MPEG4 encoding and WinAce archiving allow revealing the finest flaws in operation with memory but none of the boards showed any, and the spread in values is only 2%, except the DFI board which falls behind by 10%. But I think that it is the BIOS to blame, and I hope it will soon get the better version. The Chaintech 9BJD comes out a leader in both tests.

In the Content Creation Winstone the Chaintech and Soltek boards show quite low results. In the Business Winstone the ASUS P4B266 unexpectedly loses to the others. In the SYSmark the scores are almost equal, except the DFI. And the EPoX becomes the champion here.

The rendering speed in the 3DStudio MAX is almost constant (the difference is just 2%), however the Chaintech is leading, and the DFI and the ZIDA boards falls into the last positions.

The professional OpenGL applications reveal operation with graphics. The Soltek goes ahead in the AWadvs-04: the AGP is realized better by 1.5%. The DX-06 gives the crown to the ASUS P4B266, and in the more complex MedMCad-01 we have the Soltek as a leader.

In the games which show the total score of the 3DMark the boards go on a par except the Soltek which beats the rest by 1.5% and the DFI which falls behind. The EPoX performs very well in simple games and in low resolutions.

Conclusion

Soon we are going to test more boards on the i845DDR chipset as they are keep on arriving, and it's necessary to make more than one review to examine all.

I can recommend you all boards. Just be careful with the DFI NB70-SC as its BIOS needs updating. We will test it again if the company will flash the new version.

All the boards show close results, but there are some which perform a little bit better: ASUS P4B266, Chaintech 9BJD, EPoX 4BDA2+ and Soltek 85DR-C.

I also recommend you read the descriptions of the boards because BIOS settings and integrated solutions are more important than the performance difference.

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