VIA PT800 Review

Here is a preview over at [H] : http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDk1

Read the review and also by others.

Do you think running single channel on a 865/875 chipset make a difference than running dual channel?

That way the cost of memory (1 stick) can be saved which I can use to buy a hard drive and run a RAID 0.

Has anyone tried this out? Does it make a difference on real world benchies?

The words "Hell No!" nearly leapt off my fingers, but the more thoughtful answer is, it all depends.

A quick review of the fundamentals: The advantage of D-DDR for the P4 is that it closes the bandwidth gap between the memory and processor busses. At the same memory speeds, a D-DDR board will provide a fairly impressive bump in application performance.

But overclocking can close the gap, too. An 845PE board running a 2:3 increasing memory divider can, and often will, eliminate the bandwidth gap.

So will an overclocked D-DDR board. But you'll notice that overclocked 865 and 875 boards use reducing memory dividers. This is because no known memory can match a well overclocked P4C at 1:1. And increasing dividers? Fuggedaboutit.

This is where I think the PT800 is going to get into trouble. Speaking just from the memory bandwidth point of view, the PT800 is like the worst of the 845 and 865/875 boards in one package. It will run the fastest processors but you won't be able to use the increasing memory dividers needed to close the bandwidth gap.

It should also be mentioned that Via's overclocking history for Intel procs has been horrible for a long time. I'm not even going to presume this board will run at 210MHz until I see owner reports proving otherwise.

And finally, I would choose a good, overclockable D-DDR setup over RAID0 every single time. Getting the most clock cycles out of your proc and optimizing your memory bandwidth will have a much larger effect on your system performance than RAID0.





BHD

And how would buying 1 stick less save you money?

If you need 512MB of RAM say, you'd get 2x256MB. Now are you saying if you're not going to be running Dual Channel, you can get away with just 1 stick of 256MB? I think not.

BHD, thanks for the informative reasoning.

Chucl232, I was thinking on saving on a stick of 512 MB Corsair PC3500 or other, which I can use to get anotherhard drive. This way a single stick of 512 MB would sufficeth.

But, anyways, I don't think I may buy the PT800 because as stated above by BHD.

Will look for a 865/875 mobo instead.

Don't be hasty , that is still a prerelease board on early drivers . Suffice to say that if you do not plan extreme overclocking I think it is likely going to be the best chipset out there for now . Anything beyond a mild overclock and the bndwidth problems mentioned by BHD will come in to play coupled with the PT800 chipset's lack of an AGP-PCI lock . No board in this day and age should be released without one .

Cowboy X said:

Don't be hasty , that is still a prerelease board on early drivers . Suffice to say that if you do not plan extreme overclocking I think it is likely going to be the best chipset out there for now . Anything beyond a mild overclock and the bndwidth problems mentioned by BHD will come in to play coupled with the PT800 chipset's lack of an AGP-PCI lock . No board in this day and age should be released without one .

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It doesn't have hte AGP-PCI lock??
Does the 648FX have it?
or the new 848P?

As far as I know the 848P is just a single channel cheap version of the 865PE chipset and thus should have an AGP-PCI lock .

The SIS 648FX is just a rehashed version of a previous chipset ( SIS 648 ) made to allow use of hyperthreading and the newer Intel processors . But the older SIS 648 chipset from last year ahd an AGP-PCI lock so I'd pretty much expect the FX version to have it as well .

Cowboy X said:

As far as I know the 848P is just a single channel cheap version of the 865PE chipset and thus should have an AGP-PCI lock .

The SIS 648FX is just a rehashed version of a previous chipset ( SIS 648 ) made to allow use of hyperthreading and the newer Intel processors . But the older SIS 648 chipset from last year ahd an AGP-PCI lock so I'd pretty much expect the FX version to have it as well .

Click to expand...

I've read some review on the 648FX
seems like it can beat 865PE in some area...
do u think 848P will be better than the 648FX?
i know that 848P has SATA...
but i'm looking towards overclocking...so want to make sure the chipset is good with it...altho i'm trying to keep it a pretty quiet computer with no big fans or anything, just good air flow...

I would rather buy an 865 board over both of them . But it depends on the price and your pocket . When the 648 was new only an Intel Granite Bay board or an Intel i8502 board with pc1066 or higher Rambus could beat it . But it was hampered by the lack of hyperthreading support and it's initial AGP problems with the Radeon 9700 pro .And since then several better soloutions have been released ( 865 , 875 ). Unless there are special features in the 648FX beyond bugfixes and hyperthreading/800 fsb support of which I am not aware ( I do not claim to be an Intel expert ) , the 848p should be a better and also safer buy . The best thing for you to do however is to find some benchmarks of the 848 p in action .

Cowboy X said:

I would rather buy an 865 board over both of them . But it depends on the price and your pocket . When the 648 was new only an Intel Granite Bay board or an Intel i8502 board with pc1066 or higher Rambus could beat it . But it was hampered by the lack of hyperthreading support and it's initial AGP problems with the Radeon 9700 pro .And since then several better soloutions have been released ( 865 , 875 ). Unless there are special features in the 648FX beyond bugfixes and hyperthreading/800 fsb support of which I am not aware ( I do not claim to be an Intel expert ) , the 848p should be a better and also safer buy . The best thing for you to do however is to find some benchmarks of the 848 p in action .

Click to expand...

Problem is that Asus haven't release full spec of the P4P800S while MSI has released info on the 848P, but none has been reviewed as of now. I have contacted different distributors and they don't seem to be aware of these boards. I'm not sure if the 848P will have any of those PAT, MAT, GAT tweak from BIOS to boost memory since it's only single channel...

I just have a debate here...
I will be getting a 1.8A and overclocking it. Do i really need the 865?
I have kingston value ram on hand that doesn't seem to work on dual channel(IS-7), therefore customer returned it. I probably will not get SATA as i think the price will start to come down as more SATA hdd are available.
I am trying to get a computer that will last me for around 2.5 yrs so that when i get a new comp, it's not the beginning of the 64bit era...thus i will not have to pay a premium on those if i really want one. I guess i'm considering the cost effective strategy.

If you work hard enough at it, you can get good results with a 1.8a and single channel chipsets. I use the 845pe-equipped P4PE to run my C1 1.8 at 180 fsb with the 4:5 memory ration, producing 450MHz on the ram. My ram tolerates 2-2-2-5 timing at this clock rate (BH6 Winbond chips) on 2.9V. This 3.2GHz combination offers 95-99% of the application performance of the newer dual channel options for peanuts. But as always with overclocking, getting a truly talented cpu and stick of ram is crucial to these kinds of results.

larva said:

If you work hard enough at it, you can get good results with a 1.8a and single channel chipsets. I use the 845pe-equipped P4PE to run my C1 1.8 at 180 fsb with the 4:5 memory ration, producing 450MHz on the ram. My ram tolerates 2-2-2-5 timing at this clock rate (BH6 Winbond chips) on 2.9V. This 3.2GHz combination offers 95-99% of the application performance of the newer dual channel options for peanuts. But as always with overclocking, getting a truly talented cpu and stick of ram is crucial to these kinds of results.

Click to expand...

lol...i know what u mean...
i have 2X256 Kingston valueram(returned by customer cuz it doesn't work in dual channel....weird eh?)
It's cl3, but probably can push it down to 2.5...
After reading a lot of different chipset, i am considering the IS7-E with the 865PE chipset...that way i can at least try to see if i can get dual channel..and if not, i can always have an upgrade later on when i feel like it. Only issue is that the board has sound problem....

heeroyuy Here is a Sis 648fx link : http://www.legitreviews.com/Reviews/ga8s648fx_1.shtml

Thanks cowboy...
i've stopped thinking about the 648FX for a long time
I just got a 2.4C and P4P800...
running happily at 3 GHz and 512 dual channel
hehehe.....

thanks for everything tho!
i just couldn't resist the 2.4C and dual channel....

Good stuff . What is the highest stable FSB you have tried ??