New Pentium 4 Chipsets for the Business/Value User
New Pentium 4 Chipsets for the Business/Value User
In this article, youll learn about Intel and VIA Technologies new single-channel chipsets, which offer modern features for business and value PC buyers.
With the rise in Pentium 4 clock speeds past 3GHz, the introduction of HyperThreading Technology, and the new Pentium 4 Extreme Edition with its onboard L1, L2 and L3 memory caches, most of the recent Pentium 4 news has been aimed at the high-end user and gaming enthusiast. These high-speed processors reap maximum benefits from the dual-channel memory controllers featured in Intels latest 865 and 875 chipsets. See my article The Intel 865 Chipset Family for details.
However, business and economy-minded Pentium 4 users who dont need dual-channel memory support have been stuck with the outdated Intel 845-series or with third-party chipsets which lack Serial ATA support and support for 800MHz front-side bus speeds. In this article, youll learn about Intel and VIA Technologies new single-channel chipsets, which offer modern features for business and value PC buyers.
Intel 848P
Before the development of the 865 (Springdale) and 875 (Canterwood) chipset families, Intels mainstream chipset family for the Pentium 4 was the wide-ranging 845 series. See my article The Intel 845 Chipset Family for more details. The 845 series isnt a suitable match for the latest processors because older versions lack support for hyper-threading and none of them support Serial ATA hard disks or the 800MHz front-side bus now being introduced across the Pentium 4 product line.
The Intel 848P chipset combines the economical single-channel memory bus used by the 845 and most other Pentium 4 chipsets with advanced features introduced by the 865 chipset family:
- Gigabit Ethernet support
- AGP 8x
- Serial ATA (with ICH5 I/O Controller hub)
- Serial ATA RAID (with ICH5R I/O Controller hub)
- ATA-100
- Eight USB 2.0 ports
- 800MHz FSB support
- Hyperthreading support
- Six-channel audio
For more information about these features, see my article on the 865 chipset family - "The Intel 865 Chipset Family".
The 848P is a two-piece chipset using the hub architecture standard across all Intel 8xx-series chipsets. The Memory Controller Hub (North Bridge replacement) chip is the Intel 82848P, while the I/O Controller hub (South Bridge replacement) is either the 82801EC (ICH5) or 82801ER (ICH5R) chip also used by the 865 and 875 chipset families.
When the ICH5R I/O Controller hub was first introduced as part of the 865 and 875 chipset families, it supported only RAID 0. However, it now supports RAID 1 (mirroring) as well as RAID 0 (striping) when the latest version of the Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition is installed. Get it from http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa_raid/
Comparing the 848P with the 865PE and 845PE
The 848Ps features are most comparable with the existing 845PE and 865PE chipsets. Table 1 is an updated version of a table I originally prepared for the 865 chipset article.
Table 1 845PE, 848P, and 865PE Chipsets Compared
|
Chipsets |
|||
|
Feature |
845PE |
848P |
865PE |
|
USB 2.0 support |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
DDR333 (PC2700) memory |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
DDR400 (PC3200) memory |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
400/533MHz FSB |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
400/533/800MHz FSB |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Dual-channel DDR |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
Serial ATA with optional RAID |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
AGP support |
4x |
8x |
8x |
|
Hyper-threading support |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Audio Support |
6-channel |
6-channel |
6-channel |
As you can see from Table 1, the major difference between the 865PE and the 848P is the 865PEs dual-channel memory support.
Although early benchmarks performed by Toms Hardware indicate the 848P is a slower solution for 3D gaming and multimedia than the 865PE, the 848P performs acceptably for office tasks, and price comparisons of 865PE and 848P motherboards with comparable features indicate the 848P will save you money.
VIA PT800
The VIA Technologies PT800 chipset is the single-channel version of its new high-performance PT880 chipset for the Pentium 4. Both chipsets have the following major features:
- Hyperthreading support
- 800MHz FSB support
- FastStream 64 memory controller with enhanced prefetch buffers; supports DDR400 (up to 8GB total; ECC is also supported)
- AGP 8x
- VIA Vinyl 5.1 20-bit integrated audio and PCI-based Vinyl Gold 7.1 audio with 24-bit/96KHz sampling (comparable to high-end sound cards such as the Creative Labs Audigy2 series)
- 10/100 Ethernet with optional VIA Velocity Gigabit Ethernet controller
- Serial ATA (2 drives) with optional SATAlite interface for two additional drives
- SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 (requires SATAlite) and just a bunch of disks (JBOD all disks are treated as a single logical unit); SATA RAID is configured through a Windows-based utility
- ATA-133
- USB 2.0 (eight ports)
The PT800 and PT880 both use the same VIA 8237 South Bridge chip used by other recent VIA chipsets.
The PT880 competes with the Intel 865P by offering dual-channel DDR memory controller and a faster North/South Bridge connection (Ultra V-Link) running at 1066MB/second. The PT880 has a single-channel memory controller and the standard 533MB/second V-Link connection.
Comparing the PT800 to the 848P
Table 2 compares the Intel 848P to the VIA PT800. The highlighted rows indicate significant differences between the chipsets
Table 2 Intel 848P and VIA PT800 Chipsets Compared
|
Chipsets |
||
|
Feature |
Intel 848P |
VIA PT800 |
|
USB 2.0 support |
Yes |
Yes |
|
DDR400 (PC3200) memory |
Yes |
Yes |
|
ECC support |
No |
Yes |
|
Maximum Memory Size |
2GB |
8GB |
|
400/533/800MHz FSB |
Yes |
Yes |
|
ATA Levels |
ATA-100 |
ATA-133 |
|
Serial ATA RAID Levels |
0,1 |
0, 1, 0+1* and JBOD |
|
AGP support |
8x |
8x |
|
Hyper-threading support |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Audio |
6-channel |
6-channel and 8-channel |
|
Gigabit Ethernet option |
Yes |
Yes |
*Requires optional SATAlite SATA interface
As you can see from Table 2, the VIA PT800 offers larger memory sizes, ECC support, more advanced audio, faster ATA support, and more advanced Serial ATA RAID support than the Intel 848P. In addition to supporting more RAID options, the PT800s RAID implementation uses far less of the CPUs resources than the 848Ps, according to tests performed by TweakTown. The 848Ps Gigabit Ethernet option may perform faster than the PT800s because it is connected to the Memory Controller Hub instead of the South Bridge.
Although the PT800 has only a single-channel memory bus, the FastStream 64 memory controller enables the chipset to perform at speeds comparable to typical dual-channel 865-based systems in both business and gaming applications and not far behind the more expensive 875-based designs. With more features and a lower cost than the 848P, the PT800 is a good choice for a cost-conscious buyer.
Other Chipset Choices
Although Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) offers its single-channel 648FX chipset for 800MHz FSB Pentium 4 processors, this chipset lacks Serial ATA and SATA RAID options when paired with the 963 family of South Bridge chips. When used with the SiS964 South Bridge chip, the 648FXs features are comparable with the 848P, but are surpassed by the PT800.
For Further Research
Vendor Websites
Intels official 848P website:
http://developer.intel.com/design/chipsets/848P/
VIA Technologies official PT800 website:
http://www.via.com.tw/en/p4-series/pt800.jsp
VIA Technologies official VT8237 (PT800 South Bridge) website:
http://www.via.com.tw/en/southbridge/vt8237_index.jsp
SiS Technologies official SiS648FX website:
http://www.sis.com/products/chipsets/oa/pentium4/648fx.htm
SiS Technologies official 96x (South Bridge for the 648FX) website: http://www.sis.com/products/chipsets/southbridge/96x.htm
Third-Party Benchmarks
TweakTown puts the single-channel PT800 up against typical
dual-channel 865 and 875 motherboards, and digs deeply into the RAID performance
issue
http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review&dId=495
The TechReport provides a helpful comparison chart of Intel,
SiS and VIA chipsets for the Pentium 4 as part of its comparison tests of the
PT800 and SiS648FX chipsets
http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2003q3/pt800-648fx/index.x?pg=1
Toms Hardware compares the 848P to its dual-channel siblings:
http://www20.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20031103/index.html
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