All the features on paper, but is it worth the trouble?
Written: Sep 28 '00 (Updated Oct 01 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fastest ApolloPro board for around $100
Cons: Some BIOS versions were aweful
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| psykosis_fc's Full Review: Asus P3V4X |
***NEW***
For the record, I've been asked to state what processor I'm using on this mobo -- I'm using a Celeron2 566Mhz on an MSI6901Master Slotket running at 1102Mhz. I've also POSTed the processor at 1309Mhz, but massively corrupted the hard drive when it tried to load WinME...
I've been building computers for quite some time now (I can remember plugging in individual RAM chips on 8086 systems if that gives you an idea) and up until 3 or so years ago, the only real features that were required of a motherboard were form factor (babyAT, AT, etc) and which socket it had. The AGP architecture did alot to change the way we look at motherboards and with the release of the BX chipset we started to see a performance gap between manufacturers. Since the northbridge and southbridge are now managing a whole lot more than they used to, the features, quality and construction of the mobo are dramatically more important than they were 5 or more years ago.
I started buying Asus almost exclusively since the P2B series, and have owned just about every version of the P2B and P3B motherboards with nothing but praise. As I was starting to seriously stress the P3B-F that I had previously been running at 142Mhz FSB and running out of headroom. I had decided that I was going to use a Celeron2 566 since I had great success with a few 300a's and a 366a in overclocking and was looking forward to see if the celly2 could close the performance gap even further. a P3 750e would've been ideal (since at 133FSB it would be running at an even 1G), but the price at the time made the 566 a much easier choice. I didn't do a great deal of research on the P3V before purchase; it was more a mfgr's comparison on features than issues with a particular brand or model--my mistake. Only after I bought it and built the system with it did I get on the 'net and look for specific hardware sites (www.viahardware.com www.p3v4x.btinternet.co.uk) to find out what performance tweek were available... There's good news and bad news; read on.
The Good news is that the P3V4X (and any other ApolloPro/ProA motherboard) shows a marked improvement in performance by tweaking certain settings such as memory interleaving. Unfortunately, Award and AMI in their infinite wisdom never place entries for all available options in the BIOS menu. Enter H-Oda and his programs that allow you to directly access and alter your BIOS settings--even those that are undocumented in your mother board manual. Now, I won't give specific instructions as they are well documented but if you've got a P3V or any ApolloPro based motherboard, enable 4way memory interleaving--this can show anywhere between a 4% and a 25% improvement in momory benchmarks. Not too shabby for following directions on a freeware download. I also *really* lucked out--I got mine with BIOS rev1005 already installed *AND* with the ICS clockgen chip--apparently the ICS chip has more FSB speeds to play with than the WinBond chip.
The Bad news: At $100, I would think there are better boards out there--unfortunately, EVERYTHING that you hear bad about the P3V is also applicable to any other motherboard from any other manufacturer using the ApolloPro/ProA chipset--it's the nature of the beast, er Northbridge and not necessarily the manufacturer (Asus). I will say that Asus has been fairly quick in addressing issues and releasing BIOS revs, but you still cannot enable sideband addressing in AGP 4x mode (although sidebanding at 1x is faster than 4x without sidebanding...). I personally don't think that that alone is a reason to not buy this motherboard, but paying the higher price for the 4x compared to the 133, you kinda expect the feature to be supported. Another bad thing is that the ICS PLL IC clockgen chip gets very, very hot--so hot that it will induce system instability, particularly when clocking above 112Mhz on the FSB. I used a little JBWeld to stick a 2" tall thin fin aluminum heatsink that I picked up at an electronics supply store for $.90 and have had no problems since--it's just that the manufacturer should be thinking of this, as this is a problem with several other mobos as well, not just the P3V.
Bottom line: If you are looking for a slot1 motherboard with 4dimm slots, ATA66, 4x agp support and all the bells and whistles of an ApolloPro then the P3V4X is what you are looking for. With the right tweaking and tuning this board will come *very* close to matching the fastest BX-based boards out there. Downside is you *have* to tweak the settings in some BIOS revs to get even marginal performance. Read up well on sites like VIAHardware to see what peeps are doing and trying to do with this Asus offering and you'll have a better idea what you are getting into. With faster hard drives and processors running at 133Mhz becoming the norm, I can't really say that the P3V is as future-proof as say the CULS2, but it is alot of value for the money that you spend now.
Now if only the DDR boards were available....<sigh>
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 140
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Epinions.com ID:
psykosis_fc
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Member: Jeff
Location: Pasadena, CA
Reviews written: 42
Trusted by: 22 members
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