Is 1.7ghz Good enough?
Written: Jun 10 '02 (Updated Jul 18 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: recognized brand name, easy installation, clean and labeled layout
Cons: cpu speed limited to 1.8ghz or 423 chipset, overclocking not allowed, Rdram can be expensive
The Bottom Line: It has a clean layout, was easy to install, and is backed by a well-known company.
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| williamkwok's Full Review: Intel Desktop Board D850GB Motherboard |
I bought this motherboard more than 6 months ago so I've had it long enough to hopefully write a satisfying review for your reading and evaluating pleasure.
BACKGROUND: The Intel D850GB motherboard is based on the 423 chipset. The chip is smaller than the 478 chipset, which is used on other motherboards. What this seems to mean is that the size of the 423 chipsets won't allow for as much speed as the larger 478 chipsets. I installed a 1.7ghz Pentium 4 Intel chip on my board. At the time of purchase, the D850GB topped out at 1.8ghz, but recent changes in Intel's BIOS updates seem to allow for faster speeds of more recent 423 chipset CPUs. I don't think Intel allows for overclocking on this motherboard, and if they do, I don't know how to do it.
ABOUT RDRAM: At the time of purchase, RDRAM (Rambus) was still officially recommended by Intel as the memory of choice, so this board was the obvious choice for me. I only cringe now when I think that my memory costed many times more than this motherboard and the Pentium chip. I installed two sticks of 512mb PC800 ECC RDRAM, for a total of 1gb RAM. That is plenty. As a side note about RDRAM used in this motherboard, it HAS to be installed in matching pairs and memory type (ECC vs. non-ECC). This is why I had two sticks of the RDRAM with identical specifications. A maximum ram speed of pc800 is accepted by the board. ECC and non-ECC type memory can not be mixed. However, I believe matched pairs of varying speeds can be mixed, although the lower speed would end up being the dominant speed used by the motherboard. I know faster RDram is out there now, but this was the fastest at my time of purchase and 1GB of memory is plenty of performance for my needs.
LAYOUT: The layout is clean and labeled well. There was even a layout sticker in the box that you could stick to the side of your computer case for quick reference. Here is a summary of what was on the box.
*There are 4 RIMM slots for PC800 and PC600 RDRAM up to 2GB, also referred to as Dual RAMBUS channel support(read ABOUT RDRAM).
*5 PCI slots
*1 AGP slot (1.5v only)
*4 onboard fan locations
*secondary and primary IDE slot
*400-MHz System Bus
*Intel Rapid BIOS Boot
*ATX Form Factor
*ATA/100 Disk Support
*Supports for up to 4 USB Ports-Dual Stack Rear Connectors, Header for 2 Front Panel USB Connectors
*ADI 1885 AC'97 Audio(optional)
*Integrated Intel PRO/100 Network Connection(optional)
INCLUDED IN the BOX:
*Intel Desktop Board D850GB (duh)
*CPU Retention Mechanism and Clips
*ATX 2.01 Compliant I/O Shield
*Floppy and IDE Cables
*AGP Retention Mechanism
*Board and Back Panel I/O Layout Stickers
*Two Continuity RIMM Modules
*Quick Start Guide
*CD-ROM Featuring Intel Express Installer with:
-Intel Active Monitor
-Norton Internet Security
-Encryption Plus Secure Export
-Software Drivers
-Desktop Board D850GB
Product Guide
-Desktop Board Limited Warranty (3 years)
If you want more specs for this motherboard, you can get them from the Intel.com site.
PERSONAL USE AND OTHER IMPRESSIONS:
The AGP retention mechanism was annoying at first because it locked the video card in so hard that when I wanted to remove the video card, it took me a few minutes to figure out how to safely remove the video card without breaking anything. I couldn't just pull out the video card. I had to push back on the lock mechanism first before attempting to free up the video card. Once I figured this out, it was no problem at all.
I have Windows XP Pro installed on my computer. The BIOS was easy to use to prime my computer for the installation. An update of the BIOS is available on Intel's site.
The Intel Active Monitor that came in the disc has also been updated on Intel's site, so I would just install the IAM using the latest version from Intel's site, since the IAM on the disc failed to read one of my fan sectors. The nice thing about the IAM is that it monitors approximate fan rpm speed, power, and temperatures for certain parts of the motherboard-a very useful feature. If any temperature rises above Intel's recommended threshold, you can set an automatic alert to pop up on your screen. You can also change the thresholds.
The other features on the disc really didn't seem to do anything for me in terms of usefulness, so I can't really comment on them. All I can say is that the Norton Internet Security seemed more annoying to me than useful when I installed it, so I just uninstalled it and instead used McAffee's Antivirus program for Internet monitoring.
The motherboard only comes with 2 IDE slots, so for all you RAID fans, do not despair. I installed an ATA/100 Controller in the PCI slot which allowed me 2 extra IDE slots.
I use my computer for a variety of purposes: listening to music, watching DVDs, applications, and games. At 1.7ghz with an ATI Radeon 64mb, it performs fine for all of my tasks, including demanding applications such as Photoshop and Dreamweaver. Games such as Max Payne, Alice, Soldier of Fortune II and Serious Sam also run smoothly even though there are faster video cards out there such as the GeForce4 cards as of this review date. Overall, I am very satisfied with this motherboard and it hasn't given me any problems so far. If you're looking for a decent motherboard at a decent price with features to match, you really can't go wrong with this one. If you don't need to exceed 2ghz and want to save some money, this board is great. Maybe you'll get a better deal on Rambus RAM than I did, since prices have dropped considerably since I bought my motherboard and memory. I am giving this motherboard a rating of excellent based on my experiences with this board, and not in comparison to any other motherboards.
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UPDATE: In June of 2002, I returned the motherboard to Intel for repairs. The motherboard had slow boot times (up to 1.5 minutes before seeing Windows and up to 1 minute before the BIOS screen appeared when selected) and only recognized my hard drives half of the time. This all happened when I updated the BIOS from Intel's site. Now I wish I just left the BIOS alone. Intel returned the board to me with a statement that there were no noticeable defects. I tested my motherboard and the same problem of slow boot times and failure to recognize my hard drives was there, so I was naturally upset and called Intel. The repair technician I spoke to was very helpful and spent over an hour trying to troubleshoot the problem with me over the phone. We narrowed down the problem to an issue that the motherboard was having a hard time sometimes recognizing the boot sector that identified my hard drive. This explained the sporadic boot failures(This was an isolated problem and I think I'm the first owner of this motherboard to have such a problem, since there is no documentation in the technical support or known problems section of Intel's site relating to this type of problem). He had me remove the jumper blocks from my hard drives and the problem was solved. My computer booted up quickly every time once again and was like brand new. He explained to me that my motherboard could recognize the master and slave hard drive settings without the jumper blocks. I think his explanation had some more technical verbiage, but all I care is that my motherboard works again. I really don't like having to check for the correct placement of my jumper blocks for master and slave drives anyway. After this experience, I still recommend this motherboard and look forward to purchasing future Intel motherboards.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 149
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Epinions.com ID:
williamkwok
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Reviews written: 4
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