For Stability, it rocks
Written: Sep 16 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Stable, and feature-rich
Cons: True gearheads can't overclock to lava heat levels
The Bottom Line: Rock solid, feature rich, good price.
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| SomeNYCGuy's Full Review: Intel Desktop Board D845PEBT2 Motherboard |
I am a geek. I presently have 2 Desktop PCs (Dell Dimension 4100 933MHz and custom-built 2.4G P4) , 3 iPaq Pocket PCs (3650, 2215, and 1910), 2 Palm Pilots (m505 and VII), 2 Laptops (Fujitso P2240 and B112), a wireless networked between my cable modem and a hub that connects almost all these devices.
I do software development for a living, and it is not uncommon for me to spend at least 8 hours a day on my main computer.
After getting tired of buying Dell after Dell, I decided I wanted to build my own system, so I could upgrade parts easily as needed. I also wanted to play around with overclocking (the speeding up of your PC against manufacturers recommendations).
There have been several stops in the life of my custom built machine. I'll start with the Soyo Dragon Ultra motherboard and an AMD 2200+ processor.
The Soyo MB had every imaginable feature you could think of, including easy overclocking. The problem, was stability (please, no lessons on CPU cooling or proper Power Supply selection). After being overclocked, the CPU would crash at varying lengths of time. So, I dropped it down to its recommended speed (not overclocked).
Still, I would have random (but fewer) crashes. All my software was up to date, patches applied, cooling perfect, Antec True Power 400 watt power supply, etc. After losing several hours of work one day, I decided enough with AMD.
I then got an Intel 2.4G 533MHz P4 processor, and an ASUS P4B533-E mother board. Hooked it all up, and it seemed to ran better than the AMD/Soyo setup. I played with overclocking a little, but just to experiment. The P4 seems to overclock to a higher degree (at least the one I had) then the AMD did, and I was getting noticable improvement in performance. But, heat was rising, and I already lost work and time futzing, so I put it all back to normal.
The ASUS MB, also loaded with a ton of super cool features, then locked up on me. It happened twice in a week, and I decided this wasn't going to do.
I wasn't crazy about Intel motherboards, though the reviews always indicated them to be the most stable. Basically, I wanted the cool features: Built in audio card, network, USB, firewire, etc.
Then, I came across the D845PEBT2. This board is best described as Intels 'super feature' board at the time. This just means it has more features than the average Intel MB, but less than the competitors like ASUS, Soyo, etc.
For a run down:
It supports 533MHz CPUs
Supports newer HyperThreading technology
2 DDR sockets for DDR333(PC2700) and DDR 266 (PC2100)
Intel 845E Chipset
Six-channel audio card built in
4X AGP video card support
2 SATA connectors, with RAID 0 and RAID 1 support
6 USB 2.0 connectors (some on MB)
3 IEEE 1394a-2000 ports (optional)
1 serial port
1 parallel port
2 IDE interfaces for Ultra DMA 33 and ATA-66/100 support
1 diskette drive interface
PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports
2 fan connectors
5 PCI slots
Ok, so feature wise, it was everything I wanted. Lots of people complain about built-in sound cards like this MB has. But personally, I have the sound output going into an Onkyo micro component system with bookshelf Polk speakers, and the sound is phenomonal. I can hear StarWars on DVD from *outside* my apartment, without noticable distortion.
What it does lack, is the extreme overclocking abilities of the competitors. It does have a 'burn in' mode, where it runs the machine runs about 4% faster than normal, and you can adjust the RAS and CAS memory settings. Hmmm, 4% improvement. I'll stick with stable, thank you.
The board has a quality feel to it, and has been running without any hitch. I'm running Windows XP for about 6 months now, and I don't recall ever having it hang up on me. Who knows, maybe Service Pack 1 for XP fixed the real problem. Maybe the crashes weren't ASUS or Soyo's fault. The truth is, I just don't have the spare time to find out.
While I love computers, I have very little time to deal with them breaking. I use them as a tool to make a living. If the tool doesn't work, it is typically more cost efficient for me to replace parts en masse, than to spend weeks waiting for replacements and so on.
So, if you like rock-solid stability, and want to *use* your computer, not just build, tweak, and fix it, then you want to look at this board. If you're also looking to get a water cooling system for extreme overclocking and some neon lights and case cut outs for your next lan party, then you will probably be bored (no pun intended) with this board.
For the record, my setup has:
2.4Ghz P4 533MHz bus
512 Meg RAM
2 Maxtor 60G D740X hard drives
1 PNY NVIDIA GeForce Ti4600 w/128M
1 Pioneer A06 DVD-+R/-+RW/CD-R/CD-RW drive
1 Memory 48-24-48 CD-R/CD-RW
1 Sony digital Camcorder (firewire)
Maxtor 40 Gig external HD (USB)
PocketPC and Palms connected via USB and serial
USB 2.0 Hub
Epson Perfection 1260 scanner (USB)
Tons of development tools (Delphi, Visual Studio 6.0 and .Net, SQL Server, Office Suite, etc.)
It's not uncommon for me to be running 15 to 20 programs at a time (I am now running 5 copies of IE, Word, JBuilder 9, Visual C++ 6.0, Outlook, and notepad), and the system always runs well. And as for games, though I rarely play them I do get the Maximum PC demo CDs, and my PC kicks butt on these games.
Overclocking, and CPU speeds, are a tricky issue. 6 months after buying the top speed, it's available for half the price, and the newer chip that replaced it is very expensive. Personally, after toying with overclocking, given the lifetime of my computers and the percentage of speed improvements over time, I don't think that overclocking is worth it, especially when stability might be an issue.
Now that I have a 2.4GHz, I hope not to upgrade until I can purchase a 4GHz or better CPU at a reasonable cost (under $400). Little upgrades like from 2.4 to 3 GHz (or those from overclocking) simply aren't noticable enough to warrant the time and expense of the upgrade (in my humble eOpinion).
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 110
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Epinions.com ID:
SomeNYCGuy
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Member: Mario G
Location: New York
Reviews written: 31
Trusted by: 3 members
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