I Think I Fried My Motherboard and My Fatherboard Funny Commercial

Manufacturer	VIA
Model	P4PB Ultra
Price (street)	US$148
Availability	Now

THERE'S BEEN A RECENT TREND among motherboard manufacturers to get wild and crazy.

Well, wild and crazy for motherboard manufacturers, anyway.

Concerned that their products have become a commodity item, many companies are trying to distinguish their mobos with inclusions that would have been considered radical a year or two ago. A classic example is Soyo's DRAGON line, which we have reviewed extensively. A more recent example is Abit's MAX line, which we have also looked at in detail. These boards bundle in on-board RAID, Ethernet and audio, gobs of USB ports, and in some cases even 3.5″ bay media readers. This is not your father's motherboard.

Now VIA, known best for the chipsets that go on the motherboards, is getting into the act, as well. The P4PB Ultra is a Pentium 4 board based on VIA's P4X400 chipset. In addition to the fun that the P4X400 brings to the table (8X AGP, ATA-133, USB 2.0 and even unofficial DDR400 support) the P4PB Ultra offers up its own frivolity in the form of extra bundled goodies. But is the package enough to make the P4PB Ultra competitive in the crowded motherboard market? Read on to find out.

The specs
Though many of the P4PB Ultra's impressive extras are bundled with the motherboard rather than living on it, there are still a few interesting items on the board itself. Therefore, we'll start out by taking a look at the board's capabilities and then look at the bundled extras. Here are the stats on the board:

CPU support	Socket 478-based Intel Pentium 4 processors
Form factor	ATX
Chipset	VIA P4X400
North bridge	VIA VT8754
South bridge	VIA VT8235
Interconnect	V-Link (533MB/s)
PCI slots	6 32-bit/33MHz
AGP slots	2X/4X/8X AGP (1.5V only)
AMR/CNR slots	1 CNR
Memory	3 184-pin DIMM sockets Maximum of 3GB of DDR333/266/200 SDRAM (Unofficial DDR400 support)
Storage I/O	Floppy disk 2 channels ATA/133
RAID	Promise PDC20276 2 channels ATA/133 IDE RAID 0, 1 (no 0+1)
Legacy ports	1 PS/2 keyboard, 1 PS/2 mouse, Serial and Parallel ports
USB	2 USB 2.0/1.1 ports 4 additional USB 2.0/1.1 ports via included back plate Support for 10 total USB 2.0/1.1 ports
Audio	C-Media CMI8738-MX 6-channel audio standard audio jacks S/PDIF output ports (optical and coaxial) via included back plate expansion header
Ethernet	VIA VT8235 10/100 Ethernet
BIOS	Phoenix – AwardBIOS
Bus speeds	100-132MHz in 1MHz increments (for 100MHz FSB CPUs) 133-200MHz in 1MHz increments (for 133MHz FSB CPUs)
Bus dividers	None
Voltages	CPU: -0.1V to +0.1V from default in 0.025V increments DRAM: 2.5-2.8V in 0.1V increments AGP: 1.5-1.8V in 0.1V increments
Monitoring	Voltage, fan status, and temperature monitoring

If you read a lot of motherboard reviews, you've probably seen any one of the above features on other boards. However, when you look at them as a whole, finding another board that has all of them might prove difficult. Next we'll take a more detailed look at the board and its features, as well as those extras I keep talking about.

Taking the three-dollar tour
Before we get much farther in, it's probably best if you see what the board actually looks like, so let's start off with a nice picture of the full board:

The first thing that struck me about the board was its use of color. Sure, I sound like an art critic here, but I'm speaking from a practical standpoint. See the bright red jumper caps sprinkled around the board? Of course you do; they're easy to spot in the photo, so you can imagine how they jump out at you when the board is right in front of you. This is complemented by the fact that all the jumpers are clearly labeled. Have you ever spent five or ten minutes poking around the inside of your case with a flashlight, trying to find the jumper you need? Have you ever concluded that time period by cursing under your breath and beginning a search for the long-lost motherboard manual, because you either can't find the jumper at all, or can't figure out which of the six unlabeled jumpers you need? You won't with this board. Sure, it's just a few bright red jumper caps and some silkscreened lettering, but practically speaking, it's a nice feature.

VIA also used the bright red on the IDE RAID ports, so let's go over that as well. The RAID controller is a Promise PDC20276. This is a "lite" RAID chip of sorts, in that it will do RAID 0 or RAID 1, but not RAID 0+1. Lately it seems companies use either the PDC20276 or Highpoint's HPT372 for their on-board RAID solutions. Both chips offer RAID 0 or RAID 1 and ATA-133 support, but the Highpoint also offers RAID 0+1, which gives it an edge over the Promise. Of course, using RAID 0+1 on a controller with only two channels means running two drives per channel, which is traditionally a no-no, so the lack of RAID 0+1 may not bother enthusiasts interested in RAID anyway.

Ya don't see that every day

Now let's move on to another pretty color. Perhaps even more noticeable than the red pieces on the board are the bright yellow ones. One is an audio connector, but ignore that one for now, and look instead at the four blocks of pins mounted in bright yellow plastic. Each of these is a connector for two USB 2.0 ports; add in the two USB 2.0 ports that are mounted below the NIC port on the back of the board, and you wind up with a potential of ten USB 2.0 ports. Yes, there are other boards out there which will support ten USB 2.0 ports, but that doesn't mean that it's not impressive. Some of the other features manifest themselves on the port cluster of the P4PB Ultra, so a shot of the cluster is in order:

You can see the line in, line out, microphone and game ports for the on-board audio. That audio is provided by a C-Media CMI8738-MX, a chip popular with many manufacturers incorporating audio onto their motherboards, including Soyo in their DRAGON line. The implementation here doesn't seem as robust as Soyo's. For example, the DRAGON boards typically include a backplate with digital inputs and outputs of both the optical and coaxial variety. The P4PB Ultra includes a digital connector backplate, but unfortunately, there is no digital input (though the digital out is both optical and coaxial).

VIA's recent announcement of the Envy24PT chip gives me hope that a future revision of the P4PB Ultra will incorporate that chip with its 24 bit/96KHz audio capabilities. The C-Media solution is passable in some cases, but our sound card round-up revealed that those who really care about audio quality probably won't be satisfied with it. Fortunately for those people, one of those pretty red jumpers I mentioned earlier will disable the on-board audio if you'd like to add a sound card.

You can also see the two USB 2.0 ports I mentioned earlier, as well as an Ethernet port. It provides 10/100 Ethernet courtesy of the VT8235 south bridge. The port cluster rounds things out with the classics: two PS/2 ports, two serial ports and a parallel port.

A couple of other things are worth noting here: First, the P4PB Ultra has a lot of expansion slots—eight in all. There's one AGP slot, six PCI slots, and a CNR slot. However, now that we're talking about expansion slots, I should reveal that the P4PB Ultra breaks a Tech Report taboo: AGP card DIMM clip interference. Because of the placement of the AGP slot relative to the DIMM sockets, one or more of the DIMM clips closest to the AGP slot bump up against the graphics card, and won't open fully. Here's a picture of the P4PB Ultra with a Ti4600 card installed:

This is a common problem with boards that have six PCI slots. Of course, the scope of the problem depends on the size of your video card: the Radeon 9700 Pro interfered only with the DIMM 1 socket, while the Ti4600 obviously managed the hat trick. Still, this interference can make installing or removing RAM a lot more trying than it should be, and nobody wants to have to remove a video card to install or remove memory.

I mentioned before that the P4PB Ultra has a unique combination of features, and now that we've looked at the board in detail, you can see what I was talking about. The thing that strikes me about the board is that it makes no compromises for the on-board inclusions. Some manufacturers might include on-board audio, RAID and Ethernet, but lop off a couple of PCI slots because you probably won't need them so long as you use the on-board components. Others might include a ton of USB ports on the port cluster, but get the real estate for those ports by deleting legacy ports. The P4PB Ultra keeps your options open: You can use the on-board audio, RAID or NIC if you want. But if you want to fill the board with PCI cards instead, you have half a dozen slots at your disposal. If you want plenty of USB ports, you've got them: six physical ports, with headers for four more. But if you also want to plug in your old parallel printer, or use HyperTerminal to connect to a router, you can. Like I said, no compromises.

The BIOS and the goodies
I'm going to talk about the BIOS in passing, because the P4PB Ultra's is (1) pretty standard for a BIOS, and (2) has just about everything an enthusiast would want. The BIOS has RAM timing settings in abundance, including CAS latency, interleave, command rate, and Trp, Tras and Trcd settings. You can also choose from 200MHz, 266MHz, 333MHz or 400MHz memory speeds. In terms of overclocking options, the P4PB Ultra delivers. There is a multiplier setting, but that means little since unlocked Pentium 4's are about as common as winning Powerball tickets. More importantly, the front-side bus can be set in 1MHz increments up to 200MHz. If you'd like to pump up some voltages in hopes of raising that front-side bus even higher, no problem: The P4PB Ultra allows adjustment of AGP, DIMM and CPU voltages.

I mentioned previously that some of the nifty features of the P4PB Ultra weren't even on the board, so now we'll talk about the bundled accessories. A picture is worth a thousand words (or so I'm told), so here you go:

If you're really paying attention, you might notice that the I/O shield in the picture looks like it won't fit the port cluster properly. Don't worry, though; there's a knock-out plate filling the hole for the Ethernet port, but it's easily removed.

We've already talked about the backplate with the four additional USB 2.0 ports, but what about that other stuff? First up are rounded cables for both the floppy drive and hard drive. The IDE cable actually supports two devices, but you probably don't want to run it that way, of course. The power adapter can act as a useful ATX extension cable of sorts if the reach from your power supply is a little tight, but it's main purpose is to add a 4-pin "P4" power connector to a power supply that doesn't have one. If you're one of those people who bought a killer PSU before the advent of the new connector, you'll be happy to see an adapter like this.

There's one more nifty inclusion that isn't in the photo above, because it really deserves a photo of its own:

As you can probably guess, this is a media reader similar to the ones that Soyo includes with its DRAGON boards. Obviously it will allow data transfer from Memory Sticks or Secure Digital cards. The third port is a smart card reader, a feature I first saw included with Soyo's K7V DRAGON Plus board. At the time I reviewed that board, I had difficulty coming up with a use for the smart card reader, and frankly I haven't heard of a use since. Perhaps this feature is more useful in Europe or Asia; I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has some input on this subject.

The media reader fits in a 3.5″ bay, and unlike Soyo's readers, a 5.25″ adapter isn't included. Three proprietary cables (one for each slot) connect the reader to three proprietary ports on the motherboard. The good news here is that the reader doesn't take up any of the free USB 2.0 headers.

The even better news is that, if you're feeling jaunty, you can purchase Soyo's latest reader that is also bundled with the KT400 DRAGON board. Install these two boxes together, and you'll have two USB 2.0 ports and Compact Flash, Smart Media, Memory Stick and Secure Digital readers. You'd have the flash memory Rosetta Stone.

Our testing methods
As ever, we did our best to deliver clean benchmark numbers. Tests were run at least twice, and the results were averaged. Our test systems were configured like so:

	Intel D845PEBT2	Asus P4T533C	Abit SR7-8X	VIA P4PB Ultra
Processor	Pentium 4 2.8GHz	Pentium 4 2.8GHz	Pentium 4 2.8GHz	Pentium 4 2.8GHz
Front-side bus	533MHz (133MHz quad-pumped)	533MHz (133MHz quad-pumped)	533MHz (133MHz quad-pumped)	533MHz (133MHz quad-pumped)
Chipset	Intel 845PE	Intel 850E	SiS 648	VIA P4X400
North bridge	82845PE MCH	82850E MCH	648	VIA VT8754
South bridge	82801DB ICH4	82801BA ICH2	963	VIA VT8235
Chipset drivers	Intel Application Accelerator 6.22	Intel Application Accelerator 6.22	SiS AGP 1.10	VIA 4 in 1 4.43v VIA 4 in 1 4.45v
Memory size	512MB (1 DIMM)	512MB (4 RIMMs)	512MB (1 DIMM)	512MB (1 DIMM)
Memory type	Corsair XMS3200 PC2700 DDR SDRAM	Samsung PC800/PC1066 Rambus DRAM	Corsair XMS3200 PC2700 DDR SDRAM	Corsair XMS3200 PC2700 DDR SDRAM
Graphics	ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB (Catalyst 7.76 drivers)
Sound	Creative SoundBlaster Live!
Storage	Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X 7200RPM ATA/133 hard drive
OS	Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS updates	Service Pack 1

The new VIA Hyperion drivers (version 4.45v) came out as I was testing this motherboard, so I decided to test with both old and new drivers, to see what sort of performance improvements the new drivers offered. Also, I felt compelled to try out VIA's unofficial DDR400 support. The DDR333 tests were set as aggressively as the BIOS would allow (CAS 2, 1T command, 4 bank interleave, 2T Trp, 5T Tras and 2T Trcd). Unfortunately, these settings weren't stable when the memory clock was set for DDR400, so I was forced to back the Trp, Tras and Trcd settings down a notch for the DDR400 tests. The DDR400 configuration was only tested with the Hyperion drivers.

We used the following versions of our test applications:

• Cachemem 2.6
• SiSoft Sandra Standard 2002 SP1
• ZD Media Business Winstone 2001 1.0.3
• ZD Media Content Creation Winstone 2002 1.0.1
• Sphinx 3.3
• MadOnion 3DMark 2001 SE Build 330
• Unreal Tournament 2003 demo benchmark
• Comanche 4 demo benchmark
• Quake III Arena v1.31
• Serious Sam SE v1.07

The test systems' Windows desktop was set at 1024×768 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.

All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.

Memory performance

The DDR400 configuration is off to a good start here, placing within spitting distance of the PC800 850E config. Of course, anyone familiar with Sandra knows that good results here don't necessarily translate to real-world performance. With DDR333, the P4PB Ultra basically ties with the SiS 648 and the Intel 845PE. The newer drivers make no difference in memory performance, but that's expected.

While Sandra tends to reflect theoretical bandwidth peaks, Cachemem paints a more realistic picture. Here, the DDR400 config doesn't fare nearly as well, as it ties with the DDR333 configs in read speeds, and comes in slower on writes.

The DDR400 configuration pays a price for its higher bandwidth in Sandra, and that price is paid in significantly higher latency, on par with PC1066 RDRAM. The 845PE wins out here, and as we would expect, the newer drivers make no difference in memory latency.

Business Winstone

If the newer drivers made no difference on the memory tests, they certainly make up for it here. The DDR333 configuration sees a whopping 7.4 point jump in Business Winstone 2001—truly an amazing improvement considering it's coming entirely from a driver revision. It's also interesting to note that the DDR400 configuration scores lower than DDR333, likely due to the higher memory latency.

Content Creation Winstone

The difference isn't as drastic this time, but once more, the new Hyperion drivers notably improve the P4PB Ultra's performance. In another repeat performance, the DDR400 once again scores lower than the DDR333 config.

3DMark2001 SE

With the DDR400 config bringing up the rear on 3DMark, sticking with DDR333 is looking better all the time. The Hyperion drivers help the DDR333 configuration jump 232 points here; that doesn't seem like a lot when the scores are in the 14,000 range, but it's enough to vault the P4PB Ultra past two of its competitors.

Comanche 4

With the exception of the PC1066 system, the Comanche 4 scores are pretty tight, with less than 1.5 frames per second separating last place from second place. In a now firmly established trend, the Hyperion drivers account for a performance boost, while DDR400 hurts the P4PB Ultra's showing.

Quake III Arena

Quake III Arena has always been hungry for bandwidth, so it's no surprise that the RDRAM configuration rules the roost here. A much more interesting point is the improvement offered by the Hyperion drivers, which account for a 7.3% increase in frame rate and take the P4PB Ultra DDR333 config from last place to third.

Unreal Tournament 2003

As you may remember, the SiS 648 was unable to complete this benchmark, which explains the blank spot on the graphs. There are basically four tiers on these tests: The 850E PC800 and P4PB Ultra DDR400 are tied for last, with the P4PB Ultra with DDR333 and old drivers just a small notch above. Next up are the 845PE and P4PB Ultra with DDR333 and the Hyperion drivers, and the 850E with PC1066 stands alone on top of the hill. The gain from the Hyperion drivers is small, but hey, free performance is good.

Serious Sam SE

Obviously Serious Sam SE benefits from the Hyperion drivers as well. The DDR333 config jumps from last place all the way to second, with a nearly 7% gain in frame rate. In a broken record trend, the DDR400 config comes in second to last, even with the benefit of the Hyperion drivers.

Speech recognition
Sphinx is a high-quality speech recognition routine that needs the latest computer hardware to run at speeds close to real-time processing. We use two different versions, built with two different compilers, in an attempt to ensure we're getting the best possible performance.

There are two goals with Sphinx. The first is to run it faster than real time, so real-time speech recognition is possible. The second, more ambitious goal is to run it at about 0.8 times real time, where additional CPU overhead is available for other sorts of processing, enabling Sphinx-driven real-time applications.

All of the tested configurations manage to run faster than real time, but there are significant performance differences between the various configurations. The P4PB Ultra DDR400 configuration scores another last-place finish, while the two DDR333 configurations score in the middle of the pack. The Hyperion drivers prove somewhat helpful here as well, though not to the same degree as in previous tests.

Conclusions
The P4PB Ultra is a great package at a great price. It bundles together many of the popular on-board features like RAID, audio and Ethernet, but with six PCI slots and a full contingent of legacy ports, it doesn't do so at the expense of expandability or compatibility. Given its feature set and overclocking options, the P4PB Ultra itself would be a solid choice at its current asking price; the bundled cables and media reader are icing on the cake.

Of course, features and included goodies aren't everything; performance is important, as well. Here, VIA's new Hyperion drivers help the P4PB Ultra's cause considerably. The new drivers were good for an increase of seven percent or so in some of our benchmarks, to say nothing of the 11% jump in Business Winstone. More testing is required before we'll know whether other VIA chipsets will benefit from the Hyperions as much as the P4PB Ultra's P4X400 chipset, but if you're running a VIA board, these drivers are definitely worth a look. A free 7-11% performance boost doesn't come along every day.

The DDR400 results, on the other hand, were disappointing. Some of the performance deficit can be blamed on the relaxed timings that had to be used, but all of our experiments so far with DDR400 suggest that it's best to wait until this technology has matured.

A final word about the P4PB Ultra: If you're looking for a Pentium 4 solution, you'd do well to give this board a look. The performance (especially with the new drivers) is impressive, and you get a lot of capability for your money. If you need RAID, audio, Ethernet and lots of USB ports, the P4PB Ultra has what you need. And if you decide later that you need better RAID, better sound, better networking and additional ports, you can add a RAID card, sound card, gigabit Ethernet card, and Firewire card, and still have two PCI slots left. I've seen gymnasts that aren't that flexible.

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Source: https://techreport.com/review/4486/vias-p4pb-ultra-motherboard/

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