Intel chipset with integrated graphics g31. Chipsets that support the Intel Xeon processor

We already know about Intel's plans to start deliveries of budget chipsets P31 and G31 in the third quarter of this year. These chipsets are designed to replace the i945x series chipsets in the long run. The boards based on the new chipsets will support 45 nm Intel processors, but it would be wrong to attribute this feature to the merits of the chipsets themselves. The Intel P31 and G31 chipsets will initially support 1066 MHz bus processors, and will be allowed to support 1333 MHz bus in the first quarter. Motherboard manufacturers are already introducing support for 1333 MHz bus for those chipsets that do not have this capability. The Intel P31 and G31 chipsets will be pin-compatible with the i945x series chipsets, the southbridges will remain the same - ICH7 and ICH7R, which will provide native support for the IDE interface, which is still in demand in the budget sector. In a word, the new chipsets do not offer any special innovations, besides the integrated graphics of the Intel GMA 3100 class for the Intel G31 chipset. They are introduced in order to unify the range of chipsets - already in the fourth quarter of this year, every second desktop chipset supplied by Intel will belong to the x3x family.

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DigiTimes reported yesterday that Intel started shipping the P31 and G31 chipsets on July 4th. The wholesale cost of each of the chipsets is $30. Note that i945x series chipsets are offered at the following prices:

• i945GT -> $39;
• i945G -> $37;
• i945GT -> $33;
• i945GC -> $25;
• i945GZ -> $24;
• i945PL -> $23.

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Thus, the Intel G31 and P31 chipsets, costing $30, join the friendly ranks of the i945x series chipsets. Note that this will not help i945x series chipsets leave the market faster - even in the first quarter of 2008 their share will be close to 35%. In the second quarter, the chipsets of the "third series" will be replaced by new chipsets of the Eaglelake family, and the i945x series chipsets will move to the lowest rung of the hierarchy, replacing the i865x series chipsets. Please note that by the first quarter of 2008 the share of i965x series chipsets will be measured by a few percent, and the x3x series chipsets will unconditionally dominate (almost 60%). By the way, in the current quarter the cost of the Intel P35 chipset will be reduced from $34 to $33, but this will hardly affect the retail price of motherboards.

Used since older versions to resolve conflict regarding PATA support.

Specifications

The G31 chipset's system bus, called the QPB 800, runs at 1066 megahertz. This device is capable of supporting dual-channel data streaming up to 800 megahertz. The maximum amount of RAM is four gigabytes. The G31 chipset type is not designed to work with servers, so it is called pseudo-synchronous.

As for the integrated graphics adapter, the GMA 3100 provides good quality images and supports DirectX version 9.

The data transfer rate between the bridges is two gigabytes per second, that is, one gigabyte per second goes out in one direction.

The chipset is able to support four SerialATA channels, which, according to the characteristics of the G31 chipset, means the ability to connect four hard drives that will operate in SATA 300 mode. The latter designation shows the data transfer rate within the system, that is, the maximum speed will reach 300 megabytes per second.

As for power consumption, there is nothing to worry about, since motherboards based on the G31 chipset are budget and do not have advanced features.

Supported processors

Motherboards with the G31 chipset support processors based on the Core 2 Duo microarchitecture with a processor bus frequency of no more than 1066 MHz. working with this chipset is about 50 watts. The chipset also works with Pentium and Celeron processors, but only with socket 775 support.

Overclocking potential

For the overclocking example, the G31 chipset was taken as a basis. To use the board's memory settings, you need to go to the overclocking section, which is called the Fox Central Control Unit. After that, you need to choose the optimal frequency, that is, the highest. The higher the frequency of operation, the higher the performance. After choosing the highest value, you need to look in the system monitoring section. The temperature of the current state of the entire system will be displayed there.

Now you can go directly to overclocking, and for this you need to go to the Fox Central Control Unit section. By choosing the maximum value, you can look at the performance gain. The G31 chipset is capable of overclocking the processor from 333 to a stable 600 megahertz.

Example motherboard with this chipset

As an example of a motherboard, a microATX format model from Asus is presented. This device is able to work with both dual-core processors and quad-core representatives of the series Intel Core 2 and Quad Core. The socket is on the P5KPL-AM 775 motherboard, which means that only 45nm processors are suitable.

The universal system bus operating at 800, 1066, 1333 and 1600 MHz can support RAM DDR2, reaching 1066 megahertz in operation.

To unlock the full potential of the processors running on this motherboard, you can overclock the system bus to 1600 megahertz.

As you know, to work with applications that use 3D graphics, was more productive, the motherboard has two slots for RAM. The motherboard can support dual-channel data rates up to 1066 MHz, which will increase the speed of demanding applications.

To implement and play modern computer games at that time, the PCI architecture was improved. Now this tire is called PCI Express. With four times the bandwidth, you can enjoy every second of 3D gaming.

Also in the motherboard running on the G31 chipset, there is support for high-quality sound, additional settings for BIOS from the manufacturer, a controller for system cooling that optimizes its operation.

Conclusion

The choice of the rest of the equipment depends on the choice of a motherboard running on a particular chipset. Thanks to the chipset, the capabilities of the entire system change: the number of supported processors, the frequencies of components, the parameters of the integrated graphics processor, power consumption, and much more.

Depending on the chipset, we can assume how powerful the system will be, what will be its overclocking potential. You choose.

Motherboards based on the G31 chipset are budget and are not designed for server manipulation and other advanced features. This motherboard option is ideal for the average user, that is, for working with simple applications, surfing websites and running not too demanding games.

Various manufacturers add many additional features to their motherboards, such as power management or BIOS settings recovery.

The chipset is an important component of a computer because it contains all the important interfaces and largely determines the system's feature set.

For example, all modern chipsets contain many interfaces for expansion cards (PCI Express or PCI), a dual-channel memory controller (on the Intel platform), several USB 2.0 controllers (two ports per controller), an HD Audio controller, gigabit network controllers, and modern storage controllers Serial ATA with four to six ports. Some chipsets also include remote controllers.

Chipset Intel G31 Express

The Intel G31 chipset is a chipset entry level and consumes a minimum of energy. The G31 falls under the category of mainstream desktop chipsets for "mainstream computing". This means that this chipset is completely unsuitable for high-end systems and does not support any advanced features. The G31 chipset was designed as a cost-effective option for ordinary user. Therefore, it is aimed at processors such as Core 2, Pentium Dual Core or similar Celerons based on the Core 2 microarchitecture.

The G31 chipset is limited to 4GB of memory, while the G33 and G35 support up to 8GB. The low-end chipset only supports dual-channel DDR2-800 memory (although this is not a downside compared to DDR3) and works with an ICH7 southbridge instead of an ICH8, ICH9, or ICH10. As a result, the G31 only supports four SATA/300 ports, but provides two more UltraATA/100 channels, while newer chipsets support either one legacy ATA channel or none at all. The G31 with the ICH7 Southbridge provides eight USB 2.0 ports, HD audio, traditional PCI slots, and as little as a 100Mbps network controller. If you need a faster Ethernet connection, then look for a motherboard that comes with a PCIe network controller to provide gigabit Ethernet. And finally, although the G31 chipset has one x16 PCI Express upgrade slot, it is not compatible with PCI Express 2.0.

Motherboards with the G31 chipset usually have one analog D-SUB15 display output, and sometimes a DVI digital output. Since the GMA3100 is not suitable for HTPC (Home Theater), motherboards do not have HDMI outputs; you should also not expect two digital outputs from such boards.

The G31 chipset doesn't have a single feature that makes it special. It doesn't support DirectX 10, doesn't provide 3D performance that's good for gaming, and is limited to 4GB of memory. However, all these limitations are not so critical for a basic PC for everyday work. The G31 chipset is cheap, supports all Core 2 processors, including quad-core models, and accepts any high-end graphics card, so it's almost as suitable for gamers as the high-end chipset. It was motherboard manufacturers who turned the G31 from a "loser" for the mass market into a chipset for efficient platforms.

What is the difference between north and south bridges for INTEL and AMD

In the case of Intel, the chipset is represented by the northbridge, which is located next to the processor and is "responsible" for all high-speed devices (processor, video card, RAM), and the southbridge, which coordinates and connects low-speed interfaces (hard drive, audio, PCI slots, USB, etc.). The bridges are also interconnected using various bus implementations such as VIA's V-Link.

There is only one chipset in the AMD platform, since the memory controller is built into the processor itself, and the connection peripherals assigned to the analogue of PCI-E - proprietary Hyper Transport bus.

History of Intel chipsets

There have been many Intel chipsets released in recent years. We decided to summarize the data in a table that reflects the most important stages in the development of split graphics chipsets, starting with the first SDRAM chipsets for the Pentium 4 (2001).

Chipset	Intel 845	Intel 865/875	Intel 915/925	Intel 945/955/975	Intel 965
release date	2001	2003	2004	2005	2006
code name	Brookdale	Springdale/ Canterwood	Grantsdale/Alderwood	Lakeport/Glenwood	Broadwater
Socket	478	478	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775
Processor support	Pentium 4, Celeron	Pentium 4, Celeron	Pentium 4, Celeron	Pentium 4, Pentium D, Celeron D	Core 2, Pentium 4, Pentium D, Celeron D
Processor generation	130 nm Northwood	130nm Northwood, 90nm Prescott	90nm Prescott	90nm Prescott, Smithfield	90nm Prescott, Smithfield, 65nm Conroe
FSB frequency	FSB400, FSB533	FSB533, FSB800	FSB533, FSB800	FSB533, FSB800, FSB1066	FSB533, FSB800, FSB1066
Memory controller	PC133 SDRAM, DDR266	Dual DDR333, DDR400	Dual DDR400, DDR2-533	Dual DDR2-667	Dual DDR2-800
GUI	AGP4X	AGP 8X	PCI Express x16	PCI Express x16	PCI Express x16
Max. memory size	2 GB	4 GB	4 GB	8 GB	8 GB
south bridge	ICp (82801BA), ICp (82801DB) - 421 pins	ICp (82801EB) - 460 pins	ICH6 (82801FB) - 652 pins	ICH7 (82801GB) - 652 pins	ICH8 (82801HB) - 652 contacts
Number of USB ports	4x USB / 6x USB 2.0	8x USB 2.0	8x USB 2.0	8x USB 2.0	8x USB 2.0
UltraATA/100	2 channels	2 channels	2 channels	1 channel
RAID support	Not	RAID 0	RAID 0, 1 (ICH6-R)	RAID 0, 1.5 (ICH6-7)	RAID 0, 1.5 (ICH8-R)
Serial ATA	Not	2x Serial ATA/150	4x Serial ATA/150	4x Serial ATA/300	6x Serial ATA/300
Sound	AC97 2.1	AC97 2.3	HD Audio	HD Audio	HD Audio
Net	Via PCI	Via CSA or PCI interface	Via PCI Express	Via PCI Express	Embedded at 1 Gbps
Model options	845D (DDR memory), 845G/GL (with graphics), 845G, GE, PE, GV (DDR333)	865G (with graphics), 865PE (FSB800), 848P (one memory channel), 865GV (with graphics only)	915G (with graphics), 915PL (max. 2GB DDR400), 915GL (max. DDR400 with graphics), 915GV (with graphics only), 910GL (FSB533 and graphics only), 925XE (FSB1066)	945G (with graphics), 945PL (max. FSB800), 945GL (max. FSB800 with graphics), 945GZ (max. FSB800 and graphics only)	G965 (with graphics), Q965 (with graphics, controls)

The chipsets that came out after the 915 and 925 did not feature any revolutionary features, but they were still better than the previous models. The 925XE was the first chipset to support the FSB1066 bus (266 MHz physical frequency) required by the first Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processors. 945 and 955 (Lakeport and Glenwood) increased the frequency of DDR2 memory to 333 MHz (DDR2-667), and ICH7 added two more PCI Express lanes (six instead of four), and SATA controller updated to Serial ATA/300. RAID support now includes a RAID 5 array, but Intel has dropped the two legacy UltraATA/100 interfaces. Dual-core Pentium D processors required the 945 or 955 chipset.

ICH8 became the current southbridge for the 965 (Broadwater) chipset line, which, together with the 975X, became the foundation for the promotion of Intel Core 2 processors. The 965 chipset lost its UltraATA controller, and the AC97 interface was removed in favor of HD Audio solutions (which today can be called the standard ). The ICH8 supports SATA 2.5 including external SATA (eSATA) ports and contains a gigabit Ethernet controller. The base model ICH8 supports four SATA ports, but the RAID version ICH8-R supports six.

Each generation of chipsets has a number of models that use the integrated graphics core, using part of the RAM for the frame buffer. The 915G and 910G chipsets use the GMA900 graphics core with four pixel pipelines running at 300 MHz, support for MPEG2 and DirectX 9 hardware decoding. The 945G chipset has an updated graphics core, the GMA950 frequency increased to 400 MHz, but it still did not receive full support for Shader Model 3 (DirectX 9.0c). But the GMA950 at least supports HD video. Finally, the 965 line has the GMA3000 graphics core, with eight programmable pipelines, which runs at 667 MHz when running video or graphics calculations.

Intel P45 chipsets

The P35 (Bear Lake) line was replaced by the P45 line, codenamed Eaglelake. New line chipset consists of four different models(two of them with integrated graphics) and brings the PCI Express 2.0 standard to the mass market.

New P45 Chipset Features: Supports PCI Express 2.0 graphics, effectively doubling the throughput per PCI Express lane from 250MB/s to 500MB/s per lane (in one direction). However, to benefit from the higher bandwidth, the PCI Express 2.0 interface requires a PCIe 2.0 compatible expansion card (such as a graphics card).

The PCI Express 2.0 bus requires more power, so the P45 chipset is less power efficient than its predecessor, despite the fact that the P45 is manufactured using Intel's 65nm process.

The P45 is the first mainstream Intel chipset to support 16GB of memory, while the P35 is limited to 8GB.

Intel P45 Express chipset block diagram

All motherboards based on the P45 chipset have the following features.

• Support for the entire Core 2 family of processors, including Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme in 45nm and 65nm, Pentium Dual Core, and typically Celeron.
• Support for ATI CrossfireX configurations with multiple graphics cards.
• PCI Express 2.0, up to two slots physically capable of supporting x16 cards, but on eight lanes each.
• Additional PCI Express 1.0 slots.
• Six Serial ATA 3Gb/s ports.
• Gigabit Ethernet with different PHY chips.
• RAID 0 and 1 (requires ICH10R southbridge to support RAID 5).
• AHCI SATA 3Gb/s with Native Command Queuing (support optical drives SATA and hot swap).
• eSATA interface (if available): all SATA connectors can be routed to back panel motherboard and use as eSATA.
• High Definition Audio (HD Audio): From a motherboard based on the P45 chipset, you can expect at least a simple audio codec that will do all the audio processing with the CPU.
• Boards do not support Windows 98 and Windows ME

3x line chipsets (Bearlake)

The 3x line chipsets (Bearlake) consist of four variants: G33, G35, P35 and X38. All chipsets still use the 775-pin Intel Land Grid Array (LGA775) socket.

Pay attention to the new southbridge ICH9. While the ICH6, ICH7, and ICH8 southbridges were packaged in a 652-pin BGA package, ICH9 is packaged in a 676-pin Ball Grid Array package, with the southbridge containing 4.6 million transistors and manufactured using a 130nm process technology. Although there are more transistors than in the ICH8, the TDP is still 4W. The ICH9 provides six full-featured Serial ATA/300 ports with NCQ (Native Command Queuing), and also supports eSATA and port multipliers that allow up to four SATA devices to be connected to a single SATA port. As we found, the performance of USB 2.0 and ICH9 southbridge RAID is superior to ICH8 and ICH7.

Thus, if a motherboard based on the 965 chipset supports VRM 11, it will technically be possible to install 45nm processors on it. The VRM 11 programs the power lines using 8-bit Voltage IDs (VIDs), which gives a step change of 0.00625 V. The minimum operating voltage is no longer 0.8375 V (as in the VRM 10 specification), it has decreased to 0.5 V The VRM 11 also allows the load to be shared across more phases, and the lines support what's called dual edge modulation, which allows the regulators to drive multiple pulses to the transistors using smaller capacitors. The goal is not only to reduce voltage steps and lower operating voltage for 45nm processors, but also to provide enough power at different voltage levels that can change frequently. All this is done together with a more stringent specification of the voltage rise level.

The diversity of the Intel chipset portfolio is difficult to understand, as some features overlap from model to model. Choosing a higher model number will not necessarily give you a more advanced chipset. So, for example, the G35 provides more advanced graphics, but does not support DDR3 memory and does not work with the newer ICH9 southbridge as the G33 does. However Intel chipset The G31 is actually an entry-level chipset and consumes minimal power.

The G31 falls under the category of mainstream desktop chipsets for "mainstream computing". This means that this chipset is completely unsuitable for high-end systems and does not support any advanced features. The G31 chipset has been designed as a value for the average user. Therefore, it is aimed at processors such as Core 2, Pentium Dual Core, or similar Celerons based on the Core 2 microarchitecture.

The G31 chipset is limited to 4GB of memory, while the G33 and G35 support up to 8GB. The low-end chipset only supports dual-channel DDR2-800 memory (although this is not a drawback compared to DDR3) and works with an ICH7 southbridge instead of an ICH8, ICH9, or ICH10. As a result, the G31 only supports four SATA/300 ports, but provides two more UltraATA/100 channels, while newer chipsets support either one legacy ATA channel or none at all. The G31 with the ICH7 Southbridge provides eight USB 2.0 ports, HD audio, traditional PCI slots, and as little as a 100Mbps network controller. If you need a faster Ethernet connection, then look for a motherboard that comes with a PCIe network controller to provide gigabit Ethernet. Both motherboards presented in our review are just that. And finally, although the G31 chipset has one x16 PCI Express upgrade slot, it is not compatible with PCI Express 2.0.

Although FSB1066 was originally listed, all of the current G31 motherboards we reviewed also support FSB1333 processors. Both of our motherboards support all Core 2 processors, including Core 2 Quad processors. Incredibly, even the three-phase voltage regulator on the Foxconn G31 motherboard is enough to run the Core 2 Quad Q9550, in case you decide to abandon the dual-core processor in favor of a quad-core one.

Graphics core GMA3100

Embedded graphic solutions won't give you the performance and features that decent 3D graphics cards like Radeon HD4850/4870 and Nvidia GeForce 260/280. Even "mass" video cards on GPUs GeForce 9600GT far outperform integrated solutions. However, we decided to stick with integrated graphics to keep power consumption as low as possible.

The G31 chipset contains the Intel GMA3100 integrated graphics core based on the GMA3000 core. This is the same graphics core that Intel first used in the 965 chipset line (under the name GMA X3000), and although the G965 supports pixel shaders 3.0, the G31, G33, Q35 chipsets are limited to the SM 2.0 model, which means support for DirectX 9.0c. However, this is sufficient for all functions of the Aero interface in operating system Windows vista. Motherboards with the G31 chipset usually have one analog D-SUB15 display output, and sometimes a DVI digital output. Since the GMA3100 is not suitable for HTPC (Home Theater), motherboards do not have HDMI outputs; you should also not expect two digital outputs from such boards.

CPU Intel Core 2 Duo was released in late summer 2006 and made a splash. Suddenly AMD processors Athlon 64 X2 bypassed a product that provided better performance while consuming less energy. Released at 2.66 GHz (2.93 GHz for expensive Extreme versions), the Core 2 Duo maintained its superior status for more than two years.

The first update was to increase the processor bus frequency from FSB1066 to FSB1333 in the summer of 2007 with the release of the P35 platform and slightly modified processors. The second modification is the frequency of the FSB1600 in high-end models and the change in the manufacturing process from 65 nm to 45 nm. All Core 2 Duo E7000, E8000, and Core 2 Quad Q8000 and Q9000 processors are based on 45nm Wolfdale cores. Quad-core Yorkfield processors use two Wolfdale dies.

Over time, Wolfdale processors have improved; the most recent modification was the introduction of the M0 stepping, which reduced the idle power consumption of the processor compared to the L steppings. We were looking for a suitable processor that would use the latest spacing, and found a Core 2 Duo E7200 with only 3 MB L2 cache instead of 6 MB . Of course, the reduced capacity of the L2 cache is another opportunity to reduce power consumption, which we did not fail to take advantage of.

Currently, the E7000 line consists of only two models: the E7300 with a clock speed of 2.66 GHz and the E7200 with a frequency of 2.53 GHz. Both models are based on the Wolfdale core, but have only 3 MB of L2 cache and reduced frequency. system bus FSB1066 (for comparison: all Core 2 Duo E8000 processors have FSB1333 and 6 MB L2 cache). The E7000 line does not support either Virtualization Technology (VT) or Trusted Execution Technology (TXT); for our purposes, this is not a problem, since both technologies are irrelevant for "mass" desktop users. Reduced L2 cache capacity combined with reduced clock frequencies makes this processor an excellent choice for a highly energy efficient computer, as you can see from our testing. Despite the claimed TDP of 65W, the Core 2 Duo E7200 consumes far less than this ceiling.

CONTENT

This review is a kind of continuation of last year's article “Choosing a chipset for Core 2 Duo. The era before Intel 3 Series "and one of the last parts of the material dedicated to chipsets for Intel platforms LGA775. This time, chipsets of the Intel 3 Series family will be considered, the products on which, although not in in large numbers but are still on the market.

The company released the Intel 3 Series chipset line in 2007 to support the expected 45nm Penryn family processors with a 1333MHz bus, which could not function on the then popular motherboards based on the Intel x965 and 945x chipsets. In total, there were eight models in the line: the mass entry-level P31, P35 for mid-level systems, integrated G31, G33 and G35, the flagship X38, and solutions for the corporate market - Q35 and Q33. Of course, the novelties were not limited to supporting future processors - with their appearance, the era of DDR3 memory and PCI bus Express 2.0 (the latter is valid only for the high-end X38 chipset). In addition, the south bridge was updated, which became known as ICH9: the number of USB 2.0 ports increased to twelve, and support for the technology appeared. Intel Turbo Memory, which is based on the installation of an additional module with flash memory on the board, which allows you to speed up the loading of applications in the operating room Windows system Vista.

Intel P31/G31 Express

The P31 and G31 chipsets have replaced the Intel 945x/946x series with the only difference being FSB support up to 1333 MHz and DDR2-800 memory with a maximum of 4 GB. The integrated solution has an updated GMA 3100 graphics core instead of the GMA 950 used previously. The rest of the functionality was limited to ICH7 or ICH7R southbridges, which support only eight USB 2.0 ports, four PCI-E 1.1 lanes (six for ICH7R), four SATA II channels (the ability to organize RAID arrays of levels 0, 1, 5 and 10 for ICH7R) and Fast Ethernet.

In addition, entry-level system logic sets were limited in their ability to operate at high FSB frequencies, i.e. overclocking of motherboards based on P31 and G31 left much to be desired and was at the level of 430-450 MHz.

Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G

The Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G board, which is now one of the most available solutions for processors of the Penryn family.

The motherboard comes in a green and black box that lists the board's features, including Easy Energy Saver technology.

The scope of delivery is standard for products intended for the mass market:

• instructions for installing AMD / Intel processors;
• disk with drivers and software;
• two SATA cables;
• one IDE cable;
• one FDD cable;
• rear I/O bar;
• sticker on system unit.

The board is made in the ATX form factor, is very compact, but despite this, there is a lot of empty space on it - in this way it even somewhat resembles some Intel solutions. Model GA-P31-ES3G supports all modern processors, including even Pentium 4 and Pentium D, with a system bus frequency from 800 to 1333 MHz. The board has only two DIMM slots, and the maximum amount of DDR2-1066/800/667 memory can reach 4 GB, which is quite enough for an entry-level system.

The design of the GA-P31-ES3G has certain flaws: the IDE connector is located between the DIMM slot and the power connector of the board, as well as the FDD connector installed parallel to the bottom edge of the board - but given that there are practically no drives with an IDE interface on sale, and a floppy drive has outlived itself, then these disadvantages can not be counted.

The processor power subsystem is built according to a 3-phase scheme using solid capacitors and chokes in armored cores. In the rest of the circuits, conventional capacitances and simpler chokes are installed. Connector for additional power supply of the ATX12V processor.

Chipset microcircuits are cooled by small aluminum heatsinks - some boards based on Intel P965 Express from the same manufacturer were equipped with a similar cooling system. Four connectors are provided for connecting fans, one of which, a four-pin connector, is designed for a fan from a processor cooler.

The functionality of the GA-P31-ES3G is minimal, due to the limited capabilities of the ICH7 south bridge. The board has four SATA II channels, eight USB 2.0 ports, four of which are routed to the rear panel, one IDE channel, three PCI-E x1 slots, and three conventional PCI. There is also a COM and LPT port.

The audio subsystem is implemented using the old familiar Realtek ALC888 HDA codec, the Gigabit Ethernet network is based on the Realtek 8111C chip.

The rear panel has two PS / 2 connectors, coaxial S / PDIF, four USB port, network connector, COM- and LPT-port, three audio connectors. In fact, a standard set that products from the time of the Intel 945P chipset could boast of.

Clear CMOS contacts are placed closer to the edge of the board, unlike their favorite place near the PCI-E x1 slots, which eliminates the constant dismantling of a video card with a two-slot cooler when resetting BIOS settings.

And, of course, the GA-P31-ES3G is equipped with two BIOS chips, which will allow you to restore the system if the microcode in one of them is damaged. It is gratifying that such a feature can be found on an inexpensive motherboard, while two BIOS chips from competitors can be found on products of a higher class.

BIOS

Board BIOS Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G is based on the Award Software microcode and is somewhat inferior to modern solutions in terms of its capabilities. The available settings for overclocking are concentrated in the MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.) menu, but before going there, you must press the “Ctrl + F1” combination, otherwise the items for setting memory delays will not be available.

In the M.I.T. you can control the processor multiplier (both integer and fractional), change the frequency of the system bus, PCI-E interface, adjust the memory mode and various voltages.

The FSB bus frequency varies within 100-700 MHz, the PCI-E bus - from 90 to 150 MHz. Rough control of the Performance Level is available in the Performance Enhance item, where you can choose from Standard, Turbo or Extreme modes. To fine-tune the PL, there is a Static tRead Value item among the memory timings, which already allows you to select more familiar digital values. To select the operating mode (i.e. frequency) of the memory, there is a small list of multipliers.

The ability to change the voltage is present for the processor (up to 1.6 V), FSB bus (up to +0.3 V from nominal), memory (up to +0.7 V), PCI-E bus (up to +0.3 V), north bridge (up to +0.3 V) and GTL logic. It is also possible to reduce the FSB voltage to -0.15 V.

Parameter	Range of changes
DDR2 OverVoltage Control	+ 0.1-0.7 V, in 0.1 V steps
PCI-E OverVoltage Control	+ 0.1-0.3V, in 0.1V steps
FSB OverVoltage Control	+ 0.1-0.3V, in 0.1V steps
FSB DeOverVoltage Control	- 0.05-0.15 V, in 0.05 V steps
(G)MCH OverVoltage Control	+ 0.1-0.3V, in 0.1V steps
CPU GTLREF Voltage Ratio	0.54/0.566/0.603/0.636
CPU Voltage Control	0.5-1.6V, 0.00625V steps

Poor monitoring allows you to track only the voltages on the processor, memory, +3.3 and +12 V lines, as well as the speed of four fans. It is possible to configure an alarm when a certain processor temperature is reached or when each of the four fans stops.

To update the BIOS, you can use the built-in Q-Flash utility- just connect a "flash drive" with a saved version of the microcode.

Additional software

The Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G motherboard allows you to install the Easy Energy Saver utility, which has common features with Dynamic Energy Saver Advanced, but unlike the latter, it does not control the dynamic shutdown of the processor power phases when the system is idle, but simply calculates the saved electricity when the voltage drops power supply and activation of C1E and EIST technologies for processors of the Core 2 family.

As a result, the practical application of this utility is not so much.

Overclocking

To find out the overclocking potential of the board, the following configuration was assembled:

• Video card: ASUS EN8800GS TOP 384M;
• Power supply: Silver Power SP-S850 (850 W).

Testing was carried out in Windows environment Vista Ultimate x86 SP1, using OCCT 3.01 with an hour run and large matrix as a stress test. The memory multiplier was set to the minimum possible, the timings looked like 5-5-5-15. BIOS version board was F6.

As a rule, during overclocking, the PCI Express bus frequency should be blocked at the level of 100-110 MHz, but with such settings, the system could only boot at the FSB frequency of 350 MHz. If PCI-E is left in Auto mode, then the ceiling is practically limited by the capabilities of the chipset itself.

In our case, it was 455 MHz with raising the voltage on the chipset and FSB by +0.1 V and 465 MHz by raising these voltages by another +0.1 V.

Further increase in voltages and changing the memory timings did not affect the potential of the board, although there is information on the Web about the maximum overclocking to the FSB level of 500 MHz and higher. Intel P35/G35/G33 Express

The Intel P35/G33 Express chipsets, which replaced the Intel P965/G965, were the first chipsets introduced by Intel during the announcement of a new line of chipsets at Computex 2007. The rest had the status of a "paper" announcement and appeared a little later. New products for the first time supported DDR3-1066/800 memory with a maximum capacity of 8 GB, in addition to DDR2-800/667, and motherboard manufacturers could release products designed for any of these types, or even combined solutions. The ICH9 southbridge expanded the functionality of the system with twelve USB 2.0 ports, its modifications ICH9R and ICH9DO supported six SATA II channels with the ability to organize RAID arrays of levels 0, 1, 5 and 10. turn off unused speed channels serial interface. The integrated graphics core of the G33 is similar to that of the G31, but with one difference, which is the support for Clear Video video enhancement technology. The P35's CrossFire mode was advertised as "x16 + x4", which, like the P965, hindered tandem performance. Intel Turbo Memory technology was never widely adopted, although there were high hopes for it.

The integrated Intel G35 Express chipset acquired a more advanced core - GMA X3500, but only supported DDR2 memory up to 800 MHz and was equipped with the ICH8 south bridge (ICH8R, ICH8DH), known from P965 / G965 chipsets.

Intel Q35/Q33 Express

For the corporate market, the Q35 and Q33 chipsets were released, which contained the GMA 3100 video core, supported DDR2-800/667 memory and were equipped with ICH9, ICH9R and ICH9DO southbridges with the ability to implement Intel Turbo Memory (only Q35). These solutions differed in support of Intel Trusted Execution and Intel Virtualization for Directed I/O (Q35) technologies.

ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP

Representatives of the business segment did not come to us for testing, so let's consider a product based on the Intel P35 Express mid-range chipset that was mass-produced at the time. The ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP Motherboard is packaged in a black box with a handle and a hinged lid that lists all product features and supported technologies.

Contents of delivery:

• instructions for the motherboard;
• instructions for WiFi access point;
• disk with drivers and software;
• four SATA cables;
• one IDE cable;
• one FDD cable;
• rear I/O bar;
• WiFi antenna;
• a set of branded Q-Connector pads.

The board, made on black textolite, is designed for Intel processors with FSB 800-1333 MHz and supports DDR2 memory with a frequency of up to 1066 MHz and a total capacity of 8 GB. The PCB design has some flaws, in particular, the DIMM slots are located close to the graphics connector, six SATA connectors are installed perpendicular to the board, four of which can be blocked by a large card with a two-slot cooling system. Also, the IDE connector is located at the bottom of the board, due to which the cable length may not be enough to connect the drive in Full Tower cases, but, given the general transition to the SATA interface, this is no longer so critical.

Some of the power transistors were moved to the reverse side of the board, which made it possible to evenly distribute the thermal load on the VRM module.

The processor power subsystem is built according to an 8-phase scheme using solid-state capacitors and chokes in armored cores. Similar components are used in other power circuits of the board. An eight-pin EPS12V is used as an auxiliary power connector for the processor.

Chipset microcircuits and part of power transistors are cooled by aluminum heatsinks connected to each other by means of heat pipes. For the remaining elements of the four phases, a separate aluminum radiator is installed.

Six connectors are provided for connecting fans, one of which is four-pin - this is more than enough for organizing active cooling inside the case.

The functionality of the board is good even by modern standards: three PCI slots, two PCI-E x1, one PCI-E x4 (PCI-E x16 slot) and one PCI-E x16, as well as ten USB 2.0 ports, six of which are routed to the rear panel, and six SATA II channels with the ability to organize RAID arrays 0, 1, 5 and 10 due to the south bridge ICH9R.

Of the additional controllers on the board, JMicron JMB363 is soldered, which supports one IDE channel and two eSATA, as well as Agere FW3227, which is responsible for two IEEE 1394 ports.

Two gigabit controllers, Realtek RTL8110SC and Marvell 88E8056, are responsible for the network on the board, and the first of them is located on the PCI bus, and the second on the PCI-E bus.

As you have already noticed, two USB ports are not available to the user - they are used by the WiFi module near the back of the board.

The AW-GA800BT module from AzureWave is based on the Realtek RTL8187L chip and supports the IEEE 802.11b/g standard.

In addition to the connector for connecting a WiFi antenna on the rear panel, there are six USB ports, two eSATA, one FireWire, optical and coaxial S / PDIF, six audio connectors and only one PS / 2 for the keyboard.

At first, boards with one PS / 2 port, or even without it at all, aroused indignation among users, they even accused the chipmaker of the inexpediency of excluding the "mouse" interface. But Intel has nothing to do with this, since the PS / 2 ports are implemented in the Super I / O chip, which motherboard manufacturers put on their products. With the abandonment of the archaic interface, some problems appeared with the compatibility of new motherboards with USB mice from second-tier manufacturers. For example, the tested ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP refused to work with the A4-Tech SWOP-558 manipulator. Perhaps these are features of the exclusively considered solution.

BIOS

The board's BIOS, based on AMI microcode, allows users to fine-tune the system and is less overloaded with various parameters compared to modern ASUS boards.

The main settings are concentrated in the Advanced menu, where you can change the frequency of the FSB bus (from 200 to 800 MHz), PCI-E (from 100 to 150 MHz), the processor multiplier and the memory mode. It is possible to control the Performance Level parameter, however, somewhat in a non-standard form: you need to combine enabling or disabling the Transaction Booster parameter and the Relax Level level. By default, this board has a PL of 10, while even Intel's P43 Express-based solution has a default of 7, which immediately puts the ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP at a disadvantage when comparing products from different manufacturers.

The number of dividers in the memory is enough to set 835, 887 or even 1111 and 1332 MHz at FSB 333 MHz.

The voltage on the processor can be changed within 1.1-1.7 V, memory - from 1.8 to 2.55 V, although the description contains data from a board that supports DDR3.

On the north bridge, the voltage varies within 1.25-1.7 V, it is also possible to change the voltage of the CPU PLL, which is important for overclocking quad-core processors, on the FSB, south bridge and GTL logic. The available Load-Line Calibration parameter will allow you to avoid a drop in the supply voltage of an overclocked processor under load.

All variable voltages are listed in the table:

Parameter	Range of changes
CPU Voltage	1.1-1.7V, 0.0125V steps
CPU PLL Voltage	1.5-1.8V, 0.1V steps
FSB Termination Voltage	1.1-1.4V, 0.1V steps
DRAM Voltage	1.8-2.55V, 0.05V steps
NB Voltage	1.25/1.4/1.55/1.7V
S.B. Voltage	1.05/1.2V
Clock Over-Charging Voltage	0.7-1.0V, 0.1V steps
CPU GTL Voltage Reference	0.63x/0.61x/0.59x/0.57x
NB GTL Voltage Reference	0.67x/0.61x

Monitoring is notable for its quite minimalism - there is only the temperature of the processor, motherboard, main voltages, including the processor voltage, and tracking the rotational speed of four fans, as well as controlling the Q-Fan technology.

Those who often use various system settings will find it useful to be able to save two profiles, which, after updating the BIOS, will still have to be rewritten again, otherwise the system is unstable.

To update the BIOS, there is a built-in ASUS EZ Flash 2 utility - just connect the flash drive and select the directory with the saved version of the microcode.

Additional software

The board comes with ASUS AI Suite software, which is responsible for monitoring, system overclocking, fan control and power saving functions.

Also on the bundled disk you can find a simpler PC Probe II utility responsible for system monitoring.

Overclocking

The board was overclocked with the same configuration as with the Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G. The BIOS version was 0902, dated June 19, 2008 - more recent firmware is in beta status, so it has not been used. With a voltage of 1.4 V on the north bridge and 1.4 V FSB, the maximum stable frequency was 550 MHz, and with an increase in NB Voltage to 1.55 V, the system was able to pass the stress test at a frequency of 566 MHz. For greater stability, the board was blown by a 120mm fan.

Changing other parameters did not affect the potential of ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP.

Intel X38/X48 Express

After the announcement of a new line of chipsets, the "old man" i975X temporarily handed over the baton of the company's flagship to the Intel P35 Express chipset, despite the limitations in the construction of CrossFire systems. Some manufacturers even released P35-based boards with PCI Express bus switch chips, which allowed video cards to “talk” to each other and motherboard eight PCI-E 1.1 lanes on each side. Of course, this affected the final cost of the finished solution, but high-level products have never been distinguished by a democratic price.

In the fall of 2007, the high-end Intel X38 Express chipset was already introduced, which differed from the P35 by supporting 32 PCI Express 2.0 lanes, which had twice the bandwidth of PCI-E 1.1, and allowed two video cards to work in "x16 + x16" mode . In addition, it became possible to work with DDR3-1333 memory, and support for XMP (eXtreme Memory Profiles) technology was introduced, which is an analogue of EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles) from NVIDIA, but for DDR3 modules. Another interesting feature of the chipset was the presence of a heat-distributing cover on the north bridge, which made it possible to evenly remove heat and avoid chipping the chip chip.

Six months later, the Intel X48 Express chipset was introduced, which is nothing more than an X38 with bugs fixed and official support 1600 MHz FSB bus and DDR3-1600 memory, and the chipset cannot work with DDR2 memory. In any case, this is what Intel said, which was soon refuted by motherboard manufacturers by releasing appropriate products that work with the old type of memory.

That's just, despite the fact that this set of system logic belongs to the fourth series, the south bridge remained the same - ICH9 (R / DH), while new series equipped with a microcircuit already at number 10.

Since products based on the Intel X38 Express on this moment already a certain rarity, the ASUS Rampage Formula board was chosen as a representative of solutions based on the top X48 chipset. Over the year, the cost of high-end motherboards has dropped by half and now you can buy a good product for 150-200 dollars, but considering the forthcoming release of the P55 chipset and processors for Socket LGA1156, the expediency of such a purchase is doubtful. Although it is not known how much they will be valued latest boards(they don’t promise much) and it’s not a fact that it will be possible to immediately switch to the next platform. So if there is a quad-core processor, but there is no desire to change it, and motherboards based on Intel P45 are not satisfied for one reason or another, then a solution based on X48 will be the only candidate for purchase.

The board in question belongs to the Republic of Gamers series and comes in a branded box with a flip-top lid and carrying handle.

On the cover, all the technologies supported by the product are painted, and the presence of the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R .: Shadow of Chernobyl is also indicated in the package. There are cutouts on the box through which you can see the cooling system and the back panel of the board, as well as the external sound card— i.e. one of the most interesting features of the ASUS Rampage Formula.

The board and the delivery set are packed in different boxes - accessories in a cardboard box, and the “motherboard” in a plastic one. The presence of plastic packaging was often found in decisions made in 2000-2001. costing about $100-120, but later they abandoned it, and now, as we see, they have returned to this idea again, but already as an attribute of top products.

Contents of delivery:

• instructions for the motherboard;
• disk with drivers and software
• disc with the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl;
• six SATA cables;
• external sound card SupremeFX II;
• power adapter for SATA devices;
• one IDE cable;
• one FDD cable;
• briquette with two USB connectors and one mini-FireWire;
• rear I/O bar;
• turbine for a radiator on power elements;
• a set of branded Q-Connector sockets
• set of ties;
• remote LCD indicator LCD-Poster;
• sticker on the system unit with the logo.

Among the accessories for the board, you can find a remote LCD-Poster indicator, familiar to us from Rampage II Extreme, and a turbine for installation on one of the power transistor heatsinks when a passive cooling system or CBO is used. There is also a SupremeFX II discrete sound card, which is a regular audio codec on a separate board.

The full-format ATX-board is made on a black textolite, as, indeed, all expensive solutions from ASUS. The layout of the elements is more or less thought out, there is practically nothing to complain about: two PCI-E x16 slots are separated by a sufficient distance, memory can be replaced without dismantling the video card, the SATA and IDE connectors are rotated 90°, and after installing the accelerators, each channel will be available for connection drives. As for the memory - as noted above, the X48 chipset can work with the DDR2 standard without any problems, and the Rampage Formula is no exception - the board supports modules with a frequency of over 1200 MHz, but finding such modules is now problematic. The maximum amount of memory can reach 8 GB and in this regard there are no differences from solutions based on X38. But for new products from this fourth series, the bar has already moved up to 16 gigabytes, although eight are now rarely used. Of the processors, you can install all modern models with a bus frequency from 800 to 1600 MHz.

A complex design of various radiators and heat pipes is responsible for cooling the 8-channel power subsystem of the processor and chipset chips. On the north bridge there is a large radiator with wavy fins, which, according to the manufacturer, should have a better effect on cooling, connected by a heat pipe to radiators smaller on power elements. To stiffen the system, a reinforcing plate is installed on the reverse side of the board, just at the location of the north bridge. In addition, heat is transferred to another radiator, recruited from thin aluminum plates, rear end which protrude slightly beyond the I / O bar - this is somewhat reminiscent of the Silent Pipe cooling system on Gigabyte video cards.

The ICH9R southbridge is content with a heatsink connected to the rest of the structure via a heat pipe. There are eight connectors on the board for connecting fans, one of them is a four-pin connector, intended for a processor cooler, of course.

Like the new models, Rampage Formula is equipped with a new CPU power controller - EPU, capable of turning off unused processor power phases during system idle time, thereby somehow allowing to save power. For a single board, the savings are not significant, but for a fleet of cars or even on a global scale, the numbers will be much larger.

Product functionality is on high level, and the user can install two PCI expansion cards, two PCI-E x1, one more slot (black) is reserved for a SupremeFX II sound card, two graphics cards with PCI Express 2.0 interface, combining them in CrossFire mode.

The board has six SATA connectors, one IDE implemented using the JMicron JMB363 chip, six USB 2.0 ports (six more on the rear panel) and one IEEE 1394 port (VIA VT6308P). Two Marvell 88E8056 controllers are responsible for the network.

The SupremeFX II module is equipped with a shield cover and a full bar, and appearance resembles a shortened sound card with a PCI-E x1 interface.

But under the lid there is a regular ADI AD1988B HDA codec, several filtering capacitors, power wiring and connectors for connecting an HD audio panel and CD.

On the rear panel there are six USB, one PS / 2 port, one FireWire, optical and coaxial S / PDIF, two network connectors and a Clear CMOS button.

In addition, the board has power buttons and Reset, as well as a mini-switch that can be used to disable BIOS reset on the rear panel.

The buttons are convenient to use on an open stand or with one video card in the case, but Clear CMOS may not even be needed, because during the entire testing period it was not necessary to press it, except for checking the function itself. The board is also equipped with three connectors for connecting external thermal sensors and a number of LEDs near the processor, memory, north and south bridges, which are responsible for the level of voltage supplied to the listed components.

BIOS

BIOS ASUS boards Rampage Formula is based on American Megatrends, Inc. microcode, which is to be expected. Its possibilities for fine tuning the systems are quite wide, probably, only boards already on Intel X58 Express look better in this regard. All points of interest for overclocking are concentrated in the Extreme Tweaker section.

Here you can choose auto overclocking, carry out an “upgrade” of the processor to the next model. For example, our Core 2 Duo E8500 could operate in the E8600 mode, when its frequency rises to the required level by overclocking the FSB bus, or in the Crazy mode, which will be discussed below. The system bus frequency can vary within 200-800 MHz, PCI-E - 100-180 MHz.

The number of memory dividers is similar to the ASUS P5K Deluxe WiFi-AP board, but unlike the latter, it has become easier to manage the Performance Level by directly entering the required numerical value. It is also possible to set a time delay between the memory and northbridge clocks. In addition, another item responsible for system performance - Ai Twister, which appeared on boards with X38, found its place here as well.

The maximum voltage value on the processor can reach 2.4 V (1.1 V minimum), CPU PLL - 3 V, the voltage of the north bridge varies between 1.25-1.85 V, which will be enough to overclock Core 2 Quad processors.

The voltage on the memory can be changed from 1.8 to 3.4 V, although for modern memory already 2.3 V is the limit that not every module can withstand.

The defined voltage limit is marked with a color code. For example, green voltages are safer, yellow ones are already less recommended, red ones - well, we think their essence is clear anyway. Although, the upper values ​​of the green limit can easily burn a member of the Penryn family or an average memory, so you need to be extremely careful when choosing a voltage for a particular system component.

For convenience, all variable voltages are listed in the table:

Parameter	Range of changes
CPU Voltage	1.1-1.9V, 0.00625V steps and 1.9-2.4V, 0.025V steps
CPU PLL Voltage	1.5-3.0V, 0.02V steps
North Bridge Voltage	1.25-1.85V, 0.02V steps
DRAM Voltage	1.8-3.4V, 0.02V steps
FSB Termination Voltage	1.2-2.0V, 0.02V steps
South Bridge Voltage	1.05-1.225V, 0.025V steps
SB 1.5V Voltage	1.5-2.05V, 0.05V steps
CPU GTL Voltage Reference	0.67x/0.65x/0.63x/0.62x
NB GTL Voltage Reference	0.67x/0.63x/0.60x/0.57x/0.56x/0.53x/0.51x/0.49x
DRAM Controller Voltage REF
DRAM Cohannel A Voltage REF	-30 mV to +30 mV, in 10 mV steps
DRAM Cohannel B Voltage REF	-30 mV to +30 mV, in 10 mV steps

Monitoring, unlike more affordable ASUS products, allows you to monitor the temperature of the north and south bridges and three external thermal sensors in addition to the processor and motherboard. The entire list of variable voltages is also present in this section, which allows you to compare the set with the "real". There are also control points for fans and protection against overheating of system components.

Like all ASUS solutions with good overclocking capabilities, the board supports saving two profiles, which will help with frequent changes in system settings.

Additional software

From software The board comes with a standard set of utilities: for BIOS firmware and changing the splash screen at system startup, the PC Probe II monitoring program, and a more advanced Ai Suite configuration tool, which we partially reviewed above. This program allows you to adjust the FSB frequency, processor multiplier, memory operation mode and its supply voltage, PCI-E frequency. It is also possible to adjust the fan operation mode.

In the Ai Gear3+ section, you can control the power-saving features and even slightly overclock the system.

For example, when choosing the mode Turbo frequency FSB rises to 350 MHz:

Turbo

Or you can even choose the Crazy mode in CPU Level Up and the bus frequency will increase to 368 MHz, which gave a final 3495 MHz for the test processor. Why not overclock?

Crazy

Overclocking

Well, now the real acceleration. The configuration is the same without any changes. The board was additionally blown by a 120 mm fan. The BIOS version is 0902.

The maximum frequency at a voltage of 1.45 V on the chipset and 1.4 V FSB turned out to be 562 MHz, and the test in OCCT generated an error if this threshold was exceeded.

Neither increasing the other voltages, nor weakening the timings gave a positive result.
Specifications chipsets

	Intel P31 Express	Intel G31 Express	Intel P35 Express	Intel G35 Express	Intel G33 Express	Intel Q35 Express	Intel Q33 Express	Intel X38 Express
Positioning	Mainstream PC	Mainstream PC		Performance PC	Performance PC, Mainstream PC	Corporate Stable-Pro	Corporate Stable-Pro	Performance PC
north bridge	82P31 MCH	82G31GMCH	82P35 MCH	82G35GMCH	82G33GMCH	82Q35GMCH	82Q33GMCH	82X38 MCH
Official CPU support		Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo
connector type	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775
FSB frequency, MHz	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800	1333 1066 800
Maximum memory, GB	4	4	8	8	8	8	8	8
Number of memory slots	2	2	4	4	4	4	4	4
Supported memory	DDR2-800 DDR2-667	DDR2-800 DDR2-667	DDR2-800 DDR2-667 DDR3-1066 DDR3-800	DDR2-800 DDR2-667	DDR2-800 DDR2-667 DDR3-1066 DDR3-800	DDR2-800 DDR2-667	DDR2-800 DDR2-667	DDR2-800 DDR2-667 DDR3-1333 DRR3-1066 DDR3-800
Integrated graphics core	N/A	GMA 3100	N/A	GMA X3500	GMA 3100	GMA 3100	GMA 3100	N/A
GUI	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E x16	PCI-E 2.0 x16+x16
south bridge	ICH7, ICH7R	ICH7, ICH7R	ICH9, ICH9R, ICH9DH	ICH8, ICH8R, ICH8DH	ICH9, ICH9R, ICH9DH	ICH9, ICH9R, ICH9DO	ICH9, ICH9R	ICH9, ICH9R, ICH9DH
Number of PCI-E lanes	4 or 6 (ICH7R)	4 or 6 (ICH7R)	4 or 6 (ICH9R, ICH9DH)	4 or 6 (ICH8R, ICH8DH)	4 or 6 (ICH9R, ICH9DH)	4 or 6 (ICH9R, ICH9DO)	4 or 6 (ICH9R)	4 or 6 (ICH9R, ICH9DH)
Disk subsystem	4x SATA II, 1x PATA	4x SATA II, 1x PATA		4x SATA II or 6x SATA II (ICH8R, ICH8DH)	4x SATA II or 6x SATA II (ICH9R, ICH9DH)	4x SATA II or 6x SATA II (ICH9R, ICH9DO)	4x SATA II or 6x SATA II (ICH9R)	4x SATA II or 6x SATA II (ICH9R, ICH9DH)
eSATA support	-	-	+	-	+	+	+	+
Supported Technologies for the Disk Subsystem		Intel Matrix Storage Technology (ICH7R)		Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH8R, ICH8DH)	Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH9R, ICH9DH), Intel Rapid Recover Technology, Intel Turbo Memory	Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH9R, ICH9DO), Intel Rapid Recover Technology	Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH9R), Intel Rapid Recover Technology	Intel Matrix Storage Technology, NCQ, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (ICH9R, ICH9DH), Intel Rapid Recover Technology, Intel Turbo Memory
Number of supported PCI slots	6	6	4	4	4	4	4	4
Number of USB 2.0 ports	8	8	12	10	12	12	12	12
Sound subsystem	HDA, AC'97	HDA, AC'97	HDA	HDA	HDA	HDA	HDA	HDA

Specifications of boards

Model	Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G	ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP
Chipset	Intel P31+ICH7	Intel P35+ICH9R	Intel X48+ICH9R
Socket	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775
Supported processors		Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Pentium Extreme, Pentium D, Pentium 4, Celeron Dual Core, Celeron	Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core, Pentium D, Pentium 4
FSB, MHz	1333/1066/800	1333/1066/800	1600/1333/1066/800
Supported memory	2 DIMM DDRII SDRAM 1066/800/667 (4GB max)	4 DIMM DDRII SDRAM 1066/800/667 (8GB max)	4 DIMM DDRII SDRAM 1200*/1066/800/667 (8GB max)
PCI slots	1 PCI Express x16 3 PCI Express x1	1 PCI Express x16 1 PCI Express x16 (x4) 2 PCI Express x1	2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 3 PCI Express x1 (one reserved for SupremeFX II sound card)
PCI slots	3	3	2
Number of connected fans	4 (1x 4-pin, 3x 3-pin)	6 (1x 4-pin, 5x 3-pin)	8 (1x 4-pin, 7x 3-pin)
USB 2.0 ports	8 (4 connectors on the rear panel)	10 (6 connectors on the rear panel)	12 (6 connectors on the rear panel)
PS/2 ports	2	1	1
LPT port	+	-	-
COM port	1	1 (on board)	1 (on board)
FireWire ports	-	2 (1 on board, Agere FW3227)	2 (1 on board, VIA VT6308P)
ATA-133	1 channel (two devices, ICH7)		1 channel (two devices, Micron JMB363)
Serial ATA	4 channels SATA II	6 SATA II channels (ICH9R) + 2 eSATA channels (Micron JMB363)	6 channels SATA II (ICH9R)
RAID	-	0, 1, 5, 10	0, 1, 5, 10
Sound subsystem	Realtek ALC888 (5.1, HDA)	ADI AD1988B (7.1, HDA)	SupremeFX II external sound card based on ADI AD1988B (7.1, HDA)
S/PDIF	Coaxial	Coaxial + Optical	Coaxial + Optical
Networking	Realtek 8111C (Gigabit Ethernet)	Marvell 88E8056 (Gigabit Ethernet, PCI-E) and Realtek RTL8110SC (Gigabit Ethernet, PCI)	2x Marvell 88E8056 (Gigabit Ethernet)
BIOS	AWARD BIOS	AMI BIOS	AMI BIOS
Form factor	ATX	ATX	ATX
Dimensions, mm	305x194	305x245	305x245
Additionally	-	WiFi module based on Realtek RTL8187L, uses two USB 2.0 ports	Power, Reset, Clear CMOS buttons, remote LCD display LCD-Poster

Test configuration

Testing was carried out on the following configuration:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16 GHz);
• RAM: G.Skill F2-8800CL5D-4GBPI (2x2048 MB, DDR2-1100, 5-5-5-15-2T, dual channel);
• Video card: XFX GF GTX295 576M 1792MB DDR3;
• Hard disk: Samsung HD252HJ (250 GB, SATA2);
• Power supply: Seasonic SS-600HM (600 W);

• Operating system: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x86 SP1;
• Motherboard driver: Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility 9.0.0.1008
• Video card driver: NVIDIA GeForce 182.50

The firewall, Windows Defender and UAC were disabled, the swap file was set to 4096 MB. Video driver settings did not change, PhysX acceleration GPU turned off. All board settings were set in automatic mode, while the memory operated at a frequency of 800 MHz with timings of 5-5-5-15. Performance Level was 7.

Test results

Memory subsystem

The performance of the memory subsystem in the Lavalys Everest test for boards based on Intel X48 Express is slightly higher than in other participants, especially in the copy subtest, where it reaches a 20% difference. A similar result, about 6100 MB / s, was demonstrated in recent tests by boards based on the P43 chipset. Apparently, the fourth series of Intel system logic sets has a slightly updated memory controller, which, in the process of copying, works a little faster than the previous generation solutions.

The GA-P31-ES3G board, which is based on the P31 Express chipset, showed a slightly higher result in the rendering subtest using multiple cores, and in the OpenGL test it turned out to be the most productive in general. ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP lagged behind by 5%, in contrast to which, in turn, the more expensive product showed a 3% worse result.

In gaming applications, the product based on Intel P35 Express turned out to be the most productive board. Naturally, when using higher-quality graphics, the difference between different solutions is leveled, unless, of course, a higher bandwidth of the PCI Express bus is required, which is possessed by representatives of the fourth-series chipsets from the processor giant.

conclusions

The first thing I would like to say to users who have motherboards based on Intel 3 Series chipsets is that if there are no special reasons for switching to new products, then you can wait with the upgrade. All you lose on older solutions is about 5% in modern games when using the highest quality picture, a Radeon HD 4890 level card and more than 4 GHz Core 2 Duo, as you can see in one of our upcoming materials. But when building a system from scratch or when moving from a platform of venerable age, of course, there is no point in buying motherboards based on already outdated chipsets, and in this case it is better to immediately turn your attention to newer solutions. Or even wait a bit and immediately switch to the LGA1156 platform, since the prices for finished products are promised not to be so high, in contrast to the beginning of expansion into the Nehalem microarchitecture market.

As for the reviewed products, the GA-P31-ES3G board based on the Intel P31 Express entry-level chipset demonstrated good performance with fewer settings, in some tests it even showed better results than more expensive solutions. The delivery set is minimal, but you can hardly expect anything more from a board for less than $ 60 - this is an ordinary workhorse that is installed in the system and often forgotten about what it is.

ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP is equipped to the eyeballs and is one of the best representatives of motherboard models based on the P35 chipset. Two network cards, a WiFi module, excellent overclocking potential - perhaps the owners of these boards should consider replacing only when switching to another platform.

Former flagship intel set system logic X48, aka X38 without support for the 1600 MHz FSB bus and DDR3-1600 memory, yet for a long time will be the basis of motherboards for productive systems based on quad-core processors and a bundle of a pair of video cards from the Radeon HD family. The reviewed ASUS Rampage Formula is an example of what an overclocking product should be. Maximum overclocking settings concentrated in one section, thoughtful design and cooling system, additional functionality in the form of power and system reset buttons, as well as for resetting BIOS Setup and external LCD-Postera - take it and overclock. The ratio of this motherboard to gaming series it’s a little unclear - the players don’t need all this. But for overclockers just right, if, of course, the price suits. But top products are only going up in price these days...

We thank the following companies for providing test equipment:

• 1-Incom for G.Skill F2-8800CL5D-4GBPI memory kit;
• Quasar Micro for mother Gigabyte board GA-P31-ES3G;
• Master Group for ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP and ASUS Rampage Formula motherboards, as well as for ASUS EN8800GS TOP 384MB video card;
• Max Point for the Silver Power SP-S850 PSU;
  
• Noctua for the Noctua NH-U12P cooler and Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste;
• Syntex for Seasonic SS-600HM power supply;
• XFX for the XFX GF GTX295 576M 1792MB DDR3 graphics card.