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Anandtech tests DDR1 with Conroe

Show's the same confirmation of memory improvement from DDR1 to DDR2 on the Conroe as DDR1 to DDR2 did for AMD 939 to AM2.

Currently very minimal impact when equipped with DDR400 versus the DDR2 533. The only real changes will be when individuals implement much higher DDR2 speeds.
 
I was all psyched about that board till i found out no CPU voltage adjustments :(
 
Nice! I was just trying to convince a friend to save himself the coin, and get the performance at the same time! :D

It doesn't run too bad at all with DDR1. :)
 
Unfortunately doesn't help those of us with DDR-333 that much, I doubt that would really hold up.

Oh well, I only have a single 512mb DIMM anyway, I think I got my money's worth over the past four years.
 
NulloModo said:
Unfortunately doesn't help those of us with DDR-333 that much, I doubt that would really hold up.

Oh well, I only have a single 512mb DIMM anyway, I think I got my money's worth over the past four years.
Click to expand...

Hah, I think you'd be dumb for NOT thinking you got your money's worth! That's impressive, I went with 512 for the longest time too, now I've had a gig for about a year and definitely couldn't go back.

So, where's all the conroes?

(478 + AGP here :p)
 
Would the system still be able to oc to around 3.2-4ghz w/ DDR2 400 memory?
 
pigpen said:
I was all psyched about that board till i found out no CPU voltage adjustments :(
Click to expand...

I don't think this is a board for overclocking, or really using for much more then as a placeholder to put your new Conroe in until you can afford a better mobo and DDR2 RAM. However, it looks impressive for what it is and I'm sure there'll be a decent demand for it... ;)
 
wtburnette said:
I don't think this is a board for overclocking, or really using for much more then as a placeholder to put your new Conroe in until you can afford a better mobo and DDR2 RAM. However, it looks impressive for what it is and I'm sure there'll be a decent demand for it... ;)
Click to expand...

Voltage adjustments are too risky IMO anyway, the only time I have ever seen anyone kill a mobo or CPU from OCing is when they tried to mess with voltages. Just get as must as you can on stock voltage, be happy with it, and upgrade in a couple years.
 
I considered this board for a while before I came to my senses. I upgraded from DDR to DDR2 for $60 and I probably could have done even better if I wanted to. Also, the lack of VCORE and poor FSB overclocking with the VIA chipset make this board a poor choice for E6300 or E6400 chips with low multipliers.

If I were running stock speeds, I guess it would make sense, but running an E6300 at stock speeds leaves a lot of performance on the table.
 
NulloModo said:
Voltage adjustments are too risky IMO anyway, the only time I have ever seen anyone kill a mobo or CPU from OCing is when they tried to mess with voltages. Just get as must as you can on stock voltage, be happy with it, and upgrade in a couple years.
Click to expand...

It depends what you want, how much you want it, how much you are prepared to pay and your own skill level.
Its an enthusiast thing as well as an accepted way to get higher performance easily.
Each to their own :)
 
Chernobyl1 said:
It depends what you want, how much you want it, how much you are prepared to pay and your own skill level.
Its an enthusiast thing as well as an accepted way to get higher performance easily.
Each to their own :)
Click to expand...

I am all for getting free performance by some FSP bumps, but nothing that risks me frying my CPU, I can't deal with the downtime until I can pick a new processor, and the punch to the wallet would be no fun either.
 
this board is for the ppl with athlon XP, northwoods, socket 939 with tons of DDR that they just cant let go of...

dirt cheap upgrade for 939 guys
 
brucedeluxe169 said:
this board is for the ppl with athlon XP, northwoods, socket 939 with tons of DDR that they just cant let go of...

dirt cheap upgrade for 939 guys
Click to expand...

After reading that I took a second quick look at the review, so that one socket can take LGA775, S478 or S939? Seeing Via in the name was enough to kill it for me. Never again will I touch a Via chipset, they are nothing but misery and trouble.
 
brucedeluxe169 said:
dirt cheap upgrade for 939 guys
Click to expand...

Not really. While I don't like 3rd party chipsets... nVidia makes MUCH BETTER chipsets than VIA. There is no way in hell I would ever run this board. If you can't afford to upgrade to a decent board, and everything that comes with that, then wait... save your money. Don't run a shitty board just so you can use a specific processor.
 
Poncho said:
Not really. While I don't like 3rd party chipsets... nVidia makes MUCH BETTER chipsets than VIA. There is no way in hell I would ever run this board. If you can't afford to upgrade to a decent board, and everything that comes with that, then wait... save your money. Don't run a shitty board just so you can use a specific processor.
Click to expand...

If you're talking Conroe, not even nVidia compares to Intel. This board is only for someone who just HAS to run their Conroe right now but doesn't have the cash for a good board and DDR2 RAM. Otherwise, when using an Intel processor, an Intel chipset is the best way to go. Don't get me wrong, I'm using nVidia with my AMD processor as I think it's the best choice for the platform, but Intel is best for Intel... :D
 
wtburnette said:
If you're talking Conroe, not even nVidia compares to Intel. This board is only for someone who just HAS to run their Conroe right now but doesn't have the cash for a good board and DDR2 RAM. Otherwise, when using an Intel processor, an Intel chipset is the best way to go. Don't get me wrong, I'm using nVidia with my AMD processor as I think it's the best choice for the platform, but Intel is best for Intel... :D
Click to expand...

Intel is best for Intel, but nVidia and AMD are getting close. No other company comes close to having as shitty a chipset record as VIA though.
 
wtburnette said:
If you're talking Conroe, not even nVidia compares to Intel. This board is only for someone who just HAS to run their Conroe right now but doesn't have the cash for a good board and DDR2 RAM.
Click to expand...

No... I was saying that if you have an AMD system, then you should stick with it if you don't have the money to upgrade and NOT use this board. I was replying to his "dirt cheap upgrade for 939 guys" comment. But beyond that... if you don't have the cash for a good board and memory then simply DON'T upgrade. Stick it out while you save some more cash or upgrade with the hardware that you currently own. Bottom line is that NOBODY in their right mind should buy this board. VIA's chipsets suck much ass.... and should never be used.
 
Poncho said:
No... I was saying that if you have an AMD system, then you should stick with it if you don't have the money to upgrade and NOT use this board. I was replying to his "dirt cheap upgrade for 939 guys" comment. But beyond that... if you don't have the cash for a good board and memory then simply DON'T upgrade. Stick it out while you save some more cash or upgrade with the hardware that you currently own. Bottom line is that NOBODY in their right mind should buy this board. VIA's chipsets suck much ass.... and should never be used.
Click to expand...

I agree completely, as much as Core 2 Duo is by far the best CPU out there, if you combine it with a crap chipset you are setting yourself up for trouble.
 
NulloModo said:
I agree completely, as much as Core 2 Duo is by far the best CPU out there, if you combine it with a crap chipset you are setting yourself up for trouble.
Click to expand...


Agreed... and this is what I don't understand. Why it is always the "tech savey" people who ask what SLI board will run conroe or if the VIA board is a good solution for them? It's not a great secret that nVidia's Intel boards are basically crap or that VIA has and will always make substandard parts... and combine that with the fact that, while conroe is a great CPU, the difference between the 2 isn't that big. Noticable sure....but it's not like you can't do the same things with both. Don't give up system stability, which should be the most important thing IMHO, just to gain a few extra FPS in games or shave a few seconds off encoding something. Just my .02.
 
Poncho said:
Agreed... and this is what I don't understand. Why it is always the "tech savey" people who ask what SLI board will run conroe or if the VIA board is a good solution for them? It's not a great secret that nVidia's Intel boards are basically crap or that VIA has and will always make substandard parts... and combine that with the fact that, while conroe is a great CPU, the difference between the 2 isn't that big. Noticable sure....but it's not like you can't do the same things with both. Don't give up system stability, which should be the most important thing IMHO, just to gain a few extra FPS in games or shave a few seconds off encoding something. Just my .02.
Click to expand...

nVidia has earned a little more faith for me lately, I once swore I would never touch an nVidia product again, but they have gotten a lot better since the original GeForce. Plus, with AMD buying out ATI, one had to wonder if Intel won't do the same with nVidia. As much as I wish it had gone the other way around, nVidia can make a quality product not, there seems to be a demand for SLI boards, and Intel definately had the money to do it.
 
Poncho said:
Agreed... and this is what I don't understand. Why it is always the "tech savey" people who ask what SLI board will run conroe or if the VIA board is a good solution for them? It's not a great secret that nVidia's Intel boards are basically crap or that VIA has and will always make substandard parts... and combine that with the fact that, while conroe is a great CPU, the difference between the 2 isn't that big. Noticable sure....but it's not like you can't do the same things with both. Don't give up system stability, which should be the most important thing IMHO, just to gain a few extra FPS in games or shave a few seconds off encoding something. Just my .02.
Click to expand...

Well, while I agree for the most part and would never use a VIA board on an Intel system myself, I did have a couple VIA based boards that worked just fine. Stable, fast and no real issues. The two that stick in my mind were my Soyo KT133 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition and an Abit AV8 or something like that I had in my son's system until just recently. Personally though, I'd do like you said and just wait till I could afford a good mobo with an Intel chipset and good DDR2 memory.
 
wtburnette said:
Well, while I agree for the most part and would never use a VIA board on an Intel system myself, I did have a couple VIA based boards that worked just fine. Stable, fast and no real issues. The two that stick in my mind were my Soyo KT133 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition and an Abit AV8 or something like that I had in my son's system until just recently. Personally though, I'd do like you said and just wait till I could afford a good mobo with an Intel chipset and good DDR2 memory.
Click to expand...

Congrats on one of being 10 people at most to have a stable KT133 system, that board was the worst I ever had.
 
NulloModo said:
I am all for getting free performance by some FSP bumps, but nothing that risks me frying my CPU, I can't deal with the downtime until I can pick a new processor, and the punch to the wallet would be no fun either.
Click to expand...

You can fry a CPU perfectly well without raising the vcore, so don't assume you are perfectly safe OC'ing on stock V.
 
pigpen said:
You can fry a CPU perfectly well without raising the vcore, so don't assume you are perfectly safe OC'ing on stock V.
Click to expand...

you can, but it is a lot harder, especially going up step by step checking for stability
 
Poncho said:
if you don't have the cash for a good board and memory then simply DON'T upgrade. Stick it out while you save some more cash or upgrade with the hardware that you currently own. Bottom line is that NOBODY in their right mind should buy this board. VIA's chipsets suck much ass.... and should never be used.
Click to expand...

I think that's kind of closed minded. Look at my sig. Upgrade to conroe and PCI-e board this month. New pci-e vid card in a couple months. New board and DDR2 a couple months after that. Split the upgrade costs up over 5-6 months, or come up with brand new rig money all at once? If you are saying i should just sit on my wallet for 6 months and then do it all at once, sure that would be the practical way to do it. But who the hell has the will power to do that?
 
NulloModo said:
nVidia has earned a little more faith for me lately, I once swore I would never touch an nVidia product again, but they have gotten a lot better since the original GeForce.
Click to expand...

I'm talking specifically about thier chipsets for motherboards. Every single nForce board that I, and co-workers, have used with Intel CPUs has been substandard. Half the reason to go with Intel is for stability reasons.... why people go with one Intel part (CPU) and then take Intel out of the equation for the MOST important part of any system is what astounds me. nVidia makes decent AMD parts, that's the side their bread is buttered on, but their Intel based parts suck ass.
 
pigpen said:
I think that's kind of closed minded. Look at my sig. Upgrade to conroe and PCI-e board this month. New pci-e vid card in a couple months. New board and DDR2 a couple months after that. Split the upgrade costs up over 5-6 months, or come up with brand new rig money all at once? If you are saying i should just sit on my wallet for 6 months and then do it all at once, sure that would be the practical way to do it. But who the hell has the will power to do that?
Click to expand...


You will actually end up spending more money to have a system that, untill you get all the new parts, is substandard and not much faster than the one you are currently using. It has nothing to do with will power... it's simply the smart choice.

Edit... and really, you could spend $100-200 more and get the system now. That board is what? 80 bucks? Get an Intel board with on board graphics (965 graphics kick ass BTW) for a bit over a bill and add in a gig or so of DDR2. Right there you are still able to get something stable now... and upgrad to more memory and a new video card as your budget allows and you are only spending what... another 100-150 at that point. Don't tell me that you can't pull another hundred dollars out.... hell, I'll spend that much on lunch for the week. Unless you are in high school... $100 isn't that much.
 
Poncho said:
Right there you are still able to get something stable now... and upgrad to more memory and a new video card as your budget allows and you are only spending what... another 100-150 at that point. Don't tell me that you can't pull another hundred dollars out.... hell, I'll spend that much on lunch for the week. Unless you are in high school... $100 isn't that much.
Click to expand...

The point of the article was that there is very little performance difference between DDR1 and DDR2 setup they ran. So right away your way would run me at least an extra $150 to get 2 gigs RAM to match what i have (BF2 player / needed.) Add in that the couple months before a GPU upgrade i would be on integrated instead of my 6800gt, it doesn't make sense. I realize these hybrid boards are kind of hokey. But it's a short term solution and it's prefect for a person like me. The $56 dollar premium (newegg price) for a slow gradual upgrade is well worth it. Not to mention that the premium i would be paying for conroe and the hybrid board now could very easily be made up on the back end with lower vid card, DDR2, and MB prices when i get to upgrading those in a few months. I appreciate your advice, but i think there is a very real (albeit niche) market for this board that you aren't seeing. For me, it's the difference between getting a new hot toy tomorrow, or having to wait 6 months. Because in 6 months i will end up with the same rig regardless.
 
wtburnette said:
Well, while I agree for the most part and would never use a VIA board on an Intel system myself, I did have a couple VIA based boards that worked just fine. Stable, fast and no real issues. The two that stick in my mind were my Soyo KT133 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition and an Abit AV8 or something like that I had in my son's system until just recently. Personally though, I'd do like you said and just wait till I could afford a good mobo with an Intel chipset and good DDR2 memory.
Click to expand...

This is just another example of how memory is almost meaningless unless:
-you are overclocking
-have tons of money to blow
-or buy absolute shit (where you might see a minimal difference)

I personally am not one of those people who is going to worry about a few percentile here or there that I'd never notice. Too bad that board only has 2 ddr1 slots. I have 4 sticks of 512 in my current asrock dual sata2. :(

Same on Via btw. I had two and never had issues. To this day I dont understand why people crap on via so much.
 
pigpen said:
The point of the article was that there is very little performance difference between DDR1 and DDR2 setup they ran. So right away your way would run me at least an extra $150 to get 2 gigs RAM to match what i have (BF2 player / needed.)
Click to expand...

2gb is not needed, nice but not a necessity... and could be factored into your upgrade in a couple months. Hell...if you are running a 6800 then that's more of an issue with video games then "only" haveing a gig of RAM. Which brings me to...

pigpen said:
Add in that the couple months before a GPU upgrade i would be on integrated instead of my 6800gt, it doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...

Actually... the latest Intel Graphics are comparable to a 6800gt, probably even better. It'll run vista in all it's glory as well as DX10 IIRC. So really... this point is moot. Basically there is ZERO reason for anybody to go with this board.
 
Poncho said:
Actually... the latest Intel Graphics are comparable to a 6800gt, probably even better. It'll run vista in all it's glory as well as DX10 IIRC.
Click to expand...

Damn are they really that good now? I havent seen onboard video in a long while. I don't care for gaming much anymore, so the day might be soon coming where I'm not buying a videocard if thats all true.
 
Tutelary said:
Damn are they really that good now? I havent seen onboard video in a long while. I don't care for gaming much anymore, so the day might be soon coming where I'm not buying a videocard if thats all true.
Click to expand...


Amazingly yes... they designed this gen graphics core to run with vista right from the start, so imagine what it takes to run vista Aero... Pretty impressive if you ask me. While I wouldn't want to use it in my main gaming box, unless I was planning on upgrading or content with decent performance, for an HTPC type system.... this would be great.
 
NulloModo said:
Congrats on one of being 10 people at most to have a stable KT133 system, that board was the worst I ever had.
Click to expand...

More then that. I used to run a Soyo forum and there were quite a few people that had great luck with that mobo and of course many who didn't. The biggest problem with the Dragon boards (I had 3 BTW) was that they weren't meant to accomodate many PCI cards and they stank at overclocking. For stock settings with one or two PCI cards though, they were nice, fast, stable boards.

Anyway, quibbling over something that's not even on topic. Main thing is, I agree that the article does point out how little DDR2 really matters (at this point) and I also agree buying this low end VIA board for a Conroe processor is a pretty lame idea... ;)
 
Poncho said:
Ok... here ya go.

1gb DDR2-800 - $94


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145566


Intel 965 board - $119 (this one doesn't have on board graphics, but those are coming and should be about the same price)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813121035

So there you have a kickass system for $213 which is $131 over the VIA crap board ($82). Spend 131 now... or lose 82 after upgrading. I know what I would do.
Click to expand...

the via "crapboard" is listed at 56 bucks..

this looks like a great deal..if this thing has pci-express x16 i'd definitely get this and a e6400 over the 4600+ im considering.. however it seems that it only supports pci-e x4
 
Poncho said:
Amazingly yes... they designed this gen graphics core to run with vista right from the start, so imagine what it takes to run vista Aero... Pretty impressive if you ask me. While I wouldn't want to use it in my main gaming box, unless I was planning on upgrading or content with decent performance, for an HTPC type system.... this would be great.
Click to expand...

I"m calling BS on the statement that intel integrated graphics 950 = 6800GT, and I'll eat my hat if anyone can come up with a link to benches that prove me wrong.
 
yevaud said:
I"m calling BS on the statement that intel integrated graphics 950 = 6800GT, and I'll eat my hat if anyone can come up with a link to benches that prove me wrong.
Click to expand...

I also call BS at that statement. A 6800GT is still a lower midrange card and integrated graphics have never been anything but very low end, even if they do support advanced features.

Nice to know I can keep the 2gb of DDR400 I got a Fry's for $99 :D.
 
yevaud said:
I"m calling BS on the statement that intel integrated graphics 950 = 6800GT, and I'll eat my hat if anyone can come up with a link to benches that prove me wrong.
Click to expand...


did I say anything about 950 graphics? No... I was talking about the next gen core in 965, 3000 series IIRC.
 
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