µATX Part 2: Intel G33 Performance Review
by Gary Key on September 27, 2007 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
ASUS P5K-VM: Feature Set
The ASUS P5K-VM is one of the more expensive uATX boards on the market, but ASUS has a reputation of producing some of the best motherboard. The P5K-VM comes with a good set of features, including good performance, reasonable overclocking and tweaking options, Firewire, and a fair complement of expansion options. However, there is one rather major omission with the ASUS offering: there's no DVI or HDMI port. For a modern uATX design, this is a serious oversight. We can understand skipping HDMI, because not everyone needs a motherboard that can be used for HTPC purposes, but sticking with an analog VGA connector is completely unacceptable, especially on one of the more expensive uATX boards.
Of course, this isn't really ASUS' fault, as it's a problem with the G33 chipset. In order to implement DVI support, a separate SDVO chip is required, which would simply be an extra expense. G35 should address this shortcoming, but in the meantime the latest Intel IGP solution leaves quite a bit to be desired in the graphics department.
The BIOS offers fine-grained adjustments of FSB and PCIe speeds and a limited degree of CPU multiplier tweaking. Voltage adjustments are available for the CPU and RAM, which provides a good starting point for overclocking, but the lack of chipset and bus voltage tweaking means that overclocking will be limited relative to most enthusiast motherboards. However, relative to other uATX offerings the P5K-VM does provide a decent amount of tweaking. The G33 chipset supports the latest 1333FSB Intel CPUs, and ASUS also provides unofficial DDR2-1066 support. These are all good features to have, but without a digital video connection of some form we feel a discrete GPU is almost required. In that case, why even bother with an IGP chipset? ASUS could have used a P965 or P35 chipset and improved the other aspects of the board to create a better overall package.
| ASUS P5K-VM | |
| Market Segment | HTPC or SOHO - $119.99 |
| CPU Interface | Socket T (Socket 775) |
| CPU Support | LGA775-based Pentium 4, Pentium D, Core 2 Duo/Extreme/Quad |
| Chipset | Intel 8233GMH Northbridge and ICH9 Southbridge |
| Bus Speeds | Auto, 200 ~ 800 in 1MHz increments |
| Memory Ratios: DDR2 | Auto/Manual - 200FSB/667, 800; 266FSB/667, 800, 889, 1067; 333FSB/667, 800, 833, 1000, 1067, 1111, 1333 |
| PCIe Speeds | 100MHz~150MHz in 1MHz increments |
| Core Voltage | Auto, 1.1500V to 1.6000V in 0.0125V increments |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | Auto, 6x-12x in 1X increments if CPU is unlocked, downwards unlocked, Core 2 Duo |
| DRAM Voltage: DDR2 | 1.80V, 1.90V, 2.00V, 2.10V |
| DRAM Timing Control | Auto, Manual - 9 DRAM Timing Options (tCL, tRCD, tRP, tRAS, tRFC plus four) |
| DRAM Static Read Control | Auto, Enable, Disabled |
| Transaction Booster | Auto, Enable, Disabled |
| On-board Video | GMA 3100, OpenGL 1.4, Shader 2.0 (DirectX 9.0c), 400 MHz clock, Four Pixel Pipelines, Vertex Shader 2.0 supported by software via CPU processing, max 2048x1536 resolution, Dynamic Video Memory Technology, Clear Video processing engine, MPEG-2 hardware decode acceleration. |
| GFX Memory Buffer | Fixed - 128MB, 256MB, DVMT 4MB ~ 256MB |
| Memory Slots | Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 8GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 1 - PCIe x16 1 - PCIe x4 1 - PCI Slot 2.3 |
| Onboard SATA/RAID | 4 SATA 3Gbps Ports - ICH9 |
| Onboard IDE | 1 ATA133/100/66 Port (2 drives) - JMicron JMB368 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 12 USB 2.0 Ports - 6 I/O Panel - 6 via Headers Firewire 400 - VIA VT6308 - 2 ports - 1 I/O Panel, 1 via Header |
| Onboard LAN | Marvell 88E8056 - PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC883 - 8-channel HD audio codec |
| Power Connectors | ATX 24-pin, 4-pin ATX 12V |
| I/O Panel | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x D-Sub 1 x Parallel 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF out 1 x IEEE 1394 1 x Audio Panel 1 x RJ45 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 |
| Fan Headers | 3 - CPU/SYS/Chassis |
| Fan Control | CPU Fan Control via BIOS or Software, Chassis/System Fans not controlled but monitored CPU Fan Settings - Smart Fan Method - Optimal, Silent, Performance |
| BIOS Revision | 401 |
| Board Revision | v1.00 |
The ASUS P5K-VM is one of the more expensive uATX boards on the market, but ASUS has a reputation of producing some of the best motherboard. The P5K-VM comes with a good set of features, including good performance, reasonable overclocking and tweaking options, Firewire, and a fair complement of expansion options. However, there is one rather major omission with the ASUS offering: there's no DVI or HDMI port. For a modern uATX design, this is a serious oversight. We can understand skipping HDMI, because not everyone needs a motherboard that can be used for HTPC purposes, but sticking with an analog VGA connector is completely unacceptable, especially on one of the more expensive uATX boards.
Of course, this isn't really ASUS' fault, as it's a problem with the G33 chipset. In order to implement DVI support, a separate SDVO chip is required, which would simply be an extra expense. G35 should address this shortcoming, but in the meantime the latest Intel IGP solution leaves quite a bit to be desired in the graphics department.
The BIOS offers fine-grained adjustments of FSB and PCIe speeds and a limited degree of CPU multiplier tweaking. Voltage adjustments are available for the CPU and RAM, which provides a good starting point for overclocking, but the lack of chipset and bus voltage tweaking means that overclocking will be limited relative to most enthusiast motherboards. However, relative to other uATX offerings the P5K-VM does provide a decent amount of tweaking. The G33 chipset supports the latest 1333FSB Intel CPUs, and ASUS also provides unofficial DDR2-1066 support. These are all good features to have, but without a digital video connection of some form we feel a discrete GPU is almost required. In that case, why even bother with an IGP chipset? ASUS could have used a P965 or P35 chipset and improved the other aspects of the board to create a better overall package.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
26 Comments
View All Comments
strikeback03 - Friday, September 28, 2007 - link
When building a couple computers for work using the MSI P35 Platinum board, it appears they don't support eSATA hot-swapping, at least not in XP. I know my Foxconn G965 board at home can do it. Is this behavior still present in the MSI board here? Is it a P35 limitation, or BIOS, or what?hans007 - Friday, September 28, 2007 - link
I dont get it...an svdo card (add2-n) with dvi output costs what $6 on ebay. why dont you guys just buy one, so you can test these with digital.
also the video driver in vista 32bit is not as mature still as the recently released gma 3000 compatible XP driver.
most people actually have XP so could another round of benchmarks in XP be run? I probably wont even get vista for at leas tanother year, since well its pointless and has no reason for being bought at this point.
lopri - Saturday, September 29, 2007 - link
Well.. it seems like you're using Windows XP and a monitor via VGA. Then why bother with these new IGP-based mATX boards? 915G/945G (or GeForce 6100) series would be a better choice for you. They are a lot cheaper (~$50 probably) and XP support is as mature as can be.In the center of this new wave of IGPs is the advent of HD contents. Vista is kinda necessary-evil in a sense but in general it handles HD and multimedia contents a lot better than XP and has a more intuitive/prettier UI for a living room environment. CRT has long been dead in living rooms, and if you prefer CRT over LCD for some reason (professional gaming maybe?) IGP wouldn't be an option to begin with.
I'd say DVI is the minimum requirement, HDMI w/HDCP being a preferred solution in these days and nights.
veritronx - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
One thing that may have been overlooked.. The MSI board is the only one suitable for people looking to use a dual-slot graphics card as well as, say, a creative sound card, with some space between them. For that reason the only board reviewed that I would look at buying would be the MSI.Ajax9000 - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
From page 1:Read the following Nvidia pages and the news is somewhat disappointing re HD video.
Summary PDF -- http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_35712.html">http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_35712.html
AMD (MCP78) features -- http://www.nvidia.com/object/mobo_gpu_features_ben...">http://www.nvidia.com/object/mobo_gpu_features_ben...
AMD (MCP78) specs -- http://www.nvidia.com/object/mobo_gpu_tech_specs.h...">http://www.nvidia.com/object/mobo_gpu_tech_specs.h...
Intel (MCP73) features -- http://www.nvidia.com/object/mcp_features_benefits...">http://www.nvidia.com/object/mcp_features_benefits...
Intel (MCP73) specs -- http://www.nvidia.com/object/mcp_intel_techspecs.h...">http://www.nvidia.com/object/mcp_intel_techspecs.h...
PureVideo is only listed for the MCP78 (7050PV+630a) combination. All the other AMD chipsets and none of the Intel chipsets have PureVideo HD.
If, in the future, they release an MCP73 using (say) 7050PV+630i then memory will be limited to DDR667.
There is no details thus far, but what would be good is if the new chipset fixes the HD Audio problem that all current HDMI video cards seem to suffer from (i.e. the problem whereby the chipset supports HD Audio, but the video cards can only accept SPDIF-grade audio for HDMI pass-through).
BansheeX - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
Everyone who is letting these boards have it for not including HDMI/DVI is completely right. It makes no sense. Sure, I could buy a cheap DVI graphics card and stick in there, but if I have to do that, why would I buy a board with onboard graphics in the first place?Sadly missing from this review is the board that DOES include onboard DVI, Intel's own DG33TL. Even sadder is that it takes Intel to make the feature-full board while the OEM companies go for the minimum.
Emma - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
I agree with the others, as most computers I build have IGP's, being able to directly compare each of the available IGP's on the market would be about the best thing from a review for a long time.The 6100/6150SE should also be included as this is still widely sold.
Also of interest would be a summary of what other nVidia and AMD IGP's are on the horizon.
Thanks!
Owls - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
"We generally feel that users like to install games into the same colored slots for dual channel operation, but MSI chooses to color channel A orange and channel B green."I wasn't aware you could install games into DIMM slots.
JarredWalton - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
Sorry 'bout that - I was helping Gary out a bit and managed to mangle the text. Blame the speech recognition. That or I'm just slurring my words a bit. :)8steve8 - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
great article tackling most the issues that we care about!question #1: why bother reviewing boards without DVI or HDMI?
whether we are building pc's for friends/offices etc, or an office/server box for ourselves, or we want it to find a home in its post-gaming life when we ditch it for something better... DVI will be key. inexcusable that they pinch pennies there and frankly not worth your time considering these boards. gigabyte has a g33 board with dvi/hdmi, as does intel...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
question #2: this would have been muuuch more useful like 5 months ago when G33 was new. now it's about to be eclipsed by the 7150 and g35.
overall i cant wait to see a similar roundup with modern chipsets like g35/nvidia 7150/ g690 and 7050pv for amd...
would be interesting to see a cost/perf of integrated platforms including cpu costs...
mobo + cpu costs... it seems amd has some good cheap 690g boards out there, with dvi/hdmi for around $75. (almost $50 cheaper than a g33 board with dvi)...