Gigabyte 8SG667 (SiS 648): Big Power in a Small Package

Stress Testing the Gigabyte 8SG667 and The Test…

We performed our usual array of stress tests on the Gigabyte 8SG667 for this review, but added some more memory tests this time around.

We started off by stress testing memory first. With all 3 DIMM slots filled with single-sided DDR333 memory from Kingston (CL2.5, 256MB), we were easily able to run Prime95 torture tests for approximately 24 hours without a hitch. Most people would be quite happy with this outcome, but that's hardly all the 8SG667 was capable of.

Having already completed all the DDR400 benchmarks necessary for this review, we knew the Gigabyte 8SG667 was a fine option for DDR400 operation. However, this scenario only held true with one DIMM slot full at that point. Therefore, we proceeded to move onto more intensive memory situations, and so we inserted two sticks of Mushkin DDR400 memory into banks 1 and 2. We watched as it completed not only our entire benchmark suite twice over, but also 48 hours of Prime95 torture tests. This was definitely not possible with the ABIT SR7-8X or MSI 648 Max-F. While ABIT and MSI's SiS 648 motherboards were reliable (for the most part) with one DIMM of DDR400 memory installed, 2 DIMMs was another matter entirely. Therefore, we were pleased (to say the least) that the Gigabyte 8SG667 was absolutely rock solid with 2 sticks of memory at DDR400 speeds.

However, the fun didn't stop there. We did what we thought would bring the 8SG667 to its knees; fill all 3 DIMM slots with DDR400 memory. With the Gigabyte 8SG667 maxed out with Mushkin DDR400 memory, we were able to run Prime95 torture tests as well as SPECviewperf, UT2003, and Quake 3 Arena benchmarks without issue! We were simply astonished that Gigabyte was able to implement the SiS 648 chipset in such a way as to make DDR400 operation possible with all memory slots filled. Despite our findings, Gigabyte tells us that the 8SG667 isn't meant to run 3 sticks of DDR400 (no matter the manufacturer). Gigabyte does certify DDR400 operation with 2 banks full however, and our findings certainly back up this claim. What's even more impressive is that the Mushkin DDR400 we used for all these tests isn't even on Gigabyte's 8SG667 DDR400 recommended memory modules list (http://tw.giga-byte.com/products/products.htm), which consists of only SAMSUNG, ADATA, and Winbond certified modules.

As we just mentioned in the previous section, BIOS and Overclocking, we reached an overclocked memory speed of 422MHz. In this section, we want to make it clear to our readers exactly what configuration we used to reach this speed and how reliable this setting was.

Using Mushkin DDR400 memory (CL2.5), we were able to get as high as 422MHz with 1 DIMM slot and then again with 2 DIMM slots filled. With all 3 banks filled with Mushkin DDR400 memory, we reached "only" 416MHz. Remember, these overclocked settings were the highest settings we could reliably reach, meaning the memory had to withhold hours of Prime95 torture tests and constant benchmarking runs before we considered it to be a "true" overclock.

Finally, after finishing all the necessary stock and overclocking memory tests for this motherboard, we moved onto FSB stress testing. At 150MHz FSB (2.56GHz core clock) using retail cooling, we were able to run Prime95 torture tests for 24 hours straight. For another 24 hours straight, we ran Prime95 CPU tests, and again encountered zero issues. It didn't matter what memory we used, DDR333 or DDR400, the Gigabyte 8SG667 ran as solid as a rock.

Performance Test Configuration

The AnandTech Motherboard Testbed was Sponsored by Newegg. You can buy the components we used to test at www.newegg.com.