We will be taking a look at two of Jetways P4 motherboards , the S447
sis645 chipset MB and the 1402 intel 845 & ich2 chipset MB , so
take a seat , as both boards are like chalk and cheese , in fact the
only thing these boards had in common was there rock solid stability .
The CPU used on both boards was a 1.7GHZ P4 ( not a Northwood ) , and
its overclockability was reasonable , reaching 1955mhz @ 1.75v on the
Sis chipset MB and 2125mhz @ 1.85v on the Intel chipset MB . Neither
MB allowed my USB mouse to be used before all the drivers were
installed , so it was PS2 mouse to the rescue . Both MB's allowed
for emergency shut down should the CPU get to hot , via the
BIOS, but only the Intel MB allowed for a temp warning to be set in
the BIOS . I will take a moment here to just say that the User manuals
for both MB's were just a little lacking , please Jetway , a little
more care with the fine details . Now as for benchmarking both MBs ,
all benchmarks went in favor of the S447 .
Jetway S447
sis645 chipset. This was the MB I tested
first , I thought it a real shame that there was no manual Voltage
adjustment for the CPU what so ever , there was how ever support for
333mhz DDR ram as well as 266mhz DDR ram .Setting up the bios was very
easy , and there were no nasty surprises , unfortunately this Mb has
no overclocking adjustments what so ever , and is more suited for
system builders , dont get me wrong , this board is seriously stable ,
and easy to set up , perfect for system builders . If you are looking
for a MB to base an entire production line of computers on , for
general office applications , or students , a web surfing machine ,
then the Jetway S447 would need your attention , in fact at stock
settings the S447 actually outperformed the Intel 845 based MB with
all benchmarks by almost 5% across the board . Support
Socket 478B processor for Intel PentiumÒ 4
(mPGA478) package processor ,Support
400MHz System Bus Frequency
CPU Bus Frequency , Choose One Step Add 1MHz From
100MHz Up to 132MHz in BIOS Setup (Frequency Magic Setting)
Support Jumpless Function by BIOS SETUP Let Users More
Easier to Change The Frequency And Ratio
- Support 2 X IDE Connectors for up to 4 IDE Drives
- Support PIO Mode 3 and Mode 4 and Bus Master IDE DMA, Mode 4
Timing for up to 16M Bytes/s
- Support UTRA DMA-100 Bus Master IDE, Provide faster transfer
rate up to 100M Bytes/s
- Support LS-120 / ZIP Device
- Software Audio Controller With On Board CODEC Complete to AC97'
- Support 3D Surround
- Support 3D Positioning
- Full Duplex Operation For Simultaneous Record And Playback
- Sound Driver for Windows 95 , Windows98 & Windows NT4.0 ,
Media Rack
- On Board Winbond Chipset
- 2 X Serial Ports (16550 Fast UART Compatible)
- 1 X Parallel Port (EPP and ECP capabilities)
- 1 X Floppy Disk Connector (Supports 2 Floppy Drivers)
- 1 X PS2 Mouse Connector
- 1 X Keybord Cnnector
- 3 X Three Wire FAN Connector (Include CPU FAN)
- 1 X LINE IN / LINE OUT / Microphone Connector
- 1 X Game Port Connector (Support Two Joysticks)
- 2 X Analog Audio CD Music line Connectors (different connector)
- 1 X Consumer IR Connector
- 1 X Standard IR Connector (Infrared)
- Winbond Hareware Doctor to Track CPU & SYSTEM Temperature,
Voltage, Fan speed, Monitoring your Computer
- Driver For Win95/98
- 4 X USB Ports Connector
- Support USB Keyboard & USB Mouse
- ACPI/APM Power Management
- Modem Ring remote wake up
- RTC Alarm Wake up
- Support Software Suspend & Power off
- Support Suspend to DISK
- Wake on LAN For OS
- Support Auto Power ON After Power Fail Function
- Support Keyboard Password / Hot-Key / Any Key Power on Function
- Support PS2 Mouse Button Click Power On
- Support Keyboard98 Power on Function
- Support Power Button Ride (Instant off or Delay 4 second power
off)
- STR (Suspend To RAM) support
Support 20-pin ATX power supply (ATX-PW)
- Award BIOS , Support Green function, Plug and Play Function
- 2MBit Flash ROM
ATX Form Factor with 30.5cm X 21cm
Jetway
1402 intel 845 / Ich2 chipset. Again
no nasty surprises setting up this MB , the only disappointing thing I
found was the lack of support for 333mhz ram , my Samsung pc2700 ram
running at 266mhz , well at least it worked , this MB is far more
overclocker friendly , voltage adjustments for the ram , vid card and
cpu , as well as 1mhz FSB adjustments to 132mhz FSB. On this MB I was
able to get a extra 425mhz from the P4 cpu with a extra one tenth of a
volt , thats 17 x 125mhz FSB . I would have really liked to have seen
some more voltage to the cpu , as the P4 never ran into the 40's, doing
30 something deg Celsius all the time on both Mb's wit my Arkua 8568
doing the cooling . Now one of the important things to remember
with this Mb is not to use anything but a 4x AGP 1.5v compliant (
capable ) graphics card , or you may fry ( kill ) your MB . Support
Socket 478B processor for Intel PentiumÒ 4
(mPGA478) package processor ,Support
400MHz System Bus Frequency
- Intel 82845
Brookdale memory Cotroller Hub (MCH)
- 82801BA (ICH2) chipset
(ICH2)
- PROMISE FDC20256R IDE
RAID controller (I402R only)
CPU Bus Frequency , Choose One Step Add 1MHz From
100MHz Up to 132MHz in BIOS Setup (Frequency Magic Setting) Support
Jumpless Function by BIOS SETUP Let Users More Easier to Change The
Frequency And Ratio
- Five 32-bit PCI Bus Master Slots
- One CNR Slot
- One 4X AGP Slot (Support 1.5V AGP card)
Support 2X 184 pin DIMM Socket Support Max 2GB 2.5V
unbuffered , DDR266/DDR200 SDRAM
- Support 2 X IDE Connectors for up to 4 IDE Drives
- Support PIO Mode 3 and Mode 4 and Bus Master IDE DMA, Mode 4
Timing for up to 16M Bytes/s
- Support UTRA DMA-100 Bus Master IDE, Provide faster transfer
rate up to 100M Bytes/s
- Support LS-120 / ZIP Device
Extra 2 channel IDE Interface Support ATA100,RAID0
(to increase transfer rate) or RAID1 (data protection)
- Software Audio Controller With On Board CODEC Complete to AC97'
- Support 3D Surround
- Support 3D Positioning
- Full Duplex Operation For Simultaneous Record And Playback
- Sound Driver for Windows 95 , Windows98 & Windows NT4.0 ,
Media Rack
- On Board Winbond Chipset
- 2 X Serial Ports (16550 Fast UART Compatible)
- 1 X Parallel Port (EPP and ECP capabilities)
- 1 X Floppy Disk Connector (Supports 2 Floppy Drivers)
- 1 X PS2 Mouse Connector
- 1 X Keybord Cnnector
- 3 X Three Wire FAN Connector (Include CPU FAN)
- 1 X LINE IN / LINE OUT / Microphone Connector
- 1 X Game Port Connector (Support Two Joysticks)
- 2 X Analog Audio CD Music line Connectors (different connector)
- 1 X Consumer IR Connector
- 1 X Standard IR Connector (Infrared)
- Winbond Hareware Doctor to Track CPU & SYSTEM Temperature,
Voltage, Fan speed, Monitoring your Computer
- Driver For Win95/98
- 4 X USB Ports Connector
- Support USB Keyboard & USB Mouse
- ACPI/APM Power Management
- Modem Ring remote wake up
- RTC Alarm Wake up
- Support Software Suspend & Power off
- Support Suspend to DISK
- Wake on LAN For OS
- Support Auto Power ON After Power Fail Function
- Support Keyboard Password / Hot-Key / Any Key Power on Function
- Support PS2 Mouse Button Click Power On
- Support Keyboard98 Power on Function
- Support Power Button Ride (Instant off or Delay 4 second power
off)
- STR (Suspend To RAM) Support
(I402R only)
Support 20-pin ATX power supply (ATX-PW)
- Award BIOS , Support Green function, Plug and Play Function
- 2MBit Flash ROM
ATX Form Factor with 30.5cm X 24.4cm Conclusion: The
Sis645 Board gave better benchmarks due to the 333mhz ram speed , but
the Intel 845 based board has more overclocking tweaks , obviously
these Mother Boards are not meant to be in direct competition with
each other , but made to suit the needs of a ever diverging market
place , with consumers expecting Manufacturers to cater to their
specific needs , the Sis645 would be perfect for System Builders
( not that I would recommend the P4 cpu ) . With all the tweaks
available in the Intel 845 based MB , it would make an excellent
overclocking MB , unfortunately Jetway has been very conservative with
the voltage adjustments , but as I have found out lately , those with
really good overclocking CPU's wont need that much voltage in anyway (
not that it wouldnt be nice to have it available ) , but for those
with average cpu's the extra voltage would certainly come in handy
pushing the cpu to its potential . To sum up , both MB's were very
stable , never giving a single problem of any kind , the only negative
thing I have to say is on the Handbook , it needs a little work ,
other than that , my experience with both MB's was positive but
unfortunately too brief .
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