OCWorkbench Readers' Award 2002

Best Socket 478 chipset (Discrete DDR/RAMBUS chipsets)

Lately, there are lots of new chipsets for the Pentium 4 platform. From RAMBUS to DDR to Dual Channel DDR. In our tests, the performance of these chipsets are not that different in performance except in a few categories. Well, our users have chosen the top 3 and they are SiS 648, Intel 845PE and Intel E7205 (aka Granite Bay). Again, we see that our readers have abandoned the rest as their choice as most of them never made it in time or have licensing issues which affected the sales of boards based on VIA chipsets.

Best Socket 478 chipset (Discrete DDR/RAMBUS chipsets)

SiS 648 24.4% Intel 845PE 23.8% Intel E7205 22.4% Intel 850E 8.8% SiS 645DX 6.0% VIA P4X400 5.9% Intel 845E 3.1% ALi ALADDiNP4 1.6% SiS 645 1.4% Intel 845D 1.3% VIA P4X333 0.9% VIA P4X266 0.4% Total Votes: 1291   Best Socket 478 Overclocking Board How well one can overclock depends on your motherboard and also your CPU and heatsink. ABIT IT7Max2 ver 2 seems to be well liked by many having a high rating of 44.9%. It looks like ABIT IT7 Max2 ver 2 has lots of supporters out there and the 4 phase design might have helped too. ASUS P4PE Deluxe scores a second with 15.3% and MSI 845E Max2 scores 8%.

Best P4 Socket 478 Overclocking board

ABIT IT7-Max2v2 44.9% ASUS P4PE Deluxe 15.3% MSI 845E Max 2 8.0% GIGABYTE 8PE667 Pro 8.0% ASUS P4B533 7.3% ASUS P4S8X 7.2% GIGABYTE 8SG667 5.6% EPOX EP-4SDAE 3.6% Total Votes: 926

Best Socket 478 board (Cost/Performance Ratio)

In this category, we again see that ABIT IT7 Max2 ver2 based on Intel 845PE chipset takes the lead. In fact, a check on the pricing of this board tells us that this board is relatively cheap and it comes bundled with the SerillelATA converter, that could be one of the selling points of this board. Next we have 2nd and 3rd placing from Gigabyte and MSI, both are based on the SiS 648 chipset which has been well accepted by many worldwide.

Best P4 Socket 478 board (Cost/Performance Ratio)

ABIT IT7-MAX2 ver 2 29.6% GIGABYTE 8SG667 15.2% MSI 648 Max 14.5% ALBATRON PX845PE PRO II 10.8% ECS L4S8A 9.2% ASUS P4G8X Deluxe 8.3% ASUS P4S533 5.8% ASUS P4T533 4.5% SHUTTLE AS45GT/R 2.0% Total Votes: 942

Best P4 Socket 478 heatsink

Are you using any of these heatsinks, if not, these heatsinks could be good choices for your P4 systems. The Volcano 7+ seems to be well liked by many of our readers. It is probably due to the pricing. Some of the other models might not be easily available in some countries though.

Best P4 Socket 478 Heatsink

ThermalTake Volcano 7+ 27.4% Swiftech MCX4000-B 24.1% Alpha PAL 8942 23.0% ThermalRight AX478 9.7% Zalman CNPS6500A-Cu 9.5% AVC Sunflower 6.2% Total Votes: 514

Best Mainboard Package (AMD/Intel)

Best package mainboard from Socket A and Socket 478 boards. It looks like ABIT is the big winner in the Socket 478 category. ABIT IT7 Max2 ver2 won the top prize with a rating of 23.7%. It would be the Max series design that has helped ABIT and the Innovative Seriellel converter. Chaintech 7NJS scores 22.9% and 7NJS's package is really one of the best as it provides the C-BOX, rounded cables, stereo headphones. Gigabyte 8INXP has the 6 DUALs and the package is one of the nicest we have seen in our reviews of all boards.

Best Mainboard Package (Socket A and Socket 478)

ABIT IT7 Max 2 ver 2 23.7% CHAINTECH 7NJS 22.9% GIGABYTE 8INXP 15.8% ABIT AT7 Max 2 11.0% SOYO KT333 Dragon Ultra 10.3% ABIT NF7-S 7.3% AOPEN AX4B-533 Tube 4.8% ALBATRON PX845PE Pro II 4.1% Total Votes: 1229

Graphics Cards

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