Shuttle AS45GTR Has Developed Into Great SiS648 Board

Prometheus_abx · 11-10-2002, 08:51 AM

For those of you looking for ALL the bells and whistles on a SiS648 board (that's why you bought the P4S8X - right?) there IS an alternative. The latest Rev 1.3 of the Shuttle AS45GTR with the latest BIOS AS45S045 is a very solid machine with Firewire, 8X AGP PRO slot, full IDE RAID, full SATA RAID, and excellent DDR400 support. The choice of FULL IDE RAID or full SATA RAID is a real joy compared to the bastardized IDE/SATA solutions Asus has been using on all their recent boards - just ask anyone who has a P4PE or P4S8X.

Below is STOCK DDR400 performance (no overclocking) with Corsair XMS3200C2. Settings are Ultra, 2, 1T. First the unbuffered:

Buffered (Standard) results at the same settings:

Prometheus_abx · 11-10-2002, 09:18 AM

The latest '45' BIOS adds 2 new memory timings for DDR400 - DDR400 and DDR400V. It appears the DDR400V is for Kingmax, Corsair and Performance DDR400 since it has more aggressive timings, while the DDR400 settings are optimized for Samsung DDR400. Top DDR400 performance with Corsair XMS3200C2 was achieved on 'Ultra' timings as you can see above.

First DDR333. All settings remained stock speed (2.66Ghz, C1 step 533FSB P4), 4:5 mem ratio (DDR333), Cas 2, AUTO Command Rate. These are UNBUFFERED Sandra scores and Sandra reported timings at each memory setting:

SAFE
1453, 1476 2.0-4-4CL

NORMAL
1513, 1532 2.0-3-3CL

FAST
1544, 1564 2.0-3-2CL

TURBO
1569, 1589 2.0-2-2CL

ULTRA
1574, 1590 2.0-2-2CL

DDR400
1440, 1456 3.0-4-4CL

DDR400V
1513, 1533 2.5-3-3CL

With DDR400 - SAME SETTINGS except 2:3 (DDR400) Mem Ratio and SAME Corsair XMS3200C2:

DDR400
1607, 1631 3.0-4-4CL UNBUFFERED
2962, 2962 BUFFERED

DDR400V
1716, 1730 2.5-3-3CL UNBUFFERED
2971, 2972 BUFFERED

TURBO
1779, 1802 2.0-2-2CL UNBUFFERED
2966, 2968 BUFFERED

ULTRA
1806, 1823 2.0-2-2CL UNBUFFERED
2978, 2978 BUFFERED

ALL tests are at STOCK (NOT overclocked) settings. For those who say DDR400 doesn't make any difference, compare these scores to the scores for DDR333 - the DDR400 is performing faster at slow timings (DDR400 setting at 3-4-4) than the fastest ULTRA setting (2-2-2) for DDR333. However, the Buffered Scores are almost identical at all four DDR400 tested timings, which just demonstrates that buffered memory tests tend to conceal true memory performance differences.

Brief testing showed stable performance at 150 FSB (3.0 Ghz) - which is better than early samples of this board. The 150 limitation is my video card (ATI 9700) and I will also be testing with other video cards to see how far I can take this SiS 648 board. Unfortunately, there is not a PCI/AGP lock in the BIOS settings.

All NewEgg shipments are currently Rev. 1.3 and I have been told most other high-volume web retailers only have the 1.3 in stock.

Prometheus_abx · 11-10-2002, 10:29 AM

Both the Northbridge and Southbridge have heatsinks on Rev 1.3 of this board. They seem effective, since both are cool to the touch in my setup, but I will replace the Northbridge with a fan/heatsink if needed. As you can see, there is also a spare Fan connector next to the Northbridge which makes setting up Northbridge active cooling an easy task.

Discussions for this review in this thread

heisen · 12-10-2002, 12:20 PM

I returned my P4S8X and have my AS45GTR. So far, I am mostly happy, with one exception - the board takes forever to boot.

Even when booting to a floppy, there is a TWO MINUTE wait
after the IRQs are listed until I get a DOS prompt.

This happens with 37 and 45 BIOS versions.
I have disabled RAID so I don't think that's the reason.

Ideas? Other forums to try?

Thanks,
-HJE

samcolt · 12-22-2002, 01:01 AM

i have had this board up and running for a day now and i love it. it shipped with a very evil bios but a quik flash took care of that. i am amazed at the unbufferd mem scores i have got just running at ddr400 with the turbo setting. i have 2 256me6 sticks of corsair pc3200 btw. the unbuffered scores on this board are alot better then my p4s533 and i ran ddr430 on that board. it seems that even a minor overclock with my ram on this board i'll get errors in memtest wich kinda sucks, because i would love to see this board run at 143 fsb or so with ddr430 because it would fly. right now i am running at stock fsb 133 and this system seems faster than my p4s533 at 143 fsb and ddr430.

11-10-2002, 08:51 AM	#1
Prometheus_abx Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Rochester, NY Posts: 2,917	Shuttle AS45GTR Has Developed Into Great SiS648 Board For those of you looking for ALL the bells and whistles on a SiS648 board (that's why you bought the P4S8X - right?) there IS an alternative. The latest Rev 1.3 of the Shuttle AS45GTR with the latest BIOS AS45S045 is a very solid machine with Firewire, 8X AGP PRO slot, full IDE RAID, full SATA RAID, and excellent DDR400 support. The choice of FULL IDE RAID or full SATA RAID is a real joy compared to the bastardized IDE/SATA solutions Asus has been using on all their recent boards - just ask anyone who has a P4PE or P4S8X. Below is STOCK DDR400 performance (no overclocking) with Corsair XMS3200C2. Settings are Ultra, 2, 1T. First the unbuffered: Buffered (Standard) results at the same settings: Last edited by Prometheus : 11-10-2002 at 09:19 AM.
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11-10-2002, 09:18 AM	#2
Prometheus_abx Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Rochester, NY Posts: 2,917	Shuttle AS45GTR Memory Settings and Performance The latest '45' BIOS adds 2 new memory timings for DDR400 - DDR400 and DDR400V. It appears the DDR400V is for Kingmax, Corsair and Performance DDR400 since it has more aggressive timings, while the DDR400 settings are optimized for Samsung DDR400. Top DDR400 performance with Corsair XMS3200C2 was achieved on 'Ultra' timings as you can see above. First DDR333. All settings remained stock speed (2.66Ghz, C1 step 533FSB P4), 4:5 mem ratio (DDR333), Cas 2, AUTO Command Rate. These are UNBUFFERED Sandra scores and Sandra reported timings at each memory setting: SAFE 1453, 1476 2.0-4-4CL NORMAL 1513, 1532 2.0-3-3CL FAST 1544, 1564 2.0-3-2CL TURBO 1569, 1589 2.0-2-2CL ULTRA 1574, 1590 2.0-2-2CL DDR400 1440, 1456 3.0-4-4CL DDR400V 1513, 1533 2.5-3-3CL With DDR400 - SAME SETTINGS except 2:3 (DDR400) Mem Ratio and SAME Corsair XMS3200C2: DDR400 1607, 1631 3.0-4-4CL UNBUFFERED 2962, 2962 BUFFERED DDR400V 1716, 1730 2.5-3-3CL UNBUFFERED 2971, 2972 BUFFERED TURBO 1779, 1802 2.0-2-2CL UNBUFFERED 2966, 2968 BUFFERED ULTRA 1806, 1823 2.0-2-2CL UNBUFFERED 2978, 2978 BUFFERED ALL tests are at STOCK (NOT overclocked) settings. For those who say DDR400 doesn't make any difference, compare these scores to the scores for DDR333 - the DDR400 is performing faster at slow timings (DDR400 setting at 3-4-4) than the fastest ULTRA setting (2-2-2) for DDR333. However, the Buffered Scores are almost identical at all four DDR400 tested timings, which just demonstrates that buffered memory tests tend to conceal true memory performance differences. Brief testing showed stable performance at 150 FSB (3.0 Ghz) - which is better than early samples of this board. The 150 limitation is my video card (ATI 9700) and I will also be testing with other video cards to see how far I can take this SiS 648 board. Unfortunately, there is not a PCI/AGP lock in the BIOS settings. All NewEgg shipments are currently Rev. 1.3 and I have been told most other high-volume web retailers only have the 1.3 in stock. Last edited by Prometheus : 11-10-2002 at 09:48 AM.
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11-10-2002, 10:29 AM	#3
Prometheus_abx Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Rochester, NY Posts: 2,917	Both the Northbridge and Southbridge have heatsinks on Rev 1.3 of this board. They seem effective, since both are cool to the touch in my setup, but I will replace the Northbridge with a fan/heatsink if needed. As you can see, there is also a spare Fan connector next to the Northbridge which makes setting up Northbridge active cooling an easy task. Discussions for this review in this thread Last edited by Ozzie : 11-21-2002 at 01:55 PM.
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12-10-2002, 12:20 PM	#4
heisen Registered User Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 8	Bought AS45FTR I returned my P4S8X and have my AS45GTR. So far, I am mostly happy, with one exception - the board takes forever to boot. Even when booting to a floppy, there is a TWO MINUTE wait after the IRQs are listed until I get a DOS prompt. This happens with 37 and 45 BIOS versions. I have disabled RAID so I don't think that's the reason. Ideas? Other forums to try? Thanks, -HJE
(Offline)

12-22-2002, 01:01 AM	#5
samcolt murder on the dance floor Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: cleveland,ohio Posts: 1,338	i have had this board up and running for a day now and i love it. it shipped with a very evil bios but a quik flash took care of that. i am amazed at the unbufferd mem scores i have got just running at ddr400 with the turbo setting. i have 2 256me6 sticks of corsair pc3200 btw. the unbuffered scores on this board are alot better then my p4s533 and i ran ddr430 on that board. it seems that even a minor overclock with my ram on this board i'll get errors in memtest wich kinda sucks, because i would love to see this board run at 143 fsb or so with ddr430 because it would fly. right now i am running at stock fsb 133 and this system seems faster than my p4s533 at 143 fsb and ddr430.
(Offline)

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