Gigabyte SINXP1394 (SiS 655): More Dual Channel DDR for P4

Final Words

With the SINXP1394, Gigabyte has certainly produced one of the nicest and fastest feature-filled Pentium 4 motherboards on the market. Loaded with onboard Serial ATA and IDE RAID, FireWire, USB 2.0, dual channel DDR400 and Hyper Threading support among other nice features, the Gigabyte SINXP1394 is quite the all-in-one wonder. And in case you're curious, even though we used the A0 stepping Gigabyte SINXP1394 for this review, all of Gigabyte's SiS 655 boards will ship with a B0 stepping North Bridge that adds Hyper Threading support. 2-15-2003 UDPATE Go to Page 2 for updated information on Hyper Threading support.

Gigabyte tells us that the SINXP1394 should be available by the end of February for about $210. While we think this is a bit steep for a high-end Pentium 4 motherboard, you must remember that this is a dual channel DDR motherboard. In fact on the whole, dual channel DDR motherboards based on SiS chipsets (655 as an example) will be significantly cheaper than dual channel DDR motherboards based on Intel chipsets (E7205 as an example), mostly due to chipset selling price, which comes in around $38 for SiS 655 chipsets and $55 for Intel E7205 chipsets. So while the Gigabyte SINXP1394 should sell for a very reasonable price given its dual channel DDR support, there’s still tough competition from the likes of ABIT with their MAX series of motherboards based on the 845PE chipset.

For comparison, ABIT’s IT7 MAX2 V.2 (845PE) is currently selling for a few bucks under $170 at several major online vendors in the U.S. Is the performance difference between the ABIT IT7 MAX2 V.2 and Gigabyte SINXP1394 great enough to warrant the extra cost the SINXP1394 will command? That’s completely up to you, the consumer. If you want the latest and greatest Pentium 4 motherboard and are willing to spend the bucks, then you no doubt want to go for a motherboard based on the SiS 655 chipset. This could be the MSI 655 Max, Gigabyte SINXP1394 or the ASUS P4SDX Deluxe (which we will have a review of soon) depending on exactly what you’re willing to spend and what features you need. And even though Gigabyte’s SINXP1394 is supposed to be selling for $210 at those same major online vendors, you will likely be seeing SINXP1394 motherboards for under $200.

Of course, we mustn't rule out E7205 motherboards, as the performance difference between Intel E7205 and SiS 655 chipsets aren't great. Again, it all comes down to how much extra you want to spend. ASUS's P4G8X, Gigabyte's 8INXP and MSI's GNB Max are all excellent E7205 motherboards.

Stay tuned as we will be bringing you an article on 800MHz FSB processors and motherboards soon?/p>