ASUS P4SDX Deluxe (SiS 655)

After closely examining the benchmarks it's pretty obvious that the ASUS P4SDX performed just about identically to SiS 655 motherboards from MSI and Gigabyte. So after extensive benchmarking, we can clearly see that SiS 655 motherboards with dual channel DDR400 enabled are slightly faster than the previous Pentium 4 performance king, the Intel 850E chipset.

Now that we've tested the SiS 655 chipset with the top three motherboard manufacturers in the world, we can conclude several things:

1. Assuming you have high quality memory from the likes of Corsair or Samsung, dual channel DDR400 is ready for the masses. Intel will push dual channel DDR into the mainstream this spring with Springdale and Canterwood. After seeing ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI 655 motherboards pass our strenuous memory torture tests with four DDR400 modules installed, we see no reason why Intel should have any issues as far as memory reliability and compatibility are concerned.
2. Intel will undoubtedly push dual channel DDR into the mainstream this year, but we wonder at what cost. E7205 chipset selling prices are still expensive, prohibitively so. Even though E7205 is primarily a workstation chipset, we're very eager to find out how much Intel will charge motherboard makers for Springdale and Canterwood, which are desktop chipsets that will obviously carry a lower selling price than a workstation class chipset like the E7205.
3. The ASUS P4SDX Deluxe, Gigabyte SINXP1394 and MSI 655 Max are all excellent SiS 655 motherboards with unmatched feature sets and top-of-the-line Pentium 4 performance to boot. Choosing one of these motherboards all depends on how much the consumer is willing to spend on specific features and performance characteristics. Some consumers will be put off with the high price of dual channel DDR Pentium 4 motherboards based on E7205 and SiS 655 and will go with a solid, high-end motherboard like the ABIT IT7 Max2 V.2 or ASUS P4PE, which are based on the single channel DDR Intel 845PE chipset. However, the days of expensive dual channel DDR motherboards may be coming to an end, as the SiS 655-based Gigabyte 8SQ800 can now be found for as low as $112 with free shipping, though without all the fancy onboard features.

Stay tuned for more coverage of SiS 655 in an upcoming roundup, where we will declare a winner for best SiS 655 motherboard. Also stay tuned for an article on 800MHz FSB P4 processors and motherboards after we finish our coverage of the Intel Developer Forum this week...