µATX Part 2: Intel G33 Performance Review
by Gary Key on September 27, 2007 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R: Feature Set
The Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R is similar in many ways to the ASUS P5K-VM. It has the same expansion slot configuration, and a very similar feature set. Given the use of the same G33 chipset, that's more or less expected. Unfortunately, that means it has similar limitations -- there's no DVI or HDMI support.
The BIOS features a decent amount of overclocking and tweaking options. Voltage adjustments are a bit better than on the ASUS board, and the ability to increase the Northbridge voltage is present. However, as we'll see later, the maximum FSB overclocks we were able to attain are somewhat lower than the other two boards. There are a couple of extra memory timing adjustments available compared to the ASUS board, but the end result is much the same. Unfortunately, the price is also $15 higher than the ASUS offering, which is already expensive for a uATX board.
| Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R | |
| Market Segment | HTPC or SFF Game - $134.99 |
| CPU Interface | Socket T (Socket 775) |
| CPU Support | LGA775-based Pentium 4, Pentium D, Core 2 Duo/Extreme/Quad |
| Chipset | Intel 8233GMH Northbridge and ICH9R Southbridge |
| Bus Speeds | Auto, 100 ~ 700 in 1MHz increments |
| Memory Ratios: DDR2 | Auto/Manual - 200FSB/3.33, 4.0; 266FSB/2.5, 3.0, 4.0; 333FSB/2.0, 2.4, 3.2 |
| PCIe Speeds | 90MHz~150MHz in 1MHz increments |
| Core Voltage | Auto, 0.50000V to 1.60000V in 0.00625V increments |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | Auto, 6x-12x in 1X increments if CPU is unlocked, downwards unlocked, Core 2 Duo |
| DRAM Voltage: DDR2 | Normal, +.1 ~ +.4V in .1V increments |
| DRAM Timing Control | Auto, Manual - 11 DRAM Timing Options (tCL, tRCD, tRP, tRAS, tRFC plus six) |
| NB Voltage | Normal, +.1 ~ +.3V in .1V increments |
| FSB Voltage | Normal, +.1 ~ +.3V in .1V increments |
| On-board Video | GMA 3100, OpenGL 1.4, Shader 2.0 (DirectX 9.0c), 400 MHz clock, Four Pixel Pipelines, Vertex Shader 2.0 supported by software via CPU processing, max 2048x1536 resolution, Dynamic Video Memory Technology, Clear Video processing engine, MPEG-2 hardware decode acceleration. |
| GFX Memory Buffer | Fixed - 128MB, 256MB, DVMT 4MB ~ 256MB |
| Memory Slots | Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 8GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 1 - PCIe x16 1 - PCIe x4 2 - PCI Slot 2.3 |
| Onboard SATA/RAID | 6 SATA 3Gbps Ports - ICH9R (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) |
| Onboard IDE | 1 ATA133/100/66 Port (2 drives) - JMicron JMB361 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 12 USB 2.0 Ports - 4 I/O Panel - 8 via Headers Firewire 400 - T.I. TSB43AB23 - 3 ports - 1 I/O Panel, 2 via Headers |
| Onboard LAN | Realtek RTL8111B - PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC889A - 8-channel HD audio codec |
| Power Connectors | ATX 24-pin, 4-pin ATX 12V |
| I/O Panel | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x D-Sub 1 x Parallel 1 x Serial 1 x IEEE 1394 1 x Audio Panel 1 x RJ45 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 |
| Fan Headers | 2 - CPU/SYS |
| Fan Control | CPU/SYS Fan Control via BIOS or Software CPU - Smart Fan Method - Legacy / Disable/ Intel QST; Control - Voltage or PWM |
| BIOS Revision | F5 |
| Board Revision | v1.00 |
The Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R is similar in many ways to the ASUS P5K-VM. It has the same expansion slot configuration, and a very similar feature set. Given the use of the same G33 chipset, that's more or less expected. Unfortunately, that means it has similar limitations -- there's no DVI or HDMI support.
The BIOS features a decent amount of overclocking and tweaking options. Voltage adjustments are a bit better than on the ASUS board, and the ability to increase the Northbridge voltage is present. However, as we'll see later, the maximum FSB overclocks we were able to attain are somewhat lower than the other two boards. There are a couple of extra memory timing adjustments available compared to the ASUS board, but the end result is much the same. Unfortunately, the price is also $15 higher than the ASUS offering, which is already expensive for a uATX board.
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sprockkets - Friday, September 28, 2007 - link
Sad how an AMD 7050 board can be had for $80, $40 cheaper with the same features. It is the premium you pay for having dvi.Oddly enough too is that the Gigabyte board you quote doesn't use all solid caps yet the lower end board does. And of course, they didn't bother with solid caps on their new AMD boards period, cause "AMD is second tier."
tayhimself - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
Preposterous!! Why do they even bother making this junk without DVI. More and more I find that I don't want a leet board that overclocks 100 Mhz higher but a stable board with the right features. -sigh-8steve8 - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
and on top of it, these igp's are not suited well for gaming or videos,,, (the two applications where you may not notice the difference between a digital and analog interface), so they will be used for text/office work... an application where the discrepancies in the user-experience of analog vs digital interfaces with an LCD are undeniable.again, great article.,, but in the end, I sort of wonder why waste ur time exploring these boards when your time is better spent on solutions that deserve our money?
JarredWalton - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
I think both of those G33 + SDVO models launched long after Gary had started work on this uATX stuff. Good to see that some people are including the necessary chip, as uATX without DVI is simply unacceptable. Unfortunately, testing some of this stuff takes a lot more time than we would like. We're working to address that, however.jenli - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
I would love to see a review of motherboards with igpthat can be converted to raid servers by using the lone
pcie 16x slot.
Have fun,
CK804 - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link
I'm doing exactly what you mention with an Intel DG965RY. I have an Areca ARC-1210 fitted in there with 3 320GB WD Caviar SE16s in RAID 5.