ActiveWin.com: Intel Pentium 4 2GHz - Intel D850MD & D845HV Motherboards

Well we have reached the end of the review. Here are my final comments, notes and grades for the Intel Pentium 4 2GHz and Intel D850MD & D845HV Motherboards.

The Pentium 4 2.0 GHz processor takes computer users a step ahead by offering them an incredible resource of power designed to meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s multimedia applications and games. Priced at a much more reasonable price than before this system is definitely more affordable than ever, while remaining expensive in comparison to competing AMD products. Users that choose a Pentium 4 2.0GHz based PC will stay on top with a powerful and reliable PC for a long, long time before software programs indicating a P4 2.0 GHz as the minimum system requirement. With such a system 3D gaming, video or audio editing, and Internet surfing will be faster, attractive and more pleasant: imagine if you can rip Audio CDs into MP3s faster than ever before, compile a whole DV film in shorter time, and kill your Quake enemies even before they appear. More power also means faster loading times for most of your software including Windows, Internet Explorer & Outlook Express but it also adds new possibilities for advanced multitasking work.

The i845 chipset is the best (and only viable) solution for everyone who wants to adopt the Pentium 4, right now, without spending several dollars on the purchase of the expensive, and hard to find, Rambus memory. At the regards of those tests, it’s obvious that the i845 chipset limits the Pentium 4 due to the use of the very old poor performance SDRAM memory. That’s why, for now, the most intelligent choice is to pick a motherboard using the i850 chipset and the Rambus memory since it really forms a high performance couple. Plus with the upcoming release of the i845DDR chipset, the actual i845 SDRAM chipset is already condemned to death.

As for the Celeron 1.2GHz, Intel made astonishing progress!! This new Celeron 1.2GHz is the worthy successor of the Celeron 300A CPU that was able, in its days, to beat Pentium II CPUs that were clocked at the same frequency. The Celeron 1.2GHz processor offers an extraordinary level of performances combined to an affordable price delivering users with enough power to run the most demanding applications and the latest 3D games. The Celeron 1.2GHz, a lighted version of the Pentium III, is now a very good choice to equip an Office or the household with powerful but inexpensive PCs. Due to the new engraving process used, those who possess adequate motherboards will be easily able to overclock the Celeron 1.2GHz to get even better performance.

Intel has now two clear offers for everyone who needs a PC: the Celeron family now hosts a worthy 1.2 GHz model intended to replace the Pentium III and dedicated to the low range market, while the Pentium 4 1.7/2.0 GHz combined to the i845 or i850 chipsets target the middle to high range market. The Pentium III 1.13 GHz/2.0 GHz are somewhat in between and most likely aimed for the server market. Intel won’t promote them anymore and supplies are hard to find.

Finally Intel motherboards remain a model of reliability and flexibility. Highly integrated the D845HV & D850MD support the latest technologies and offer outstanding LAN & Audio features. Due to their form factor these motherboards have been designed with one objective: be as cheap as possible for integrators and OEMs that build PCs around it. As usual Intel succeeds! Even if the adoption of a such small form factor will not fit power users’ needs (three PCI slots aren’t sufficient), it’ll be perfect for home and office users on the look for powerful yet compact computers.

Specs & Package
Overall Score (only for P4 2GHz & D850MD)	82.2%
Version Reviewed	Intel Pentium 4 1.7/2GHz with Intel D845HV & D850MD Motherboards Intel Pentium III 1.13/1.2GHz & Celeron 1.2GHz with Intel D815EEA2
Release Date	Available Now!
In the Motherboard Boxes	1 Drivers CD-Rom 1 Users' Guide 1 Motherboard 1 UDMA 100 cable Various metallic shield
The Good Points for Pentium 4 2GHz	New Compact Size, SSE2 Instructions, Simply the best, Excellent performances.
The Bad Points for Pentium 4 2GHz	Not Compatible with Socket 423, Cache memory is too limited, Requires Rambus for the best performance, Expensive.
The Good Points for Pentium 3 1.2GHz	Viable alternative to the P4, The Pentium III has proven his reliability.
The Bad Points for Pentium 3 1.2GHz	Hard to find, Somewhat expensive, CPU in end of life.
The Good Points for Celeron 1.2GHz	Performances almost equal to a PIII 1.2GHz, 256KB L2 8 way associative cache, Affordable.
The Bad Points for Celeron 1.2GHz	100MHz only FSB
The Good Points for Intel D850MD (Motherboard)	2 COM Ports, 4 USB Ports, Integrated Lan & Audio features, Compact Design, Killer Chipset, Rock solid platform.
The Bad Points for Intel D850MD (Motherboard)	Requires ATX 2.03 Power Supply to operate, No Status Indicator LEDs, Only 3 PCI slots, No CNR slot, A bit too wide for some old PC beds.
The Good Points for Intel D845HV (Motherboard)	4 USB Ports (with support up to 7 ports), Integrated Lan & Audio Features, CNR Slot, Compact Design, Affordable Pentium 4 platform build around Intel i845 chipset.
The Bad Points for Intel D845HV (Motherboard)	Only One COM port, Requires ATX 2.03 Power Supply to operate, No Status Indicator LEDs, Only 3 PCI slots, A bit too wide for some old PC beds, The choice of SDRAM clearly restricts Pentium 4 performances.