Intel Desktop Board D845PEBT2

Theinstallation of the D845PEBT2 was a breeze and took the staff of Impulsegamer alittle over 15 minutes to securely attach the motherboard to the Pentium 4 caseand connect all the relevant peripherals such as the hard drives, CD-ROMs,memory and the GeForce 4 graphics card. Once the installation was completed, wethen proceeded to boot into the BIOS (basic input/output system) that is aprogram that is built into the motherboard and allows you to manage the dataflow between the operating system and various peripheral devices. The BIOSfeatures the new Intel menu system that is extremely easy to navigate and allowsusers to easily change the settings on the motherboard. Much to our surprise,the D845PEBT2 had alreadydetected the peripherals that were attached to the motherboard such as the IntelPentium 4 2.53GHz processor and the hard drives so no settings neededchanging. It should also be noted that the BIOS menu system contains anumber of options that will suit the need of overclockers, more about thisfeature later.

Intel Desktop Board D845PEBT2

Oncethe BIOS settings were verified, we then proceeded to boot into Windows XPProfessional that put our old test machine to shame. The reason why themotherboard boots into Windows XP so fast is because of the Intel Rapid BIOSboot program that basically reduces boot time and allows for high-speedperformance. The first thing you will notice when you have installed themotherboard besides the tremendous speed difference is the amazing on-boardsound capability that makes many dedicated sound cards obsolete. The motherboarduses ADI 1980 Codec with the SoundMAX Cadenza chipset that is a dedicated Stereosoundcard with optional 6-channel support and also supports a variety of audioconnectivity that includes analog, digital and optical ports. The D845PEBT2also has 5 ports on the board that allow for a center subwoofer, rear left andright speaker support, front left and right speaker support, line-in and stereomicrophone support. Once youhave heard the sound quality on the D845PEBT2,you will be amazed at how clear the sound system is and even on mediocrespeakers, your gaming experience will be improved by tenfold. 

One of the beauties of finally getting a setup like this is that quite frankly everything you can think of truly roars on it. We were stupefied to see that everything from games to everyday applications took advantage of this motherboard and processor (We installed in Intel Pentium IV 2.53ghz processor into this baby) and I must confess that we haven't seen results like this from a setup since machines went from the humble 486 to the Pentium.

As was previously mentioned, we haven't had such a quick install and up and running system ever here at the gamer and it was an absolute delight to power this little rocket up for the first time and see the sheer speed that is afforded by such a great setup. One of the first things that was tested was how easily the onboard firewire accepted digtal video cameras which was passed without a hitch. Then it was a simple matter of running through connections such as USB2.0 ports to check for speed and stability. The D845PEBT2 handled every single test we threw at it and then some.

The thing that truly amazed was how the board assisted with bringing games that used to chug to life for us. An old impulsegamer favourite for testing cards and processors is Giants: Citizen Kabuto. A brilliant game that was released about two years ago now, however has always had frame problems and other graphics related injuries affecting the general enjoyment of the title. It ran smooth as silk with no problems whatsoever this time around and we had every setting on the title maxed out. It's not a title that most folks would think to use to bench test hardware however it's a dead certainty to push most hardware and see what makes it tick. To trial a modern title, we installed Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield and even on highest settings it was all as smooth as silk which was lovely considering the card we used was an MX card not a TI.

Getting back to the onboard sound, it is a dream for all concerned with the sheer quality that is provided regardless of your speaker setup. We tested this setup on two systems; the first was a simple Compro two speaker setup that is powered from the tower and the second was a set of self powered Yamaha TSS-1B 5.1 speaker setup utilising the optical output. We are delighted to tell you that even on the Compro setup (usually costs about $30-$40 for these speakers), the sound quality was excellent and the card directed stereo sound to both channels nicely, at one point convincing me that the virtual surround was more than adequate for watching a film on your pc. So the majority of people are going to love the sound they get off this motherboard regardless of how many woofers and tweeters are hooked up.

Then it was time for the other more mundane tasks that still blew us away. We were very impressed to see that encoding your cds to the .mp3 format has been made even quicker still by this motherboard with noticeable time differences between this and other boards we have seen in the past. It was after this and a series of other tests that we could not make the machine fall over or fail which was excellent.

For those who like to use voice programs or speech recognition, the D845PEBT2 provides a brilliant noise cancellation technology. Basically what this means is that you can safely use voice recognition software without the operating system getting confused by background sounds. Instead the board only allows sounds directed into the inputs to be accepted (like through a microphone) which makes for a much easier experience using both Windows native voice recognition software and programs like the wonderful Dragon Naturally Speaking.

Other areas that are enhanced by the addition of the D845PEBT2 is that Office XP Pro runs like a dream on it. Multiple applications, file sharing and even internet applications just rocket through the system, making this a very productivity friendly product indeed. We also found that online assistance was a lot quicker as well which allowed for rapid work to be done remotely on other systems running Windows XP.

Forthose gamers that love to get the most out of their gaming machines, the D845PEBT2motherboard does support overclocking capabilities because of the PrecisionCooling Technology that is part of the board. The beauty of this system (notthat Impulsegamer condones over clocking) is that the board supports atemperature based fan control and will increase its cooling capabilities if itbelieves the CPU is working harder than it should. This is also a benefit fornon-overclocker's as it means that their system will run more efficiently andeven quieter, depending on what the system is used for. 

Inconclusion, the Intel Desktop Board D845PEBT2 is the perfect motherboard forgamers or for users of computer systems that want a high-end performance machine without spending a fortune. The only downside to the motherboard that Impulsegamer found was thelack of AGP 8x support that means games will run even faster if your graphiccard supports this technology. However, it is a small price to pay andeverything that was tested on this motherboard, whether it was Tom Clancy'sSplinter Cell, Windows XP Professional, Office XP Professional or V8 Supercarsperformed remarkably fast. Highly Recommended!

 

The Final Say!

Design 8.5 Installation 8.0 Usability 10 Value 9 Intel Desktop Board D8454PEBT2 - reviewed by Andrew Bistak & Tory Favro Review Date: May 2003 Review Score: 9/10  Distributed By: Intel