Asus P4S800D-E Deluxe & Gigabyte 8S655TX Ultra: SiS 655TX Challenges Intel's Best

In the months before Intel introduced the 800FSB Pentium 4 processors, the hottest boards on the market were not those based on Intel 845. They were motherboards based on the SiS 655 chipset. You may recall that one of these, the famous Gigabyte SINXP, was the first board at AnandTech to reach 800FSB before the 800FSB 'C' Pentium 4's were introduced. While it seems like ages since the SINXP was the hottest Intel board around, it was only in March 2003 that Anand pushed the SINXP to 800FSB to provide a preview of the 800FSB P4 processors.

When Intel introduced their 875/865 800FSB chipsets, everyone expected SiS to capitalize quickly on the success of the 655 chipset with the addition of 800FSB, but it just didn't happen when expected. We took a look at the first successor with real 800FSB and Hyperthreading support, called the SiS 655FX, in September. That Gigabyte 8S655FX Ultra was an interesting board, but the performance was not up to Intel 865/875 standards and overclocking was less than stellar.

Apparently, SiS and the manufacturers producing SiS chipset boards were discouraged by reviews because we began hearing about a 655TX chipset that would update the performance of the FX chipset. Now, almost 2-1/2 months later, the 655TX is starting to ship, and we have both the Asus 8S800D-E Deluxe and the Gigabyte 8S655TX Ultra in for testing.

Asus and Gigabyte are two of the largest motherboard manufacturers in the marketplace, but they are also the two who have historically produced the best SiS chipset boards for Intel. For that reason, we decided that a head-to-head comparison would be the best way to answer your questions about the new SiS 655TX chipset boards. With the updated TX chipset, does SiS finally have a chipset that is competitive with Intel 875/865 — or maybe even better?