October '97 Socket-7 Motherboard Comparison

Motherboard Business Winstone 97 ABIT AX5 2.2 57.5 ABIT IT5H 1.5 56.4 ABIT IT5H 2.0 55.6 ABIT PD5N 55.2 ABIT PX5 56.6 ABIT TX5 56.1 ABIT TX5N 55.8 AOpen AP58 55.9 AOpen AX5T-2 56.2 AOpen AX5T-3.1 56.7 ASUS TXP4-X 57.0 Chaintech 5SDA 55.7 Chaintech 5SIM 55.8 Chaintech 5TDM2 56.3 Chaintech 5TTL 56.4 Chaintech 5TTM Failed Chaintech 5TTM1 56.5 DFI P5XV3 56.8 DFI P5XV3 (AGP) 56.9 EPoX P55-VP3 55.9 FIC PA-2007 56.3 FIC PA-2010+ 51.8 FIC PA-2011 55.0 FIC PA-2012 56.9 FIC PA-2012 (AGP) 57.2 FIC PT-2007 57.5 Megatrends HX83 56.6 MTech MIG R539 Failed MTech MIG R540 55.3 MTech MIG R541 55.7 MTech Mustang R534F 54.0 QDI Titanium 1B 56.1 Shuttle HOT-565 57.2 Shuttle HOT-567 55.8 Shuttle HOT-569 56.6 Shuttle HOT-571 56.2 Shuttle HOT-603 57.0 Supermicro P5MMA 55.7 Supermicro P5MMS98 55.9 Tyan Titan Turbo S1573S 55.6

A few months ago the FIC PA-2007 was the topic of discussion all over the net, however in the hype most people failed to notice the release of a much less prominent motherboard, the FIC PT-2007.  Nearly identical to the PA-2007 with the only real difference being that the PT-2007 is based on the Intel TX chipset as opposed to VIA VP2 chipset found in the PA-2007.  Which is the faster motherboard?  Contrary to popular belief, the TX based PT-2007 is in fact a faster motherboard than the VP2 based PA-2007.  The only real advantage of the PA-2007 is the ability to cache above 64MB of RAM, which is only possible if you purchase the PA-2007 with 1MB of L2 cache, and even then the motherboard will only cache 127MB of RAM.   Although the VIA VP2 chipset has an integrated 10-bit tag RAM comparator, the physical tag RAM used on the PA-2007 is a 32Kx8 module, with a realistic width of 7-bits.   What does this mean?  It means that with 1MB of L2 cache you can still only cache 127MB of RAM with the PA-2007, and with 512KB of L2 cache expect a realistic cacheable memory area of approximately 64MB.  Comparing a PA-2007 (512KB) to a PT-2007 (512KB) now appears to be much easier than originally thought.  Although this may rule the VP2 chipset out of your decision, the VP3 chipset still remains, and it packs a powerful punch. 

In 4th place the FIC PA-2012 (AGP), using the VIA VP3 chipset, proves that Intel doesn't necessarily rule all with the AMD K6 processor, while the point differential between the 1st place FIC PT-2007 and the 14th place Chaintech 5TTM1 is only 1 Winstone point you need to realize that the most important factor in any motherboard purchase is the feature-set the motherboard in question provides you with.  The benchmarks do have some relevance, however they shouldn't be the deciding factor in your purchase.  Naturally you don't want to purchase the slowest motherboard here, however the performance of the top 20 motherboards on this chart are pretty much equal in terms of real world situations.