Gigabyte GA-8TX i850 Socket-423 ATX

AnandTech Motherboard Rating

Performance

For the first time Gigabyte leads in the performance scoring, something that we generally do not see with their boards.

Price

Interestingly, the price of the GA-8TX is slightly higher than that of the ASUS P4T, which puts Gigabyte in a tough situation since ASUS offers a much more competitive solution.

Stability

The board is very stable and did not crash once in 24 hours. Under overclocked situations, the board is not as stable as the ASUS P4T, but is still acceptable. It's worth noting that when the ATX12V is not plugged in, the board does not work at all.

Features

The GA-8TX definitely falls behind in terms of features, especially in terms of overclocking with just three overclocked FSB speeds. Besides the Dual BIOS setup, there's really no features that go beyond the basics for a Pentium 4 board.

Layout

Layout of the board is decent, without any major problems. The only complaint we have would be the location of the ATX12V connector at the back of the board, while the other two power connectors are located along the front edge. That results in power cables running all over the place once the system is assembled.

Availability

Gigabyte boards are not the most commonly available board in the market, but you should still have no problem finding the on-line. Finding the board locally may be a bit more difficult, however.

Documentation & Software Bundle

Gigabyte continues to improve their manual, and the one bundled with the GA-8TX contains a lot of information on everything from physical installation to driver setup. Although it is still not as good as those by ASUS or ABIT, Gigabyte has definitely narrowed the gap.