VIA P4PB Ultra Motherboard Review

The VIA P4PB Ultra Motherboard Review
Intent on Total System Performance for the P4

By Robert Maloney
March 19th, 2003

Our first impression of the VIA P4PB Ultra, when the box showed up on the testing bench, was that it screamed (literally) that it was here to play.  From the no-nonsense black box with a guy yelling (at what we have yet to find out) to the impressive bundle within, it was clear that VIA was out to stake their own claim on the Pentium 4 Enthusiast Motherboard playing field.  Legally, it has been a mostly uphill battle for VIA, who claims that the rights to the P4's system bus architecture, were acquired when they bought out S3 Graphics.  Intel, which designs and manufactures chipsets for the majority share of P4 boards sold, would like nothing better than to keep VIA out of their backyard.  However, competition always brings out the best in just about anything, and having other capable motherboard chipsets to compete with Intel solutions, should only inspire Intel to press on in an effort to stay ahead of VIA, feature-set and performance wise.  One only needs to look at ATI vs nVidia, or the latter vs. 3dfx, to see what happens when a company rests on its laurels for too long without a real push to innovate.

The P4PB Ultra we received was based on the latest chipset from VIA for the P4, the P4X400.  Rather than step cautiously, VIA has hit the ground running, coming up with a chipset that supports some of the latest features that can be found these days,  8xAGP, ATA133, USB 2.0, and official DDR400 support.  To complement this fully featured board, VIA included an equally as impressive bundle.  So, they've developed the chipset, they built the board around it, and they have added a great bundle. The question is, will this be enough to sway over customers from the Intel chipset camp?

Let's get a look at what this board is all about.

Specifications of the VIA P4PB Ultra Motherboard A board worth screaming about