Pricey Foundations: 9 Boards For The Pentium 4

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Gigabyte GA-8TX: Very Costly And Slow

Gigabyte's blue PCB design makes this board easy to identify. The PCI sound chip provides acceptable sound quality and does away with the need to buy a sound card. We were baffled by the manufacturer's decision to install an AC'97 codec in addition to the sound chip. The dual BIOS function is a familiar friend that prevents faulty flashes from turning into nightmares. The FSB clock speed can be set from 100 MHsz to 133 MHz, while the multiplier can be adjusted from 8.0 to 23.0. The CPU core voltage cannot be modified. The benchmark values spell it all out in black and white - the Gigabyte GA-8TX is the slowest board in this comparison. Considering the performance - which, again, hardly differs from that of the other boards tested - $166 is a rather large investment. But if you trust the manufacturer's good name and are only interested in a stable foundation, Gigabyte is still not a bad pick.