Introduction

Intel have just announced two new additions to their Pentium 4 chipset range, the i845E and the i845G. With the recent release of their 533MHz bus Pentium 4 processor, it is quite logical to assume that they would release a new motherboard chipset to officially support the new front side bus speed. SiS have had official 533MHz bus support with their 645DX chipset for quite some time now, however, Intel decided to hold off the i845E/G until they had released their new Pentium 4 processors.

The first question many of you will be asking is, what's the difference between the i845E and the i845G? Well, both chipsets feature official 533MHz bus support and both chipsets support DDR266 memory. In fact, the only difference between the two is that one features onboard video (i845G), and one doesn't (i845E).

We have managed to obtain one of the first retail i845G boards, the DFI NB76. How does it perform against its predecessor, the i845D? How does it perform against its current main competior, the SiS645DX? Read on to find out!