Motherboard: Intel D845WN Review :: Conclusion

Compatibility

Like almost all the Intel Corporation's products compatibility is never a negative factor as they still pretty much control the mainstream market and people follow their lead so almost all products are Intel compatible. This motherboard follows in the same traditions as its forefathers and is a very compatible product.

Stability

Like compatibility Intel hold the key to the magic kingdom of stable boards. This is a trait they are well known for in this day an age of the ever changing chipset and they seem to be going strong with the i845. A very stable product rock solid stability is to be found in the D845WN its performance was flawless.

Support

Intel has always been a leader in supporting their customers whether through the web or via the phone they try their best to keep the people happy. I would like to thank the people at Intel who provided the motherboard and CPU for these tests as without their support it would not be possible.

Conclusion

This is a fairly nice board that just cannot keep up with its RAMBUS brothers and really choked on the SYSmark 2001 tests compared to the i850 chipset boards we have tested. The i845 chipset is new however and BIOS and driver revisions could change the motherboards performance in a more positive manner.

One thing I was hoping for the board to have onboard was the CNR slot as this can take advantage of the inline six channel adapter cards from Analog Devices that has digital outputs including a Fiber Optic Toslink connector and makes surround sound possible through Sound Max with SPX. This would have been a nice feature to have onboard but it was omitted in this design and I hope to get an i845 board with Sound Max and the CNR riser soon.

Like all Intel motherboards stability is in the forefront and the D845WN will perform in a rock solid manner without any major compatibility issues so if that is your main concern in a board, welcome home. I was expecting a little better performance out of this chipset but it is aimed at the lower end of the market where with today's prices they practically give away SDRAM so in fairness it is a good motherboard for what it is intended for.

Intel Corporation should have released this chipset six months ago. At that time it would have made a much bigger appeal to the average customer who shied away from the enormous cost that RDRAM used to sell at when it was originally introduced. I hope this helps their P4 marketing goals but I think it is a little late in the game to do much serious market change but only time will tell if it pans out for them and I wish them luck. For the serious enthusiast the i850 still holds the crown jewels. Oh well enough said about the D845WN, until next time.

Doc Out