Overclocking

Overclocking was something of a mixed bag with the Gigabyte 8VT880P Combo. Given the rather small passive cooler, and our previous experiences of setting a PT Series board on fire, we did not have high expectations. Unfortunently, we were on the mark, as the board would not POST with anything higher than 14x235. If you do the math, you'll notice we were in fact underclocking our 3.6GHz by almost 400MHz.

We managed a not so stable overclock of 232FSB. We were able to get into Windows and take screenshots but within 5 minutes, the system rebooted and set the clock to 14x200. No adjusting of the voltages helped matters, so we yanked off the passive cooler and replaced it with a Cooler Master Blue Ice.

With the Blue Ice in place, we were able to stabilize at 232FSB. We were not able to go any higher though, so it's looking like the board is limited to the 230 to 235 range under best case scenarios.

Final Words

We walk away from the Gigabyte 8VT880P Combo with mixed thoughts. First, let us go over the stuff on paper. The idea of the PT880 Pro is a good one in some respects. Even in late 2005, not everyone has moved to PCI Express. We have no doubt a lot of our readers have great AGP based cards, as well as good DDR ram they would still like to hold on to. Perhaps you're saddled with a lower speed Pentium 4 and assuming you want to stick with the Intel platform, you'd like to move to a newer LGA775 model.

The Gigabyte 8VT880P Combo will allow you to make a change without investing heavily into new components typically required in a platform change. You'll need a board of course, as well as a CPU, but almost everything else you can bring along. Even if you decide on a PCI Express graphics card down the road, the AGP card can still be used in DualGFX mode to power multiple screens. Same goes with DDR2, as the board is equipped with the required ram slots.

Performance was good, but not record breaking. It's pretty much no frills, and this is one of those "you get what you pay for" cases. Overclocking was not very impressive, for both the CPU and ram. The board is cheap though; at least, it should be. We've had a pretty hard time finding PT880 Pro boards period, let alone any from Gigabyte on . Provided you can find one, it's worth a look, but enthusiasts need not apply. Quite clearly, this board is targeted towards budget shoppers who may not desire extensive tweak options.

Still, the question remains, is this board really a "cheap ticket" into the Pentium 4 LGA775 platform? Let's look at this scenario... let us just say you have a P4 2.4 Socket 478, Radeon X800 XT, and 1GB of DDR PC3200. Your options are: A) Buy a mobo, CPU and DDR2, B) Mobo, CPU, DDR2 and an equivalent PCI Express replacement, C) Just a mobo and CPU, D) Intel based mobo, CPU, DDR2 and an equivalent PCI Express replacement.

Scenario	Mobo	CPU 2.8GHz	Memory - DDR2	Video	Total
A	~$60				$284
B	~$60				$593
C	~$60				$214
D	~$75				$608

While the 915P is still a better performer on average, as you can see in scenario C, you can make some major savings by picking up a PT880 Pro. However, the catch-22 is if you go for broke (B and D), you save less than $20. Another problem we see for the PT880 Pro is you can buy 915P based boards with AGP and DDR support which are .

Long story short, the 8VT880P Combo is a solid product if your needs aren't anything too demanding. From a budget standpoint, there is some pretty good value here, but if you go through a full system overhaul, the value diminishes as it does not cost much less than a 915P based board which outperforms it. Without saying it... enthusiasts should look elsewhere.

Pros: Supports both AGP and PCIe, DualGFX. DDR and DDR2 support.

Cons: Outperformed by 915P, limited "enthusiast" features, unremarkable overclocking, difficult to find.

Bottom Line: Gigabyte is offering an alternative, and as for the product itself, the 8VT880P Combo is a good board overall, but definitely not for the enthusiast. Many features most of our readers desire are simply not there. Given the intended price point, adding items such as 3rd party RAID, dual NICs and so forth will go against the marketing plans of the board.

If you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.

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