Overclocking
The board offers a jumper less front side bus adjustment via the award bios;
choices include 100, 102, 105,126, 130, 133, 136, 166 and 200. Unfortunately
no processor voltage regulations are available. The VC17 as the VC15 is a
stable 845D solution, but not quite the best choice for the people looking
to push their Pentium4 to the limits.
What’s included
FIC has done a great job on its software bundle, in addition to the included
floppy drive cable, ATA/33 cable for the CDROM, an ATA/66/100 cable for the
hard drive they included 8 handy applications.
Norton AntiVirus 2001: The popular and most used anti virus application.
Norton Personal Firewall 2001: It provides security for your PC and privacy
for your personal information. Norton Ghost: Provides complete backups of
the entire hard drive.
AutoSave: Automatic backup software
InterVideo Win DVD: A simple to use DVD Player
eWalla: A 3D animated cyber-character that appears on your screen and delivers
message via text and voice.
IMAGEMORE: Image/clipart collection
Acrobat Reader: View the popular PDF files.
A FIC branded CD is also included containing all the required drivers for
the sound, optional Ethernet, and more.
Test System
| CPU(s) |
Intel
Pentium 4 2GHz
|
| Heatsink
& Fan |
Retail
|
| Motherboard(s) |
FIC VC15
FIC VC17
SOLTEK P4X266
|
| Memory |
256MB RDRAM - 2 X 128 PC800 SAMSUNG
256MB DDR SDRAM 2 X 128 PC2200 MUSHKIN
256MB SDRAM PC133 2 X 128MB MUSHKIN
|
| Hard
Drive(s) |
IBM
15.3GB 75GXP 7200 RPM
|
|
CD-ROM
|
Sony
48X
|
| Sound
Card |
onboard
|
| Video
Card |
GeForce
3 TI500
|
| Operating
System |
Windows
2000 SP2
|
| |
Benchmarking
Applications
|
| OpenGL |
Quake
III Arena v1.29
|
| Other |
Sisoft Sandra 2001
Sysmark 2001
Winstone 2001
|
Results
|
SysMark
2001
|
FIC
VC15
|
FIC
VC17
|
Reference
845 SDRAM
|
|
Office
Productivity
|
169
|
170
|
163
|
|
Internet
Content
|
209
|
209
|
194
|
|
SysMark
2002 Average
|
187
|
188
|
174
|
|
Quake
III Arena - 1280x32
|
FIC
VC15
|
FIC
VC17
|
Reference
845 SDRAM
|
|
Frames
per second
|
164.2
|
164.8
|
151.2
|
|
Sisoft
Sandra 2001 (Memory)
|
FIC
VC15
|
FIC
VC17
|
Reference
845 SDRAM
|
|
Memory
Bandwidth
|
1162
|
1165
|
651
|
|
Business
Winstone 2001
|
FIC
VC15
|
FIC
VC17
|
Reference
845 SDRAM
|
|
Average
|
52.8
|
53.0
|
46.2
|
|
Content
Creation Winstone 2001
|
FIC
VC15
|
FIC
VC17
|
Reference
845 SDRAM
|
|
Average
|
69.9
|
70.5
|
63.7
|
Summation
If
we had to recommend a good mainboard based on the Intel 845D chip to someone
building a Pentium 4 system today, I wouldn’t have a single problem recommending
once again this FIC board for its stability and features. The VC17 retails
for around 140$ USD, about 20$ higher than the VC15 but in addition you get
a onboard ATA/133 IDE Raid controller, a LAN adapter and a good 5.1 channel
sound solution. I would like to applaud FIC for a job well done on the VC17.
